[knightnsd]

After catching a few fish worth posting I figured now's a good time to introduce myself. I check this site as often as most of you but have been hesitant to contribute until now. I really enjoy reading about others who are catching fish so I hope you enjoy my story as well. This well known dark fellow ( a misnomer of you meet him) told me "it's fine to share as many fish as you like....as long as you wait until there's a change in the weather". With the South wind howling recently it seemed like the perfect time for my introduction. My name's Ed and I'm proud to say I'm a kayak fisherman. I started fishing off a kayak last year, with the main target being yellows. This mostly because I've spent quite a bit of time fishing from boats and I had a basic understanding of fishing for them. I quickly realized that catching yellows from a kayak and cruising the islands with a fleet of boats have very little in common. I'm sure many of you power-boat converts would agree?

The good news is I had a fishing partner to go through these trials and tribulations with. My good friend Dave was somewhere around his 30th trip, fishing ffice:smarttags" />lace w:st="on">La Jollalace> from a kayak, without a yellow before he took his fate into his own hands. Which means a lot since Dave's nickname is Einstein but I have a better nickname for him that is reserved for knowing him personally. Well eventually my friend hired Josh Pruitt, commonly known as The Darkhorse on this site. This was during last seasons supposed lulls, where a solid fish hadn't been reported in months. Dave was even skeptical of hiring Josh at the time for that very reason. As the story goes they launched to a very quiet ocean and practically had lace w:st="on">La Jollalace> to themselves. Josh was more than confident they would find the target species as they approached the familiar grounds. Apparently this level of confidence was backed up by results in short order. They proceeded to nail yellow after yellow with just a few slight adjustments to Dave's original approach. This, while fishing the same general areas Dave had been fishing previously. Which according to, Dave, made the lesson even harder to swallow. I think Dave ended up landing three big yellows, but more than anything raved about what he had learned that day.

This turned into a follow up trip with more fish being found, again. Apparently, last season was pretty much wide open for a chosen few....regardless of what fishing reports and landing totals had to show. Being that Dave's my fishing partner, of course, I benefited from these lessons too. I learned some nice improvements to my original techniques by watching my friend, versus the old standard slow troll a Mackerel. If you're after the larger local yellows as apposed to the rat-yellows I've found on kelp paddies, apparently this game is more complicated than most of us realize. The fact is there's a lot more to it if your in pursuit of fish that don't fit into your standard cooler. Being that I have a great deal of respect for what Josh does for a living.... I'll just leave it at that!

From talking to many anglers on the water and at the launch, I've come to not fret about my success to date. I've caught some nice yellows from my kayak and we all know what kind of fight they put up. No matter what vessel you're on. Here's one that I caught shortly after adjusting my technique last season.


Here's a beast that brought me to my knees on April Fools day. My personal best kayak yellow that I feel lucky to have crossed paths with....coming in at close to 39 lbs!


I suppose some guys would be happy catching the occasional yellow, but I'll go ahead and admit to not being as well rounded as I'd like. I guess much of my fishing was really ,at best, randomly rewarding. I mean, who are we kidding.... there's other trophy fish to be caught off our Coast, right? One species in particular has eluded me for quite some time too. You probably guessed it, the elusive White Sea Bass! The truth is I had never caught a legal White Sea Bass. That's certainly not for lack of trying though. If any year I should have caught a legal White Sea Bass it should have been during last season. There were squid around almost all year and not to mention available all day long. I could catch the squid just fine, but I could not make the next transition; turning them into the target species! I am sure some of you can catch Greenback Mackerel all day long and everyone will tell you they're the perfect Yellow Tail bait so why don't they bite? The same is true for White Sea Bass from what I've learned; they're main staple is squid....find the squid and you will find the White Sea Bass. If that sounds easier than it is, well, that's because it is. After reading everything I could on the subject, my results remained the same. Trip after trip. I had squid in my bait tank most of last year, but it did not produce White Sea Bass for me. Not once! It produced everything, but my targeted species as a matter of fact. Which over time...started to wear on me.

