Cowboy Cuts Out Supercow
Tom Rothery took PIER founder Tom Pfleger and eight other anglers on a 17-day excursion that started on the inside, visited the outside and came back to the inside to finish off the trip with six cows; tuna over 200 pounds. ("Inside" means off the coast of southern Baja, and "Outside" means the Revillagigedos archipelago and the Hurricane Bank.)
"All our days were good," said Rothery, "except for the time we spent off Clarion Island where there were a lot of krill balls and green water. The wahoo on the Hurricane were a little bigger than usual. The skin fishing was good on all methods."
Tom "Cowboy" Fullam of Oceanside pulled off the coup of the adventure when he decked a tuna that taped out around 280 pounds.  When Rothery hung it on the scales a shout went up from the gathered spectators, as the fish hit 303.4 pounds on the certified scales.
"He bit on the slide," said Cowboy, "and he went down right away. He fought for an hour and a half, and then he came up on the bow. He's my best fish."
Tom said he dropped in a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook. He used 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 130-pound Spectra on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a five and a half-foot Calstar rod.
Roger Foster of Orange won second place for a 261-pounder. Foster got his big cow (his best-ever fish, in only 20 minutes) and a 259-pounder with sardines. He said he used sardines on 8/0 hooks with 130-pound P-line and 130-pound Spectra on one of the boat's rigs, featuring a Penn 50 SW reel and an unidentified rod.
Chugey Sepulveda, senior research scientist for Pfleger's PIER Institute, caught a 228-pounder with sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook. He used 130-pound line and 130-pound Spectra on a Penn 30 W reel and a Penn five and a half-foot rod.
Pat Jaeger of Bishop, a mountain fishing guide, got a 215-pounder in 40  minutes, after it ate his sardine on a 6/0 Eagle Claw hook. He fished with 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 130-pound Spectra on a Penn 50 SW reel and a custom Calstar Baja Boomer rod.
Chartermaster Tom Pleger said two of the ongoing projects for PIER are a kelp study and a tagging program. The archival tagging study for white sea bass may provide some answers for questions long in the asking regionally, such as where the fish go and what they do when they're not in local waters and available to anglers.
"We'll offer rewards," said Pfleger, "and we'll put out about 100 archival tags."
Polaris Supreme will be her berth in for boat work for the next few weeks.
December 20, 2024 fox lake Fishing Report
1754
Aug. 22
We kicked the you know what out of the yellowfin today. We engaged in battle and we won. We started our drift at 6:30 this morning and drove away from them biting at lunch. The fish were from 22-35 pounds and were snapping. I don't think I've seen that good of fishing on that good of a grade since the albacore days. Hopefully this lasts for some time to come. The weather was great today but the further north we go now the more choppy it's getting. Just in time for dinner.
We've just been traveling up since our only needed stop this morning setting us up for our last day in the bluefin grounds. It sounded slow up there today but maybe they're just waiting for captain Drew to get up there. Rent rod Ryan donated a 40 pound bluefin yesterday to the galley and we were planning on eating it for dinner tonight but in the middle of the mayhem today we lost it buried under the yellowfin so he donated a few yellowfin so we're having seared Ahi instead. Mmmmm.
December 18, 2024 fox lake Fishing Report
1331
Captain RJ Hudson checked in this evening with an update from the New Seaforth out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. Today on our afternoon trip we had 17 anglers catch 1 Halibut (up to 25 pounds), 1 Whitefish, 17 Rockfish, and 75 Vermilion Rockfish.
Pictured here is angler Jessica Cano with a beautiful 25 pound San Diego Halibut.
December 16, 2024 fox lake Fishing Report
2623
GREAT OFFSHORE TRIP!!!
APOLLO on a 2 day trip with 24 anglers, hooked 76 Dorado,72 Yellowfin, 26 Yellows, & 110 Skipjacks. Call Fisherman's Landing for their next available trips @ (619)221-8500.
December 15, 2024 fox lake Fishing Report
957
Today we had fantastic fishing on 15- 25 lb Yellowtail. We were able to get on a couple really nice schools that made for some great action! Both the kids and the fathers did a great job putting the wood to these fish! There was definably a lot of sore arms when it was all said and done.
Here we have Colt and Kingston with some nice Yellowtail.
Hopefully they will be rested up for offshore tomorrow. We will be looking for Tuna and Dorado.
Weekly Fishing Reports
Fishing reports for fox lake are updated each week, usually by
Thursday morning. The reports are compiled by an outside contractor who receives the
information from bait shops, marinas and fishing guides.
