Capt. David Cohen - Pursuing Passion

Meeting David Cohen at Lunker Con

David Cohen: Yeah. I've been doing it for better part of thirty years now. So, yeah, it's my, it's my sanctuary, my love, getaway, you know, everything that is me is is that water. Is that it's just fishing in South Florida in general from offshore to inshore. This is captain David Cohen, and this is the Tom Rowland Podcast.

Tom Rowland: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast today. This is gonna be a fantastic one. I met this individual at Lunker Con and, went to Lunker Con. And one of the things that I liked about Lunker Con was I got to meet a lot of different people. A lot of people that listen to the podcast, a lot of people that watch the shows, a lot of people that are just great fishermen. And as it turns out, with this gentleman, a lot of people who are just genuinely really nice guys love talking to them. And, when I met our next guest, David Cohen, captain David Cohen, I decided I wanted to do a podcast with him. We have a lot of things in common, but he is just one of these guys that's just got, a lot of enthusiasm, infectious enthusiasm. Very positive attitude. Infectious enthusiasm. The kind of person I like to be around. So wanted to get together with David, and, we did just that. So stand by for David Cohen, captain David Cohen right now. Okay. We're live. Awesome. Captain David Cohen.

David Cohen: It's a pleasure to be here.

Tom Rowland: We made it happen. I, I had my doubts. I came from Sarasota over to Miami today. I don't know Miami very well, and it was not a good idea to come at 05:00 in the afternoon.

David Cohen: Yeah. It's it's a nightmare. Yeah. It is.

Tom Rowland: Well, so you fish right out of here. Is that are we

David Cohen: close to where you fish? Yeah. Yeah. A little I fish a lot more, north. I fish south as well, but, I primarily fish out at North Biscayne Bay and a little bit south to Government Cut. And, yeah, I've been doing it for better part of thirty years now. So yeah.

Tom Rowland: Right on.

David Cohen: Yeah. It's my, it's it's my sanctuary, my love, getaway, you know, everything that is me is is that water. Is that it's just fishing in South Florida in general from offshore to inshore. But, yeah, we'll get into it, but I primarily now is guide, inshore, ahead of, same waters that I fished when I was a child in the nineties, which is pretty awesome.

Growing Up Fishing: Golf Courses and Peacock Bass

Tom Rowland: And so what? You grew up you grew up in Miami?

David Cohen: I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, but, my grandma had a little condo, and I used to go there, to to just go for Thanksgivings and just the holidays. I didn't go there that as much as I'd like in the early years when I was 10, 12 years old. And then, in about '13, '14, I, I always bass fish for peacock bass, because I lived in West Broward. So that's what kinda turned on in the late 80s. I started fishing for those and was in my backyard, and I even caught on to catching the little bait in the trap and turned out to be just going to golf courses. And, you know, I would just take my bike and go for the whole night until I had to come home for dinner and

Tom Rowland: Some great fishing

David Cohen: on golf courses. Yeah. These golf courses too. And they were, at that time, 20 or 30 years old. And they're just I heard stories from next door neighbors, hula poppers, and all these, you know, cool topwater plugs, which I always, you know, love to throw even when I was in my adolescent years, just really young years. And, I, I came out there and and there happened to be peacocks in there too and big, you know, close to 10 pound largemouth at the ready. And, so that's what kinda got me started in fishing.

Tom Rowland: I was talking to somebody on this podcast about the introduction of the peacocks. Do you remember that?

David Cohen: Yeah. It was I I it was I know from just looking at the history of it, I think it was 1984, to get rid of the tilapia and, just pretty much get in there, take them to get rid of one species, but it turned out that they became this ultimate game fish and went from a couple canal systems. I think it was the one that bothered me is the C 11, and that worked into a lot of the lakes and, golf courses and just they just managed to work their way in. People transported them. And before you know it, they were, people didn't like actually, in the year early years, they didn't like them because they ate the largemouth babies. And, yeah, when once the peacock got introduced, it would take over. And, there wouldn't be veg largemouths there anymore.

Tom Rowland: But they've managed to I mean, you there are lakes where they're both. Right?

David Cohen: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There still is. But I I'd say once you know, a good largemouth lake doesn't have peacocks in it because for whatever reason, they don't they just can't get the numbers that they need to there there is some lakes out there. You still could get a 10 pounder, and then there's peacocks in there too. But even to this day, the ones I think, even the golf course lakes, I don't want them to be I don't want peacocks introduced there because largemouth, even those golf, they just don't they don't get quite as big. And I don't know, you know. But,

Tom Rowland: Do you think it's inevitable that the, the clown knife fish that I'm seeing so many pictures of and they're getting really big and but but to my knowledge and still waiting to catch one, I I know I've told this story before on the podcast, but I had one of those when I was in college. It was about six inches long in a in an aquarium. So I have a real affinity to that fish. I wanna catch one, but I haven't done it yet. But do you think that it's, inevitable that they will do the same thing and and spread throughout?

David Cohen: I I think so. The way the way that it seems like these systems work is these fish just I you know, as as long as the temperatures are right and, you know, we had a couple kills with the peacock bass in the early two thousands where a lot of the lakes lost their bigger fish because once it gets below, you know, 37, 38 degrees, they just I've seen it. I I remember tearing up at some of my lakes when I walked over there, and I saw all these seven pound, eight pound peacocks just lined up, smell of it, and it just, it's I mean, I it was the lakes that I hold are so dear to my heart, and I would go there. And when yeah. If they could stay in a day or two, but after three, four days, if it stays cold, which hasn't happened in not going one in a while.

Tom Rowland: Since 2010, probably.

David Cohen: Yeah. 10. But they're just belly I mean, all the pea largemouth will be cool. They're cool with it. But the peacocks, they're just they can't hang and Yeah.

Tom Rowland: I mean, really, this is probably fairly close. Maybe How far north do they go? I was gonna say this is somewhat close to the northernmost portion of the of the Peacock Range. I mean, we're talking a couple 100 miles anyway. Right?

David Cohen: Yeah. Yeah. There's the the southern mode. Actually, they they go they range from here. Now they're around here. Miami holds Mhmm. Tons. Tons. Some of the biggest ones, I have never actually really targeted peacocks in all my years here, but I know, I see Monster Mike on Instagram. There's a lot of these guys that catch these studs consistently, and, there's always been that battle. Are they better bigger in Broward or bigger in Miami? And I don't care as long as they, you know, they're they're they're bit but there it just depends on where you go, like, anywhere in in fishing. You know? Some lakes just have that DNA of a fish that could get over that seven pound range.

Tom Rowland: So they're they're close to the northern portion of the range, while the largemouth extends way to the north. Yeah. Yeah. This is south. So, of course, they can handle, you know, cold water like it's no big deal. In fact, they like to fish for them. Like, they set a bunch of bass tournaments up in the wintertime. It seems like a terrible time to fish for me, but I don't know. Bass guys love it.

