Likewise I've know many fisherman to catch large sharks, mainly to bring the cobia into range of their casting colleagues. The ensuing battle is not one of rapid, streaking passes, but powerful, lengthy runs, usually straight away. Biologists who study fish relationships are fascinated by the similarity of habits an anatomy between cobia and the shark sucker or remoras. During early development, the sucker disc of a remorea originates from separated dorsal fin spines, similar t those of the cobia. The suggestion that the two families are closely related is shared by many experts, and helps to explain the peculiar behavior of cobia.
Cobia has to rate among the very best in taste and texture of flesh.
In Louisiana, especially New Orleans, they are an esteemed prize known as lemon fish. Along other coasts, their high quality is sometime overlooked, and I have frequently seen them discarded or allowed to spoil. Ignorance isn't bliss, it's deprivation. This fish has more popular names than most. Along the Gulf they are know as cobia, cabio, ling, lemon fish and crabeater.