brownies coastwatch Fishing Report 2025

Polaris Supreme Trip Up Date 11-16-2013

First thing's first on today's report. Happy 1st anniversary to both captain Drew and his lovely bride, Kristen. Congratulations to you both. Since we're on the subject of significant others, hello again to both Kathy and Marla.You are both missed. The crew is once again too busy to sit up top and work a keyboard, so you are stuck with me again.

Weather out here remains stellar. Flat calm. Everyone on board has tagged a wahoo some have tagged 5. John Devore trolled up a real beauty out in the middle of nowhere that we'd like to see a few more of. Fishing has not been exactly red-hot, but has certainly been keeping us on our toes. We're currently on our way into Magdalena Bay to top off our bait. It's the first time we've seen land in about five days. Cocktail hour is underway. Tomorrow's plans are being plotted. This evening's dinner will be started with an Italian tuna soup, followed by a seared fillet mignon and scallops stir-fry, served with a roasted garlic risotto and sauteed broccoli. YUM!

One observation I have to share today was while trolling. I looked up and realized that a flock of frigate birds had been following us for several hours. The wingspan on these magnificent birds must be at least four feet. They look like prehistoric pterodactyls from the right angle. Nature is amazing. It's an incredible world out there. Go and see it ...

Your anonymous guest reporter.

 

P.S. We have landed about 150 Wahoo the last 2 days but kept only 46 for the trip. We released the rest. I have never seen this many small Wahoo. We are about 3 years too early on this school. The ones we kept where dandy's. Tommy

2 days of searching was rewarded with a bottom of the 9th rally on good grade yellowtail. Flylined sardines on 25 lb is the most productive right now.

Captain Tucker McCombs called in this afternoon with a wrap-up from the Endeavor out of Hook's Landing in Oxnard, CA. We had limits of Seabass today in the 15 to 25 pound class. The fish were biting pretty good today. We are booked up throughout the weekend but we have plenty of room next week.

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived this morning to the docks at around 0700 and said good-bye to our friends from SDG & E. We unloaded a beautiful catch of Yellowtail and a dazzling assortment of other tasty fish and the big Yellowtail honors go as follows: Lenny Campos - 26.2 lbs. Ulises Ochoa - 25.0 lbs. Rodger Schwecke - 24.8 lbs. Congratulations and thanks once again to the entire gang and we'll see everyone next season. After unloading, refueling, a couple of minor maintenance projects, loading groceries, and scrubbing the boat from mast to water-line, we loaded up another eager group of passengers and set sail for greater points south on another three day extravaganza.

 

Our group is quite the mix of Polaris Supreme veterans and Polaris Supreme first-timers but it's looking like we're going to have a fun group to fish with. We're headed right back to where we ended up last trip and with a steady flow of other boats in our wake, we're wasting no time in getting down there. We'll try and relocate some squid for a little while and if we can't, we're bombing on down to our honey hole with plenty of sardines and one tank of squid from last trip. We're knocking on wood and wishing upon lucky stars that our honey hole can give us one more chance at some good fishing before the place gets too congested. Please send us some luck from the beach. This is a team effort.

 

So there you have it. Our weather as we are steaming down the coast is gorgeous. A mild swell and light winds have made for premium traveling conditions and we'll be more than pleased if it continues until Wednesday morning but as we've seen, things can change in the snap of a finger. We're just enjoying the fact that the ride is currently beautiful, the Prime Rib was once again delicious, and our spirits are high. We'll report to you tomorrow.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Hi friends. The result of this morning's squid float was two deck wells and the port slammer being loaded up with squid. It was a great float with the entire crew waking up to get the job done in just about twenty minutes. What was an ocean void of squid-life at 1:45 AM  was then corroded with calamari at 2:00 AM. Swimming with the thousands upon thousands of squid were baby Mola-Mola's that were about the size of a hub cap. We had to push them out of the way to close the crowder without getting a few of those baby beasts in the net. We got all the bait we needed and then some along with some cool views of amazing ocean life.

Back to Friday for a moment, it was a decent day of Yellowtail fishing on the Polaris Supreme and what kept it from being a very good day was our score at the end of the day. For various reasons, we lost more fish than we tagged but we ended up with a respectable count on the 'tails. We also added plenty of white meat to our RSW hold and when the hatch was shut for the evening, we felt content with a solid day of catching fish in nice weather.

