big wood river Fishing Report 2025

Today we had a good morning hit on the Tuna and Yellowtail. We were able to fill in the cracks for the people who still needed Tuna and also be selective for the larger models. After that we spent the day working up. picking up a few more Wahoo, Grouper, and larger Yellowtail . We will be focusing on Yellowtail tomorrow.

Captain Jodie Morgan called in from the Apollo to let us know they have 70 Bluefin Tuna (up to 50 pounds) as of 10:25 AM. The Apollo is one the first day of a two day trip. The Apollo is current booked solid with charters but we do sometimes help out charter masters with getting a few people. If you want to fish on the Apollo call Jodie Morgan directly at (858) 220-1593.

The Voyager returned this morning with 13 Bluefin Tuna and 5 Yellowfin Tuna. They landed a couple of monster Bluefin, with the largest weighing in at 298 pounds! Congratulations to Captain Todd and the passengers and crew of the Voyager.

16 Yellowfin Tuna and 2 Bluefin Tuna for our repeat group today. Mike and his pals did just fine with the live sardine and #25-30 floro leader. We lost only 4 or so fish all day. Looking forward to getting back on it tomorrow. Welcome to Summer!!!

Sep. 7

Normal turn around today. Nothing crazy happened. It was hot hot hot. The bluefin were bigger then we thought. The small one went 139.something and the biggest one went 146. Pigs. Or cows rather. We'd like to do the same this trip. We left on the annual Robin Gledhill Blue White private charter with captain Tommy Rothery at the helm. After getting bait and some lunch it was nap time for most. Me included. It was nice With a shower and a cup of coffee right after makes me feel like a million bucks. We did the seminar and had a lovely prime rib dinner. I skipped it and cooked up some of the escolar passenger John caught last trip and was too scared to keep. They're not the prettiest fish and after hearing rumors of what happens when you eat too much of it in one sitting he said no way was he keeping it. So i tried it tonight. I had it for dinner. Tommy won't let me say what happens on here so I'll just say that it's a very oily fish and you should be able to figure it out. I'll let you know tomorrow John. The weather out here is smooth and we should experience some more in the near future.

Drew

Friday, July 20th, 2012

Good evening everyone. We departed this afternoon on a private family charter with an excited load of kids and adults ready to put their fishing luck to the test. We made a stop at the bait receivers and loaded up on some healthy sardines to bring with us on our journey to the southern fishing grounds. The bait looks good and everybody is ready to put said bait to the test. For now, everyone is in the galley, getting ready to munch on some prime rib, a Polaris Supreme departing night tradition. Our fishing outlook looks good as there are some scores to be had on Bluefin, Yellowfin, Yellowtail, and some Dorado too. As for the weather outlook, it's looking like it will be a little bit windy for tomorrow, but Sunday is looking like it might calm down. We'll see for ourselves tomorrow.

For now, we'll just keep on chugging down to the grounds and with that, we'll chat with you tomorrow evening. Take care.

Polaris Supreme arrived August 23 with skipper Drew Henderson at the wheel. Ryan Christianson of San Diego was chartermaster for the 24 anglers aboard on the Let's Talk Hookup trip. Mark Greul of Omaha, NE presented a 58-pound yellowfin at the scales and won first place for his effort. He said his fish bit a sardine on a 3/0 Flyliner hook tied to 30-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 30-pound Ande line. He used a Torium 30 reel and a Seeker Black Steel C8 seven and a half-foot rod. Richard Miller of Jackson won second place for a 40-pound albacore. Mark Cornoll of Jackson won third place for a 31.6-pound yellowtail.

Aug. 8
    I  was told second hand today that my reports make it sound like fishing was less good than it actually was and I have to say that I totaly agree.  I have sat at home in the past and reminessed by reading some of my past reports and have thought to myself how much better that perticular day actually was than I was reading so I will try and be more accurate with my reports starting with today.  As I write this we have just departed from a 2+ hour drift on the bigguns so I'm still pumped.  Take a journey with me.

    We started off our morning drifting in flat calm conditions which it remained for the rest of the day.  We fired up after daylight and didn't find much to work with for a few hours but mid morning we started stringing some stops together on the yellowfin tunas for a couple of hours before they went down for pretty much the rest of the day minus a couple stops mid afternoon.  In between that after lunch we bumped into a couple big balls of dorado.  That's something we haven't seen yet this year.  They were a bit on the smaller size for the most part but they were still fun to watch and catch.  Most of them were the size that's to big to bounce over the rail without a gaff but small enough to make it very difficult to gaff so we lost our fair share.  Mostly guys grabbing the line trying to swing it over on there own.

    After around 4 oclock we were getting low on bait and decided to use the remainder of it trying to catch bluefin tuna.  Things were looking grim for us after a couple hours driving around in the zone without seeing much but around 6:30 things got nasty.  My sonar made that beautiful sound the says fish fish fish with every pulse and then it was drifting for a few hours and hooking for 2.  I'm not sure how many of the 60-90 pound maybe a few over 100 pound beasts we hooked but I can tell you we landed 13 of them and when you land that many you usually lose that many too. I watched one gentleman get spooled instantly on 50 pound test.  Instantly.  I watched that same angler later land one on 60 pound test. Everyone on board had their chance at a biggun this evening and half the boat did get one.  

    We're headed for the dock now and we'll be there tomorrow around the 0700 hour.  We'll have a busy little turn around but we'll get the job done.  We always do.  See you later from the wheel house of the Polaris Supreme.