4 Tips for Fighting and Landing Large Gamefish

Your bait is getting nervous, as your slowly trolling around some live bait, and then it happens. "ZZZZZzzZZZZzzzz" - as your clicker sings that beautiful tune! What now?!

Hopefully, before the most exciting part of fishing happens, you've set yourself up for greater chances of success. Pre-setting your drag the night before, re-tying all knots and inspecting your line for any knicks or abrasions are all things you should do before fishing. But what happens once you've actually gotten a bite?

Below, are 5 tips that has helped me in fighting and landing many large gamefish out in the ocean!

1. Do not swing to set the hook!

This isn't bass fishing so no need for that Bill Dance hookset! Instead, and this is one of the most crucial parts of fishing live bait, is to wait at least 5 seconds before flipping your reel into gear. And that's it, no swinging to set the hook, rather allow the fish to hook itself while its running away. I know 5 seconds will feel like forever, but allow the bigger gamefish to eat the entire bait before setting the hook.

2. Mark your GPS

Most of my successes has come from understanding why the fish I'm chasing for bites. When you get bit, mark that spot on your GPS, and take mental notes as to the time of day, currents, presence of baitfish, any tidbit of information. All this will help you in seeing patterns for future bites. Additionally, circle around back and drag another bait right through the same area. You may be in for another surprise!

3. Clear the deck

Give your self some space and clear that clutter off your kayak. I like to place my paddle under the bungees on my Kraken, so I won't have to worry about it getting in the way or floating off into the distance. Clearing the deck will also help to prevent any tangles with other rods from happening.

4. Keep constant pressure

Often times, you don't even notice that you're doing it but you're rod tip is just too high and your line goes slack, and now you've lost your possible once-in-a-lifetime fish. Don't make that mistake, and keep that rod tip low and maintain constant pressure! This is where trusting your preset drags and knots come into play.

Hopefully, these 4 tips will help you in fighting and landing that next trophy gamefish!

Early summer in Southern California!

With early indications pointing to an El Nino season, conditions were impeccable for this time of year. Sunny weather, 80+ degree weather, and near 70 degree water temps made for some awesome fishing! Here's a video of some yellowtail fishing down here in sunny Southern California! Enjoy!

Photo featured on San Diego Reader

Well, what do you know! The Jackson Kayak Kraken getting some well deserved publication in the San Diego Reader!

lake murray - my new nemesis

if i had a nemesis lake, it'd be murray. hands down, with out a question, this lake has frustrated me to no end. i used to live maybe 10 minutes away from this lake, and have tried my luck here before. every single time, probably 4 or 5 outings now, i have come out of that place smelling like skunk. i've thrown my whole tackle box out there, spinners/worms/cranks/topwater/etc. with nothign to show for.

now, seeing that the boards have been flooded, and i mean flooded with new personal bests from murray, i had to give it another try. so, off i went with my gf.

started off tossing some worms out into some of the lakes nearby arms. bleh, the lake was just breaming with weeds, EVERYWHERE. the bait could not settle down, unless you found a pocket in that huge mess. i decided to move on to different waters, looking for some tules or open water. i made my way to the power lines, and spotted a few tules. started flipping my weightless senko right into or near the tules. did the same to some other bunches of tules, until i made it just past the power lines. threw in my senko once again to slack line. this time tho, once my line dropped in, it kept dropping. there was no way the water was more than 2 ft deep, but it seemed like my line kept on dropping. at that instant, and started reeling, and what do you know, fish on!

so thats why they say to watch your line for anything "different".

well, murray's still my nemesis lake, but i've got 1 fish out fo here! stoked, and can't wait to get back out there.

Sutherland - 6/15

Sutherlands been kind of my 2nd go to lake in SD county. Just after Miramar. Mainly because shore access is limitless. You can literally walk the entire lakes perimeter, if you've got the time. And, the fishings usually been pretty decent. My last outing on 5/31, we nailed a bunch of nice crappie and at my usual spot, i caught a couple bass. Pics from previous sutherland days.

Decided to hit up Sutherland Saturday morning, but got there pretty late. arrived around 10:30 am to a slight wind, but otherwise nice day. picked off a nice bass early on in the usual spot near the big rock on a crank bait.

we also soaked for some carp with a hair rig, using corn as bait. pbag pulled in a nice carp while we were fishing for crappie.

unfortunately, thats all we caught. no bites for crappie, no other bass, just nothing else. we walked around the lake, hit up a bunch of different spots, and ended up on the docks with still no biters. everyone we've talked to also didn't catch much. we heard from the boaters that most of the crappie were out in deeper water, and much of the bass being caught were near the dam. 

left at closing, as the bite actually turned on once the sun started setting.

PB in the Fresh!!! - 6/6

i had written up a long report, sprawled with my epic story of catching this beast. but, decided to cut it out, as most people only like looking at pictures. and i also started rambling off topic....

well without further adieu, my personal best LMB caught in our fine SD lakes!

caught on a brown 4.5" roboworm using my 7'6" ML/MF shimano compre on 6lb test! finesse style ftw! i was trying out some new rigs and decided to throw this finesse rig, and started jigging it around some points. hooked up to a smaller one at first, and thought, man this thing works! then after a few more cast, thought i got stuck on some rocks. gave it a tug, and it started tugging back! started reeling it in a bit, and it surfaced and jumped out of the water! once i saw it out of the water, MAN! my heart started pumpin! i fought her real nice and slow, knowing that i only had 6lb test line on. she kept giving some good hard runs, almost like my PB hali (33 incher). what got me more afraid was when she buried herself in some grass. on my ML setup, i thought for sure she was a gonner...but she came out and i surfaced her and eased her in. lipped and landed her! i took the hook out with ease, and damn lucky she didn't do another aerial show as for sure she wouldve shooken the hook out. took a few pics and set her free. she splashed her way back and swam away strong. man, she was a beast!!! i could literally fit my whole fist in her mouth.

SD Lake Lunker - 5/10

welp, decided to change things up and fish the fresh, so hit up one of the  inland lakes in sd county. made it out at around 1:00 pm, arrived to very little wind conditions, and many a jumping fish! threw the entire tacklebox at them. swimbaits, jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, worms, jigs, everything. did hook up to a nice bass on the lipless crank, early on, but still had many fish jumping around.

then, my buddy goes back to what he had tied on when we arrived. big hammer swimbait. someone told me that those wouldn't work in the fresh, but he was immediately on some fish! nice crappies to boot!

so i decided to tie my salt stuff back on and gave it a whirl. got a few taps, so remade with the mini big hammer. still getting taps but no takers, as my buddy hooks into his 3rd crappie on the swimmie. i then toss to a point, and get immediately slammed! fish is taking some crazy drag. pull her in as she comes to color, my personal best largemouth!

she was quite the lunker, and my forearms hurt after that. bass on the bh swimbait? i know, didn't believe it myself. after that i finally got into some crappie with the same bait.

my very first crappie!

crappie are like the surfperch of the freshwater. fun suckers on light tackle. ended the session with 2 bass and multiple crappies. all in all, good day on the fresh!

hanapa'a!