gray reef Fishing Report 2025

2 days of searching was rewarded with a bottom of the 9th rally on good grade yellowtail. Flylined sardines on 25 lb is the most productive right now.

Sunday, December 12th, 2010 Well, here it is friends. The final report of the Polaris Supreme's 2010 fishing season. Before I get too ahead of myself, here's an update of our big fish weigh-in. John Rabinowitz - 70.0 lb. yellowfin tuna Jack Dreser - 69.6 lb. yellowfin tuna Phillip Bruce - 68.6 lb. yellowfin tuna Congrats to the big fish winners. Here is a rundown of our day yesterday as we wind down our trip. The passengers didn't do much work yesterday, they finished breaking down their tackle and enjoyed a lovely travel day in cold, overcast weather. Once the gear was broken down, the crew sprung into action.

Normally, our "winter cleaning" is done for the three days of travel while taking the boat from Cabo San Lucas back to our home port in San Diego. This year, we had one day to get things done and it was an all day affair. Fillet yellowtail for Schooler's fish taco lunch, scrub the rails with Trisodium Phosphate on the upper deck/main deck, scrub the boat, break down tackle, freshwater tackle, organize the upper deck/tackle storage, head cleaning, and scrub the entire engine room; including walls, ceiling, stringers, floor boards, mains and generators, hoses, pumps, and just about anything located in the engine were detailed out. Four crewmembers spent the entire day from dawn until dusk completing our tasks. Not to mention, the entire galley/salon was buffed out by Chef Schooler and Mark. All in all, a busy day for us but we did have time to eat three meals and chat with passengers during breaks. We once again would like to thank the entire group for being the excellent sports that they were during a tough fishing trip. Every single passenger we had deserved to have epic fishing, but it didn't happen and we apologize for that. With all of our technology, fish savvy, and experience, we can't make the fish bite. Plain and simple. We feel that we were in the best positions to catch quality gamefishes, but this time was not our time for a glory trip. That's why we come back year after year, because next year could be the banner trip and nobody wants to miss that. So thank you to the passengers for being great people and understanding that fishing is guaranteed, but catching isn't. Thank you. December 10th, 2010 Hi friends. After going the entire trip without very much action for a full day of fishing, we finally had a good day of fishing. Yellowtail fishing along the beach was just what we needed to end the trip and although it doesn't quite make up for the lack of tuna action, it does make us feel good that we could put these guys on some fish. They earned it. The yellowtail we caught today were in the 14-20 lb. class and our weather was the icing on the cake. Nice weather throughout the day with sunshine. So that is all. We'll be traveling up the line from now until Sunday morning when we arrive back in San Diego. We'll chat with you tomorrow and have a good Friday night to kick off your weekend. Richie and Crew. P.S. Jed says hello to his mother. Hi, Ma. More Photos from Dec. 1st. 11 day trip December 9th, 2010 Good evening, sports fans. For today's report, I'm going to go back to the report from Tuesday for a minute. Back when I was typing the report for Tuesday night, I couldn't help but have the vision of a college football coach addressing his team at halftime of the big game. The big game that they were losing I might add and if you've ever watched a good sports movie, it seems like the same scenario always plays out. The final game of the season is highly anticipated and once the game begins, they let their emotions get to them and are out-played in the first half. Back to our fishing, for the first half of our trip, it seemed that we were being out-played by the fish we were targeting. We just couldn't win as we watched the fish do whatever they wanted and the outcome was looking like a total loss. Come Tuesday, I felt that a halftime speech was something that I certainly had going through my head. Waking up on Tuesday, walking down the ladder to the deck was the same as the team coming out from the locker room and taking the field with a renewed energy/passion for the second half of the game. Wednesday morning, we hooked three fish before breakfast. I know that that's not anything special, but considering the four days prior, three fish before breakfast was wide open fishing for all we knew. From that point on, we just slowly picked away at the yellowfin tuna in the 25-50 lb. class all the way until around hors d'oeuvre time and then it shut off and that was our day. Kind of like when the team that is down at half time, comes out onto the field and plays smart football. Little screen passes and a solid run game to pick up yards and march down