airlie beach Fishing Report 2025

The Apollo checked in with 162 Albacore today. They've had some excellent fishing with beautiful weather. The fish are still on the chew, call Fisherman's Landing for details and to check their schedule. (619) 221-8500

A five-day Dan Heil Annual Charter aboard Polaris Supreme with Skipper Drew Henderson, arrived August 21 at Fisherman's Landing. "It's been 20 years now, since '87," said chartermaster Ron Heil, "that I've been doing this trip. My father Dan, who passed away this last season, had been doing it since Tommy (Rothery) bought the boat back in '80 or '81." Dan Heil had been chartering with Rothery since the early eighties on the Polaris Deluxe, now the Breezers. He sailed with Rothery on the Polaris Supreme since '85. Rothery bought the boat from Bill Poole in 1987. "It was a little choppy on that first day," said Skipper Henderson. "But we had great albacore fishing. Cedros was great, we spent a half-day kelp fishing with little action, so we finished up at Benitos, and it was all the fish you could get." "We had a good trip and great timing," continued Heil, who hails from Portland, OR. "Drew did a great job, right out of the chute the first day, we were on a great albacore bite. It was a well rounded trip."
Mike Hunting of Riverside landed a 48.4-pound yellowtail at Benitos Islands, good for first place in the jackpot. Mike fished a sardine on a 5/0 Owner hook, 40-pound P-Line, an Avet HX 2-speed reel, and a Calstar rod. "We were in a shallow spot on the ridge" said Hunting, "and there were guys losing fish in the kelp. So when I got bit, I decided he wasn't gonna get to the kelp, so I buttoned down, past strike, and started cranking." Bill Byler of Covina was second for a 37.6-pound albacore and Gary De Void of Encinitas was third for a 36.4-pound albie.

Today we had a good morning hit on the Tuna and Yellowtail. We were able to fill in the cracks for the people who still needed Tuna and also be selective for the larger models. After that we spent the day working up. picking up a few more Wahoo, Grouper, and larger Yellowtail . We will be focusing on Yellowtail tomorrow.

Aug 11

I'm not sure how i feel about today. I know at 3:30 I felt real bad. Extremely frustrated to say the least. 2 of the boats we were fishing with found schools early in the morning and drifted with it most of the day scratching away at the bluefin the whole time while we drove around seeing nothing. The other 2 boats we were with connected around 1:00 in the afternoon and were gettin um, so I was feeling sad and mad. I told Mark to switch gens and broke out the volt meter to see if we had a short somewhere. I figured there had to be a reason we were the only boat not drifting. We were looking in the same water with the same machines trolling the same jigs but just not seeing it. The truth of the matter is there was nothing wrong with the boat, her captain or the crew. Sometimes your just that guy. Sometimes your front row and sometimes your nose bleed.

OK, enough wining. The day turned out just fine. At 3:30 we found a boomer school and drifted on the 25-45 pound bluefin almost till dark. Everyone caught at least one with top dog Phil boating 6 of those beauts. The weather was great in the morning but increased wind velocity throughout the day and it was pretty choppy at dark. So with the weather coming up and our bait situation worsening, we're heading down to fish for yellows and try for some macks.

14 Anglers, 23 Yellowtail, 47 Bonito.  Tomorrow’s trip (Nov 13) has been cancelled due to lack of reservations.

~~Aug 24
 I can't think of a cool way to start this report so I'm just going to say what I feel.  This morning was making me a little nervous.  I thought that our timing was going to be off this trip.  I knew the fish weren't even close to being done for the year but for a couple of days I thought perhaps.  I was wrong.
 This morning we got our fish on.  We were catching plenty.  We started with a couple quicky stops and then had one good one.  The only deal was the fish were on the small side of things.  12 pounders, few smaller, couple bigger.  We were fishing them because at the time, we don't know that we'll find the better grade.  What if we drive away and we never find the bigger ones or another one period?  Anyways, it dried up and we went looking again.  We all got stuffed from lunch and right when we were feeling that it's either nap time or get a pot of coffee brewing we found what we were looking for and we drifted until the day was done.
 It was as good as we ever need fishing to be.  "One stop shop" if you will.  Bent rods all day and constant fish in the pit.  The pit is where the fish is dragged back to get spiked, bled, and tagged before going down into refrigeration until the end of the trip.  It's the busiest place on the boat during a good bite.  We even had a passenger in the pit today helping out when he thought he had his limit.  When I told him we were in American waters and California fish limit regulations apply he was back at the rail catching yellowfin.  We had a good day.
 The weather for the trip is so far so good.  We're going to make a move tonight and look for that bluefin we were catching last trip.
          
 My good friend Mr.Joe Beck would like to give a shout out to his special lady friend and wish her a happy birthday.  And we from the Polaris Supreme would like to wish you the same thing.  We hope you have and had a wonderful birthday.  Any friend of Joey's is a friend of ours.
 

Good Morning everyone, Today we departed on our Simpatico 6 day charter. We hustled and had a nice early start to our trip. We decided to start fishing kelp patties for Dorado and Yellowfin. We found a school of Dorado that bit extremely well. They were a bit on the small side, but the action was RED HOT none the less. Tomorrow we are hoping for Tuna. Wish us luck, Team Supreme

The Apollo has been fishing everyday now. They had great rockfishing today. Unfortunately, they did not catch any White Seabass. But they have been getting some. Listen to JJ's daily report. Next OPEN PARTY trip is April 10th.