bucs northern michigan Fishing Report 2023

The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego,CA checked in with us today:

17 yellowtail and all the bottom critters you could want. A couple decent shots at yellowtail, hoping things are starting to perk back up.

July 18
    We had an action filled morning today.  The yellows were biting good.  The only downside was it didn't last long.  For whatever reason breakfast only lasts an hour and a half.  We found another area that we worked on for a little bit then it went down.  After about 10:00 in the morning things were lifeless here until 5:00 this evening.  We had a couple shots at them before dinner was over for the fishies.  We're going to stay the night and hope things change here for the better.  We're hoping breakfast lasts longer and that there will be a lunch.  Theres plenty of fish around here when they're up and the grade of fish is wonderful so we want to stay.
                                

 

Captain Cameron Cribben checked in this evening with an update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. Today we had 17 anglers catch 6 Yellowfin Tuna and 7 Bluefin Tuna (up to 192 pounds). The Yellowfin Tuna were in the 15 to 18 pound class. The Bluefin Tuna were 25 to 35 pounds and we had 2 over 100 including this beautiful 192 pounder. The opportunity to capture a fish of a life time continues.

~~Oct.16-20
 So for the last few days, I was either too busy to write a report or just too tired.  I knew these blogs wouldn't be making it out here until tomorrow anyway so I figured I would just do a 4 day report to explain the remainder of our trip down below so here it goes.

 When I left off, the sharks backed off and allowed us to have a great afternoon and we were hoping the sharks would do the same thing they did last year after the first couple of days which is leave.  That didn't happen.  It was a sharky trip for sure.  Brown Reef Sharks were in the picture for the remainder of the time we were down there.  Sometimes they were relentless and we'd have to pull anchor and go trolling for wahoo and other times they would back off just enough to allow us to scratch at the tunas and then other times they would back off completely.  They weren't tuna eaters though.  They let us wind in what we hooked, but they loved our kite baits.

 Anyways, we still had an excellent trip down there sharks or no sharks.  There were a lot of windows of opportunity and there were some slow windows as well.  There was almost always a window where we would get at least two cows before sunrise, and after that it never stayed consistent.  If we didn't need to sleep it would've been convenient.  I know we missed plenty of tuna bites in the dark hours through out the night but that's when we would sleep.  Like I said though we had an excellent trip and here are the numbers to prove it.

 130 yellowfin tuna and 60 wahoo for 8 guys for 6 days.  54 tuna kept.  11 over 200 lb's, 5 that may go when we weigh them on the dock scale, 6 between 170-180 and the rest were 100-150 pounds with much fish being in the 120-130 pound class.  We also released 76 of those too!  One release estimated to be around 200 pounds and several in the 150 pound range and like I said, many in the 120-130 pound range.  Our largest was 240 and next in line was a 234 pounder kept.

 Here are the team jackpot totals: 1st place goes to Charlie and Craig with 2 fish totaling 453 pounds.  2nd went to George and Scott with 2 totaling 414.  George also had 5 tuna over 200 pounds by the way.  One per day besides the last day.  3rd place went to the Jer-bear and JC with 399 pounds, and Brian and Bernie finished just behind them with 396 pounds.  None of this is official.  We still need to weigh them oin land.

 And that's basically how fishing was down there.  Here are some things that stand out to me while we were down there.  First of all I'd like to talk about KC.  I'm not saying he was scared, he just didn't seem too pumped on fighting one of these fish we call cows.  He wasn't the first or fifth for that matter to jump on a spot on the kite for example when one was available.  On the third day it couldn't be avoided.  He got up on that kite and when he did this particular time he hooked a big one and he handled it as well as anyone.  I mean he kicked that fishes @$$.  He came to battle and he won.  It taped out as a 193 pounder.  After that it wasn't hard to get KC up on the kite when a spot was presented.  It went from where the heck is KC, to him not leaving the rail at all.

 I let Mark know the Raiders lost.  I did it in a mean way too.  His birthday was the 16th I believe, and Chef Mike baked him a cake and we all sang happy birthday and when it was over, I gave him my birthday present which is spilling the beans on lying about the Raiders beating the Chargers.  Ha ha Mark.

 The weather was a lot less steamy the last few days down there.  It was still hot, but once the clouds went away it didn't feel like a sauna there anymore.  Although myself and a few others got the worse case of burnt lips we ever had.  I did it in a dumb way too.  I knew I should go get my chap stick from my room on the first day down there but my lips did;t feel like they were getting chapped so I thought, because of the humidity my lips weren't drying out and I didn't need protection.  Dumb, stupid and idiotic.  My lips may not have dried out but they still got as burnt as ever.

  So that's it.  We now travel for a few days.  The crew has plenty to do.  Clean, clean clean and sleep.  The passengers will be sleeping and celebrating a wonderful trip.  We'll be trying to break up the ride on our last day of travel by looking for a dorado kelp but that's still not for a couple more days.
      

 

Some great weather, good fishing and fun times during this weekends Penn Air 2 day charter.

Aug. 22

We kicked the you know what out of the yellowfin today. We engaged in battle and we won. We started our drift at 6:30 this morning and drove away from them biting at lunch. The fish were from 22-35 pounds and were snapping. I don't think I've seen that good of fishing on that good of a grade since the albacore days. Hopefully this lasts for some time to come. The weather was great today but the further north we go now the more choppy it's getting. Just in time for dinner.

We've just been traveling up since our only needed stop this morning setting us up for our last day in the bluefin grounds. It sounded slow up there today but maybe they're just waiting for captain Drew to get up there. Rent rod Ryan donated a 40 pound bluefin yesterday to the galley and we were planning on eating it for dinner tonight but in the middle of the mayhem today we lost it buried under the yellowfin so he donated a few yellowfin so we're having seared Ahi instead. Mmmmm.

Only three spots available on June 7-12, 5.5 day trip! Price is $1400 per person. 18 passenger max load! fishing offshore, cedros, Benitos islands. Contact Jody at 858-220-1593. Get on board before the spots are sold at the Fred Hall show!

Captain Ryan from the SAN Diego checked in. 38 Passengers 131 Yellowtail, 21 Calp Bass, 5 Barracudda. Reel good action right on top.  We fish everyday!