flathead river Fishing Report 2023

OTR Big Fish Wts. Greg Koonce - 379.8 lbs. and 199.4 lbs. Lon Mikkelsen - 293.4 lbs. John Esler - 280 lbs. James Zeder - 248.4 lbs. Craig Heberer - 232.6 lbs. Johnathan Musman - 227.8 lbs. Matt Kiesse - 225.4 lbs. Clint Campbell - 220.6 lbs. Ben Meyer - 219.6 lbs. Wednesday, November 17th, 2010.

Hello everyone. The gear is broken down, the engine room is spotless, the rails have been stripped of old teak oil, and the boat has been scrubbed from anchor to transom. Before all of that, we did have some time to catch a couple of yellowtail, some vermilion rock fish, some lingcod, and one nice cow cod. Now that we're heading up the line, due to arrive to the docks at approximately 6:00 am, we have some time to reflect on the OTR 10 day trip. We started the trip with a bang, having two days of some of the best fishing for cow yellowfin that one could ask for, we had an amazing dorado bite off a kelp, and we even managed to put together a score on some yellowtail. Pretty much the only thing missing was a nice whack on the wahoo, but we can't make them bite and if the conditions were right, I'm sure we would've caught some. Maybe next year. All of this fishing was done in flat calm weather and sunshine. Sometimes we get lucky and have nice weather for the majority of a trip but the weather on this trip was A+ for nine days straight. Thanks Mother Nature, we owe you one. We're grateful for many things on this trip and we're also grateful for many people aboard. We here on the Polaris Supreme would like to give thanks to some of the people, in detail. First, we'd like to thank Craig Heberer for handing out the Humboldt Lumberjacks hats and Sumo gear. Next, we'd like to thank Ben Meyer for once again putting together a professionally done recipe book/CD for all to take home. This book is over 200 recipes for various tuna meals and I'm sure they'll be put to use immediately by our passengers and crew alike. We'd also like to thank Jim Bostian. Jim, owner of Crystal Pier Hotel in Pacific Beach, is a pleasure for the crew to have onboard and I'm sure that he's also a pleasure to share the rail with. Not only an outstanding fisherman but an outstanding person as well. Whether it was helping serve meals, scrubbing the boat after a stop, stapling tags on dorado, or hooking and handing off a fish to a fellow angler, Jim does it with the utmost class and we hope to see him again real soon. Quickly, we'd like to thank the person who brought the book of "The 400 Facts You Didn't Know About Chuck Norris". Also, we issue thanks to Herb Yamanaka. Herb took countless hours of underwater footage/videos as his youthful enthusiasm was felt from minute one of this trip. He's going to have his hands full editing all the footage he took as he will be making a video for all to take home. Herb also gave away some of his hand-crafted wooden bowls to the folks and gave away a number of his homemade, fly-fishing inspired lures. And lastly, we'd like to thank the master of ceremonies, Mr. Lon Mikkelsen. Lon outfitted everyone with an OTR harness/plate that needed one and gave a personal seminar on how to properly use what we feel is the best stand-up harness for tackling big tuna. He handed out OTR hats, shirts, and other various goodies to everyone and from all of us, thank you Lon. You can get OTR information at OTRfish.com. I could write about everybody on this trip until I'm blue in the face but I can't so we'd just like to say that we are thankful for all the passengers we shared the boat with for the past ten days. From top to bottom, they were a joy to have onboard and we hope to see each and every last one of you real soon. So that is all. Tomorrow we'll be home and we'll see the true weight of all our big tuna. From our measurements on the boat, we have 10 tuna over 200 lbs. and the top three big fish will be Greg Koonce's 347 lber, Lon Mikkelsen's 294 lber, and John Esler's 262 lber. If you're in the area, stop by and check out the beauties we'll be hoisting on the scales at Fisherman's Landing. What's next for us on Team Supreme will be a brief lacuna as we'll be in for the Thanksgiving holiday festivities and then back out on Dec. 2nd for an 11 day trip. Thanks for reading and we'll check back with you when the time comes. Take care and have a happy Thanksgiving. Richie and Team Supreme. More Photos from OTR 10 DAY Tuesday, November 16th, 2010 Good afternoon amigos. We began our day in the very early morning hours with the hopes of catching some squid to use for bait. The early wake-up call was the boss kicking in our crew quarters door yelling "they're floating, lets crowd em' up!!!". As I walked down the stairs, still half-asleep and coughing up a lung (there is a cold that's being passed around the boat), I couldn't help but do a double-take as I've never seen anything quite like the sight I saw. In my 10 years of sportfishing, I have never once seen a squid float like I've always heard about and this one was the real deal. In a couple crowds we had all the market squid that we needed to use for bait and then some. At times, the squid were so thick under/around us that we had to move the boat as the screens that lie under the hull used for our numerous pumps were getting clogged up with squid. Quite impressive to say the least. So we were ready to fish yellowtail and had every bait, with