auckland Fishing Report 2025

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

~~Sep. 21
 Well, as promised we left on another trip today.  This one being an LA Rod and Reel Club long range 2 day trip.  We got a nice jump on things.  We were done getting bait and leaving the harbor by 11:00 this morning which allowed us to get to the tuna grounds by 5:00 this evening which allowed us to find a school of yellowfin before dark which allowed for most of the anglers on board to catch at least one which allowed me to feel satisfied about our day today.  Catching fish on a departure day.  Those fish were free.  Tomorrows the true day.  That's when we get real nasty.  So right now we're anchored up in the cove of an island and I couldn't be happier about it.  For the last week at night this boat has been running.  We've always been traveling somewhere so it feels real nice to be on anchor with the engines off.  It's even better that we're in a protected cove.  It's like being in the bay.  I can't speak for everyone on board but I'm pretty sure I'll be sleeping with my thumb in my mouth tonight.  Until tomorrow....
        
 

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!

~~Aug 18
 So we did it again.  We had a nice day.  Arrive/depart day.  Once again, we got out here at a good time and connected on a couple of schools.  We ended our day with 81 tuna.  And they're still that good grade.  25 pound average.  So nice.  Free ones.  Departure fish.  I told everyone to bring there horse shoes and rabbits feet.  I think they did.

 The bait thing went better than expected.  It wasn't Armageddon like I thought it may be.  We used 1/2 the bait I thought would croak and the rest hasn't had any die off yet.  Now we just need our main slammer of bait to hang in there.  The only thing is we didn't get a full load of bait so we may need to catch some down the line.  At least I hope that's the only thing.  Time will tell Joe.  Time will tell.

 We're going to drift here tonight.  It literally feels like we're anchored in the bay right now.  It's so nice.  We'll start here in the morning and try to do it again.  Let's keep the ball rolling.
       

Hard to beat the day we had yesterday, but we did.

We improved the already outstanding trip we have going with a taste of wahoo. Found a little honey hole and caught a fair amount on several drifts. When that tried up a few hours later we anchored up and had good tuna fishing from three until dark. The tuna were 25-40 lbs with some in the 70 lb. class. We'll stay the night and will fish half day tomorrow.

Thanks,

Aug 24

First of all I'd like to say that I'm aware I spelled whine wrong yesterday. As soon as I hit send I realised it so don't mention it. Secondly I'm going to let Mark write the report tonight so here we go. Enjoy.

Nevermind that. Mark refused. Anyways, we departed today on the old Bob Vance 5 day trip. PLenty of food, fuel, bait, passengers, crew, water, tackle and whatever else we use out here on board. We had a nice lunch, nap and seminar today and will be looking for tuna first light and before in the dark. Dinner was spectacular as always with the usual prime rib and sides. I also enjoyed a delicous mango sorbet with some kind of strawberry glaze sauce stuff on it also topped with fresh strawberries. Write to you tomorrow. See you later.

Capt Mike Pritchard called in from the Tribute with an awesome early morning fish report, it is 9 am and we already have 47 Bluefin Tuna from 40 to just over 100lbs, and a few Yellowfin Tuna. What a way to start the day, if you coming out to fish, make sure your tackle is in good working order, this will prevent some heartbreaks. We recommend that you have at least a 40 lb set up, also, a special thanks to SAC for assisting in getting the Bluefin Tuna issue resolved with Mexican authorities. Hope to see you out here soon.

12 bluefin 10 yellowfin. Saw plenty of fish but didn’t connect with the right school. Flylined baits were still the top producer.