The one that got away..... ALMOST !!! - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

-scallywag- · 07-08-2010, 12:11 PM

After seeing "The Jewel" shine for two or three weeks of insane WSB fishing mixed with a steady pick of larger grade yellows, I decided to switch my focus to only targeting YT as I have no intentions of targeting fish I only plan on releasing. Not only that, but I knew with the fine local bait selection that was available that there had to be some trophy YT around, if you could get away from the hoover-like WSB.

I noticed early-on, during a couple "WFO" days that the bare iron fished just a little outside the bait beds would yeld a YT instead of a WSB almost every time.On one particular morning about a week ago the YT's came thru pretty thick and everyone with bait in the water got hooked up, the boat next to me boated 4 YT's....while my bare iron gets the only WSB in the hood.Luckly after a short fight, she shook the hook boatside and swam off. Now I'm back in the game with little time lost....worked the iron for the next hour as I watched the bite slowly die off.....I took some pics for all those that hooked up, and watched as the sun came out, the wind picked up, and the yaks and bait disappeared. But not me baby!! I'm here all day!

Here's a pic I took of my neighbor Trevor (whitedog), he hooked up early on dropperlooped bait with everyone else and disappeared right after I took this photo. I guess he was hungry?

After metering around the area in the hot sun, and knowing the signs of a bad investment, I decided to peddle back across the reserve and go get some lunch at that little Italian place by the launch. I was suprised that it only took two hours for the marine layer to blow back in and the winds to calm down. I pick up a six'er of Ballast Point YT ale on my way back to the launch for good measure, and enjoyed one or two as I made the rare detour to peddle by the caves enjoy the beauty that I regularly take for granted as I fly thu the reserve to fish. From any angle, "The Jewel" shines bright.

By now it was around 2pm and overcast, I was able to snag a couple pieces of bait on the iron and put them in the bait tank for good measure. There was about four or five yaks and one skiff in the area when I hear a rod on the skiff go off and they quickly get dragged into the kelp. Then the guy next to me gets picked up on a carolina rigged mac and gets towed strait into the kelp. A couple minutes later the same skiff and yak are getting towed into the kelp again!So I drop down a bait and bam, I'm on and going strait to the kelp, I turn and start trying to turn the fish and peddle it off the kelp but it was too strong and eventually kelped me. DAMN!

So I set up a further outside the kelp, and my bait rod is now out of commission, so I go strait to the iron. Just then the water explodes against the kelp and I see what looks like huge BFT boils. A couple more yaks get bit and either break off or get kelped. I see the skiff slowly motoring by me with a guy on the back trying to keep his fish out of the kelp, while another yaker is struggling to get his fish out of the kelp.

I make the mistake of working in closer to the kelp again where all the action was, and as soon as I get 30-40yrds from the kelp, I get picked up. This time I'm in better possition and on the iron with #40mono. I know better than to crank the drag down before the first run, but I didn't feel like I had a choise, he was headed strait for the kelp again!! So I button down the drag and try to stay over the fish. After a quick minute of a stailmate the fish explodes, quickly accelerates the yak and peels of a few yards of line before I feel a streching thump that kinda felt like a knot failure, the fish is off, and I'm freakin out. Pull up my line to find the 6Xjr still there, but after closer inspection one of the hooks was completely broken off and another one was bent way out.....CRAZY!!!

So I peddle back out a little further from the kelp and start talking to another yaker who was set-up waiting his turn, just then both his poles go off at what seemed to be the same time, luckly they went two different directions and he called another yaker over to grab the other pole.
At this point I'm like WTF ??? My bait rig is almost spooled, my YoYo rod has a thrashed 6xjr (and I didn't have anymore irons onboard), my only choise was the Ulua that had a small blue/white fishtrap iron. Not that I was worried as that setup had landed plenty of YT's in the past, but seeing those straitened hooks on the 6xjr was really bothering me.

I watched the guys with the double hook up get theirs, and the yak in the kelp was paddling back out with a HUGE tail hanging off his deck. I dropped the iron and get sidetraked watching the guys in the skiff, who just broke off, fight about who's fault it was that they lost the fish. So, I'm in autopilot iron fishing mode, having a good laugh about the skiff with the yaker next to me (StoneAle ??), when... BOOM!!! I'm on again! This time I stayed ontop of it but with lighter drag, and I was much further from the kelp. Luckly it's first run was away from the kelp and I was able to play it out after a couple blistering runs and a close call with the only achorline in the area (the skiff dropped anchor right next to me while i was on??) I get the fish to color.....holy crap!!!

