whitsundays Fishing Report 2024

~~Aug 2
 Today was a bit on the slower side.  Until the end but I'll get to that.  We woke up in hopes of getting a sea bass bite going but that was only a fairy tale.  We got a few yellows is all.  After, we made some grouper drifts and caught some more of those Broomtail Groupers.  Something like 4 or 5 of them along with some calico bass and yellows while we drifted along.  And for the rest of the day we pretty much hung out in the lee of the island and drifted here and there and caught a handful of yellowtail here and there.

 Like I said, we fished the lee today.  No wind for us.  It was lovely.  We had plans for dinner at 7:30, so at 7:00 i hopped in the shower to get cleaned up because I was serving, and while I was in there, I heard some cheering, and then again some hooting and hollering hen I was getting out.  It turns out the first round of cheers came because of a nice sea bass they brought in.  The second was for a yellowfin tuna that was landed.  I went down and got the tables set and while I was doing this they kept catching yellowtail, tuna and seabass.  After we made first call we had a whopping 1 person come in to eat.  Team galley understood though.  We knew that there may possibly be no fishing time for the next day due to bad weather running up the line.  So we kept catching fish and one by one, passengers would come in and scarf down some dinner, which was a lovely meatloaf that was fantastic, and then go back out and catch some more fish. 

 This lasted until after 9:00 and then we took off.  We ended the stop with 30 yellowtail, 5 white seabass up to about 40 pounds, and something like 6 or 7 on the tunas. We prepared the deck for a rough ride home, and set sail toward the beach  to try and improve our conditions.  The swells always less on the coast rather than offshore.  I doubt we'll have any time to fish tomorrow.  Travel day.
      

~~AUG. 6
 We fished hard today.  It felt like a kind of slow day but when you look at our tally it shows we had a good day.  We just never got steady more than a couple of drifts.  We'd stop and get a handful and then have to go again.  Other than a few hour long drifts that is.  But at the end of the day, when only half the people were fishing and I had a yellowtail to give away because the angler who caught it had his limit already and nobody handed me over a tag, I knew it was a good day. 

 Things didn't start off so hot though  Nope.  I knew our bait was dying but I thought we were good for another day of fishing before it would croak.  I was wrong.  "Red Boy".  The sardines were red.  Most were either floating belly up or lying at the bottom of the tank.  We made it through though.  We worked hard and had a good day.  The yellows were nice ones too.  20-25 pounds in the morning and 14-25 pounds in the afternoon.

 The weather through here was great today.  I'm not sure we've had one day at this Island this year where the wind wasn't ripping through the south end where we've been fishing.  Now we have one and it looks like it will remain true tomorrow as well.  We saved one tank of bait from last trip.  I knew the first morning we may not have any survivors for our last day if we didn't save our one tank of good bait.  Hopefully we find something to use it on.  I know we'll be making horrific speed coming up so we won't have any time to "work" an area.  We just have to pick a course and hope for the best.  See ya.
       

Hello Everyone, Last night was a slower than the previous nights for tuna. In the morning we focused on Wahoo. We were rewarded with a couple stops for Wahoo and a handful of 20lb Yellowtail. We will be working up tomorrow. We will be in search of Yellowtail. Wish us Luck, Team Supreme

We finally got settled in here late. The fishing was good, with a lot of action and a lot of variety. Tuna was the main game in town, they started small but eventually cleaned up into a nice 18-35 lb average. Mixed in with the Tuna were some Yellowtail, Grouper, and a Wahoo. A nice mixed bag to start off with.

Monday, October 10th, 2011

Hi friends and happy Columbus Day. For the morning time up until around 1300 hours this afternoon, we sure felt like Columbus. The on-going search for a kelp paddy was getting to the point where I felt that we were going to sail right off the map and into oblivion. Between myself and our mast-men, we searched high and low with the one other boat in the upper area until our eyes were beginning to bleed and our faces burnt by the wind. By morning's end, our tally was a Bluefin tuna and four Yellowtail, ouch. I wish that I could type that we made some crazy move to left field and got on something spectacular to end our day but that just wouldn't be truthful. Well, half of that sentence is true.

