La Jolla 3-13-17
 

I have been spending time on the water, but had not had such a long dry spell. I know it's been tough at times even for bait, let alone a trophy fish. Lately the action has been picking up and I know, not everyone has been posting, and you all have your reasons. Today was tough out there because the heavy fog made it really hard to see at times more than 100'. Had to constantly look at the GPS to know what direction you were going or to know were you were. Found the bait area and the areas I had been fishing the last few times. Drifted and trolled some large greenbacks. No luck even when drifting over areas with unreal marks. Saw several patterns that looked like wolf packs or even around bait with Yellow Tail marks around the perimeter, but no love. Chased some birds and even bait being crashed on the surface by large fish. The amount of water displaced and speed told me they were Yellows. Each time I though I got there in time and started trowing a Shimano flat fall, each time it seem to stop just as I got there. Finally throwing the flat fall on some bait marks and I hit pay dirt. Had already lost 4 large macs to the fur bags and I see one coming towards me when I'm fighting the fish. I put the reel in free spool and thumb on the spool, so the Yellow can run if it gets close. After not having any runs I start re-gaining line and trying to bring it in as fast as I could I had to even use low gear just to gain line because he was pulling hard. Finally got it to the yak and gaffed it right behind the gill plate. I felt sooooo.. sweeeeet to finally get one on board after so many months. Back at the truck it weighed 31.2 LBS. This baby is going to be donated to Heroes On The Water for the fish taco lunches for the Vets during the HOW events. Hope there are more guys out there, that can spare some to help out HOW.

Nice fish! Congrats. That's the most symmetrical yellow we've ever seen come out of LJ. We usually see skinny and long or one with big shoulders. Your's is one well balanced yellowtail.

Thanks for the post and even nicer of you to donate the catch.. Yes the yellows are here for sure thanks for breaking the ice and being the first one to post catch this spring! Hopefully some of that luck comes this way!!

Good for you....
 

I was out there to for only a big mix of mac's and a long paddle back with just a compass....when I come back I'll have my hook 5 hooked up...beware of current and fog...lol

Congrats
 

Nice Fish! Congrats, and thanks for the report.

Toad! Congrats!!! :cheers1:

That is one fat fish, Looks like an Australian KINGY!

Nice fish! That last picture really shows the size of the fish... Going to a great cause to! Cheers

NICE!!
 

Right on man, great catch!! Good feeling when the persistence pays off.
:cheers1:

Nice report and :yt:

Did you get any photos of your meter marks?

Amen to that. Being that I've never even targeted YT, I'd love to see how they appear on a graph....

Great catch!

That awesome mark, and so much more rewarding on a jig. Save the whales, screw the seals

Way to go Mark! :luxhello:

Yeah, but it was after fighting it for a while so he had towed me south and into shallower water. I saw the marks on the screen when it was under and wanted to record what it looked like. I have recently learned after seeing sea lions try to hide under the kayak that the marks on the screen for a large fish are much bigger than what I was thinking are often large yellows. I saw the screen but did not take any pictures when it was up around 60 feet deep and the marks were about the same size.

Nice!:luxhello:

Looks like you're using 200 kHz if Im not mistaken. Its much harder to mark the big fish on 200 as opposed to 83 or 50 kHz, but you get way better resolution on the bait.

You have your sensitivity set well, I can tell from how hard the bottom is marking. I've been seeing those clouds a lot. In your second pic, you can see the bait walling.

When the fish swam through that bait, did it look like this? :D
Notice how much better the fish show on 83kHz (left).

http://i.imgur.com/t9b00TJl.png

Also, if you hold the left arrow key, I believe the display will track back through your sonar history. So if you miss a mark, you can scroll back and snap a pic after you catch the fish:cheers1:

Yeah it was set to 200kHz because I was spending a lot of time under 100 feet. When the fish are swimming though the bait it is easy to see because of the density they are more in yellow like the harder bottom. I learned a lot about cranking up the sensitivity from a past post you had showing great screen shots. The strange thing is I usually don't fish much that shallow except to get bait.

Thanks for this post Chris. these are great tutorials for me personally.

Congrats on the fish, FISH! motivating for sure and GOOD of you to think of others on the donation!

Chunkie!
 

Nice Fish Mark and cheers for donating it to HOW. Congrats!

Chris,

Thanks for sharing more knowledge of FF settings. I know its much appreciated by all.:notworthy:

Green and Black kayak?
 

I believe this is you out there the past couple weekends I have been out? You always seem to sit side ways in your yak. Is that you, if so I'll have to say what's up next time.