Blacks Yellowtail
 

I'm speechless. Today was a great day. Everything went right.

Headed out around 8:30am on my first trip from Shores since Spring to chase some Halibut with the big gear. Sunny beautiful day out.. The plan was to head over to Blacks and cover some sand trolling mackerel. At the pier I got a few greenies and a sardine into the baittank.

Headed north, "around the buoys" area. I could see the parking lot at Blacks nearby, the water depth goes from 15 to 70 pretty quick, so I was goofing around with my rigs to keep them near the bottom. Caught a couple leopard sharks up to probably 4 feet long. Good warm up. Couple hours of circling and waiting, shark, shark, shark.

Suddenly about 20' of water, the TLD30 goes screaming full speed .... an insane rate of clicker speed. I clear my other line by reeling like a madman with the hooked up rod under my leg (?!) I hate that part!

By the time I started winding the fish (80#spectra, 30#fluoro leader, 3way swivel, 8 oz, with a circle hook), the fish was probably 100+ yards away, and angling around a lobster buoy. I remember thinking Bat Ray?, Black Seabass?, and maybe leopard??? but, they don't swim that fast.

After 10 minutes of battle, we were in deeper water, fish started sulking straight down, and I HAD TO SHIFT THE REEL INTO LOW GEAR! When I saw deep color, I knew it wasn't a BSB or mud marlin. Few more cranks, saw the huge silvery belly and the YELLOW TAIL! Yep the real deal!! I frantically grabbed the gaff and got a good shot right into the gills/belly.

I stabilized the ol' Scupper Pro, and held on tight through the furious bucking and shaking that followed. By the time I had a rope thru the gills, I had to start paddling, as a set wave almost broke on me. Looked at the meter ... 12 feet deep !!!!

Here she is, 53", 50.65 lbs on the La Jolla El Pescador Fish Market scale after being bled, and on the deck for an hour plus ....








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Larry
www.LarryL.com

HOLY SHIT :shock:

NICE FISH LARRY!!!

I always figured that the 50# barrier would be broken sometime at LJ, but never at blacks and never in 30# feet of water.

Nice fish,

corey

WOW!!!

:shock:

Hilarious!!!

Big time congrats!

Re: Blacks Yellowtail
 

me too. That is the best catch I've seen on this board. hands down.

Larry, nice fish, great to see a yellow that big being brought in!!!! So tell me again.....why were you using tuna gear fishing for halibut? Awsome!!

Awesome!

Seeu1 thanks for taking the on the water pix. The Tuna gear went out there in order to fish heavier weights, 16 oz plus. Look [below] at the shiny fresh gear in Brad's rodholders for the 48# halibut. Puts my PUUUUNY TLD's to shame..... you noticed he mentioned that that beast didn't really fight much, LOL!! If I'd hooked this YT beast on my Calcutta and 15 lb "halibut" gear, there wouldn't be a story. :)

btw, there was 1 very fresh smelt in her stomach, that was it.


VVVV NICE FISH BRAD!!! Thanks for the motivation! VVVV


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my dream fish!!!!!!!!
congrats Larry!!

banker's hours, TLD30II, bounce balling......

i'm doing it ALL wrong!
back to the drawing board for me!!
i'm fishing tomorrow with my new Avet 50 SDS and 200# hollow spectra
:shock:

I launched a little before 2:00 PM for an afternoon shot at fishing and an evening of buggin’.

Just past the surf zone I ran into Larry, and man I couldn’t believe my eyes!!

Congratulations Larry!!

That is one huge yellowtail. :shock:

I was amazed by the size of the motor (tail, as Andy would say) on that beast.

Great play by play too!

Ken

PS Hey Nelz, ya need a wake up call, umm prolly not.

Nice YT.
Thats the 2nd 50# yt caught this year. This year maybe slow, but it has sure yielded some toads.
Again nice YT
AC

Insane fish Larry! That slug is built like a fricken tank!

Killer pics!

Larry,
that is what I'm talking about! That s an awesome fish. How did you contain yourself. Great play by play and pics as well. What a fish!

Now I'm thinknig of making the drive down there a few more times

good luck the rest of the sesason

gabe

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So friggin insane!!! You guys have one helluva backyard to play in down there! Congrats on the monster catch!!

What the!!!!!!!!!! Damn, nice fish Larry. That's a monsta yellow :shock: ...

Holy crappola. Did somebody dump some steroids in the water. This is crazy. Nice freakin yeller!

P.S. If you got the big gear, might as well use it. :lol:

DAMN! That is EEEEnormous, Larry ... and great pics - looks like you were straining to hold it on your beach pics.

Very very very nice.
Arne

Yeah Larry!
Your fish is massive!

For Fish of the Year...
Larry YT or Brad Hali

The choices are getting tough. Love it though!
Keep fishing.

Kudos
 

Congratulations, Larry on an outstanding catch!
The 1st photo had us perplexed. We thought it was a joke, but it looks like the yellowtail definitely out-weighed the baby girl (though not as cute). Both fine specimens!
Nice story, too! Gotta believe fate was on your side, a little. If you hooked that brute near the NW corner, you would have to deal with lots of traps and lots of kelp to boot. He surely would have made your work (fun?) more difficult there.
That kind of surprise keeps all of us going. YEAH!

Congrats, congrats, congrats!!! What a trophy fish! I'm very happy for you, enjoy the sashimi and the steaks. What an awesome catch. I wish our fishery was that good. You guys down south are blessed! Peace out, Lou Dog

Since we have all had the day where nothing went right, glad to see your perfect day happened at the same time as the fish of a lifetime was swimming your direction...EPIC catch! Congrats!