whakatane Fishing Report 2024

First things first !! I think a hearty Sportfishingreport.com congratulations are in order for J.J Gerritsen and the crew of the Apollo for their clean #1 sweep in annual SFR fishcount standings for 2006. Yellowfin Tuna # 1!!!!!!!!!!!, Albacore Tuna # 1!!!!!!!, Dorado #1 !!!! Very impressive numbers indeed !!!! Way to go guys, awesome year !!!!So when good friend and Santa Barbara local Doug Browand called and said a bunch of local firefighters and friends had chartered the #1 boat in the land for a little Island Freelance trip, I was packing my gear and clearing my schedule in a hurry. We loaded up on time and headed out of Sea Landing in Santa Barbara straight to Santa Rosa Island in case the squid and WSB wanted to show. J.J promised us some outrageous rockfish and lingcod action if the seabass were still MIA. We gave it a solid effort but with no signs of squid or WSB we motored up and headed out to some of Captain J.J's secret rocks and reefs. The first drift of the day produced monster reds and chuckles that rival some of the nicest and biggest rockfish I've seen and caught in many years. The Channel Islands Rockfishing is on Fire !!!!!! Throw a bunch of nice legal lings into the mix and you're talking a really fine day of fishing and a great time for all. The fishing at the Islands is only going to get better and J.J and the boys on the Apollo will be there fishing for them everyday. Check their website for their open party schedule and don't forget about the upcoming SFR charter on the Apollo.

July 20
  Good evening folks.  Turn around day today.  In and out.  Unload, fuel, cherish baby, load, load and go.  That's how it goes down.  The bait receivers was fun.  Turns out all that rain we got may have effected the sardine we get there.  It's speculation but things weren't right.  We got some bait though.  Some good sardine and some good mackerel.  Yellowtail bait.  Tommy is back on board for this trip and he's decided to start off tailing tomorrow.  We're going to tail our butts off.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow but we most likely will get our tuna on the day after.

  Getting to know your crew: I've told you Mark is trying to bring his weight down.  Well Justin is in the same mode so I had an idea.  They're both throwing 50 bucks down.  He who loses the most weight by October 1, or the closest date we have a scale to October 1 takes the money.  Now that's a battle.  We have a couple of hungry crew members for sure.

  My rivals are on board this trip.  Many San Francisco Giant fans.  Uugh.  It just so happens that a 3 game series between them and my Pads start tonight.  I'm actually listening to the game now.  4-2 Pads in the 7th.  Now I know this is a fishing blog but it's a travel day.  You love it anyways.  I'll talk fishing tomorrow.
       and go Pads!

Captain Mike Pritchard checked in with an audio update from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.  We have been drifting for 5 hours now.  We have 16 Bluefin Tuna in the 60 to 80 pound class.

The Tribute is online at Seaforth by the seashore.

Aug. 23

Let me wine for a few sentences please. With the exception of a 3 day window in the second week, we haven't had two days of good weather in a row in the whole month of August. It's tough to even make it a full day with good weather. Windy August 2013. Screw you August. Needless to say it's not very comfortable traveling right now. Good weather early turned to blown out pre lunch, then backed off for an hour , now blown out again.

OK, I'm done now. Slow fishing today. We had three deals today that didn't bite all that well. 8 out of 1, 14 out of another and then we had 1 for 1 and then we called it a trip. Oh well, we still had an awesome trip. We'll be in tomorrow after 7:00 in the morning and the big guy will be taking it out for a 5 day trip.

For everyone on board this trip who is reading this report later, thank you. You make our world go round.

~~Nov. 18
 Well, we just finished up our last day of our last trip of 2014.  We fished the coast for yellowtail and junk this morning.  And remember by junk I mean the small good eaters.  It was a successful morning.  The sun wasn't even up yet and we were getting yellows and others.  It was good fishing.  The grade was small, 10-12 pounders but we didn't have more then 8 yellowtail on board prior to today so we were tagging them.  For a little while anyways.  We let everyone get a few along with there junk before looking for something else.  We made a few drifts after that for another couple handfulls of yellows and some whitefish and stuff and then it was mid morning and we had to call it and head for home.  So that's what we're doing now.

 Another successfully trip I'd call it.  We had some action the first couple days fishing, then we got to see the 2-300 pounders boiling around(unfortunately none would bite but they were there), and then we had some great action on wahoo and tuna, and then we finished her off up above getting action on the yellers.  We'll be unloading at 6:30 tomorrow morning, and like I said, we'll be tied up for a while.  So it's that time.

 It's time to write this.  I write this at the end of every season.  I should just copy and paste it every year because it's the same, as it should be.  I'd just like to thank everyone who fished with us this year and in previous years on behalf of myself, the crew, and all the way to Tommy and Susan from the bottom of our hearts.  You're what keep us going year after year.  You're the reason we can take care of ourselves and our families.  You're why we can enjoy life off of the boat and on the boat.  You make our world go round.  THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

          It's been a fantastic year.  We'll see you all at upcoming fishing shows and on future trips.  See you around. 
               

Our private charter had to display some good old fashioned patience today. In a typical 3/4 day trip we can expect to make about 3-5 moves thru ought the day looking for fish. Today however, we did not find what we were looking for until our 9th stop of the day. The rapidly changing conditions coupled with the short windows of biting fish have been driving yours truly crazy the past couple of days. Today's photo will show you why we have been putting ourselves thru such mental anguish. Todays final count for our 31 passengers is 11 yellowtail 20 calico bass 16 barracuda 7 rockfish. Our yellowtail today weighed 20-35 pounds and were biting the fly lined sardines the best.

Captain Mike Pritchard called in from the Tribute last night updating us about the 1.5 day trip returning this AM. We had 72 Yellowtail (up to 40 pounds), 13 Bluefin Tuna (up to 30 pounds), and 7 Dorado. Our next couple trips are SOLD OUT but please call Seaforth Landing at (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action.

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 boat's 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."