hartwell Fishing Report 2024

Just returned from our Beck, Wagstaff, Emerson charter. 

A 7 day trip filled with a great variety! From Yellowtail, Wahoo, Tuna and even Grouper mixed in! 

Thank you guys for putting together a great a great trip! Look forward to next year!

Skipper Tom Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme after a five-day Stern Hog Chartered trip. The boat's 18 anglers got off at Fisherman's Landing August 8. Chartermaster Tom Chaparro, of San Clemente recalled one offshore stop that produced almost a hundred fish.
"It wasn't even that big of a kelp," said Chaparro. "But it was full of dorado and yellowtail. We had a great time, a good group of guys. This is our ninth year chartering this trip." Ron Rose, of Jacksonville FL took first place with a 31.8-pound yellowtail. Ron used a 3/0 Eagle Claw hook on 30-pound P-Line, a Pflueger Reel and a Calstar 970 rod.

Rich Vandenoord of La Jolla was second with a 30.6-pound yellowtail, and Pat Kennedy of San Francisco was third, for a 30.4-pound yellowtail.
"We had great quality yellowtail at Cedros," said Skipper Rothery, "and one real nice white sea bass. We had that one big kelp bite yesterday, and the tuna are around but they're not bitin'."

6 stops worth of picking and scratching accounted for 69 Yellowfin Tuna, 18 Dorado, 57 Skipjack Tuna and 147 Yellowtail. A 20 lb bait rod and a 40 lb bait rod is all you need.

July 17
    Our morning started off hot.  We had some very good tailing for about 1 1/2 hours on the 16-22 pound grade.  We managed to get a few fish per rod in that amount of time frame before things went dead around 8:30.  It's OK, we were expecting that.  We stuck with the plan and looked for yellowfin after that and it wasn't long before we connected.  We had 2 good stops and one great stop on the yellowfin tunas and scattered small stops the rest of the day.  They were a bit on the small side but that's what's around here so we fished them.  After that we drove out of the zone to put ourselves in position for tomorrow and didn't catch much the rest of the day.

    We'll be tailing it again tomorrow looking for the bigguns down below first thing in the morning.  The weather this morning was great.  It got a little windy in the afternoon but it was OK.
                                

 

Sept. 14

Umm, hmm. Not sure how today was. Well, we never saw a school of fish today but we did catch fish all day long for the most part. I look over at the chart table at my fish count and it looks pretty good. Just short stops all day long for tuna and dorado. Never drove for too long before stopping the boat on fish so the day wasn't great but it could've been a lot worse. Everyone on board had a great time today and caught there share of fish so I have to say that it was a success. An absolute fun, great group of guys for myself and the crew. My first time with Brad and his group and I have to say they were great. Thanks guys, let's do it again. The weather was fine today. A little breezy but comfortable none the less. We'll be at the dock tomorrow bright and early to make a quick turn around on an 8 day trip.

 

I hope this post finds everyone well. I just had a party of three cancel on Augusts two day trip. Aug. 19-20 Leave Aug 18 @9:00pm. 20 People for $515.00. If you are interested please contact the chartermaster of the trip, Allen Cheriton at 714 379-1140 ext. 225.

11 Yellowfin & 145 Yellowtail. Steady November kelping, plenty of action.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Hi friends. We enjoyed a nice ride up the line last night and found ourselves in a position to do some rock cod drifts for a couple of hours this morning and we added some color to our fish holds by tagging some quality lingcods and reds. After a couple hours of codding, we busted a move offshore for the remainder of the day and found a few kelp paddies holding some nice Yellowtail and one had some Dorado swimming around on it. No great numbers but the fish we did capture were quality kelp paddy species. We had gorgeous weather all day by means of a flat ocean and sunny skies. It would've been nice to add some tuna to the mix but we're happy with our outcome as a whole.

So that's it. Chef Schooler kicked out a Fillet Oscar (Fillet Mignon topped with crab meat and Hollandaise sauce) dinner and the gang enjoyed the ride up. Our gratitude goes out to Mark Costello and the gang for being a superb group to have on-board and we'll see you in the future. Our ETA tomorrow is around 0700 in the morning and we'll be turning around and welcoming aboard Chappy and friends for another five day. We'll chat with you tomorrow after the turn-around. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Hi friends. Pretty much a repeat report from yesterday. Very good fishing on 18-25 lb. Yellowtail from 0730 this morning until around noon and then it shut off as did the current. We went looking around and found a couple deals of Yellows and added a few more to our count. With that said, we're finished with the Yellowtail area and we're motoring up the line to gain some latitude and finish up our trip tomorrow a little closer to home. There's not much to report other than the fishing has been outstanding for the past two mornings on quality 'tails and we're sitting fat and happy with our totals.

So that's it. Our weather is lovely and I'm sorry I don't have an awesome, wordy report to give to you. It's just been good fishing, good weather, and good people. Not much more to it. Pretty simple, just the way we like it. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Hello friends. Yellowtail fishing was top notch for us on the Supreme this morning. It started off on the drift for a few quality 'tails and a 45 lb. White Seabass landed by Trampas Costello. We decided to get the anchor down and once we got 'er hung, it was a steady pick on 18-25 lb. fish all the way until after lunch. Really a beautiful grade of fish and we couldn't be happier with our morning score. Once we lost our conditions, we pulled anchor and searched around for a while before we settled back into our "cow zone" and managed to hook a few and land a couple fish in the 35 lb. class before the sunset. Today was a great day of catching quality Yellowtail in the Baja sunshine and we'll be doing it again tomorrow, hoping for the same success. We're currently in the hot night-bite zone, hoping for a bunch more of those gorgeous Seabass and maybe a Yellowtail or two, we'll see. Wish us luck and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

P.S. Leslie - Steve says hi and instead of a cruise, you two are coming out here next year.

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Good evening everyone. Overall, today was a slow day but we did manage to catch some fish and we didn't go very long without seeing a spot of jumpers, hooking up on the troll, or stopping on a kelp. We caught a few 12 lb. Bluefin and managed to troll up a handful of 15-22 lb. Yellowfin tuna. All throughout the day, we saw Bluefin boilers until the late afternoon when we lost our water conditions so that's an encouraging sign to see so much fish spread out for miles and miles. Same story today for the fleet, slow fishing for most with the exception of a few token vessels getting lucky. One of these days, we'll be the lucky ones.

Although we saw a good amount of life, today was too slow of a pace to keep us around so we're making a move to do some Yellowtail fishing. We'll be there tomorrow morning, our weather is very favorable, and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

Hi friends. The seas are calm, the skies are clear, and the Supreme is back on the path after dropping off Paul Hess's group and picking up Mark Costello and his closest friends. We're loaded up a good supply of bait and when I say loaded, I mean loaded. We'll be giving the Bluefin area a check first thing in the morning as it sounds like that fishing out there is starting to take shape. It sounds like the lucky boats are getting a little bit luckier and the unlucky boats are still gathering up a few to boot. We'll be there to find out tomorrow and we'll make a decision on our next plan based on our morning. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-