Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge  

Go Back   Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge > Kayak Fishing Forum - Message Board > Kayak Fishing Reports
Home Forum Online Store Information LJ Webcam Gallery Register FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-16-2021, 05:39 PM   #1
Gflann
Member
 
Gflann's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: San Diego
Posts: 59
LJ 4/16 Dawn Patrol in Search of a Home Guard

Paddled out at gray light. Water temp around 63 degrees. Showed choppy on SwellInfo and it was a bit. Not much of a swell so it was bearable.

I apologize in advance for a long write up. I’m interested in some more experiences guys take on what went on.

Made about six greenbacks right off point la jolla in about 60’ of water. What caught my eye was the last greenback I pulled up. He was a feisty bugger and about 14”.

I knew he was the chosen one. Put him on a fly line and headed out to NW corner. He was so feisty that I stopped seriously trolling and just went to a few pumps on the pedals and a short drift off and on. I figured I’d let him dance and do his magic.

I had him on a trolling level wind reel (Picsifun Salis 3000x) instead of my normal Jigmaster because I knew with Picsifun he wouldnt be pulling the clicker unless something really was about to go down.

At the corner still letting him do his thing swimming around and then came two short spurts on the clicker. Put it in free spool just as something partially breached the surface and ambushed him from below. Didnt see the mark. 3 potato count in free spool and then I put it in gear and off we went.

Went straight down and almost made my first mistake by not being more aggressive with the drag. Had 30# mono and probably only had 5 pounds of drag set. I worked to get vertical on him and then whatever it was sat on the bottom. I pulled and wound he took it back. I might have been partially wrapped around a rockpile or something. Remembering a guy’s story on here about a possible BSB that hung him up on the bottom I decided to hit record on my sonar. I’ll post it later when I get it off the card.

Did some pedaling around to get out of what I thought was snagged. Still no mark. Cranked down the drag to start pulling and reeling. Every bit of line I took went right back out. It really felt like I was hung on the bottom.

Finally I start gaining some traction and holy crap was there a huge mark on my sonar. Started pumping and winding, got it up to 20 feet then back down to the bottom which was around 90 feet. Pumped again and back down he went the same. Finally I just put the rod on my knee and wound non stop taking what line I could in. Got color and the size refraction of a monster YT showed up. I had to gaff and grab the gill plate of what was a torpedo shaped lunker of a YT. Dunked my reel in the process... Line was a little frayed above the hook so perhaps he took me into a rockpile.

Pedaled back in, offered my remaining 5 greenbacks to another guy but he was headed in so I released those guys.

An absolutely incredible day at LJ. It is such a great fishery that has rewarded me with YT in the summer and all kinds of goodies year round. It just felt so great to finally land a Home Guard.

Measure in just over 50”. Weighed it at Dana Landing which rang in at 38.6 pounds. Perhaps I shouldn’t have bled it out or I would have broken the 40 range...
Attached Images
  
__________________
Vibe Shearwater 125 (Tsunami Red)

Last edited by Gflann; 04-16-2021 at 05:45 PM.
Gflann is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 05:56 PM   #2
rdahl
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 48
Congrats! Beautiful fish. Was smart to be patient when you thought you were hung up. Probably also smart to use something other than the jigsmaster, though most all old guys have caught big fish on the trustee 500's.
rdahl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 07:46 PM   #3
JohnMckroidJr
Senior Member
 
JohnMckroidJr's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 1,932
No need to apologize for the write-up(the best way for others to learn). Nice mossback, Congratulations! Couldn't help but upright your photo, Cheers.
Attached Images
 
JohnMckroidJr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 07:51 PM   #4
dorado123
Senior Member
 
dorado123's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Garden Grove,CA
Posts: 210
Nice fish ! Congratulations
dorado123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 08:08 PM   #5
skrilla
Senior Member
 
skrilla's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: San Diego
Posts: 664
Congrats on that toad!
__________________
Urban Camo Trident 13
skrilla is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 08:15 PM   #6
Southwest Kayak Fishing
Senior Member
 
Southwest Kayak Fishing's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2020
Location: Near Mission Viejo
Posts: 196
Beautiful slug of a YT! Congratulations!!
Southwest Kayak Fishing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 08:19 PM   #7
FISH11
Member
 
FISH11's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Pine Valley when not fishing La Jolla
Posts: 2,641
Congrats on a really nice Homeguard. I've been searching for one like that and lately there have been a few harvested. Just got to keep trying to be that guy "in the right place at the right time!". Tight Lines
__________________
MARK ......... 2016 MALIBU X FACTOR, 2020 SOLO SKIFF (Fishing Kayak on Steroids )
FISH11 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2021, 08:33 PM   #8
LEEZO
Senior Member
 
