Finally!!!

[Big Wave Dave]

I finally have a story to tell. I've been hooking into some large fish with poor results for some time now. The hook has been pulling out. Haven't been breaking lines. I sometimes wonder if braid and flouro doesn't have enough give to it. Ran into a new friend at the launch. He got to see me earn my name as a wave crashed over me on takeoff. We got out and sloooowly made bait. All I was getting were spanish macs and smelt. Then some sardines showed up.
I dragged some sardines around for awhile and got discouraged. Told my new friend I'd see him later and headed for deeper water. In about 90 feet of water, something hit a trolled sardine and took me for a ride. I fought it for around 40 minutes and couldn't get it closer than 38 ft from the yak according to the fishfider, at which time it would head straight back to the bottom. I was taking my time, did have the drag really tight and keeping a lot of pressure on the fish. I thought the dry spell was over. Not! The hook came unbuttoned. What a terrible feeling.
I then continued to deeper water with more trolled sardines and decided to drift back to shore and call it a day. Caught an 18.5 in calico on the troll and released it. After a sea lion robbed me of my last dine I went to play around in the kelp for awhile. I tied off to a stringer and was tossing some plastics. After about half an hour the water erupted around me with about 20 crashing fish and birds diving everywhere. I thought it was a school of barries. I tied on a jig and tossed it out. They weren't barries. I got a nice yellowtail 39 inch fork length. Funny thing, it was on my plastics rod which was spooled with mono, no braid or fluoro. Hmmm...9333
9334

[JeffB]

Way to go! Good looking fish!

[makobob]

Awesome tail, heard about a few today.

[finyak]

Congrats on your Yellowtail!! Braid has no stretch to it and often times people will pull the hook right out. A bigger hook, back off on your drags and use a rod with a softer tip will help. Last year I used braid for the first time on a sport boat and I could not believe how you can really feel your fish, so much so that I was scared to pull on it. I just took my time and landed 1 yellowtail and 3 Bluefin. Hope this helps.

[Cbad Mike]

Nice fish. Congratulations. :cheers1:

[MrPatrick]

Way to go Dave!
I'll get one someday too.

[lamb]

Nice! :cheers1:

Sorry about the one that got away

[blackcloud9]

Beautiful. Saturday evening they were out side the kelpline under a big area
of circling terns but refused to bite, glad you got one to eat!

[Deamon]

Big Fish Dave...Congrats! Way to keep working at it. Jim

[vincentek9]

so YOU'RE the guy with the green kayak that the people on shore were talking about! way to go!!!

[easyday]

Nice gonna start chasing them soon as soon as I get the halibut monster off my back.

[bigbarrels]

Nice one!!! Great way to nab one :)

[LDO10]

Excellent!!!:notworthy:

[GregAndrew]

Persistence pays off. Wtg.

[scotty1369]

cool story man!

[baerclaws]

Congrats BWD, good to see your efforts paid off.
No wonder you haven't responded to my PM, you've been too busy.
The rest of my morning wasn't so eventful.
Your New Friend, Ed

[Big Wave Dave]

Sorry Ed,

I did reply to your PM but I must have messed something up. It doesn't show up in sent messages and your original PM is gone too.

Dave

[Big Wave Dave]

I made seared yellowtail out of the choice parts, smoked the rest, and also made some smoked yellowtail dip. Here's a picture of the seared stuff with wasabi butter and some avacodo dip.

[rieffer]

Nice going! you're the man!

[StinkyMatt]

Damn, I just drooled all over my keyboard.

:cheers1:

[Fishing Jedi]

Congrats!!! Still hunting for my first one! And the food looks delicious! Save me a plate.

[echo1er]

that's awesome.

[Hondatom]

That is a perfect use of a renewable resource. Good for you Dave!:cheers1:

[taggermike]

Well done and a nice fish. Gotta love the iron. Spectra with the
Short top shot takes a bit of time to get used to. Like others said
A softer rod and lighter drag can help absorb shock. On the other hand
Using a bigger hook and trying to pull their faces off has its advantages.
You mentioned that you were on the fish for an hour. Every second you're
Hooked up the hook is wearing a bigger hole in the fish's mouth, line is
Stressing, dogs are watching, you mite be getting tire. Its a ballance between
Caution and agression. Mike

[Big Wave Dave]

Thanks Mike, I guess I need to keep workin at it and I'll find that balance. I was too wiped out at the end of that fight to really horse that fish up though. I guess he beat me.

["jjcawjj"]

:drool5::drool5::drool5::drool5::drool5::drool5::d rool5::drool5::drool5:

[steveooo]

Man that looks good :cheers1:

[tptrench]

That plate got my mouth dribbling! Congrats on a beauty!

[Hondatom]

Well done and a nice fish. Gotta love the iron. Spectra with the
Short top shot takes a bit of time to get used to. Like others said
A softer rod and lighter drag can help absorb shock. On the other hand
Using a bigger hook and trying to pull their faces off has its advantages.
You mentioned that you were on the fish for an hour. Every second you're
Hooked up the hook is wearing a bigger hole in the fish's mouth, line is
Stressing, dogs are watching, you mite be getting tire. Its a ballance between
Caution and agression. Mike

It is information like this that new guys "like me" don't really think about until it is taught by the more experienced anglers. I have fished for years on the cattle boats and some 2 and 3 day boats down into Mexico, but I have always been rigged heavy so I pretty much just drag the pig up. The information I am getting from this site is PRICELESS!
That pic of the Hamachi has got me hungry!:drool5: