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Chasing La Jolla Yellowtail
Story and Photo by Paul Sharman
Kelvin Nettleton of the La Jolla Fishing guide service shows the sort of fish that is still possible to catch even in December.
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La Jolla Shores A Popular Beach
Launch For Kayakers, Trailer Boaters
At this time of year, the sight of dozens of twinkling lights in the darkness makes you think of Christmas trees and holiday decorations, right? But, what if the lights are about a mile offshore at 5:30 in the morning!
That was the sight that greeted me as I arrived dark and early at La Jolla Shores just last week to meet up with Kelvin Nettleton, owner of the La Jolla Fishing guide service. Nettleton has run the service for the past year and a half, built on the back of his 30-years-plus of experience in fishing the La Jolla area.
Our target was the glut of Christmas yellowtail that had shown up over the last week or two, which explained the many lights of the small fleet of private boaters and kayakers that had already launched. The early start was not so much to find the fish as it was to try to catch some live squid for bait (see sidebar).
La Jolla Shores is one of the most popular beach launches in all of Southern California. This is due primarily to its proximity to the rich fishing grounds at the end of the La Jolla Canyon just offshore from the beach. It is also due to the fact that you can drive right onto the beach to unload.
The City of San Diego notes on its Web site that La Jolla Shores has the only beachfront boat launch within city limits. The city also highly recommends four-wheel-drive for launching boats from the sandy beach.
La Jolla Shores is particularly attractive to the large and ever-growing kayak community that rarely has access to such pelagic species as yellowtail, bonito, white seabass, and thresher shark without some sort of mother boat operation. However, there is another even smaller fraternity that takes full advantage of the beach launch: the small boater.
No, I don't mean a vertically challenged sea captain, but the type that trailers small craft onto the beach and launches directly into the surf.
More often associated with the panga fishermen of Baja, there are perhaps just a dozen or so San Diego boaters who enjoy the fact that they can access the prime fishing grounds in five or 10 minutes from the beach rather than make the half hour journey out of Mission Bay, or the even longer run from San Diego Bay.
Nettleton has been launching small boats here since the age of 16. His latest skiff, named Flare, is the perfect vessel with a shallow draft to aid launching and flared bow to deflect oncoming waves.
It's a quick process of backing the trailer down into just inches of water and pushing the boat off into the shallow surf. While the truck and trailer were parked nearby I spun the boat to face the waves and held it there. Once we were ready to go, Nettleton waited for a lull in the waves while I jumped in the front.
The motor was started and set in the unlocked position so that it would bounce if it hit the sand, a necessity in the shallow water. The surf was almost non-existent for our trip so we were quickly on our way.
A 5-mph zone leads out from the beach to the edge of the Underwater Ecological Reserve, but it is not far, and we were soon approaching the fleet of floating lights I had seen from the shore.
In the gray light of morning, I could make out kayaks and boats alike actively engaged in seeking their quarry, whether it was more bait or already soaking a live squid down on the bottom. We took up position amongst the throng and dropped down our squid jigs and a blue and white Kicker jig. Of course, it was the Kicker jig that caught our first squid; go figure!
Nettleton handed me the squid that was pinned to a circle hook through the top of its mantle, with a free-running drilled sinker placed above it to sink it to the bottom. Down it went to await its fate.
Meanwhile Nettleton continued to fish the jig, bouncing it just off the bottom to imitate the actions of a dying squid. Taking time to survey the anglers around us, we could see a couple of bent rods in the distance and then, as if a strong wind suddenly blew through, more rods bent over in ones and twos slowly heading towards us.
Yellowtail are well known as a schooling fish; they hunt and feed in packs, and it looked like one such pack was heading our way.
I had my reel in free-spool and was lightly holding the line to feel for any indications of a bite. The squid had to be in the right place. Nettleton looked at me and nodded - "any time now." He was right.
His jig rod suddenly bent over, and he was on! I wound up quickly to avoid any tangled lines and grabbed my camera to record the action.
The fish have been a good grade recently, and judging by the workout that Nettleton was receiving, this was a good fish also. It stayed deep and made some good strong runs before it was finally bulldogged to the surface and the waiting gaff.
The school had continued to run through, and we could now also see anglers on the far side of us hooked up and enjoying their own battles. This is particularly fun for the kayakers who are taken on "sleigh rides," as they are known - rods bent double and being towed along by the powerful fish.
We both dropped down again, and it was not long before my squid started to feel nervous this time. I'm not sure if squid can sweat, but that's the feeling that was being transmitted up the line to me!
I felt a couple of pecks at the bait, then a slow pull. I put the reel in gear and wound into the fish as you do with circle hooks. No Bill Dance hook-sets here! I was rewarded with an instant surge of pure power from the far end of my line as the yellowtail reacted to the sting of the hook.
A good initial run led to a battle of about five or 10 minutes before we were finally able to see color and then - the hook pulled. That's fishing I guess, but it was still early, and there were still other fish being fought around us so we dropped down again.
This time Nettleton hooked his second on a frozen squid hard on the bottom. As we already had the one fish we wanted to keep, this one was played to the boat where it was then released back to its comrades to fight another day.
When fishing is as good as this, it is easy to get in the habit of filling the boat, but these fish are likely to be local residents all year round (known as home-guards) rather than the schools that migrate up the coast in the summertime. So, with the constant pressure on their numbers, it makes sense to keep only what you really intend to use and release the rest to help maintain the population.
As the morning wore on and the sun rose ever higher, peeking out occasionally through the gray winter clouds covering most of the sky, the assembled anglers began to drift away until there were just a handful left.
The bite had also dropped away. Perhaps the fish were satiated for now, but they would be back, as would the anglers, in this often repeated scene throughout December and on into the new year.
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