the field to the end zone to make the game a little bit more interesting. So the fourth quarter was about to begin, Thursday morning was upon us and with the game in reaching distance for our comeback victory. Was today to become the epic fourth quarter drive that wins us the game? Was Thursday going to be the banner day that completes our story of an epic comeback in the game of fishing? Without being to much more wordy, we lost the game of tuna fishing, bailed out of our current location around 11 am and are currently on a trek to do some yellowtail fishing to end our trip on hopefully a strong note. The gang did an admirable job and gave it their all and sometimes, that's fishing. We can't make the fish bite, sorry. So that's it, all day Friday we will be on the hunt for some yellows and we'll let you know how we end up. Our weather is a bit rolly but nothing that we can't handle. Wish us luck and have a great evening. Richie and Crew. December 8th, 2010 Good evening, friends. Well, our day was a little better today so that's the good news. The bad news is a little better still isn't very good. First thing this morning, we hooked three fish and it was looking like the story book ending that I wrote about yesterday. But, after that they shut off and our heads were starting to hang a little bit. Then, right around lunch time, the fish decided to bite a bit more steady and for a period of an hour or so, we started to hook some fish until it slowed to a very slow scratch until dark. Not a great day by any means but at this point, it was our best day of fishing and we were thrilled with it. Once again, not much to report today. We're going to give this place until tomorrow to get right and if fishing is poor, we will be taking off at noon to get set up for some yellowtail to round out the trip. If fishing is good, we'll stay. We'll see how things play out tomorrow and go from there. Our weather is OK and the passengers are still doing just fine. Good night and wish us the best. Richie and Team Supreme. December 7th, 2010 Hello friends. A while back, I was given a Thesaurus to help with writing these reports and every night, I riffle through it to try and find a big, fancy word of the day to use. Sometimes I'll look for a word just to pretend that I'm somewhat literate, sometimes I'll look for a word that describes our mindset about a day, and sometimes I'll look for a word that best describes our fishing. The past couple of nights, I've attempted to find a word that truly describes our fishing and I just can't find one that can properly express the depth of how fishing is. Without getting too verbose (Thesaurus word), fishing is tough right now. We see the fish, the conditions are fine, and we're doing everything that we possibly can without the use of firearms or explosives to capture these things and it's just not working. We're not catching fish because our anglers don't know how to fish, don't fish hard, and we're certainly not catching fish because they have bad attitudes and just don't care any more. The guys are constantly at the rail and have the mindset that the next bait they toss in the water will result in a hookup. We can't say enough about how great their attitudes have been even in the toughest of times and we can't show them our appreciation enough. All we can do at this point is chalk it up to the old motto "that's why it's called fishing - not catching" and go to sleep with the hopes that tomorrow is a new day and tomorrow, we're going to clobber them. So far, this trip has been quite the "character builder" and something has to give. Just like anything in life, this trip can now go a couple different ways. The fishing can continue to be dreadful (Thesaurus word) and we'll tell stories of "remember that 11 day trip in December of 2010?". At this point, it would be very easy to think that that might become the case. Or, things could do a complete one-eighty (Please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top) and we could have an epic ending to this trip. THAT is what would make a great story. The story would go something like "remember that 11 day trip in December of 2010? We couldn't catch a cold for five days and then, in the bottom of the ninth with no one on base, 2 strikes, 2 outs, we made a rally and made the comeback of all comebacks as the fishing went off and we completely forgot about the plaintive (Thesaurus word) days before." Now THAT would be a fishing story. Us crew members have heard hundreds of great fishing stories about how the hatches couldn't be shut because of so many fish, they begin to all sound the same after awhile. But to hear a story of a trip constantly being in the dirt and then, the stars aligned just right and the trip was salvaged at the last minute, that story doesn't get old. We're hoping that the fishing up to this point was just a cruel gap-filler in our story, leading