western lake erie Fishing Report 2025

Hopefully this wahoo from the last trip is a good sign of what is to come on our next trip depending tomorrow. A seven day wahoo specific adventure!

~~Sep. 12
 Hello all.  Things went smooth today at the landing.  We got in first, pre 5:30 AM and we had our peops on by 7:30 with our last climbing aboard before 9:00 and we were gone.  Gone to the bait receivers.  I was sure of what we were going to get.  Straight 2 day old sardine.  I told everyone we'd be fishing our way down to the wahoo grounds.  It's hot water down there so I didn't want to bring that bait down there too soon in case it would all die.  But things were different at the receivers.  They had that little mackerel we got a couple trips ago.  So we loaded up with that because I'm pretty confident it will live good in that 80+ degree water down below.  So as of now, we're headed straight down  to the wahoo/tuna/yellowtail/dorado grounds.  At least we hope it is.  We'll start down there and if we have to work back up to make a catch we will but hopefully we can just make a trip of it down below.  So that means we travel today, tomorrow, and arrive the following day hopefully by mid morning.  We'll see what kind of speed we make.

 Today was nice.  We hauled but in the morning, but after getting bait and putting her on course, the rush was over.  We have been fishing the first day out on every trip since early August, so this is quite the treat not fishing today.  We love to fish over here but just relaxing, not having to rush to get the seminar done and rushing to get the loaner tackle out was really nice.  I took a nap.  It was pretty cool.  I'm showered, rested and just sitting here writing to you folks.

 

Tommy Rothery returned Polaris Supreme to Fisherman's Landing November 18 after a ten-day Ocean Tackle Research charter. The boat had 13 anglers aboard. Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen of Hood River, OR saw his father, Bill Mikkelsen of Olympia, WA land the season's first super cow; a tuna over 300 pounds.
"It was full-speed fishing," said Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen. Bill Mikkelsen's big fish won first place after it weighed in at 308.8-pounds, caught on a fly-lined sardine. Bill used the boats gear, including a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 100-pound P-Line, and a Shimano rod and reel.
"Tommy said it was tail-wrapped from the beginning," said the elder Mikkelsen. "And he was, but he got lose and went on another run. He took me around the boat twice." "We started with yellowtail fishing on the ridge that turned out to be a real good bite," said Rothery. "We easily could have got limits on yellowtail and dorado, but these guys normally release most of their fish. We had one day of awesome marlin fishing, which this group enjoyed quite a bit." "I think we had maybe 200 hookups on marlin," said John Esler of Portland. "But our yellowfin bite was pretty amazing. Once Tommy would find them, he'd shut the motors off and just drift. They didn't need a lot of chum either, they were boiling all around the boat." Esler landed a 206.7-pound yellowfin.
Matt Kiesse of Cederville, CA was second place with a 279.8-pound yellowfin.
"The trip was just spectacular," said Kiesse. "We got everything." Lon Mikkelsen was third with a 277.9-pound tuna. The trip scored five tuna over 200 pounds.

Hello everyone Today the water is noticeably warmer and cleaner than yesterday. We started off the day fishing for tuna. The grade was still that better sized fish 13-25 lbs. It just did not bite in the volume that we were hoping for, still great action though. In between anchor jobs we trolled around for Wahoo. Picking one off here and there, keeping things interesting. We feel that we are content with the tuna we have on board and are in search of more Wahoo tomorrow. Will report again tomorrow, Team Supreme

This morning we had a passenger who was having a medical problem and had to be airlifted off. We were lucky as Coast Guard was near by rescuing some people off a sailboat. So it was very quick and efficient. Last report is he is doing well. Fishing today was ok. We got some jig strikes for a handful of tuna above the island. In the afternoon we got the anchor down and continued to fish the tuna until a shark shut us down. So we moved to another spot that had good signs of tuna. But even though they were showing well they did not want to bite. The yellowtail however did bite and we got some big hombart yellowtail for about an hour and a half until the shark found us from the previous spot and shut us down again. So we tried to out smart him and swung back up to the original spot and got into some 20-55 pounders. Tomorrow we will be in a different area and should be fishing by 9:30 tomorrow morning. Our weather is ok. There was some wind going down, but not a bad ride. And it was beautiful calm in the lee of the island. Chef Rick is on board this trip and made a great roasted chicken with a garlic cream sauce, zucchini and rice. And dessert was Death by Chocolate. Really good. Thanks for checking in.

Happy independence day! guys! We finished our day yesterday by continuing to pick away at those larger size yellowtail. Almost all of our anglers ended up with at least one yellowtail and we even had a hand-full of anglers who managed to catch their limit of those larger sized fish. As I'm writing this report, I am seeing quite a few small schools of yellows on the sonar. We are eager to find out what today has in stock for us! Happy Independence Day, Team Supreme

Captain Ryan checked in tonight to report in. We had 40 passengers on a private charter catch 136 yellowtail 174 calico bass. Very good action all day.

The fall fishing season is on, as could be seen in the catch brought back from Alijos Rocks and The Ridge by Polaris Supreme owner-skipper Tommy Rothery, who docked his rig at Fisherman's Landing September 16 after an right-day trip. "Wow, what a great day!" wrote Tom on September 13. "We had an awesome morning bite on the Dorado; big bulls and cows. We took a break at lunch and Pedro prepared a Southwestern 10 oz. burger that was delicious. He really nails the menu with his creative spices and herbs. Back out on the deck, we had excellent fishing on the wahoo throughout the whole day. And then to finish up the day we caught some yellowfin tuna. It was just a great, fun day. Dinner tonight was a spicy ginger shrimp curry; another great dish. Our weather all day has been beautiful. I hear it's been crappy up above and hope it lies down before we start up the line." Jeff Theurer of Pismo Beach got the best dorado, a 44-pound whopper that will now be the season's best. "I got it in 15 minutes," he said, "on 40-pound line. This is my best dorado and the best on the boat this trip."
Chris Fitzgerald of Lake Elsinore won first place for a 70.2-pound tuna. He caught it with a sardine, he said, on a 3/0 Mustad hook, 60-pound P-Line on an Avet 5-2 reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod.
Wayne Campbell of Huntington Beach was second for a 70-pounder, and Bill Vogel of Oceanside won third place for a 62.6-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna. Jeff Camplese of Helena, MT took the best wahoo, a 55.4-pounder, and brought it into the lineup shot.