lake michigan salmon Fishing Report 2024

Great day heading up! Today we were able to find some Yellowtail to pull on. Good fish around, however it seemed that the water was a little too cold for them to bite good. Will be prospecting off shore tomorrow. We have a 1.5 day departing this Friday that still has openings. Perfect weekend trip to not miss work!

~~Aug 2
 Today was a bit on the slower side.  Until the end but I'll get to that.  We woke up in hopes of getting a sea bass bite going but that was only a fairy tale.  We got a few yellows is all.  After, we made some grouper drifts and caught some more of those Broomtail Groupers.  Something like 4 or 5 of them along with some calico bass and yellows while we drifted along.  And for the rest of the day we pretty much hung out in the lee of the island and drifted here and there and caught a handful of yellowtail here and there.

 Like I said, we fished the lee today.  No wind for us.  It was lovely.  We had plans for dinner at 7:30, so at 7:00 i hopped in the shower to get cleaned up because I was serving, and while I was in there, I heard some cheering, and then again some hooting and hollering hen I was getting out.  It turns out the first round of cheers came because of a nice sea bass they brought in.  The second was for a yellowfin tuna that was landed.  I went down and got the tables set and while I was doing this they kept catching yellowtail, tuna and seabass.  After we made first call we had a whopping 1 person come in to eat.  Team galley understood though.  We knew that there may possibly be no fishing time for the next day due to bad weather running up the line.  So we kept catching fish and one by one, passengers would come in and scarf down some dinner, which was a lovely meatloaf that was fantastic, and then go back out and catch some more fish. 

 This lasted until after 9:00 and then we took off.  We ended the stop with 30 yellowtail, 5 white seabass up to about 40 pounds, and something like 6 or 7 on the tunas. We prepared the deck for a rough ride home, and set sail toward the beach  to try and improve our conditions.  The swells always less on the coast rather than offshore.  I doubt we'll have any time to fish tomorrow.  Travel day.
      

14 Anglers, 23 Yellowtail, 47 Bonito.  Tomorrow’s trip (Nov 13) has been cancelled due to lack of reservations.

Skipper JJ Gerritsen returned with his Apollo to Fisherman's Landing November 21, after an eight-day, ultra-limited trip. The boat's ten passengers fished Guadalupe Island before taking off for Magdalena Bay to fish big tuna on their final day. "All of our long range trips are ultra-limited," said JJ. "It takes away competition factors, we won't do more than ten passengers. We got limits of yellowfin, Guadalupe's been great our last six trips, but we did something different this time; we headed out for a shot at these big ones. All of our fish are kept in refrigerated saltwater, so they still look great." Matt Bowland of Encinitas took home the best tuna; a 224-pound yellowfin that fought "long and hard." Matt used a 6/0 Owner ringed Super Mutu hook, on an 80-pound P-Line topshot, 100-pound Spectra, a Tiagra 30 reel and a Calstar Grafighter 765 H rod. "I butt-hooked the sardine," said Matt. "The fight lasted two and a half hours." Drew Card of San Diego was second with a 196-pound tuna, and Craig Biddick of Rancho Santa Fe was third for a 164-pounder.

STELLAR BLUEFIN ACTION!!! APOLLO on an overnight trip with 18 anglers 90 Bluefin Tuna and 4 Albacore. Really Really great trip. Plan your next trip with Capt. JJ for another stellar trip. Call FISHERMAN'S LANDING at (619)221-8500 for more info and reservations.

In addition to the great Wahoo fishing last trip JJ was able to sneak a whole skipjack down below then to pull out this nice Grouper! Hell ya JJ!

Wow! What a fish. #214 Bluefin. Landed in less than an hour. Accurate Valiant 1000 and Shimano Rail Rod on #100. Dead Flyer. Had a few Yellowtail and a Yellowfin as well. 

The wahoo fishing has greatly diminished. Since we have plenty on board, we decided to take off to the tuna grounds where the reports have been good. We should be there in 48 hours. Weather is sloppy, choppy.

Tommy and crew