the exception of krill, that a yellowtail would consume on a daily diet. Mackerel, sardines, and squid were used today to capture yellowtail at a not-so steady pace but we managed to put together a morning on 16-20 lb. yellowtail as we worked our way up the coast. We found ourselves on the hunt for some more yellowtail at a different area and when the conditions were unfavorable, we put ourselves in position to be right on top of the "secret grouper spot". Well, the spot was so secret that not even the grouper knew where it was but the Calico Bass found their way to our offerings and we renamed the spot the "secret Calico Bass spot". The gang had a rollicking good time pulling on 2-5 lb. Calico's in flat calm weather and true to the form of this group, almost all of the fish were released. We did have to keep a couple as mortality was imminent but I'd say 98 % of what we caught was thrown back into the Pacific. Highlight of the day was the hootin' and hollering match led by Mr. Matt Kiesse as the boys were a happy bunch playing around with some world class bass fishing. The motto of the trip is now "Cows and Calico's". So there you have it. A light-hearted day of pulling on whatever type of fish wanted to bite in beautiful weather. We're currently on course for our last stop of the trip and put a bow on the OTR 10 day trip. Good weather, good friends, good times, and good night. Richie and the Supremes' P.S. Drew says "I love you, Ma" and Mark would like to send his love to his Dad. Monday, November 15th, 2010 Hi friends. Reprehensible would be the best word to describe our day as it definitely was not one to write home about. Our group is after some variety and we gave it our most valiant effort today, but with no current comes no life and that's the story of our day. I should mention that we released quite a few fish today as most of what we caught was on the small side of things. The anglers are showing just how conservation-minded they truly are as we let the little ones go to grow. From top to bottom, all of us in the Polaris Supreme family can't show enough appreciation to that sort of practice. So that's it. The weather remains optimum as we are motoring up the line to try and locate some squid along with some yellowtail to finish out our trip. Once again, not much to report today but we remain optimistic for a full day of yanking and cranking tomorrow. We'll chat with you soon. Richie and the Family. P.S. Donna - Herb says hi and he misses/loves you very much. Go Ducks. Sunday, November 14th, 2010 Today, we set our sights on some coastal species and everything was set up perfectly. Warm water, calm weather, and an eager group of anglers ready to do battle with any and all game-fishes that the waters off Baja Sur were willing to give up. One minor problem. We didn't have any current and ninety-nine times out of one hundred, if you have no current, your not going to catch a whole lot. We did OK on some yellowtail, tuna, and some grouper but we we're left unfulfilled and wanting more action. We took off just before lunch on the hunt for some dolphin holding tuna and some kelp paddies. We found both but the fish we were targeting were bashful and we once again were left feeling unsatisfied. It was just one of those days but our chins remain high for a great full day of fishing tomorrow. It's our last day down here as we will have to begin working home towards San Diego. It's the bottom of the ninth, the score is tied, and we're up to the plate. Here we go. For this evening's festivities, Polaris Supreme passenger Mike Payne got his wish as we entered the bay to make some mackerel to supplement our sardine supply. It wasn't the best fishing for bait we've seen but we got the job done and we're currently en route to our next destination. We'll be there in a few hours and wish us luck. Richie and Crew. Saturday, November 13th, 2010. Polaris Supreme Trip Up Date. Hi friends. We began this morning with a bang as we hooked four fish right off the bat as Chef Schooler didn't even have his stove on to begin cooking breakfast. The size of the four fish we caught were between 135 and 155 lbs. As for our total on big fish today, that was it. It was a day of watching 100-250+ lb. fish boiling all around the boat and after those four fish, we never landed another big tuna. We spent some time looking around today for some biting fish but we never could locate any. Late in the day, we did locate a nice kelp paddy that was corroded with some ferocious 8-18 lb. Dorado. And that was pretty much our day in a nut shell. For tomorrow, the Polaris Supreme will be in search of wahoo, Dorado, yellowtail, pargo, grouper, and some school-size tuna to add to our stellar catch of big fish. It's a change that is welcome with open arms. This group is one of the more altruistic groups of passengers we've had and we wish to leave some big tuna for the other boats rather than stay another two days. It's time for a change of scenery and a change of pace. We saw evidence of that with our Dorado bite today as the highly stressful and physically demanding fishing for cows turned into a relaxed, fun-filled bite on one of the funniest fishes in the ocean. The laughs were loud and the smiles were contagious from passenger number 1 all the way to Chef Schooler. To top it off, the Eastern Pacific is a placid ocean today with a light breeze