44.4 lb yellowtail

[steveor]

Nice fish, something to be proud of.

Are you sure about the California record, A few years back a friend of mine caught a 72 pounder on one of the boats out of Oxnard, it was on display at Bob Sands Tackle at one time, not sure its still there.
it was not a California State record then, curious to know how a 62 pounder is the record now.

63.1 at Santa Barbara Island in 2000 looks like current CA record , my mistake

 

[HighWildFree]

OK English teacher

Hahah I’m terrible with grammar, just hard to read it like that.

 

[SRS]

Toad yt for sure. My buddy speared a 68.1 lb off LJ kelp in May 1990.

The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

 

[Pablo2fish]

Wow, just wow!

 

[Fish Asassin]

She's a beaut, Clark!

 

[colemans224]

Congratulations! Beautiful fish!

 

[lougio]

Can't beat the slow troll. Excellent report, congrats!

 

[pacificscout]

Slug!!!!!!
Great job Brother on driving and gaffing.
And you Sir, for quite the catch!

 

[dudeman]

Great catch! And thanks for the intel. The pictures explain it all.

 

[JojoPaddyhopper]

75lb YT caught at Catalina in the mid 90's my friend Steve caught it at night fishing through squid for seabass. Weighed in at Avalon. That was state record at time. Seen pictures on the scale.

 

[DOGHOUSE26]

Nice catch I bet that donkey pulled like a tractor Congratulations and Thanks for the report!

 

[AndyJ]

Pig yellow. Congrats

 

[luckyjohn]

more like 44.3 but wow!!!

 

[T Shark]

Very nice fish for sure. Congrats!

 

[Iron Chugger]

GOOD GRIEF!! CONGRATS!!!

 

[katchfish]

Killer!

 

[mhanson59hb]

What a toad! Mossback! Home guard! Pig! Bruiser! Tackle Buster! Trophy! Anything I missed?

Congratulations, sir, on one heck of a catch!

 

[jim isbell]

We all know, but I'll say it anyway, a yellowtail does not get fat and sluggish as they grow, a 25 pound fights like the Devil, I can only imagine the fight--can you give some more on that, how tight did you have the drag, how much line it fired off that reel?

 

[Workplacesafety]

Old Yeller. Congrats!

 

[Tunaslam]

A beast and congrats!

 

[steveor]

We all know, but I'll say it anyway, a yellowtail does not get fat and sluggish as they grow, a 25 pound fights like the Devil, I can only imagine the fight--can you give some more on that, how tight did you have the drag, how much line it fired off that reel?

The initial run when it hit was the most line off the reel, maybe 150-200 feet, hard to judge for sure. We were trolling parallel to the shore in 40ft of water and it ran straight north towards the canyon and deeper water behind us. Following the fish was key to the fight and I was able to quickly retrieve a lot of line lost on the yellowtail's big runs a few times. Because of being mobile, I was also able to keep from buttoning down the drag. Scary part of that was allowing this big fish to find the kelp a few times. It made some serious runs though. The power when it took off at first color was amazing . Did not like the look of my boat ! When Bill gaffed the fish and pulled it onboard, it was spent. No thrashing about, just laying there. I won't lie, I was shaking a bit.

 

[Mrrobxc]

Wow. Congratulations!

 

[steveor]

Hamachi Kama ! pan is 9" X 15.5" inside lip dimension

 

[steveor]

you can see Bill's excellent stick w the gaff

 

[steveor]

you can see Bill's excellent stick w the gaff