melton reservoir Fishing Report 2025

1 bluefin tuna 97 yellowtail. The consistency of the Coronado Islands this year is truly amazing. Bait, yo yo and surface iron are all producing.

Sep. 2

Well we started in some traditionally tasty grounds today. The weather was magnificent and so was the water we were in. Warm and a beautiful glassy blue. It was also lively as could be. There were birds buzzing around all over, little dabs of dolphin, big herds of dolphin that were "all birded up"(that's code for "looks right"), a dead animal floating,(known for holding lots of dorado),kelp paddies and floating fishing gear buoys(also known for holding mucho dorado and wahoo). Well none of it was holding !@#$. I'm just bummed about it too. We had this area all to ourselves for 3 days in early September with beautiful weather and fishing conditions and it stunk. I can't sugar coat it. We covered a lot of good looking spots for not much fish. It just wasn't there. If I had a time machine I would go back 5 days ago and do it all over again. We would start above and fish our way down instead of starting below and fishing our way north. At least then my stress level wouldn't be high because we'd have fish in our holds. Fishing would be so easy with a time machine. Maybe I shouldn't write such downer reports but my friend Rob on board says he enjoys reading the good with the bad and you know what, this sort of thing happens. Fishing can be good and it can be bad. Oh well but hey, our trip is only half over, we're going to catch a bunch of yellows tomorrow, get some bait, maybe catch some more yellows and some more bait then go and whip on the tuna. Right? I hope so.

Your bummed but still very high spirited captain, Drew

Sept. 24

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We departed this evening on a 1.5 day trip. We had a space available so we threw the trip in there and here we are. If you book it they will come. I wish it was always that easy. Anyway, we got a good load of bait number wise. We'll have to see how it lives. It lost a lot of its precious scales while we loaded it but it was swimming around the tanks well right after we loaded it like healthy bait does so we'll just have to see tomorrow. It only needs to stay alive for one day. We have some good reports in the bluefin grounds and that's where we're headed. I'll let you know how we do tomorrow tomorrow.

The morning started off right with steady tuna and yellowtail fishing shortly after daylight. We remained until 10 am when we pulled it and tried to finish off with some more wahoo. We had a few stops for a dozen skin and are now headed home. We have had a great trip with an outstanding group of anglers, excellent weather and delicious food. We will be traveling the rest of today and tomorrow and arrive at the dock on Sunday. You can call the office on Saturday night for our ETA. 619-390-7890 Thanks for checking in.

Today's trip in fantastic weather has produced trophy lingcod. We dropper loop with a mackerel seems to be doing the job. We will call back with an update later. Our next trip departs on Friday. Don't miss the action.

Aug. 29

Here we go again. We arrived early this morning and unloaded a deck full of bluefin and yellowtail, loaded up some sysco, put on a bunch of fuel, then loaded more groceries, put the new peeps on and took off on the glory run. The Gary Roberts 9 day baby. We got a good load of bait and we're headed down. It looks like we're going to pass by where we caught our bluefin last trip after daylight so we'll definitely be looking for those as we roll down. We'd never pass up that kind of fishing but we're not going to give it our all. If we don't see it and the other boats in the area aren't seeing it we're going to keep her rolling on down down down to destinations unknown. Or better yet not decided on. Either my next report will be about us catching bluefin or it will be about our traveling down.

Tom Rothery brought his Polaris Supreme home to Fisherman's Landing January 11 after a 16-day trip to the Hurricane Bank and the Southern Banks of Baja. There were seven anglers on the annual George Davis expedition, and they produced ten more cows for the record.

In his report from the boat on Friday January 2, Tom reported a good day of fishing.

"Yes, now this is what I'm talking about," he wrote. "We finally got a break in the weather. It is beautiful and we have left Hurricane Bank. We are now heading to the upper banks. We will be there tomorrow night. Yesterday was an ok day of fishing. George kept a 219 and released a 185. Jeremy released a 140.

"Craig kept a 205 and by the way that was a mistake yesterday. Craig kept a 210 pounder. Al kept a 100 for his buddies that are going to Ennis hunting. They are going to open pit barbeque it on a spit like a pig. Now, that sounds interesting. ‚Д®

"Charlie released a 125 and Scott released a 140. Each day we also had five to 12 fish that we caught that were under 100 pounds and were not mentioned. These all were released.

"Yesterday we also had good wahoo fishing. Jeremy and Craig both caught 4 and Gunnar and Al got 3. Everybody else had a couple a piece. Overall the trip to Hurricane Bank has been very good with eight tuna over 200 pounds, and excellent wahoo fishing."

Chartermaster George Davis of San Dimas won the jackpot while catching four cows. His tuna weighed 241.8, 219.8, 213.6 and 208 pounds. The big one came on squid on the kite, he said.

George fished with 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. He said the big one came to gaff in just 20 minutes.

Allen Tokunaga of North Hollywood won second place for a 224.6-pounder.

"These Hurricane Bank fish seemed a little tougher than the ones on the inside," he remarked. "This one took me 40 minutes. He went around the boat a couple of times, and then came up on the port side of the stern."

Al fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, on 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader, 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra. He used a Penn 50 reel modified by Cal Sheets and a Calstar 6465 XXH rod.

Scott Brown of Costa mesa won third place for his 213.2-pounder. He also got a 202.6-pounder. He fished a small jack under the kite on a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook. He used 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"The big one was a 20-minute fish," he remarked. "He came to the boat pretty good."

One big tuna was eaten by the passengers and crew while the boat was still fishing. It was a 215-pounder caught by Craig Johnston of Costa Mesa, who also got a 204-pounder. Craig said he got them on the kite, on double sardine baits pinned to 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks. He fished with a 130-pound Momoi topshot on 130-pound Izorline Spectra, with a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"It took about 30 minutes," he said. "We had rough seas then; it was a fun fight."

Jeremy Chandler of San Dimas got a 203.6-pounder on a jack under the kite on a 7/0 Mustad 7691 hook and the boat's kite rig.

Today was a travel day. The weather is good and the anglers are excited to start fishing. Lunch we dined on chicken fettuccine and dinner was veal chop with bacon wrapped asparagus and lobster potatoes. We should be fishing by mid-day tomorrow.