satilla river Fishing Report 2024

~~Nov. 16
 I told myself yesterday that if we caught 30 wahoo today it would be worth the move.  We caught 31.  Scoooore!
 
 It was good in the morning.  By 10:00 we were moving right along on pace to have one heck of a day.  Then things went slow.  We were able to scratch just enough, and with the expectancy of an evening hit, we still were feeling good.  That hit never happened.  One here and two there was the rest of our day.  But like I said, I'm very pleased with what we caught.  It was definitely worth the ride.  It helps that every wahoo we caught this trip is a toad.  40-50+ pounds baby.

 We're headed up now.  We'll have to be making headway toward home for the rest of the trip.  We only have a couple of days left.  We're going to give it a shot and finding a dorado kelp in the morning.  The 3 boats that tried it prior to us struck out so we'll have a back up plan.  Our plan B is to fish yellows at an island tomorrow afternoon.  See you tomorrow.
                                  

We just received word from the county that we are clear to go fishing starting tomorrow We will be fishing offshore for tuna and yellowtail. Please bring a 25 lb bait rod a 40 or 50 lb bait rod and a then a setup capable of landing a 100+ pound fish. Assorted circle hooks and some fluorocarbon. Some Shimano Flatfalls are always a good call. Call Seaforth at 619-224-3383. First come first serve. (30 pass max)

Nov. 11

After our previous day of wide open fishing - we had high hopes of the same on giant yellow fin tuna. The day started with Captain Tommy identifying sonar readings of big schools of tuna all around us. We fished hard all day. Kites, sinker rigs, fly line, chunked, jigged, drifted and anchored. Tommy calling out the sonar readings the whole time, ", "big tuna at 20 fathoms" or "we are surrounded by school tuna 10 fathoms to 30 fathoms". We began to doubt Tommy's sonar and guessed that it was just a screen saver image. Then, in the late afternoon, tuna started flying out of the water all around us for a 1/4 mile. 100 lb to 300 lb tuna fully coming out of water and giving us a show and taunting us once more. At the end of the day Greg, Matt and Rick caught larger tuna and kept us from getting skunked. We flushed the stomachs of the tuna and found them stuffed with pelagic crabs. The sardines, mackerel and flying fish we offered were not on their menu. We hear of a place up the line where the yellow tail are biting. We are going there now.

OTR Lon Mikkelsen.

The first good catch of wahoo arrived with skipper Drew Henderson and his 20 anglers aboard the Polaris Supreme October 28. Over 100 wahoo were caught, and 65 came on a single wild day of fishing at the top end of The Ridge on the Dennis Bunker Memorial trip. Fishing was good for other species as well, but the wahoo drew all the oohs and ahs from the spectators at Fisherman's Landing, as many looked to be over 50 pounds. "We got the job done," wrote Drew on his internet report. "The morning looked very bad. There was wind and a choppy confused sea. That, combined with no fish, led to hopeless thoughts. I don't know why, but after lunch the whole entire bank we were fishing lit up with life. "It didn't take long before we quit fishing tuna and put our sinkers on. We have everything you would hope and ask for on a ten-day trip except one thing, the cow tuna. The storm below is dying. Ourselves and three other boats are going to look for them. I'll be cuddling with my horseshoe tonight. I'm sure they will too." Rick Bynum of Sacramento won first place, for an 80-pound yellowfin tuna. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 3/0 Eagle Claw hook on 50-pound fluorocarbon leader, 60-pound P-Line and 80-poundSpectra backing. All of it was on a TLD 30 reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6465 XXH rod. "It was fun!" added Bynum. "It took a half-hour." Ddaze Phuong of Orange was second, for a 66.4-pound wahoo, and Mike Grella of Sylmar won third place for a 63-pound wild wahoo. "We saw a little dab of big tuna one day," reported skipper Henderson, "but they wouldn't come up and play."

Aug. 27-28

Here's a 2 dayer for you all. I forgot to write yesterday's report due to my enthusiasm not being crazy high about it. So we fished in these bluefin grounds all day yesterday and for a few hours in the morning today for not much. Yesterday we were seeing sign of fish around. We didn't see any schools driving around but we'd get a meter mark and stop the boat and after a while we'd see a handful or two sometimes more come under the boat and sometimes we would get a few and other times we wouldn't but at that rate the final tally wasn't anything to write home about so that's probably why I didn't. Today wasn't better. I can't say we ever saw a fish even on the machines. We looked through the traditional area early for nothing then went that way for a while then we turned that way for a while and then we turned that way for a while and then we called it a trip. It means nothing for future trips the way this bluefin is. Tomorrow can be wide open. A hell of a trip anyways if you've been reading you'd know it. The boats clean and everyone on board is stuffed and rested. We'll be getting in at 6:00 in the am tomorrow and then we're departing on the 9 day! I'm really looking forward to it. Getting out of this cool August offshore weather and into the warm wahooey weather. As Joe Beck would say, "yeah baby". Thanks to everyone on board and shame on those who were thinking about making it but didn't. You missed the best bluefin bite you've probably ever seen. Drew