This thing is huge and....no gaff!!
Luckly the other yaker (stoneale?) was in the area and lent me his gaff. Finally the fish I was looking for, a solid 10+lbs heavier than my previous PB.

A big thanks to Stone Ale, or whoever it was that let me use your gaff, and took some time to take some OTW shots....I OWE YOU!!!

After getting the fish in the boat I realized that it had broken a tine off my fishtrap iron too.

surfnutnj · 07-08-2010, 12:39 PM

Nice YT man. Any idea how much that sucker weighed?

THE DARKHORSE · 07-08-2010, 01:00 PM

Kinda' makes me want to get on a sportboat to Cedros. Well, kinda'.

Then again, I'm fairly lazy these days.

And I know this spot within ten minutes from my house--that has forty pound Yellowtail, too!

Congrats, bro!
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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I'll start the guessing game at 42 lbs?

Nic D · 07-08-2010, 01:01 PM

Here piggy piggy!

Geoffkoop · 07-08-2010, 02:35 PM

Sounds like a great day

Surfdad · 07-08-2010, 04:06 PM

Freaking epic!

undrH2Ohntr · 07-08-2010, 04:45 PM

That is absolute PIG....congratulations.

fongman · 07-08-2010, 04:56 PM

Great story................even better YT!
Here's a nice cold Ballast Point YT ale to you!

jgoertz · 07-08-2010, 05:09 PM

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

Dan · 07-08-2010, 05:19 PM

great job, killer photo, massive fish---the head on that fish is insane! great job scallywag.

I'm with you...couple of croakers and i'm back to the YT.

Dennis · 07-08-2010, 06:00 PM

TOAD!

wade · 07-08-2010, 06:08 PM

R.I.P. King Homeguard

...

Scally WTG

Tman · 07-08-2010, 07:49 PM

Dang nice OTW photo...glad to be your photo beyotch...

That was an epic boil and hilarious watching the tin can motoring after their fish all the way to the kelp...

bellcon · 07-08-2010, 08:57 PM

I love a good fishing story
and that my friend was a great one

Beer and a Big Badass Beautiful fish, life is good,
thanks for sharing Scallywag
3 cheers to you!

j mo · 07-09-2010, 05:51 AM

Love the way that fish sags over your knee, and the look on both you and the yt are classic, as if your both thinking the same thing "holly crap I cant believe it!" -

you made the right choice on beer too as Ive found Guiness yeilds quite smaller fish!

Congrats Jeremiah

cjthomas · 07-09-2010, 09:52 AM

sweet fish! those things have some serious torque to be busting irons left and right

Aaron · 07-09-2010, 10:06 AM

Nice fish!

Pretty killer, last week, we are out there. I'm watching my meter and look up to see some dude hooked up blasting towards me. I make eye contact with the captain of this sleigh ride and its Jeremiah. Casual wave from the scallywag, "Hey man." like he's not hooked up to a fish giving him a run for his money. lol, good times.

Dude, I HAVE TO get you your battery and at least a 6 pack or at least just buy the damn battery off you (you'd still get some beer!). I've been hauling it with me everytime I've been down at LJ. I even had it when I saw you but you decided to run away...or at least your fish did! Shoot me a pm dammit!

-scallywag- · 07-12-2010, 07:56 AM

THANKS TMAN !!!!!

Sorry about the miss ID, I can't believe that I didn't recognize you from the MLPA meetings, but with the beard and the lack of fishcatcher (who always manages to steal the show) by you're side, can you blame me?

I tried to edit the original post but it I can't find the edit button??

Aaron: Sorry, I got a little sidetracked, I'll be fishing in the AM for most of the week....maybe we can meet up for a pre-dawn session this week?

dorado50 · 07-12-2010, 08:47 AM

What..no catch and release...j/k... now thats an impressive YT! Looks like this one came all the way up from Baja for the "good eats". Beautiful fish J....good story too.

Aquahunter · 07-12-2010, 09:19 AM

Awesome fish!

