8/31 - La Jolla yak tail

[fishnut]

Would have posted this last night, but was too darn tired.

Launched at 5:00am in the dark with the rest of the crew. Decided to skip the pier and went straight to the cans. Made bait easily with the squid tipped sabiki. Good mix of candy bar spanish and porn star greenies. Chose the largest two greenbacks and flylined one, the other with a 1 oz egg. Trolled over to the zone, bait jumping, area looking more and more fishy. Birds working.

7:00 the low rig goes Zzzzzzzzzz!! Patience, patience, swing, and it's on! Fish is pissed off and peeling line. Get towed around, fought the fish back and forth for about 10 minutes but felt like 30. Saw fish at color and got wood. Ok don't screw up the gaff job... YT on board!! Stoked.


Just as my friend Theo was photo beeyotching for me, the flyline rig goes off...after waiting a good 10 count, attempt to set hook, line goes slack. Dammit. Oh, no, he's on again! Set hook good this time, and the fish did not like it. Apparently hooked into a bulldozer, as this thing was towing me around at a pretty good clip. I would try to put the hurt on the fish and gain a few pumps, only to irritate the beast and have him set off on another drag smoking run. Left arm starting to hurt after about 30-40 minutes solid. Was pinned to rail numerous times. Here's a blurry bendo pic.


The brute ended up wrapping me in some kelp and then breaking me off. Never got close to color, so not sure of the species. At first I though BIG yellowtail, but no head shakes. Still could have been a YT, or maybe a Black...guess I'll never know.

Sierra Nevada time. Then rebaited and started trolling again. Ten minutes later I hear the sweet sound of the clicker going off. Made quicker work of the rat. Still a couple good runs for a runt.


Trolled some more and another big greenback gets smashed. Pull in a nice checkerboard. Cannot believe these bass eat such large baits.


Another pic of the calico alongside the yellows for reference:


Last shot of the calico before release:


A shot of the YT in the footwell. Gutted the fish and tried to keep him cool by putting frozen water bottles in there


My friend Theo with his YT:


Decided to head back in after a bit. Discovered for the first time the true meaning of the "super mega happy paddle" as I couldn't seem to take my eyes off the pig in the trough. First time actually catching and taking home YT from the yak (for those of you who remember the dang sea lion flipped me and stole my first one a couple months back, and I have gone back 4 or 5 times since then, only to see everyone else hooking up.

I needed this trip! Good eating this weekend for sure.

Tight lines