oconee Fishing Report 2024

"The X-Raps were working real good on the slide," said Polaris Supreme skipper Tom Rothery July 21 at Fisherman's Landing. "It seemed like the best colors were silver or bonito color. The zucchini colored skirted jigs were working real good on the troll. Fishing was good; we got enough fish, with good yellowtail at the islands and good albacore fishing offshore." David "Sammy" Samuelson of San Diego won first place on the trip, for his 37.4-pound albacore. He said he got it with a sardine on a 2/0 hook tied to 30-pound P-Line, a Saiwa reel and a Calstar six-foot rod. Bob Pollack of San Diego won second place for a 33.4-pounder, and Dick Emerson of Rowland Heights won third place for a 32.8-pound albacore. Jonathan Kendrick of Oakley stood in with the winners to show his 37-pound dorado, caught on a Zucker's jig in Mexican Flag colors.

Mike Pritchard called in this morning with this report for the Tribute. "We've had a very nice start here this moring. A couple of kelps have been absolutely fantastic. Great Yellowtail fishing to go along with some Yellowfin and Dorado. We caught 160 Yellowtail out of 2 drifts. A lot of the fish were caught on surface irons, swimbait and even poppers.

"We are now targeting some tuna or maybe some Dorado. We'll keep you informed."

Sunday night we spent the day targeting trophy bluefin with tall of the boys from fish 101 restaurant. We had some very good opportunities through out the day. Landing 12 fish biggest was right at 300lbs then closely followed by a beautiful 275lber and the rest where in the 60-80 lb range. 

Today we fished yellowfin tuna. Fishing was good, when the dust settled we had 113 fish in the hole all being 12-18 pound fish. We did also see a couple nice schools of bluefin but didn’t not hook any unfortunately. Back out tonight ! 

Yesterday we hit the wahoo in the morning and had a steady tuna all day on 45 to 75 pounders. Weather was still great. This morning we are heading up offshore to the albacore. Weather is ok. Not a bad ride up so far. Chef Tommy kicked butt again yesterday with a seafood pasta for lunch (lobster, scallop, shrimp and crab) and for dinner we had the classic steaks and baked potatoes. Very good. Passengers are all having a ball. Crew too. It's been a very good trip.

Ryan Bostian checked in from “The San Diego” this afternoon with an update from Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. The Bluefin Tuna are 20 to 120 pounds. Please make sure you are prepared. The Yellowtail are 5 to 10 pounds. Please bring one light rod and one heavy rod. A light rod would be 25 pound or 30 pound test. A heavy rod should be nothing less than 40 pound outfit a 50 or 60 would be better. The Bluefin are biting on a flat fall jig. A perfect out fit for he flat fall jig would be a Talica 12 filled up with 65 pound spectra with a short top shot of 80 pound fluorocarbon. Today we had Captain Cameron running the boat. He had a very respectable day offshore in a crowded ocean. FISH COUNT: 56 anglers caught 2 Bluefin Tuna and 52 Yellowtail.

Capt Ryan Bostain checked in with a report for the San Diego for their 3/4 day trip today down south, we ended the day with 103 Yellowtail for our efforts. Mixed sizes today with a couple in the 10 lb range and a couple around 28 lbs, most were in the 15 to 18 lbs. They were mostly on the surface action today, with a few on the yoyo irons. Come on down and bring a 40-50 lb setup for the yoyo and a 25-30 for flylining and a 8-10 ft jig stick for the surface irons. The Tady 45s, Salas 7Xs or Candy Bars are all working well for the surface irons. Come on down and get in on this Yellowtail action while it is hot.

The first half of our day today was spent traveling to the Island. We slept in, had a nice relaxing breakfast, did our tackle seminar and enjoyed the nice ride down. That was my take on it anyways. I'm sure the passengers we're very anxious to get a line wet. It was worth the wait. When we got our anchor down at 3:30 the jumbo yellows immediately were on the prowl. It was very good fishing for the next couple hours and then slowed down a little to a steady pick until dark. We are very pleased with our day and I can't wait to see what's in store for us tomorrow. The galley portion of the day was great. Pedro dished out a beautiful seafood Newburg and we're getting ready to chow down on Cornish game hens stuffed with something I'm sure will knock our socks off.

Tommy Rothery tied up his Polaris Supreme after the Eric Rogger five-day charter. Rothery weighed the fish while Bill Roecker interviewed chartermaster Rogger near the scales. "Tommy burned a lot of fuel looking around," said Eric. "We got some real quality yellowtail." A sardine on the dropper loop enticed the first-place fish for Gil Suizo of Chatsworth, who reeled it in after a ten-minute scrap. "He fought hard," said Gil. "I sweat a bit bringing him in; there were lots of seals around." Gil said he used a ringed 4/0 super Mutu hook, 50-pound P-Line, an Avet SX-2 reel and a Calstar 660 rod. Dan Hendrickson of Chatsworth took second place for a 34-pounder, and Phillip Bruce of Ramona got a 32.2-pound yellowtail that was good for third place.