07-08-2010, 12:11 PM	#1
-scallywag- Banned Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: on the road... Posts: 598	The one that got away..... ALMOST !!! After seeing "The Jewel" shine for two or three weeks of insane WSB fishing mixed with a steady pick of larger grade yellows, I decided to switch my focus to only targeting YT as I have no intentions of targeting fish I only plan on releasing. Not only that, but I knew with the fine local bait selection that was available that there had to be some trophy YT around, if you could get away from the hoover-like WSB. I noticed early-on, during a couple "WFO" days that the bare iron fished just a little outside the bait beds would yeld a YT instead of a WSB almost every time.On one particular morning about a week ago the YT's came thru pretty thick and everyone with bait in the water got hooked up, the boat next to me boated 4 YT's....while my bare iron gets the only WSB in the hood.Luckly after a short fight, she shook the hook boatside and swam off. Now I'm back in the game with little time lost....worked the iron for the next hour as I watched the bite slowly die off.....I took some pics for all those that hooked up, and watched as the sun came out, the wind picked up, and the yaks and bait disappeared. But not me baby!! I'm here all day! Here's a pic I took of my neighbor Trevor (whitedog), he hooked up early on dropperlooped bait with everyone else and disappeared right after I took this photo. I guess he was hungry? After metering around the area in the hot sun, and knowing the signs of a bad investment, I decided to peddle back across the reserve and go get some lunch at that little Italian place by the launch. I was suprised that it only took two hours for the marine layer to blow back in and the winds to calm down. I pick up a six'er of Ballast Point YT ale on my way back to the launch for good measure, and enjoyed one or two as I made the rare detour to peddle by the caves enjoy the beauty that I regularly take for granted as I fly thu the reserve to fish. From any angle, "The Jewel" shines bright. By now it was around 2pm and overcast, I was able to snag a couple pieces of bait on the iron and put them in the bait tank for good measure. There was about four or five yaks and one skiff in the area when I hear a rod on the skiff go off and they quickly get dragged into the kelp. Then the guy next to me gets picked up on a carolina rigged mac and gets towed strait into the kelp. A couple minutes later the same skiff and yak are getting towed into the kelp again!So I drop down a bait and bam, I'm on and going strait to the kelp, I turn and start trying to turn the fish and peddle it off the kelp but it was too strong and eventually kelped me. DAMN! So I set up a further outside the kelp, and my bait rod is now out of commission, so I go strait to the iron. Just then the water explodes against the kelp and I see what looks like huge BFT boils. A couple more yaks get bit and either break off or get kelped. I see the skiff slowly motoring by me with a guy on the back trying to keep his fish out of the kelp, while another yaker is struggling to get his fish out of the kelp. I make the mistake of working in closer to the kelp again where all the action was, and as soon as I get 30-40yrds from the kelp, I get picked up. This time I'm in better possition and on the iron with #40mono. I know better than to crank the drag down before the first run, but I didn't feel like I had a choise, he was headed strait for the kelp again!! So I button down the drag and try to stay over the fish. After a quick minute of a stailmate the fish explodes, quickly accelerates the yak and peels of a few yards of line before I feel a streching thump that kinda felt like a knot failure, the fish is off, and I'm freakin out. Pull up my line to find the 6Xjr still there, but after closer inspection one of the hooks was completely broken off and another one was bent way out.....CRAZY!!! So I peddle back out a little further from the kelp and start talking to another yaker who was set-up waiting his turn, just then both his poles go off at what seemed to be the same time, luckly they went two different directions and he called another yaker over to grab the other pole. At this point I'm like WTF ??? My bait rig is almost spooled, my YoYo rod has a thrashed 6xjr (and I didn't have anymore irons onboard), my only choise was the Ulua that had a small blue/white fishtrap iron. Not that I was worried as that setup had landed plenty of YT's in the past, but seeing those straitened hooks on the 6xjr was really bothering me. I watched the guys with the double hook up get theirs, and the yak in the kelp was paddling back out with a HUGE tail hanging off his deck. I dropped the iron and get sidetraked watching the guys in the skiff, who just broke off, fight about who's fault it was that they lost the fish. So, I'm in autopilot iron fishing mode, having a good laugh about the skiff with the yaker next to me (StoneAle ??), when... BOOM!!! I'm on again! This time I stayed ontop of it but with lighter drag, and I was much further from the kelp. Luckly it's first run was away from the kelp and I was able to play it out after a couple blistering runs and a close call with the only achorline in the area (the skiff dropped anchor right next to me while i was on??) I get the fish to color.....holy crap!!! This thing is huge and....no gaff!! Luckly the other yaker (stoneale?) was in the area and lent me his gaff. Finally the fish I was looking for, a solid 10+lbs heavier than my previous PB. A big thanks to Stone Ale, or whoever it was that let me use your gaff, and took some time to take some OTW shots....I OWE YOU!!! After getting the fish in the boat I realized that it had broken a tine off my fishtrap iron too.