Roland Martin, Jose Wejebe, and Early Inspirations

David Cohen: Yeah. No. They love it. I know I've never been into the also the which I would love to take the boat my boat out there and do the Lake Okeechobee scene. And just so I know, they're just I mean, I grow up those Roland Martin was one of my biggest inspirations for fishing even before I got into, you know, my eight, nine, ten, early years before I got into saltwater. Roland Martin was it. And I I love Bill Dance as well and all these guys, Jimmy Houston, and, but I I, yeah, Roland Martin was big. So that's what kinda got me. It's just his enthusiasm, son, and just that it's like, it just get you there's something on the screen with him. He was

Tom Rowland: He's an interesting guy, man. Well, I enjoyed having him on the podcast, and, he's got so many stories. Like, I I once shared a car with him over the weekend, and he just told stories the whole time. Like, he never stopped telling stories. Awesome. And he didn't tell the same story one time, and it just every story reminded him of another story. And he was like and it was cool for me because, like you, I watched him as I was growing up. And, so now here I am in a car with him. We're going around to these Bass Pro Shops, spring classics, and I find myself riding around for hundreds and hundreds of miles with him. And there was not one moment of silence the whole time. He is the nicest guy. I really I really like him a lot. And, he's a very interesting guy in that, like, he's a true outdoorsman. Like, he's a great bass fisherman, of course, but he's also a great saltwater fisherman. He's a great tarpon fisherman. He's a great turkey hunter. I mean, if you wanna find out if if you wanna talk to him about something that really turns his crank, talk to him about turkey hunting. Man, he will go on and on. Oh, yeah. Bass fishing, tarpon fishing, that's great. Turkey hunting, that's what he likes to talk about,

David Cohen: or at

Tom Rowland: least maybe maybe the season was coming up or something, but he he loved it. He makes his own turkey calls. He hunts them in lots of different places and different states and different different areas. I don't know. I had a really good time with him. He's a he's a good dude. Certainly certainly a a a real Florida outdoorsman.

David Cohen: Yeah. You could just his enthusiasm is it's always been, you know, second to none, and that's, you know, you always start as at least for myself, you know, before I was fishing when I was fishing, I'd always get inspired by they didn't have social media back in the early nineties, obviously, so you waited. I was telling my dad the other day, to just wake up. I just even as a 12, 13 year old kid, I'd set my alarm clock for the ESPN from, like, 6AM. It'd be done by 09:30. So I'd watch, and then that's when I started to get into the Spanish Fly, Jose Wejebe, and Walker's Cay Chronicles. And those were those two shows just stick out in my in forefront of my head that I would just I'd watch. And, I always wanted a saltwater. My dad tried taking me saltwater fishing from piers. We never had a boat growing up, and, I went just I went on a couple, you know, those deep steep sea boats, you know, drift boats and got sick in the back. And Mhmm. I never really was into I I wanted to be, but I never really caught a lot of fish. And then, this gets me to where I'm starting now is when my saltwater fishing career started is I was thinking I was 13, 14, and I went to my grandma's. And I've been there countless times. It's this condo that's been there since the sixties. And, I decided I remember it was at thanks November. It was, like, in Thanksgiving time, and I had a topwater plug, which is my bass tackle. And I went over to, like, this you know, it's a intercoastal that leaks out into this pond, a little estuary. And I walked up and saw a couple logs there, which were snook, just just lined up, you know. And I didn't even even know what a snook looked like in the water at that time. And I threw my plug out. Those guys were real spooky. They didn't want the plug. I threw out in the middle, and, it was a jack, big jack that came along. I mean, back then, there were boy, you get them up north. You don't get them quite as much down south here, but those big twenty, thirty pound jacks

Tom Rowland: Dang.

David Cohen: And crushes my plug, screaming my line, almost spooling me. I'm running. It's a little pond where I could actually, my line could bend. I could walk run around to the other side of the pond, and I'm fighting. And I lost that one, but that got me hooked. And and after that, I went back, for for for till now, but, you know, for at least, all my middle school years into high school, I would play football, and I go out with my football for everybody after Friday night games would go and have fun. And I would bring my tight end buddy, Chris Decker. He's a big six eight. He's two eight. He was a monster. But, and I'll get to him in a little bit, but he he comes from a fishing family in The Keys. So, that sparked a relationship with us with saltwater fishing. And we got into learning how to just upgrade my tackle. And, you know, I caught a couple smaller jacks, and then I started hooking to tarpon, then I started hooking to Snook. And it is and I lost, I would say, my first 50 tarpon at least, maybe a 100 tarpon. I I would just hook them on my light line and and even in back then, it was ten, twelve pound test. I know the leaders yet. I finna go to the shop finding the double you need to tie that on to put my trace of 40 or 50 on. And before you know it, I was, like, 14. I caught my fur 13 or 14. I finally managed. I got a baby poon. And yeah. And then that's, you know, it progressed into getting a, a cast net, and now that's where that's where I got this I must I don't even I don't talk to him anymore, but his family where he had a couple uncle big uncles, and they had a place in Venetian Shores in Islamorada. And he'd invited me one year, and, they did all the blackfin tuna on the hump. And I was, like, still, like, 14. And Patrick's mutton snapper fishing and and, started me. He says, you're gonna throw the net, and we gotta go into the thing. And he they came and started with a big net. It was, like, eight, ten foot. I didn't even have a little net. I'd start they're like, you're gonna throw this big net. And we start I got half open. And back then, there's so much blow. You let it go out and started to catch fish. And I said, man, there's finger mullet there. And we got a I got a six foot or first or eight foot say, six foot to start and started catching mullet, and then I transported my bucket, and then that's when game was on. I found mullet and a place that old people lived, and nobody fished it. It was all for me for

Tom Rowland: for And that's Venetian shores?

David Cohen: Or No. Oh, and this is the, I'm getting back to where I fish in in North Miami is, yeah, this place, they would kick anybody out that was on there. They'd run the boats off. So these tarpon and snook and everybody were very happy there. And I go there year round no matter what cold weather

Tom Rowland: You could fish there because your grandparents

David Cohen: lived there. And then you could walk this whole stretch, and I would just walk it from Friday night till they pick my parents picked me up on Sunday. And I'd go in the morning until the afternoon till I'm exhausted. My grandma would cook me some food, get a bakery, and, you know, get me some some bread or whatever. She didn't have much, but she always you know, she fed me a little bit. And then, and then I'd be off in the evening, and I did that. You know, I I always feel as I wasted my years away, but I did I turned around now. I'm actually guiding in the same area.

Tom Rowland: But Yeah. I wouldn't say you wasted anything. You know, that that story reminds me of going to my grandmother's house, and she didn't know anything about boys. And I think they had me working in the backyard, and I was working, like, all morning, like, digging and doing some labor. And she's like, come on in for lunch. And she served these little finger sandwiches that were, like, about an inch wide, and they had, like, just a just the lightest spread of pimento cheese you could possibly get on these pieces of bread, and there were, like, three of them. And I was, like, oh, like, okay. So I ate all three of those, like, almost in one bite, and she made three more, and she just could not believe that what a little boy eats. Like, I don't know. Three finger sandwiches of pimento cheese is not gonna get the job done. So that was that's funny. I hadn't thought about that in a long time. But, hopefully, your grandmother had a better better lunch.

