potomac Fishing Report 2024

Many of you know Captain Ray Montera who has been involved in sportfishing most of his life. In March, his 32 year old Chris son was severely injured in a C4 blast in Afghanistan. We are holding a fundraiser on October 8th at the Bali Hai on Shelter Island. He is one of our own and we are rallying to support him.

As an Army soldier, Chris Montera was often taken aback when people would thank him for doing the job he loved. On a fateful day in March, he came to face the sacrifice. He was on a dismounted mission and was hit with explosion of C4, which literally blasted and propelled him into a grape field. He suffered major issues with blast lung and severe burns over much of his body. For 9 days he was on ECMO (lung bypass) until he was stable enough to be transported to BAMC in San Antonio for the treatment of his shrapnel wounds and third degree burns. On April 2 a fungal infection set into the wounds on his lower extremities and Chris underwent bilateral AK amputation of his legs. He was further diagnosed with an incomplete spinal cord injury in the thoracic area of the spine at VA Polytrauma Center in Palo Alto.

Through all of this, Chris remains focused and committed to rehabilitation. It is estimated that he will remain in Palo Alto for 3-6 months while he works to regain his upper body strength, which will be necessary for the next stages of rehab in the C5 program at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego where he will be fitted with prosthetic legs and with determination will learn to walk again. There is no doubt in our minds that Chris will recover to live an independent life. The goal of this fundraiser is to be able to assist Chris with expenses he will no doubt encounter on his journey to independence.

The event will be held at the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island On October 8th from 6:00-10:00 pm. There will be food stations serving food from many San Diego restaurants along with a no host bar. A raffle, live, and silent auction will take place during the event along with live entertainment by Mango Bay and World Famous Jim Gibson. The outpouring of support of raffle and auction donations from the sportfishing community, tackle, fishing supply manufacturers, and local businesses has been phenomenal. The evening will be great fun for all and will serve to help a young man who put it all on the line.

There are several ways you can help:
First and most important is attend the event.

Tickets are $50 in advance or $450 for a block of 10

Advance ticket purchases will include 3 raffle tickets and assorted swag

Cannot attend but would like to help, make a cash donation in any amount.

Donate an item for the raffle or auction. Anything from fishing items, art, gift certificates, clothing...anything is greatly appreciated.


We look forward to having you at the event. The sport fishing community has come together to take care of a wounded warrior of their own, and it promises to be a fun filled evening for all.

To purchase tickets for Island Nights at the Bali Hai, please visit our website at http://christophermonterasupport.com/island-nights-at-the-bali-hai

To donate items for our raffle/auction please visit our website and complete the donor form http://christophermonterasupport.com/sponsors-anddonors-supporters/donor-form

The kids are getting picky! Today we spent our day offshore looking for kelps. We had outstanding fishing on the smaller Yellowfin Tuna even though we released most of them. Our main target today was trying to find some Dorado, and a couple kelps had just what we needed. We ended up with with an action-packed day of quality Dorado and small Yellowfin fishing. A great way to end the trip. full of action and a few bigger fish.

Aug. 24

Good evening from the Polaris Supreme. We're just starting off with our two week span of 1 1/2 trips. The first bait loading didn't go too swell. It looked like a rave party in the crowder when we loaded it. All sorts of fun colors with the silver shiny glitter(scales) being the dominate color with red coming in a close second. It is what it is. Hopefully we find something to use it on early tomorrow because I'm not so sure they will be swimming come lunch time. After that they'll just have to bite the dead bait which I have seen the yellowfin do countless times before. So here we go, Prime Ribbing it now, some z's in the future and then fishing it tomorrow.

 

Capt. Jodie called in with this trip announcement for the Apollo. "We have an overnight trip leaving from Sea Landing this Saturday night, fishing on Sunday. The cost is $145, we will be targeting White Seabass. If you are interested in this trip give me qa call at 805-963-3564.

Captain Ryan checked in tonight with an update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay, CA. We returned late last night. Our trip today and Friday have been cancelled due to weather. Our next trip is going to be Saturday.

We had 25 anglers catch 7 Bluefin Tuna, 38 Yellowtail and 35 Bonito. We had some nice quality on the Bluefin Tuna. We had 6 Bluefin Tuna between 60 and 108 pounds. To be exact we had Bluefin Tuna weighing in at 108, 102, 90, 90, 80 and 60 pounds. We also had one small one that we caught on the troll early in the morning. There is excellent sign of big Bluefin Tuna right now.

It is very important to be prepared with the correct tackle. A Shimano Talica 12 or 16 two speed filled with 65 or 80 lb spectra. Connected to 5 feet of 80 or 130 lb flouro and a 250 gram flatfall. A sinker bait rig fished with a Talica 16 or 20 two speed filled halfway with 80 lb spectra than topped off with 60 or 80 lb mono to a short leader of 80 lb flouro. A 2/0 or 3/0 circle hook and a 4-6 oz torpedo sinker.
Please bring the correct tackle. During our last trip we had 20 hookups and got 6 of them.