bighorn Fishing Report 2024

~~Aug 24
 I can't think of a cool way to start this report so I'm just going to say what I feel.  This morning was making me a little nervous.  I thought that our timing was going to be off this trip.  I knew the fish weren't even close to being done for the year but for a couple of days I thought perhaps.  I was wrong.
 This morning we got our fish on.  We were catching plenty.  We started with a couple quicky stops and then had one good one.  The only deal was the fish were on the small side of things.  12 pounders, few smaller, couple bigger.  We were fishing them because at the time, we don't know that we'll find the better grade.  What if we drive away and we never find the bigger ones or another one period?  Anyways, it dried up and we went looking again.  We all got stuffed from lunch and right when we were feeling that it's either nap time or get a pot of coffee brewing we found what we were looking for and we drifted until the day was done.
 It was as good as we ever need fishing to be.  "One stop shop" if you will.  Bent rods all day and constant fish in the pit.  The pit is where the fish is dragged back to get spiked, bled, and tagged before going down into refrigeration until the end of the trip.  It's the busiest place on the boat during a good bite.  We even had a passenger in the pit today helping out when he thought he had his limit.  When I told him we were in American waters and California fish limit regulations apply he was back at the rail catching yellowfin.  We had a good day.
 The weather for the trip is so far so good.  We're going to make a move tonight and look for that bluefin we were catching last trip.
          
 My good friend Mr.Joe Beck would like to give a shout out to his special lady friend and wish her a happy birthday.  And we from the Polaris Supreme would like to wish you the same thing.  We hope you have and had a wonderful birthday.  Any friend of Joey's is a friend of ours.
 

Sep. 2

Well we started in some traditionally tasty grounds today. The weather was magnificent and so was the water we were in. Warm and a beautiful glassy blue. It was also lively as could be. There were birds buzzing around all over, little dabs of dolphin, big herds of dolphin that were "all birded up"(that's code for "looks right"), a dead animal floating,(known for holding lots of dorado),kelp paddies and floating fishing gear buoys(also known for holding mucho dorado and wahoo). Well none of it was holding !@#$. I'm just bummed about it too. We had this area all to ourselves for 3 days in early September with beautiful weather and fishing conditions and it stunk. I can't sugar coat it. We covered a lot of good looking spots for not much fish. It just wasn't there. If I had a time machine I would go back 5 days ago and do it all over again. We would start above and fish our way down instead of starting below and fishing our way north. At least then my stress level wouldn't be high because we'd have fish in our holds. Fishing would be so easy with a time machine. Maybe I shouldn't write such downer reports but my friend Rob on board says he enjoys reading the good with the bad and you know what, this sort of thing happens. Fishing can be good and it can be bad. Oh well but hey, our trip is only half over, we're going to catch a bunch of yellows tomorrow, get some bait, maybe catch some more yellows and some more bait then go and whip on the tuna. Right? I hope so.

Your bummed but still very high spirited captain, Drew

Steady sonar stops for our 30 anglers produced 104 yellowtail from 12-20 lbs. 40 lb mono on a 20 or 30 size conventional reel and a yoyo jig was the most productive. Trips are filling up fast for this season. Make those resos

POLARIS SUPREME TRIP REPORT 09-24-2020 Beautiful day traveling today. Be at the fishing grounds in the morning. Sea ya then. The Polaris Supreme Crew!

51 anglers, 106 Yellowfin Tuna, 255 Skipjack Tuna. Saved by one stop again.

With great anticipation of a light load aboard the Apollo, all 14 of us anglers showed up at the dock early, swapping stories about past trips. We started boarding about 9:30pm and were greeted by Capt JJ Gerritsen and the rest of his crew, we signed in and had a seat for our safety briefing. Capt JJ then asked if we wanted to head offshore for Albacore which had dramatically slowed down the last couple days or head south along the coast for a shot at Dorado and Yellowfin and Yellowtail patty hopping. Without much hesitation we decided to head south and patty hop. We got the feathers in at gray light and started the troll, within 15 minutes the yell of "Hook-up" sang out, unfortunately the mystery fish got away and we were under way again. Five minutes later we heard that yell again, the mystery fish won round two and will live another day. Third time's a charm didn't hold true for us, our third hook-up is still out there in the deep blue. At that point the first troll rotation was fired (which included me) and the second shift took over. Within 10 minutes they had our first fish on the deck, a skipjack, from that point on while looking for patties we boated about 19 skipjack. We found our first patty around 10am and moved in with hopes of a wide open bite, but to our dismay there was nobody home. That held true for the next 8 patties we found, then finally around noon with a mouth full of burger, we heard the call to get ready. Never fails every time your food is done, it's time to drop a line. As soon as our sardines hit the water the patty expolded, we ended up with 1 Dorado and 2 Yellowtail. We only found two two more patties holding fish and ended up with 1 more Dorado and 4 yellowtail. It was now time to head back to port and we again set out the troll lines and managed to pick up 7 Yellowfin Tuna on the way back in. I really enjoyed sharing the rail with a great bunch of folks and look forward to doing it again soon. If you would like any of the pictures posted please email me at [email protected] .

Today was tough for the first 3/4's of the day looking for 30-40 lb. yellowtail and we only picked up a 1/2 dozen. by late afternoon we bailed out and went for the 20 pounders and had excellent time winding up our yellowtail fishing for the trip. Tomorrow we will be strictly concentrating of Dorado and any tuna we might find. The weather is still spectacular. Thanks, Tommy and crew

Oct. 5

I'm lying. Its actually Oct. 6 as I write this. It's Drew here, back from a few trips spent on land and fresh out for a healthy 40 day stretch. It appears I have some large shoes to fill as Cap. Richie has been putting the wood to the tuna fish out here lately. Well mother nature welcomed me back with some wind. Thanks mom. We arrived to the fishing grounds we chose to start about an hour ago and threw out the sea anchor in hopes that the tuna will find us rather then vice versa. It's easier that way when you have the wind like we do and if the tuna do find us it will be much more comfortable with the bow to the wind like it is with the chute out. We'll know the answer to that in about an hour or more. Baits o.k. There is much more sardine alive this morning then I thought there would be. So that's it. There's a dorado swimming around out my wheelhouse window so I'm going to go make someone catch it.