LEEZO's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Coronado
Posts: 179
toad alert!!
LEEZO is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2021, 05:41 AM   #9
YakDout
Brandon
 
YakDout's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: San Diego
Posts: 2,345
LJ 4/16 Dawn Patrol in Search of a Home Guard

That’s a real one! You can get away with more drag on your kayak then you can on a boat or fishing from shore etc. Reason being your kayak is moving through the water whenever the fish isn’t exactly straight up and down, thus lessening the drag on the reel. I’ll start at 1/3rd of the line class to set my drag. So if you were fishing 30lb, I would have it set to 10 which is double what you had it set at. I’ve lost too many nice fish to sea lions to have it dangling around for longer than need be.

Also the more line you have out and the longer the fight goes, the better chances those big home guards will break you off in the kelp or on a reef. They’re smart fish. They’re the little 6lb rats that started offshore and survived on the SoCal coast by being the best predator possible, and by avoiding predators to them.

That’s one hell of a nice fish. Any yellowtail over 30-35lbs is MEAN. And fight til death. They don’t give up like seabass.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkp
YakDout is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2021, 10:46 AM   #10
kayakfisherman
Senior Member
 
kayakfisherman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 715
Wow, great write up and super fish!!
kayakfisherman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2021, 01:28 PM   #11
Nobody
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 56
Score!

They sure do love those big greenback macks!
Nobody is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2021, 06:15 PM   #12
C. Cary
Senior Member
 
C. Cary's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Carmel Valley
Posts: 104
Awesome catch! Thanks for sharing!
__________________
Isn't this America? Let them fish
C. Cary is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2021, 10:53 PM   #13
Tac.Fish0313
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 37
Awesome haul homie!
Tac.Fish0313 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2021, 07:37 AM   #14
fishwrap
Junior
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: el cajon
Posts: 2
that's GREAT! congrats! I want one!
fishwrap is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2021, 10:13 AM   #15
Gflann
Member
 
Gflann's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: San Diego
Posts: 59
Like I said in the report, when it went straight down I felt like I was hung up on the bottom. I thought I was going to lose it. So I reached over and hit record on the sonar. Attached are a couple screen shots as promised.

The first one is when I hit record. It’s hard to tell if it’s in a rock pile. It looks more like kelp to me. Feel free to weigh in on it. Obviously I’m pedaling around like a mad man trying to unwind whatever the fish wound itself around.

The next couple are me fighting it up and down. You can see when it takes me from about 20’ back to the bottom. And then the final being the struggle as I am gassed, to get up to color and within reach of my gaff.

I’ve gotten alot of good insight over the years lurking on this site. I’m far from an expert, but hopefully this report and some of the associated documentation will be helpful to others.
Attached Images
     
__________________
Vibe Shearwater 125 (Tsunami Red)
Gflann is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2021, 11:40 AM   #16
FISH11
Member
 
FISH11's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Pine Valley when not fishing La Jolla
Posts: 2,641
Great, love the screen shots. Looks great on the one were you can see it heading to the bottom. Thanks for sharing.
__________________
MARK ......... 2016 MALIBU X FACTOR, 2020 SOLO SKIFF (Fishing Kayak on Steroids )
FISH11 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-23-2021, 06:32 AM   #17
JohnMckroidJr
Senior Member
 
JohnMckroidJr's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 1,932
Always interesting to see screenshots. Viewing yours makes me realize that most of the Yellowtail are taken in much shallower water than the Amberjack and Almacos that I target usually in 200+ft of water on the East Coast. When I am fighting a big fish, I will keep an eye on the Fishfinder. If it's an AJ, or Almaco, the screen will light up when it's about 80ft down as it releases air from it's swim bladder. If there is no air release, then I know it's most likely some form of Tuna.
JohnMckroidJr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-27-2021, 05:07 AM   #18
YakDout
Brandon
 
YakDout's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: San Diego
Posts: 2,345
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnMckroidJr View Post
Always interesting to see screenshots. Viewing yours makes me realize that most of the Yellowtail are taken in much shallower water than the Amberjack and Almacos that I target usually in 200+ft of water on the East Coast. When I am fighting a big fish, I will keep an eye on the Fishfinder. If it's an AJ, or Almaco, the screen will light up when it's about 80ft down as it releases air from it's swim bladder. If there is no air release, then I know it's most likely some form of Tuna.

Only when the water warms up. Late fall through early spring is not uncommon for us to yo-yo fish yellowtail in 200’ of water. They’re usually deep that portion of the year because the water temps are more consistent day to day than they are at the surface.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
YakDout is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:42 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
© 2002 Big Water's Edge. All rights reserved.