northwest florida Fishing Report 2024

Tommy Rothery returned Polaris Supreme to Fisherman's Landing November 18 after a ten-day Ocean Tackle Research charter. The boat had 13 anglers aboard. Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen of Hood River, OR saw his father, Bill Mikkelsen of Olympia, WA land the season's first super cow; a tuna over 300 pounds. "It was full-speed fishing," said Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen.

Bill Mikkelsen's big fish won first place after it weighed in at 308.8-pounds, caught on a fly-lined sardine. Bill used the boat's gear, including a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 100-pound P-Line, and a Shimano rod and reel. "Tommy said it was tail-wrapped from the beginning," said the elder Mikkelsen. "And he was, but he got lose and went on another run. He took me around the boat twice."

Drew Henderson docked Polaris Supreme at Fisherman's Landing August 12 after four days of fishing. His anglers had near-limits of yellowtail, mostly from Cedros Island, where he found mackerel to be superior bait, and fish biting at both ends. Drew said his anglers released some 200 fish. Henderson's posting for August 10 read: "We started our trip making the long haul down to Benitos Island due to the bad weather and bad offshore report. We got to the Island at about two thirty. We got held up with a giant school of 3 to 4 foot giant squid. I can't say it was bad there, I mean we caught a lot of fish we just had to go through lots of little ones to get the bigger ones. We gave the night bite a couple hours only getting ten fish and took off towards Cedros. "The morning was great. Everyone woke up to bent rods. After a couple hours the current slowed and the slime (barracuda) took over. We did a little scouting and found some large model yellows and had a couple of long plunking drifts. Then we took off to the northern head to gain some time for tomorrow and give it a check and found the honey hole. Mucho Fisho. All the beautiful grade, and they chewed until we all got our fill. We're traveling up tonight to do some offshore tomorrow until it's time to go home." Dave Betz of Huntington Beach won first place for a 27.6-pound yellowtail he bagged with a sardine on a 1/0 ringed Gorilla hook and 20-pound P-Line. He said he fished with his favorite Accurate 270 reel, and a Calstar six-foot rod. The fight ran to 35 minutes, he said. Forrest Broyles of Kelseyville got a 25.4-pounder. He was tied by Ken Wan of Oakland for second place.

Captain Ryan Bostian checked in today with an update from the San Diego. Today we had 50 passemgers catch 16 bluefin tuna (including a 116, 108 and a 65 pounder) and 10 yellowtail. Plenty of opportunity on the grounds today. Don't miss out on what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

73 yellowfin tuna 3 skipjack tuna. We were minutes away from bailing on our area after our first 3 schools swam away without biting. The words from my old boss Ed McEwen “never leave fish to find fish” once again proved to be spot on. A cooperative school late in the day made all of our frustration fade away.

Capt Mike Pritchard called in from the Tribute to let us know that their 1.5 day trip is a go tomorrow night leaving at 7pm. We are hoping to take advantage of this weather window, the weather looks good for the next few days. We already have some good bait on board including some mackeral and sardines, so we are going to take advantage of this weather window. We have about 10 spots left, if you want to go give Seaforth Landing a call at 619-224-3383. We love to see you out on the water.

Suggested tackle for 7:00-4:00 local 3/4 day trips. (1) A 25 or 30 lb. outfit to fish fly line sardines , sliding egg sinker and squid and a lead head and squid. This outfit can also double as a light dropper loop rod for shallow water rockfish. (2) A 40 or 50 lb. outfit. This will be a heavy dropper loop rod for targeting yellowtail , white sea bass and halibut down on the bottom. (3) A deep water rock cod outfit. A 20 size reel filled up with 65 lb. spectra and a 7 ft. rod stiff enough to handle a 16 oz. sinker. If you only want to bring one rod a 30 lb. outfit would be your best bet. TERMINAL TACKLE (Hooks) a pack of size 2 live bait hooks for fishing anchovies and small squid strips. A pack of size 2/0 live bait hooks for fishing live sardines and live squid on an egg sinker. A pack of size 4/0 live bait hooks for fishing live squid on your heavy dropper loop rod. A few long shank rock cod hooks may be usefull but not mandatory on the days we fish deep. (Sinkers) an assortment of sliding egg sinkers from 1/8-1 oz. an assortment of torpedo sinkers from 2-16 oz. Sinker size will be determined by depth of water and strength of current. (Lead heads ) An assortment of "banana" shaped lead heads from 1/2 - 2 oz.

Captain Aliyar Nabi called in this morning with a wrap up report from the Pacifica out of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, CA. We just got back this morning from our 1.5 day trip. The Bluefin Tuna fishing continues to be excellent. We ended up with 52 Bluefin Tuna for our 26 anglers. We had some really nice fish between 150 and 190 pounds. We also caught some in the 12 to 45 pound range. The flat fall fishing at night produced 40 fish.

The Pacifica is online at Seaforth Sportfishing for 1.5 day Bluefin Tuna fishing.

The Apollo has a 2.5 day charter this weekend with openings. Departs the 29th at 5 pm, and returns June 1st at. 6am. Please contact Jim Wilson at +1 (909) 644-7780 for details.