fontburn Fishing Report 2025

Today was a tough day at the island. There was a lot of fish around but we had trouble getting bites. However the bites we were able to get were great grade. Most being 50-70 lbs and one standout that was well into the mid hundreds. We are going to try our hand at the variety the day after tomorrow. Hopefully Wahoo, Dorado, Grouper, and school sized tuna. Pictured here is Randy with the big tuna of the day also pictured is John in the heat of battle with his tuna.

We gave it the Dark till Dark effort and came up dry. We did however see multiple very nice schools of yellowfin that were not interested in our hooks.

The Apollo has a two day trip departing on August 27th from Fisherman's Landing. The fare is $450 and meals and permits are included. We will be targeting Tuna and Yellowtail. Contact: Steph Franklin, 7945 Camp Chaffee Road, Ventura, CA 93001; phone #805.708.5276.

~~Aug 30
 Today didn't go as well as we were hoping. The plan sounded so good in my head too. You don't believe me? Come inside my mind and tell me it didn't sound like a good plan, you'll be a liar. The plan was to start here and work there. We were supposed to catch a bunch of yellowtail, then catch a wahoo or two, then scratch at some dorado here and there along with another wahoo or two, then we were supposed to get a small hit on wahoo in the end before finding the motherload of dorado.

 Well, there wasn't much yellowtail. The little bit of dorado we saw either didn't bite or was small. And we didn't see a wahoo until the end. We did see a school of good grade yellowfin that wasn't in our plan. It didn't bite for long though. It was on the corner biting every bait for about three minutes. Just long enough for everyone to get one and then they vanished. I drove around thinking I would easily find the school again but we never did. We lost at least 6 wahoo on the last spot we checked and landed none. The wahoo won today.

 Cool things of note today- the sailfish we caught, a couple marlin hooked and the orcas we saw. In the 14 seasons I've been out here I can only remember a handfull of times seeing killer whales so it's not too often we see them. We also don't catch sailfish too often.

 Tomorrows plan- wahoo!

Sep. 16

Today was a bust for us in the yellowtail grounds. We arrived pre daylight and Tommy stopped on some yellows so we fished it in the dark and fished it in the light for nothing. We looked around after that and all the key ingredients were there. Bait life, bird life, and schools of yellowtails were all around but it wouldn't go. Just a handful of bites. After giving it a few hours to get with it for not a whole lot we decided not to hang out and burn a day doing it. We're on the move to the wahoo grounds. We're ready for them too. We did the wahoo seminar and everyone spent the afternoon rigging up wire leaders for the toothy fish. We'll be where we'll be at or soon after daylight and we're hoping for some wahoo action. If not wahoo let's hope we can get some action on the tuna,pargo and yellowtails. Let's also hope for low wind velocity. It was getting pretty windy this afternoon and it's currently traveling faster down then we are.

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Monday, July 18th, 2012

Hello friends. The weather could be a lot better offshore, that's for sure. It's bumpy, it's windy, it's cold and wet - the people are not digging it at all. It's just a bad time for everyone when the boat is rolling back and forth, bouncing up and down, the wind howling, people are sick and it's just an unpleasant deal all the way around. Buuuutttttt, this problem does not exist when you're in the calm lee of an island and that's where we are, so we're pumped. Our only problem with the weather right now is sun burns and kelp flies. Needless to say, we're happy we made the move inside and with the weather still forcasted to be up offshore, we're going to give this island weather another day and brave the elements of flat calm weather and endless sunshine.

As for the fishing; it wasn't hot and heavy but it was a nice pace for the gang to enjoy. We had a few morning drifts where the dropper loops were getting bit but the seals ended that party pretty quick. So, we decided to make a move for less local harassment and we had ourselves a nice drift around lunch time that really made our day. a fly-lined sardine was the ticket to capture a nice 'tail and the fish ranged from 12-18 lbs. Quality sized fish and the kids and adults alike were having themselves a ball. After our drift dried up, we toured around various spots to no avail but were excited about the prospects of tomorrow.

Like I said, we'll be here for one more day tomorrow and come the evening time, we're going to have to start working our way up the line and try to make it the smoothest ride we can going home. With that, we'll chat with y'all tomorrow. Have a great day.

The Apollo had another successful overnight trip up the coast. They had limits of rockfish. The weather is great and they will be fishing the island tomorrow.

Well if we thought yesterday was phenomenal, today was even better. I know I'm repeating myself but the fishing was just great again on the wahoo and dorado. And yes the marlin are still here and wanted to play. We have good weather and this is a nice way to end the trip. Great group, great fishing, great crew.