brighton Fishing Report 2024

Captain Steve Gawitt just called in with an update from Aztec with an offshore update from San Diego. This morning on our first drift put 24 Bluefin Tuna, 2 Yellowfin Tuna, and 1 Yellowtail on the deck. We are seeing bigger Bluefin Tuna and we have had a fair amount of missed fish.

The Aztec is running Overnight trips departing from Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. You can call (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action.

Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing July 24 following a five-day, 24-passenger charter with owner-skipper Tommy Rothery, who was credited by other skippers with finding a new area of albacore to the west of the previous location. Brad Donnelly of San Clemente won first place on the Tuna Trackers trip, for a 52-pound yellowfin. He said he took it with a sardine on a 3/0 Eagle Claw hook and 40-pound Soft Steel line. He used a Penn 4/0 reel and a Seeker 6465 H rod. Mike O'Donnell of Palmdale was second, for a 45-pound albacore. Jason Severen of Petaluma tied with Tom Donnelly of San Clemente for third place. Each had a 42-pound albacore.

The Apollo fished at San Miguel Island today for limits of Rockfish and 18 lings plus one nigh Halibut. The SFR Apollo trip is scheduled for next weekend. We are a go and only have 7 spots as of the time of this post. Sign up now by clicking on fishing trips.

We are underway in gorgeous weather. Our bait we picked up at the receiver is perfect 6-8 " sardines. We have eight anglers on board. George, Craig, Al, Bobby, Scott, Sheridan, Tom, and Roger. Our crew is Captains tommy, Drew and Kevin. Our deck crew is Mike, Dave and Perry, and our chef is Javier. All the boys are napping right now after a delicious chicken breast with plum sauce for lunch. We will be traveling for at least two days before we start fishing, so don't expect anything but naps, rigging and food reports for the next few days. Hope you all had a great Christmas!

The Annual SFR charter aboard the Apollo with Captain J.J Gerritsen and crew was a big success !! The Apollo is running out of Sea Landing on beautiful Santa Barbara Harbor, the closest harbor to the outer Channel Islands. Great weather meant an ideal cruise over to San Miguel Island for some of the finest shallow water rockfishing you'll find anywhere. 300 feet down you say, maybe 200, how about 100 feet ? No way. The offshore terrain around San Miguel is so rugged and marked with underwater pinnacles, we spent most of the day fishing in 25 to 90 feet of water. Lighter rigs, jigs, leadheads and swimbaits were the order of the day, and the San Miguel rockfish were in a hungry mood. We started catching fish before daybreak and spent the rest on the trip hauling up huge reds, chuckles and lings, all sporting some of the most vibrant colors I've seen on any fish in a long time. Awesome day!! We limited out on huge rockfish, slammed about 50-60 grumpy whitefish, 5-6 huge goats and 16 or so pre-historic looking lings before calling it a trip. Epic day !!!! The jackpot was a nail biter as Shawn Suhr's huge lingcod and Art Moralez's giant goat battled to a near dead heat. Captain J.J needed to come down and settle the score, with the final vote went going to Shawn's 12-13 pound ling. Great job Shawn. Captain J.J and his crew did an awesome job as always and the Apollo is looking as spotless as ever. The Apollo will be in Santa Barbara till around mid May before moving down to Fisherman's Landing in San Diego. Call Sea Landing at 1-805-963-3564 or log onto www.apollocharters.com for their schedule. Great trip everyone !!!. email me at [email protected] for any photos. Thats the word on the water. Don

59 bluefin 37 yellowfin. Quite a few bites on the 30-40lb flylined baits today. Sinker rigs, colt snipers and flat falls still getting plenty of action.

102 yellowfin tuna for the annual Gas Fisherman charter. One stop can make or break your day.

Hey guys, the yellowtail counts at the Coronado Islands have dropped a bit the past couple of days. There are a couple reasons for the slower fishing. First reason is the south wind we have had for the last two days. This south wind has dropped the water temp a few degrees therefore making the yellows a little less active. The second reason is the seal ions have stepped up there game. In the last three days we have lost at least 40 yellowtail to the lions. Good news is , the south wind is predicted to end by the end of today. Starting Tuesday we should start to see the water begin warming again. With the warming water the yellowtail should get more active making them easier to hook. With the seal ions acting as a tax collector it just comes down to the fact that we need to hook more fish. When we are hooking more fish both the seal ions and us can get our share. The best way to hook these yellowtail has still been a flylined sardine on 25 lb. test. The Coronado Island yellowtail have not gone anywhere , they are still there. We just need the water to warm a tiny bit so we can start catching them again. Look for better counts in the next few days. Today's photo is of a father and son with 3 yellowtail caught on Saturday. Quality family time in the outdoors is what it is all about ! Grab your son, daughter , grandson , granddaughter , nephew or niece and enjoy some time on the ocean with us.