red drum tackle Fishing Report 2024

The bluefin fishing has stayed consistent. Everyday we get a few legitimate chances to catch this beautiful grade of fish. Along with the bluefin tuna we have been seeing good sign of yellowfin tuna as well. We have yet to get them to bite but it’s any day now they could get with ! 

Oct. 7

Hello out there in the internet world of the Polaris Supreme. It's been a while since I have been able to write to you all. This is because down there in the lower lower latitudes our satellite service isn't available therefor I am unable to send out any emails. So this will be a trip wrap up of our time spent down below...

First of all we had a great trip. Of our 5 1/2 days down here we landed 50+ tuna over 100 pounds. 15 of those went over 200 pounds and 1 of those will most likely go over 300 pounds. It taped off at 297. A real beaut. We also released at least 17 tuna over 100 pounds and threw in 50+ wahoo as hole fillers. That's not a bad fish count for 20 anglers. We had 8 anglers. Fantastic.

We got a little nervous when we first arrived down there at 4:00 a.m. of the 2nd. We stopped the boat first on some flying fish to try for some of them to put on the kite and during the drift we could see many sharks swimming around and chasing the flyers. We got the anchor down around 5 and it wasn't getting better. A big shark problem is what we had on our hands. They were making it unfishable. We had a 1 hour window that morning when the tuna were more aggressive then the sharks and managed a handful of big tunas with the Jer-Bear getting one over 200 pounds but it was short lived. The tuna backed off and the sharks took over again. We had enough and tried pulling the anchor but it got stuck and we lost everything. Damn. While we were putting one of our spair sets on we trolled it up for wahoo but we couldn't get past the 50-80 pound tunas to get to the wahoo. On most trips that would be good but on this trip we release those babies. After doing that for a while we got the anchor back down and things never really got rolling. We had a shark problem. Like I said we, were a little nervous after the first day.

Day number 2 didn't start off any better. We had a shark problem. Every bait we put out hooked a grinner. We didn't give it too long before we got to trolling again and this is what we found out. The cows were biting the marauders. We were trolling them up! ? That was a first for me. We were getting fish from small ones we would release to fish up to 215! You never know with fishing. It's a crazy game. So we had it all figured out. For the rest of the day this is what we did. We would troll around with our marauders and our yummy flyers on the kite and catch tuna and wahoo. The 4 remaining anglers not trolling were getting them fishing sardines on the slide. We stayed very busy. 15 fish over 100 that day with 2 of those over 200. The weather picked up that day and would stay windy for the remainder of our time here.

Day 3 was more of the same except the sharks disappeared and we were getting more tired. The fish were getting harder to pull over the rail. We also lost our Matt to an injured knee. We're not sure how it happened. To much of banging it on the rail scooping flyers and he may of hit it on a tuna some how but however it went down he was done. He could barely move about the boat let alone gaff a 200 pounder. Also our fearless leader, and I mean that, hurt his back prier to the trip and has had a hurt wrist for some time now was of little help gaffing 200 pounders as well so we were down to 3 of us and a "Gringo". That's our galley assistant. That's right Gringo fans, he's been back for some time now. Any hoo around 5:00 p.m. things started to really liven up with tuna flying out of the water everywhere so we threw the anchor over and had pretty much wide open fishing on the bigguns till about 7:30. We landed 12 over 100, most of those closer to 200 with 4 of them over that mark. Nice.

Day 4 was different. The tuna stopped biting on the troll and things got back to the way we're used to. Anchor fishing and we did well. The fish started biting at 1:00 p.m. for a little while then things slowed down until around 5:30 when things went ballistic similar to the night prior. 11 fish over 100 with 4 of those over 200 and George getting his personal best which went 297. We're hoping it goes over 3 at the dock. We'll see. When I'm giving these fish counts keep in mind we are releasing many fish if they aren't in the 200 pound range.

Day 5 was pretty much spent on anchor. We had a late night with Brian being stuck on a big one for hours. We didn't get to bed until 11:00 p.m. so when the crew woke up at 4:00 a.m. nobody was awake except Charlie. Here's why. He had a 186 pounder completely wreck him. I mean he got his but kicked like I've never seen him get his but kicked before. This happened the day before so he went to bed early that night and was up with us bright and early. Anyways he had a 207 landed before anyone else was even up besides the crew. He hooked another one shortly after that too but after a long battle the fish one and lived to fight another day. We had more action throughout the day but there were many lulls in between the action but it was a slower day for sure. Not a slow day though. We had 7 over 100 with 3 of those going over 200 pounds. Tommy had been keeping an eye on the storm that's been brewing the whole time we were down there and decided on this night to start heading north to keep us all safe. The storm became a tropical storm and was still getting stronger and closer so we had to take off leaving 1 day to fish somewhere north.

