March 15 - Smacking the hell-o out of the yellows....

moore_rb

Stay Thirsty My Friends
Trent's dad Les was down from South Dakota, and we've been bugging him to get out with us on the boat for years, so when the forecast showed us a brief break in the wind forecast, we hooked up and headed south.

Got into RP late Friday afternoon and met up with Jeff Boyd at the marina just as they were coming in from their day on the water. They said it was rough, and the fishing was marginal, so Jeff suggested a daybreak run down to Puerto Lobos for Saturday morning…. No need to ask me twice.

So we woke early, coffee'd up, met up with Jeff and his crew, and proceeded to subject our trailers to 100 miles, and 2 hours of 80 mph ass-hauling, intermittently interupted with periods of the kind of rutted, washboard dirt road abuse that is the primary reason the average lifespan of a boat trailer in Mexico is about 39 days before the wheels fall off... I felt blessed that I only lost a single tail light on this trip.

But who cares about trailers, when bloody decks await the intrepid (or possibly crazy) aspirations of a crew of amped-up bait slingers eager to wage war with what is quite certainly the savviest, hardest fighting, and outright fun sport fish that ever swam the ocean blue.

I'm talking about Yellowtail, kids. The second you are hit by one of these brutes, and that steady "whoop-whoop-whoop" feeling transmits up the line, through the fishing pole, and into your arm, and as the end of the pole bobs up and down as the drag hopelessly gives up and the line starts peeling off your reel, you know you are connected to the right kind, and it's on like Donkey-Kong...

I’ve caught more yellows off the party boats down the coast of California than I could count, but ever since I moved back to Arizona and shifted my deep-sea fishing focus to the SOC, I have spent far more time learning (and enjoying) the Grouper, White Seabass, and deep water fishing out of Rocky Point. My only SOC Yellowtail had been a few incidentals picked up out at the 51 mile reef, plus a couple small 5 poundish firecrackers from previous trips to Lobos

Now, Grouper are amazing fish to catch, and a very worthy adversary for any sport fisherman, but the yellowtail is a regal animal- an opponent that will attempt anything to get off that line. I’ve seen them wrap around anchor lines, I’ve seen them tangle up in the boat’s prop- anything they can do to get free.

As soon as we were launched by Arturo’s beach tractor in Lobos, we ran out looking for bait, while Jeff ran his boat in the other direction for destinations unknown; but the Sabikis were not appeasing the mackerel Gods, and all we could drum up were sand perch and spotted bay bass- a couple of which were in that nice Grouper-bait size range, so we steamed for one of our Grouper rocks and dropped the bass down, but no joy... we had one bait get grabbed briefly, and he came back up with the telltale scrapes of grouper teeth on his side, but after 2 hours of hitting grouper territory with all we had (baits, jigs, scampis), the fishboxes were still sloshing around with nothing but half melted ice in them.

So we headed out about another mile to another reef I had marked on our last trip down to Lobos- and after zig zagging it and setting a couple more marks on interesting looking ridges, we dropped again and tried the same Grouper techniques, but still NADA. By now it was about 10:30am, and the Skipper was getting some anxiety about the 50 bucks worth of diesel, 8 years worth of equivalent trailer wear and tear, plus one 15 dollar trailer tail light that he had sacrificed, all in order to come to Lobos to catch 8-inch sand perch and spotted bay bass.

Watching the sonar, I could see bait and fish in the water column, and I figured that this close into shore they were probably Bonita, so I grabbed my trusty 25 lb class Sabre 665EL that I’ve had since I was 14 years old, and tied on one of my favorite bonita jigs back from my SoCal fishing days. Within seconds, I was ripping the lip of the first of many 7-8 pound bonita that we boated that day.
Finally, I had some action on a fishing pole (and the skunk, finally expelled from the boat, was frantically trying to swim his way back to shore)

As I caught a couple more bonitas, the other guys started mining them for strip bait, and dropping it to the bottom. They immediately started bringing up some really nice 7-8 pound Gold Spotted Bass.

So, watching the nice Gold Spots coming off the bottom, I decided to cast my bonita jig and let it sink all the way down before retrieving it – and soon I was thick into the Gold Spots as well.
But on one of my next jig drops, I set the hook into a strike, and he decided that he would rather be something a LOT more powerful than a Gold Spot.... It only took two or three of those pulses up the fishing pole to tell me that the drag was about to give way, and as the reel started singing, the other 3 guys heard that sound that Dave and Trent are already VERY familiar with... "Heheheheheee... Robert's got a BIG fish, bitchez..."

after a solid 10 minute fight, up into color came what I was expecting to see- a nice 15-20 pound Yellow getting ready to show me his ass and dive back for the bottom again. A few runs later, and I finally brought him to gaff, snapped a pic, and slammed him into the ice box.

