rotorua Fishing Report 2025

We are continuing to see impressive schools. It seems everyday we are getting better responses out of them. Our last trip we had a good opportunity on the 60-90 pound fish, keeping 1 to 5 fish hooked for the better part of 4 hours. Getting a bite wasn’t the hard part but because we were forced to use our “finesse” gear we had to work very hard to land them. Hopefully the trend continues ! 

29 yellowtail, 44 reds, and 100 whitefish. Yellowtail sightings are starting to become very consistent. Spring is in the air.

Starting to see some schools of this grade bluefin in our travels again. Make sure you bring a 40lb rod to go along with your 20 lb rod. Might be a good idea to bring some 4oz torpedos and rubber bands also. This 40 pound rod can also serve as a flyline rod if we get on a good biting school of yellowfin.

Beautiful weather and good fishing. 19 yellowtail 145 calico bass 17 barracuda 23 whitefish 5 sheepshead.

The fishing out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego is already great and is ready to explode as water conditions improve and temperatures increase. The new Seaforth Landing buildings and parking lot are almost ready to roll and things are looking really good!!! Congratulations to everyone at Seaforth !! Great Job !!! I was lucky enough to fish with Captains Bob Williams and Bryan Winn for a 3/4 day trip aboard the Seawatch to the beautiful Coronado Islands. We limited out on 3-6 pound bonito by 10am in wide open fishing not far off the coast. Captains Bob and Bryan than steered us to the Coronado Island for a shot at some big island yellowtail. Not long after dropping anchor yours truly hooked and landed a nice yellow on a dropped looped chovy. Way to go Kidd !! We hooked a bunch of yellows on sardines, anchovies and iron, landing some and loosing others to reel screaming runs to the rocks. The highlight came when young Chris "Don't call me Littleman anymore" Robinson hooked, battled and landed a nice 20 lb Coronado Island Yellowtail. Awesome job Chris !!! We ended the day with 10 nice yellows from 13- 28 lbs led by Mark Nahabedians' 28 pounder that he nailed on Salas blue and white iron. Captains Bob, Bryan and crew did an awesome kob putting us on the fish. We were the high count boat out of all the 3/4 day boats fishing the Islands. Great Job Guys !!! Seaforth has trips fishing the Coronado Islands everyday. Give them a call at 1-619-224-3383 or check their website at www.seaforthsportfishing.com. You can check the schedule and make reservation right on the website. Another Awesome dayat the Coronado Islands !!!! Thats the "word on the water" Don. email me at [email protected] for photos.

Limits of Yellowfin and 60 Skipjack today for our 15 Angler’s. A special thanks to Morongo Indian Reservation for their continued support and charters.

We had a slow morning here at the Ridge, but the afternoon provided us with a good bite on the yellowtail up to 30 lbs. The weather is still absolutely beautiful. Those of you that know me, know I never eat breakfast, but I thought I would check it out as I am always reporting on the lunch and dinners. Well breakfast today was a stack of buttermilk pancakes, slab of honey cooked bacon and eggs cooked to your order. I still didn't eat, but the guys all said it was delicious. We have a couple more days here to fish and then we are in on Sunday and departing on South Bay Fish and Tackle's 6-day charter.
There is still one spot on that trip, and a couple on the Sept. 22 if you can get away.

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Hi friends. We're still traveling down in decent weather, with plenty of sunshine to make for an enjoyable trek. Although, the travel days can be very monotonous, we always find something out of the ordinary to do to break up the boredom. Today was a unique day, even by our standards; and even after all of the sea time that passengers and crew members alike have accumulated over the decades, we still found ourselves in activities, scenery, and fishing that we don't experience everyday.

Now, I'm not trying to make roses out of you-know-what; we caught Yellowtail today. That's all. We didn't run into the first wave of Albacore or run up on a breezer of giant Bluefin tuna. Nope, we simply caught beautiful 18-22 lb. Yellowtail. Before I go any further - I am not bashing the Yellowtail fishery in any way shape or form. We had a great time doing it today and in all honesty, typing out words to explain the amount of fun we had for an hour would bore everyone half to death. What garners this report is simply the hour-long spectacle that was associated with our Yellowtail fishing. Having wide open fishing and not really trying to compete with other boats or boost our own egos is fun enough, trust me. Just good old fashioned yankin' and crankin' is what we did today but add in the sight of breaching Humpback Whales (two adults and one cute little calf, literally within casting distance) with the backdrop of one of the most beautiful destinations that we fish in one of the most isolated places in the Eastern Pacific was something I'll never forget. Like I said, it was Yellowtail fishing; but add in the group of gentlemen that we shared this experience with, it was hard not to just stop for a moment and take everything in. All in all, it was a super fun day.

I'm sorry for the lengthy report. I'm reading three books at the moment and one of them is 83 Neurobic exercises to increase mental fitness and it encourages you to do some off-the-wall stuff - things that you normally wouldn't do to keep your brain healthy. It's a fascinating read and I'm applying a lot of the little things that the book says to do. I'm sure that I'm driving the crew crazy with how stoked I am to do these things; from switching my watch to my other hand, to navigating my way around the wheelhouse with my eyes closed and let my senses other than sight guide me around (don't worry, I'm not driving), to putting different types of tape on the keyboard (don't ask) - it's all really interesting to me and it's keeping the travel days fresh and exciting. So, I apologize for this whacky report but I'm helping to keep my brain stimulated and hopefully yours too.

Anyhow, With this particular trip -- or any 17-day trip, for that matter -- there is always something new to do to keep us on our toes. From rigging up "Bruce" our new anchor (insert circus music here) to finding a good book to read to learning a new way to rig tackle or just enjoying the ride with some good friends, the entire experience of traveling down to our destination can be looked at in multiple ways - today was one of those good travel days and I felt like sharing it with everyone because we're pumped. Other than good weather and good food, I'll leave y'all with a few more clues as to what in the heck we're doing with our time. It involves: five grown men, a food processor, Yellowtail Milt, a deck brush, and a bait scoop. Stimulate your brains. We'll chat with you manana.

P.S. Devon, Alayna, and Lyall - I caught y'all a delicious Calico Bass today. I wanted to release it but mortality was imminent. I am deeply sorry. Scootch didn't even try to save it either so it's half his fault. Sorry.