quinsam river Fishing Report 2024

Still heading down here. Had to go a little further than planned, but we did manage to put our first fish on the boat. Here we have Wild Bill Walsh with the first Wahoo of the trip!

~~Nov. 12
 I'm not sure how to write about today because I'm not sure how I feel about today.  I'm definitely proud of us.  We fished hard today.  A lot of the boat was up before 4 trying to get a bite going and didn't let up till dark.  Now that's some hardcore fishing right there.

 We started in the last weeks hot spot.  Us and 2 other boats.  It didn't take long for the 2 other boats to leave the zone.  They were both on the latter parts of there trips and needed to head north.  We stuck it out as long as we could picking one here and one there along with a bounty of skipjack but most of the passengers stuck it out and stayed at the rail.  Like I said, I'm proud of them.  3 hours and 30 fish later we gave up and headed to different grounds in a direction for a boat more fresh out on there trip.  After lunch we arrived and again, I'm proud of these guys.  Once again we were picking one tuna here and one tuna there along with more skipjack and small dorado but once again these guys kept at it and fished hard.  Well the ratio got better and better until at the end it was pretty good fishing.  The grade could've been one more notch up but it is what it is and we understand that.

 We're on our way to try and make some mackerel and we'll be headed to cow town the following day.  We're going to give it at least a day and give everyone on board an opportunity to catch a major cow tuna.  Wish us luck.
      

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Hi friends. I don't know what's going on with me, it's like the fish just elude us in the morning time and around lunchtime, people start to get very down about our fishing day, myself included. We had a horrible morning. A boat just a few miles from us got on a kelp and had good fishing on bluefin, yellowfin, and dorado. Okay, maybe that means that we're in the right area. Nope. We went in all kinds of different directions only to find a boat already on a kelp catching fish or a boat already working the area. Very frustrating. Around lunch time, the mood on deck was starting to sour and the mood in the wheelhouse was the exact opposite of laughing babies, sunflowers, and Labrador puppies. It was straight death. I was pretty sure that I was about to lose my turkey caesar salad all over the dash and that would've been the highlight of my day up to that point. Yep, it was that bad. But as our boss's old boss, Steve Loomis, used to say, "west is best."

So I made the decision -- we're going to head west all day until we don't see a boat on the radar or we fall off the earth. As I was checking my water temperature charts, looking at the next area where I was sure that I was going to go and find another boat or non-biting fish, it happened. Not the sound of a single fish popping on the sonar or the mast-man yelling at me to rotate trollers, but the sound of a school -- a gigantic school -- on the sonar. I flipped from the computer screen to the sonar screen, throttled back the mains, and spun the wheel hard to starboard. In the excitement of the moment, I managed to tangle up the chord for the gyros in the wheel as I was spinning too (sweet), so I'm yelling in the P.A. system, chasing down the school, and trying to untangle the chord all at the same time and just like that, the school is off the edge of the screen, swimming away with my heart.

As I sit looking at a blank sweep of the sonar for a few seconds and the thoughts of ripping the wheelhouse chair from its base and throwing it out the window, I finally realize that Jed is screaming down at me from the mast. He was screaming profanities, but not directed towards me, at least not directly. His screams read something along this line, and I'll clean it up for everyone at home, "they're f-ing shinning!!" Bingo, as I came back around, the sonar lit up once again right in front of the boat and after a few seconds -- which seemed like a century -- the fathometer ran red. Oh my gosh, they're under us, thick! I can't remember if I cursed when I called for the bait to rain down on the school after we stopped the boat but I apologize to our anglers if I did. In all honesty, I don't think they could hear me on the P.A. as everyone was screaming their heads off as well and after shutting down the mains and running out to the back deck, the most beautiful sight I could've seen was right before my very eyes; fishing boiling everywhere and all the rods bent over. Sonny Jim!

We drifted with that school of five hours and after the initial rush where they were biting sixty pound line for a couple of hours, we kept two to five going for the remainder of the stop. We finished the drift with 120 bluefin tuna (limits) in the 15-30 lb. class and 40 yellowfin tuna in the 12-18 lb. class. Like I said before, Sonny Jim!

So there you have it. A day in the life of a sport-boat captain. It's life of stressing like you're a lady of the night in church and then in the blink of an eye, you're the fireman carrying out the baby from the house fire to place it into the loving arms of it's mother. Here you go, ma'am.

-The Supreme Team

~~Trip Report 08.10.2015

 Good evening folks. Today didn't fair out like we planned. It proves that's why it's called fishing and not catching. We didn't have the awesome weather that we had yesterday, but it was certainly fishable. Our common yellowtail zone has been producing fairly well over the past few weeks, but there are those off days too. What's encouraging though, is there is also school of yellowfin tuna down here South as well. It's great for keeping our options open for when the tails don't want to cooperate. My feeling is the the tails just took a day off to regroup and we'll get at it first thing in the morning and start tagging some fish right away. On a brighter note, we did move north a little ways in the early afternoon and hit a giant breezer of tuna. Pretty close to a football field size I would say, and we managed to get a nice chunk of them to stick with us. It took some shoveling of bait to get them to stick, but they did. Nothing like a nice chaotic tuna bite to break up the day. We managed to turn it into a nice 100 fish stop of a pretty good grade I might add. All and all, we ended up putting a descent afternoon and everyone got to tag plenty of tuna. Tomorrow is a new day, we'll cross our fingers that the fish God's are on our side tomorrow and we'll check back in after we wrap it up for the day.

Also, we cannot forget to wish Michelle Taylor a very Happy Birthday from Troy and the boys out here on the Polaris Supreme!!

Jed and Crew

Hello everyone, Today we spent the day targeting Wahoo, Yellowtail, and what ever else we were able to find. We were able to scratch up some nice Wahoo and yellowtail, just not the numbers we would have liked. However the Wahoo we were able to find were quite large, some close to 60 lbs! Some truly great fish! We are going for big numbers tomorrow, wish us luck! Team Supreme

107 yellowtail 1 halibut. Steady action on yo-yo jigs and dropper looped baits. Few fish on flylined baits as well. 20-30lb test for flyline 30-50lb for yo-yo/dropper loops.

Good times were had by all on the Prevost private charter. Light line live bait rigs and small colt snipers connected with 57 yellowfin tuna and 2 bluefin tuna.

Thursday, August 16th, 2012

Hi friends. We dropped off Eric Rogger and friends to a dock full of curious bystanders and passengers ready to depart on various trips on other boats and the Ron Heil group looked on as well, ready to load the boat and get underway. Why wouldn't they? With the catch we unloaded, you'd have to be a fool not to go fishing right now. A fool, I say. Anyways, we completed all of our turnaround chores, loaded groceries, loaded passengers, and bid the docks farewell. Our bait loading was about as much fun as trying to hit a nail on the head but instead hitting your finger. Our bait looks okay for now but we're closely monitoring the situation. Nothing anybody can do about it. From the guys on the bait boat busting their butt to get bait to all the boats that demand, the guys on the bait receivers, or us, it is what it is.

Anyhow, Chef Shawn kicked out the prime rib, artichoke, and baked potatoes to the peeps and everyone is hitting the rack for tomorrow's wake-up call. We'll be gettin' nasty with it at 0545 hours. Real nasty. Wish us luck.

-The Supreme Team