chesapeake bay bridge Fishing Report 2024

The 21st annual Eric Rogger charter arrived at Fisherman's Landing August 16, after five days with 18 anglers aboard Polaris Supreme. Owner-skipper Tom Rothery was at the helm. "Wow!  What an incredible day," wrote Tom August 12. "This albacore is in the cooler 76-degree water.  It wants to bite wide open. Can't say enough about how much fun today was catching big fat jumbo albacore. They tired our anglers out. By the end of the day only a few fishermen were still standing.  Chef Pedro fixed a spicy teriyaki albacore lunch that was fantastic.  For dinner he served some delicious veal chops. Today was just a great. This is what albacore fishing is supposed to be like." John Lindsey of Newport Beach won first place for a 41.4-pound albacore. He took it with a sardine on a Mustad 2/0 94150 hook on 20-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader, 20-pound P-Line, an Accurate 197 reel and a nine-foot rod of unknown make. "He fought hard," said John. "He fought for 20 minutes."
Cole Pearce of Huntington Beach was second, for a 36.4-pound albie, and Brian Harnack of Culver City took third place for a 36-pound albacore.

Nothing beats some fresh fish on a Friday evening! Seared Ahi Tuna atop a bed of rice. ?

~~Sep 14
 Wow!  What a day.  2015!  We started it off early on anchor.  The sun wasn't even up yet and we were catching tuna and wahoo.  For about an hour there on anchor we were gettinum.  We had about 30 of those 25-30+ pound tuna and almost 20 wahoo before an hour.  Things slowed so we pulled anchor and got nasty.  We had a couple other bingers for wahoo for about 10 each time, and of course we would catch that big tuna during those drifts.  After that though, us and the 3 other boats that were here pretty much had the wahoo caught for the day.  There was a few left to be had but we mostly caught that tuna up to perhaps 40 pounds the rest of the day.  Not wide open.  We're not "fixed up".  Just steady for most of the day.  Before dark we started "the troll of shame".  I've never done that the second day of the trip.  We got 2 passengers out of there and still have 2 or 3 left who haven't caught a wahoo yet.  Oh they had there chances.  Some of those guys on that team lost 4 or 5 skin today.  But that's wahoo fishing.  Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you.

 We're going to try this again in the morning.  I would love to get 40 or 50 more tuna and a couple more handfuls of wahoo.  That would be epic.  After the morning hit we're going to make a run and try for some yellows in the afternoon.
        

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.

HOT TRIP TO BE ON!!! APOLLO still have 5 spots open for an 8 day trip leaving Mon Nov 13th at 9am & returns Tues Nov 21th at 9am. Cost is $2400. Limited load to 12 anglers. This your chance for an awesome trip. Call for info and reservations at Fisherman's Landing @ (619)221-8500

Today our 18 anglers bagged up 60 red rockcod 3 lingcod limits of Boccaccio as well as limits of rockfish. After some morning Santa Ana winds, the weather was absolutely gorgeous.

Covered a lot of water today. Found a good school in the bottom of the ninth. Ended with 66 good grade yellowfin.

Longtime charter company Burgesons Heating and Air experienced a good stop on 18-30 lb yellowfin as well as good Skipjack fishing. Back to open party fishing tomorrow. Please bring a 20 lb rod and a 40 lb rod.