Here's a relayed report from my friend Thomas Lin and his brother Steve on the Yolaray
This is a updated report for the Yolaray fishing dates July 15,16,17, and 18.
Anglers Steve and Thomas from South Bay
Day #1
We fished El Banco, 2 sailfish released, 4 tuna. One good fish taped at 165, other 3 btwn 20-40. Saw good signs of big fish (200+). Sailfish were available if you wanted them
Fish was caught on Yo's Custom Calstar 7460m, Tiagra 16 with 90lb flouro fishing cabalitto. finished off in 25 minutes
Day #2
El Banco. Released one marlin (200lb), one tuna (30lb), and one cubera ( 59.4lb)
Looked like a parking lot at the bank, 16 boats working 2 high spots. Overall down day
Marlin brought to the boat in 7 minutes on Yo's Calstar 755 xxh bent butt, Cal's modified Penn 80. Fish came in very green and pissed off. He tried to jump in the boat with 3 attempts. We had to punch the throttle to avoid what happened in Panama.
Day#3
Corbentania Rock. 2 Cubera (54.5lb and 47lb), one grouper (18lb). Caught the snappers while trolling skipjacks overall high spots (intentional) We had several strikes from cubera (8 strikes). Some signs of tuna, only some few big ones. One boat Summertime from Cabo caught a 349lb tuna. Around 12:30 we had strike from our downrigger. I fought a good solid fish as I was able bring him close to the leader in 25 minutes, he was circling but still green. He pulled 45 lbs of drag without any effort. You could feel the large tail beat when he was down. Fish eventually lost from pulling the hook due to the rod popping out of the gimble when the fish suddenly went sideways. Very difficult to crab walk on a small boat and 45lbs of drag. I wished I would have not done that (put so much pressure on). The mate with 15 years of experience (3 seasons from Azores/ Madeira wiring 1000lb blue marlin/ and giant bluefin) says that fish was in high 280 or above, but I guess I would never know. Fish was hooked on Yo's Calstar 755 xxh bent butt, Cal's modified Penn 80. Of note we saw 2 tuna clippers (purse seiners with helicopter scouting the area.) They were there the whole day
Day #4
Corbentania Rock. One sailfish released. Fished appeared skittish today. We do not know if the seiners made a set and left. We hooked one blue marlin, but it became unbuttoned in 3 minutes. We had very limited time fishing today as we had a 4:50 flight to catch back to LAX. So at latest we were supposed to leave Corbentania was 2:00.
At about 11, the wind finally started to come up enough to fly a kite. I started a chunk line and we had good signs of tuna (mainly 40-60 lb class). We missed a strike on the kite, I got cherry picked while clicker fishing and keeping a chunk line. Then 2nd mate Carlos hooked a fish from the bow fishing a caballito at about 12:45. He handed the fish to my brother Steve who initially thought it was a small fish as he was gaining line. He caught it on Yo's Custom Calstar 7460m, Tiagra 16 with 80lb topshot & 90lb flouro and was putting good steady pressure at 25lbs -27lbs at strike. However, the tuna again play possum and the battle started into the typical see- saw. After one hour and 15 minutes we were pressed for time. This fish was still not ready to come in as we thought. We gained line many times well back into our 25 yard topshot, but the fish seemed boat shy and would take you back to middle of the spool. Since we were pressed for time, my brother offered me to take a crack at it. Initially, I was able to put good pressure on the fish, however, the drag started to slip even at full. I had to start handlining this fish in otherwise we were not going to make our flight. As the mate started handlining this fish in, I put the clicker on and free spooled to turn the preset a few clicks higher. After that I was able to gain some line almost close enough for leadering. You could see the fish and it was clearly a toad. Then, all of a sudden, I heard a snap. I looked down and saw that my tiagra had popped out with both broken screws and completed disfigured base. The fish was still on as I was fighting the fish with just the reel and the mates were handlining.Then, the inevitable happened. The fish finally chewed through. This was a real bummer because we saw this fish and it was clearly a toad. Difficult situation being pressed for time. I guess Murphy's Law is right, wrong gear for the wrong size fish. Oh well, until next time back to PV in 3 weeks.
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