maitland river Fishing Report 2024

July 5
    Good evening everyone.  It's evening where I am right now anyway.  It may not be when you read this.  We left on a 6 day this morning.  We stopped to get bait and yes, there is still a shortage of sardine.  We got about 30 scoops of jumbo sardine mixed with all size mackerel.  Then we took a couple scoops of beautiful looking anchovy.  We skipped the sardine seminar and concentrated on an anchovy seminar.  The lost art.  20# test, # 2 hook.  Finess fishing.  When you find out how good of a fisherman you really are.  That's what the tuna are feeding on around here so they'll hit them fine if it's presented right.

    We'll be hunting tuna tomorrow first thing and we'll take it from there.  The weather now is stellar but they're forecasting some wind tomorrow afternoon.  We hope they're wrong.
                                    

 

Aug. 27-28

Here's a 2 dayer for you all. I forgot to write yesterday's report due to my enthusiasm not being crazy high about it. So we fished in these bluefin grounds all day yesterday and for a few hours in the morning today for not much. Yesterday we were seeing sign of fish around. We didn't see any schools driving around but we'd get a meter mark and stop the boat and after a while we'd see a handful or two sometimes more come under the boat and sometimes we would get a few and other times we wouldn't but at that rate the final tally wasn't anything to write home about so that's probably why I didn't. Today wasn't better. I can't say we ever saw a fish even on the machines. We looked through the traditional area early for nothing then went that way for a while then we turned that way for a while and then we turned that way for a while and then we called it a trip. It means nothing for future trips the way this bluefin is. Tomorrow can be wide open. A hell of a trip anyways if you've been reading you'd know it. The boats clean and everyone on board is stuffed and rested. We'll be getting in at 6:00 in the am tomorrow and then we're departing on the 9 day! I'm really looking forward to it. Getting out of this cool August offshore weather and into the warm wahooey weather. As Joe Beck would say, "yeah baby". Thanks to everyone on board and shame on those who were thinking about making it but didn't. You missed the best bluefin bite you've probably ever seen. Drew

Captain Ray Montera took out 39 anglers today. Final fish count for the day was 6 lingcod 4 sheephead 80 red rockcod and full Mexican limits of rockfish. If you enjoy bottom fishing this is definitely the time for you. As soon as the yellowtail show up the rock fishing will take a back seat.

176 yellowfin tuna 2 skipjack tuna. Finesse bait gear has proven to be very important. Today’s high liners were fishing 15&20 lb and #4 & #2 live bait hooks. Keep a 40 lb rod nearby because we have had some short windows of aggressive fish.

Capt Ryan called in from the San Diego a 3/4 day, we are still fishing offshore and the fishing hass been great. We depart at 5:30am and we have been averaging from 50 to 140 Yellowfin Tuna per trip, our slowest day this week was 46 Yellowfin and today we had 69 Yellowfin and 150 Skipjack. Yesterday we had 136 Yellowfin, we will continue everyday as long as the fishing stays good. There is plenty of warm water around and it looks like it will be here for a while, so we will continue offshore for a while. There is plenty of good fishing when you find the right kelp, trips run $145 per angler and we depart everyday at 5:30am. Come on down and get in on the action.

Friday, July 27th, 2012

Hi friends. Short report this evening as the weather is up once again. We checked out a different zone today and were only rewarded with a few fish for our efforts. We feel that the weather is jacking things up and once it backs off, the water structures will form again and we'll get back to business. Anyhow, like I said, our weather is sloppy but everyone is taking it fine and enjoying their dinner. We'll arrive back to the docks tomorrow morning and our ETA is looking like around 0630 hours. We'll brief you tomorrow and give you a trip wrap-up. Take care.

We departed today on Larry Brown's annual 10-day trip with 22 fine anglers. Most are repeats as they join Larry each year, but we are delighted to have a couple of new comers. We are in good weather and are happy to be driving out of the sooty smoky air. The group is excited after seeing Drew's great catch from the last trip. He had Dorado, Wahoo, those big cow Yellowtail and some Yellowfin with the jackpot weighing in at 160 lbs.! We are also getting reports that fish are moving in a new area and want to bite. This is all good news. So I will close for now as we get ready for dinner of filet and lobster with vegetables and a baked potato. Thanks for checking in and we'll update again tomorrow.

Out with a light load last night so, Captain Shane decided to go fish for Big Bluefin. As of 5 pm, they had 12 Bluefin on board, most 80-140 pounds, 2 at 180 and a 315! Pictured below is regular Shane wrightson with a limit of Bluefin, one at 180 pounds and one at 315. Captain Shane can catch fish, but may need to work on his picture taking