johnson lake Fishing Report 2025

Wednesday, April 24th, 2012

Hi friends. Starting off the day, we were expecting rain if not when we woke up but for sure around the mid-morning time. Captain Drew told me to expect work at 0700 hours this morning and that he would call me if he was going to call off the day. At about 0615 hours, my phone rang and when I saw that my phone read "Incoming call: Drew Henderson", I nearly trampled my girlfriend to reach for the phone and hear those beautiful words of "don't come to work today". Well, Drew being the awesome boss that he is just wanted to remind me that work was still on. Disappointed is an understatement. He specifically said that he would only call to let me know that we were NOT to come into work. I reluctantly suited up for work, still a little peeved that my vision of sleeping in and an all-day couch marathon was switched back to 7-11 coffee, 5-hour energies, and arthritic hands by days end.

Now some of you might be asking "Richie. Why so grumpy about going to work?" Well, after Tuesday's primer coat application, the primer creates what is called "orange peel".The entire hull looks like a giant, white orange peel and to rid ourselves of this orange peel, what must one do to smooth it out and get prepped for the final gloss coat? If you guessed "more sanding" then yes, you are correct. From 0700 until 1630 hours on Wednesday, we had to re-sand the entire boat with 220-grit sand paper to smooth everything out. Oh, how could I forget? We did all of this under beautiful, sunny skies. That weatherman is not our friend at the moment. He was wrong about the Wednesday morning/afternoon rain but he was correct about the rainfall on Wednesday evening in San Diego.

So here it is, Thursday morning and work was called off not only because of the rain but also to relieve sore, aching muscles as the constant use of both vibrating and orbital sanders took it's toll on Drew, Jed, Mark, Tommie, Jamie and myself from yesterday and we were given the day off. Thanks, Drew.

In all seriousness, there is a silver lining to all of my complaining of long days and sore bodies. All of the hard work that we put into the boat doesn't go un-noticed when we take a look at the boat right before the first trip of the season. The boat will look stunning and it will be a pleasure to keep her maintained throughout the years. When we have to put on our sunglasses to even stare at the hull and when you see your reflection perfectly in the boat, it's sweet justice to put so much time and effort into a project and to have it come out looking so beautiful. We can't wait to see how everyone will react when they first lay eyes on the new and improved Polaris Supreme.

Anyhow, I had some time to type out a nice, long report on our day off today. Weather permitting, we'll be back at it tomorrow to finish some touch-up sanding as we get ready for the final application of the gloss coat which probably will be scheduled for either Friday or Monday. We'll chat with you tomorrow and let you know how our day went.

-Richie & Team Supreme-

P.S. Sorry about no pictures lately. There really hasn't been anything picture-worthy in the past couple of days and the pictures I would've shot, you've seen before: all of us with sanders in our hands, gloves on, respirator masks, safety glasses and looking like giant powdered donuts. I'll send some shots with the completion of the gloss coat.

Aug. 10
    Well, I can't say we caught very much today.  I can say we saw plenty of schools, we just couldn't get more then one of them to bite and on that school we caught one 70 pounder.  I'm thinking we saw about a dozen schools of tuna today but like I said, it was the wrong day for biting fish in these grounds.  The weather though today, man o man is it nice out here so at least we got to look at non biting fish in good weather.

    In other fishing news we got the word from the higher ups that Mexico has lifted the ban on recreational bluefin tuna catching and keeping so with that news we're going to roll on down into some traditional Mexican bluefin tuna grounds and give that a go tomorrow.  We'll be looking for yellowfin tuna as well tomorrow.  We've heard they"re in the area too.  Wish us luck.
                            

 

Captain Andrew Viola checked I with a wrap-up from the Pacifica out of Seaforth Sportfishing.  Our first trip was a success..  We had a mix of Bluefin and Yellowfin Tuna.  Including action on 50 pound Bluefin Tuna. We did have a few bigger models too.

We are happy to be back at it and we look forward to fishing with you this Summer.

Aug. 15
 Our day sort of reversed from yesterday.  Today it was a super slow morning that led into an action packed afternoon.  We looked for bluefin tuna this morning.  We started off in the zone where it had been in the weeks prior, but like yesterday, it wasn't around.  We caught one 12 pounder on the troll all morning.  We looked around there and in other places I thought it might have gone but we never saw an meat.  We went through one area where at least we were seeing little dabs of the BF but it was diving off on the meter.  We could tell it didn't want it.

 So we kept tracking around and ended up close to a possible yellowtail honey hole. So we took a look and that's exactly what it was.  For the rest of the afternoon till dark we stayed pretty steady on 12-25+ pound yellers.  It was good fishing.  A very pleasant surprise.  We're keeping this ball rolling.

 Needless to say, well maybe not needless, but we're going to spend the night here and see what this place looks like in the morning.
    

Another slow day at the islands coupled with a great catch from our code boat Liberty has resulted in us switching our run back to offshore fishing. November is the new September, Viva El Niño

Captain Ryan Bostian called in with a Coronado Islands Yellowtail update from The San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing. The fishing has been phenomenal. Today we had 45 passengers catch 195 Yellowtail. They are biting Surface Iron, Yo-yo Jigs, and Fly-lined sardines. We are fishing everyday. You will need your passport to go fishing at the Coronado Islands. We have had some great scores the past few days and conditions are HOT!

Hello everyone We are wrapping up our Beck, Wagstaf and Emerson and Friends 5 day trip today. This trip the Joe Beck, Mal Wagstaf and Emerson and friends charters joined forces on this summer time five day trip. We had some great fishing on some great quality yellowtail. Most of the fish were well into the 25 lb class with some pushing 30lbs. The fish were up high and very surface oriented. They were being hooked on the fly line sardine and surface iron. It doesn't get much better than yellows boiling around the boat and chewing on the surface iron. We had very few small fish mixed in with these biting yellows, the vast majority were great quality fish. It was a great relief getting into these big biting fish after a few trying trips with tough conditions. The next leg of our trip was spent offshore and lead to fantastic kelp patty fishing. The kelps we found had great sized yellows on them school size tuna and also some trophy Dorado. We were able to top off our yellowtail count and mix it up with some Dorado and tuna as well. The water was blue, the fish were biting, and the weather was flat calm. Everything one would ask for during an offshore fishing day. We Depart on our Steele 5 day charter tomorrow Wish us luck, team Supreme

Owner skipper Tommy Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme August 28 after a five-day Bob Vance charter. The boat's 24 passengers saw a great night-bite at Cedros Island. "We had great fishing at the islands," reported Rothery at Fisherman's Landing. "Good quality yellowtail throughout, and we found some nice yellowfin up to 40-pounds." Steve Pistone of West Hills won first place with a 49.4-pound Benitos yellowtail. Steve fished a ‚Дтdine on a 4/0 Owner Gorilla hook, 30-pound Ande line, a Pro Gear Albacore Special reel and a custom jig stick rod. "I was amazed," Pistone admitted. "I never would have thought he was going to be that big. It was only a 10-minute fight, not long at all. My daughter probably would have got jackpot at Guadalupe, but the shark took a chunk out of her tuna." Chris Mohs of Ventura was second for a 40.4-pound yellowfin, and Kub Ito of Harbor City took third for a 38-pound yellowfin. The Supreme will be heading out on a nine-day charter today, said Rothery.