dlnr Fishing Report 2025

Hi everyone, We will be fishing the Channel Islands out of Santa Barbara this weekend and we have space on a open charter sponsored by Berkley. These are always fun trips to be a part of there will be give aways and swag. The trip will depart from Sea Landing at 9pm on Thursday night and fish Friday returning Friday evening. The trip will target Shallow water rockfish and if there is some sign of seabass or halibut around we will give those a shot too. The trip is limited to 20 people and the cost is $200. Please contact Sea Landing for reservations or details. Thanks, hope to see you there. JJ

A five-day Dan Heil Annual Charter aboard Polaris Supreme with Skipper Drew Henderson, arrived August 21 at Fisherman's Landing. "It's been 20 years now, since '87," said chartermaster Ron Heil, "that I've been doing this trip. My father Dan, who passed away this last season, had been doing it since Tommy (Rothery) bought the boat back in '80 or '81." Dan Heil had been chartering with Rothery since the early eighties on the Polaris Deluxe, now the Breezers. He sailed with Rothery on the Polaris Supreme since '85. Rothery bought the boat from Bill Poole in 1987. "It was a little choppy on that first day," said Skipper Henderson. "But we had great albacore fishing. Cedros was great, we spent a half-day kelp fishing with little action, so we finished up at Benitos, and it was all the fish you could get." "We had a good trip and great timing," continued Heil, who hails from Portland, OR. "Drew did a great job, right out of the chute the first day, we were on a great albacore bite. It was a well rounded trip."
Mike Hunting of Riverside landed a 48.4-pound yellowtail at Benitos Islands, good for first place in the jackpot. Mike fished a sardine on a 5/0 Owner hook, 40-pound P-Line, an Avet HX 2-speed reel, and a Calstar rod. "We were in a shallow spot on the ridge" said Hunting, "and there were guys losing fish in the kelp. So when I got bit, I decided he wasn't gonna get to the kelp, so I buttoned down, past strike, and started cranking." Bill Byler of Covina was second for a 37.6-pound albacore and Gary De Void of Encinitas was third for a 36.4-pound albie.

DON'T MISS YOUR CHANCE!!! January starts Rock cod season here at Fishermans Landing. APOLLO has trips scheduled to start January 1st. You can get on these trips by booking Online or giving us a call at FISHERMAN'S LANDING at (619)221-8500.

The Ranta Charter started off fishing yellowfin tuna with a decent little score on school sized fish ranging from 10-20 pounds. Most of the fish were caught on the flylined sardine with 30 pound test and a 2/0 hook. We also had as handful of troll fish that came off of green and black zuker feathers. The next day we sought after some quality yellowtail between 20 and 30 pounds. Sadly, these fish didn't show like we hoped they would have. We saw a couple small schools of fish that came up and boiled in the chum, but nothing would stick with the boat. Fish were being caught on flylined sardine, yo-yo jigs, and everyone's favorite technique, the surface iron. We managed to pick away at some of these fish in the morning before calling it quits and moving on in search of a better bite. After hearing reports of the yellowfin bite picking up, We decided to make a run to the grounds to get in on the action. We arrived mid-morning with high expectations, as a couple other boats in the area had some big scores off big schools of yellowfin. It didn't take long for our dreams to turn to reality as a four way trolling hookup turned into a wide open bite. They were biting anything that was thrown in the water for a solid hour until most of the passengers had their fill pulling on these tuna, that averaged 15 pounds. We had a couple more stops for not as much success before pointing the boat towards something new. The last day of fishing was spent offshore looking for kelps, but dirty water and 20 mph winds made it hard kelp finding conditions/ However, we managed to pick up a few nice Dorado as well as a couple more yellowfin to add to our total. This was a great trip with some awesome people, a couple a which had their first experience out here fishing saltwater. A big thanks to Dan Ranta for putting this all together, we hope to see you all out here again sometime soon! Till next time, Team Supreme

Captain Ryan Bostian called in with an audio update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, CA. Today we had every intention of fishing for Yellowtail. We checked our usual spots and could not find any fish. The water rolled at the Coronado Islands. So we headed West and we ran into Bluefin Tuna. We say large schools of tuna in the 50 to 100 pound range.

We ended up catching 6 of these trophies (up to 65 pounds). They were biting on 40 pound fly-lined sardines. You might also get lucky on surface iron or popper action. We are going to be running Bluefin Tuna trips. There have been some fish caught up to 245 pounds this year.

Nov. 15

                Not much to report from us today.  It was a pretty uneventful day.  We traveled all morning until after lunch when we arrived to the Islands, and we never saw a yellowtail.  It was dead as can be at this place.  We took the tour, well as much as we could in a few hours, and ended up back here in the lee.  We were and still are catching calico bass and things.  We did hook something big, a yellow or a big halibut or even a seabass, but we'll never know because the hook straightened out right before we could see it and the fish got away.  And that's it.  We're going to try and keep our anchor hung right here and see what kind of conditions we have here in the morning for our last day of fishing.  As soon as the wind backs off enough for a tolerable ride offshore Tuesday morning, we'll be on our way home.

                                                                                                               

Aug. 24

Good evening from the Polaris Supreme. We're just starting off with our two week span of 1 1/2 trips. The first bait loading didn't go too swell. It looked like a rave party in the crowder when we loaded it. All sorts of fun colors with the silver shiny glitter(scales) being the dominate color with red coming in a close second. It is what it is. Hopefully we find something to use it on early tomorrow because I'm not so sure they will be swimming come lunch time. After that they'll just have to bite the dead bait which I have seen the yellowfin do countless times before. So here we go, Prime Ribbing it now, some z's in the future and then fishing it tomorrow.

 

Hello Everyone, Today we spent the day chasing Fin Whales and bird schools, there were very nice schools of Yellowfin associated with them. Tuna ranging from 8 lbers to 40lbs! there were defiantly some nice fish mixed in. In addition to that there were some Dorado around. Lots of life making for an exciting day. We will be chasing these fish again tomorrow, wish us luck. Will report back then, Team Supreme