Many kayak fishermen have become so dependant on live bait that they have overlooked one of the best fishing weapons available - the yo-yo iron.  I have to admit that it's hard to compete with a slimy, wiggly mackerel, but quite often yellowtail, especially the big wintertime La Jolla homeguards, will strike an iron while leaving the bait untouched.

La Jolla in December 2003 was a perfect example.  I launched after dawn with one rod and paddled out to an area in 90 ft of water where a group of good kayak fisherman were milling around.  They were slow trolling plugs and greenies, casting fish traps and crocodiles, and bounce balling mackerel for halibut.  Two hours later my Salas 6x Jr. in blue & white had caught two 20# class yellowtail. Nobody else was getting bit.
For whatever reason, the yellows swam by all those live baits and plastics for a small hunk of fast moving metal.

I've caught >90% of my LJ yellows on yo-yo iron.  It's something about fooling a fish to eat an artificial lure that got me hooked (har har).  Now I do it because it just plain works.  Sometimes the success of yo-yo fishing seems random and unexplainable, but the real reasons behind why it works may not be so mysterious.  more