west lakes Fishing Report 2024

23 pass. 75 yellowfin tuna from 12-20 lbs. please bring a 20 lb bait rod a 30 lb bait rod. An optional 4th outfit should be a 40 lb rod to fish an 80-100 gram colt sniper.

~~Sep. 24
 Well this day has to start with last night.  During and after dinner the military helicopters were up and they were blowing up San Clemente and it was rad. We could see the tracers which were very bright and flew just as fast as the 5 rounds in between each tracer with about each strafing run having about 12 tracers per, which is over 100 rounds.  We could see the glow of each tracer bouncing off the island. And after we thought it was cool enough we went to bed.

 In the morning we started fishing.  We had a little action.  We basically drifted for a couple hours hooking fish.  Sometimes we had one going, sometimes we had four, and sometimes we had none but for some reason it didn't add up to as much as we would've thought.  We were losing alot and we attributed that to the hammer head sharks that were swimming around.  We think that they were stealing a lot of the tuna we hooked.  When that dried up we went searching and a little after 10:00 we found a dandy school and went sideways(drifted) for a while.  I'd have to call it almost wide open for about 1/2 an hour and then a pick for 15 minutes after that.  During lunch we were drifting on tuna too but we weren't hooking a whole lot.  We only caught about six that time.  And after that the life vanished so we moved on.

 It took a couple hours but we found what we were looking for.  Tuna.  Unfortunately they were the non biting ones.  I'll tell you though, it was a sight to see.  Sonar schools, breezers, boilers, foamers.  You name it, it was awesome.  We did get a couple descent drifts there in the end and all and all we're calling this a very successfully trip.

 We'll be dockside until Oct. 3.  You guys didn't book.  My babies going to have to wear hand me down shoes now.  All of her friends are going to make fun of her.  Oh well.  We"ll get through it.  We'll do a little maintenance on the boat while we're in but we don't need to do much.  The boats been running great as soon as we got rid of those early season gremlins.  See you all Oct. 3rd.
        

~~Sep. 11
 Hello all and welcome back.  Or welcome me back or... you know what I mean.  I'm back.  5 days off and I'm back on the water and reporting to you.  I met the boat at the dock at 6:30 in the morning and was pleased to see the stern deck loaded up with tuna.  A good catch they had.  Well we off loaded everything and everyone, went and changed oil and put enough fuel on board to last us a while and left on our Bogart construction 2 day charter.  We got a good enough jump to fish a few hours before dark in the latest hot tuna zone but hot it was not.  The fishing there in the morning was good but it took a dump late morning and on.  We wound up catching 3 tuna before dark.  Obviously we're hoping for a good morning tomorrow and we're also hoping the bite stays on for longer then it did today.
       
 

Mike Pritchard called in with this report for the Tribute. "We're wrapping up the 1st Day of our 2 Day Western outdoor News Trip. We had great, great fishing today. We caught limits of Yellowtail, 90 Yellowfin tuna, 5 Bluefin, 9 Dorado & a sprinkling of Skipjack.

We're going to shut down for the evening and be back fishing for more tuna in the morning. This is really great fishing regardless of the time of year.

It's a good time to hop on a boat. If you're interested give Seaforth Sportfishing a call at 619-224-3383."

Thanks for the amazing response to the OPEN Shimano Charters we scheduled for the Channel Islands this spring. The response was so positive that I spoke with the folks at Shimano and they agreed to put another trip on line. This one will be set for fishing on March 13. That would be departing at 9pm on the night of the 12th. This trip will be just like the others. Shimano will provide a bunch of outfits for fishing butterfly and lucanus systems. There will be give aways of tackle and goodies as well. Please email me if you would like to join us on this trip.

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Hi friends. Bait-making at 0300 hours this morning went very well us. The bait is on the large side but we're hoping to find some large mouths to feed them to. After only catching a couple of 'tails in the AM, we took to the open ocean and were rewarded with lovely weather that was just what we needed. The seas were still kind of confused but with a light wind, the hunt for kelp paddies and breezers was a pleasurable day aboard the Polaris Supreme.

