southern illinois Fishing Report 2023

Good evening everyone, Today we spent the day searching for yellowtail, yellowfin tuna, and Wahoo. The conditions were poor but we still managed to scratch up some Wahoo. Not an incredible volume of fish but all still very appreciated. We are hoping for good current tomorrow so hopefully the fish decide to chew. We are going to fish the same area tomorrow. Wish us luck! Team Supreme

8 DAY ULTRA LIGHT LOAD TRIP!!! APOLLO still have 5 spots open on a 8 day trip. Ultra light load limit to 12 anglers. THE ULTIMATE TRIP. Boat leaves 11/13 Monday at 9am & returns 11/21 Tuesday at 9am. Cost is $2400(all meals & Mexican permits included). Fuel surcharges will be extra. For more info & reservations call Fisherman's Landing @ (619)221-8500

The Tribute out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego, CA checked in today with a wrap up from a 1.5 Day trip. 33 anglers finished with 1 Bluefin Tuna and 51 Yellowfin Tuna.

Open trips this week: Tuesday, November 12 departs at 9 PM for 1.5 Day Thursday, November 14 departs at 9 PM for Overnight Limited Load Friday, November 1.5 departs at 9 P for 1.5 Day

Tommy Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme after the annual George Davis Expedition, with only eight anglers aboard. Rothery tied up at his space on the inner wing at Fisherman's Landing, ending his long range season on a positive note with a visit to Baja's southern banks and the Cleofas Bank, where all the fish that were kept were caught. Four cows were among the fish offloaded January 13. "All the big fish were from Cleofas," said Tommy. We released about half the fish we caught there, and nearly everything, including 15 big tuna, we caught up above. "So many people put so much emphasis on their pile of fish at the dock," remarked Rothery. "It disgusts me." Rothery and his anglers consistently release many fish of all sizes. Charlie Middleton of San Pablo got two cows; one with a sardine and the biggest one on a chunk. His tuna weighed 201.4 and 245.6 pounds. He said he fished with 8/0 Gamakatsu hooks, 130-poudn Maxima line and 130-pound Spectra backing on a Penn 80 SW reel and a new Ugly Stick 130-pound class rod. "That rod works good," said Charlie, who got his smaller fish in only 15 minutes. Al Tokunaga of North Hollywood took a 232.4-pounder after a 30-minute tussle. He said the fish bit on a sardine pinned to a 9/0 Eagle Claw hook. He fished with 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Spectra, with a Cal Sheet-s prepped Penn 50 S reel and a Calstar 6455 XH rod. "I used an eight-ounce torpedo sinker attached with a rubber band," noted Al. "He bit right after daylight. They were down there about that time every day." Roger Brown of Riverside bagged a 210.9-pounder with a mackerel on a 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hook. He said he fished with 100-pound Jin Kai line and 130-pound Jerry Brown Line One Spectra on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a Calstar 6455 XH rod. Brown's fish was notable in that it fought for 35 minutes, and then pulled skipper Drew Henderson over the side when he single-gaffed it. They were both brought aboard without further incident. Rothery noted that he will be doing boat work from now until May 31, when he will begin his summer season of three to five-day trips.

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

Hi friends. Today was a splendid day. We got on a school of those beautiful Bluefin tunas just before lunch and drifted with them until around 1600 hours this afternoon. The grade of fish were those 40-60 lb. beauties and the action on the kite was as good as it gets. The Mustache almost got around to everyone on the kite on just that one stop. They were hittin', boy. Our bait fisher-people did just dandy as well. 50 lb. test with a 4/0 hook, short top-shots, and the liveliest gosh darn Sardine you could find was the key to great success.

Heartbreak of the day went to myself. While getting out a 50/50 wrap with two fish at color, singing Lady Antellbum at a reasonable level, I broke my sour apple chapstick stick. Not cool.

Now that all is said and done, 53 Bluefin rest comfortably in the RSW well that Mustache Man is constantly maintaining between 30 and 32 degrees. He's so responsible. Thanks, Drew.

To top it off, the weather was just dandy and Chef Shawn kept us all fat and happy. Not too much else to report. We're going to give this another try tomorrow and hope that we can get on a school early and drift all day. That's the plan, anyhow. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for checking in and wish us luck manana.

-The Supreme Team

~~Aug 30
 Today didn't go as well as we were hoping. The plan sounded so good in my head too. You don't believe me? Come inside my mind and tell me it didn't sound like a good plan, you'll be a liar. The plan was to start here and work there. We were supposed to catch a bunch of yellowtail, then catch a wahoo or two, then scratch at some dorado here and there along with another wahoo or two, then we were supposed to get a small hit on wahoo in the end before finding the motherload of dorado.

 Well, there wasn't much yellowtail. The little bit of dorado we saw either didn't bite or was small. And we didn't see a wahoo until the end. We did see a school of good grade yellowfin that wasn't in our plan. It didn't bite for long though. It was on the corner biting every bait for about three minutes. Just long enough for everyone to get one and then they vanished. I drove around thinking I would easily find the school again but we never did. We lost at least 6 wahoo on the last spot we checked and landed none. The wahoo won today.

 Cool things of note today- the sailfish we caught, a couple marlin hooked and the orcas we saw. In the 14 seasons I've been out here I can only remember a handfull of times seeing killer whales so it's not too often we see them. We also don't catch sailfish too often.

 Tomorrows plan- wahoo!

Had an insane stop on Long range size Yellowfin. 3 hours later we ended up with 11 fish. Lost as many. Had 7 going at once, for our 6 anglers! Good stuff

Fished for a couple of hours this morning with no signs of larger grade tuna so we left and will be fishing in a different spot tomorrow. Had a Oriental noodle salad this afternoon that was out of this world. Really good. Our weather continues to be in the beautiful category and we are all enjoying that. Wish us luck for some of those bigger fish. We'll check in tomorrow.

Thanks,
Tommy and crew