tauranga Fishing Report 2025

Our private charter had to display some good old fashioned patience today. In a typical 3/4 day trip we can expect to make about 3-5 moves thru ought the day looking for fish. Today however, we did not find what we were looking for until our 9th stop of the day. The rapidly changing conditions coupled with the short windows of biting fish have been driving yours truly crazy the past couple of days. Today's photo will show you why we have been putting ourselves thru such mental anguish. Today's final count for our 31 passengers is 11 yellowtail 20 calico bass 16 barracuda 7 rockfish. Our yellowtail today weighed 20-35 pounds and were biting the fly lined sardines the best.

Captain Ryan checked in tonight with an update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay, CA. We returned late last night. Our trip today and Friday have been cancelled due to weather. Our next trip is going to be Saturday.

We had 25 anglers catch 7 Bluefin Tuna, 38 Yellowtail and 35 Bonito. We had some nice quality on the Bluefin Tuna. We had 6 Bluefin Tuna between 60 and 108 pounds. To be exact we had Bluefin Tuna weighing in at 108, 102, 90, 90, 80 and 60 pounds. We also had one small one that we caught on the troll early in the morning. There is excellent sign of big Bluefin Tuna right now.

It is very important to be prepared with the correct tackle. A Shimano Talica 12 or 16 two speed filled with 65 or 80 lb spectra. Connected to 5 feet of 80 or 130 lb flouro and a 250 gram flatfall. A sinker bait rig fished with a Talica 16 or 20 two speed filled halfway with 80 lb spectra than topped off with 60 or 80 lb mono to a short leader of 80 lb flouro. A 2/0 or 3/0 circle hook and a 4-6 oz torpedo sinker.
Please bring the correct tackle. During our last trip we had 20 hookups and got 6 of them.

Sep. 10

Well, today was just swell. We caught bluefin. Yup, lots of them. We found a school a little while after breakfast and stayed drifting till a little while after lunch. I've just now been staring at this screen for a few minutes drawing a blank on what to write. Mark just woke me up for my watch and I guess I'm not a midnight writer so I'll keep it simple. It was a lot of fun. The fish were in the 30-40 pound range with our spring scale calling the biggest at 49 pounds. After that school wouldn't bite anymore we went on search for another and found just a dandy of a school but it would have nothing to do with us so we search, search, search. About an hour maybe longer before dark we found what we were looking for and stopped the boat on a school of biting fish and had another nice shot at them before and into and after dark.

I'm going to have to give Tommy the credit for todays fishing. For a while today I thought maybe it was all about my lucky 7-11 cap I've been wearing but I think Tommy just did a good job of finding those schools today. Hat or no hat, we just nailed them today. The weather was good today and we're still drifting and my legs aren't very spread apart so you know it's good drifting and good sleeping. We're going to give it a little while tomorrow before having to call it a trip and head for home.

Drew

Fishing here remains slow. However the quality of fish is still great, and we are capitalizing on the fish we are hooking. Still some losses due to sharks but still chipping away at some great quality tuna. We were able to make a tank of Tube Mackerel tonight along with 3 milk crates of chunk. We are looking ready for tomorrow!

Hello everyone, We departed today on our annual SImpatico charter. We currently have the boat pointed south in hopes of a nice mixed bag. Tomorrow will be mainly a rigging day. In the meantime we are enjoying a delicious prime rib dinner and a nice ride down. Will report again tomorrow, Team Supreme

The tenth annual George Davis trip aboard the Polaris Supreme arrived at Fisherman's Landing December 5, after spending ten days in southern waters with a super ultra-light load of seven anglers, including chartermaster Davis. There were five tuna over 200 pounds in the catch. One fish was well over 300 pounds. The big fish came in at 347.8 pounds, caught by Kevin Stokes, who is studying video making and cinematography, working on his B. A. in digital video at Mt. Sierra College in Monrovia. The giant yellowfin bit a sardine on a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook tied to 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Spectra on one of the boat's rigs: a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 6460 XXH rod. It fought for 35 minutes. "He didn't fight too hard," said Stokes. He just laid there like a big cow. I almost lost him at the end, because his circles went all the way across the stern. They got him with four gaffs and lifted him over the rail. "My best tuna before this one was 180 pounds. It fought harder. I may have this one mounted. Next, I've got to go back to work and to school." Stokes said he does freelance work in video. Eleven-year-old Gunnar Johnston outscored the men by taking two cows; two yellowfin over 200 pounds. One of his fish weighed 217.8 pounds and won second place. The other went 209 pounds. Gunnar goes to Marinotha Christian Academy, and races motocross. His dad Craig Johnston is a construction manager in Orange County and was close by when Gunnar hooked his big cow. "I was up the rail," said Craig, "and I saw him get bent, and I shouted, ‚Дтdon't let go of that rig,' and I saw him pull back harder." Gunnar got the fish to gaff in 45 minutes, after it bit a sardine on a 6/0 Super Mutu hook on 130-pound Izorline fluorocarbon leader tied to 100-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra. He used an Avet 50 reel and a Calstar 6455 XXH rod. "It's my first long range trip," said Gunnar. "It's fun, hooking up and catching these big fish. Craig Johnston said his son had been on one and two-day trips before, but this was his first long range venture. "My best fish before was a 30-pound albacore or a dorado," said Gunnar. "I want to do it again." His dad felt the same way. "He was bit hard at first," said Craig, "but he did his work in the corner." Charlie Middleton of San Pablo took a 213-pounder and won third place. He said it bit a sardine on an 8/0 Gamakatsu hook tied to 100-pound Soft Steel Ultra line and 130-pound Power Pro Spectra on a Penn 80 SW reel and a five and a half-foot Ugly Stick rod. The fight lasted 20 minutes. "The best fishing was during the squalls," said Charlie. "That's when I hooked this one. He took me around the boat twice. There was a lot of 18-inch squid around."
Jim Jacobs of Murietta had never been fishing before. "I didn't know how to hold the pole," he said. Jacobs got a 202.6-pound tuna after a 40-minute scrap. It bit a sardine on an 8/0 Mustad 7691 hook, also on one of the boat's rigs. "My first trip," said Jacobs, "and my first fish."

The Apollo will be running an open party over night trip out of Santa Barbara. This trip will depart on Friday night March 27th at 9pm for fishing Sat. This will be a freelance trip hoping for squid and sea bass, with rock fish. If you are interested the cost will be $140 and you will need to contact Sea Landing at (805) 568-0460. to make a reservation.

~~Aug 29
 Today was mostly a travel day for us as was planned. We did stop late after 4:00 in the evening for some yellowtail. It took a bit of looking around but we eventually found some action. It wasn't exactly what we were looking for but it kept us busy for a while. 8-15 pound yellowtail is what we caught. We released most of what we caught but we tagged some of the 14 pounders we were getting. The fish bit until we left it to try and find a better grade. We never did but we didn't have much time left to look. The weather was definitely on the choppy/windy side of things today but it didn't bother us because we were rolling down with it so we didn't notice. We'll make a move tonight and fish first thing tomorrow targeting D, all of the above. See you then.