jersey shore Fishing Report 2024

13 bluefin tuna from 40 to 80 lbs and 2 yellowtail. Come prepared with a 25 lb setup for kelp fish and smaller tuna. A 40 or 50 lb setup for flylining sardines at the 60-80 lb tuna and a 60 or 80 lb setup for flatfalling. Fluorocarbon is a must as well as size 1 to 2/0 circle hooks. Come take advantage of this rare opportunity to catch a true trophy fish in local waters without trolling.

Polaris Supreme returned from the Catchy Tackle open trip with 20 anglers on September 9. The boat docked under skipper Drew Henderson's hand at Fisherman's Landing after visiting Guadalupe, Alijos Rocks and The Ridge. "Gave it the full check today," wrote Drew September 4. "We only got a couple wahoo but it was great action on 20 to 30-pound yellows on the dropper loop and yo-yo iron. Anyone who fly lined a bait could expect to get a dorado; they were from 15 to 40 pound fish. Most were too busy with the yellows." Small tuna were a problem at times, said Henderson. Some nice pink pargo were encountered at Thetis Bank. Paul Adams of Cardiff won first place, for a 73-pound yellowfin. He said he caught that on eon a sardine, 2/0 ringed Super Mutu hook, 60-pound Ande line, a Penn 30 W reel and a Calstar 655 H rod. Bill Zemba of Castaic was second, for a 70-pounder, and Tim Williams of San Clemente won third place for a 69.8-pound tuna. Robert Johns of Kearney, MO stood in with his 38-pound dorado for the lineup shot.

Rolling up! Today we had to leave the peaceful waters of the Island to start making our way north. The sea is rolling us around for the course we need to take. Overall it is a smooth ride so far. Looking like an on time arrival tomorrow morning in San Diego. Pictured here is Tim with a monster Yellowtail.

Sep. 2

Well we started in some traditionally tasty grounds today. The weather was magnificent and so was the water we were in. Warm and a beautiful glassy blue. It was also lively as could be. There were birds buzzing around all over, little dabs of dolphin, big herds of dolphin that were "all birded up"(that's code for "looks right"), a dead animal floating,(known for holding lots of dorado),kelp paddies and floating fishing gear buoys(also known for holding mucho dorado and wahoo). Well none of it was holding !@#$. I'm just bummed about it too. We had this area all to ourselves for 3 days in early September with beautiful weather and fishing conditions and it stunk. I can't sugar coat it. We covered a lot of good looking spots for not much fish. It just wasn't there. If I had a time machine I would go back 5 days ago and do it all over again. We would start above and fish our way down instead of starting below and fishing our way north. At least then my stress level wouldn't be high because we'd have fish in our holds. Fishing would be so easy with a time machine. Maybe I shouldn't write such downer reports but my friend Rob on board says he enjoys reading the good with the bad and you know what, this sort of thing happens. Fishing can be good and it can be bad. Oh well but hey, our trip is only half over, we're going to catch a bunch of yellows tomorrow, get some bait, maybe catch some more yellows and some more bait then go and whip on the tuna. Right? I hope so.

Your bummed but still very high spirited captain, Drew

TWO DAY OFFSHORE REPORT!! APOLLO went for a two day trip with 19 passengers. They hooked & landed 76 Dorado, 36 Yellowtail, 30 Yellowfin, & 6 Skippy. Time to book your reservation now at Fisherman's Landing @ (619)221-8500

July 17
    Our morning started off hot.  We had some very good tailing for about 1 1/2 hours on the 16-22 pound grade.  We managed to get a few fish per rod in that amount of time frame before things went dead around 8:30.  It's OK, we were expecting that.  We stuck with the plan and looked for yellowfin after that and it wasn't long before we connected.  We had 2 good stops and one great stop on the yellowfin tunas and scattered small stops the rest of the day.  They were a bit on the small side but that's what's around here so we fished them.  After that we drove out of the zone to put ourselves in position for tomorrow and didn't catch much the rest of the day.

    We'll be tailing it again tomorrow looking for the bigguns down below first thing in the morning.  The weather this morning was great.  It got a little windy in the afternoon but it was OK.
                                

 

~~Aug. 26
 Good evening everyone.  We wrapped up our trip today.  And it was an interesting day.  First off the weather continued to produce variable wind.  Flat calm and gorgeous.  Onto the fishing.  As you know we almost had no sardine today.  We used it well though for the time we had it.  The bluefin floated today.  Everywhere you looked there was a 30-50 pound bluefin gently rolling on the glassy surface.  Other times you would see the whole school swimming on the surface.  It definitely had that feel to it.  We caught 30 fish from 30-50 pounds this morning before we ran out of bait.  For the time being it was great but sad when we ran out.  We still had a couple tanks of big mackerel to use and Tommy had it figured out where we would use it.  So we made a few hour move and it didn't take long after we arrived to the honey hole before we were gettinum.  Big yellowfin.  45-65 pounders.  It felt like we were anchored up at Alijos Rocks when the tuna were around there.  Those fish liked our mackerel.  We caught a few over 20 of those bad boys before they quit biting.  I wish we could be in 2 spots at once.

 So we have a 1.5 day trip leaving tomorrow afternoon Aug. 27 and we want you to go.  Let me try and talk you into it.  Now this is me speaking truth.  Not blowing smoke at you.  The weather still is fore casted to be great great.  Variable wind.  Now I told you we had great fishing this morning while we had bait.  A lot of the boats that had just left on there trips that had bait all day drifted all day.  Not all but a lot. They drifted and they caught. It's a good time to go fishing I'd say.  Good grade, good fishing. Let us take you fishing, feed you great, show you a good time and hopefully the bonus, catch lots of fish.
        

Sep. 19

We didn't start fishing today till around 2:00 in the afternoon. Before that we traveled up in very cool dirty looking fishless water as we expected. Everyone slept in and chilled out while the crew did some maintenence on the boat and did some repairs on monday details. After the boat was in tip top shape we ate fish tacos and got ready to fish. We didn't find any wide open yellowtail fishing but we scrached out an afternoon. We caught 3 a round on mostly good grade yellowtails with a few cows mixed in. 35 pounders is about what they were. So we're traveling up now in good weather to the yellowfin/dorado grounds. We could use a top off on some yellowfin and we can use some more dorado and then we'll have most of a day to fish for the bluefin before we head for home.