David Cohen: Yeah. A little bit. She was very she worked until her later years in a department store in Lane Bryant till she was 85. She never came from much, but she always managed to get me food. You know? God rest her soul. She was just always she even when she didn't have it, she gave it to me. And, yeah, it's, it's very, it's always nostalgic going back in there just from you know, there's so many memories of this fish ate there and there. Yeah. You know? I don't tell the clients that because you don't wanna tell a client anything before it happens. All these big fish are here, and then they there's nothing there. But Yeah. In the back of my head, even I went out last night, I'm thinking of how many, it was a repeat client, so I could say that, you know, to him. I'm like, you know how many fish I've got on this little stretch of dye, this little you know, I used to this one fish lined up, and I find out later years when I got a boat, you know, you see the GPS and look, oh, there's a 35 foot ledge there. In the middle, there's not a 35 foot ledge in this whole bay, and there they are, and they're just picking off the mullet that they like to Uh-huh. You know, hang out right in there. I didn't know at the time because it's the middle of

Tom Rowland: Yeah. But you found a good spot. I've been with guides before where things just are not going well, and they are so sure that you know, like in Louisiana or someplace that I hadn't fished before, you know, a long time ago, and you would go there, and they're like, this point. This is the one. And you just keep casting, keep casting, keep casting, and nothing's happening. You can just see the guide, like, what? How? Why is this happening? Like, it always happens here, and it's not happening today. It's kind of a a a weird thing to see someone go through that. Like, if and you've never been to the spot. You don't know any different. Mhmm. But there's something about that spot where it should be happening. Yeah. That's a soul killer. Yeah.

David Cohen: It's a soul but now I've realized I realized even then, because as soon as I got a boat with a little motor that took me off, I realized the same things that are right that spot that I used to have no access to are here, here, here, and that's the that's the game is you gotta you gotta not think, like, even even if I'm not a client myself, I don't wanna stay there anymore. I know they might be there, but I want action too. I wanna go and catch a fish immediately. And I can only imagine how that client feels not being a tarpon fisherman or snook that wants to wait twenty minutes, thirty minutes for a bite. We're gonna go over here, try try another, and at least, you know, you're trying. And more often than not, the fish are if they're not in a, they'll be in b or c, d, e, f, and g, and then, you know, that's what, you know, that's what being a guy is about is just you know, I always I love it now. I'm just trying to find new things that new ways, techniques that I could switch up to produce. And then that's the most gratifying thing, I think, now in scores when you come home and you're like, man, I was right there, but I didn't do it this way. I didn't I always did it this way. And then you figure it out, and then you just put it in your bag at your arsenal and,

Hard-Won Lessons: Chunk Baits and New Techniques

Tom Rowland: you know What do you think are some things that you figured out that that opened up? Like, I can think about things in my guiding career where I learned a little piece of knowledge, a little piece, just a tiny little piece, and it opened up a door to, like, this whole thing that I didn't even know about before. And then you just start picking off the spots. Yeah. What do you think? Have you had something like that happen? Like Yeah. Yeah.

David Cohen: Man, you know, I would say that one of the top things I'd say in the past eight, ten years, and I did it in my earlier years, but not as much now, is I, I start soaking I start wherever I'm live band. Usually, I'm a mullet guy unless it's the wintertime on fish, shrimp, and mullet, but not live mullet. I realized realized that they eat a chunk. If it's freshly, if it's fresh, just ahead. And, and and this is for all these my guy, you guys are gonna open up their eyes now, but it's the truth. If you have a even if you have a live bait, and a lot of times, I'll just put them away, but you put a chunk down there. And they say, if you're they're rolling and you got live fish and you got live pilchard, whatever you decide to throw threadfin herring, and you put a chunk down fresh bloody, slap and cut his head into a belly strip, you know, the bit and the bold mullet of the best, not a finger mullet, but a nice nice sized mullet. And you just hook it to the tip of the top, and you let that rod just sit in the rod holder and chill as your and that whatever and that's what I I did it. I used to do it in the cooler months because I figured out that, oh, their metabolism's slow. They're not gonna chase down a mullet. That's the problem. Let me throw a chunk down, and I get hit like crazy. But then I started to implement that into other spots and started, oh, what if I go here and try the same? But I get blown up there all the time on malls. Sometimes they don't need them entirely. And it you know, it's it's not the most glamorous and, you know, you're sitting you know, I like to always tell my clients I have a live fish because people wanna have a live bait out. But at the end of the day, I'm smile I'm looking at the dead bait rod. I know the dead bait rod is gonna go off, you know, more often in especially in Miami. And,

Tom Rowland: That happens a lot in The Keys too. I mean, like, the I I remember going spending all this time catching mullet. And as soon as we caught them, Rich started chopping them in half. And, that's what he had he had learned the same thing. Like, man, the the tarpon are up on the surface. They're rolling, but they're eating chunks on the bottom. Like, nobody's catching any fish. Put a chunk on the bottom, and it happens. But it all there, we kinda learned that it was really tide specific. Like, if you can get it to where the tide's slowing down, that's when they really seem to or or they probably like the chunk all the time, but that's when it looks the most natural. It's when it doesn't look like it's just being held in the current or whatever, and and we were getting a lot more bite. Yeah. That's that's pretty that's pretty cool.

David Cohen: What else? And and yeah. That and then, you know, and I know just and I'll tell you more in a sec. But I noticed in the for what I the slack tie doesn't work with the chunks. Most of the time, it doesn't not work, but it seems to be at the end of a tide Mhmm. Or the beginning of a tide when it's just fluttering. And I still don't get it because it's not on the bottom. My baits and the rod holder, and sometimes I'll so I wanna keep the rail open and let it just flow back there or close it up and lock but I feel like I'm locking it up. It's gotta be floating, like, 10 feet above the water. How would they eat it? But they eat it for whatever it is. They they, like, they don't mind when it's up in the air just hanging out.

Tom Rowland: Oh, they got a great nose too. I mean, so they get down current of that and smell it.

David Cohen: And you throw multiple chunks out. You get them going. Not too much for sharks, but occasional trickle like anything else. Mhmm. And, keep it going, and they come.

Circle Hooks, Fluorocarbon, and Fighting Fish on Light Drag

David Cohen: I'd say, you know, fluorocarbon was huge when that got introduced, finding the right, circle hook that works for you. You know, the like, you know, there's so many circle hooks. Some I feel like the circle hooks are great. I love I've been just such an advocate of them since their introduction. They're just so good on the fish. Anybody that's tarpon fished enough is unfortunately I hate to say it, you know, a fish that you don't think is gonna make it. And, you know, that it start you when you catch a lot of them, and I caught thousands of them, in my life, and they're just it it kills me to this day. Like, if the one gets gut hooked, I don't know if he's gonna live. So the circle hook knowing that that's gonna, nine times out of ten, not be in the gut and be buried in where it needs to be and not come out and get away with lighter leader. You know, there it's been those been instrumental.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. I think that, for me, the the being able to use the lighter leader, it with the circle hook is as big a deal as the circle hook. Like, I find that the circle hook hooks them better. You get penetration all the way through the the hook the fish's mouth rather than just, you know, the the point of the hook just kinda poking into the hard bony part. But it seems to like, most of the times, it's going right through because it's finding the corner, and then it's getting in there and going all the way through. So the hooking, you're hooked to them more securely. But because of that, the the rough area of the fish's mouth is often on the hook. So you can get by with a much, much lighter leader, oftentimes meaning that you you're gonna get a lot more bites. So I've liked that as a as a kind of a side benefit of the circle hook as much as as not As a conservation part. Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, conservation is very important, but getting a good hook in them is I mean, I would use it just for that.

David Cohen: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. When it goes through the other side, it's not it's not coming out. Like, that's that's the one thing when especially with this I almost could fight a fish a different way. When you know that it's bent over, the drags you know, the set whether whatever you decide to set your drag and which is very important in fishing, but I, you know, I do a lot of, you know, I'll cut I'm a cupper. You know, I have a light pretty light drag where you're not gonna set the hook most of the time unless it's in the rod holder. If it's in my end, it's it's almost like a fly reel. And I'm gonna just from so many years of fishing, I'm gonna pop it and give it as much as it I feel it needs to get the hook in. But once it any once it's in and it comes across, that's what I tell all my clients and the people I've ever fished with in my life before I was a guide and just telling my friends I bring out with me. You hooked him. It's in a circle hook. He jumped. He's still on the line. You're good. He's gets an open water. Don't pull on it. The the hook is not he's not gonna shake it. He could jump up. He could do whatever he wants, but like you said, it's on the other side of the hook. It's not going anywhere.

