penrod Fishing Report 2025

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

Hi friends. Yes, don't adjust your monitors, it is a live report from the long-range vessel Polaris Supreme. After a good week of maintenance (except for making sure our Sirius radio properly functioned) and cleaning, we departed Fisherman's Landing this morning at 0700 hours for a 17-day excursion with Mr. Tom Pfleger and friends. After loading a couple of hundred scoops of sardines, we cleared the point at 1000 hours and as anyone who knows a thing or two about weather and sea conditions in San Diego -- or any coastal Southern California area -- knows that our ride out this morning was rather sporty. We hadn't even cleared the point and the circus ensued.

The first day of a new season is always comical for us "seasoned" crew members. It's one of the funniest days of the year for me, that's the truth. Eight veteran, long-range mariners stumble and tumble their way about the boat like the time a baby takes its first step - banging into walls, tripping over their own boots and heck, a few of us even fought the urge to vomit. Granted, the weather was less than ideal but this happens on the ride to the bait receivers sometimes, let alone rockin' and rollin' in a confused sea a mile from them. Even with all of the flubs and flounders of the first few hours of being back on the boat, we're alive and if you know us, we're going to be just fine. I never really appreciated such an event before; going back out on our first crazy adventure of the year with my older brothers and that is exactly what we are - a family, and we're all back and ready to do this.

Since I have the time, I'll fill y'all in on the status of my previously mentioned "family" members. Riddler is doing just fine; he's switched from white Air Monarch Nike's to all black Nike's which he sometimes pairs with black socks - which looks amazing, by the way. Drew got married in November and then hurt his thumb in a roller-blading accident. As a few of you whom where at the Fred Hall show might have heard, Gunny's daughter was in a car accident but other than a few "minor" injuries, she's doing just fine and will make a full recovery. Jed didn't hurt himself this winter so we're pumped to have him healthy for a full season - although, we do have some time-in once we complete this trip so there is still time for his fingers to hurt but we're hopeful he'll be just fine come June. Mark only looks three and a half months pregnant rather than his usual eight and a half months preggo and his son was accepted in St. Joseph's law school, so that's dandy. Chefs' Schooler and Shawn are great and yours truly is doing fantastic - here and ready to do some bronzing after my Guatemalan bronze-a-thon a week ago peeled off the other day. Bottom line, we couldn't be better. We're pumped to be back.

Anyhow, today was nothing to write home about other than traveling and napping but we figured that we'd do so anyways. I can't reveal all of our secrets of all the fun we're going to have on this trip but I'll give you just a tiny glimpse of the craziness that we're about to take part in: on-board we have low-carb ice cream, Yellowtail roe, a paddle, a 12-volt motorized reel, and a man by the name of "Cowboy". I'll leave the rest to your wild imaginations. Good night now.

-The Supreme Team

P.S. We miss you, Chugey, and your bicycle-kick wake-ups.

Polaris Supreme docked under owner-skipper Tom Rothery's hand June 26, after a five-day trip with 24 anglers for yellowtail and albacore. Tom weighed the fish at the certified scales at Fisherman's Landing, where a 48-pound yellowtail took top honors.
Terry Emmert of Douglas, WY had the first-place winner. "I got him in about 15 minutes," he said. "He just kept pulling and pulling, and he kept getting into a stringer of floating kelp. He's my best yellowtail ever." Emmert said he fished a sardine on the flyline, using a 3/0 Mustad 91450 hook on 40-pound P-Line. He had an Okuma 20 two-speed reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod, wrapped by Bill Boyce. Michael Giardino of San Pedro was second, for a 43-pound yellowtail, and Mal Wagstaff of Douglas, WY was third, for a 36.2-pound yellowtail. Three generations of Pattersons were aboard, and they posed with their fish. Liam Patterson of San Jose is eight, and he goes to Santa Teresa Elementary School, where he practices karate. Liam caught some big yellowtail, and he also got and posed with a 24.4-pound albacore, which will serve to start off this season's tally for the largest fish of that species.

Liam's dad Lane stood in with the boy, as did John Danis and John Patterson, also of San Jose and from the Patterson family.

STILL 9 SPOTS OPEN!!! Apollo still has room on their 1.5 day leaving Friday Feb. 26th at 8pm. Don't miss out on this LAST great winter time Yellowtail and Rock Cod fishing. Give us a call here at the Landing if you want to hop on 619-221-8500 or try our Book Online feature.

Aug 14
    As I write this, it's the morning of the 14th.  When I was awakened for my watch and day at 3:05 this morning I couldn't tell if we were running or if we were anchored up in the bay.  You can't really hear the engines from where I sleep but I couldn't tell from the ride because it was so nice going up last night.  I seriously asked Tommy as he was still up reading.
    
    The fishing slowed down for us today as fishing does from time to time.  The bluefin didn't bite as well this morning nor did the yellowfin.  There was still yellowfin to catch this morning and there were some good scores had in the afternoon away from the bluefin zone but we caught enough yellowfin yesterday and hung out in the bluefin zone for a chance at some more of those trophies in the afternoon/evening.  We still had a decent morning.  I mean we still caught 14 nice bluefin and some yellowfin, but the bf's never made it back around for the afternoon snack fest.  We had a great trip and will be off loading a nice catch tomorrow morning at 6:00 and turning right back around shortly after that for 5 days.
 
     One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the amount of these toad bluefin being caught on jigs.  More then I have ever seen ratio wise but that could also be because more people were doing it but that could be because it was working well.  The shimano butterfly jig is the jig that caught most of our jig fish. But that could be because that's what most people were using but that could be because it was working so well.  And 90+ percent of those were caught on the sink.  No retrieve necessary except to bring it up to sink back down.  They loved it.  So if I were coming out this year I would throw a couple of those in my box.
                                
    
    PS- Shimano gave me nothing to write that last paragraph.  It just worked.

 

Benn making the most of the situation and not dragging passengers offshore to catch nothing. So we have been fishing the Coranado Islands for all you want cod each day and heading offshore in the PM finding very little. Our larger boats went out today catching a handful of Yellowfin so that's a move in the right direction. Thanks!

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

Strung together a lot of short stops and ended with 45 yellowtail.