whangarei Fishing Report 2025

Captain Mike Pritchard checked in with an final wrap-up from the Tribute out of Seaforthl.  Today we had 27 bluefin (1 shy of limits) 2 yellowfin (first of the season) and 16 yellowtail for our 14 anglers today in flat calm weather.

Captain Ryan Bostian checked in this evening with an update from the San Diego, CA. Today we had 22 anglers catch 5 yellowfin tuna. 4 of our tuna are 75 pounders. Please bring a 20 lb. bait Rod and size 2 hooks as well as a 50 lb bait Rod with some 3/0 circle hooks. We will fish for whatever we see. It may be 12-90 lb. yellowfin or it may be 60-200 lb. bluefin. Very weird year !

Less flash, more RESULTS! Today we hit our stride. Pulling on fish hard to get them away from the sharks, in addition to that the conditions improved in our favor. We had less fish around us today but our landing ratio was much better. We were able to put together a nice day picking at quality Yellowfin. Ranging from 40-80 lbs with the occasional 100 lber. Great day overall.

Wow what a great day! 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. 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.

~~Nov. 14
 "Just what the doctor ordered".  We had a great afternoon out here on the Polaris Supreme today.  It was a slow morning but a strong afternoon.  We started where we had to.  For one we were there at sunrise and for two we had to keep it honest due to the previous good fishing there several days ago.  It wasn't happening so we took off and arrived to the promise land after lunch.  It started off with a wahoo strike that turned into a wide open tuna bite with wahoo mixed in too.  We ended that drift with 14 skin and 60+ tuna.  Action baby.  Just what we needed after yesterday.  After that we were in full wahoo mode but they were hanging with the tuna so while we would catch wahoo we"d catch tuna too.  The perfect scenario until you have limits of tuna.  We're not quite there yet but we're close.  We opted to stay another day to finish off our tuna quota and see if we can get some more wahoo.  That also gives the Rocks another days rest as well.

 The wind finally backed off today.  For the past few days we had windy/choppy weather with a current going against it which adds to the choppiness and makes anchor fishing uncomfty.  We handled it those days but today it was just nice.  We're all stoked.  Like I said, "just what the doctor ordered".
        

Captain Mike Pritchard called in at grey light from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay, CA. We caught 2 Bluefin Tuna at grey light. We have one fish hanging. We caught both the fish on the flat fall. The Tribute has overnight trips departing daily at 10 PM. Call Seaforth at (619) 224-3383 or BOOK ONLINE.
Please note that this photo is from April 3rd.

Monday, August 5th, 2013

Hi friends. Different style of reporting from me today. I'm going to give you little segments of information from our day. Before I forget, Travis Donahue would like to say hello to the lovely little flower that is his wife, Jackie, and hello to his lovely little garden that he calls his children. So sweet. Also, Tex wanted me to share with the worldwide web that he is slayin' the yellas. He also shared with us that there is a better vodka out there than Tito's. We're skeptical, because anyone that knows Team Supreme knows that it's Tito's or get out of our houses. You've got 7 bottles to send your boys, Tex. Anyhoo, here is a few short segments of how our day transpired.

-Started the morning off with a nice worklist. Various engine room and upkeep that is needed on a boat to maintain proper working order. Fixing leaks, changing light bulbs, cleaning under mains, and various other little projects. Nice to be sweaty and greasy before breakfast.

-Gunny got the gang into the galley and gave an in-depth dropper loop seminar. How do you dropper loop? You drop your loop and hang on tight. Thanks, Guns.

-Breakfast was baller. Huge breakfast burritos with whatever you desired. I had the works, complete with chorizo, eggs, potatoes, bacon, salsa, queso, and avocado. Oh yeah, get on my level, bro.

-I was off last trip but I came onto the boat to be pleasantly surprised that the boys had dusted off "The Big Banana" after a brief hiatus. Never ceases to amaze me that the only piece of saltwater gear I own is so very popular to passengers and crew alike. We put that thing to use today and The Banana was on fire! As she usually is, we bent the hooks on our surface iron. Yep.

-Mark, after a long dry spell, was issued 10 minutes of hard hat time. His offense was tying a halibut dropper loop, on fluorocarbon, and not only tying it but tying it wrong. Gunny took one look, wrapped the line around his hands and snapped it like a Popsicle stick. Maaaarrrrrk!

***03:54 hours update*** For anyone that knows me, I enjoy me some channel 46 on the Sirius radio. Channel 46 is the Old School Hip Hop station and it plays a certain song that gets me fired up and that song usually comes while I'm typing up a report about a great day of fishing, and right now is no exception. The song is "Today Was A Good Day" by Ice Cube and today was just that, a good day. Riddler just flashed me the "Westside" sign with his fingers from his bunk. Right back at ya, Tommy!

