Yellowtail Release

[chris138]

Originally Posted by taggermike

As 2 whales said, YT are hardy.

Years ago I worked for the Hubba Institute.

We collected YT for brood stock. We fished off the Dolphin sports boat out of Islandia.
As I recall we landed 13 fish in the 15-20 lb range. We used big long handed soft nets to lift the fish, laid them on a damp towel to unhook them, then put them in the bait tank. The YT rolled over on to their backs and laid on the bottom just gilling gently.

Back at the dock we netted them again, ran them up to our tank truck, drove the short way to SeaWorld, netted them again, and put them in to round 12' diameter 3' deep tank. I kid you not, 2 days later they were eating. And within the week they would see us standing over the tank and come to us o be fed.
Of the 13 collected 12 survived. The 1 that died had been gill hook and came in bleeding. But I think it still lived a week. Mike

That is a rad story thanks for sharing.

[FullFlavorPike]

Meanwhile a 'dine can't live for more than thirty-eight seconds in my bait tank...

Jacks must just be hardy like that. "Spanish" macs are related to yt, and they are little survivors, too.