The best part of catching yellowtail is eating them. Bleed them as soon as they hit the deck, flush them out with a hose and get them on ice!
“Men really do need sea monsters in their personal oceans.” John Steinbeck – The Log from the Sea of Cortez
Until you have landed a large mossback you do not know the power that these jacks possess. The ability they have to take you into whatever structure is nearby, be it an open water floating kelp paddy or a barnacle encrusted island reef is uncanny. Hang a large model on the outer reef at Orange Rocks (Catalina) and you better turn its head early or you will get dusted.
Options regular Randy Mikuriya with a nice yellowtail that came off the zone between the Horseshoe and
150 that was holding a lot of yellows the last two summers in a row
Over the years, I am on my ninth season with Options, the fall cycle seems to be the time that big yellowtail will populate that reef in numbers. It holds fish year round but October/November seems to bring in the bruisers. Several years ago we were in the right place, at the right time but got outgunned. Walt a fine customer of ours hooked one first and was slow to get up the rail and even with a two speed reel he could not wrestle the fish away from the anchor chain. I was up next and fought a vigorous battle but even a thicker gauge lead head hook was no match for the monster on the other end and bent out. Captain Wes could not handle it and came down from the wheel house wielding a heavy stick with an 80 to 80 connection. He hung a fish, bent the rod in half and then snap went the rod. Read More