I already posted this on the other board, but just in case you're not a member, here it is.
Left Shelter island at 6:00am and went directly out to the lower 9 mile bank. The water was a little brown and still cold, (63.4 degrees)way too cold and the wind and swell was picking up fast. We putted around for a while looking for bait on stringers and then figured we should probably head south while it was still early. It wasnt exacly a lake, but we maintained a 25mph speed all the way to the 425 bank. The water there was right around 66 degrees and pure blue. We looked for paddys around there but they were near impossible to find because of the wind and chop. We drove about 10 miles past the bank and made a wide loop back up to the the 371 bank and a wide loop around to the 302 and back. We found water above 70 degrees, but it was way way out there. The swell, wind and chop was so bad that we had to slow down to <10 mph at times just get through it. It wasnt really the swell that was beating us up, it was the wind and the chop. It was near impossible to drive through it at any speed. At one point i thought to myself that i had no business being that far out on a boat this size, or on any boat for that matter. No joke, it was ugly.
At one of the last spots before we decided to turn back we found great conditions...Great meaning there was extremely blue water, endless vis and plenty of the right bait, the weather was still shit. We got in and started hunting. We didnt see anything right away except for some super sketchy macs (little banged up) and some blue perch. My buddy mike trades me guns, he wanted me to try out his homemade 67 bluewater beast. Not 5 minutes after i see the bait scatter. I dive down to 15 ft and look in the opposite direction of where bait went, and wait patiently for what i think is a few yellows. Then there they were, first a train, then a wall, A WALL of yellowtail all in the 20 - 25 lb range. Ive always heard about walls of yellowtail, but never seen it in person, and i know now why they call it a wall. From the surface to as far down as you can see, left to right nothing but yellowtail. I waited a good 15 seconds before i picked my shot, i was trying to get 2 with one shot but i figured i wouldnt be greedy, and just take the best shot i had. I pick my shot carefully and off went the 11/32 shaft. The bluewater was decieving, at first i thought these were 15 lb fish 15 ft away, but really they were more like 20 - 25 ft away. Luckily my shot still made it to the fish, and what i thought was an easy shot was really a hail mary. It went just a hair under 24 lbs.
The other guys jumped in and got their fish, i made an attempt at a few more but after a while they got smart and wouldnt come any closer than like 30 ft after a while, we could have probably hunted longer, but we were so tired and sore from the constant beating of driving through angry ocean that we figured we would head back while we still could. We had to stop behind the coronado island for a while til the weather cleared up a little. It was nice to rest in calm water, eat lunch and get a little energy back. We dove the reefs for some calicos and ocean whitefish for a couple hours, then headed home.
We burned just over 60 gallons of fuel and covered 100+ miles but it was worth it for those 3 fish. I think a lot of guys would have turned around earlier than we did, maybe smarter guys than us, but we were determined to come home with fish. That was the furthest ive ran my boat since ive had it and it performed umbelievable considering the conditions, she kept us safe and got us to the fish and back. It seriously took a lickin and kept on tickin.
Paul