FISHING IS FUN.......

[THE DARKHORSE]

Fishing is fun, but pales in comparison to catching.



Staying on top of the Yellowtail pattern is easy fishing five days a week, but once a week is a different story. It pays to keep your eyes and ears open to maximize your time on the water. Monday afternoon my plan was to hit south La Jolla around Marine street, but I never made it that far. There was a solid 12mph wind with a tight interval swell, but beautiful warm water kept my interest. It was a good thirty minutes of peddling (that's 45 minutes of paddling for those of you ), before I dropped my first bait. It took all of two minutes before my lively greenback fulfilled his destiny. The fish did a straight run from deep water towards the kelp. I put a few more pounds of drag on and began to pop through deep kelp stringers. A couple minutes of grunting, and I have a Hamachi salad with blood orange vinaigrette on deck. The spectra did it's job, but my flouro leader was shot. While peddling back to the spot in deeper water I tied on another leader. I put another lively greenback on and let him run for his life. I kept my rod in hand and felt my terrified bait become more and more nervous, then a solid thump, and line is ripping through my fingers. I kept the heavy drag on this fish and released a healthy stoked Yellowtail in short order (same size fish). I peddled back to the spot in deeper water and sent my third bait out. I had to wait for almost a minute before I was slammed again. This fish nailed the bait so hard that he knocked it off the hook. Oh well, that's fishing. Another lonely summer afternoon on the pond, with two kayak anglers that showed up after the party, and one boat in the distance. The Yellowtail should be stoked that I can't fish till next week, but maybe someone can take my spot. Good luck!