smith river montana Fishing Report 2024

Crew trip today! 5(crew) 50 Yellowfin Tuna 5 Bluefin Tuna We have a 1.75 day trip leaving Friday morning with a light load. With the great fishing that’s been going on, we have made this next trip a definite run!

Today was one of those days that make you appreciate biting fish. We saw plenty of fish but, it was hard to get close to them or when we did get close getting a reaction was even harder. Tomorrow is a new day !

Mike Pritchard called in with this report for the Tribute. "We had a very nice day on the water, we picked up 42 Bluefin. We do have 1 hang'n. Very, very good sign of tuna here today. We have very good scores and there is still plenty of daylight left. We'll keep you posted."

Today we we picked at the quality Tuna we have been after. Many successes before the sharks took their share. The fish were on both live bait and chunk bait. It was nice catching them on the chunk because we were able to use big hooks and heavy line. As opposed to small hooks and light line.

Pictured here is a neat looking Pilot Fish. Really cool looking blue fish with black stripes. They hang out with sharks waiting for bits and pieces from a kill to float back to them. Also pictured is a delicious sashimi spread prepared by chef Mike!

This past week had a little bit of everything. Good fishing in flat calm weather to slow fishing in choppy weather and even some searching for kelp paddies in socked in fog. Our scores this week averaged 3-80 yellowtail 2-10 dorado per day and even 13 bluefin tuna on our Friday charter. Overall I would say that we are experiencing GOOD 3/4 day fishing. Most of our fishing has been taking place between 20 and 40 miles from Mission Bay. Even though our counts have been good , we still have some inherit risks that go along with offshore fishing that you should be prepared for. Whenever we fish offshore , we know that we are taking part in a "high risk , high reward" fishery. Since we are relying on finding kelp paddies in order to find fish , the possibility of never stopping the boat is real. The flip side of never stopping the boat is ; we may stop the boat once and have the best fishing of our lives. With another tropical storm down south , I believe that our fishing is only going to improve over the next month. Typically our offshore season continues until we get the first couple real storms from the pacific northwest. We run everyday , if you would like to join us call 619-224-3383 for reservations.

Sunday, July 15th, 2012

Hi friends. I just want to start off by saying that Travis Donahue our new best friend. That guy gets on the boat and the Bluefin just are drawn to this guy. He's been on the boat three times this year already and every time he's out, the Bluefin bite. It's truly amazing. This trip was no exception as he tagged along with Garth and the boys from Optima and we had ourselves a good day on 15-30 lb. Bluefin. The other boats in the area struggled but we filled the box a few times on a couple of stops and we also managed to catch three thirty pound Yellowfin off of a kelp along with some Yellowtail. Like I said, it wasn't for everyone out here but thankfully, we had Travis on the boat and everything was just fine for us on the Supreme. We also had awesome weather to round out a fun day of fishing and we're currently en route back to San Diego. We'll be back to the docks tomorrow morning around 0900 hours. Thanks for checking in and thanks to the gang from Optima as well. Take care and we'll chat with you in a few days.

P.S. Mike Grella - thanks for the rags. You're the man.

Larry Brown chartermastered a 976 TUNA father-son five-day trip aboard Polaris Supreme with skipper Drew Henderson. The expedition returned to Fisherman's Landing June 21. The trip produced a remarkable catch of yellowtail that included some halibut, three bluefin and two albacore.
Brown said the yellowtail fishing at Cedros Island was excellent, though seals created some problems. "The weather was good except the wind came up on the last day, when we fished outside," he said.

The jackpot lineup was most unusual: an opah, a white seabass and a yellowtail. Mark Taylor of Jamul got the first-place, 67.2-pound moonfish or opah, on a sardine-colored Mega Bait jig, with 40-pound Big Game line on a Trinidad 30 reel and a Seeker 6470 Black Steel rod.
Rick Parks of Watsonville won second place for a 54.6-pound white seabass that took his sardine on a dropper loop. Alex Bravo of San Diego won third place for a 47.2-pound yellowtail.
The kid's jackpot featured two yellowtail bracketing a bluefin tuna. Alex Bravo Jr. of San Diego, 14, won first place for a 42.6-pound yellow. Sydney Mack, 10, (whose dad Dave works on the boat) caught a 32.8-pound bluefin tuna. David Jacobsen, 10, got a 32-pound yellowtail.

Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing August 26 under Drew Henderson's hand. The 24 anglers aboard had been fishing for five days, most of them at Guadalupe Island, where quality yellowfin tuna and yellowtail were caught. Matt Wheaton of Laguna Beach won first place, for a 57.8-pound tuna. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 3/0 Mustad hook and 40-pound Izorline. He used a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar 700 H rod. Alan Romspert of Fullerton caught a 56.8-pound tuna, and tied for second place with Bruce Chisholm of Temecula. Floyd Spangler of Anaheim stood in with the winners in a lineup shot with his 35-pound yellowtail.