florida keys Fishing Report 2025

Captain Mike Pritchard called in to report 17 Yellowtail from our first kelp. We also had 2 Bluefin Tuna up to 65 pounds. We are seeing spots of Bluefin today and some other boats have scores up to 30 fish. The weather is fantastic. Stay tuned ...

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 10-25-2019 We spent the day looking for yellowtail and only tied into a few. Truthfully most the day was spent dodging wind. Our ride was good but we had some serious offshore Santa Ana conditions. Will be spending all day tomorrow traveling up to San Diego it looks like it's going to be great weather. Will be into the dock on Sunday morning and be doing 17 days of boat work before we head back out again for eight days on November 14. Thanks for tuning in to see you then. The Polaris Supreme Crew!

~~Oct. 15
 I forgot to mention yesterday how steamy it is down here.  Steamy, like we're boiling a giant pot of water or something, I can't explain it.  Anyways when you walk out of an air and conditioned part of the boat it's like POW!  Holy Toledo!  But after a little bit you get used to it and it's not that bad until you find some AC again and then come back out and it's like, POW again.  Anyways, we had a little more wind this morning which helped with the kite fishing and it stayed one direction which helped with the anchor fishing.  We had another decent morning.  George caught another over 200 and his bud Craig joined him with a 207.  The sharks weren't as ferocious this morning and this afternoon I'd have to say they weren't much of a problem at all.  We really did a number on the wahoo yesterday because today we only caught a few but thankfully we had a great day on the anchor starting mid morning or after lunch, I already can't remember.

 The boxed and vacuum sealed flying fish from Florida the gang brought down really paid off today.  That's mostly what I did this afternoon was rig flying fish for the kite and help gaff tuna when they needed me. For a couple hours they were hitting the baits on the kite as fast as we could put them out.  Most of what we're catching is in the 100-130 pound class. The big story was Charlie this afternoon.  He caught 3 bigguns.  A 194, 213, and a 204.  A nice afternoon for Charlie.  About half the gang are already releasing anything under 200 pounds.

 For dinner we had a lovely corned beef and cabbage and potato meal.  Afterwards I was waiting for the shower and i noticed all the tuna that was under the boat and I pointed it out to the chef.  So he went down there and sinker rigged a sardine right on top of one of the tunas heads and he got himself a 177 pounder shattering his previous personal best of 35 pounds.  Way to go Mike.  Most people at the time were tying on new top shots on there reels.  They all new what was going on and that they could most likely do the same but nobody did a thing.  Everyone was fished out so that shows we had a good day.  You just can't fish 24 hours a day.
         

 

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

Aug. 27-28

Here's a 2 dayer for you all. I forgot to write yesterday's report due to my enthusiasm not being crazy high about it. So we fished in these bluefin grounds all day yesterday and for a few hours in the morning today for not much. Yesterday we were seeing sign of fish around. We didn't see any schools driving around but we'd get a meter mark and stop the boat and after a while we'd see a handful or two sometimes more come under the boat and sometimes we would get a few and other times we wouldn't but at that rate the final tally wasn't anything to write home about so that's probably why I didn't. Today wasn't better. I can't say we ever saw a fish even on the machines. We looked through the traditional area early for nothing then went that way for a while then we turned that way for a while and then we turned that way for a while and then we called it a trip. It means nothing for future trips the way this bluefin is. Tomorrow can be wide open. A hell of a trip anyways if you've been reading you'd know it. The boats clean and everyone on board is stuffed and rested. We'll be getting in at 6:00 in the am tomorrow and then we're departing on the 9 day! I'm really looking forward to it. Getting out of this cool August offshore weather and into the warm wahooey weather. As Joe Beck would say, "yeah baby". Thanks to everyone on board and shame on those who were thinking about making it but didn't. You missed the best bluefin bite you've probably ever seen. Drew

Nov. 10

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to the website of the Polaris Supreme. We're sorry we've been apart for so long but you guys didn't want to go fishing so we had to do other things. Here's a recap of what we did the last few weeks... Jed went to a Slayer concert in Vegas and won a bunch of money. Jed always seems to win lots of money when he gambles. I don't know why he just doesn't do that for a living. Either he's fibbing about the money he makes or he just really loves fishing. Gunny hung around and fished his local lakes a lot after flaking on Jed in Vegas. Shawn had some big plans on getting a new place and a new car while he was off but came back to the boat with neither so he probably had the most fun of us all. Or maybe it was Gringo because he spent his time where he does, Cabo. Tommy and Susan did what they always do which is work, work, work. Mostly in the office but they saved a little bit of time for pleasure mostly around the river. I spent my days either at the boat helping with various projects from minor fixes up to helping the mechanic replace a piston in one of the engines. I also did some work on my golf game which still stinks by the way. And Mark lost one pound while we were off! One pound! Way to go Mark.

But we're all glad to be back out and that's because it's the Lon Mikkelsen and John Esler 10 day trip! Things are always just a hoot out here on the Lon Mikkelsen and John Esler 10 day trip. Lots of return customers out here and a handful of fresh ones too. I love this group. I do. Anyways the boat is running in tip top shape and we're all fueled up and baited up and everyone is currently sleeping with there belly's full of prime rib as I write this on my watch. Fishing sure did sound poor out here the last few weeks but things sound like they're on the upswing as the Polaris Supreme rolls south. Not sure we'll do any fishing tomorrow as we need to keep her rolling down so the plan for now is to have breakfast in the morning and spend most of the day getting all our tackle in the best of shape. The weather just couldn't be better. Flat calm gorgeous without a cloud in the sky. Beautiful! Sweet dreams all.

Captain Drew

Tom Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme at fisherman's Landing October 13 after an eight-day trip with 22 anglers.

"We had another fantastic day fishing the 30 lb. class tuna," he wrote Friday, October 10. "Our weather is beautiful. We are going to finish up our trip with some yellowtail fishing before heading home. The guys are having a great time. We've had good fishing, good company and good food. And on that last note, for dinner we had a really good honey dijon mustard crusted wahoo. Just superb. Our next trip is full but if you have some time our 10-day with Larry Brown on Oct. 25 still has some open spots. He has over 15 sponsors for many freebies and raffles. Give Susan a call in the office, at 619-390-7890."

Rothery reported water temps along The Ridge as 79 to 84 degrees, and 72 degrees at Alijos Rocks. He stayed just a day at The Rocks, without seeing much sign of tuna that wanted to bite.

"The Ridge was excellent for dorado, yellowfin and yellowtail. We got off the high spots and off floating kelps," he said.

Two brothers, Scott and Neil Langlois of Rancho Cucamonga, showed off a typical dorado and a wahoo.

Kevin Veal of Huntington Harbor won first place for a 37-pound wahoo that ate his Tady 45 jig in a new green/gold combination. He said he fished with 40-pound P-Line, an Accurate B2 870 reel and a Seeker CBJ 100F.

Steven Belardes was second for a 36-pound wahoo, and chartermaster LeRoy Balardes won third place for a 31.6-pound yellowfin tuna.