fishing fraser island report Fishing Report 2025

Capt Mike Pritchard called in from the Tribute on Day 2 of a Friends of Rollo/Wicked Tuna Trip, today we found a nice grade of Yellowtail, we caught 24 from 12 to 25 pounds and we got some nice grade Bluefin Tuna this morning. We do have another trip leaving tonight with some room, if you are interested in going give Seaforth Landing a call at 619-224-3383 to sign up.

Aug 14

Not much action in the morning for us. We were seeing very little and not catching much and had little time to do it so we searched in new grounds. We saw a couple of real good schools that wouldn't cooperate only managing to hook and land 1. We had a kelp for some 18-25 pound yellows so maybe we'll see more of that in the near future. It was a tasty looking zone. I wish we would've had more time to look in it but we were too far from home so we had to head it for the barn. Great weather today and we're forecasting more of the same in the foreseeable future. We'll be a little later to the dock with an eta of about 9:00 am and Tommy will be handling the next trip of 5 days.

Beautiful weather, sunny, warm and calm. This is the last traveling day. We will be arriving at 10pm tonight, just a few more hours to go. While you're bringing in the New Year, we will be trying to catch 200lb. tuna. The guys feasted on teriyaki yellowtail fillet burgers and bow tie pasta salad for lunch. Rib eye steaks and baked potatoes for dinner, and yes sushi and sashimi for hors d'oeuvres. Happy New Year from Tommy, the crew and the anglers.

Aug. 4
 Here we go again.  This time for 4 days.  Tough decision for me today.  Do i make a left or a right?  As always, they both have there advantages and disadvantages, but in the end, one outweighed the other.  So I made a left.  I hope I made the right decision  Good timing is everything.  We're bombing her down below.  We've been flying down all day and night and we"ll be fishing after lunch tomorrow.  One of the boats caught some tuna down this way today and we're going to try and get in on some of that.  We should have good weather for the trip as long as the forecast holds true.  We're hoping for lots of fish the next couple days.  I could use the pressure release.
       

Jody called in with this report for the Apollo out of Santa Barbara, "We are having some excellent Rockcod and Lingcod fishing. We ended up with limits of Rockfish today and 19 Lingcod for 20 Anglers.

If you are interested in fishing on the Apollo,we have an Open Party trip on the 28th. If you are interested call Sea Landing to make a reservation or to get more information 805-963-3564.

July 22
  He made the right move.  Tommy that is.  We came, we saw, we conquered.  I told you we'd be at The Island today.  It was good.  We had good fishing.  We arrived after breakfast, and found a little something  to work with but we could tell it just wasn't it.  So we looked around and we found "It".  Premo's.  Premiums baby and lots of them.  We had one heck of an afternoon on premium grade yellowtail.  When we say that we mean a mid to upper 20 average.  Slug yellowtails.  You never get used to it either.  Every time someone brings one over the rail it's like, "dang those things are beauts"!  And that's all I have to say about that.  A very full hold of slugs and then some.

  Once again we can not get one to bite the surface iron.  The past few trips have been prime surface iron conditions.  We have the Big Banana out(the long pole) but we can not get Banana crazy.  Weird.

  

We're going to try and get our tuna on the next couple of days.  If we happen to bump into some more YT's along the way then ok.  That'll be alright.  The fleet for the most part has been off the mexican yellowfin the last several days and we're going to try and get back on them.  It's sounds like there has been an impressive amount of fish being seen up above in the U.S.  It doesn't bite on a consistent basis yet but that's soon coming.  It bites fairly often but I have a feeling the fleets in for some very good fishing in the near future.  I'm not necessarily trying to get you to book, but come on, book.  There may be a spot or two left.
        

Tommy Rothery returned Polaris Supreme to Fisherman's Landing November 18 after a ten-day Ocean Tackle Research charter. The boat had 13 anglers aboard. Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen of Hood River, OR saw his father, Bill Mikkelsen of Olympia, WA land the season's first super cow; a tuna over 300 pounds. "It was full-speed fishing," said Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen.

Bill Mikkelsen's big fish won first place after it weighed in at 308.8-pounds, caught on a fly-lined sardine. Bill used the boat's gear, including a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 100-pound P-Line, and a Shimano rod and reel. "Tommy said it was tail-wrapped from the beginning," said the elder Mikkelsen. "And he was, but he got lose and went on another run. He took me around the boat twice."

Aug. 11
    We had a great morning today.  I'd have to check with the big guy but I believe we had around 60 of the 15-25 pound yellowfin and 9 of those big 60-80 pound bluefins on our first drift.  I'd call that a good morning.  It wasn't full speed either.  It was just a nice scratch over a period of a few hours.  Nice drifting along there in beautiful weather once again.  I sure hope this weather lasts a while along with the fishing.
    
    After our first drift we did some others of course.  None producing as well as the first one but throughout the day we scratched at some more yellowfin and a few more of those big bluefins.  It was just what we needed after a day of mostly driving around seing a lot and  not catching much.  Needless to say we'll be hanging around here tonight and trying it again tomorrow.

    On a sad note, one of the greats in the sportfishing industry passed away today.  Most of you reading this wouldn't know who I'm talking about because he was a behind the scenes guy.  I'm talking about the great sardine fisherman Joe Machado, and if you've been fishing in the last 35+ years, you were using bait most likely caught or found by him.  As you all know, no bait no fish, so we'll be throwing some sardines over the side for him tomoorow.  RIP Joe.