Our good friend John Olson sent us this picture and story of his personal best Yellowtail he caught last week, 7/16/2015.

We left the dock at 10pm headed to the bait receiver fortunately we got some quality sardines from nacho and off to catalina we go , with a brief siminar from Rey , game plan and basic instructions on tackle and gear , and with weather conditions and yellowtail fishing in our favor we were left with a genuine, excited, anticipation of our day at the island as we hit the bunks my last thoughts like everyones is are we going to have that epic day , the anticipation of your first fish of the day and last but not least praying and thanking God for getting to do what we love and enjoy ..3 am we arrive at the island we anchor up just off church rock and as anglers start filtering out of their bunks trying to get there bearings and wakeing up the day starts slow with 3 small yellows and acouple barracuda caught we pull anchor about 6 and star working around the back side of the island with slow picking style fishing working our way to the 3 v’s and back by about 3 we had managed about 55 fish and then as we were searching he metered some fish around a rocky area loc not sure but alittle ways from the 3 v’s towards the east end as we started chumming i dropped a fly lined dine back and before we stopped i was at least a 100 yards out i proceeded to retrieve my dine and bam my dine was ingulfed instantly and with 40lb line i could not stop this fish with as much drag as 40 lb could handle it was frutile the home guard rocked me and broke me off , i imediately grabbed another 40lb stick and through out a super hot dine and within 5 minutes im on again this fish at first was fight like a bonita and then he feels the hook and now as he takes me up the rail towards the bow the brute power of this fish tells me its a home guard as it comes close to the anchor rope i bear down and am able to stop him and get him straight up and down as i see color and with the short powerfull head jerks like a tuna the brute is gaffed and with a thud on the deck from its size the realization of my first thought is its obviously my biggest yellowtail ever but it was a true home guard trophy fish and to get a yellowtail over 40 lbs was a great feeling and accomplishment and it took over 40 years of fishing to get it. In the end it was the jackpot fish!
Total count for the day: yt 64 for 30 anglers with 20 fish in the 20 – 40 plus lb range. Tight lines

Report by, Jayson Quimby
Tuesday evening, on the way down to get on board the Pride for our first overnight charter of the year, I received a call from the owner, Greg Gawitt, and he informed me that they were having some problems with the Pride, so he was putting us on the Aztec. This was definitely an upgrade as it is a much bigger boat, and the sleeping accommodations were very nice. 16 FIB’ers loaded the AZTEC and reports of excellent fishing that day got everyone excited!! The crew took their time loading cured Sardines, Macs, and Achovies into the tanks, and the captain informed us that the fish were as close as 16 miles from Mission Bay! He went over how we should rig up, and told us we should definitely try Shimano’s Flat Fall Butterfly jigs. We woke up at 5:15 to lumpy conditions, and a few people were not feeling their best because of it – it was a little windy and the close interval mixed swells had the boat rocking. We stopped on a sonar school of fish, and Art Gomez was the first one to land a fish- a 32.12 pound Bluefin Tuna

We had many stops on sonar schools, and breezing fish throughout the day, but all we could muster was the 8 fish: 1-BFT and 7-YFT. Thankfully, the weather smoothed out as the day wore on, but the bite just never got going for us. The crew worked very hard, traveled over 80 miles searching back and forth for the right school of fish, and we kept fishing hard until after 7PM. We tried it all, from 40# all the way down to 20# Fluro. We tried Macs, Sardines, and Anchovies all hooked in 101 different ways, and with really small hooks. We tried many types of lures too. Unfortunately, most of us just never got the bites we were looking for, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying!
Everyone unloaded with a smile, and a thankful heart. Thankful for another beautiful and safe day on the water, and thankful for being able to spend it on a great boat with a hard-working crew, and with our FIB’er friends.