-For all of my nonsense in my report thus far, our morning wasn't all that sweet, considering the boats here in the previous two days absolutely clobbered the Yellowtail. We scratched a few handfuls of 'tail in the 15-22 lb. range but it was nothing to write home about. We fished hard and then the lunch call was given. Per request of Tom, we do a custom sandwich station on table 3 complete with all the various ingredients to build yourself a baller sandwich. While we were making some sammies, Riddles put us on a nice drift and they came up boilin' right next to the boat real nice and we had a decent drift some 'tail. I saw a few sandwiches go flyin' but the beauty of our setup was that you could just go make another one when the bite was over. Fantastic. I made myself a deli quadruple, all the fixins, and a pickle.

-A couple hours after our lunch drift, we got on the mother lode. For the next few hours, the Yellows were snappin' real nice. As wide upen as you could ask for on the fly-lined sardines and jigs and an excellent grade to boot with most being in the 18-25 lb. category. We were busy, busy, busy. Fun times! The sun was shinning, the weather was great, and the staple guns were firing. Just what the doctor ordered. The gang had a blast.

-During the melee, Chef Shawn rocked out a Bluefin poki, Tequila Lime chicken wings, and white rice for an afternoon snack. I managed to sneak in and eat 14 bowls of poki and rice. Wowza! Good job, Shawn, now get out on deck on help us out!

-Throughout the day, I was designated "camera guy" so I got to play Austin Powers and snap away. Hope y'all enjoy the photos. Not going to lie, we were so busy that it was hard to find the time. We were also so busy, that we forget to write down one of our box drops into the RSW. For the life of us, we couldn't remember if we had missed one. We got things squared away and our count looked plenty better. We had a fantastic afternoon!

-We tried for squid and seabass at dark but no dice. I got showered up and served a fabulous dinner that Chef Shawn and Sweet D prepared. I had to take photos and write down what the heck we were eating. Sesame and spicy seared Bluefin tuna, with a Sriracha vinaigrette and ginger/carrot sauce, wasabi mashed potatoes, and sesame stir-fried green beans and edamame. It was bananas. For dessert, Mama D gave us plenty of choices but most chose her "brownie delight" that we enjoyed a couple nights prior, I know I did. Great job, Team Galley.

So that is all! A lengthy report for just a dandy of a day. It was truly a lot of fun and a really nice change of pace for the gang. We're currently headed up the line to drop a few lines on some coastal high spots to hopefully load up on some reds and lingcod. We'll only have a very limited time frame to get down but we'll be at it first thing in the morning. In closing, our weather is OK, our day was splendid, and judging by my food intake today, I am now a diabetic. See ya. Wrap-up report tomorrow. Take care.

-The Supreme Team

P.S. Hi again, Drew! I have to go prime the watermaker. My bad!

Sunday, June 17th.

Hello everybody. First off, we here on the Polaris Supreme would like to wish all the dad's out there a happy Father's day and we would like to assure all the mother's back home that the young men on-board are beat. Tired and happy as can be from an eventful first day of fishing. Worry not about them, they are sleeping soundly and are looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow morning.

We arrived to our destination on schedule due to our phenomenal weather and proceed to look around for a bit. To no avail, we made a move a little ways to some fresh country and upon arrival, spotted a breezer of Bluefin tuna. Most guys went out with their 30 lb. outfits as we hadn't yet seen a boil to get a size estimate. After a couple minutes of drifting, the ocean, which was peaceful and calm for the past twenty-four hours, was now full of big, beautiful Bluefin tuna erupting all around the boat and it was a classic scenario of hunting elephants with deer rifles. We hooked a few on the lighter gear and actually managed to land a couple and as for the rest, you all can guess what happened. Once we started fishing a little bit heavier gear, the bites diminished a bit but what we did hook, we landed and they were some real beauties. It was one of those classic Bluefin deals that warrants a stealthy, 50 lb. rig with the best bait you can find and although we had very little wind (which is a problem when trying to fly a kite) we did successfully hook a couple on the balloon rigs and what a show that presented. We drifted for four hours and came out with a couple handfuls of gorgeous 50-100 lb. shortfins but that wasn't without a few heartbreaks as well. Like I said, a short topshot of fluorocarbon with a 3/0 hook, two-speed reel and a strong, castable rod is the best bet for landing these trophies. It was truly a spectacular show that these fish put on for us as fish were blowing out all around the boat. Kind of gets frustrating at times seeing all those fish and not hooking them like you should but that's how Bluefin fishing is sometimes. We're just thankful that we had our shots and connected on a couple o trophies. Some of them are bigger than the kids that landed them. Pretty cool.

Anyhow, the rest of our day consisted of a spot of jumpers that produced some 25 lb. Bluefin, a couple Yellowfin tuna jig strikes and a kelp loaded with rat Yellowtail. Going from 100 lb. Bluefin to 3 lb. Yellowtail might disappoint some, but the kids sure weren't disappointed, they were pumped! We had a good ole time catching and releasing all of the juveniles to grow but like I said, it was the most fun the kids had all day. So with that, our day was complete and we've decided to make a move into some more coastal waters to not only elude the wind that is forcasted for tomorrow but to also try for some Yellowtail of greater size than the ones we caught today. Fun day, awesome weather, we're out. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

P.S. Mark would like to tell Ana, " ti amo". Happy Father's Day once again to all the daddy's out there. Chat with you tomorrow.