Palomar knot is always a go to!
Yellowtail are in the Jack family
One of the hardest fighting fish in the ocean in my opinion. All Jack's fight hard. Such relatives of yellowtail are jack crevale, amberjack, roosterfish,giant trevale. Catching one off crystal pier is very uncommon though yellowtail frequent those waters almost year around.
Looks like an old ambassador 6500 or smaller. Good old reels but they have come a long way. Only downside to the older ambassadors is the drag washers were junk. But those reels are bullet proof.
Usually I use a palomar knot with most line to swivel or line to hook knots. With braid to hook you can use the double palomar. When I do line to line knots such as braid to mono I do am Albright knot. Also works great with mono to mono. Good luck!
Yes trout do migrate whether it's just up or downstream in a creek or river system or they will migrate up into the headwaters into a lake and then to feeder creeks that dump into lakes to spawn. Depending on season and water temp the fish will move up or downstream in search of their ideal conditions for feeding. However when you get cold snaps the fish will lock jaw and it's very hard to get a bite. When you have very cold nights just above freezing or below try waiting till mid day for fishing. 1 degree or so in water temp is all it takes to turn on a bite