distance

[Ohana]

Originally Posted by umtduckhead

how far to the dorado come in? ive grown up fishing in charleston for sails woos dorado marlin etc but heck you had to run out 40 miles at the closest to even have a shot at them... so being here now im feeling kinda spoiled to have a new target species and much closer grounds.. 9miles aight shheeeeeet... as far as being a newbie all beta much appreciated.... id really like to see if we can get this tuna thing going sounds like a blast..

dgax65... are the MLPA closures still in debate or are they a go? sorry to be a FNG..

I think if you want something strong to pull on, besides the aforementioned seabass and yellowtail, thresher's are much closer to shore then YFT and dorados and during certain times of the year much easier to find and hook. Due to the nature of the currents off our coast the layer of warm water in late summer/fall is relatively shallow and the result is the Dorado and YFT are sporadic visitors; sometimes they only show up for one week and when they do they have lockjaw not biting anything. Then you get an offshore wind, the water temp drops due to upwelling, and the YFT/dorado disappear.

Having fished for YFT and dorado's out of Dana Point on my boat, I would definitely be very cautious about going for them on a kayak off our coast. For one, you need to cover a lot of water to find them; not all kelp paddies have the dorado and you can spend a whole day looking for kelp paddies which from a kayak are very hard to see. In the case of YFT, you spend a lot of time chasing the dolphins (mammal) and getting in the right spot to bait the tuna. When this is happening, there are a lot of other power-boaters out there doing the same, so is does get crowded and for a kayaker, dangerous. The size of the YFT are not in the 200 lb range; more in the 15 to 30 lb range.

The other problem is you can be 5 - 6 miles offshore and the fog rolls in around you. Then just getting back to shore may be the primary concern.

I am not saying it cannot be done, but off the Southern California coast you are not likely to find a 200 lb tuna, the season is unpredictable, you need to pay attention to the SST charts, plan to paddle out at least 5 miles from shore before you start looking, and you will more often then not need to cover a lot of water over a lot of days just to get the chance to hook either fish.

Kevin