south fork snake river Fishing Report 2025

A five-day Dan Heil Annual Charter aboard Polaris Supreme with Skipper Drew Henderson, arrived August 21 at Fisherman's Landing. "It's been 20 years now, since '87," said chartermaster Ron Heil, "that I've been doing this trip. My father Dan, who passed away this last season, had been doing it since Tommy (Rothery) bought the boat back in '80 or '81." Dan Heil had been chartering with Rothery since the early eighties on the Polaris Deluxe, now the Breezers. He sailed with Rothery on the Polaris Supreme since '85. Rothery bought the boat from Bill Poole in 1987. "It was a little choppy on that first day," said Skipper Henderson. "But we had great albacore fishing. Cedros was great, we spent a half-day kelp fishing with little action, so we finished up at Benitos, and it was all the fish you could get." "We had a good trip and great timing," continued Heil, who hails from Portland, OR. "Drew did a great job, right out of the chute the first day, we were on a great albacore bite. It was a well rounded trip."
Mike Hunting of Riverside landed a 48.4-pound yellowtail at Benitos Islands, good for first place in the jackpot. Mike fished a sardine on a 5/0 Owner hook, 40-pound P-Line, an Avet HX 2-speed reel, and a Calstar rod. "We were in a shallow spot on the ridge" said Hunting, "and there were guys losing fish in the kelp. So when I got bit, I decided he wasn't gonna get to the kelp, so I buttoned down, past strike, and started cranking." Bill Byler of Covina was second for a 37.6-pound albacore and Gary De Void of Encinitas was third for a 36.4-pound albie.

POLARIS SUPREME TRIP UPDATE 09-15-2020 Excellent fishing this morning yellowtail in good weather. We spent the rest of the day looking for Wahoo and tuna with no luck. Tomorrow we will spend the day on mainly tuna. Thank You for tuning in. The Polaris Supreme Crew!

The fish were a little off today. We hit schools all day and just never got the right one to bite. Scott released a 185 lb. and a 100 pounder. Al released a 115 lb., 170 lb., and a 190 lb. tuna. Roger released a 120 lb. and kept a 220 lb. tuna. Tom released a 190 pounder. And George released a 100 lb., a 115 lb., and a 140 pounder. Weather is still beautiful. Lunch was pastrami and swiss on rye and a clam shell pasta. Dinner New York steaks. Hors d'oeuvres were sashimi and sushi. Hopefully all this fish we saw today bites a little better tomorrow.

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 07-16-2016 Good afternoon guys. Fishing has been tough these last two days. We didn't end up putting any more fish on the boat after that afternoon report. Knowing the fact that the Yellowfin grounds would be crowded with boats today and not seeing a great sign of biting fish, we decided to rig up the big gear and run down to the trophy Bluefin Tuna grounds. We set up the boat early this morning in an area in which we had multiple schools of big Bluefin on the sonar at one time. We ended up hooking two fish and landing one monstrous 118 pound trophy Bluefin Tuna. Both of these fish were hooked on jigs. The second Bluefin we hooked chewed his way through line and escaped. We will be on the hunt for the big Bluefin for the rest of the day. Once again fisherman, here are the upcoming trips in which we have open spots on: a four-day August 2 a five day August 6 a five day August 11 a three day August 25 Wish us luck on these ever elusive fish and we hope to see you guys out here soon, Team Supreme

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

Hi friends. Yellowtail fishing was off the hook this morning -- or, on the hook, depending on which way you look at it. Fifteen to twenty-eight pound fish just kept coming over the rail and we also had a few flatheads as well. It was all you could've wanted on fly-lined sardines, yo-yo jigs, and surface jigs too but we only took a few boxes to break up the morning and from there, we ventured offshore with the hopes of finding something floating for dorado and wahoo.

Let me tell you, trying to locate kelps in eighty degree water is a difficult task and although we did get lucky and found a couple scraps, they weren't holding all that much. However, we did troll up a few legitimate ball-slappers, a marlin (healthy release), and one really nice wahoo at dusk caught by Mike Henry. His wahoo looks to be in the fifty to sixty pound range and he coaxed that fat skinny into latching onto a purple and black Marauder. Good going, Mike.

For tomorrow, we'll be fishing for all kinds of species but our main target is wahoo. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Our weather is just splendid and the all-day bronze-a-thon continues. I'm starting to look like Hulk Hogan out here. Supreme guns. Later.

"The bluefin are still biting," said Mike Pritchard. "It's 8:30 in the morning and we have outstanding Bluefin fishing. It looks like everybody in this area is doing very well on the Bluefin. It's a good time to hop on a boat."

Once Again the ocean proves to us that everything will balance out if given enough time. Just last week it looked as if we would never touch our gaffs again. Today our 31 anglers were treated to a long drift that ended with 19 bluefin tuna from 60-100 lbs and 2 20lb yellowfin tuna. Preparation, an open mind and understanding that Mother Nature is the one one in charge is all you need. A wise old man once told me “we’re only as good as the fishing” today the fishing was very good and we are thankful.

~~Aug 18
 So we did it again.  We had a nice day.  Arrive/depart day.  Once again, we got out here at a good time and connected on a couple of schools.  We ended our day with 81 tuna.  And they're still that good grade.  25 pound average.  So nice.  Free ones.  Departure fish.  I told everyone to bring there horse shoes and rabbits feet.  I think they did.

 The bait thing went better than expected.  It wasn't Armageddon like I thought it may be.  We used 1/2 the bait I thought would croak and the rest hasn't had any die off yet.  Now we just need our main slammer of bait to hang in there.  The only thing is we didn't get a full load of bait so we may need to catch some down the line.  At least I hope that's the only thing.  Time will tell Joe.  Time will tell.

 We're going to drift here tonight.  It literally feels like we're anchored in the bay right now.  It's so nice.  We'll start here in the morning and try to do it again.  Let's keep the ball rolling.