I checked my knots, gave the guys a brief tutorial on what I was using, and what I was doing, and within minutes I was digging the hook into the jaw of another hard charging yellowtail. Since this trip was about letting Trent’s dad feel the rush of a big saltwater fish, I called him back to take the rod and stood ready with the gaff as we brought the 2nd nice fish onto deck. Since one of the other objectives of this trip was to FINALLY get Trent a yellowtail under his belt, I naturally had to give him a good dose of grief about the fact that his dad’s yellowtail cherry was popped before his was…

After that, the action cooled for awhile, so I started glassing for diving birds. I found Jeff’s boat in the binocs, about 4 miles from us, so we powered up and took a run out there to see why he wasn’t answering my calls on the VHF (busted radio, naturally). Tom Albers was also out there with a crew on his Bayrunner, so I pulled up next to him for a few minutes to say hi and to introduce myself.

Out where they were drifting, the marks were really heavy on the sonar, so we tried the same techniques that we had been using inshore, and within minutes we were thick into the fish again. Les managed to boat a couple quickly, and I was yanking them out of the water so often that I ALMOST felt guilty that I was out-fishing my boat mates 3 to 1… I said ALMOST.

After boating another really nice one in the 20-25 pound range, I decided I had to get Trent tied to a fish, so I hung up my pole and started working with him on casting, and on the jigging techniques that were getting me bit. Soon he was landing fish with the rest of us, and he even hooked into another nice heavy one and had it boatside, when it charged for the motors and popped of… I told you, these fish are savvy.

One of the more entertaining episodes of the day was when Dave had one of his fish grabbed by a HUGE 1000+ pound bull sea lion - they battled back and forth for 15 minutes over that fish before I finally powered up the boat and chased the sea lion down, where they tug-o-warred some more until the fish finally popped in half, and Dave quickly cranked in his share of the well-earned stalemate.

By 3pm, the fish boxes were holding limits of Yellowtail and Gold Spots, and we had a long drive back to Penasco ahead of us, so we ran in, trailered up, and prepared for the haul back to Rocky Point.

All told, we caught about 30 yellows between 10 and 25 pounds, and a whole mess of Gold Spots. By 7pm, we were back in the bar in RP, sucking down beers, and reflecting on another fantastic day of fishing aboard the Tiburon, while Les ruminated on the fact that his arms are never this sore after a day of Northern Pike fishing in South Dakota.

At the bar we also met up with Shawno and Tina, who had also had an outstanding day full of Sardineros, White Seabass, and they even had a couple yellowtail as well; and only 40 miles from Rocky Point- I think that is the closest to RP that I have heard of yellows being caught… very encouraging news.

There was one downer on this trip, however (worse than the tail light)- That 30 year old blue and red Sabre rod I mentioned? Well, the top 20 inches snapped off it as I boated my last yellowtail of the day. That rod has caught hundreds of yellowtail and tuna through the years, and to see it in unrepairable condition like that was a real bummer for me. That rod had history, experience, and mojo. I‘m glad I shot that pic earlier in the day of Les holding it with a hard bend, fighting a big fish… a fitting end for a warrior's favorite, battle hardened weapon.

RIP, old friend….

Pics from the trip can be seen here:

http://s990.photobucket.com/user/moore_rb/slideshow/Fishing
 
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dmcauley

Well Known Member
Great job Robert. We opted for the 40 to 51 mile reefs and found the current way too strong to fish. I did pull in some real fine goldies (about 20) and a quality 32 lb pinto but thaty was it. I used 48 oz of weight to hold the bottom.
As for Shawno's trip? He has a good secret hole and I don't believe he's gonna give it up.
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
Sweet!

I hate to say this, but Dave attracts sea lions like dog poop attracts flies! Same thing has happened on my boat multiple times. They always go after Dave's fish! o_O

I need some bendo. Soon...
 

moore_rb

Stay Thirsty My Friends
Another chapter by Robert Hemmingway!
Hemmingway lived a life of experiences that most people wouldn't dare to dream of, and once his resources were exhausted, and his body unable to carry his mind where it wanted to go, he ended his life the same way he lived it - on HIS terms. We should all be so dignified, and fortunate.

Hey-- Credit where credit is due... The guy responsible for me catching my first 2 Lobos yellowtails was Ted Miller. Thanks bud.
 
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