Here are some firsts for me and most others on this boat that happened while we were down there: I have never seen a shark problem that bad and then seeing them disappear like they did. One hour it was not fishable and that afternoon they were pretty much all gone,. I have never seen a 200 pounder let alone so many 200 pounders and just big tuna in general bite the trolled marauders like they did for a few days down here. I have never seen a 186 pounder jump completely out of the water right next to the boat after being on the line for 5 minutes or any amount of time for that matter. The fish must have thought it was a dorado. I have never seen Charlie not at the rail 100% percent of the time the fish were biting and it's because of A. he's reached the age of 60 but mostly B. I have never seen fish fight as hard as they fought on this trip. I mean they were brutal. Mean mean fish. I have seen 350+ pounders come in much easier then the 160+ pounders we were hooking. We lost a lot of big fish on this trip. We think about 50% of the big ones we hooked we lost. Not because of angler error but because these were just mean mean fish.

Here are some of the pricey things that happened during the trip. We lost one set of anchor gear, we lost 2 big giant 12 volt batteries, our refrigerator broke down , we lost and broke 3 gaffs, fuel prices are nasty, but the look on Matts face when I offered him a sponge bath because he couldn't stand up in the shower was priceless. Oh Mathew. He's doing a little better then before. The swelling went down a little and there is a little less pain then he had before but the poor guy has got to be just borred out of his mind and just bummed he missed out on some great big mean tuna fishing.

We will keep you filled on the ride home .

Mike Pritchard called in to wrap up results of the Tribute's 1 Day Charter. "Good fishing here today. We had very, very good Yellowtail fishing. We caught 131 Yellowtail, 14 Dorado, and 16 of that nice grade Yellowfin, from 18 to 30 lbs. We'll be out here on another 1 Day trip tonight. We'll let you know what happens tomorrow."

The Tribute finished yesterday with 57 Yellowfin Tuna and 28 Bluefin Tuna for our 20 Angler’s on board. It was ridiculously nice weather!

July 31

This morning we had a good drift. We drifted along for a few hours catching mostly 40-70 pounders sometimes with as much as 5 going at a time. Unfortunately at around 9:30 am it stopped biting. We tried to be patient but it was done. After that it was a very slow day for the whole fleet. Most of the fish went down and the schools we found the rest of the day didn't want to play. A little before dark they got back in the mode and we had a nice stop on which started off 12-18 pounders and then turned into 30-40 pounders. That's it for this trip. We're headed back to the dock and are scheduled for a 6:00 eta. The big guy Tommy Rothery is taking the boat out for a 6 day trip and Richie will be coming back out too so the reports should get more entertaining. I'll be going home to hang with my lovely wife and needy dog. Take care all.

Ryan Bostian checked in to tell us what the San Diego is doing. "The kids are back in school and if you have been waiting for an opportunity to get on the boat, with a light load, this is definitely the time for you. The Coronado Island have had very good Yellowtail signs. It has been inconsistent. We see them one day, we don't see them the next. The bite one day, they don't bite the next.

"Rockfish make up most of the counts, they last couple of days. But we always keep our eye out for Yellowtail. I don't think this season is over by any means. The water is still very warm. There is plenty of 70 degree water around. Reports have Yellowfin tuna moving up the line and there are plenty of Bluefin around. The problem with the Bluefin is finding fish that want to bite. It is just like the Dorado. There are plenty of Dorado, they just are hesitant to bite.

"It seems like the ocean is in a transition. I expect to see some good counts in a week or so. Our reservations are very light. If you've been waiting to get on the boat, with 40 or 50 of your closest friends; this is definitely the time to come on down. Make your reservations at 619-224-3383. The boat is still running everyday and the weather has been outstanding.

Great boat, great crew, great food, great passengers, good weather, slow fishing. That's just the way it went down on this day and a half. We were in tuna mode trying for nice quality albacore.

We scratched 26 and some yellows and let go lots of flats. Descent amount of fish seen at times throughout the day, but they didn't climb on our hooks. Hopefully soon coming and more consistent. Next trip is a 5 day, so stay tuned.

Well we had good fishing on albacore until about 10am and then headed off to Guadalupe. We traveled in beautiful weather and had a great Mexican fiesta lunch of carne asada, rice, beans, and all the toppings you can imagine. For dinner Pedro served fresh albacore with a curry cilantro sauce, and fresh veggies on the grill. Really tasty.
The guys have been resting up and getting their gear ready for tomorrow. We will be fishing Guadalupe for big yellowfin tuna by daybreak. Wish us luck!