Wide open Yellowtail on the Southern Cal Half day boat!!!!!!

[etucker1959]

This was probably the best Yellowtail fishing day of the year so far in our local waters. We ended up catching 84 Yellowtail for the day by 11:00 am. They were biting so good, at the end of the trip they stopped putting out bait so we could go home. It wasn't just our boat who got bit, every boat out there was hooking up Yellowtail after Yellowtail. Big mean ones too!!! I landed 4 and everyone of them kicked my butt. The weight of my fish were #22, #25 and two approached #30 lbs. Just to give an example of how the other boats were doing, the Enterprise had decked over 100 fish by the time we had to go home and we left them biting. The Native Sun had more of a novice group of anglers and had hooked 150 Yellowtail to land 75 for their 25 passengers. (No boat had a bad day!!!!!)

The interesting part of the bite was it wasn't run and gun type fishing. Once captain Mitch set up on a school of Yellowtail, we would initial hook 7-8 fish and in the past several weeks that would be all you would get out of that school. Not today, they would stick with the boat and we would make long drifts hooking fish the whole time. They bit everything, fly lined baits, baits with sliding egg sinkers on and the dropper loop rig. A few fish were caught on the Yo Yo jigs, but not much on the surface iron. My trick was using a little heavier sliding egg sinker (3/4 ounce) and it seem to put my bait in the zone of the bigger fish. These fish are not line shy either, I used #40 test all day with a small piece of flurocarbon leader. On most Half-Day boats you get a variety of experience of the anglers. The most Yellowtail I heard caught was 6 by one angler. But I heard a lot of people catch 4 like myself. Unfortunately, there is always some people who don't catch anything. Since I have been trying to catch Yellowtail every week now for the last 3 months, on this trip I gave all my fish away. Just to show you the quality of some of my fellow anglers, a nice young man heard I was giving fish away, so he took it upon himself to try to make sure some of the elderly gentlemen who didn't catch any fish got some to take home. At the end of the day, two very attractive women caught their first Yellowtail and you know what that means??? It's Heart eating time!!!!! I have never seen a more beautiful women with blood all over her mouth choking down a Yellowtail heart. She didn't just catch one, but 4 Big Yellowtail meet their demise on the Southern Cal by that gorgeous women!!!! lol

[PokerFish]

Where was this out of?

[etucker1959]

Where was this out of?
The Southern Cal runs out of Pierpoint landing in Long Beach. But every Half-Day or 3/4 Day boat from Newport Beach all the way to Marina Del Rey and every boat in between were all there. The fish are in the Horseshoe Kelp, straight out from the Queen Mary. Another good reason to ride the Southern Cal is, "he takes Groupon tickets." His normally price is $45 per trip, but with an advanced Groupon ticket it only cost $27 dollars. $27 dollars to catch a Long Range quality fish (1 hour away from the dock) is what dreams are made from!!!!!

[Stickman]

The Southern Cal runs out of Pierpoint landing in Long Beach. But every Half-Day or 3/4 Day boat from Newport Beach all the way to Marina Del Rey and every boat in between were all there. The fish are in the Horseshoe Kelp, straight out from the Queen Mary. Another good reason to ride the Southern Cal is, "he takes Groupon tickets." His normally price is $45 per trip, but with an advanced Groupon ticket it only cost $27 dollars. $27 dollars to catch a Long Range quality fish (1 hour away from the dock) is what dreams are made from!!!!!

Awesome report ! Good info. Thanks.

[PokerFish]

The Southern Cal runs out of Pierpoint landing in Long Beach. But every Half-Day or 3/4 Day boat from Newport Beach all the way to Marina Del Rey and every boat in between were all there. The fish are in the Horseshoe Kelp, straight out from the Queen Mary. Another good reason to ride the Southern Cal is, "he takes Groupon tickets." His normally price is $45 per trip, but with an advanced Groupon ticket it only cost $27 dollars. $27 dollars to catch a Long Range quality fish (1 hour away from the dock) is what dreams are made from!!!!!

Thanks for the heads up :Beer Toast:

[DockRat]

Holy Cow Tucker, what a day. :UDaMan:
DR

[TUNAVIC]

Very cool! That was a great report, Thanks!

Cya Tuna Vic

[catfishkid1]

Wow...........sounds like you guys had a great day out there!!!

[City Dad]

I'm green with envy... Monday's report showed something like 40 anglers, 130 sculpin. go figure.

Lucky you! Do you fish every day???

[etucker1959]

I'm green with envy... Monday's report showed something like 40 anglers, 130 sculpin. go figure.