We jigged up some small yellowfin throughout the day, most of which were released, but we had a couple of standout moments to share. First off, Steven Lowe caught a beautiful wahoo on the troll. Sweet. We also had a kelp paddy that kicked out a bunch of really beautiful mahi-mahi's. It was a little crazy there for a minute. Things almost got out of hand, but you know us, we don't let any fish--especially those silly dorados--get the best of us. After calming the situation down and restoring order, we had a box full of flatheads. Booyah. Our last fish of the kelp was caught by our master of ceremonies, Joe Gigliotti. Joe put down the cards and poker chips for a few moments to land himself a 40 lb. yellowfin. That crazy card shark, he's so savvy! Joe pulled off a veteran move: let all of the other anglers fish off the dorado's and then when we thought the game was over, G-Money played us all for fools and landed himself the token tuna. Nice job, Joe.

So that was how our fishing went today. I can't leave you without letting y'all know about what else went down today: I bronzed. I know, right? After nearly having all of my espresso-brown tan blown off by Hurricane Paul, Momma Nature showed us her love and gave us gorgeous weather and sunshine for the day. Our weather today started out pretty okay but by days end, it was flat calm with just a breath of wind - A+. Just a beautiful day for soaking up the sun and burning fat. That's right. Along with the bronzing, hot dorado action, and awesome weather, I managed to get in a couple hours of getting my swell on. Yeah, I said it. Like I told Gunny today," I wish they made a size large shirt with the sleeves of an extra large." He laughed.

Off topic, once again, I would like to say something. This crew is just dandy. If you don't want to party with us, I don't want to live. We're all about getting stretched, Hunger Games book club meetings (Drew is almost headed for the final book), and living a more healthy lifestyle. We aren't just dieting, we're working on our strength and conditioning too. I'm changing my lifestyle, Mark is changing his lifestyle, and next trip, Drew "Chuck Norris Wears Drew Henderson Pajamas" Henderson is changing his lifestyle. It's fantastic! But not to forget, we're fish-hungry fishing machines as well. What the bow and arrow is to Katniss Everdeen, a rod and reel is exactly the same to us. It's like an extension of our limbs. It's just so natural and pure. So you throw in the fact that we are all some pretty darn good fisherman--even Mark with his swing-for-the-fences style of angling--you've got the ingredients to have yourself just a rollicking good time here on the Supreme. We have fun, we fish, we life a healthier lifestyle, and last but certainly not least, we bronze. Sonny Jim.

For tomorrow, I see no other reason not to workout, bronze, and go catch some 18-22 lb. yellowfin tuna in sunny, windless weather. That's our plan, anyways. If we do well on the yellowfins, we get to do my favorite activity that we do here on the Polaris Supreme: fish for BIG bluefin tuna...and bronze while doing it. See ya.

The team you dream about,

P.S. Joe Gigliotti would like to say hello to his striking daughters Nicki and Alex. There are a lot of crayons in this box that we call "the universe" and you two shine the brightest. Very sweet, Joe. Very sweet indeed.

Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing August 26 under Drew Henderson's hand. The 24 anglers aboard had been fishing for five days, most of them at Guadalupe Island, where quality yellowfin tuna and yellowtail were caught. Matt Wheaton of Laguna Beach won first place, for a 57.8-pound tuna. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 3/0 Mustad hook and 40-pound Izorline. He used a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar 700 H rod. Alan Romspert of Fullerton caught a 56.8-pound tuna, and tied for second place with Bruce Chisholm of Temecula. Floyd Spangler of Anaheim stood in with the winners in a lineup shot with his 35-pound yellowtail.

It's late in the season, but Guadalupe Island is still holding and producing good catches of quality yellowfin tuna.

"We just returned this morning from another very successful Fall Guadalupe trip," said the report from the charter boat Apollo October 25. "This was another charter with 12 friends. We made good time getting to the Island and arrived at the south end around 9:30 am. There were good biting school size (25/40 lb) yellowfin tuna biting on the anchor. There were also a few schools of better grade (50/100 lb) fish to be found if one was willing to work for it. We were willing! We worked the Island for 4 days mainly targeting that better grade YFT and produced a beautiful catch of 127 Yellowfin tuna. The biggest was 108 lbs with 6 other fish breaking the century mark."

The good fishing at the island could go on until Christmas. It usually lasts until the water drops below 67 degrees or so. Old-timers tell stories about fishing yellowfin or bluefin tuna at the island when there was snow on the peaks. Guadalupe is the one destination that consistently produces yellowfin tuna of 50 to 100 pounds or more short of Alijos Rocks, another full day's cruise south.