Saturday morning found us fishing the bait balls of squid as we attempted to snag a White Seabass or two. We didn't give it long before we began the chase for some more Yellows' and after a couple anchor jobs, we found yesterday's batch of fish but this time we were armed with plenty of freshly caught squid. Even with our brand new supply of bait we once again lost more than we hooked but just like Friday, we managed to piece together a nice catch of Yellows' in the 15-28 lb. range. Beautiful grade of fish, from the Yellowtail to all the various "taco meat" fish that we captured as well. Again, we are satisfied with our day but felt we should have done a lot better with our hook-to-land ratio. That's fishing though. There will be days that we land most of what we hook and there will be days that we don't. Just remember that when on a trip fishing for coastal species on the Polaris Supreme or any vessel, don't treat it as if they don't require the respect and attention to detail that offshore tuna would muster. Make sure your gear is in proper working order, properly set your drags, tie good knots/connections, and always have fresh line to start the day after a day of catching fish. Regardless of the fish lost, we are happy with our load in the fish hold and we had a very enjoyable trip.

So that is all. Good times were had by all and we'd like to thank Bret and the SDG & E gang for joining us for three days of good fishing, good food, and good friends. We're rolling up the line in rolly seas and our scheduled ETA to Fisherman's Landing is 0700 hours. We'll be turning around for another three day adventure and we'll chat with you tomorrow. Good night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-  

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived at the Yellowtail grounds today with the anticipation of a banner day as yesterday's reports from our long range brothers would give us no reason not to think so. We attempted to crowd some squid up for our bait arsenal but were unsuccessful in the early morning hours and continued on our trek towards the fertile fishing grounds. Once we arrived, it wasn't too long before we settled back on the anchor and had a few fish going. We hooked them using every possible method that we typically apply to catching Yellowtail...to be continued.

PS: 0200 hours update: Squid are floating!!! Gotta go, better report tomorrow. Sorry. Decent Yellowtail fishing today with some other tasty treats to join them in our fish holds. We'll be in Yellowtail land tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Hi friends. We departed Fisherman's Landing this morning on our annual Seifert, Lane, and Da Silva three day trip with a full load of bait and a full group of familiar faces. Bait loading went smoothly and we're currently motoring down to points South to begin our fishing activities. Reports sound pretty good at one of our favorite Yellowtail fisheries and we expect to do battle with the mighty Jack's sometime tomorrow.

All is well with the crew as we're all back from our 4th of July vacation and happy to be back to work, just doing our jobs and doing what we love. Chef Schooler/Chef Barry are about to kick out the Prime Rib feast, Drew is showered up and ready to serve the feast, and Tommy is downstairs giving the troops the evening briefing. We have nice weather rolling down and we're ready to get after it.

Not a whole lot to report this evening. Hopefully we have more to report tomorrow, we'll see. From the bridge of the Polaris Supreme, we bid you farewell and have a fantastic night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

AWESOME 2 DAY TRIP!!! For 25 anglers caught 100 ALBIES, 10 Dorado, & 25 Yellows. Great trip. Get more info & reservations at Fisherman's Landing @(619)221-8500

Mike Pritchard called in with this report for the Tribute. "We're on the 1st day of a 3.5 day trip sponsored by Okuma, Soft Steel & Seeker. So far the fishing has been very good. We have 36 Bluefin for the morning, some Rockfish to go with it even token Cow Cod.

"We have a few spots open on a 5.5 Day trip departing on October 28th. That is an Ultra Limited Load, only 12 anglers & we're looking for 2 more to go on that trip. If you are interested call Seaforth Landing at 619-224-3383.

Tom Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme at fisherman's Landing October 13 after an eight-day trip with 22 anglers.

"We had another fantastic day fishing the 30 lb. class tuna," he wrote Friday, October 10. "Our weather is beautiful. We are going to finish up our trip with some yellowtail fishing before heading home. The guys are having a great time. We've had good fishing, good company and good food. And on that last note, for dinner we had a really good honey dijon mustard crusted wahoo. Just superb. Our next trip is full but if you have some time our 10-day with Larry Brown on Oct. 25 still has some open spots. He has over 15 sponsors for many freebies and raffles. Give Susan a call in the office, at 619-390-7890."

Rothery reported water temps along The Ridge as 79 to 84 degrees, and 72 degrees at Alijos Rocks. He stayed just a day at The Rocks, without seeing much sign of tuna that wanted to bite.

"The Ridge was excellent for dorado, yellowfin and yellowtail. We got off the high spots and off floating kelps," he said.

Two brothers, Scott and Neil Langlois of Rancho Cucamonga, showed off a typical dorado and a wahoo.

Kevin Veal of Huntington Harbor won first place for a 37-pound wahoo that ate his Tady 45 jig in a new green/gold combination. He said he fished with 40-pound P-Line, an Accurate B2 870 reel and a Seeker CBJ 100F.

Steven Belardes was second for a 36-pound wahoo, and chartermaster LeRoy Balardes won third place for a 31.6-pound yellowfin tuna.

27 yellowtail 130 assorted rockfish 5 calico bass. For a brief period this morning the yellowtail reacted a bit better than the last couple of days. Hoping it’s a sign of things to come.