Squiddily Yellows

[chris138]

Hey Gang,

Wanted to share some of the footage from the recent flurry of yellowtail we had in La Jolla. As people found out pretty quick, there was a squid nest up inside the hump in about 70-90' of water. Fish were on the bottom which meant dropperloops and carolina rigs were the go to setups. When you get into these bites, it might seem like the skiffs are practically anchored on top of each other. There is very little room on the sea floor between the anchorlines and people's spread. You don't want to be that guy who causes a huge fustercluck when the fish swim through. Here's a couple tips to help you increase your success ratio on the bed.

Fish heavy line. When the yellows roll through 30 fish deep, they are not line shy. I have been fishing straight 50# mono. That way when you get bit, you can button the drag down to full and horse the fish as hard as you can. You have to stay right on top of the fish to keep it out of anchorlines and dropper spreads. Also fishing straight mono makes it easy to retie if your fish goes into the rocks, or gets all twisted up.

Don't be the guy who is flylining a greenback through the middle of the squid bite. Its fine to fish the flyline, but stay outside the fleet or around the perimeter. First off, the fish are biting on the bottom so your mack will be ignored. Second, if you do get bit, your fish is going to dive straight to the bottom in whichever way it wants. This will very likely result in a total disaster with nearby anchors.

Give the skiffs enough space. Carefully observe the drift line you are taking before you go through a crowded bed. Probably that skiff has been anchored in that same spot all night, so you sliding in too close at greylight will never be met with "aloha". Give enough room and don't drift right through their spread, and you will be tolerated. You might even get a piece of bait or two if you are cool to them.

Cant wait to see that big bluefin bring it on guys!

[Iceman]

Now that is what I call "Ropin' Em"

Feel all the power and every tail beat.

[onetriphudson]

Awesome Chris. You are a fish catching machine.

[jorluivil]

Buena Vista Social Club.......I love that song and that album


P.s.

Nice fish

[YakHanded]

That is some good catching

[the dude]

legit.

[tunaseeker]

Awesome!

[tamddo714]

awesome video and great tips. i see youre running a raymarine dragonfly. what settings are you running for your sonar? is everything on auto? thanks again

[chris138]

Originally Posted by tamddo714

awesome video and great tips. i see youre running a raymarine dragonfly. what settings are you running for your sonar? is everything on auto? thanks again

Auto sensitivity, but manual depth range and noise filter. I like the Dragonfly for clarity and target definition, but it also has issues. The SD card readers just suck. I will say that Raymarine customer service is top notch, they replaced my last unit out of warranty when the card reader died. The coolest feature I thought was the "screen shot" option which got me all those bitchin shots at the end of the video. But once the SD reader dies, no more screen shots.

[h2ofishfo]

I still go braid I had some big homegaurds take weird horizontal runs right in the kelp next to the beds but either way good info

[radastaff]

Originally Posted by chris138

Auto sensitivity, but manual depth range and noise filter. I like the Dragonfly for clarity and target definition, but it also has issues. The SD card readers just suck. I will say that Raymarine customer service is top notch, they replaced my last unit out of warranty when the card reader died. The coolest feature I thought was the "screen shot" option which got me all those bitchin shots at the end of the video. But once the SD reader dies, no more screen shots.

my first ended up with corroded sd, df6
replaced under westmarine with df5 pro

df5pro has a more water tight sd card bay

both had issues holding bottom in auto mode
also forced to use manual depth setting because of this

hate the downgrade in size

figured any replacement would also not work properly in auto mode

P

[chris138]

Originally Posted by jorluivil

Buena Vista Social Club.......I love that song and that album


P.s.

Nice fish

Who's down for a kayak fishing trip to CUBA?!?!

[summers in kuwait]

Great video & report Chris!

See you offshore.

[MITCHELL]

Like your fish finder really show the squid and yellowtail

[Sully1]

Nice Vid!

[iethinker]

Thanks for the report and the advice.

[kayakfisherman]

Wow Chris, great footage!!! Great report. This will help a lot of
newbies out there.

[Silbaugh4liberty]

Awesome video! Great report and info too!!

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[LEEZO]

nice haul! keep em comin.

[Geno Machino]

Sweet!!!