smith mountain lake Fishing Report 2025

Captain Ryan Bostian called in today after 2 PM with an update from the San Diego. Today is my day off and Cameron is running the boat. We are up to 80 Yellowtail. We are having light loads even though the fishing has been great. Most of the fish medium grade with fish up to 25 pounds too!

Aug. 21
    Judging by how our trip has been so far, if you would have told me we would have 6 bluefin as of 1:00 this afternoon I wouldn't have believed you.  But sure enough, those darn bluefins were laughing at us.  We saw plenty of them but they didn't give two you know whats about us.  Our buddy Brian on the Spirit Of Adventure called us and told us he was seeing the 30-50 pound grade around where he was so we took a little ride down there.  It wasn't really biting that well until we got there.  Again our timing is on.  For the next few hours it was game on.  It actually took a while to get them to bite but during the best of it I couldn't get the balloon rigs out fast enough.  They were snapping!!  We ended up with a couple rounds of the 30-50 pounders with one going around 90 pounds and we also got a handful of 30-35 pound yellowfin there as well.  

    After it dried up we went looking for another.  We found several schools but none that would hang around and bite our baits.  Around 6:30 we bumped into another school that stuck and we picked up 21 more of those beauts.  And now we drift and do it again tomorrow.  

    The chefs are getting better and better at there sushi spread.  This afternoon it was terrific and I'm pretty sure I heard it's veal chops for dinner tonight.  Sweet dreams.
                                

 

18 pass. 20 bluefin tuna from 60-80 lbs. Excellent opportunity to hook and land a trophy fish on 40 lb flyline bait with a 1/0 circle hook. 160 gram Flatfalls fished on 60lb was also working well.

Captain Ryan called in late last night to report fantastic fishing conditions on the Yellowtail at the Coronado Islands. The fishing were biting live bait. Ryan recommends 25 pound mono with a flurocarbon leader. The fishing are in the 20 to 25 pound class. They were biting really good. Come on down and fish on the San Diego. Call Seaforth Sportfishing at (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action.

~~July 28
  I just woke up and thought I'd better write this before I forget about it.  Last night after our late hit we made a 5 mile move tighter to the Island in this little bay, if you would.  Man o man was it good sleeping.  The boat just gently rocked us to sleep.  Gently.  The AC was pumping and we were all beat from our day and kind of sick of the wind, so we came over here, out of the wind and fell asleep with our thumbs in our mouths.  Now it's getting about time to fish.  I'll let everyone sleep another hour and then it's wake up time.  See you tonight.

  Midday report:  We left The Island around noon.  It wasn't as good today as it was yesterday.  It was still good, we were just hoping for a little more in a shorter time.  It might be because of all the bait that's around here.  I can't imagine they haven't been just stuffing there face all night and morning.  i've been fishing that Island for 15 years and I haven't seen anything like it.  Even the Godfather himself called it an "unbelievable" amount of bait there.  And then at noon when we were looking for one more stop, all the life vanished  Just like that.  Poof.  I didn't give it any time after that looking.  We left right away.  So it took us a couple hours longer then I was expecting and we were just a stop shy of what I wanted but we're still looking good on yellowtail.  We saved a little room for tomorrow. 

  So we took off in search of tuna/dorado this afternoon, and we were unsuccessful.  The ride up so far has been fine.  The weather forecast looks good for tomorrow.  It should be good to start and only get better throughout the day.  We deserve it.  The reports above in tomorrows tuna zone for us were good today.  There were some productive kelps up there today.  We want some.
          

  Happy Anniversary, Renee, thanks for letting me go fishing, I love you!!!! D

Captain Ryan Bostian called in with an update from “The San Diego” out of Seaforth Sportfishing. Today Cameron is running the boat. The big Bluefin have been missing for awhile but they have been found. We have one 119 pound Bluefin Tuna with 2 hanging. We are still fishing Yellowtail but we need to be prepared for the Bluefin.

For the Yellowtail we recommend 25 pound live bait rod.

For big Bluefin 50 or 60 pound bait rod. Use a 2o circle hook and if they are deep try a rubber band and a sinker to get it down. Also a Shimano flat fall has been working. Fish a Talica 12 or 16. Fill the reel up with spectra 65# or 80#. Then connect to a short 80 fluroucarborn leader.

We run every day but please be ready for fish anywhere from 5 pounds to 150 pounds. CURRENT SCHEDULE We are online and have open party trips everyday this week. This photo is from the about 2 weeks ago. Ryan will update us with current photos from today later this afternoon.

Here are some nice pictures from Apollo Charters.

Today our 24 anglers landed 7 bluefin tuna from 70-85 pounds. First time anglers, seasoned anglers, captains, crewmen and all the way up to our office personnel. Nobody is off limits when it comes to the frustration and lack of sleep that a bluefin can create. However, if you stick with it, come prepared and keep an open mind. You will eventually be rewarded with a fish of a lifetime.