campbell river Fishing Report 2025

 

Hi friends. This morning's action on Yellowfin tuna was just the type of fishing we were looking for. Steady jig strikes and some bait fish to go along with the trollers. One problem; no size. All of the tuna we hooked this morning were successfully released and it was back on the prowl for bigger and better things. We once again found good water conditions but the lack of any sign of pelagic species was somewhat unsettling and we decided to do make the run to the "Numbers" around lunch-time. It took us a while to get the proper deal located and when we did, it was game on for Yellowtail in the 12-20 lb. range. To add some color to our Yellowtail catch, we also caught three Bluefin tuna, a couple of 30 lb. Yellowfin tuna, a handful of Dorado, and Garry Roberts caught a Gold Spotted Sand Bass. Pretty cool looking fish. Anyhow, this group took what they needed from the Yellowtail garden and began just having fun catching and releasing 'tails. I'd estimate that we released well over seventy-five quality Yellows, we even released a good majority of the 20 pounders. I have three highlights from this spot. One; On our way into the spot, two Killer Whales charged the boat and had Drew as excited as I've ever seen about whales. They checked us out for a minute and then were on their way again. Two; We had a Whale Shark get close enough to the boat that I'm sure if we tried, we could've successfully and safely boarded all passengers and crew on top the beast and then return back onto the boat. Simply amazing, humbling creatures. Three; "Big John" Korgy, Fisherman's Landing gate security person re-wrapped my 9'3" Ulua with an all yellow wrap, greenish guide wraps, and a Chiquita banana sticker. I call this gem "the Big Banana" and I brought it down for some of the passengers to test their skills. It was pretty fun watching the guys get their butts handed to them and Jed took some great photos of Mr. Roberts pulling on a Yellowtail with the long rod. I must say thank you to John as the rod is simply stunning. Just an awesome day. Once again the weather was A , with once again having premium bronzing conditions all day with sunshine and a light breeze.

 

To round out our day, a gigantic kelp paddy floated by and with just an hour of daylight left in our busy day, we managed to capture a box-full of beautiful Dorado as the sunset. Great half-day of fishing for us on the Supreme. Tomorrow, we'll be looking for tuna and wahoo and we'll decided our next plan of attack from there. Wish us luck and take care.

 

-Team Supreme-

The San Diego checked in tonight with an update from Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. Captain Cameron Cribben ran the boat today! We had 31 anglers and caught 56 Bluefin Tuna and 91 Yellowtail. Today was a big day and it looks like the fish are back on the bite.

~~Sep. 6
 I think I'm going to start naming my reports.  This one is called "We should have stuck with the game plan".  The plan was to start where we did, and if it didn't look good run up 40 miles to the next spot arriving just after lunch when it's bite time there.  Well we started off slow.  Conditions were a little funky.  We saw some fish, but they didn't really bite.  We caught a few yellows and the biggest ling cod I've ever seen brought up on this boat, but it wasn't good enough to stick around.  So we started off sticking with the plan when we left and went north but then we decided to do some radio fishing.  I heard 4th hand and then 3rd hand that a boat had a couple really good dorado kelps the day prior almost in striking distance and then really good yellowtail in the afternoon definitely in striking distance.  Then I saw on my water temp chart that same water just a few hours below us so we made the move.  Obviously by my whining you can tell it didn't work out.  We didn't find much kelp in the good water.  We found one OK kelp but we only caught a handful of flats.  There was a few wahoo swimming around it but we didn't catch any.

 So that's OK.  We're not worried.  We still have yesterdays afternoon yellowtail hot spot to fish.  Not today.  Should have been here yesterday. Maybe that should be the name of the report. We saw some and caught a few but it was nothing good.  So here we sit.  I'm not sure if we stuck with the game plan that it would have worked out.  There already was a boat on the spot we were headed to and it's kind of a one boat spot so maybe we didn't miss anything.

 It's funny.  I haven't written this long of a report in a long time.  If fishing was good today I probably would have written one paragraph.  I needed to rant.  Anyways we're going to stick it out here and regroup and try it again in the morning.  Hopefully we find some yellows to work with but either way we plan on looking for a dorado kelp in the afternoon.  Hopefully I only write one paragraph tomorrow.
       

 

Capt Ryan called in from the San Diego a 3/4 day, we are still fishing offshore and the fishing hass been great. We depart at 5:30am and we have been averaging from 50 to 140 Yellowfin Tuna per trip, our slowest day this week was 46 Yellowfin and today we had 69 Yellowfin and 150 Skipjack. Yesterday we had 136 Yellowfin, we will continue everyday as long as the fishing stays good. There is plenty of warm water around and it looks like it will be here for a while, so we will continue offshore for a while. There is plenty of good fishing when you find the right kelp, trips run $145 per angler and we depart everyday at 5:30am. Come on down and get in on the action.

Strong south wind made things interesting today but we’re able to find a lucky kelp in the bottom of the ninth. We managed our quota of green dorado and 16 yellowtail.

Mike Pritchard called in with this report for the Tribute. "We had a very nice day on the water, we picked up 42 Bluefin. We do have 1 hang'n. Very, very good sign of tuna here today. We have very good scores and there is still plenty of daylight left. We'll keep you posted."

~~Aug. 21
 We missed again this morning folks.  I'm not very happy about it, but I've excepted it.  We've definitely put in our work this trip.  Not necessarily physically these last couple days but mentally for sure.  I am drained.  We didn't want to spend another afternoon like we spent yesterday so we left the grounds and fished the Coronado Islands this afternoon.  We didn't see much yellowtail.  Myself or the other long range boat here.  I heard some good analogies this trip by other captains on the radio that I'd like to share.  Looking at the fish reports is like watching sports center.  They keep showing you all the top tens, but they almost never show the other Joe's, and sometimes you're the bug, and sometimes you're the windshield.  Most guys the last couple days have been the bugs.

 There have been quite a few firsts for me lately.  First of all I've never spent this much time fishing this close to home other than my 3/4 day days..  I have never been anchored up right outside the harbor on the second night of the trip.  We were there catching bait.  I've never captained the boat to San Clemente or the Coronado Islands.  There's probably more.  Oh yeah, I've never seen the 5 freeway from the boat.  Mark thought it was a bird school.  In his defense, I had to give it a double take too.

 So that's it.  We're going home and we'll be leaving for 5 tomorrow.  Tommy is coming back out so he'll be deciding where to go.  I'll tell you though, it's tough to pass on this fish.  Unfortunately for us, it's the best grade of tuna around.  It's great for the 1/2 day boats though.
       

Caught a few nice Bluefin right as our time expired.