tippy dam salmon Fishing Report 2023

"What an absolutely, fantastic, unbelievable day," wrote Tommy Rothery aboard his Polaris Supreme November 2. "We had more marlin than you can imagine. We hooked and are released over 220. The wahoo fishing was also fantastic. The group had a blast pulling in "crocodile" size wahoo. And we topped off the day with even bigger dorado than yesterday. The weather is good and we just had an awesome day on all three: wahoo, dorado and marlin." The next day Rothery wrote, "Well if we thought yesterday was phenomenal, today was even better. I know I'm repeating myself but the fishing was just great again on the wahoo and dorado. And yes, the marlin are still here and wanted to play. We have good weather and this is a nice way to end the trip. Great group, great fishing, great crew." Rothery docked at Fisherman's Landing November 6 after his Larry Brown charter with 22 anglers. "The place was thick with marlin," he remarked. "There's lots of bait and the water where we're fishing is 78 to 79 degrees." Dr. Chris Minnick of Pasadena won first place for a 71.6-pound yellowfin. He said he bagged it in about ten minutes,, after it bit on a sardine pinned to a 3/0 Hayabusa hook. He used 60-pound Soft Steel Ultra line and 80-pound Izorline Spectra backing on an Avet EXW 4-2 reel and a Calstar 765 L rod.
Mike Mayes of Rnancho Santa Margarita won second place for a 54.6-pound wahoo. Ron Stafford of Minot, ND won third place for a 53-pound yellowfin tuna. A gentleman identified as "Duke" posed in the lineup shot with a typical dorado from the trip.

Aug. 15
 Our day sort of reversed from yesterday.  Today it was a super slow morning that led into an action packed afternoon.  We looked for bluefin tuna this morning.  We started off in the zone where it had been in the weeks prior, but like yesterday, it wasn't around.  We caught one 12 pounder on the troll all morning.  We looked around there and in other places I thought it might have gone but we never saw an meat.  We went through one area where at least we were seeing little dabs of the BF but it was diving off on the meter.  We could tell it didn't want it.

 So we kept tracking around and ended up close to a possible yellowtail honey hole. So we took a look and that's exactly what it was.  For the rest of the afternoon till dark we stayed pretty steady on 12-25+ pound yellers.  It was good fishing.  A very pleasant surprise.  We're keeping this ball rolling.

 Needless to say, well maybe not needless, but we're going to spend the night here and see what this place looks like in the morning.
    

Aug 14
    As I write this, it's the morning of the 14th.  When I was awakened for my watch and day at 3:05 this morning I couldn't tell if we were running or if we were anchored up in the bay.  You can't really hear the engines from where I sleep but I couldn't tell from the ride because it was so nice going up last night.  I seriously asked Tommy as he was still up reading.
    
    The fishing slowed down for us today as fishing does from time to time.  The bluefin didn't bite as well this morning nor did the yellowfin.  There was still yellowfin to catch this morning and there were some good scores had in the afternoon away from the bluefin zone but we caught enough yellowfin yesterday and hung out in the bluefin zone for a chance at some more of those trophies in the afternoon/evening.  We still had a decent morning.  I mean we still caught 14 nice bluefin and some yellowfin, but the bf's never made it back around for the afternoon snack fest.  We had a great trip and will be off loading a nice catch tomorrow morning at 6:00 and turning right back around shortly after that for 5 days.
 
     One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the amount of these toad bluefin being caught on jigs.  More then I have ever seen ratio wise but that could also be because more people were doing it but that could be because it was working well.  The shimano butterfly jig is the jig that caught most of our jig fish. But that could be because that's what most people were using but that could be because it was working so well.  And 90+ percent of those were caught on the sink.  No retrieve necessary except to bring it up to sink back down.  They loved it.  So if I were coming out this year I would throw a couple of those in my box.
                                
    
    PS- Shimano gave me nothing to write that last paragraph.  It just worked.

 

Hey there everyone the Voyager has a 2.5 day San Martin/ offshore trip coming up with a few extra spots open. The cost is $550 this includes all the bells and whistles. It departs at 5:00 pm on friday the 14th and returns on monday morning the 17th between 5-7 am. Please contact Jodie at 858-220-1593 2 spots available to be exact!!

~~Sep. 22
 We had a slow day.  And there's no sugar coating it.  There's no let's let you decide if it was slow.  It just was, and unfortunately for this trip we don't have another day to make it right.  There was a one hour window where if you were in the right place at that time and found a school you were in for a good bite but that was few and far between and unfortunately we weren't the few.  We scratched a little in the morning, found a dandy school before lunch that let us catch a few handfuls before swimming away, and we found a stretch of and area this afternoon that we thought we were going to make something happen, we found three kelps in a row with tuna on them but they would only boil around and not bite except for a few. 

 On the plus side our weather today was fantastic.  If you're going to have a slow day fishing, it's a whole lot better doing it in good weather than in bad weather.  I also saw alot more of San Clemente Island than I ever have before.  I now know more about the looks of the island itself and the bottom structure of it.  We're headed in now and we're turning around again tomorrow for 2 more days.

 And one last thing.  I'm not going to mention it because I only heard this second hand and I don't want to start a rumor if it's not true but a sport boat out here today caught a wahoo.  Now once again I'm not going to mention it, but one boat, maybe the Prowler caught a wahoo.  I'm not going to start a false rumor so I'm not saying anything.
       

Aug. 22

A slow day on the Polaris Supreme today. My honey hole wasn't so much a honey hole. We had a couple stops the first half a day for some nice bluefin, yellows and dorado before taking off to what I hope tomorrow is the promise land. An example of how big the ocean is, one hour after leaving the area a code boat found a dandy school and gave me the position. Upon further investigation I noticed it was 1 mile from my earlier track line. It didn't bite for him. Now I always want my fellow boats to do well out here but you know deep down inside I was a little relieved to here that.

The weather out here is still fabulous and tomorrow is going to be a day full of bent rods, hooting and hollering and a boat full of tired people. I can feel it.

5 minutes of hard hat time for Mark today. . See ya.

The day started in the dark with some great fishing on quality yellowtail. After daybreak we still had good fishing on the school grade yellowtail with an 18 lb. average until noontime. And then the afternoon took a powder and we couldn't find anything to catch. The weather offshore is rough but we are hiding behind an island and are in good weather. Dinner was a tasty Cornish game hen, fresh veggies, wild rice and a really good hot brownie pudding cake. Thanks for checking in. Tommy and crew

Fishing is still good. We got a good handful of nice grade tuna with most being around 100 lbs. and Matt got a 188 lb. and Bill got a 192 lb. The weather is excellent. Just beautiful. Pedro delighted us with a roasted chicken with a great cilantro sauce. Really yummy. And dinner with a superb grilled steak. It was another great day.