bruce watson
08-20-2008, 11:15 AM
Boy did that title get your attention. My friend, Craig and I decided to meet up this morning for a little yellowtail chasing down in San Diego. It was dark thirty in the morning when I woke up but somehow I managed to get the boat connected to the truck and my *** down there a little after 7am.
He told me early on that he's never done this before. I haven't heard those words in over forty years and I immediately started having flashbacks. Then he explained that he had never caught a YT before. I had brought a gold two speed on a calstar rod and a daiwa sh20sl on a 700xl if they turned out to be small. I'm not really sure what he brought except that my granddaughter catches pelicans on a similar set up with the Shimano Shirley Temple model reel on hers.
The water leaving Mission Bay was 62.3 degrees. That did not look good. By the time we got to La Jolla we were seeing 70.4's. Amazing there was such a change in less than 7 or 8 miles. Time to do some trolling, aka sitting on out butts and burning gas. After an hour of that, we moved into the bay and started flylining sardines. Sea lions everywhere. We had a problem with the dogs so Craig tries a fishtrap and gets first solid hit. The fish went straight down and showed Craig what YT are made of. After a long fight on a small rod the fish jumped into my net to get away from the sealion that I hit with the net.
I was up next with a legal sized cormorant. I've been taking bird fishing lessons from Carly, my grandkid, and I made sure it ran with the bait before I pulled back gently on the rod and let the circle hook do it work.
It was a day of quite a few hook ups but between the dogs and the kelp we only managed to take home one each. Still a lot of fun.
He told me early on that he's never done this before. I haven't heard those words in over forty years and I immediately started having flashbacks. Then he explained that he had never caught a YT before. I had brought a gold two speed on a calstar rod and a daiwa sh20sl on a 700xl if they turned out to be small. I'm not really sure what he brought except that my granddaughter catches pelicans on a similar set up with the Shimano Shirley Temple model reel on hers.
The water leaving Mission Bay was 62.3 degrees. That did not look good. By the time we got to La Jolla we were seeing 70.4's. Amazing there was such a change in less than 7 or 8 miles. Time to do some trolling, aka sitting on out butts and burning gas. After an hour of that, we moved into the bay and started flylining sardines. Sea lions everywhere. We had a problem with the dogs so Craig tries a fishtrap and gets first solid hit. The fish went straight down and showed Craig what YT are made of. After a long fight on a small rod the fish jumped into my net to get away from the sealion that I hit with the net.
I was up next with a legal sized cormorant. I've been taking bird fishing lessons from Carly, my grandkid, and I made sure it ran with the bait before I pulled back gently on the rod and let the circle hook do it work.
It was a day of quite a few hook ups but between the dogs and the kelp we only managed to take home one each. Still a lot of fun.