Tom Rowland: And then

David Cohen: that's you know, you could just walk them around and do it, you know, and I'm

Tom Rowland: a light drag guy, and and Rich is a a heavy drag guy. So as we get together in the boat and fish together, all of our gear gets all intertwined with one another. So I pick up a reel and pull on the drag, and it's really super heavy. So I back it off, and on the other side of the boat, he's pulling on the drag and tightening it up. It's just I don't know. I like the light drag, personally.

David Cohen: For tarpon fishing, I feel like you have to no matter what, especially if you hook up to any size tarpon. If you have a set drag of anything, and it might not be that tight. It could be you'll he'll be pulling on it, and it's kinda coming out. But when the fish decides to blister off and gets deeper into your spool and he jumps, if you have if you have no drag on there, like a fly reel, you could just play him as it. Let it go. Let him plop lock down. Let him do it, and then you could come back on and do a I just do a one on one. I palm, and that's how I fight them and then let them go. But if you have it pretty tight, that's when I think they'll come up and Yeah. That does the top

Tom Rowland: of the water. Often with with guys fly fishing for them, and they've got them hooked. And and the fish is close to the boat, and the fish jumps close to the boat, and the the the the fish comes all the way out of the water. The line comes all the way out of water, and it starts bouncing like this as the fish is shaking his head. And there's a tight drag, and it just pops the hook right out. Bow, whatever you want. Yeah. It's it just pops it right out. That's where I feel like the light drag is the most effective. Like, just just like you say, like, just let them go, and that that fish just goes back in the water, and that hook stays exactly Yes, ma'am. Where it was.

David Cohen: Not caught anywhere.

Tom Rowland: You don't pull it. I don't know. That's that's what I've come to

David Cohen: I like that.

Tom Rowland: To do. But when you give it when you give that setup to somebody that has never had a setup like that, it can be a disaster because

David Cohen: There really can drag the whole time. You're just not making noise. Yeah. So, you know, it's a fine line. You just gotta make it just tight enough for the client where they could kinda pull on it. And then I've been trying even on novice that I've I've been lucky enough the past couple months even. Some people that never saltwater fished have and that's the best kind of client. You could tell them to cut hey. See this? Don't hold the line, but just put see how you feel. You see how you moved it when you put your hand on the spool. And it's not easy, but some some will get it.

Tom Rowland: They're like, oh, yeah.

David Cohen: Zip pow. I wanna see

Tom Rowland: how that works.

David Cohen: That's Habitatoo. That's definitely Habitatoo.

From Recreational Angler to Miami Guide

Tom Rowland: So how did you make the transition from from a regular kind of recreational fisherman to to a guide?

David Cohen: You know, I've always I've always wanted I didn't know why I always knew I wanted to be a guide. I just, my family always they're both in the school board or retired now, and they wanted me to to go to college and, which I did. And I got exercise physiology degree and worked as a trainer and still do, for the last twelve years or so. And, you know, they would always just you know, they're gonna hate that I say this, but they they did kinda frown, you know, on a fisherman, on a guide. But, you know, I I didn't have, I didn't have a my dad had a boat about ten years ago. We had for a little while. We did a lot of offshore fishing with it. He had a '20 two Sea Fox bay boat, and that's where I did a lot of just kite. When the kite's before the electrical, I had the manual, and we I caught all kinds of I was going into I did tournament fishing, in that period of time. I'll get into later if you want, but, you know, just I was a big offshore guy in that realm too. But, you know, I guess when I got, I started social media, like, four years ago with Instagram, and I'd go out and did my I had a little v twelve, thirteen foot v hull, and I fished my did my normal routine. And, I actually before that, I was on Facebook for a little bit. I was never on Facebook. I was, like, the last one. And then we're, like, the very last one. And probably within six months of being on Facebook, which Facebook's been around for five, ten years before that, I my buddy goes to me, David, you should you're not nobody's seeing that on your Facebook. You know? You're you're finally go try this Instagram out. And I'm never I'm not technically sat, and I will never been in the I've always been behind. But I got on Instagram, and I started just posting my tar doing my and I always went solo most of the time. I didn't ever want anybody to see my I had my immediate friends, and if my fourth three or four friends wouldn't wanna go with me, I never invited new people because it was a small area with all these fish are at. And especially on Instagram, everyone wants to go with you. So I just kept it. So I always went solo. And I had brought my iPhone, and I I didn't have a GoPro, but I would kinda one hand it and take a picture. And then I'd find the nearest person after I get a tarpon to go and take a picture with me of the you know, in my boat, and I'd, you know, get towed around by this, you know, anywhere from, you know, monster, a 100 plus pound poon. It's on this little boat, which is a blight. I love it. Sometimes I go back to it, and I miss those days of just being in a canoe or a little d hole, and the fish just tows me around. And I just had to troll and even have a And, it was the best. And, but I decided, you know, I started seeing people wanting me to go fishing, wanted me to go fishing, and, I would never do it. I mean, everybody and people, you start to make enemies. I'm like, everybody likes my pages, but then I don't tell them all the you know? You know? I'm not gonna I didn't never said that, but, you know, you just don't. And, I, I then I started thinking of to getting a boat. I was thinking about getting, like, a sixteen, fifteen, 16 foot boat and just guiding off of that. And then I talked to a lot of people, and they said it's very hard to guide off of that. And and here just because, which is true, you know, the the inlets are tough. There's a lot of moving water, a small boat for the client. You can't bring them on. So I decided about three years ago, I have to get a a bay boat, and I got a Pathfinder, which I always wanted. I saved forever, and it was, you know, not easy. Still still doing my thing for it. But, so I, I got I got the boat, and then I immediately, you know, I said, I've been on all these tournaments my whole you know, I've been on the water my whole life. My dad had a boat for eight years. We had an offshore boat. I was like, I got enough hours for it. And, everybody tells me, you know, captains are so smart and everything. I I hate yeah. You hate to say it, but some of the people at the time, you know, it's tough to get a captain's license, and then when you to you know? And and you don't understand how hard it is. You know? I got a lot of doubt, but I went and I did it and, the the captain's school, the c school in Fort Lauderdale, and I, I did really well. I got, like, one wrong and, like, four sections. So I didn't the, you know, rules of the road and all that, like, one wrong. And, so I did did got my license, and then, and then that was it. And then that was, the you know, the just the beginnings of it. And then I had to start, you know, making contacts and and doing the the, you know, the marketing aspect, which that's my biggest, you know. So you were

Tom Rowland: I mean, you said that your parents kind of didn't think this was a good road for you. Like Yeah. So so at that I mean, how did how do you how old are you at this point?

David Cohen: Yeah. This was, like, three years ago. So I'm thirties I was probably 36 or 30 I'm 39 now. So yeah.

The Exercise Science Path and a Lifetime of Lifting

Tom Rowland: I mean, you're you're a grown man. You can make your own decisions and and all of that. So that that really wasn't the the issue. But making that leap well, I'm also interested in in why why you picked exercise science.

