Every spring for the last few years, Daryl Wong has come up from Hawaii to have a go at our SoCal fish. He spends two days diving with friends in San Diego, and then comes up to my house to spend two days diving with me. I like it that way since it takes the pressure off of me if he shoots a nice fish in San Diego. Year before last he got a 51 pound white sea bass in San Diego. Then last year he got a 52 pounder with me. Of course its just chance, but I still got a kick out of the fact that he got his personal best with me.
This year he dove last Saturday and Sunday in San Diego and conditions were poor. Everyone got skunked. Then he drove up Sunday evening to dive Monday and Tuesday with me. He brought along James McCallan, a Navy guy who used to dive with him in Hawaii and is now stationed in San Diego.
I really didn’t know what the hell to do. While things have been red hot in some unnamed spots, they have sucked lately in the kelp beds in my area. There is hardly any kelp left and what there is is below 30 feet, the vis has sucked, and the current has usually been ripping. That left the islands as the obvious choice, except that the forecast called for small craft warnings until 5 AM Monday and then 4 to 6 foot swells after that. The only bright spot was that winds were to be less than 5 knots, but I was afraid that the swells would kick our asses anyway. I consulted with a few friends including Nate Baker, and he urged me to go for it. I really don’t think I would have gone if he had not threatened to call me a pussy.
So we were up at 0445 Monday and went for it. The ride over was surprisingly gentle, although I did crush a couple of vertebra in the last few miles. We arrived at our spot and found a couple of guys drifting by fishing for yellowtail. They saw the guns before we even anchored and bitched at us, but I anchored anyway. I decided that maybe I should stay in the boat just in case they got hostile, so I didn’t suit up. The guys reported that they could see bottom from the surface in 50 to 55 feet of water, and there was a lot of bait. It didn’t take long before each of them had come back with a nice yellowtail. The fisherman had left in disgust, so I decided to suit up. They told me that the fish were mostly at 40 feet and below since that was where the bait was. I thought that might be a something of a challenge for me, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I jumped in and the first band broke as I tried to cock it. It broke in the middle rather than at the knot. I’ve never seen that before, but I had an extra band in the boat, so I climbed back in, took things apart, and then got back in the water.
I swam out in front of the anchor, and sure enough I could see the bottom and lots of bait. My first warm-up dive was 33 feet for 52 seconds. I know that won’t impress you young studs, but I can’t recall a day since I’ve had a watch that my warmup dive was that long. Usually its more like 35 seconds. This was really encouraging. Maybe I could shoot fish at 40 to 50 feet after all. Fortunately, I never got a chance to find out. On my third drop, the bait had come up to 22 feet, so that’s where I leveled off. I looked out and there was a big school of yellowtail going by. I’m not used to shooting in open water and my first thought was that they were out of range, but I had plenty of extra time to hang there and wait for one to cut the corner. Also, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my aim with my 60” Super Magnum. Last summer when the big yellowtail were thick on a local kelp bed I was missing what seemed to be easy shots before I discovered that my brand new shaft was bent. By that time I wasn’t shooting instinctively, and was messing with my aim something fierce.
But anyway, now I have the original Wong 7.5mm spring steel shaft in the gun, and I decided to let fly without thinking too much about it. Damned if I didn’t hit the fish. I was using a short 60 foot float line, and as I hit the surface the float hit my hand. The fish had nothing to tie up in, so it was just a matter of playing it to the surface. I didn’t weigh it, but it was probably around 25 pounds.
I kid that I take one or two yellowtail per year, and since I had one, I decided to stay in the boat and play deck hand. The guys would bring a fish back to the swim step and I’d help get the slip tip out, unscrew the adapter, run the shaft through the fish, or whatever was appropriate. It goes so much faster with two guys working on it. We weren’t counting, but it seemed like the bag was getting pretty full. We faced a long ride home and then a lot of fish cleaning, so we headed home about 2:30. It turned out that we had 10 fish, and they were all good sized. Daryl’s largest went 31 pounds. By the time we cleaned the boat, bought gas, cleaned the fish and ate dinner, it was pretty late. I asked if they wanted to do the same thing again, and was surprised when they said yes. James had a big party scheduled and had promised to bring yellowtail, and Daryl actually takes fish home to Hawaii in his luggage. He said that he would have James mail his diving gear home so that he could fill his Sport Tube with yellowtail.
