I haven't posted on here in awhile but I figured I might as well. I spent last week dead set on getting a homeguard Yellow. The warm water and 15lbers that others and I were getting a few weeks ago got replaced by cold water and straight big ones. I went out Monday and through sheer random luck found a squid bed. I had no idea they were around and loaded up the tank, excited at the possibilities. Unfortunately, I found out that bass absolutely love live squid (not sure what I was expecting, to be honest). Everywhere I tried fishing the squirts, from top to bottom, in any spot I tried, the bass were immediately on it. I got nailed by a couple sand bass on my first few drops at the squid beds, so I moved away from that area only to find bigger and more persistent swarms of bass. It was pretty frustrating, especially considering most of the bass that bit were too small to even eat the squid all the way and I kept getting cleaned out.
The next few days were tough to watch. Tied up by work, I saw numerous large Yellows get posted on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Of course, this means that way more were caught that never found their way on the internet. Most were caught on squid. Most were caught right on the beds I had too quickly moved from on Monday. Word got out that both candy and big fish were around; when my buddy showed me a newspaper article published Wednesday talking about the hot bite, I knew I needed to get out before the weekend. I had work on Friday, but not until the afternoon. With some reluctance, I set my alarm for 4am and loaded up the car. I knew I needed to be back early, but any shot is better than no shot.
4am came quickly, as it usually does. I dragged myself out of bed and launched while it was still dark out. Bait was everywhere; I quickly loaded up the tank with greenbacks, jack Macks, sardines, and finally some squid. That was about the only thing good about the conditions though; the water had dropped a few degrees more from Monday, now sitting at 66 degrees, and was green and scummy. Even more so, the squid beds were a parking lot of boats and kayaks. After chasing down a bird school in 200ft that quickly sunk down as I was overtaken at the last second by a boat driving right on top of them, I went back to the crowds and sent a few squid down. Nothing. Even the bass from earlier in the week were no longer in the mood, and all I saw get caught was a bat ray. It seemed like I had missed the bite.
After a few hours of this, it was almost time for me to head back and I already begun to accept my skunk. Since I still had lots of jack macks in my tank, I figured I'd at least troll one on the way back in. A buddy had been on the new Seaforth the day before and lost a big yellow in shallow while the boat was scratching away at bass. I was working my way back to the point in 30ft of water when my clicker started to go off in short, sputtering bursts. I initially thought a small bass was messing with the bait. I later realized that the mack was instead TERRIFIED and frantically trying to escape from something, as when I turned the clicker off and let the bait swim back a little further something grabbed it with force, nearly backlashing my reel. I put the reel in gear and the rod nearly got ripped out of my hand. Several intense minutes later, the right kind circled into view. I gaffed it and was elated. Although a few lbs short of my PB kayak yellow caught last April, the circumstances in which I hooked it and the often-rare feeling of a plan perfectly working together made it one of the most memorable so far. I was lucky to have gotten that opportunity when and how I did, as the general consensus from the guys that stayed on the beds that day was that the fish had been keyed in on squirts that week and that the bite had pretty much died. I had been reconsidering my commitment to the kayak yellowtail hunt over the previous couple of weeks, as it often feels like a ton of work for little reward, but all it takes is one fish to keep the fire going. I know I'll be back out soon.
https://kamwalsh.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/n-29SBvt/i-Q36GHtC/A