and flat calm weather. We're stoked. Hopefully tomorrow we can connect with something different. Have a great day and we'll chat again. Richie and crew. P.S. Finn and Terra - Papa Lon caught some Dorado for you two. p.s.s. My favorite moment in our Dorado bite was when Herb put his "under water camera on a pole" into the water to get some footage and almost couldn't get it back. They where biting that good. Tommy. Friday, November 12th, 2010 Alright, first things first. This will be a long report. Next, the original report for yesterday was the names and size in pounds of every angler from yesterday. One problem. Only one person did not catch a fish yesterday and we didn't want to single anybody out. For this evening's report, we are singling out a few people with the first person being Mr. Tim Kelley. Tim's turn on the kite didn't come until just before dark and the fish hadn't been on the chew for an hour or so. This morning, it was Tim's turn and it wasn't before long that a tuna exploded on the kite baits. After a short battle, Tim landed a 187 lb. yellowfin tuna and his fish completed the cycle. Everyone on the boat has caught a fish over 120 lbs. Congratulations to Tim and all our anglers for their accomplishments. Next, not only are we singling out Mr. Greg Koonce but also a surprise guest in this report. Here is the story. Greg's turn on the kite didn't last too long as a hole was left in the ocean by the fish that erupted on his kite baits and the battle ensued. Greg is an excellent fisherman and did everything by the book to achieve deep color on his fish. His fish was one of the more cooperative fish in recent memory as it's circles were just perfect coming up on the bow of the boat. Everything was fine as the fish was just a few feet away from gaff and then, it happened. Just when we thought it was all good, a Guadalupe Fur Seal swam by to get a closer look at an animal four times it size and the tuna spooked, took off with a burst of speed right around the anchor line. Just like that, in a matter of two seconds, the fish was wrapped in the anchor line and to make matters worse, the second hook for the double sardine rig caught the anchor line and the weight of the fish pulling on a stationary object broke the hook in the fishes mouth. No more hook and line attached to the fish and our hearts and the fish were beginning to sink. The fish was just out of gaff range in front of the anchor line, diving out of sight, and as all crew members attempted to gaff the fish, not one crew member on deck were able to sink a gaff in the fish...except for one. Galley assistant/deckhand/roving patrolman/waste management supervisor/all around nice guy and Super-Human Mark Clark was up on the cat head and reached with all his might, hands on the butt end of the gaff, fully extended and on his knees on the cathead, managed to grab on...to it's tail. Now, if this fish would've made one kick with his tail and dove out, Mark would've joined him in the water. By the grace of the Fish God's, Mark was able to pull the fish up, tail first, and four other crew members sunk their hooks in this beast. The fish finally made it on board after a struggle to get over the rail and the beast was taped out at 347 lbs. We did many tape jobs on this fish to get the perfect measurements and bottom line, fish of 300 lbs. can fluctuate 20 lbs. either way so the weight of Greg's fish will be truly told on Thursday when we arrive back in San Diego and we hang his fish on the scales at Fisherman's Landing. Congratulations to Greg and I think he owes Mark a drink when we get back in, at the least. Last but not least, I'm sure he doesn't want to be singled out, but we must talk about Mr. Jim Bostian. I could go on forever and a day about what kind of a person Jim is, just know that Jim is one of the nicest and most laid back guys in the world and he is always a pleasure to have on board. Basically, poor Jim had "one of those days" on the kite. We caught some very nice fish as Jim waited patiently for his shot from 6:00 am until 1:00 pm. Not once did he consider giving up his spot, he fished all the way through, and not once did you ever sense a lick of negativity from Jim. Finally, right after lunch, Jim got bit. He landed a beauty and when I say beauty, I mean if we were offshore on a 3 day trip in July. His fish went 35 lbs, by far the smallest we've seen in two days here. So back out for Jim and about an hour later, Jim finally had a lunker on the end of his kite rig and Jim successfully boated a 175 lb. Yellowfin tuna. Just goes to show you a couple of things. Good things happen to good people and never, EVER give up on your kite rotation. Oh yeah, once Jim put down the kite rig and picked up the fly-line rig, he hooked and captured a 172 lber and one right at 200 lbs. that we landed a little after dark. Good going, Jim. So that's it. I could tell you all about every angler and their trophy story on this boat, but I can't type anymore as pulling all these big fish over the rail have made me quite somnolent. Let me tell you, I'm not the only one. Our weather is excellent and we'll be here again tomorrow. Here is the angler list and the weight of their fish (approximately) that managed to capture a fish other than the previously mentioned anglers. Matt K. - 243 John E. - 262 Jim Z. - 226 Ben M. - 160 Clint C. - 211 Bill M. - 166 Mike P. - 169 Craig H. - 225 Have a great weekend, chat with you tomorrow. Richie and Crew Thursday, November 11th, 2010 Here is our report for our illustrious day. The numbers are the pounds in which the yellowfin tuna we caught were measured and taped out at. 177, 157, 160, 127, 124, 158, 205, 179, 145, 191, 159, 141, 216, 135, 138, 163, 174, 174, 166, and last but not least, a 294 beauty caught by our master of ceremonies, Mr. Lon Mikkelsen. We had a great day. We're going to try for squid tonight and needless to say, we'll be here tomorrow. Richie and Crew. Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 Hi friends. Not a whole lot to report today. We continued traveling to our intended destination while keeping an eye out for something tasty to stop on. We found an area of Common Dolphin that relinquished a handful of yellowfin tuna in the 22-30 lb. category to a few lucky anglers. We saw plenty of fish, but they didn't bite, so we continued on with our journey. We also managed to snag a couple wahoo to round out the day. Like I said, not a whole lot to talk about today but hopefully tomorrow will give us plenty to talk about. On that note, we'll be fishing for trophies first thing tomorrow morning and it's time for everyone onboard to get some rest. Wish us luck and happy hump day. Richie and crew. Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 Hi friends. "Tackle Day" onboard the Polaris Supreme was a great success as we got our tackle prepared to pull on some type of game fish tomorrow. We won't make it down to the Big Fish zone until the following day but tomorrow we'll be on the hunt for kelp paddies holding wahoo and porpoise schools with some school size tuna. We started this morning off with a hearty breakfast and soon thereafter, the tackle seminar commenced and let me tell you, there was nothing remotely laconic about it. We discussed every single detail that goes into to hooking and landing Yellowfin tuna in the 100-300+ lb. class. Most of our anglers have done this type of fishing before but it's always nice to refresh their memory after being off the boat for a year. After that, it was on to making up 200 lb. Monofilament leaders, double sardine leaders for the kite, and splicing on top shots to the reels. This all day affair came to an end just as the sun dipped below the horizon and now it's onto the galley for cocktails and a Seafood Alfredo dinner. It's currently the calm time before the storm. Reports from the boats still sound encouraging but with one more day of travel left, we'll have to be patient until our turn arrives. The Tiagra's are in working order, the OTR harnesses have been fitted, and all the connections have been checked multiple times. It's almost time to put all our work to the test. We're ready. Time to wet some lines. Our weather is good and we'll speak with you tomorrow. Take care. Richie and Crew. Monday, November 8th, 2010 Good evening friends. After a one week hiatus, we come back to you live, from the Polaris Supreme. We departed Fisherman's Landing first thing this morning on our annual Ocean Tackle Research 10 day expedition with Lon Mikkelsen and his closest friends. We made our way to the bait receivers, quickly loaded up on medium/large sardines, and then cleared Point Loma with our bow pointed at greater points south. Upon clearing the point, we found ourselves rolling around in a short wind chop but we managed to ride it out and our weather progressively got better throughout the day. As for our fishing game plan, we're leaning towards a straight run to the big fish area and beginning the assault on some cows. The reports from the area sound like there are some good scores to be had and the relay of information from the bridge to the passengers currently have all onboard antsy in the pantsy. With all this excitement running through our minds, we must remain vigilant to the fact that we still have two more full days of travel to the area and spending the next couple of days making sure our tackle is at optimum performance is imperative. Giant Yellowfin tuna will expose any imperfections in tackle so tomorrow we'll be hard at it in our tackle preparation. Just like this past Saturday at Fisherman's Landing, tomorrow is our own "Tackle Day". Hopefully our hard work will yield us a mighty opulence in the form of cow yellowfin tuna. We're out, we'll chat with you tomorrow. It's good to back. Richie and the Family.

~~Aug 20
 It was a slow day out here today for us.  It was a slow day for many.  But of course it depends on who you talk to, some might say it was a great day.  It all depended on which school you found.  Just like it's been, most schools don't produce, but the few lucky ones do.  We didn't find the lucky one.  Our best school was for 20.  But no matter who you ask, it was a slow afternoon today. After lunch, we didn't find a school till after 6:00.  We're due.

 The weather today was awesome.  Again.  We're going to drift out here tonight and try it again tomorrow.  I thought about doing something different, like hunting bluefin, but it hasn't been very good and our plan B., that being San Clemente island is closed tomorrow darnit.  Plus these yellowfin we're catching are just too beautiful.  Such a nice grade.

 One more day.  We're due.  It won't take much more to get 200 of these things for the trip.  200 of these things would be nice.