up to the dramatic climax that sets our story right. I'm fired up. All we can do is remain positive and give em' hell in the morning. Discovery Channel moment of the day: As I look out the port side window, there are about half a dozen bottle-nose dolphin chasing flying fish about 10 feet from the boat. The poor flying fish have no chance, even with the ability of flight, they are no match for the superior hunting skills of the dolphin. On that note, good night and good riddance, please wish us luck. Richie and the Family. December 6th, 2010 Hi friends. For a while there today, things were looking REAL bleak and it was beginning to look like we were cursed or something, but we managed to get some fish to bite later in the day. The weather kicked up a bit yesterday and the fish showed some sensitivity towards the heightened weather conditions because they did not bite very well for us. The sign certainly is there for us to piece together a nice day on some quality yellowfin tuna, so we're going to camp out for the night and hope for the best tomorrow. Our weather is a little breezy with some swell but it's just fine, just a little bit chilly. Nothing more I can say about today, a slow pick on the tuna fish with a handful of yellowtail to keep things interesting and we're praying for this fish to hit the switch and start to bite for us. Maybe the fish had a long weekend and they were suffering from a case of the "Mondays". Maybe tomorrow they will be back on the program because the potential for a really banner day is certainly there. We'll see. We'll be back at it in the morning and wish us luck. On an ending note, we here at the Polaris Supreme family would like to congratulate Captain Mike Lackey and company for their historic accomplishment. 405.2 lbs??? Simply amazing, still hard to fathom that the first yellowfin tuna over 400 lbs was captured and once again, good going to Mike and the gang. Incredible. Richie and Crew. P.S. I'd like to wish my father a very happy birthday today. Without my father getting me not only sportfishing but fishing in general, who knows where I'd be this day, so thanks Dad, I love you and have a great birthday. December 5th, 2010 Hi everyone. I'm going to get right to the point, we didn't see/hook a large tuna this morning. So we pulled anchor and began looking for some mammals holding large tuna. We quickly found some mammals but we once again were unsuccessful in hooking a cow, so we made the decision to bail out of the area and begin the trek to locate some biting fish of any size in a new location. The conditions down here just don't seem right and you can blame it on what you want (current, water temp, moon phase), bottom line, the fish are in a funk and we're not in the mood to stick around and see if things change, we're ready to put some fish in the wells and that's our plan right now. During our travels today, we constantly had two mast-men scouring the horizon for common dolphin and kelps all day but our efforts went unrewarded. We looked at plenty of good water all while enjoying the nice ride to our next destination. Other than a light wind chop, the seas were calm and the sky was clear, just how we like it. Anyhow, we'll be to the area first thing tomorrow morning and we're hopeful that tomorrow will be our day for some action. We'll see. Now that I have some time to do some typing, I'd like to say a few words about a special someone that most of you might know. On this day thirty-one years ago, a life was brought into this world that changed the landscape of not only the Henderson family but the sportfishing community as well. His appetite for fishing is surpassed by few and his name is certainly synonymous with legendary. A fish-finding machine, a talented songwriter, and a loving uncle, this man sets the standard for everything that you could ask for in a crew member. He's second in command on the Supreme but first in our hearts and today, we wish Captain Drew Edmund Henderson a very, very happy 31st birthday. We didn't really celebrate his birthday very much today but Charlie M. and myself did sing a lovely duet of happy birthday to Drew and I don't know if we could've purchased any gift for Drew that could've made him smile like he smiled during the song. Job well done. We love you, Drew, and we hope to celebrate tomorrow by catching a bunch of fish. That's all, we'll chat with you tomorrow and have a great start to your work week. Richie and Crew. December 4th, 2010 Hi friends. Well, I don't have a report with weights of the fish we caught today, I don't have a titillating story to tell you about an anglers fish we boated, and I don't have much to say about today other than this; the conditions were not right, the fish were not located by anyone today, and we covered a lot of water in hopes of finding the goods. With a trip of this length, we have plenty of leeway with our options and