First YT

[Caseym]

Short version:
Went to La Jolla, Flylined a Mac, caught a YT
Enriched Version:
Up at 0330, left Temecula at 0400
On The water at 0530, already could see the boats starting to congregate. Made some Bait, put em in my 5gal. Bucket from Lowes. I use a manual bailing pump to pump fresh water in and out every so often...because Im cheap.
Made my way out to the "fleet"...I counted 84 boats at one pt.
At 0830 line starts peeling off my flylined bait. We were out past the Northwest Corner near all the bull kelp in about 120' of water. Fish goes straight for the kelp just like everyone on here has been describing (I read alot). Im using 40lb. Mono and 40lb. Fluoro....the braided line was on my other two reels (genious!).
I start fighting him and then it begins to happen, my reelseat comes loose and my whole reel starts rotating around the pole! Its a Shakespeare from WalMart (remember the cheap theme). So there I am finally hooked up and Everytime I go to reel down my Penn just spins. So I begin lifting the rod, then holding the reel in place with my left hand as I wind downward horribly. Somehow I get him outta the kelp and stick him with my homemade gaff (cut-off broomstick with mountain bike handgrip on one end and a big shark hook epoxied into place on the business end....cheap). First One off the plastic boat is in my lap and Im pumped!!
Additonal Info:
Surface Irons were catching fish left and right out there as well as flylining.
Picked up a Barracuda while trolling a surface iron.
The current was ripping southward...I learned sething today, If the current is ripping one direction and youre trying to go back up-hill, you cant slow troll a Mac very well because he is basically going your speed plus the current and ends up nose out of the water dragging along...not very presentable.
Alot of fun today, looking forward to dinner!!!

[Caseym]

On the beach

[Caseym]

Rough water today.

[makobob]

BEACHIN.

[mpc]

Congrats! Good for you. I was there, but no YT for me. I saw another kayak angler on the beach with a nice yellow tail. I caught a couple calico bass and a barracuda.
It took me about 90 minutes to get 5 or so greenbacks.

Small surf, but I still managed to dump the kayak when I came in. No gear lost as it was all secured. All in all a pretty fun day on the water.

[bigbarrels]

Congrats!!

[FISH11]

Congrats. If your doing thing on the CHEAP, what are you doing pedaling a Hobie Outback. You had some luck today getting that fish out of the kelp, but you should load all your reels with 65lbs braid.

[King Saba]

Badass!

[svendawg]

Way to go, thank, for the report

[Monafish]

Awesome job making due with what you got!

[JayB619]

Nice catch and congrats on your first yt! Like the enriched version better lol

[captnblood34]

Originally Posted by Caseym

I start fighting him and then it begins to happen, my reelseat comes loose and my whole reel starts rotating around the pole!

Happened to a buddy of mine the other day too. Good job.

J

[Caseym]

Originally Posted by FISH11

Congrats. If your doing thing on the CHEAP, what are you doing pedaling a Hobie Outback. You had some luck today getting that fish out of the kelp, but you should load all your reels with 65lbs braid.

Used, smoking deal w/FF....otherwise I'd probably have built one out of melted Tide bottles!
As far as braid goes, ya you're right. Big time Lucky!! I'll take it!

[FISH11]

Tide bottles, that's good. Thanks for sharing. You did really good considering the PB zoo out there when the bite is on. They almost run you over or at least your flyline.

[Gr8fuldude]

Whoa! Congratulations on the first YT on the kayak! Absolutely awesome. Your fish story is helping me overcome some of my own battles with cheapskatedness