07-08-2010, 12:39 PM	#2
surfnutnj Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 63	Nice one! Nice YT man. Any idea how much that sucker weighed?

07-08-2010, 01:00 PM	#3
THE DARKHORSE Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Seven minutes from the launch! Posts: 987	Nice! Kinda' makes me want to get on a sportboat to Cedros. Well, kinda'. Then again, I'm fairly lazy these days. And I know this spot within ten minutes from my house--that has forty pound Yellowtail, too! Congrats, bro! . . . . . . . . . I'll start the guessing game at 42 lbs? __________________

07-08-2010, 06:00 PM	#11
Dennis Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: South of La Jolla... Posts: 1,193	TOAD! __________________ Hmmmm.....

07-08-2010, 06:08 PM	#12
wade Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Oceanside Posts: 1,214	R.I.P. King Homeguard... Scally WTG

07-08-2010, 01:01 PM	#4
Nic D Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Clairemont Posts: 813	Here piggy piggy!

07-08-2010, 02:35 PM	#5
Geoffkoop Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: So. Orange County Posts: 302	Sounds like a great day

07-08-2010, 04:06 PM	#6
Surfdad Junior Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Juan Capistrano Posts: 26	Freaking epic!

07-08-2010, 04:45 PM	#7
undrH2Ohntr Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: San Diego Posts: 115	That is absolute PIG....congratulations.

07-08-2010, 04:56 PM	#8
fongman Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 116	Great story................even better YT! Here's a nice cold Ballast Point YT ale to you!

07-08-2010, 05:09 PM	#9
jgoertz Junior Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 12	Great story! Thanks for sharing.

07-08-2010, 05:19 PM	#10
Dan Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,053	great job, killer photo, massive fish---the head on that fish is insane! great job scallywag. I'm with you...couple of croakers and i'm back to the YT.

07-08-2010, 07:49 PM	#13
Tman BRTF...bought & paid... Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 1,247	Dang nice OTW photo...glad to be your photo beyotch... That was an epic boil and hilarious watching the tin can motoring after their fish all the way to the kelp... __________________ Adios Tman Gaffer for Clay the Fishcatcher

07-08-2010, 08:57 PM	#14
bellcon Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: San Pedro Posts: 999	I love a good fishing story and that my friend was a great one Beer and a Big Badass Beautiful fish, life is good, thanks for sharing Scallywag 3 cheers to you! __________________

07-09-2010, 05:51 AM	#15
j mo Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Encinitas Posts: 600	Great tale and even greater tail! Love the way that fish sags over your knee, and the look on both you and the yt are classic, as if your both thinking the same thing "holly crap I cant believe it!" - you made the right choice on beer too as Ive found Guiness yeilds quite smaller fish! Congrats Jeremiah

07-09-2010, 09:52 AM	#16
cjthomas Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 108	sweet fish! those things have some serious torque to be busting irons left and right

07-09-2010, 10:06 AM	#17
Aaron Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 175	Nice fish! Pretty killer, last week, we are out there. I'm watching my meter and look up to see some dude hooked up blasting towards me. I make eye contact with the captain of this sleigh ride and its Jeremiah. Casual wave from the scallywag, "Hey man." like he's not hooked up to a fish giving him a run for his money. lol, good times. Dude, I HAVE TO get you your battery and at least a 6 pack or at least just buy the damn battery off you (you'd still get some beer!). I've been hauling it with me everytime I've been down at LJ. I even had it when I saw you but you decided to run away...or at least your fish did! Shoot me a pm dammit!

07-12-2010, 07:56 AM	#18
-scallywag- Banned Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: on the road... Posts: 598	THANKS TMAN !!!!! Sorry about the miss ID, I can't believe that I didn't recognize you from the MLPA meetings, but with the beard and the lack of fishcatcher (who always manages to steal the show) by you're side, can you blame me? I tried to edit the original post but it I can't find the edit button?? Aaron: Sorry, I got a little sidetracked, I'll be fishing in the AM for most of the week....maybe we can meet up for a pre-dawn session this week?

07-12-2010, 08:47 AM	#19
dorado50 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: La Jolla Shores Posts: 1,626	What..no catch and release...j/k... now thats an impressive YT! Looks like this one came all the way up from Baja for the "good eats". Beautiful fish J....good story too.

07-12-2010, 09:19 AM	#20
Aquahunter Crazy Deaf Cuban Redneck Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Descanso, CA Posts: 158	Awesome fish! __________________