mad river Fishing Report 2025

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.
                                                        

 

Today we caught 2 yellowfin tuna and did not like what we saw offshore. We are going back to the islands starting tomorrow. Bring a 25 or 30 lb flyline setup and a 40 or 50 lb yoyo setup. Passports required !

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

Good evening, friends. Awesome day out here on the Supreme. No need to get too wordy about things today, we had a super day. Well, it was more like a super 5-hour drift on 40-60 lb. Bluefin and the rest of the day was spent enjoying beautiful weather. All in all, I consider today to be just terrific and I gave Drew's mustache a high five to show my approval. Y'all should too.

From 10:00 hours until 15:00 hours, we plunked away at that stellar grade of fish and when the dust settled, we had just shy of 100 of those beauties all while enjoying a bronze in flat calm weather. You can't beat that, you can't! It was some of the better action on BFT in recent years and we had some real flurries with at least 10 fish hanging at one time. It was very nice! Everybody had a shot at a few of those bruisers and we're pumped about or day.

We didn't really have time to take a lot of photos because we were so busy. Sorry, Riddler but know that the BFT look exactly like the ones from prior trips and they are chillin' super fresh in the RSW well. Sometimes, you've just got to make a drop.

Anyhow, we're going to do this for one more day and then see about heading to one of our favorite Yellowtail spots on Thursday. Things are really looking up right now and the Yellowtail grounds are no different. Really good fishing on some 'tails right now and we're looking at that with mouths agape. But, we still have some business to attend to with my favorite fish in the ocean, the Bluefin tuna.

Awesome weather, awesome fishing, awesome blossoms. See ya!

Only three spots available on June 7-12, 5.5 day trip! Price is $1400 per person. 18 passenger max load! fishing offshore, cedros, Benitos islands. Contact Jody at 858-220-1593. Get on board before the spots are sold at the Fred Hall show!

We had a couple hours of very good dropper loop yellowtail fishing on 25-35 pound fish in the morning. When that slowed we stayed busy with smaller grade tuna and the occasional mahi. We made a tour and got the anchor back down around lunch time and had the same action but with an occasional larger model tuna being hooked. We hooked 10 and landed 4 50-60 pounders. After dinner the few that still had the energy to fish all caught several more of those big yellows before we took off at 10:00. We're now spending the day traveling up the line and will be arriving to finish up the trip at Guadalupe Island for a day and a morning.

Skipper Drew Henderson took a look at the San Benitos Islands on a four-day Polaris Supreme trip with 24 anglers. He arrived in the afternoon to find fair to good fishing and some seals that were hungry but not ravenous. He said his anglers got yellowtail there up to 30 pounds. Next day he fished at Cedros Island.
"We got 80 big ones there," he said, "at the South End." Eric Thomas of Palmdale won first place for a 46.8-pound yellowtail. He bagged it with a sardine on a 5/0 Eagle Claw hook and 50-pound Big Game Line. Thomas fished with a Trinidad 40 reel and a Calstar 6460 H rod. He said he got the big ‚Дтtail in 15 minutes.
Shannon Nutt of Palmdale was second for a 37.8-pounder, and Edward Agadjanian of Glendale, home of Newell reels, said he used a Newell reel to take his third place 34.8-pound yellowtail.

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Hi friends. Tough day for us here on the high seas. No sugar-coating anything today, it was a slow day. We saw multiple good schools of yellowfin but Tropical Storm John really has things screwed up down here. We only managed a few handfuls of yellowfin in the 12-35 lb. category along with a couple of nice bluefin and a few various bottom dwellers for our final tally. Like I said, no shortage of fish running around but they are just not cooperating all that well.

We're hoping for a banner day tomorrow as the weather is supposed to straighten out and be flat calm and sick hot. I was a hot little potato today even though it was rather windy and choppy. We can only hope tomorrow that it snows or something because it is going to be a scorcher. Bronzing isn't even an appropriate word for what we did today, we got down-rite ethnic with our tans today. My goodness it was hot. Speaking of hot, our team in the galley is hot. Schooler and Shawn, aka "The Dream Team" are just magnificent. Along with the world's greatest deckhand, they really are the heart and soul of this operation and I feel that it is a pleasure to not only be worthy enough to eat their creations but to also know them as people. Thank you, Schooler and Shawn, thank you for making my life so wonderful and all of the passengers too. You're so dandy and thanks for getting us fat.

Anyhow, our fingers are crossed for tomorrow and yours should be too. Pray for snow and lots of tuna. See ya.

P.S. Dennis McNeely says "LYT" to Judy, Jennifer, and Mikey.

Hey guys we have caught 3 yellowtail 24-28 lbs. out of our first couple stops this morning. I will keep you posted. We will be fishing U.S. waters all week $75 and a California fishing license is all you need. 619-224-3383 for reservations. Ask for the San Diego!