bairnsdale Fishing Report 2024

Say what????? Limits of Yellowfin (25-45 pounds) the last day of November and after our last storm. Yup! Great sign of 100-200 pound plus Bluefin too, but the couple bites we had got away quickly. We have a few more trips this week before we go to the boat yard.

Monday, July 22nd, 2013

Hi friends. We departed this morning on Paul Hess' annual 5-day adventure with a great load of folks and a good load of bait. This is one of my favorite trips of the year not only for the excellent company but Sandra brought homemade peach/blueberry cobbler for us to munch on. That's what I'm talking about! I'm going on a diet just so be able to eat it whenever I please. We'll see how it goes.

Anyhow, we headed out to an area that one of our spotter plane friends saw sign of that school-sized Bluefins we found 9 schools, they were as boat-shy as they come. We managed to land 28 of those fish up to 25 pounds. We will be in search of the 55 to 75 pound fish. If we were to stay here tomorrow in this upper area, we'd run out of bait with so many short stops.

With that, we're heading further south in search of those beauties that we've been catching the last couple of weeks and we'll be there first thing in the morning. Wish us luck and we'll report back to you tomorrow evening. Take care.

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 Sept. 5
 The bluefin were a no go again today. We once again saw plenty of schools, they just don't bite. We ended up picking up 3 60-80 pounders. I wanted at least 3 to make jackpot easier, unfortunately for an easy jackpot but fortunately for a Mike Grella, 2 of them were caught by the same man and no one person can take more hen one place. We'll just have to weigh a bunch of those wahoo. We scratched at the yellowfin all day long. In the afternoon we were seeing straight schools of it but it wouldn't bite too well. One at a time. Anyways, the fat lady has sung. We are on the way to the barn all fat and happy. It's been a great trip. Lots of wahoo, yellows and tuna. Tommy will be coming back out for 5 days and I'll be going home. Ever since my wife went back to work I only get to see her and my daughter on the weekends that we're in for the morning and for the last month that's only been once so I'm looking forward to spending some time with them and watching some NFL,
 eating some bluefin and wahoo and relaxing. See you all in 5 days.

Steady sonar stops for our 30 anglers produced 104 yellowtail from 12-20 lbs. 40 lb mono on a 20 or 30 size conventional reel and a yoyo jig was the most productive. Trips are filling up fast for this season. Make those resos

Sep. 14

Good evening folks. We departed today after a very fast turn around on an 8 day trip. I'm back after 2 nights rest and ready to get back at it with Tommy at the helm. Good weather today along with good food, company, seminars, naps and just good old fashion relaxation mixed with anticipation. We're ready to go here. We're ready to get into battle mode. What we'll be battling is yet to be determined at this point in the night. We're still figuring out where we want to start this journey of long range sportfishing.

Oct.12

Today was a good day out here. We started our morning off with a few yellowfin strikes and at 8:30 we hit a good school of stock 25-30 pound bluefin, a few bigger and a few smaller with some yellowfin and dorado mixed in. We drifted with them for two and a half hours. For most the rest of the day we didn't drive for more then an hour before seeing something. We found a dab of 40-60 pound bluefin and landed one, we found another dab of 25-30 pounders and landed 10, we found a kelp for a handfull of yellowfin along with the occasional yf jig strike. An action packed day, just what we needed. Good weather for us today but the guys down below are complaining about rough weather. We're heading in now and Tommy Rothery is coming back out after a long land stretch and is taking the boat out for 8 days. I'm sure he's looking forward to getting out of the office and back on the water.

Once Again the ocean proves to us that everything will balance out if given enough time. Just last week it looked as if we would never touch our gaffs again. Today our 31 anglers were treated to a long drift that ended with 19 bluefin tuna from 60-100 lbs and 2 20lb yellowfin tuna. Preparation, an open mind and understanding that Mother Nature is the one one in charge is all you need. A wise old man once told me “we’re only as good as the fishing” today the fishing was very good and we are thankful.

We have a Berkley sponsored open charter this Friday. This will be the first trip after Ling cod opens. There will be give away packs for everyone. Come on out and have a fun day on the water with us this Friday April 3rd. We will depart from Sea Landing at 9pm on Thursday night. The cost will be $145 and the trip is limited to no more than 25 people. Call (805) 963-3564 to get in on the action.