we're going to give this big tuna fishing another full day before we decide to exercise those options. The weather is nice, the folks are in good spirits, and we're going to forget about today and focus on tomorrow. Wish us luck. Good night. Richie and Crew. Friday, December 3rd, 2010 Good evening everyone. The Polaris Supreme is just hours away from "The Promise Land" and we're currently attempting to catch a few Humboldt squid to use for tomorrow's kite baits. So far, no luck, but we'll give it a couple more shots this evening before we put the blinders on and head for the big fish area. In less than 8 hours we will be there and we'll try our hand at fishing for giant yellowfin tuna. We're pumped. As for our activities today, we put the finishing touches on our tackle in flat calm weather as we continued on our southerly trek. It's been smooth sailing all day and after lunch, the gang took the opportunity to read books, get sun tans, and just take it easy before the game of big tuna fishing begins. An emollient day for us onboard the Supreme and like I said before, we're just a wake up away from hopefully being embattled with large tunas. The reports still sound the same from the past couple of days from the boats already fishing the area. Not great numbers but the sign is there and we're hoping that our timing will be just right for the switch to turn on and have a repeat of the fishing we had last trip. We're excited and we'll check back with you tomorrow. Wish us luck, wish us luck, and wish us luck. Bye now. Richie and Crew. December 2nd, 2010 Greetings everyone. Standard travel day for us here on the Supreme. We awoke to gorgeous weather conditions, enjoyed some flapjacks for breakfast, and immediately after, we dove into our tackle seminars. With a strong emphasis on sticking with the right gear, how to conduct yourself during the fight, and going through all almost every situation one could be faced with while doing battle with giant yellowfin, we left the galley and the gang got down to business rigging tackle. The wide range of tackle we employ on a trip of this nature makes today an all day affair of making sure our gear is ready to go and in working order. Thinking about it as I type, I'd like to share with you all of the species that we target on a trip like this. Squid, Mackerel, Calico Bass, Yellowtail, Dorado, Wahoo, Grouper, Pargo, and Yellowfin tuna from 25 - 379.8+ lbs. are just a few to name. From our 25 lb. outfits used to make bait and everything in between, all the way up to out 100-130 lb. rigs for tackling giants, must be properly assembled and ready to go at a moments notice. Harnesses are properly fitted, hooks must be properly crimped, and spectra to mono/fluorocarbon connections are tied with NASA-like precision. Bottom line, I could type out a few paragraphs about what goes into a day like today but the long and short of it, there are a lot of elements that go into getting ready to begin fishing on a trip like this. Tomorrow, the gang will put the finishing touches on their gear, the crew will continue making sixty-plus double sardine leaders for the kite, and maybe, just maybe we will wet a line for a little bit to break up the travel time before we arrive at the big fish grounds on Saturday morning. On an ending note to our travel day, we've had near glass-calm sea conditions all day, sunshine, and a light breeze. With that being said, it was one of the most beautiful days of the year on the water and this evening's sunset was the icing on the cake. The scene reminded me of a painting that Bob Ross would create on the Saturday morning PBS programming from back in the day. So that's all. We're almost there and the reports once again sound OK from the area. Take care now and we'll inform you of our doings tomorrow evening. Bye-bye. Richie and Crew. Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 Good evening folks and a happy December to all of you. Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, all of us did, but now we're back at it as we departed this morning for an 11 day excursion. Our bait loading went smooth and our arsenal of bait is topped off and ready to go. Quite the hodgepodge of bait too; small, medium, and large sardines mixed with some small to medium mackerel. As of now our bait is happy and we hope the trend continues as we motor to greater points south. The fishing reports sound OK from the area. Not great numbers but the chance to land a 400lb yellowfin tuna is becoming more and more of a reality. Rumor has it that one of our code boats has a fish that is very, VERY close to the magic number. We'll see just how close it is in a few days when they arrive home. Anyhow, that is our story. Our weather is beautiful and tomorrow we will begin tackle seminars, tackle preparations, and some more travel time. It's good to be back and we'll check in tomorrow evening. Richie and Crew.