David Cohen: Just been just You're an athlete all year? Athlete my whole life. Yeah. I played all I played my dad was the pop winner who was playing tackle football when I was 14 and is a linebacker all through high school and basketball, golf team in high school. I just I love and lifting weights. I just loved lifting weights since I was I could 13, 14 when I they tell you it would stunt your growth back in

Tom Rowland: the I know. They would.

David Cohen: And they would tell me that. And but I just I loved lifting, and I was always just, you know, trying to be the strongest in the class, and we'd have our marks. And that was, you know, to this day, you know, I lift if I don't I lifted this morning, and I lift at least not as much as I like three days a week, but that's my that's and I just I love the the slide the the way the muscles work and how the body works, and I was just fascinated. It it was the coolest thing. I had such passion for it.

Tom Rowland: Do you I mean, is there anything to that, like, that weightlifting stunts your growth as a kid? Because

David Cohen: No.

Tom Rowland: I think that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

David Cohen: Me too.

Tom Rowland: I I I mean, like, when my kids were little, I had them doing all kinds of stuff. And, and I would have these other parents be like, I don't know. They shouldn't be lifting weights. And I'm like, well, your kids are lifting weights. Well, no. They aren't. Like, they got a backpack of books in it. They're walking around all day. That's lifting weights. Yeah. Like, that is resistance. Resist they're bouncing on the trampoline. Right? That's resistance. They're lifting weights. That is lifting weights. Now I get it that, you know, you don't want there's some ways that maybe a kid could hurt himself or something, but not with supervision. You're teaching them how to do it and everything. But, I mean, I just always thought that was so stupid. Like, resistance Yeah. Is resistance. And and

David Cohen: I never got it.

Tom Rowland: I I don't I I and it seems like and and I'm no exercise scientist, and I didn't study it. But it just seems like that's the one thing that would actually make you grow, and they're saying that it's the one thing that stunts your

David Cohen: ground. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: I just thought it was so funny.

David Cohen: Yeah. I don't know any of this. I didn't really get too much of the science behind it, but I just it just doesn't make sense. Yeah. It doesn't make sense. Your body, you know, it reacts. It expand. Your muscles stretch. You get longer, if I would think of anything. You know? Yeah. You know, you get

Tom Rowland: Meanwhile, in in Russia and across farms, all across America, kids are carrying, bales of hay and and buckets of milk and and buckets of feed and everything like that when they're when they're six years old. So, I mean, I don't know. They didn't stunt their growth. Every time I every time we played football or wrestled against the the rural communities, they were all bigger and stronger than we were every single time. It's like, I don't think it's stunting their growth. It might make them grow a beard, but it's not it's not stunting their growth. These people are strong and big, and they were killing us.

Why Guiding Beats Catching His Own Fish

David Cohen: Man. But, yeah. And getting back to just and guiding now has just opened my eyes to a different, feeling and exhilaration with taking a client out and putting them on fish way it actually has, surpassed in many ways me catching my own fish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It really it when I see that on somebody's exhilaration, which I don't, I still get fired up, but now I look back at the videos even five, ten years ago. I used to get really ramped up with big fish, and now I feel like I got my big fish. And to see the other guy get the big their big fish and just constantly talk It just brings it back to when I was there. And then to know that I did that and help them do that and made that memory is yeah. I I love it. I I love it more than anything.

Tom Rowland: Pretty excited. What? I mean, you get pretty excited. Yeah. I can only imagine when you when you, get somebody of their biggest tarpon or their biggest snook or something that you would have to be really excited.

David Cohen: Yeah. Yeah. No. Then that's that's, that that's the the you know, now I'm getting the the every year in, you cool that, and I think that's, like, everything is trying to you know, anybody that's good at something, you've gotta be real, you know, calm, cool, and collective when it's going down, when the fish is jumping. I don't think I could have been a great guide in my twenties because I had so much passion for it and too much excitement not to deliver to my client because I'm so flust so caught up in the moment that I can't slow down

Tom Rowland: Right.

David Cohen: And see what's going on and watching their hand calmly and telling them just angle, okay, walk to the bow, walk around here, walk around the motor, they're gonna do this in a cool manner to make the experience happen.

Tom Rowland: So I think a lot of people that can't, do that in a cool manner also get frustrated really easy. And they get frustrated because the client is not catching the fish. Oh, it works. Killer. They're getting frustrated because the client, is not catching the fish, but they're really they want the client to catch the fish so bad. But then the opposite thing happens. The client thinks that they're upset with them, and it just goes bad from there. Like, I don't know. I think I think you're right though with after you've seen a whole bunch of people lose fish and everything like that, you're kinda like, well, it's not gonna do any good to get upset. In fact, that's gonna take the morale in the toilet. So no big deal.

David Cohen: Yeah. No big deal.

Tom Rowland: It's kinda like fishing with a kid.

David Cohen: Yeah. Fishing let's get another one.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. It's like fishing with a kid, though. I mean, even fishing with a 50 year old man is like fishing with a kid. Like, you know, they're they're thinking they would did something wrong. And if you tell them they did something wrong, then the trip goes down the drain.

David Cohen: Oh, yeah.

Tom Rowland: But and the same thing with a kid. It's like, oh, he got off. Oh, cool. Let's catch another one. And, that's what we're gonna do to him anyway. We're gonna let him

David Cohen: go. Exactly.

Tom Rowland: And then the then everything's cool. You know?

David Cohen: Yeah. You just try to deflect it as best you can and, yeah, just make the you know, make him feel great no matter what. That's the whole as they always say, that's the experience. It's about, you know, being out there and and having that experience with the hooked up and with the fish lost and just move on to the next. And, usually, that mentality, a lot of times, the next fish will come quickly. You know? If you dwell on it, then, you know, it's, Yeah.

Tournament Fishing: Kingfish, Kites, and Team Chemistry

Tom Rowland: In a tournament too, that's really that's really a big deal, I think, is And and and other people think differently because some some guides or or captains in the tournament, they're very serious, and they get very upset when a fish is lost because it means money. But I always think that that just just doesn't do well for the team. You know? Like, everybody knows it didn't go well. Like, there's no reason to tell them again that it didn't go well unless there's a teaching moment there. But you said you did a lot of offshore tournaments too?

David Cohen: Yeah. Yeah. In my, yeah, from probably, like, o four '3 or o four. I was on the How You Real and Fishing team, which does well now. We didn't they didn't for a long time, but for about because and I used to say, well, how do you throw in so much money in these, you know, Kingfish? I used to love that Kingfish, you know, the cartoon they have in them of just Kingfish and the big boat, and I don't know. But it it so this is them. You know, I'm still friends. I talked to the guy before I got over here. And, yeah, I did a lot of always was an offshore guy, like I said, and, you know, within my dad's boat, I got into, you know, using the stinger rigs and, you know, just month snapper fishing with the long leaders and yellow tailing. I did that with, you know, balling with oats, and they showed me that when I was 13 or 14 to dump the water in the bucket with the oats and soak it overnight, you know, and and all that stuff. So I always was I loved offshore fishing, and, I did that for better part of ten years with these guys. That's how I accumulate my hours for cabin school. And, yeah, I was always on the kite and saw had great experience. It's a lot of longest as you know. Like, we have our longest days, hard work, and, you know, unless you're really rewarded, it's it's and it's a lot of stress. You know, just the captain, I get it. You got all these, you know, hundreds of dollars on goggle eyes and just, just the price of the tournament, everything, gas and the prep work. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I loved it when I'd you know, it was it was great. I, I I enjoyed those moments of getting big fish and and and, you know, just placing. Never never placed really high. Now they do. The guys that I did, they did they're up there. But it takes time like anything. You know? You're

What Separates the Winning Teams

Tom Rowland: You gotta figure it out. What do you think they figured out?

