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Show Christ Child lay, so shall the words of the Man of Galilee ever burn in the souls of men and their "hearts will be not afraid." Greater TJian valley Inc., ex tends sincere best wishes to all who live in the Inland Empire ,for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. wibti ti Cobia 01952 National Wildlife Federation If one wshes to get into a misunderstanding mis-understanding about the common names of a fish it is suggested that the argument start over the Cobia. Here are a few perfectly acceptable names for this marine fish: Cabio, Sergeantfish, Black Salmon, Lemonfish. Coalfish. Crab-fish, Crab-fish, Crabeater and Black Bonito. While the fish was listed as Cobia in the 1952 set of wildlife stamps published by the National Wildlife Federation, in the 1949 series it was figured and labeled the Sergeantfish. Ser-geantfish. The scientific name of Rachycentron canadus was the j same in both cases. It was described des-cribed in considerable detail in the Federation's official calendar for 1953. Possibly one reason for this confusion con-fusion centers around the great variation ,to be found in color and to some 'extent the variation in form in fishes of different age. The record fish taken with a line weighed 113 pounds and measured 5 feet 9 inches. An average sized Chesapeake Bay fish is around 15 pounds but many are taken weighing weigh-ing twice as much. The outline of the tail in young 4-inch animals is convex to the rear while in adult fishes it is concave. Cobias are usually dark to light buff or brown and show a dark stripe running run-ning from the snout to the tail base on either side. In young fish this stripe running from the snout to the tail is conspiciously bordered with white. The young fish swim chiefly through the use of the largo paired forward fins but this behavior changes as the. fish grow older. The young have some resemblance re-semblance to the remoras or shark suckers. Cobias are taken on hook and lines using crabs and similar animals an-imals for bait. Once hooked, a Cobia puts up a gallant and vigorous vig-orous battle for its frosdom. Fishing Fish-ing is commonly done about buoys, wrecks, reefs and similar areas most commonly in bays and harbors. har-bors. They are not sufficiently abundant to be considered as commercial com-mercial fish but do rank high with some as game fish. Comparatively little seems to be known about the breeding habits of the Cobia and since young fish have been taken at considerable distances from the known breeding grounds, it is plain that there are as yet unrecognized breeding grounds. Cobias range from Cape Cod to Brazil - on the Atlantic Coast of the A.mericas. They also are found off the coasts of South Africa, Cape Verde, Guinea, Mexico, the West Indies, Australia and Japan. Strangely enough in a fish of such a cosmopolitan nature it has not been found on the Pacific Coast in the United States. Its abundance abund-ance is irregular. Sometimes it is most common in the Chesapeake Bay area where it is supposed to breed during the summer months. At other times it may appear in abundance off Mississippi on our Gulf Coast. - The flesh of cobias is white anr excellent as food and the food of cobias may include such bottom feeders as flounders or the more open-water species such as weak-fish. weak-fish. They are vigorous as fishters and as feeders and may shift their diet from the larger fish to crabs, shrimps and similar small animals. by E. Laurence Palmer |