etucker1959
07-19-2015, 07:40 AM
Now that the big Yellowtail have done their spawning at the 150 spot and dispersed, what's a guy to do to get his Yellowtail fix. Up until last week that was a no brainer, go to the Coronado Islands and catch all the nice medium grade Yellowtail you want. The only problem with that plan was you needed a Passport, "I thought I had a valid one till I looked closely." Expired in March of 2015!!!!!! So I sent mine off at the post office and I'm still waiting for it to come back!! Next option was to fish the local Islands, only problem with that there was a lot of small fish caught. Now I don't want to come off like too big of a fishing snob, but 4-6 lbs Yellowtail give me and them a break!!!! I know I was spoiled rotten by this past year by catching nothing but SLUG Yellowtail for a year straight. So Catalina Island with those small Yellowtail didn't have much of an appeal!! But I do do my due diligence of monitoring the fishing situation on a daily basis. I figured those 150 Yellowtail had to have gone some where and I didn't think they went back to Mexico. So in studying the Catalina reports, I kept track of what percentage of Slug Yellowtail were the boats catching. On a good day, it could be as much as a third if you were on the back side of the Island. That means you can't get there on a 3/4 day boat, but you can get there on an overnight trip. Me being the cheap SOB that I am, knows the best boat for the price is the Toronado. If you prepay and say you are from 976-tuna it's only a $110 bucks!!!! Now let me disperse the rumors how Ray (the owner and captain is only the third best skipper). I would agree, if I had my choice of who was going to run a boat to Catalina, Jeff from the T-bird is the best then followed by Jeff Jessop on the Freedom. The problem is boy's and girls, those 2 don't always run the boat. The Relief Skippers on both boats SUCK BIG TIME!!!!!!!!! Yet Ray pretty much runs the Toronado every time the boat leaves the harbor. (I know this is advanced boat handicapping) lol So in other words Ray is a solid pick any time you're on the boat. I might as well mention TJ on the Eldorado, great guy for fishing bottom fish at San Nick, otherwise pick one of the other boats if you want to catch a Yellowtail!! I know I'm rambling, but I'm trying to teach people something along the way. lol
On to the fishing!!!!
I was saying earlier that the Yellowtail at Catalina are mixed sizes. 4-6 lbs, 8-14 lbs and 18 pounds to 40 pounds. (I saw the picture of that alleged #50 pounder.) To long and skinny to weigh 50 in my book!!!! The reason why I went fishing last Wed, was because of the report I got from the Freedom on Tuesday. On Tuesday the Freedom caught 70 Yellowtail all from 20- 40 pounds. So I expected to wake up in a spot surrounded by other boats all wanting to pretake in the action of all those big Yellowtail. Much to my surprise we were all alone fishing the Vees. (I'm thinking Ray didn't get the memo about all the big Yellowtail being caught some where else) So we started fishing and catching a bunch of Rat Yellowtail!!!! I was fishing with my good buddy Glen and I said, "do you want to catch and keep any of these things??" Hell No!!!!!! Was both of our responses, so we both went back to bed!!!!! After reanchoring the boat twice on that spot eventually Ray said, "it's time to move to the next hot spot and would take about an hour to get there." There better be a fleet of boats at the next spot or I'm organizing a munity!!!! lol Sure enough we found every sport boat who had the time to make it to the back side was there!!!!! Glen was still sleeping, (he does that) but I wasn't going to wake him up till some big fish were being caught. I'm still thinking big fish, so I throw out my #30 outfit and I get bit. He's fighting reasonably well, so I'm thinking he's a decent fish. Much to my disappointment, he's only 12-14 lbs. Man if that's how big they are, "I might as well cast out my #20 outfit with my junior squider. (old school style) Glen get's up and I tell him their not rats, so he should give it a try. All of a sudden, "the big boy's show up." Glen myself and half the boats get's bit, these aren't no Tommey cods that just swam through. All 20-28 pound Yellowtail just came through and bit the boat!!!!! The deckhand comes by and see's my outfit and ask's "what pound test do I have on there??" I tell him 20 and he kinda sneers at my response. (He doesn't know in the 30 years I owned this outfit) I've killed more fish with this pole then all my other poles combined. After I nice relaxed fight (this pole doesn't beat you up) I finally get this fish to color, it's a nice #22 pounder, just like the ones at the 150 spot. I wouldn't have had the nerve to have thrown that outfit out on the Southern Cal with 60 people on board. So it was pretty satisfying to land that fish on that outfit. So now I get to watch Glenn land his fish, it has his pole bent big time. I can tell it's a nice one, sure enough it's a pig. I put it a #28 pounds based on the ones we caught at the 150 spot. That was about it for the day for excitement, Ray tried a couple more spots for not much. When it came time to go home, I counted every Yellowtail they pulled out of the fish hold. 22 Yellowtail that were over 20 pounds, 16 Yellowtail between 8-14 pounds and the rest rats. Ray said there was 65 Yellowtail caught and he didn't Lie!!!! I can verify that for sure. Thanks for reading!!!!