One stop made our day on the Imperial Sprinkler Private charter. 45 yellowfin 14 yellowtail.

Aug. 8
    I  was told second hand today that my reports make it sound like fishing was less good than it actually was and I have to say that I totaly agree.  I have sat at home in the past and reminessed by reading some of my past reports and have thought to myself how much better that perticular day actually was than I was reading so I will try and be more accurate with my reports starting with today.  As I write this we have just departed from a 2+ hour drift on the bigguns so I'm still pumped.  Take a journey with me.

    We started off our morning drifting in flat calm conditions which it remained for the rest of the day.  We fired up after daylight and didn't find much to work with for a few hours but mid morning we started stringing some stops together on the yellowfin tunas for a couple of hours before they went down for pretty much the rest of the day minus a couple stops mid afternoon.  In between that after lunch we bumped into a couple big balls of dorado.  That's something we haven't seen yet this year.  They were a bit on the smaller size for the most part but they were still fun to watch and catch.  Most of them were the size that's to big to bounce over the rail without a gaff but small enough to make it very difficult to gaff so we lost our fair share.  Mostly guys grabbing the line trying to swing it over on there own.

    After around 4 oclock we were getting low on bait and decided to use the remainder of it trying to catch bluefin tuna.  Things were looking grim for us after a couple hours driving around in the zone without seeing much but around 6:30 things got nasty.  My sonar made that beautiful sound the says fish fish fish with every pulse and then it was drifting for a few hours and hooking for 2.  I'm not sure how many of the 60-90 pound maybe a few over 100 pound beasts we hooked but I can tell you we landed 13 of them and when you land that many you usually lose that many too. I watched one gentleman get spooled instantly on 50 pound test.  Instantly.  I watched that same angler later land one on 60 pound test. Everyone on board had their chance at a biggun this evening and half the boat did get one.  

    We're headed for the dock now and we'll be there tomorrow around the 0700 hour.  We'll have a busy little turn around but we'll get the job done.  We always do.  See you later from the wheel house of the Polaris Supreme.
                                

14 yellowtail 62 calico bass 3 barracuda. Nice weather and steady picking.

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Hi friends and happy August to all of you. Our ride last night was a little bit sloppy and we made horrible speed but we checked out a couple of coastal spots anyways. They were dry but we gave it a look and the call was made to break down the gear for the final clean-up. Throughout the day, our ride progressively changed for the better but as of 1900 hours this evening, we're bouncing around a little bit. Nonetheless, the gang are downstairs enjoying their final meal aboard the 2011 Tom Chaparro/Stern Hogs five day trip. We're still making less than normal speed and we'll hopefully make up some speed up the line so that we arrive to Fisherman's Landing on-time tomorrow morning at 0700 hours.

For this evening's report, we'd like to shine the spotlight on Tom Chaparro. As I said last night, this year was his fourteenth year chartering the Polaris Supreme and for the last five years that I've been involved with the Supreme, I feel that I can sum up Tom pretty well and it's pretty simple - Tom Chaparro is the man. Not only being an outstanding fisherman, Tom makes sure that everyone on-board his trip has a great time and does it the right way, the Polaris Supreme way and nobody knows that way better than Tom. It's just Tom's vibe that makes his trip special. Yes, he wants to catch fish more than anybody on the vessel but he still wants people to do things the right way and have an outstanding time. Tom makes you feel like you've been riding his charter since day one, he gives you the respect that he wants back in return and in this day, that is hard to find in some people. Most of Tom's charters are familiar faces year in and year out, and that is a tell-tale sign of Tom's desire for fishing and his desire to make sure that everyone on-board is happy. I could go on for paragraphs about Tom but all I can say is come find out for yourself. His sister Mary is one of the sweetest people you could meet and we were sorry that Tom's son, Thomas, couldn't make it this year. Get well man and we'll see you next year.

So that's all. It's dinner time and like I said, we're trying for a 0700 ETA. Tomorrow, the gang will be departing on the Prigmore four day adventure so look for Tommy's reports to continue tomorrow evening. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

Hi friends. We completed our tour of Yellowtail Land this evening the same way that we started this morning by landing a couple of lunkers in the 30 lb. range. Our time in the middle of our day was spent chasing breezers and color spots of Yellowtail with decent success and the size of these fish wasn't bad either with most being in the 15-18 lb. class. We would occasionally hook them on the surface jig's and yo-yo iron's but it was mostly a bait fishery. Fly-lined sardines on 30 lb. test was working with great success and our two days down here at the Yellowtail Grounds was a fine stay once again. Our weather today was awesome with the exception of a little afternoon breeze and the weather we're currently in now as I type this report. We're rockin' and rollin' up the line and depending on our speed, we'll see if we can get a couple hours of coastal fishing time in tomorrow. We'll see.

