Cedros Island

By now I was pumped to get in the skiffs. Nico and I were on the morning run with Alan our skiff driver. First cast I caught a 3lb calico on the fourth turn of the reel handle and this trend continued all morning as we caught bass after bass.  The size was average, but the numbers of bass up to 4lbs was terrific. Between Nico and I we caught and released around 60 bass.

While working through a spot of 2lb bass mid-way through our run, Alan hooked up on a 5" Calico Hunter Big Hammer and we turned to watch the 65lb braid melt off his reel. Keep in mind that until this trip Nico had never caught a yellow, and the biggest one I'd ever caught was all of 10 pounds. When Alan's spool emptied nearly to the bottom in less than 30 seconds, we were impressed! Alan worked the fish through several kelp stringers to the boat and I put the gaff to a stud yellow in the high 30lb class.

Our fishing intensity control knobs went to 11 after witnessing this and it wasn't long before more yellows started breezing tight to the beach under the gulls.  We gave chase but had a hard time getting close. Alan made a terrific cast with a Starman 112 iron and whipped another 35+ yellow to the boat. Alan owns and operates the El Capitan and the Pronto (overnight boats out of San Diego) and it was a real treat to fish with someone with his level of experience.  His nose for yellowtail was impressive. 

We headed back to the big boat for the afternoon session, finding slow fishing for halibut as we moved down the island.  At sunset the yellows did show on some huge meatballs of bait about a mile off the beach. Cappy the cook hung one on a Salas 7x and another passenger broke one off on iron. These were the same big grade of fish we encountered earlier in the day. The skiffs did ok on yellows with the evening runs getting 2 or 3 fish per boat. Alan hooked and landed a 55lb yellow on surface iron during this late afternoon run. This was the largest fish of the trip.

When we quit fishing at dark I was bummed that I hadn't hooked a big yellowtail, but I slept soundly knowing that with five more days on the water - good things would happen.

Pulling bass from the salad on the North end of Cedros

Alan with a mid-30's yellow on a 5" Big Hammer Swimbait

Heading back to the big boat at the end of the run