David Cohen: You know, a lot of it is just trial and error like you do with tarpon like, inshore bass fishing every year. Fishing and trout fishing is figuring out exact it's so precise. Exact hook size is exact size of trace of wire, exact which baits should, you know, you know, get the boats got bigger, the the kite fishing, having the having a team that could work together constantly is is huge. If everybody's screaming the same thing like with client, you know, and you're talking if you're screaming at each other, nobody's doing anything right. But if you guys work cool. Nobody says a word. You know what's going on. And the more you do that, you become a team. Mhmm. And so it's a combination of just messing up and doing things wrong and not having the maybe having a hook a little too big, not the right model hook, not the right reel, set the drags the wrong way, just little nuances. And the more you dial in

Tom Rowland: It's interesting to kinda look at, like, doing a lot of different kinds of tournaments. I did a lot of the different inshore tournaments. And then when you looked at the when you looked at the board at the end of the tournament, then usually in the Redbone tournaments, they would actually have a physical board that somebody was riding, like, a dry erase, but it was like a Sharpie. Right? Like, it wouldn't come off. It was huge. And you could see every angler and every guide and every day and every fish they caught. And I would just stand there and look at that and just look at that board and study it. And the crazy thing was is the top six guides were the top six guides in the next tournament, and they were the top six guides in the next tournament. Maybe you'd have a a three or four that would kinda jump up and and and and kinda fall out, but there'd be about six or seven guides that were always there even if they had different anglers, but there were teams that were always in the running. And, you know, I just found that so interesting when I was first learning about tournament fishing. I was like, what is it that these guys know that the rest of the field doesn't seem to? Or what is it that they're doing that the rest of the field isn't doing? And, you know, like you just you just said, it's not one thing. It's a combination of all these factors that they've worked on all these details. And then, like, I don't know. I mean, for me, like, especially in, like, the the Redbone type tournaments where you're after a slam or or something like that, you're going out on a charter, and you're after the best fishing that you can get for your client and the best experience that you can have for your client. And going into a tournament, the experience doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is getting the fish on the ruler or on or in on the boat or getting the picture of it or however the fish however it's scored in the lab well for some tournaments. That's the only thing that matters. And so on a charter, you might not sit there for an hour waiting because you know when the tide changes, these fish are coming through here. You wouldn't do that maybe on a charter. Like, it'd be super boring.

David Cohen: Yeah. But

Tom Rowland: in a tournament, like, that's the only thing that matters. And if you have the right team, then the other person knows that too. And it's like, we sit here all day. I don't care. But the right fish is gonna come through here, and it's gonna happen. Right? And then when it does happen, we know we've got the right hook. We know we're using the right line. We know we got the right leader. We go we got the right net. Everything is everything's dialed in, but we're gonna do things a lot differently than on a charter. And I always thought, you know, once we started doing or I started doing well in the tournaments, I started realizing, wow, I'm fishing differently in a tournament than I would on a charter. And I think that's probably where a lot of people aren't. They're just in the tournament, you know, and they're trying to show their client a good time, which is for most of the clients in tournaments like that, like those Redbone ones, they that's what they want too. They wanna they wanna have a good time. But there's there's 12 anglers that wanna win.

David Cohen: Yeah.

Tom Rowland: And it's a different approach.

David Cohen: Yeah. Those are the ones that win. And I think the another just can't, you know, go without saying the most critical portion. Once you've got all those things lined up and you've got the tackle, the boat, the bait, everything that you need, you need to find where they're lit where they especially offshore tournaments. I don't know about inshore. I didn't do as much inshore side, not at all. But offshore, they move every day. And you've gotta be connected with the charter boat captains or you are a charter boat captain. Right. And you have to communicate with a couple group of guy, get a close ones that you could really

Tom Rowland: trust. Commercial fisherman too.

David Cohen: Commercial is huge. You find those, and that's when you just you talk to the you you pre fish two days before to find out where they live, or where they you feel like they're at. But then somebody else pre fishes with you, and you guys are on the same team the day before, two days before, and they're telling you it's 30 miles north or 40 miles north. You'll make that run wherever they are, but it's and you both wanna be placed in that top three together. I feel like that's a lot of reason why those top five, like you said, or seven work together. I think, like, two of them on each side kinda just work with each other, and they're like, this is where they're at right now because you could have everything like I said. But if, you know, they're not there that they move, they're not there. And you don't wanna time is money, and you gotta you gotta that's why they have now four or five outboards and, you know, go seventy, eighty miles in an hour.

Tom Rowland: That's a that's a interesting thing about the Kingfish tournaments too is that they go so far, and they're going, you know, so far not because there aren't any kingfish here, but it said if you go over to this other area that other people aren't gonna go, maybe they're much bigger. They're bigger. You know, for whatever reason. It always seems like whether it's a Redfish tournament or a Kingfish tournament, the biggest fish are way away from the dock. Yeah. I don't know why that is like, why don't they why don't we just have a tournament where the big fish are? That'd be sweet. Right? But but it always seems like they're they're way far away. And, like, we used to go from, Louisiana over into or from Texas over back into Louisiana because that's where the big redfish were. And, like, it's a run that would take forever. Like, you have an eight hour fishing day. You're gonna spend three three hours running to the spot, then you're gonna fish for an hour and run back with and and, hopefully, you have enough time to make it back. You don't get any weather or anything. That's the craziest way to fish. I mean, it's fun. It's it's full of adrenaline. It is stressful. It's rewarding. It's amazing. You you're you put your learning on turbo. Like, you start learning so much. But, honestly, I'm I'm glad I did it, and I'm not sorry that I'm not doing it anymore. Like, I don't know. I mean, that's a that's a

David Cohen: the same way.

Tom Rowland: That's something that most fishermen that wanna be good, they need to do that. Oh, absolutely.

David Cohen: Because you

Tom Rowland: learn so much so fast.

David Cohen: Yeah. There's just there's so many components, and, you know, those you know, fishing will always evolve, and you'll need different from stainless titanium leaders and different but for the most part, you know, even with the sail fishing, you know, it's the same stuff. You know, if you could do that and you're around a group if I have to say if anybody wants to start off fishing for any species of fish, fish for those guys that are, you know, tournament guys that you know, you're just on the boat for, like, two weeks or three weeks, or you figure out and you could kinda get a grasp of how long your leaders need to be and size your hooks and the knot and what bait baits everything, you know, if you could cat, if you don't have to buy your $100 dozen googles. But if you could just learn how to throw a net and,

Tom Rowland: you know, you'd go. But still, you know, if you take a a a guy that doesn't have a lot of experience and you put him on the best boat to see how those guys do it, I still don't think it's all gonna sink in. No. It's all Because what it where it's really gonna sink in is you get the captain that's been fishing next to you that watched you catch all these fish while he caught half as many or maybe none at all, and he knows we have the same bait. He knows that you're using the same gear. He knows, but there's something that's happening different. And if he got on that boat for ten seconds, he would spot it, and he would know exactly, and he would take it back to his boat. Like, that's what's interesting. It's like a beginner, they're not ready to accept that information where where somebody that really knows and is fighting this battle, man, they see it, and they know. They only have to see they only have to see one thing. Like, oh, look at that little hook.

