campbell river salmon Fishing Report 2024

Tom Rothery brought his Polaris Supreme home to Fisherman's Landing January 11 after a 16-day trip to the Hurricane Bank and the Southern Banks of Baja. There were seven anglers on the annual George Davis expedition, and they produced ten more cows for the record.

In his report from the boat on Friday January 2, Tom reported a good day of fishing.

"Yes, now this is what I'm talking about," he wrote. "We finally got a break in the weather. It is beautiful and we have left Hurricane Bank. We are now heading to the upper banks. We will be there tomorrow night. Yesterday was an ok day of fishing. George kept a 219 and released a 185. Jeremy released a 140.

"Craig kept a 205 and by the way that was a mistake yesterday. Craig kept a 210 pounder. Al kept a 100 for his buddies that are going to Ennis hunting. They are going to open pit barbeque it on a spit like a pig. Now, that sounds interesting. ‚Д®

"Charlie released a 125 and Scott released a 140. Each day we also had five to 12 fish that we caught that were under 100 pounds and were not mentioned. These all were released.

"Yesterday we also had good wahoo fishing. Jeremy and Craig both caught 4 and Gunnar and Al got 3. Everybody else had a couple a piece. Overall the trip to Hurricane Bank has been very good with eight tuna over 200 pounds, and excellent wahoo fishing."

Chartermaster George Davis of San Dimas won the jackpot while catching four cows. His tuna weighed 241.8, 219.8, 213.6 and 208 pounds. The big one came on squid on the kite, he said.

George fished with 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. He said the big one came to gaff in just 20 minutes.

Allen Tokunaga of North Hollywood won second place for a 224.6-pounder.

"These Hurricane Bank fish seemed a little tougher than the ones on the inside," he remarked. "This one took me 40 minutes. He went around the boat a couple of times, and then came up on the port side of the stern."

Al fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, on 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader, 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra. He used a Penn 50 reel modified by Cal Sheets and a Calstar 6465 XXH rod.

Scott Brown of Costa mesa won third place for his 213.2-pounder. He also got a 202.6-pounder. He fished a small jack under the kite on a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook. He used 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"The big one was a 20-minute fish," he remarked. "He came to the boat pretty good."

One big tuna was eaten by the passengers and crew while the boat was still fishing. It was a 215-pounder caught by Craig Johnston of Costa Mesa, who also got a 204-pounder. Craig said he got them on the kite, on double sardine baits pinned to 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks. He fished with a 130-pound Momoi topshot on 130-pound Izorline Spectra, with a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"It took about 30 minutes," he said. "We had rough seas then; it was a fun fight."

Jeremy Chandler of San Dimas got a 203.6-pounder on a jack under the kite on a 7/0 Mustad 7691 hook and the boat's kite rig.

"Today was another great day of bluefin fishing," wrote Polaris Supreme skipper Drew Henderson June 24. "We found the first school at 6:30 in the morning and we plunked on it again for 5 hours. Plenty of fish came aboard but again the landing ratio was a bit poor. It's a war zone with all the net boats out there. They drive 100 feet from your boat at 15 knots to get at your school."

At Fisherman's Landing June 26, Drew said, "We got rained on a bit yesterday." He weighed the fish, and the hands-down first-place winner was Harv Domsalla of Douglas, WY, with a 73-pound bluefin that came out of a school of albacore. It beat Domsalla up for 45 minutes.

"He kept making runs," said Harv. "I credit the crew for helping me get it aboard. I'm a novice. The other anglers helped a lot, too, by moving out of the way while he waltzed me around the boat about four times."

Harv said he fished a sardine on a 2/0 Mustad hook, with an outfit borrowed from the boat: 30-pound P-Line, a TLD 15 reel and a six-foot rod.

Harry Harms was second, for a 38-pound bluefin, and Bruce Burton of Wildomar won third place for a 37-pound bluefin tuna.

Captain Mike Pritchard called this afternoon and called in to report 45 Yellowfin Tuna in the 12 to 18 pound class. We did hook up a few larger Bluefin Tuna but lost them all. We are now in the zone and look forward to putting together a nice catch. We will be fishing this area all day tomorrow as we are on a 2.5 day trip. Stay tuned ...

Our first stop of the day was a bit humbling as we went 10 out of probably 50+ on the 50-110 pound Bluefin (anything under 40 on these fish was too lite).

We ended the trip with 14 Bluefin and 41 Yellowfin (18-60 pounds) in great weather for our 27 Angler’s, we go again tonight.

We started off with a good morning bite where Jeff Hoover pull in a 78 lb. bluefin. We also caught some smaller grade bluefin and a nice grade of yellowfin. However it was short lived. By 9am we were off scratching for small, medium and nice grade albacore for the rest of the day. For this trip we scratched away every day and caught enough fish for everyone to take home. Our eta for tomorrow will be 7:30 am and then Drew will take out the next one which is the 2nd annual Let's Talk Hook-up Charter. Weather has been excellent. Well it's time to go down for dinner. Tonight will be surf and turf, steak and lobster. Thanks for checking in.

We departed today on Lon Mikkleson's annual, limited load 10-day charter. We loaded up some great looking bait while Pedro prepared a delicious pork tenderloin for lunch. The weather is slick, flat calm and the our anglers and crew both are excited about the upcoming prospects. The passengers are preparing their gear and for dinner Pedro put out a yummy lobster and rack of lamb dinner. We will keep you posted.

We departed today on Eric Rogger's annual 5day trip. We have an excellent group of anglers onboard and picked up some great looking bait. The fishing prospects are looking good and we are anxious to go. We started rolling down to Cedros dinning on some terrific beef and shrimp kabobs, in some great weather. Last trip Drew got some huge yellowtail there. But reports from the albacore grounds got a lot more interesting so we did a 150 degree right turn and headed for the albacore. We will be there tomorrow at daylight. Fishing sounds really good.

Captain Ryan Bostian called in from the Coronado Islands at 1 PM to report LIMITS of Yellowtail. We have a light load of 12 anglers catch 60 Yellowtail. We are seeing really nice schools. Call Seaforth Landing at (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action.