So up at 0445 again. Did I mention that I’m getting old? The forecast was better, so naturally it was actually a rougher ride, but I survived. This time there were 5 boats drifting, so I decided I wouldn’t even suit up. I wanted to play defense if necessary, and I was tired anyway.
It was different from the previous day. Daryl said he kept seeing schools, but they were much more skittish. James saw maybe three single fish. I was seeing yellowtail boiling on bait now and then. Anyway, Daryl ended up with 6 fish, the largest being 36.5 pounds, while James was skunked. If I had suited up, I’m sure I would have been skunked too.
It was interesting watching Daryl fight that biggest yellowtail. He was using a reel gun with yellow line, and I was sure he had shot the fish since his gun was floating on the surface. James was using a float line with my home made two-lobster-float float. But then I kept seeing the float being pulled below the surface. It turned out that while trying to fight the yellowtail, Daryl passed the float and decided to clip off his reel line to the tuna clip on the rear end of it. Clever, those Hawaiians.
I’m pretty sure none of Daryl’s fish weighed less than 20 pounds. The weather blew us off the spot at 1 PM, but we had plenty of yellowtail.
These were the first California yellowtail Daryl has taken since 30 years ago when he was in dental school at USC, but apparently he hasn’t lost his touch. Now, in addition to a personal best white sea bass on my boat, he has a personal best yellowtail. I don’t know how I’m going to top that next year.
He was flying out of San Diego on Wednesday, so after dinner at our house Tuesday night, he and James wanted to drive back down there. The problem was how to take all the fish. I offered a big cooler, but it wouldn’t fit in Daryl’s rental car. So James called a friend in San Diego and had him bring up a couple of coolers in his car. That’s a pretty good friend to drive up in evening rush hour traffic, but of course he did get a free dinner at my house and some yellowtail. After they left, I didn’t set my clock for 0445.
That was a hell of a lot of fish, but I guess it isn’t going to waste. This is a quote from an email I got from Daryl yesterday.
Thanks Nate Baker for shaming me into going (and for photo shopping the island out of the background).
This year he dove last Saturday and Sunday in San Diego and conditions were poor. Everyone got skunked. Then he drove up Sunday evening to dive Monday and Tuesday with me. He brought along James McCallan, a Navy guy who used to dive with him in Hawaii and is now stationed in San Diego.
I really didn’t know what the hell to do. While things have been red hot in some unnamed spots, they have sucked lately in the kelp beds in my area. There is hardly any kelp left and what there is is below 30 feet, the vis has sucked, and the current has usually been ripping. That left the islands as the obvious choice, except that the forecast called for small craft warnings until 5 AM Monday and then 4 to 6 foot swells after that. The only bright spot was that winds were to be less than 5 knots, but I was afraid that the swells would kick our asses anyway. I consulted with a few friends including Nate Baker, and he urged me to go for it. I really don’t think I would have gone if he had not threatened to call me a pussy.
So we were up at 0445 Monday and went for it. The ride over was surprisingly gentle, although I did crush a couple of vertebra in the last few miles. We arrived at our spot and found a couple of guys drifting by fishing for yellowtail. They saw the guns before we even anchored and bitched at us, but I anchored anyway. I decided that maybe I should stay in the boat just in case they got hostile, so I didn’t suit up. The guys reported that they could see bottom from the surface in 50 to 55 feet of water, and there was a lot of bait. It didn’t take long before each of them had come back with a nice yellowtail. The fisherman had left in disgust, so I decided to suit up. They told me that the fish were mostly at 40 feet and below since that was where the bait was. I thought that might be a something of a challenge for me, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I jumped in and the first band broke as I tried to cock it. It broke in the middle rather than at the knot. I’ve never seen that before, but I had an extra band in the boat, so I climbed back in, took things apart, and then got back in the water.
