Cedros Island

Capt. Joe knew that the offshore reef yellows were on an AM bite and some of kayakers hadn't had the chance to pull on any yellows yet so we headed out there at sunrise. The fish did not disappoint and went off like clockwork on their suicidal bite. There were times when everyone at the rail was bit. Just epic yellowtail fishing.

After roping one in on surface iron I went straight to the experimental stuff and put my MS Slammer back on with both hooks this time. It took a little while but finally a nice yellow smashed my bait at the side of the boat. The fish ate the bait so deep it bled to death on the way to the gaff. Pete got a yellow on the 3" Big Hammer and I'm pretty sure Nico got one on a Miki. Great way to start the day. Yellows were stacked across the deck by the end of the drift.

The mid-morning found us mid-way down the lee of Cedros with the best weather of the trip. We fished with Tim, checking deep shallow, and right up on the rocks. Fishing was slow for some reason although we did find one beach that was holding halibut. Nico had a 20 pounder chase his bait to the boat after short-striking and we had several other definite halibut bites that didn't stick. We picked away at a few tiny calicos on the 4" Big Hammer to keep us entertained.

The kayaks did well on the bass here, landing good numbers to 4-5 pounds, and the big boat saw some signs of the bigger yellows with Capt. Joe getting a 25lber on a Big Hammer. Back on the big boat we set up to drift halibut and put two small ones on. I got one on a dropper loop. Then Cappy hooked up on the bottom with a dropper loop on a 30lb class yellow and some birds started acting suspicious along the beach.

Capt. Joe said, "this place is about to go off" and no less than five minutes later giant yellows erupted off the corner. Chris hooked one on a Salas 7x and Joe called in the skiffs as more fish began crashing the surface up and down the beach. The skiffs arrived and the bite went off. From the big boat it was hard to get a cast on the fish (these bigger grade fish were pretty boat shy) but we had our chances. Nico landed a 33lber on a Big Hammer and I followed up with a 35lber a few minutes later that took me all the way around the boat on bass gear.

The skiffs had 6 to 10 fish per boat, with all of the fish in the 30-38lb range. We watched Cal's skiff get a triple hookup 100 yards off the bow of the big boat. A great run to end our time at Cedros. We left the island at sunset and headed to San Martin.

Nico - 33lb big boat yellow - Big Hammer

35lb big boat yellow - Big Hammer

Rob with a 38 pounder

Cal after an all out skiff massacre to end the day