Record Yellowtail...
For all you Tunaholic's...
California yellowtail eclipses all-tackle record
San Diego deckhand on lunch break pulls up one behemoth mossback
By Bill Roecker
Oceanic Productions — Dec. 2, 2003
What Tom Lambert thought was a black sea bass of baby great white shark turned out to be a pending world-record California yellowtail.
SAN DIEGO — Tom Lambert of San Diego has been decking on the Qualifier 105 in the local long-range sportfishing fleet for a few years now, and when he manages time to fish he does so while the boat's passengers are eating or sleeping.
During one such foray recently, he sent a sardine down to the rocky bottom off Mexico's Guadalupe Island at lunchtime.
"We drug the anchor," Lambert said, "and re-anchored. There were just five guys fishing. I was looking for table fare for the winter, so I dropped the bait and it got bit about halfway down.
"I got bit, I put it in gear and got a few cranks. The fish ran for about 20 yards. I moved the drag lever to full. The whole thing took less than eight minutes, about five minutes with the fish on the line.
At line's end was a once-in-a-lifetime-size yellowtail, which, at journey's end back in San Diego, weighed in at 91.6 pounds on the certified scales at Point Loma Sportfishing.
The Nov. 21 catch is a pending all-tackle world record for California yellowtail. The existing all-tackle standard is an 88-pound, 3-ounce specimen taken in June 2000 off Baja California's Alijos Rocks by Ronald Tadashi Fujii, as recognized by the International Game Fish Association.
“ My wife's a little mad. I told her I'd have to take down the wedding pictures so I'd have a place to hang the mount. ”
— Tom Lambert
California yellowtail (Seriola lalandi dorsalis) is one of three subspecies. The largest is the southern yellowtail, or kingfish as it is dubbed in New Zealand (Seriola lalandi lalandi), with an all-tackle mark of 114 pounds, 10 ounces. The smallest is the Asian yellowtail (Seriola lalandi aureovitta), with its champion weighing in at 61 pounds, 8 ounces.
"It didn't feel that heavy," said Lambert, who pinned the sardine on a size 5/0 standard hook, with a 16-ounce sinker on a Baja loop of 80-pound line. "When it took off I thought it might be a tuna; then I thought it might be a black sea bass or a baby white shark."
He was surprised when he spotted the distinctively forked caudal fins and moss-hued back of the yellowtail.
"I just fish because I love it, not because I'm after records," said Lambert, 40.
"My wife's a little mad. I told her I'd have to take down the wedding pictures so I'd have a place to hang the mount."
__________________
"Truth is stranger then fishin" - Jimmy Buffett
Fish smarter, not harder !
Member: "Redneck Yacht Club"
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ANDYCOHO
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