panama city surf Fishing Report 2024

~~Aug 5
 The pressure is off.  We never made it down to any Island today like we planned.  At about 9 am or so the sonar went clunk, clunk and we went sideways for an hour.  It wasn't the best grade but it definitely wasn't the worst.  It was this years middle grade. 8-14 pounds with a sprinkling of 16-22 pounders in the mix.  Like I said, not the best but not the 2-6 pounders either.  But for a stressed out 4 day captain, it was lovely.  They bit good for about an hour and then they backed off.  After that we dedicated ourselves to that zone.  We figured that school of 14-25 pounders was just right over there.  It wasn't.  We didn't see another school of tuna.  However, we did find a nice kelp loaded up with big yellowtail.  They bit really well for a while too.  In fact , they were on the corner like tuna get on the corner for a good 20 minutes and when they backed off the corner, they still bit good for a while.  Other then that though we didn't see much other then the occasional small tuna on the trolling jigs but we're stoked for what we got today.  The pressure is off.

 We're going to stick with the plan and spend tomorrow at an Island hopefully drifting for hours.  The weather has finally backed off after a couple weeks of blowing.  Hopefully we get some descent weather for a nice long stretch and can get back to fishing where we please when we please.
     

We stopped the boat once today and didn’t move until it was time to go home. We ended up with 123 yellowfin 53 bluefin. Live bait has been best but we had our fair share of bites on the Shimano colt sniper. 100 gram was the best size.

~~Aug. 26
 Whenever you end well it makes you feel like you had a good day. When you start well and end slow you get that "it wasn't a good day" feel to it. Today we started slow and finished strong. We had a good day. We looked at a lot of fish this morning but only one would bite. We had one fish well after lunch. We then found an area that for some reason the fish we found wanted to bite. We found one school that produced 18 of those 30-45 pounders and one school that bit through the sunset for 13 bluefin with one of those going 65 pounds more or less. So we ended our day with 32 beautiful bluefin tuna and we're going to do this again tomorrow for our last day.

 We developed quite the south swell today from that category 5 hurricane down below. It's amazing what some wind thousands of miles away can do to the ocean right here. It's ground swell with no wind on it so we barely feel it come under the boat but it's impressive to watch. Surf"s up.

Captain Ryan Bostian checked in this evening with an audio update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.  Today we fished at the Coronado Islands.  The offshore action has been too inconsistent.

Today we had 14 anglers catch 24 Yellowtail (10 to 20 pounders).  They were biting the surface iron pretty good.  Fly-lined sardines also worked well on 25 pound test.  You should bring a yoyo outfit too.  We also had 21 Bonito today.  We also had some Calico Bass action.  

You do need a passport.  If you would like to join us call (619) 224-3383.

Fun mixed bag fishing. 5 Yellowtail. 1 Bluefin and a lot of Kelp Bass. Forgot to take pictures. So here is one of the boat. 

After a couple of slow days for the fleet we decided to go out on a search mission. Our morning was spent chasing 30 lb bluefin that we’re very difficult to hook. Around 12:30 our sonar lit up with the sweet sound of shallow, spread out yellowfin tuna. After 3 1/2 hours and ten short stops. Our 30 anglers were able to drop 123 yellowfin and 1 bluefin into the refrigerated Sea Water. Best success came on flyline bait on 25-40 lb, colt snipers and poppers. We will continue to fish offshore and target whatever we see.

Captain Mike Pritchard checked in tonight with an update from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.  We had a nice day of fishing for our group of 33 passengers today.  We caught 4 Bluefin and 165 yellowtail (mexican limits).  We had to go almost 80 miles to go get some today. We go again tonight.