chatham Fishing Report 2025

~~July 13
 How about this... Today was awesome! We fished the yellowtail grounds today and it worked out. From about 8 am to 4 pm we were hot and loaded! 14- 28 pounds was the grade and they were snapping. After a slow couple of days like we had iit was perfect. Long drifts with 1-6 fish always on the line. Very little moving. Mostly all drifting and catching. Smiles for everyone and relief for some, myself included. It was a fun day. Windy as heck but we still drifted well and nobody cared. We left at 4:30 because the fish weren't really in the mood anymore and we wanted to gain some latitude to extend our fishing time tomorrow.

 

 We'll be offshore tomorrow hunting for yellowfin tuna. We're stuffed with the Jacks and now we want tuna. Wish us luck back home. Here we go...
 

 

Aug 14
    As I write this, it's the morning of the 14th.  When I was awakened for my watch and day at 3:05 this morning I couldn't tell if we were running or if we were anchored up in the bay.  You can't really hear the engines from where I sleep but I couldn't tell from the ride because it was so nice going up last night.  I seriously asked Tommy as he was still up reading.
    
    The fishing slowed down for us today as fishing does from time to time.  The bluefin didn't bite as well this morning nor did the yellowfin.  There was still yellowfin to catch this morning and there were some good scores had in the afternoon away from the bluefin zone but we caught enough yellowfin yesterday and hung out in the bluefin zone for a chance at some more of those trophies in the afternoon/evening.  We still had a decent morning.  I mean we still caught 14 nice bluefin and some yellowfin, but the bf's never made it back around for the afternoon snack fest.  We had a great trip and will be off loading a nice catch tomorrow morning at 6:00 and turning right back around shortly after that for 5 days.
 
     One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the amount of these toad bluefin being caught on jigs.  More then I have ever seen ratio wise but that could also be because more people were doing it but that could be because it was working well.  The shimano butterfly jig is the jig that caught most of our jig fish. But that could be because that's what most people were using but that could be because it was working so well.  And 90+ percent of those were caught on the sink.  No retrieve necessary except to bring it up to sink back down.  They loved it.  So if I were coming out this year I would throw a couple of those in my box.
                                
    
    PS- Shimano gave me nothing to write that last paragraph.  It just worked.

 

Captain Mike Pritchard checked in with an audio update from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.  We have been drifting for 5 hours now.  We have 16 Bluefin Tuna in the 60 to 80 pound class.

The Tribute is online at Seaforth by the seashore.

Steady stop and go action with an end of the day finale. Our 30 anglers managed limits of bluefin and 12 yellowfin.

Hi fishing friends, I've decided to put another open party trip together. This trip will depart on Saturday night the 5th and fish Sunday the 6th of April. The weather is supposed to be getting much better and shouldn't be a factor on the trip. Ling cod season is open and we will be looking for seabass as well. Please call Sea Landing for reservations at (805) 564-6753. Thank you and hope you can make it.

Sep. 8

We woke up this morning on the drift. I heard Tommy doing the stop and go on his watch early in the morning meaning he was seeing schools. He woke the rest of us up bright and early and it didn't take too long before we started hooking fish. They were the 15-18 pound bluefin and they weren't biting as well as you'd think they would judging by all the fish around the boat. We kept drifting though trying the patient mode. It's a lot easier to be patient with non biting fish when the other boats aren't getting stops. After a while and a few handfuls of BFT we gave up on these fish and went searching for some new ones. It took a while but around lunch time we found a nice big fat kelp and it was an aquarium underneath. Good viewing and catching on lot's of different fish from small throwback yellowtail to small tuna and tuna up to 32 pounds and lots of dorado. Yes it's that time of year. The water warmed up considerably in the last week or so and with that came schools of yellowfin and now the dorado in numbers. We'll take um. Crowd pleaser's is what they are and you know us, we like to please crowds. After a couple hours fishing there we went searching for something new unsuccessfully so we ended up back on our kelp and caught some more dorado and a few more tuna. We're now headed for the yellowtail grounds and everyone is fat and happy and we're planning on some good pulling on big yellows tomorrow.

I ate the escolar again substituting it for the prime rib in the fajitas we had for lunch today. It was smooth sailing John and I mean that in a good way. No problems down there. The fish isn't the best fish in the ocean. The flavor is great though the texture is a bit soft. Opening day for pro football so I'll leave you with this. Go Chargers! Let's do some competing this year. My Pad's couldn't do it so now it's up to you guys. Come on now!

Mike Pritchard called in with this report for the Tribute. "We're on the 1st day of a 3.5 day trip sponsored by Okuma, Soft Steel & Seeker. So far the fishing has been very good. We have 36 Bluefin for the morning, some Rockfish to go with it even token Cow Cod.

"We have a few spots open on a 5.5 Day trip departing on October 28th. That is an Ultra Limited Load, only 12 anglers & we're looking for 2 more to go on that trip. If you are interested call Seaforth Landing at 619-224-3383.

38 Yellowfin, 117 Yellowtail, 4 Dorado and 18 Skipjack. A fine November day.