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New boat record

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Bill McIntyre

San Clemente, CA
Staff member
Forum Mentor
Jan 27, 2005
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A couple of years ago, I shot a 40 pound yellowtail. It was about 5 pounds bigger than the previous best taken from my boat, so I thought my record was safe. Larger yellowtail are taken down in Mexico, but 40 is very large for US waters. Then a couple of weeks ago Dave Freeman shot a 41 pounder while diving with me. OK, his fish maybe ate one more mackerel than mine.

Then Last Saturday, John Hughes shot this massive 45 pound- 12 ounce fish. I'm going to have to step up my game.
dave41.jpg
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That's a very nice fish. I'm looking forward to seeing the one that breaks that record, too.

Are you seeing an overall trend toward larger fish these days?
 
We're seeing a lot larger yellowtail along the coastal kelp beds this year.
 
Interesting. Is there a difference in the ocean currents, or maybe temperatures, I wonder?
 
The temperatures are much warmer than usual. That is resulting in yellowtail, tuna and dorado being much more plentiful and farther north than usual offshore. But those yellowtail under offshore kelp paddies are usually relatively small. For some reason the ones near the coastal kelp beds are generally much larger.

In the past, I've focused on white sea bas in the kelp beds and just treated the occasional yellowtail as a bonus. But the warm water this year drives white sea bass down into the cold murk layer on the bottom where I'm unlikely to find them, and the increased number of large yellowtail makes it seem worthwhile to just say outside the bed in the open.
 
Sounds like a good year to be spearfishing, at least for some species. Has anyone taken any WSB at all?
 
White sea bass season started early in February and was very good. But now that the water is so warm, it has tapered off. Of course it always tapers off after May or June, but its just worse than usual now.

However, there are still fish around. I know of three taken last week, all down below the thermocline on the bottom. Its pretty hard for my old body to hunt down there.
 
Do you focus on WSB for the different type of hunt or just for the eating qualities? Seems like either species would be pretty nice.
 
Here is another new boat record. My buddy Joel got this 72 pound white sea bass today. The other two of us didn't see any.
 

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Beautiful fish! Was it a remarkable day in some way? Weather, viz, dive conditions?
 
It was a beautiful day, almost flat calm, sunny and warm. Water temp was 62° F, which is very warm for this time of year. Visibility started out at around 15 to 20 feet and later improved to maybe 25 to 30. The depth was about 48 feet, and you could clearly see the bottom from about 25 feet. In the upper water there were big schools of mackerel, and clouds of mini-macs near the bottom.

Joel shot the fish near the bottom using a 120 float line and kelp carrot, and he missed his grab at the float line and it disappeared. He swam all over the area and found the kelp carrot and started pulling in the line. It came easily, so he thought the fish had torn off. But then it turned out that the fish was floating on the surface. All we can figure is that during the fight, the fish took a loop up near the surface, and then its swim bladder expanded and wouldn't let it descend.
 
Amazing fish, all around!!

Bill, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind pestering SpearMax on SB about authenticating my account over there. My SB username is hfandel. (This probably wasn't the most appropriate place to ask the favor, but I'm at work and couldn't figure out how to PM you fast enough. Thanks so much and happy spearing!) Cheers
 
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