After Chef Schooler kicked out a Yellowtail dinner with his Polaris Supreme famous lemon-butter-caper sauce, charter-master Tom Chaparro extended his gratitude for 14 years of quality service by teaming up with Herb Yamanaka and presenting the crew with some of Herb's handmade exotic mahogany bowls/pepper grinders and University of Oregon merchandise. We say thank you to Tom and also a big thanks goes out to Herb. Herb normally fishes on Lon Mikkelsen's Ocean Tackle Research ten day trip in the fall but decided to hop on with Mr. Chaparro and his exceptional group. Herb took countless hours of footage on last year's ten day and made an awesome video from last year's OTR trip that is currently on our website and Herb is flat-out one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and we issue many thanks to him. He also tells Donna that he loves you and go Ducks.

Also, Joe Gigliotti, who has been riding with Tom since the beginning of his charter, has an Accurate sponsored 8-day trip leaving October 15th returning October 23rd, limited to 20 anglers, and he's informed me that there are some openings on it. This time slot is prime time Alijos Rocks and Ridge fishing for tuna and wahoo and Joe will have plenty of goodies to hand out as well. Joe is a super cool cat and if you'd like to come join up with him and Accurate, give Susan a call at 619-390-7890 and let's get in on some limited load, early Fall action at it's finest.

So that is all. As I've said before, our weather isn't ideal but we're doing just fine and not rollin' around too much. We'll hopefully get in some fishing time tomorrow and we'll check in with you tomorrow as well. Wish us luck and have a great start to the work week.

-Team Supreme-

Saturday, July 30th, 2011

Hey folks. Yellowtail fishing was limits today on The Polaris Supreme. We a steller start in the morning a lull to allow everyone a chance to get rested Then back at it in the afternoon. There wasn't a whole lot of times during the day that we weren't pulling on 'tails. Our grade of fish is still very nice with a few 40 pounders to round out our day in style. We caught them using all of the methods that we employ while fishing for Yellowtail and we're hoping for a repeat tomorrow, at the least. We're hanging out in the "premium zone" where we'll hope for a some big ones in the morning. That is our plan for now, Chappy and the gang are having a simply splendid time, and Garth Kubeldis is currently in the lead for the Lizard-fish jackpot (woo-hoo). We're enjoying the goregous weather and we'll be giving it a go bright and early tomorrow morning. Wish us luck and we'll chat with y'all tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Hi friends. Windy offshore conditions made for a tough day but we managed to piece together a couple stops for Bluefin, Yellowfin, Yellowtail, and a couple handful's of Dorado as well. With the kelp paddy scene starting to take shape, we're excited about future ventures down this way. Throughout the day, we continued our southerly trek down to the Yellowtail grounds and we'll be fishing before the sun even rises. As a matter of fact, as of 0458 this morning, Chappy has already boated two 'tails on the dropper loop. We're off to a good start. Wish us luck and happy Friday.

-Team Supreme-

P.S. To Donna - Herb says he loves and misses you and I say - Hello Donna. The Oak floors are going to look marvelous, keep up the good work! Take care.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Good evening friends. We arrived at 0700 this morning to unload the Costello group and their catch of beautiful Yellowtail, Bluefin, Yellowfin, Calico Bass, Vermilion Rockfish, Lingcod, and the token White Seabass. Once our turn-around chores were completed, we brought aboard Tom and Mary Chaparro for their annual Stern Hogs five day limited load charter. They've brought along quite a few familiar faces with them, except they forgot "Little Chappy", but we're looking forward to catching up with the crew on-board and catching fish. Our bait is looking OK and we'll be monitoring the situation overnight to ensure that we have healthy bait. When all of the loading, eating, rigging, napping, and seminars were complete, the gang feasted on Prime Rib and hit the racks to prepare for the activities we have planned for them tomorrow.

For tomorrow, we'll be giving the offshore scene a try with the hopes of locating some Yellowfin and Bluefin. If a kelp paddy happens to pop up, we'll try those too as there has been some kelps kicking out some nice Yellowtail. So that is our plan, the weather is quite nice, and we'll get things rolling tomorrow morning. Wish us luck.

-Team Supreme-

Nice grade of Yellowtail on kelps, with really good sign of Tuna that were hard to catch. Also more Dorado showing on kelps, but the 2 we hooked, found their freedom.