We owe our day to our long-range brother, code group affiliate, and good friend, Roy Rose on the Royal Polaris. The "RP" was coming up the line from Cedros Island and really wasn't looking to do any type of fishing as they were just wrapping up an 11-day trip. But Roy is a very cool cat and when Roy's not fishing, he's fishing. Bottom-line, he was more than willing to help us out, drag some jigs, and scan the horizon for signs of life for a few hours as a lower area check. At around 1300 hours, Roy called us up and informed us that he had a couple blind jig strikes on Yellowfin, a couple bait-fish, and he also saw a very nice kelp paddy that he stopped on and --as he put it-- was"corroded" with Yellowtail. Being only a couple hours from his position, we kicked the tires and lit the fires down to his position where he graciously marked this beauty of a kelp for us and he was one-hundred percent correct; this kelp was LOADED with Yellowtail. We made three drifts on the kelp, got all we needed and began the search for tuna, which was unsuccessful, but our day was salvaged thanks to our good friends on the RP. My point is, that it's good to know good people, and Roy is one of the best and we owe him greatly. Although Roy is one of the nicest guys around, any one of our long-range brethren would've done the same for us as we would for them. Helping out each other is what makes the long-range fleet one of the finest teams you'll find and today was a perfect example of teamwork and sacrifice. Thanks Roy.

With that, we're making our way up the line in a little bit of weather. Fifteen knots of wind (weatherman was bad. Bad weatherman!) and a mild sea is bumping us up and down a little bit, but it could be a lot worse. We'll take this weather we have now as long as it doesn't build. We'll be back to the docks sometime tomorrow in the mid-morning time and we'll be returning on Saturday afternoon for Joe Giglioti's 8-day trip. If you can swing it, there are still a couple of spots available and Joe will be bringing some goodies from Accurate Reels to give away to our ultra limited-load of anglers. Give Susan a call at 619 390 1958. Until then, we'll chat with later. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

103 yellowfin 12 yellowtail 1 skipjack. After hours of driving without hardly seeing a scale we found the right school at the right time. Never give up!

UPCOMING HOT TRIPS!!! We are planning on running some specialty trips sponsored by Berkley and Shimano These trips will be out of Santa Barbara, targeting White Seabass and/or shallow water Rockfish at the Channel Islands. They will have give aways and raffle prizes. Berkley Trips will be limited to 24 people and Shimano trips will be limited to 20 people. All trips will depart from Sea Landing at 9pm the night prior to the fishing date. Please email me at [email protected] for more details or to make reservations, call Sea Landing at (805)568-0460. The Berkley dates are fishing Fri. April 2, Fri. April 23, and Fri. May 28. The Shimano dates are Fri. April 16 and Fri. May 21

Good Evening everyone, Today we woke up anchored in the yellowtail grounds. Things started off slow with a couple fish being brought in on the dropper loop and yo yo iron. Most of the fish caught in the morning were nice sized yellowtail in the 20-30lb range with a couple of really nice sheep head and assorted rock fish in the mix. As the morning went on, the yellows moved up in the water column and started to bite the fly lined sardine and the surface iron. The fish were coming around in flurries with a handful of anglers hooking up at a time. We picked at the yellows for a couple of hours before making a short move. We started off catching some smaller grade yellows before the big ones moved in. Before long the fish started boiling around the boat, and started to bite. We continued to put fish on the boat all afternoon into the evening before the bite slowed down. Most of the guys had success on fly lined sardines with 30 or 40 lb test and a 1/0 or 2/0 hook. When the bite had stopped we sat on the anchor for the night and enjoyed a nice dinner courtesy of chef Mike. We will be fishing the same area tomorrow, and will be hoping for a similar outcome as today before trying our luck for the yellowfin once again. Will report tomorrow, Team Supreme