beaver lake arkansas Fishing Report 2025

Skipper JJ Gerritsen returned with his Apollo to Fisherman's Landing November 21, after an eight-day, ultra-limited trip. The boat's ten passengers fished Guadalupe Island before taking off for Magdalena Bay to fish big tuna on their final day. "All of our long range trips are ultra-limited," said JJ. "It takes away competition factors, we won't do more than ten passengers. We got limits of yellowfin, Guadalupe's been great our last six trips, but we did something different this time; we headed out for a shot at these big ones. All of our fish are kept in refrigerated saltwater, so they still look great." Matt Bowland of Encinitas took home the best tuna; a 224-pound yellowfin that fought "long and hard." Matt used a 6/0 Owner ringed Super Mutu hook, on an 80-pound P-Line topshot, 100-pound Spectra, a Tiagra 30 reel and a Calstar Grafighter 765 H rod. "I butt-hooked the sardine," said Matt. "The fight lasted two and a half hours." Drew Card of San Diego was second with a 196-pound tuna, and Craig Biddick of Rancho Santa Fe was third for a 164-pounder.

Hello guys:

Ryan checking in here with the report for the past week. This past week was full of highs and lows. We fished for yellowtail at the Coronado islands all week and had some good days and some slow days. Finding fish was not the problem this past week. Finding fish that we could catch was a major problem. On both Thursday and Friday we landed 18 yellowtail both of these days we had yellowtail around our boat all day long. The way the yellowtail have been behaving lately we could catch 20 fish in 20 minutes or we could catch 0 in 15 hours. It's all about timing and a little luck never hurts either.

On Friday as we left the islands to head for home I got a call from our association president. Our president informed me that he had just received a letter from the Mexican port authority. This letter stated that any vessel that wishes to fish inside of Mexican territorial waters (24 miles from shore) must first check in at the port of Ensenada. This news was a bombshell to the boats that fish the Mexican coast. Our president has informed us that every U.S. government agency we know is working on this issue and hopes to get it resolved soon.

In the meantime our options on the San Diego are (1) fish in U.S. waters (2) fish in Mexico outside of 24 miles for yellowtail , tuna and dorado. We have decided to fish offshore.

Yesterday was our first trip offshore, we caught 5 bluefin tuna. All offshore trips will be limited to 50 passengers. I will keep you guys posted on any news I get concerning the Coronado islands.

Today our 22 anglers landed 44 Yellowtail and 19 Bonito.  Tomorrow is a definite go with a light load.  Get out and enjoy this fishing before the bad weather starts.

We started fishing in the dark and went full speed all day long on beautiful grade tuna 30-40 lbs. with several in the 80-120 lb. class being caught on the kite. We had several heart breakers with the sharks eating some of the big ones. The day was spiced up with a handful of wahoo. Our weather is absolutely gorgeous. Flat calm heavy overcast. We had a great day and are excited to try it again tomorrow. Thanks, Tommy and crew

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.

The APOLLO will have an OPEN PARTY trip leaving Wednesday night, fishing Thursday. A sponsored trip by Berkley & Fish Wrap, $130 per ticket and there will be giveaways. Contact Sea Landing (805)568-0460

We stopped and fished briefly on some yellowtail this afternoon and had some great action. We then continued on traveling in smooth weather. However, if we were going the other way it would be snotty and rough. We had a tender cooked shaved beef with a Burgundy sauce, baby snow peas and roasted potatoes for dinner. Still rolling down to Alijos, and should be fishing by mid-morning.