Group Trip – August 18 – 22 2025
Another great trip with Cedros Outdoor Adventures. There were two grades of yellowtail this year. To the south, on the bajo and out towards Natividad, the fish were from 18 to 25 pounds, and there were lots of them. Easy limits in this area. They were taking trolled mackerel-pattern and purple Rapala Deep Diving Magnum lures. They were also biting blue-and-white Salas and Tady yo-yo iron. No surface iron fish for me this year. Besides the 18- to 25-pound fish in the area, Tom in our group picked up a 48.5-pound yellowtail on a blue-and-white Tady jig, and it was a very challenging, long, drawn-out battle with a wrap in the kelp to deal with. Our boat captain, Arturo, did a great job driving the boat and helping Tom land the fish. This 48.5-pounder ended up being the biggest fish caught by our group during the trip.
The consistent bite on bigger 30- to 45-pound yellowtail was to the north, only about a mile from the breakwater. They were in very shallow water (20–30 feet), almost up on the beach, and fly-lined mackerel was the way to catch them. The bite was not wide open, but if you put in the time you would get them. We did not catch any fish under 30 pounds in this area.
This was, I think, our 9th or10th consecutive trip with Cedros Outdoor Adventures, and we are making our reservations now for 2026. As always, the crews did an outstanding job with everything. The food was great, and the fish processing was fantastic. The fish-cleaning crew did a great job filleting, trimming, vacuum-sealing, and freezing the fish. I ate some last night and it was very well taken care of, required no additional trimming, and tasted as good as fresh.
Best – John Gilkerson