David Cohen: Look at that side. That's a little bit small. One side smaller than mine or yeah. What that that just all those and that's what I you know, you know, you always that's what's great about social media. I'm trying to you know, I don't I haven't been around with a lot of guys, but I have a couple that, you know, I just learned. I'm just there to and once you get it and you've been in the, like, a, you know, a captain, anybody that's fished for a long time, you gotta you know, how to manipulate line and make a knot. So the meaning of the thing is, like, what's that? And you hear a couple times, you could tie it, and then that's what's so rewarding is just adding that bag of trick, you know, getting that next thing. And that's what just should be, you know, like yourself and every other great great fisherman out there, you know, is just learning just a little you'll never you'll have the you know, you can spend your whole lifetime. You won't touch the surface on fishing.

Tom Rowland: You know. I mean, you'll never learn at all. And then when you even just imagine, like like, a guy like Ralph Delph or or Kenny Harris or or Robert Trosset, and they know so much. And everything is monofilament, and everything is is all monofilament, they got that dialed. Then here comes fluorocarbon and braid, and here comes these these chemically sharpened circle hooks, and here comes like, now it's almost like, yeah. Okay. We need to learn some of these things again, and we need to take everything we knew and adapt to this new technology. The rods change. The reels are changing. Everything's changing. So we can do these things that we've always wanted to do. And and those you know, a a person like that with so much experience can see braided line and go, all of a sudden, he's thinking, there's about a thousand things that I could do with this that I I know exactly what I'm gonna do with this right now. And it's something different than somebody else's thinking. Like, somebody else is thinking, wow. I can cast further. But those guys are thinking, I'm gonna set some world records.

How Braid Changed Inshore and Offshore Fishing

David Cohen: Yeah. Yeah. You could change it. So we're getting back to just how fishing involved with circle hooks and floor I didn't mention braid, but braid was the biggest I'd say that number one thing that changed the inshore, offshore as well. But offshore, I'll get into whatever in a minute. But in insure, you know, to to deal with you had to go, you know, no more than I use 12 pound mono most of the time on these tarpon, maybe 15, max 20. I never used even 30. So I would go that to my leader. And then I now I could go and use 30 twenty, thirty, 40 pound braid, 50 pound braid.

Tom Rowland: But there was a reason why, 12 pound was kind of max for a lot of a lot of people or 12, maybe 15. Yeah. If you went to 20, the it was you were having to use this reel. I mean, if you go back and look at the reels you used to use in the in the, you know, in the nineties,

David Cohen: Eighty five hundreds. So the Penessa seventy five eighty five.

Tom Rowland: And put 20 pound test on that and try and hand it to a customer and say, here, throw this, you know, jerk bait over there. There's no chance. And the rod's huge, and it just braid changed all of that. Like, all of the reels now shrank because you could get more capacity on a smaller reel. Then when the reel shrank, the rods changed too. The rods got thinner and lighter and still just as strong, but with a tip that you could cast. Yeah. And all of a sudden, just there were massive changes. I mean and it it changed everything because now I mean, especially when you have, like, a a kid, now you can hand this kid 12 or 15 pound braid on a rod that they can handle, and they're not gonna break the fish off. And, you know, they can cast. That changes everything.

David Cohen: Yeah. And yeah. And it's and it's just so much more fun. Once they, like, hold on to a big rod, now we have these little, you know, just rods that are half the size, reels that are half the size with probably three or four times more power than our big rods back there. I know. It's just it's so cool.

Tom Rowland: I know.

David Cohen: It it makes it to look back, they're like, you don't know what gotta talk about old, you know, the old days, but it was. It was hard. They had, like, 12 pound in mono. But you gotta play that thing to death, and that's it's better on the fish again going back to crawfish. You don't play it to death to to actually catch them. Right? You could put some

Tom Rowland: sand on it. 100 pound tarpon on 12 pound monofilament. I mean, people were really good at it. They were very, very good at it because and and, you know, they would be like, I'm not fishing with 16. That's crazy. Like, that's like that's like rope. You know? But those guys, they were really good at it. But there was so much stretch in the line, and the rods were were certainly nothing like they are today. I mean, fiberglass rods and and super stretchy monofilament, it's not easier, but it's so different than than we fight fish today. And with braid and fluorocarbon, there's almost zero stretch, and then the rods are super fast and super, you know, strong and and and and stiff while being able to throw. With a little flexibility. Yeah. Yeah. And you can lift a heavy fish with a a rod that was smaller than a bonefish rod not that long ago. It's really it's really cool, and and I always think about those kind of changes when when people talk about, like, you know, how fishing has changed. And in some ways, fishing has gotten a lot more difficult. But in other ways, it's gotten way easier, like, as far as the gear goes. Like, the gear we're using now is just it's phenomenal.

A 70-Pound Tarpon From an Alligator-Infested Canal

David Cohen: Yeah. I I love that part. And, yeah, just and and now, you know, we you could go back you know, even, I went and and just a little mini story, I went my biggest freshwater tarpon, I just got well, not just. It was a couple years ago. I was in a canal with a bass rod that I've always fished and hooked up with tarpon in the past. I don't do a lot of since I've been doing saltwater fishing, I don't go in the canals to tarpon fish. But, I went out, in a place that I saw them rolling, and then it was the C 11 Canal. Everybody could go there, and there was people that came there. Like, the next day, I had it on video. And I'm throwing this, you know, it's just a Zoom, a big jerk, big plastic 10 inch jerkbait the the day before, and they're blowing up. There was a school of them. They're they blew up from one side of the canal all the way to the other thing. It was the coolest thing. Came back the next day, got a couple, finger mullet from a freshwater spot, threw them over there. I had a 20 pound braid, which is big, but it was on a 4,000 reel and a bass rod and, 25 pound test fluorocarbon leader. So it's like my light I did a lot of that light. There's pretty big snook that hang out in there too. I've climbed up to about 30 something inches, and they're nice for all in dark, old wave out West Broward. And, I hook up with this probably 70 close to 70 pound tarpon

Tom Rowland: Wow.

David Cohen: In the canal. And the can and he goes, this is one of the coolest stories that one of my best it's you know, it's on the the top 10. And I'm using a one odd hook, not even a one o, one odd little bass hook. And it it it hooks j hook, and it hooks him right in the button. And he jumps, and then there's two sets of, bridges, that comes across, the canal, and the fish jumps. And it was my fish my friend say, hey. My friend has it on GoPro. It's on my Instagram now, but it goes through the inside of the it doesn't go in the middle. There's a middle it takes the inside route, and I could barely fit under the bridge, but I took my flip flops off. And I ran all the way across to the and he I coaxed him, and he just went that inside pass, came to the other side. There's trees hanging out. It's alligator infested waters, which I knew that. There are monsters in there. And I whatever. I was in waist high swamp water and came around the, you know, all these trees that were hung up, and I'm bear I'm got it. And I made it, like, a mile down the canal, and, but I managed to get to to land the fish. And I got a buddy my I had a another tournament guy actually actually saw me. My friend's calling everybody to come on over, and it was, like, an hour plus later. And, and my friend grabbed it on and took the he's like, this is your hook. He looks at this little hook. And, but I got it because of the 20 I wouldn't have a bass tackle with 20 pound braid back, you know, back in the days. I wouldn't be able to use that little rod in real. Right. I'd have the big 8,500. So that was you know? But, yeah, it's definitely it's changed the game. And, yeah, that's I just those moments, you know, there's nothing that nothing that comes close to that in in in, you know, outside of family and and love and and all that stuff. But as far as, like, pure just enjoyment of something to do, for me, that exhilaration that stays with you a day or two after something that, you know, any big fishes, you know, that you catch, it's just it's like this I don't know. I don't I guess they say some just have it in them and not like maybe someone would just brush it off, but, you know, that's why we catch them because our focus is, you know, 10 times more, and we just can't we we couldn't fathom because we've all done it losing those fish

Tom Rowland: Right.