Lucky you! Do you fish every day???
No, I use the force!!!!! Just kidding, but I do handicap them. I don't wait for them to go wide open and then go that's a recipe of disaster. I do have some tricks I use, the first one is the weather. (there is an old fishing saying) when the weather is up the fish are down. When the weather is down the fish are up. I never now a days ever get on a boat without checking the weather first. The second one is the boat pressure, if the fish sort of bit on the weekend. In this case the Southern Cal caught 27 on Sunday and 20 on Monday, which are both decent counts to fire on. I predicted by Tuesday the fish will be calmer and it should be a good day to go. You would think Monday's are the way to go with all the boat pressure off of them. However, I think they need another day to relax before they get on the feed again big time. Last but not least, don't be afraid to go!!!! This Tuesday I caught 4 by myself, last Tuesday we caught 5. The Tuesday before that we caught nothing with MikeOcean on board. The week before that we caught 4 again. See a pattern???? Yea, I was lucky the fish went completely stupid yesterday, but it wasn't just dumb luck that I picked that day of the year to go fishing on. lol

[etucker1959]

I'm green with envy... Monday's report showed something like 40 anglers, 130 sculpin. go figure.

Lucky you! Do you fish every day???
I don't mind sharing my fishing secrets with other people. (what am I going to do, take them with me to my grave) lol You mentioned on Monday some boat had a fish count of 40 anglers catch 130 sculpin. Implying there was little evidence to suggest the Yellowtail would bite the next day. These same fish have been around and biting for the last 6 weeks. The problem is the Yellowtail fish counts go up and down like a yo yo. So how can you tell if the fish have the potential to bite the next day??? The first thing people need to understand that not all boat captains are created equal. So following the fish counts of the bad boats is counter productive. If you want to catch these Yellowtail you only need to pay attention to 3 boats. The Enterprise, Patriot and the Southern Cal morning run. If they have been catching them and you ride one of their boats, you should have a good shot at hooking one or more of them. By using this formula now let's look at Monday's fish count. The Southern Cal morning run had 21 Yellowtail, the Enterprise had been fishing Catalina Island for the last 2 days and I think he had a relief skipper running the boat that day and still caught 18 Yellowtail. The Patriot didn't fish that day. Now look at the fish counts, 21 Yellowtail on the Southern Cal and 18 Yellowtail on the Enterprise coming in with problems. Now it doesn't look like a long shot for these things to bite. (does it???) lol We ignore all the other boats, their just cannon fodder for the anglers who don't know any better. lol

[City Dad]

No, I use the force!!!!! Just kidding, but I do handicap them. I don't wait for them to go wide open and then go that's a recipe of disaster. I do have some tricks I use, the first one is the weather. (there is an old fishing saying) when the weather is up the fish are down. When the weather is down the fish are up. I never now a days ever get on a boat without checking the weather first. The second one is the boat pressure, if the fish sort of bit on the weekend. In this case the Southern Cal caught 27 on Sunday and 20 on Monday, which are both decent counts to fire on. I predicted by Tuesday the fish will be calmer and it should be a good day to go. You would think Monday's are the way to go with all the boat pressure off of them. However, I think they need another day to relax before they get on the feed again big time. Last but not least, don't be afraid to go!!!! This Tuesday I caught 4 by myself, last Tuesday we caught 5. The Tuesday before that we caught nothing with MikeOcean on board. The week before that we caught 4 again. See a pattern???? Yea, I was lucky the fish went completely stupid yesterday, but it wasn't just dumb luck I picked that day of the year to go fishing on. lol

good info. thsnks! with regard to up or down are you talking barometric pressure or wind/swell?

[etucker1959]

good info. thsnks! with regard to up or down are you talking barometric pressure or wind/swell?
Wind and Swell. When the wind gets to 15 mph or more good luck. When the swell get's over 3-4 feet unless your tuna fishing that will usually shut down the bite. If it's both of those things happening at the same time, the boat shouldn't have ever left the dock. lol The barometric pressure is a little trickier then wind/swell and is probably beyond my pay grade. However, with that being said, when a storm was going to roll thru our area this winter/spring when these Yellowtail were biting. They would go on a feeding frenzy 2 days before the storm would hit!!!

[etucker1959]

Just in case anyone is wondering the Yellowtail bit almost as good today!!!!! So I expect all the Lurkers, Poachers and Bucket Fishermen who regularly patrol FNN looking for hot bites who went fishing today, to chime in and give thanks!!!! If nobody chimes in maybe all the Lurkers, Poachers and Bucket Fishermen only have a taste for Freshwater fish. (Because they taste so much better then those yuckey saltwater fish) lol

[dpaulus9]

yeah...from another site i go to for any saltwater info, today was on big time. some boats brought in 100 yellows. i would also consuder going on boats that has lighter loads. becomes a cluster @_$& with alot of anglers. leaving on a 7 day trip this tuesday, or i'd go

[JL]

Great Report Thanks for the detail
God Bless Tight lines

[etucker1959]

yeah...from another site i go to for any saltwater info, today was on big time. some boats brought in 100 yellows. i would also consuder going on boats that has lighter loads. becomes a cluster @_$& with alot of anglers. leaving on a 7 day trip this tuesday, or i'd go
The Pacific Quest is offering a 12 pack Yellowtail special tomorrow 6-6. I'd just as soon take my chances with the masses. lol