La Jolla, Saturday August 16
 

First trip to La Jolla in the kayak for me and my buddy Ian on Saturday.

Short report: We both hooked yellows, Ian had his eaten by a sea lion, I landed a small fish.

Long report: If you were there Saturday around 5:30 you saw or helped me get my truck out of the sand at the launch. Yup, I was THAT guy. Felt like a complete idiot, but Andrew (who I randomly asked for help from and who graciously obliged) and my buddy Ian, along with a few other guys, helped rock my truck enough to get it out. THANK YOU!

Hard to recover from that, but we managed to get geared up and made it out past the small warm surf pretty easily. It took us a long time to make bait, with almost exclusively spanish macs. I actually hooked 2 bonito right off the bat and they made a mess of my sabiki. Eventually we each had about 6-8 spanish and 1 greenie each and we decided to start trolling. Ian hooked a tail within the first 5 minutes in about 85' of water on the NW corner with his greenie. Unfortunately...he also hooked a sea lion within the first 10 minutes...and lost the battle. We trolled around for several hours and eventually came back to the corner and made about 8 greenbacks. Trolling again and WHAM! My clicker goes off. Thinking its a sea lion, I let it run for a bit and put it in gear and...nothing. I start winding and about 30' from the boat I see a wake behind my bait. I wind faster and BOIL! Yellowtail misses my bait. Out of gear for a few seconds and he's back, slamming my bait about 15' off my bow. Hook up! I'm on and trying to figure out what the hell to do. 4 minutes later, small 10-12 # tail on deck.

Learned a lot, got even more hooked on yak fishing, and can't wait for the next trip.:yt:

First GoPro video, of my first trip to LJ, catching my first yellowtail out of the yak. Please watch in HD. I'm not sure how to embed the video directly...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1kHgb0nxlQ

What a welcome to LJ. :cool:

Congratulations on the Yellows, always fun on a Kayak. Tight Lines

Nice yellow and video..congrats :you_rock:

Excellent fish!!!

Wow...what a start!!! Gotta get me some of that action. Way to go

Sounds like a great day to me. :D
:reel:
:cheers1:

Nice vid. I've met a few people that have gotten a tail on their first trip to LJ. Don't get spoiled, but do enjoy the fruits of your labor!!!

Congrats.

Since you were out with a buddy you might want to have him get close to you when you pull the fish up and gaff for you. The faster its in the boat the lower the probability of it getting stolen

Were you on revo 13's?

He was pretty close to me and asked if I needed help with the gaff, but it being the first time I wanted to handle it all myself. I was definitely worried about the knotheads that were following me grabbing the fish though! Yes we were both on sand colored Revo's.

congrats. nice video nice fish.:you_rock:

Awesome. If that's your first time on a yak fishing that's crazy, looked damn near a natural!

First time yak fishing La Jolla. I've fished SD Bay 3 times as well. Bought the yak in June. Thanks though!

Congratulations! and thank you for the vid.

Sweet dude! Bummer for Ian though. Still, two hookups on your first trips.
Two points of advice if I may…
1. Gaff fish with the hook pointed away from the kayak in case you miss.
2. Gameclip fish before you take out the hook in case the fish goes nuts.

Other than that… welcome to the club.

RobFish

Nice report I think I spoke with you or your friend on the water. we were catching bait in the same area.... I remember each one of you getting a greenie each.

Nice fish and great results on your first time there. Getting that fish in before the seal ions could grab it was great. Way to go.....

Both VERY good tips, thanks! Definitely a lot going on and I still need to figure out where I want everything, what order to do things in, etc...lots to learn!

Ya that was us. We ended up finding another little school of greenies a few hours later and thats what I caught my fish on, fresh bait!. After we left you we paddled away for 5 minutes and Ian was on. I couldn't believe he hooked up so fast.

Way cool!!! A day to remember; a video to watch
time and again.