Which is the reason for writing this long winded post in the first place. After my friend Dave bought the bullet last year and trying for quite some time on my own...I realized some professional assistance was in order. Strangely enough, after telling Josh it took me forever to find him through a Google search, he told me it's part of his screening process. What he said next was something I'd never expect to hear from someone with their own business. He said: " I only want clients who really, really, want to learn how to catch fish"...."a guide business should grow in an organic fashion"... "from the inside out". While that makes a great deal of sense and is an honorable approach, being a business man myself I felt compelled to write my letter of recommendation none the less. While I realize Josh would prefer to receive all his clients through word of mouth, I'd like to show my thanks in this public referral. So please forgive me while I gloat. For those who might be on the fence, well, just know what could be happening your next trip out. The truth is every time I saw this guy on the water he either had a big fish strapped to the back of his kayak....or was taking pictures of a client with one of their own. When it came down to hiring a professional my path to success was more than obvious. I weaved my way through his booked pipeline of clients and a date was set. Originally, we set a time of 10 a.m., but the day prior Josh rescheduled our charter to 4 p.m. I found out later, that Josh backed me up to 4 p.m. so he could go pull on some fish himself. He admitted that his skin was crawling after not being able to fish, while putting clients first in line on school after school the previous days. Which might have bothered some clients, but I appreciated the honesty none the less. If anything, it should show how much he loves his job. Fishing with clients daily, then fishing on your days off....or, backing up a client a few hours so he can go pull on some monsters himself.... is a level of commitment you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere. Quite possibly the fishiest guy I've ever seen.

We met up on the water the day of our charter and he already had a big Yellow Tail packed nicely in ice. All this time I thought bringing ice was bad luck? He told me about a big school of fish not too far away. I said: "well, if you want to head out there and chase yellows we can". He responded to me by saying: " you hired me to catch White Sea Bass so I'd suggest we get to it"! He was confident that he would put me in the proper place in short order too. After seeing his fish packed nicely on ice, which eluded to his confidence in producing multiple species that day, I offered a couple of celebratory beers that I brought along. He graciously declined, by saying he'd take me up on the offer after I caught my fish. We made a short move and Josh began to read the conditions, looking for our spot to focus on that afternoon. He looked over his high definition sonar, the kelp, the current and water conditions at multiple spots with a fine tooth comb. We never fished along the way as he talked about our plan of attack. In great detail I might add. He even noticed the tiniest imperfection in my brand new leader and put a fresh one on before letting me send out a bait. Reminding me that when we get our shot...we're going to land it! This all said without a moments hesitation nor a glimmer of pessimism. After trying for so long on my own I'll admit I had my doubts of sealing the deal our first trip out. After all, I was here to learn and catching a fish would be a distant second in my mind. Needless to say, I was a bit shell shocked by what happened next. When after only mere minutes of arriving to the spot he selected....we had fish below the boat. Literally!

Instead of talking about, if, I ever get a bite....Josh kept focusing my attention of what to do when it happened. Somehow summoning my own confidence from within. After less than ten minutes his prediction came true with a heavy strike....and Wham....I'm on! After practically doing everything I could to lose this fish, with Josh hovering over my shoulder the entire time, she comes to color thrashing like something I've never seen. I screamed out she's huge! Josh asked if I wanted to harvest her and I replied with, she's huge, again! So he sank the gaff and my trip was over as soon as it started. Josh told me that I was limited out and I couldn't put a line in the water. Which embarrassingly enough I thought the legal limit was three at the time. After strapping the fish to the back of my Hobie and a couple of high fives we drifted off our spot. I then asked if now was a good time to break out the celebratory brews and Josh was game this time. That Fosters Oilcan might as well of been a bottle of '84 Petrus from the Pomerol region of lace w:st="on">Francelace>.

Josh gave me the offer of heading back with my trophy fish or continuing the lesson and watching him catch one too. Wanting to learn as much as possible this sounded like a perfect plan to do just that. We made another short move, got located properly and began a drift again. We had fish pass beneath us on the meter and I watched Josh's eyes light up. Which was followed by eyes bulging to the size of a dinner plate as well. While it might have taken twice as long for him to draw that first strike (less than thirty minutes!), I got to watch a pro in action. I watched his textbook technique and the results that almost immediately followed; with his casual sip of the Fosters Oilcan "only when full bendo of course" (which was a great lesson in itself!). Not to mention, quickly realizing why he asked me earlier if I wanted to harvest my fish as she approached color. Suffice to say his fish was considerably larger, but I've got a stinking suspicion I'm not the first client that got bested during their charter! I just can't wait for my next opportunity knowing what I know now; It's the dawn of a new day. I'll just say I've got a feeling this season will be drastically different than the last. Thanks to a professional point in the right direction.


In case this lengthy read isn't enough of an endorsement, I'll just say my experience with the local pro exceeded my expectations.

I am thinking he may even help me improve on my halibut fishig later this year , it has been good but I am guessing Josh can make it better. Hope my first post was worth reading and I can follow it up with some bigger fish.