Yellowtail Release

[dos ballenas]

Originally Posted by taggermike

Great video and well done with the release.
A few asked about handling and lipping YT. Basically YT have no teeth. They have a sand paper feeling similar to large mouth bass. They do have strong jaws but can't hurt you. Their gill plates aren't sharp either.
Like all jacks they have 2 small, but sharp, spines tight in front of their anal fin.

YT are easy fish to release and have an extremely high survival rate.

I wouldn't go so far as to say their mouths can't hurt you. I have a nice scar to prove it! A big "green" yellow can lock down on your thumb... and if it decides to spin when locked on it's like 60 grit sandpaper and will leave you a nice red bare patch on your thumb. That said a played out (fought for over 5 minutes) and tired yellowtail will probably just sit there trying to breath. Best to leave the fish in the water and not try to grab it. Just take your pliers and remove the hook as it sits there... this is easy to do from a kayak.

Yes they are easy to release. Just make sure there are no dogs around when you release them or they won't last long!

I stopped giving fish to my neighbors years ago.... I used to give people fresh caught fish. That was until I learned that 90% of those people just threw the fish in their freezers and would forget about it until it was freezer burned and then toss it out.... lame!