Got out again this Monday on my buddy's 19 ft Arima with the same goal as last week, run down to below the border in search of yellowfin and dorado. Got the boat launched from Shelter Island at 5 am and ran to the bait barge for a decent scoop of sardines. We got everything strapped down for the run south and headed out of the SD bay around 5:15. Seas were pretty calm and the small boat handled it well as we ran at 20 knots the whole way to where we wanted to start trolling. We fish almost every Monday so most weeks my friend and I discuss the gameplan the Sunday night before and this week we looked at the charts and saw a decent window of clean water that followed the canyon (I attached a few temp break photos of what we were looking at).
Ran to the edge of that clean water west of the Coronado Islands, put out our trolling spread around 630 and started the search moving south toward the 425(included a photo of our trolling spread with the birds on each lure). Water temp in the morning was a bit cooler than last week in this zone, starting around 70 degrees and warmed up to 71.5 as we progressed to the 425. Glassed on the way down and spotted a school of fish up on the surface as we got near the 425 with birds working them. As we got with 100 yards he splashing on the surface disapeared and birds dispersed. At that point it was about 9 am and we hadnt seen much else life in that zone so we started moving west to the 371 with the trolling gear still out. We did mark a bunch of fish and bait in this area but never had anything else pop up on the surface. Made it to the 371 and spotted our first kelp patty with 2 birds sitting on it,pulled in the trolling gear and set up about 20 yards up wind of it to make our first drift. Tossed a few bait as chum and saw a dorado jump a few seconds later near the patty so we had high hopes to start. My buddy pins on a livley dean and pitches it in the direction of the patty and 20 seconds later hes tight, instantly the fish takes off straight down and peels about 100 yards of 25lb line off of his avet sx (fishing a #2 hook on 2 yards of 25lb flouro tied to 100 yards of 25lb mono topshot). He fights the fish for about 10 minutes and we get deep color before it starts its second run and peels another 75ish yards off the reel. After finally getting it up I grab the gaff and stick the biggest yellowtail I've ever seen in person. Got a perfect shot in the head and gillplate and hauled this beast over the rail before jummping up and down like a little schoolegirl with my friend and staring at this beast in shock. Gilled and bled the fish then got it in the killbag with 100 lbs of ice before setting the boat back up for another drift. After 3 more unsuccessful drifts we called it and began trolling back east toward the 425.
After trolling for another few hours zig-zagging back to the 425 we worked back north where we came across a giant patty loaded with dorado jumping 50 yards in evey direction around it and no other boats in sight, this was around 11 am. Set up about 100 feet upwind and started chumming as we made our first drift and had the largest school of dorado I've ever seen around the boat...only problem was they were not reacting at all to the chum. Drifted for 5 minutes with livley deans and light line (down to 15lb flouro) with no takers, so we set up for a second drift and still no love. Decided to try slow trolling around the patty for a bit and still couldnt get anything to bite. At one point we stopped and casted our deans directly into the school of them, only to watch our bait swim with the school of dorado for 5 minutes around the boat. Tried chunking up dead bait and started a chum line on our next drift to only have the fish come up to the chunks and turn away with no interest. We did this for 2 hours before getting frustrated and decided to move on, before leaving that patty though we decide to set up the trolling gear again and while setting out our third rod, the first one gets bit close to the boat on the port corner only a few hundred feet away from the patty. Fish takes about a 30 second run and as we slow the boat down it comes unbuttoned. Trolled in circles for another 30 minutes watching dorado swim toward the trolling lures only to turn away repeatadly. At this point it was 2:30 pm and we decided to just head back home with our 1 YT, not the best day on the water but definetly still one to remember. Got to the ramp at 4 and made it home by 5 pm. Didn't have a chance to get an "official" weight but on the bathroom scale it bounced between 36-38 lbs. Good luck out there and tight lines everyone.
Ran to the edge of that clean water west of the Coronado Islands, put out our trolling spread around 630 and started the search moving south toward the 425(included a photo of our trolling spread with the birds on each lure). Water temp in the morning was a bit cooler than last week in this zone, starting around 70 degrees and warmed up to 71.5 as we progressed to the 425. Glassed on the way down and spotted a school of fish up on the surface as we got near the 425 with birds working them. As we got with 100 yards he splashing on the surface disapeared and birds dispersed. At that point it was about 9 am and we hadnt seen much else life in that zone so we started moving west to the 371 with the trolling gear still out. We did mark a bunch of fish and bait in this area but never had anything else pop up on the surface. Made it to the 371 and spotted our first kelp patty with 2 birds sitting on it,pulled in the trolling gear and set up about 20 yards up wind of it to make our first drift. Tossed a few bait as chum and saw a dorado jump a few seconds later near the patty so we had high hopes to start. My buddy pins on a livley dean and pitches it in the direction of the patty and 20 seconds later hes tight, instantly the fish takes off straight down and peels about 100 yards of 25lb line off of his avet sx (fishing a #2 hook on 2 yards of 25lb flouro tied to 100 yards of 25lb mono topshot). He fights the fish for about 10 minutes and we get deep color before it starts its second run and peels another 75ish yards off the reel. After finally getting it up I grab the gaff and stick the biggest yellowtail I've ever seen in person. Got a perfect shot in the head and gillplate and hauled this beast over the rail before jummping up and down like a little schoolegirl with my friend and staring at this beast in shock. Gilled and bled the fish then got it in the killbag with 100 lbs of ice before setting the boat back up for another drift. After 3 more unsuccessful drifts we called it and began trolling back east toward the 425.
After trolling for another few hours zig-zagging back to the 425 we worked back north where we came across a giant patty loaded with dorado jumping 50 yards in evey direction around it and no other boats in sight, this was around 11 am. Set up about 100 feet upwind and started chumming as we made our first drift and had the largest school of dorado I've ever seen around the boat...only problem was they were not reacting at all to the chum. Drifted for 5 minutes with livley deans and light line (down to 15lb flouro) with no takers, so we set up for a second drift and still no love. Decided to try slow trolling around the patty for a bit and still couldnt get anything to bite. At one point we stopped and casted our deans directly into the school of them, only to watch our bait swim with the school of dorado for 5 minutes around the boat. Tried chunking up dead bait and started a chum line on our next drift to only have the fish come up to the chunks and turn away with no interest. We did this for 2 hours before getting frustrated and decided to move on, before leaving that patty though we decide to set up the trolling gear again and while setting out our third rod, the first one gets bit close to the boat on the port corner only a few hundred feet away from the patty. Fish takes about a 30 second run and as we slow the boat down it comes unbuttoned. Trolled in circles for another 30 minutes watching dorado swim toward the trolling lures only to turn away repeatadly. At this point it was 2:30 pm and we decided to just head back home with our 1 YT, not the best day on the water but definetly still one to remember. Got to the ramp at 4 and made it home by 5 pm. Didn't have a chance to get an "official" weight but on the bathroom scale it bounced between 36-38 lbs. Good luck out there and tight lines everyone.
