clearwater river Fishing Report 2024

Well the weather has kicked up a little and it's a little bumpy. We will be at the dock at 6:00 am tomorrow. Come down and say hi if you can. We will be in until Thursday Nov. 8 when we depart on Lon Mikkleson's OTR charter. There are still spots available if you want to come with us.

Oct. 16

I would call today a very disappointing day. We had The Rocks to ourselves today after a 3 day rest and I thought we were going to get um but it was not to be. 0 wahoo. 0. Not even a short biter. We trolled for 4 hours for nothing. I think what I'm trying to say here is we didn't catch any wahoo. We caught a few handfuls of yellowtail in the morning before the sharks took things over and after realizing there were no wahoo to be had we went offshore and looked for a kelp the rest of the day to see if we could get 1 that way or a bunch of Dorado's but that was not to be either. The fishing today stunk. Everything else today was lovely though. The weather today was really nice. The sun was out and the seas were flat. The food is always great out here and the scenery was lovely as well. We're working our way back towards home now to extend our fishing time for the trip. We're going to top off on those beautiful yellowtails tomorrow and spend our last couple of day

s hunting the bluefin tuna.

Mike Pritchard called i with this report for the Tribute. "Very good fishing here once again. Limits of Yellowtail, 18 mixed tuna with a sprinkling of Skipjack to go with it. The weather is really nice & we are looking around for some more Bluefin.

"We have room available for tomorrow the trip tomorrow night. After that we have 3 spots open on a 5 Day trip departing October 28th. If you are interested give Seaforth Landing a call at 619-224-3383. We will keep you informed."

Skipper JJ Gerritsen returned with his Apollo to Fisherman's Landing November 21, after an eight-day, ultra-limited trip. The boat's ten passengers fished Guadalupe Island before taking off for Magdalena Bay to fish big tuna on their final day. "All of our long range trips are ultra-limited," said JJ. "It takes away competition factors, we won't do more than ten passengers. We got limits of yellowfin, Guadalupe's been great our last six trips, but we did something different this time; we headed out for a shot at these big ones. All of our fish are kept in refrigerated saltwater, so they still look great." Matt Bowland of Encinitas took home the best tuna; a 224-pound yellowfin that fought "long and hard." Matt used a 6/0 Owner ringed Super Mutu hook, on an 80-pound P-Line topshot, 100-pound Spectra, a Tiagra 30 reel and a Calstar Grafighter 765 H rod. "I butt-hooked the sardine," said Matt. "The fight lasted two and a half hours." Drew Card of San Diego was second with a 196-pound tuna, and Craig Biddick of Rancho Santa Fe was third for a 164-pounder.

Oct. 15

We had an awesome morning of yellowtailing today. Not long after daylight we started getting 18-25 pounders and it wouldn't stop for the next 4 hours or so. It was lovely. The set up was good. Hardly a breath of wind, bay style sea conditions and the fish were plentiful. I kept day dreaming of the Yellowtail fish head soup and the yellowtail sandwich I'll make when I get home after this trip. Mmmm. Around 11:00 the fish stopped biting but we were planning on it so we took advantage of that and we spent the rest of the day traveling down to the wahoo grounds. We did a wahoo seminar before lunch, then we ate carnitas tacos and then the rest of the day we got our wahoo leaders together while we looked for a kelp with dorados and whatever else we could catch with them though the kelps we did see weren't holding anything other then a few micro tunas. So we'll be in the grounds first light tomorrow in the wahoo mode.

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One lucky kelp produced fast and furious action on yellowfin, skipjack, yellowtail and a few dorado. 122 yellowfin tuna, 122 skipjack tuna, 56 yellowtail, 8 dorado.

Yesterday we hit the wahoo in the morning and had a steady tuna all day on 45 to 75 pounders. Weather was still great. This morning we are heading up offshore to the albacore. Weather is ok. Not a bad ride up so far. Chef Tommy kicked butt again yesterday with a seafood pasta for lunch (lobster, scallop, shrimp and crab) and for dinner we had the classic steaks and baked potatoes. Very good. Passengers are all having a ball. Crew too. It's been a very good trip.

Myself and the crew would like to thank everyone who joined us for this past season. 2016 will forever be remembered as one of the most unique years. From huge schools of non biting yellowfin tuna to foamers of big bluefin that enjoyed eating surface poppers. This season proves that none of us know anything about the ocean. We will shut down for a month or so to handle our annual maintenance. We look forward to fishing with everyone again in 2017.