noel gyger Fishing Report 2024

Tom Rothery brought his Polaris Supreme home to Fisherman's Landing January 11 after a 16-day trip to the Hurricane Bank and the Southern Banks of Baja. There were seven anglers on the annual George Davis expedition, and they produced ten more cows for the record.

In his report from the boat on Friday January 2, Tom reported a good day of fishing.

"Yes, now this is what I'm talking about," he wrote. "We finally got a break in the weather. It is beautiful and we have left Hurricane Bank. We are now heading to the upper banks. We will be there tomorrow night. Yesterday was an ok day of fishing. George kept a 219 and released a 185. Jeremy released a 140.

"Craig kept a 205 and by the way that was a mistake yesterday. Craig kept a 210 pounder. Al kept a 100 for his buddies that are going to Ennis hunting. They are going to open pit barbeque it on a spit like a pig. Now, that sounds interesting. ‚Д®

"Charlie released a 125 and Scott released a 140. Each day we also had five to 12 fish that we caught that were under 100 pounds and were not mentioned. These all were released.

"Yesterday we also had good wahoo fishing. Jeremy and Craig both caught 4 and Gunnar and Al got 3. Everybody else had a couple a piece. Overall the trip to Hurricane Bank has been very good with eight tuna over 200 pounds, and excellent wahoo fishing."

Chartermaster George Davis of San Dimas won the jackpot while catching four cows. His tuna weighed 241.8, 219.8, 213.6 and 208 pounds. The big one came on squid on the kite, he said.

George fished with 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. He said the big one came to gaff in just 20 minutes.

Allen Tokunaga of North Hollywood won second place for a 224.6-pounder.

"These Hurricane Bank fish seemed a little tougher than the ones on the inside," he remarked. "This one took me 40 minutes. He went around the boat a couple of times, and then came up on the port side of the stern."

Al fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, on 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader, 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra. He used a Penn 50 reel modified by Cal Sheets and a Calstar 6465 XXH rod.

Scott Brown of Costa mesa won third place for his 213.2-pounder. He also got a 202.6-pounder. He fished a small jack under the kite on a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook. He used 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"The big one was a 20-minute fish," he remarked. "He came to the boat pretty good."

One big tuna was eaten by the passengers and crew while the boat was still fishing. It was a 215-pounder caught by Craig Johnston of Costa Mesa, who also got a 204-pounder. Craig said he got them on the kite, on double sardine baits pinned to 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks. He fished with a 130-pound Momoi topshot on 130-pound Izorline Spectra, with a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"It took about 30 minutes," he said. "We had rough seas then; it was a fun fight."

Jeremy Chandler of San Dimas got a 203.6-pounder on a jack under the kite on a 7/0 Mustad 7691 hook and the boat's kite rig.

Captain Mike Pritchard called in this evening with an update. We had very good fishing for rockfish. Pretty much every bait that held the bottom produce a nice fish. We had very good fishing for rockfish. We also had a decent shot at Lingcod and Whitefish. In the afternoon the wind picked up a little bit. We will be fishing every weekend so please call Seaforth or book online. We also have a trip leaving on Tuesday night too!

Looks like we're going to have a light load for tomorrow's trip. I just talked to a boat out on the ocean right now and they said the weather is good. The large swell is very spread out making the ocean conditions nice. Myself and the crew will be heading out tonight for live squid. Call Seaforth at 619-224-3383 for reservations !

GREAT OVERNITE TRIP!!! APOLLO had a great overnite trip with 20 anglers caught 24 Lingcod, limits of Rockfish(200) & 3 Sheeephead. To book your reservation call Sea Landing at (805)963-3564

A pretty slow couple of days. We saw plenty of fish in tuna zone only finding one school that would react. We hit it a couple times before it scattered and we had to try and find something new. The next day we hit a couple of the shallows along the ridge. It was slow there too. We hooked a few marlin, a couple handfuls of dorado and a skin trolling around. We tried various anchor jobs for a few yellows here and there but we weren't going to get the job done there. We will be kelping tomorrow, way out far.

We just don't see the sign of 200 lb. plus tuna that we would like to. There is plenty of 70-125 lb. tuna but we are going to bust a move to look for some cows. Weather is still flat clam. Lunch was wahoo enchiladas. (Tom donated the wahoo) Dinner was a pork tenderloin. No hors d'oeuvres today. We need a break.

~~Sept. 4
 About mid morning today I was pretty bummed. I felt we should've been here yesterday. I was thinking we were going to have to run in tonight to catch our tuna for the trip. I was wrong. Before lunch we had our best stop of the year on yellowfin. Not just number wise but size wise too. 20-30 pounders with a few 18's and a few 35's. That's right, feeling pretty good now. It didn't take very many of them to fill up a fish hold. We pretty much have 2 full fish holds and fortunately/unfortunately, we have to prepare another fish hold for tomorrow. I only say unfortunately because we'll be forced to use the beautiful sardine we've been saving. Out here we've been catching our own bait so we wouldn't have to use our stock but we have no room to put the bait we catch now.

 The bluefin weren't in the biting mode today. We still saw the schools as we have everyday since we've been fishing in this zone, but some days are bite days and some aren't. Obviously we're hoping tomorrow is a bite day. Some bluefin would be the cherry on top of this wonderful sundae.

 The weather sure was nice today and to top it all off, it looks like we'll have the same tomorrow. Sweet dreams. Life is good.