I swam out in front of the anchor, and sure enough I could see the bottom and lots of bait. My first warm-up dive was 33 feet for 52 seconds. I know that won’t impress you young studs, but I can’t recall a day since I’ve had a watch that my warmup dive was that long. Usually its more like 35 seconds. This was really encouraging. Maybe I could shoot fish at 40 to 50 feet after all. Fortunately, I never got a chance to find out. On my third drop, the bait had come up to 22 feet, so that’s where I leveled off. I looked out and there was a big school of yellowtail going by. I’m not used to shooting in open water and my first thought was that they were out of range, but I had plenty of extra time to hang there and wait for one to cut the corner. Also, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my aim with my 60” Super Magnum. Last summer when the big yellowtail were thick on a local kelp bed I was missing what seemed to be easy shots before I discovered that my brand new shaft was bent. By that time I wasn’t shooting instinctively, and was messing with my aim something fierce.
But anyway, now I have the original Wong 7.5mm spring steel shaft in the gun, and I decided to let fly without thinking too much about it. Damned if I didn’t hit the fish. I was using a short 60 foot float line, and as I hit the surface the float hit my hand. The fish had nothing to tie up in, so it was just a matter of playing it to the surface. I didn’t weigh it, but it was probably around 25 pounds.
I kid that I take one or two yellowtail per year, and since I had one, I decided to stay in the boat and play deck hand. The guys would bring a fish back to the swim step and I’d help get the slip tip out, unscrew the adapter, run the shaft through the fish, or whatever was appropriate. It goes so much faster with two guys working on it. We weren’t counting, but it seemed like the bag was getting pretty full. We faced a long ride home and then a lot of fish cleaning, so we headed home about 2:30. It turned out that we had 10 fish, and they were all good sized. Daryl’s largest went 31 pounds. By the time we cleaned the boat, bought gas, cleaned the fish and ate dinner, it was pretty late. I asked if they wanted to do the same thing again, and was surprised when they said yes. James had a big party scheduled and had promised to bring yellowtail, and Daryl actually takes fish home to Hawaii in his luggage. He said that he would have James mail his diving gear home so that he could fill his Sport Tube with yellowtail.
So up at 0445 again. Did I mention that I’m getting old? The forecast was better, so naturally it was actually a rougher ride, but I survived. This time there were 5 boats drifting, so I decided I wouldn’t even suit up. I wanted to play defense if necessary, and I was tired anyway.
It was different from the previous day. Daryl said he kept seeing schools, but they were much more skittish. James saw maybe three single fish. I was seeing yellowtail boiling on bait now and then. Anyway, Daryl ended up with 6 fish, the largest being 36.5 pounds, while James was skunked. If I had suited up, I’m sure I would have been skunked too.
It was interesting watching Daryl fight that biggest yellowtail. He was using a reel gun with yellow line, and I was sure he had shot the fish since his gun was floating on the surface. James was using a float line with my home made two-lobster-float float. But then I kept seeing the float being pulled below the surface. It turned out that while trying to fight the yellowtail, Daryl passed the float and decided to clip off his reel line to the tuna clip on the rear end of it. Clever, those Hawaiians.
I’m pretty sure none of Daryl’s fish weighed less than 20 pounds. The weather blew us off the spot at 1 PM, but we had plenty of yellowtail.
These were the first California yellowtail Daryl has taken since 30 years ago when he was in dental school at USC, but apparently he hasn’t lost his touch. Now, in addition to a personal best white sea bass on my boat, he has a personal best yellowtail. I don’t know how I’m going to top that next year.
He was flying out of San Diego on Wednesday, so after dinner at our house Tuesday night, he and James wanted to drive back down there. The problem was how to take all the fish. I offered a big cooler, but it wouldn’t fit in Daryl’s rental car. So James called a friend in San Diego and had him bring up a couple of coolers in his car. That’s a pretty good friend to drive up in evening rush hour traffic, but of course he did get a free dinner at my house and some yellowtail. After they left, I didn’t set my clock for 0445.
That was a hell of a lot of fish, but I guess it isn’t going to waste. This is a quote from an email I got from Daryl yesterday.
Thanks Nate Baker for shaming me into going (and for photo shopping the island out of the background).
