south gippsland Fishing Report 2025

An 81-pound bigeye tuna that came out of a school of albacore was the first tuna of its kind to come in on a long range boat this season, and it won the Polaris Supreme jackpot for rookie angler Carl Geosana of Whittier at Fisherman's Landing July 14.

Drew Henderson skippered the five-day trip with 24 anglers, and was the beneficiary of a tip from Doug Reed and the Renegade that put him on the albacore, which have staged a badly needed re-bite at about 90 miles from San Diego.

Henderson said a second bigeye, a fish in the 120-pound class was hooked.

"Everybody on the crew pulled on it," said Henderson, "for over an hour. We had it close enough to bring out a gaff once, but it took off again, and finally busted the 30-pound line it was hooked on."

Geosana said he spent an hour and 15 minutes on the 81-pounder.

"I almost went overboard when he bit," said Carl. "He went down, and then he pulled me up to the bow, and I had to get over the anchor there at least ten times. He kept making runs, until the reel got red hot."

Carl said he fished a sardine on a 3/o Eagle Claw hook, and used 30-popund Big Game line, a Penn 500 reel and a seven-foot Ugly Stick rod.

Greg Hannond of Huntington Beach was second, for a 42.6-pound albacore, and Brad Hall of San Diego won third place for a 42.4-pound albie. Skipper Henderson said his anglers had a very good catch of yellowtail and some bluefin tuna and were "‚Д¶just short of limits of the albacore. At least half the guys did get limits."

Captain Ryan Bostian from San Diego Sportfishing checked in.  42 pass. 1 bluefin tuna 103 yellowtail 41 bonito. Flylined bait, surface iron and yo yo all produced!

We started fishing in the dark and went full speed all day long on beautiful grade tuna 30-40 lbs. with several in the 80-120 lb. class being caught on the kite. We had several heart breakers with the sharks eating some of the big ones. The day was spiced up with a handful of wahoo. Our weather is absolutely gorgeous. Flat calm heavy overcast. We had a great day and are excited to try it again tomorrow. Thanks, Tommy and crew

From Brook Trout to Big Yellowtail! Siblings Tom and Mary Chaparro have been fishing buddies since the early days. They started out catching Brook and Golden Trout in the mountains when they were kids, now catching Yellowfin Tuna and Yellowtail on Toms annual 7 day trip. Keep it up you two! A tad bit breezy today, but still plenty comfortable. Will report again tomorrow, Team Supreme

Another one bites the dust ! 12 fish over 100 pounds 2 fish over 200 pounds and 23 school sized bluefin. @pennreels are what we use and trust, they have taken a huge part in our success when it comes to these fish. Thank you !!!!

~~Sep 13
 Thank goodness for slow speed.  Even though we got a really good jump yesterday, we weren't going to be getting anywhere down below till late tomorrow.  Our speed was horrible.  1.5 knots below average.  But we sped up this morning.  Yup.  This morning we were only making .75 knots below average.  That all costs a whole lot of time when you're traveling great distances so we decided we'd have to be stopping short.  So that's what we did this afternoon, arriving at 4:30.

 Wow!  It didn't take long before everyone had a tuna on.  And they weren't those 8-14 pounders either.  There were some of those, but the majority of them were those 20-30 pounders.  I say again, "wow".  It bit steady the whole time we which is a couple of hours.  During the stop, I had tied a few hooks and cast a few baits out, you know , like we do, and quite a few times the hook would fall off and I would scratch my head and ask myself, " are my knots failing"?  They weren't.  It took crew member Justin to spot a wahoo flying out of the water to figure it out.

 So we wound them in and threw back the marauders.  Before dark, which wasn't long, we had a little binger for 5 and then one for 1 50 pounder.  Say it with me now.  "Wow"!  We aren't going anywhere tonight.  We'l just kick back and see what the day has to offer.

 My buddy Glen caught the 50 pound wahoo today.  Every year for a while now he has been the last member of the little troll team that I like to call, " the troll of shame"  That's the last few people on board who have not yet caught a wahoo.  He will not be joining that team this year.  Nope.  This year he can join the heckling party.  He get's to see what it's like from the other side.  Way to go Glen.
       

 

Today we started our Thorne family four day trip. Most of the fishing seems to be slightly out of our reach today. However we were able to pull on some fish. Mostly Skip Jack and small Yellowtail. Not necessarily the targeted species but great fun for the kids as well as a good starter for the adults.Nothing is better practice for following your lines than a school of wild Skipjack! Here we have Kingston and Justine with the perfect starter fish to get the skunk off and release back into the ocean. Now we are ready for tomorrow. Targeting Yellowfin Tuna and Dorado .

SUPER LIMITED LOAD!!! Hi again friends. We have a trip coming up that need to fill a spot on. This is a super limited load trip with only 15 people. The boat will depart on Wednesday June 13th fishing Thursday & Friday. Cost is $630 includes all meals & Mexican permit. This should be a great opportunity to fish on the boat with such a light load. For more information and reservations call Steve (714)272-4395