David Cohen: And fighting them for a long time. And so you just kinda I think all the senses just slow down, you know, rather than, you know. So, no. It's a it's a beautiful sport we have. That's that's I'm glad I'm so glad now I could take it over for for other people to enjoy like I did.

Going Full Time: What's on the Horizon

Tom Rowland: That's cool. So what's on the horizon for you?

David Cohen: Hopefully, going full time. You know, going two hundred plus days a year is is my goal and to get out of the training. I love training, and, it might always stay with me. But at this point in my life, I think I'm ready to grind it out for the I just did my I was you know, I, say this to my my coworkers and my clients. You're gonna hear me now. But, like, I had a client yesterday, and I and now it's the point where I have to, you know and I will, and I tell them I gotta take off the day. You know? Somebody's coming, and I'm transitioning to taking off that day to go on the trip. So I'm have which thank god I have that flexible schedule with being I have these clients that went from corporate, now I'm in a studio setting, to where I could just tell them they want the best for me. They want me to be happy, and then they'll work with my schedule. So now that's what I'm doing a lot is just taking off even if it's spur of the moment and going there. But I'd like to get to the point where, you know, I'm just, you know, just going full going hard and just makes you have much better angler. If you're on the water only twice a week or every other you eat and just a couple of times are fun. But if you're out there every day, I can't I mean, you know, you just you know, you know, where the Bates at, where everything is. It makes that's why I always say it makes it a lot harder for me a lot of times is because I'm not out there every single day. So I have to oh, they were here five days ago or six days ago. Things change

Tom Rowland: Right.

David Cohen: All the time. I I have a been there my whole life, so I have a lot of areas to go to. But I don't like cert you don't wanna cert. You wanna just be on them immediately. I don't wanna go where they were two two weeks ago, and then I oh, I gotta, you know, check this spot out. So but, yeah. And that's my goal is to do that. And, you know, you said some kind words to me when I met you the first time in Lunker Con

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

David Cohen: Months back. You said, you know, go if you want the boat, you know, get the sponsor or the, you know, the TV show, anything. You know? You you know, get after it means a lot. That's what I ultimately would love to just just go as high as fishing platform will take me because it's never were. It's definitely I love training. I love it to death. But I truly I was battered yesterday. I wake up for training this morning. I don't care. I'm, like, I'm always on a high. It's like, it don't matter. Even when I'm even when I'm doing it, the clients don't even want it as much. I'm, like, rerigging lines, switching over this 30 pound to 40 pound to 50 what do they want? And just constantly I just I try not to talk too much. I'm just trying to make it happen, and that's, you know, and it's it's a beaut it's I'm I'm glad I'm blessed with this beautiful sickness or whatever you wanna call it because it's definitely, you know, it's a it's a great and it's a beautiful thing. So yeah. No. Hopefully, I, I'm around for a long time and making an impact and just make my mark kinda in the industry. And

How to Book a Trip With Capt. David Cohen

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, you're you're you're on your way. I know. It's for sure. Thank you. So how does somebody get a hold of you?

David Cohen: They call me on my phone number at (954) 684-4677 or, go on to my Instagram at captain, c a p t, David Cohen, d a v i d c o h e n, and, DM me. And, and I'll cater to whatever time you wanna go.

Night Fishing and Year-Round Miami Tarpon

Tom Rowland: So do you, do you fish at night like Jeff Maggio all the time?

David Cohen: Yeah. I'd Like a vampire? Yeah. I do it both. I do. I'll do the I'll do the, you know say, I don't fish, like, from I don't do, like, the eleven to four or 5AM usually, but I'll fish, you know, 07:00, six, 07:00 till one, you know, 1AM. And as long as, you know, fish are always at least where I go, they're they're always there, whether it be, you know, just where they are. You know, if it's a some areas, they're very tide driven. Some areas, they're recreational fish that or or residential fish that are in back little waters, and tide doesn't really affect them. I think they hang out there all year, and they're just they're just always there. And, so it's just a matter of what you wanna do first and, you know, what you wanna target. Obviously, they're just bigger fish certain times a year than others, but we're blessed in Miami that they're year round. You could get tarp. And every single day, I look back there's there's tarpon to be caught, which is I don't know how many places in the world that have that, you know, where you go at any given day and pretty much have a really good shot at at least hooking up with a tarpon. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: I mean, that's what I've I've I've never really fished Miami as much as as as I should have. But after talking with Russell Cleppinger, after talking with Jeff Maggio and yourself, like, learning, like, more about the what I would consider off season tarpon. Like, you're you're saying every day of the year.

David Cohen: Every day.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. That's pretty awesome.

David Cohen: Yeah. I always I always I thank god for the my phone. You know, you go back. I just look at my phone. I don't even have to check my Instagram post, but I just checked my phone for the last four or five years. And I could see the dates. Like, especially when I first saw it, like, every single time of the year, a couple times of the each week, you get tarpon or snuck. It's that, like and it just it's you've got the October, the fall that just passed. We're getting into the shrimp run, which is gonna be phenomenal. And from, you know, now until February really kicks off, and then the spring run comes in March and April and May and June and July just to get you know, if in June and by July and August and September, I consider that a little smaller. There are big fish around, but it's a little smaller. And starting to be from fall until all these winter tarpon, they happen to be really big tarpon. They're historically, they're all triple digit, you know, most of the time. So, yeah, it's just a matter of matching the hatch, fishing shrimp this time of year from the mullet are still around here for I'd used them yesterday. They're still around. But, guys, remember that the on the shrimp run, when there's not much if you get a couple mullet and you're shrimp fishing, they'll eat the dead bait on the bottom because the there's the it's cold, and it's just it's chill on there. So but, yeah, there's a it's a beautiful and we have we have big snook, not just the tarpon. We have big snook. You know? This whole time, the big spine, there's some people say you have to go to Jupiter and North Florida, and I catch 40 plus inchers, you know, more. I think we caught, you know, couple months back, four over 40. So we caught, you know, four you know, 40 me and my 42, 43. You know, there's there's lungers there.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Right on, man. Right on. Well, we'll have to get out on the water. I wanted to do it on this trip. I got held up in Sarasota. I was picking up a new boat and, talking to those guys over there, Heath, about the skiff challenge, and, didn't get over here in enough time. But next time, we'll go. I'm gonna go to the Special Lake.

David Cohen: Yeah. No. You will. You will. I'll take you right there.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Alright. I wanna go to the 35 foot ledge, and I'll sit there as long as necessary.

David Cohen: I love it.

Tom Rowland: Alright, David. Well, thanks for doing this, man. I appreciate it. If you guys are looking for somebody to fish with in Miami, David, man, sounds like awesome. I can promise you you're gonna have a good time, man. You're smiley.

David Cohen: No. I

Tom Rowland: love that. You like to have a good time.

David Cohen: I do. I do. And I enjoy it out there way more than just I love talking about it just as much as fishing, but when I'm out there, I I love it.

Tom Rowland: Alright.

David Cohen: So

Tom Rowland: Alright. Well, look him up. Alright. See you.