lower illinois river Fishing Report 2025

TERRIFIC FISHING WITH CAPT JJ!!!!! APOLLO had 25 anglers on an overnite trip catch 7 White Seabass(up to 45 lbs),1 Yellowtail(25 lbs), 1 Halibut(18 lbs) & 230 Rockfish. They'll be going out again tonight. Call now for your reservation on their available trip at Sea Landing @ (805)963-3564

Tom Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme at fisherman's Landing October 13 after an eight-day trip with 22 anglers.

"We had another fantastic day fishing the 30 lb. class tuna," he wrote Friday, October 10. "Our weather is beautiful. We are going to finish up our trip with some yellowtail fishing before heading home. The guys are having a great time. We've had good fishing, good company and good food. And on that last note, for dinner we had a really good honey dijon mustard crusted wahoo. Just superb. Our next trip is full but if you have some time our 10-day with Larry Brown on Oct. 25 still has some open spots. He has over 15 sponsors for many freebies and raffles. Give Susan a call in the office, at 619-390-7890."

Rothery reported water temps along The Ridge as 79 to 84 degrees, and 72 degrees at Alijos Rocks. He stayed just a day at The Rocks, without seeing much sign of tuna that wanted to bite.

"The Ridge was excellent for dorado, yellowfin and yellowtail. We got off the high spots and off floating kelps," he said.

Two brothers, Scott and Neil Langlois of Rancho Cucamonga, showed off a typical dorado and a wahoo.

Kevin Veal of Huntington Harbor won first place for a 37-pound wahoo that ate his Tady 45 jig in a new green/gold combination. He said he fished with 40-pound P-Line, an Accurate B2 870 reel and a Seeker CBJ 100F.

Steven Belardes was second for a 36-pound wahoo, and chartermaster LeRoy Balardes won third place for a 31.6-pound yellowfin tuna.

Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing August 26 under Drew Henderson's hand. The 24 anglers aboard had been fishing for five days, most of them at Guadalupe Island, where quality yellowfin tuna and yellowtail were caught. Matt Wheaton of Laguna Beach won first place, for a 57.8-pound tuna. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 3/0 Mustad hook and 40-pound Izorline. He used a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar 700 H rod. Alan Romspert of Fullerton caught a 56.8-pound tuna, and tied for second place with Bruce Chisholm of Temecula. Floyd Spangler of Anaheim stood in with the winners in a lineup shot with his 35-pound yellowtail.

July 10

Slow day in the long range tuna grounds today. It didn't take long after day light to find what we were looking for as far as bird life and dolphin life goes and it was in the area that we fished on the way down and did well and where other boats had done well too in the past few days but this action had been in the afternoon and we were there first light. Things hadn't gotten with it yet. The fish weren't there. We couldn't wait for the afternoon due to us needing to be in San Diego tomorrow so we had to keep her rolling. We saw nothing else for 30 miles other then a few jig strikes for a bakers dozen. We bumped into some common dolphin around lunch time and we caught some tuna with them but it was short lived. The dolphin were being mean and not cooperating. We did nothing after that and called the trip at 3:00 in the afternoon.

The weather was choppy first thing, then smoothed out until around 2:00 and got choppy again. We're having your average rough ride home. It will be a good test for all the bolt holes from antennas that we took off and replaced. No water dripping in the wheel house yet. I think we're good.

We'll be getting in tomorrow at 7:30 in the morning and we'll be turning around for 5. See ya later.

Hello Everyone, We had a nice start to our Pat Shima 5 day. A exciting evening shooter on these 15-20 lb yellowfin. They seem to bite very softly. We made some adjustments and will be ready for tomorrow. Will report again in the morning, Team Supreme

117 yellowfin 47 dorado. Beautiful weather and biting fish.

Just another day in Paradise herding a few up. Good job Jay for putting the boys on them again! #supercows #phenixrods #unitedcomposites #seeker #apollocharters

Capt Mike Pritchard from the Tribute gave us an on the water update for this morning, they are off to a great start. So far they have 12 Yellowtail from 12 to 18 pounds and 2 Bluefin Tuna around the 40 pound each and this before 7am. We ended yesterday in this area with some good fishing, hopefully today will be more of the same we have high hopes. We will check back in later.