cairns Fishing Report 2024

Another great day of fishing out here. We had 160 rockfish 7 lings and 137 whitefish for 16 guys on the Endeavor.

Polaris Supreme Trip Up Date 11-17-2013

Another productive day of scratch fishing here aboard the Polaris Supreme, off of the Baja Mexico coast. A bit more variety than days past, even to the point of stumping the marine biologist passengers aboard in identifying a bottom dwelling creature or two that were incidental catches. Anything that comes aboard that stumps the boat is typically referred to generically as a "snarf" of some type. Seems as though there's always something new to discover on these trips.

Our weather continues to behave, and we're loving that. I don't believe that we've had 10 knots of wind at any point over the past eight days. We couldn't ask for better weather. The sea temperature is dropping slightly as we head into the more northerly latitudes, though. We were up bright and early this morning, before daybreak, and watched as the moon set in the distance, glimmering off of the calm ocean. It looked like a French impressionist painting, except that we were experiencing it, and it was all around us, rather than someone else's rendition hanging on a museum's wall.

Crewmember Mark modeled his hardhat briefly this afternoon. I think it's in anticipation of his getting ready to do something really stupid, and being sentenced by the rest of the crew to wearing it for an extended period of time. Think of it as the Polaris Supreme's version of a dunce cap. Kristin, I apologize for spelling your name incorrectly yesterday. Happy anniversary AGAIN to both you and Captain Drew.

Dinner tonight is fresh wahoo, with some rice and green beans, I believe. I only eat the dinners to get my hands on the incredible desserts that they've been serving. Not really ... I only eat the desserts to make Captain Tommy feel less guilty for his indulgences.

Tommy Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme after the annual George Davis Expedition, with only eight anglers aboard. Rothery tied up at his space on the inner wing at Fisherman's Landing, ending his long range season on a positive note with a visit to Baja's southern banks and the Cleofas Bank, where all the fish that were kept were caught. Four cows were among the fish offloaded January 13. "All the big fish were from Cleofas," said Tommy. We released about half the fish we caught there, and nearly everything, including 15 big tuna, we caught up above. "So many people put so much emphasis on their pile of fish at the dock," remarked Rothery. "It disgusts me." Rothery and his anglers consistently release many fish of all sizes. Charlie Middleton of San Pablo got two cows; one with a sardine and the biggest one on a chunk. His tuna weighed 201.4 and 245.6 pounds. He said he fished with 8/0 Gamakatsu hooks, 130-poudn Maxima line and 130-pound Spectra backing on a Penn 80 SW reel and a new Ugly Stick 130-pound class rod. "That rod works good," said Charlie, who got his smaller fish in only 15 minutes. Al Tokunaga of North Hollywood took a 232.4-pounder after a 30-minute tussle. He said the fish bit on a sardine pinned to a 9/0 Eagle Claw hook. He fished with 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Spectra, with a Cal Sheet-s prepped Penn 50 S reel and a Calstar 6455 XH rod. "I used an eight-ounce torpedo sinker attached with a rubber band," noted Al. "He bit right after daylight. They were down there about that time every day." Roger Brown of Riverside bagged a 210.9-pounder with a mackerel on a 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hook. He said he fished with 100-pound Jin Kai line and 130-pound Jerry Brown Line One Spectra on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a Calstar 6455 XH rod. Brown's fish was notable in that it fought for 35 minutes, and then pulled skipper Drew Henderson over the side when he single-gaffed it. They were both brought aboard without further incident. Rothery noted that he will be doing boat work from now until May 31, when he will begin his summer season of three to five-day trips.

One stop late in the day accounted for all of our tuna. We ended up with 68 yellowfin 6 bluefin 29 yellowtail 7 bonito.

61 yellowtail. Never had the big blow out we were looking for but scratched a day out on a handful of kelps.

~~Aug 23
 We drifted most of the morning until around 9 or so.  We drifted due to us catching fish.  We caught a whole lot of fish this morning.  They weren't the same 20-25+ pounders we've been getting.  There were a few of those, but these were about half that size.  It wasn't what we were hoping for but they were still fun.  The guys were having a blast.  They were getting some practice at the whole tuna fishing thing, picking a good bait, where to drop in, follow your fish... And they got to use some of there tags as well.

 After that we thought it would be a great idea to make a few hour run and get to San Clemente Island to catch those big yellows we caught there a couple of trips ago.  In theory it sounded great, but we didn't catch very many yellows.  We ended up bailing on it and looking for some bluefin that's been hanging around there.  We saw one pretty good spot around there but they wouldn't bite.  At dark we ended where we'll start tomorrow.  Some boats had some pretty good days here today on a very good grade of yellowfin along with some of that 25-50 pound bluefin as well.  Oh how I hope we can get in on some of that tomorrow.
Time will tell.  Cross your fingers at home. We'll take some good luck anywhere we can.
      

ood evening everyone, Today we started in search of Yellowfin Tuna. It seemed that the past days have been a grind for those who have committed to this area. So we woke up today ready to grind. Fortunately we found a school early that wanted to play. So with the ball in our court we were really to put the wood to these school sized fish that were eagerly pouring aboard Polaris Supreme. Absolute chaos to start the day, a perfect way to follow two days of premium yellowtail fishing. We kept at it, getting good scores on these tuna to join the yellows that were chilling in our frigid holds. Eventually we did have to point the boat towards home and call it a trip, but what a way to end! I would like to thank Ron for putting together this charter and everyone for joining us and putting the screws to these fish when it counted! We will be in San Diego tomorrow dark and early at 5:30 to offload the bounty and come out for another. Until next time, Team Supreme

~~Aug 30
 Today didn't go as well as we were hoping. The plan sounded so good in my head too. You don't believe me? Come inside my mind and tell me it didn't sound like a good plan, you'll be a liar. The plan was to start here and work there. We were supposed to catch a bunch of yellowtail, then catch a wahoo or two, then scratch at some dorado here and there along with another wahoo or two, then we were supposed to get a small hit on wahoo in the end before finding the motherload of dorado.

 Well, there wasn't much yellowtail. The little bit of dorado we saw either didn't bite or was small. And we didn't see a wahoo until the end. We did see a school of good grade yellowfin that wasn't in our plan. It didn't bite for long though. It was on the corner biting every bait for about three minutes. Just long enough for everyone to get one and then they vanished. I drove around thinking I would easily find the school again but we never did. We lost at least 6 wahoo on the last spot we checked and landed none. The wahoo won today.

 Cool things of note today- the sailfish we caught, a couple marlin hooked and the orcas we saw. In the 14 seasons I've been out here I can only remember a handfull of times seeing killer whales so it's not too often we see them. We also don't catch sailfish too often.

 Tomorrows plan- wahoo!