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Cobia
RestrictedRachycentron canadum
The NC rulebook, translated for the Banks.
The Short Version
North Carolina sets the keep floor at 36" fork — measure carefully, short fish go back. The daily creel is 1 per person per day. Season: may–september.
Keep Size
36" fork
Size fish must clear to be kept
Run the tape from the snout to the far edge of the tail pressed flat together — a pinched tail adds the half inch that decides a citation.
Daily Creel
1 per person per day
What one angler may take per day
Counts are per person unless the rule says "per boat," and they aggregate across everywhere you fished that day — sound, surf, and ocean all land in the same tally.
Season Window
May–September
When harvest is legal
Proclamation-managed: the window shifts year to year, so confirm it the week you fish.
Where It Stands
Restricted
Harvest is legal only inside the posted window. The NC DMF proclamation list is the final word on dates.
Cobia on the Outer Banks
Cobia migrate north past Cape Hatteras every spring, and the Outer Banks sits square in their lane. The first push shows at Cape Point in late May, then the buoy line outside Oregon Inlet lights up in June as fish ride the surface on rays and turtles. Sight-fishing them with a bucktail or an eel pattern is the local game — book a tower boat or walk the Point with polarized glasses.
Two local quirks matter: the NC season has closed mid-summer by proclamation before, so confirm it is open the morning you fish, and the one-fish creel is enforced hard at the Hatteras and Oregon Inlet docks.
The Fine Print
- •36" fork-length minimum — measured from snout to the fork of the tail, not the compressed tip.
- •In-season closure by DMF proclamation is the norm, not the exception; verify the current proclamation before you launch.
- •A federal Highly Migratory Species (HMS) permit applies once you are outside three miles.