mallacoota Fishing Report 2025

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July 11
 The morning started off so promisingly. We had plans to haul butt down to the lower grounds where there had been some good kelping but we got stopped short. The setup was epic. We had a 1-2 degree water temp break, and we were instantly catching fish. They were mostly small yellowfin. There was a sprinkling of 15-20+ pound tuna in there but most were throwbacks. But it felt like the school of straight bigs was right off the bow. We found a nice kelp and caught a dozen nice yellows and some more of that small tuna with a sprinkle, and again, we felt like it was soon coming. It never came. We stayed very busy but unfortunately it was mostly that throwback yellowfin. Eventually we gave up on what we thought was our honey hole and we never found much else the rest of the day. The lower zone produced enough for the couple boats that were down there so we're going to start down there tomorrow.

 

 

 

The weather was great most of the day. It got a bit breezy late but hopefully that comes down tomorrow.
 

Thanks for the amazing response to the OPEN Shimano Charters we scheduled for the Channel Islands this spring. The response was so positive that I spoke with the folks at Shimano and they agreed to put another trip on line. This one will be set for fishing on March 13. That would be departing at 9pm on the night of the 12th. This trip will be just like the others. Shimano will provide a bunch of outfits for fishing butterfly and lucanus systems. There will be give aways of tackle and goodies as well. Please email me if you would like to join us on this trip.

We started in the rain, loading passengers and loading bait. Now we're full steam rolling down in nice weather. There is reports of bad weather down below but we're traveling the correct direction for it not to effect us. We hope this trip is in perfect time with the perfect weather. We'll most likely start the trip off with an afternoon of yellowtail fishing before we decide on where we're going from there.

Sep. 5

Today was a slow day out here for us. We never did find a school. We did a little bit of scratching in the morning, the afternoon was non existent and then we scratched some for about an hour into dark. Only a couple schools seen out here today. It was a slow day for most. We're going to stick it out here for the morning and if we don't see anything in the first couple of hours we're going to work up towards home and look along the way. We're still a long way from home. There's plenty of fishy ground above here too. The weather was OK today. I wouldn't sign up for it. A little breezy and choppy but plenty fishable. Looks like we can expect it better tomorrow and a very nice ride up. Hope they're right.

The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego,CA checked in with us today:

2 yellowtail 18 lingcod 57 rockfish. 8 and half hours of banging our sonar off the rocks resulted in 1 school. Today’s results have zero influence on tomorrow’s.

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.
                            

 

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

Hi friends. Well, we finally did it, we fished the tuna pens today. At first, we thought it was pretty cool; roll on in, find a school, and catch some. Well, after our initial whack for 17 bluefin, that was about it. The rest of our pen fishing was kind of lame as we never found another biting school. I can see what a real zoo this would be with fifty plus sportboats and skiffs out here. Anyhow, we're rolling on down to hunt for some yellowfin, bluefin, yellowtail, and dorado. Our weather is pleasant and we'll check in tomorrow.

July 20
  Good evening folks.  Turn around day today.  In and out.  Unload, fuel, cherish baby, load, load and go.  That's how it goes down.  The bait receivers was fun.  Turns out all that rain we got may have effected the sardine we get there.  It's speculation but things weren't right.  We got some bait though.  Some good sardine and some good mackerel.  Yellowtail bait.  Tommy is back on board for this trip and he's decided to start off tailing tomorrow.  We're going to tail our butts off.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow but we most likely will get our tuna on the day after.

  Getting to know your crew: I've told you Mark is trying to bring his weight down.  Well Justin is in the same mode so I had an idea.  They're both throwing 50 bucks down.  He who loses the most weight by October 1, or the closest date we have a scale to October 1 takes the money.  Now that's a battle.  We have a couple of hungry crew members for sure.

  My rivals are on board this trip.  Many San Francisco Giant fans.  Uugh.  It just so happens that a 3 game series between them and my Pads start tonight.  I'm actually listening to the game now.  4-2 Pads in the 7th.  Now I know this is a fishing blog but it's a travel day.  You love it anyways.  I'll talk fishing tomorrow.
       and go Pads!