Long days and another opportunity to get out after work. Reports of bluefin just 5-10 miles off the beach made the temptation to go further very tempting.
Summary
The plan was to go out, catch mackerel and head toward the north 9 and see what I could find. The macs were harder to get than I expected. I got about 5 Spanish and 1 giant green. With time being of the essence, I headed out. About 7 miles out, I found good water and lots of life. Birds everywhere. I was metering a lot of life all around the boat, but it looked like the small pelagic crab and anchovie fry that has been everywhere.
I spent a while looking around the life, but the fish are clearly on the small food and my big baits weren’t on their menu. I pointed in a bit an north a bit. In about 1000′ of water, I found a little bit of kelp. The water wasn’t as nice, but it was worth a look. On my second cast with a surface iron, I got bit. It got me into the kelp pretty quickly and I spent the next 20 minutes battling it out.
Braid is a nice thing to cut kelp, but the slick stuff that casts nicely doesn’t cut as well (I have the Suffix 832 Gore on). I eventually got it to gaff all wrapped up in a ton of kelp. That brought me to sunset and a very nice ride home.
Catch
I got one stubborn 22 pound yellwotail off a kelp with the surface iron. I was using my Diawa Lexu 400 on a Phenix 867ML.
Conditions
Water
Water was 65 at the harbor entrance to 69.5 out further. Waves were small and a very light wind chop.
Tide
Weather
Splendid.
Notes
