gippsland Fishing Report 2023

Drew Henderson docked Polaris Supreme July 5 after a five-day trip with 23 anglers. His fishermen had plenty of albacore, but bluefin swept the jackpot spots. "What a great day of fishing," wrote Drew July 2. "Just couldn't be better. Everyone has had their fill of albacore so we are heading off to do some Island fishing for some of those big yellowtail. We should be there by daybreak tomorrow. Weather is fantastic."
At the dock, Drew said, "We got limits of albacore. Benitos has a lot of fish, but they're not biting very well, and the seals are. Yesterday afternoon we had a three-hour bite. The cedar plug is getting a lot of troll fish, ans so is my favorite, the ‚Дтscreamin' pink,' skirted jig." Ray Mercieca of Arcadia won first place for a 38-pound bluefin. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 3/0 Mustad 91450 hook, 30-pound P-Line, a Penn 950 SS spinning reel and a Daiwa seven-foot spinning rod. Greg Culbert of Ojai was second, for a 36-pound bluefin and Bob Norman of Green Valley, AZ was third, for a 32-pound bluefin tuna.

Polaris Supreme Trip Update 11-23-2019 We left yesterday on an eight day private charter with 10 anglers! We got a nice load of bait in San Diego and had really smooth sailing down all day. Today the same program on the weather it was absolutely gorgeous all day and of course the usual rigging good food napping and camaraderie amongst crew and passengers. Looking forward to getting to the fishing grounds tomorrow! Seriously watching a gnarly storm coming in over Thanksgiving! May slide in a day early just to avoid a serious beating. Standby for more on that one were watching it closely. Looks like it's going to be a lot of good rain for California though. The Polaris Supreme Crew!

Well, things do change. Conditions aren't looking good. The water here is dirty and just not right for a good yellow bite. Hope it changes.

14 yellowfin tuna and 5 bluefin tuna. Once again, unbelievable amount of tuna in our zone. Most of the fish are strung out on tiny chovies making them very difficult to hook. A dedicated flyliner with 25 lb has a chance at a yellowfin. A dedicated flatfall or sinker rig fisherman with 50 lb has a chance at a bluefin.

Wednesday, April 24th, 2012

Hi friends. Starting off the day, we were expecting rain if not when we woke up but for sure around the mid-morning time. Captain Drew told me to expect work at 0700 hours this morning and that he would call me if he was going to call off the day. At about 0615 hours, my phone rang and when I saw that my phone read "Incoming call: Drew Henderson", I nearly trampled my girlfriend to reach for the phone and hear those beautiful words of "don't come to work today". Well, Drew being the awesome boss that he is just wanted to remind me that work was still on. Disappointed is an understatement. He specifically said that he would only call to let me know that we were NOT to come into work. I reluctantly suited up for work, still a little peeved that my vision of sleeping in and an all-day couch marathon was switched back to 7-11 coffee, 5-hour energies, and arthritic hands by days end.

Now some of you might be asking "Richie. Why so grumpy about going to work?" Well, after Tuesday's primer coat application, the primer creates what is called "orange peel".The entire hull looks like a giant, white orange peel and to rid ourselves of this orange peel, what must one do to smooth it out and get prepped for the final gloss coat? If you guessed "more sanding" then yes, you are correct. From 0700 until 1630 hours on Wednesday, we had to re-sand the entire boat with 220-grit sand paper to smooth everything out. Oh, how could I forget? We did all of this under beautiful, sunny skies. That weatherman is not our friend at the moment. He was wrong about the Wednesday morning/afternoon rain but he was correct about the rainfall on Wednesday evening in San Diego.

So here it is, Thursday morning and work was called off not only because of the rain but also to relieve sore, aching muscles as the constant use of both vibrating and orbital sanders took it's toll on Drew, Jed, Mark, Tommie, Jamie and myself from yesterday and we were given the day off. Thanks, Drew.

In all seriousness, there is a silver lining to all of my complaining of long days and sore bodies. All of the hard work that we put into the boat doesn't go un-noticed when we take a look at the boat right before the first trip of the season. The boat will look stunning and it will be a pleasure to keep her maintained throughout the years. When we have to put on our sunglasses to even stare at the hull and when you see your reflection perfectly in the boat, it's sweet justice to put so much time and effort into a project and to have it come out looking so beautiful. We can't wait to see how everyone will react when they first lay eyes on the new and improved Polaris Supreme.

Anyhow, I had some time to type out a nice, long report on our day off today. Weather permitting, we'll be back at it tomorrow to finish some touch-up sanding as we get ready for the final application of the gloss coat which probably will be scheduled for either Friday or Monday. We'll chat with you tomorrow and let you know how our day went.

-Richie & Team Supreme-

P.S. Sorry about no pictures lately. There really hasn't been anything picture-worthy in the past couple of days and the pictures I would've shot, you've seen before: all of us with sanders in our hands, gloves on, respirator masks, safety glasses and looking like giant powdered donuts. I'll send some shots with the completion of the gloss coat.

The Dolphin III has been purchased by Mike Pritchard a veteran captain with a vast amount of experience.   Captain Pritchard has recently worked on the Legend and prior to that spent time working on the the Intrepid and Excel. The Tribute has moved to it's new home at Seaforth Sportfishing were it will be the primary open party overnight boat.
Captain Pritchard has renamed the boat to honor his mentor Bill Poole.   The boat was previously owned by Bill Poole and will be a fine edition to the Seaforth Fleet.

Captain Ryan Bostian called in late last night with an update from The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in Mission Bay! We had 101 Yellowtail for 53 anglers. We also saw a couple nice spots of Bluefin Tuna. Right now we are not allowed to catch Bluefin Tuna in Mexico so we will continue to focus on Yellowtail for the meantime. Hopefully, the Bluefin issue will be resolved soon.

The San Diego runs trips daily from Seaforth Sportfishing. You can book online or call (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action.

Friday, July 20th, 2012

Good evening everyone. We departed this afternoon on a private family charter with an excited load of kids and adults ready to put their fishing luck to the test. We made a stop at the bait receivers and loaded up on some healthy sardines to bring with us on our journey to the southern fishing grounds. The bait looks good and everybody is ready to put said bait to the test. For now, everyone is in the galley, getting ready to munch on some prime rib, a Polaris Supreme departing night tradition. Our fishing outlook looks good as there are some scores to be had on Bluefin, Yellowfin, Yellowtail, and some Dorado too. As for the weather outlook, it's looking like it will be a little bit windy for tomorrow, but Sunday is looking like it might calm down. We'll see for ourselves tomorrow.

For now, we'll just keep on chugging down to the grounds and with that, we'll chat with you tomorrow evening. Take care.