On to the fishing!!!!
I was saying earlier that the Yellowtail at Catalina are mixed sizes. 4-6 lbs, 8-14 lbs and 18 pounds to 40 pounds. (I saw the picture of that alleged #50 pounder.) To long and skinny to weigh 50 in my book!!!! The reason why I went fishing last Wed, was because of the report I got from the Freedom on Tuesday. On Tuesday the Freedom caught 70 Yellowtail all from 20- 40 pounds. So I expected to wake up in a spot surrounded by other boats all wanting to pretake in the action of all those big Yellowtail. Much to my surprise we were all alone fishing the Vees. (I'm thinking Ray didn't get the memo about all the big Yellowtail being caught some where else) So we started fishing and catching a bunch of Rat Yellowtail!!!! I was fishing with my good buddy Glen and I said, "do you want to catch and keep any of these things??" Hell No!!!!!! Was both of our responses, so we both went back to bed!!!!! After reanchoring the boat twice on that spot eventually Ray said, "it's time to move to the next hot spot and would take about an hour to get there." There better be a fleet of boats at the next spot or I'm organizing a munity!!!! lol Sure enough we found every sport boat who had the time to make it to the back side was there!!!!! Glen was still sleeping, (he does that) but I wasn't going to wake him up till some big fish were being caught. I'm still thinking big fish, so I throw out my #30 outfit and I get bit. He's fighting reasonably well, so I'm thinking he's a decent fish. Much to my disappointment, he's only 12-14 lbs. Man if that's how big they are, "I might as well cast out my #20 outfit with my junior squider. (old school style) Glen get's up and I tell him their not rats, so he should give it a try. All of a sudden, "the big boy's show up." Glen myself and half the boats get's bit, these aren't no Tommey cods that just swam through. All 20-28 pound Yellowtail just came through and bit the boat!!!!! The deckhand comes by and see's my outfit and ask's "what pound test do I have on there??" I tell him 20 and he kinda sneers at my response. (He doesn't know in the 30 years I owned this outfit) I've killed more fish with this pole then all my other poles combined. After I nice relaxed fight (this pole doesn't beat you up) I finally get this fish to color, it's a nice #22 pounder, just like the ones at the 150 spot. I wouldn't have had the nerve to have thrown that outfit out on the Southern Cal with 60 people on board. So it was pretty satisfying to land that fish on that outfit. So now I get to watch Glenn land his fish, it has his pole bent big time. I can tell it's a nice one, sure enough it's a pig. I put it a #28 pounds based on the ones we caught at the 150 spot. That was about it for the day for excitement, Ray tried a couple more spots for not much. When it came time to go home, I counted every Yellowtail they pulled out of the fish hold. 22 Yellowtail that were over 20 pounds, 16 Yellowtail between 8-14 pounds and the rest rats. Ray said there was 65 Yellowtail caught and he didn't Lie!!!! I can verify that for sure. Thanks for reading!!!!