turtle lake Fishing Report 2024

22 yellowfin 3 bluefin(2 over 100lbs). Always a good idea to have a rod to fish 40-60lb line, never know what we might encounter.

Today was slow fishing for Wahoo. We only landed a couple. Not many bites and some were eaten by sharks. The conditions were rough and we were rolling around pretty good. We did have a shot at some large Yellowtail. They were deep in some treacherous country. For those who buttoned down their drags and pulled with all their might were able to tear a few from the rocks. A small victory on a otherwise slow day. Tomorrow we will still be pursuing Wahoo, but will be in good country for Tuna and Yellowtail as well.

~~Oct.16-20
 So for the last few days, I was either too busy to write a report or just too tired.  I knew these blogs wouldn't be making it out here until tomorrow anyway so I figured I would just do a 4 day report to explain the remainder of our trip down below so here it goes.

 When I left off, the sharks backed off and allowed us to have a great afternoon and we were hoping the sharks would do the same thing they did last year after the first couple of days which is leave.  That didn't happen.  It was a sharky trip for sure.  Brown Reef Sharks were in the picture for the remainder of the time we were down there.  Sometimes they were relentless and we'd have to pull anchor and go trolling for wahoo and other times they would back off just enough to allow us to scratch at the tunas and then other times they would back off completely.  They weren't tuna eaters though.  They let us wind in what we hooked, but they loved our kite baits.

 Anyways, we still had an excellent trip down there sharks or no sharks.  There were a lot of windows of opportunity and there were some slow windows as well.  There was almost always a window where we would get at least two cows before sunrise, and after that it never stayed consistent.  If we didn't need to sleep it would've been convenient.  I know we missed plenty of tuna bites in the dark hours through out the night but that's when we would sleep.  Like I said though we had an excellent trip and here are the numbers to prove it.

 130 yellowfin tuna and 60 wahoo for 8 guys for 6 days.  54 tuna kept.  11 over 200 lb's, 5 that may go when we weigh them on the dock scale, 6 between 170-180 and the rest were 100-150 pounds with much fish being in the 120-130 pound class.  We also released 76 of those too!  One release estimated to be around 200 pounds and several in the 150 pound range and like I said, many in the 120-130 pound range.  Our largest was 240 and next in line was a 234 pounder kept.

 Here are the team jackpot totals: 1st place goes to Charlie and Craig with 2 fish totaling 453 pounds.  2nd went to George and Scott with 2 totaling 414.  George also had 5 tuna over 200 pounds by the way.  One per day besides the last day.  3rd place went to the Jer-bear and JC with 399 pounds, and Brian and Bernie finished just behind them with 396 pounds.  None of this is official.  We still need to weigh them oin land.

 And that's basically how fishing was down there.  Here are some things that stand out to me while we were down there.  First of all I'd like to talk about KC.  I'm not saying he was scared, he just didn't seem too pumped on fighting one of these fish we call cows.  He wasn't the first or fifth for that matter to jump on a spot on the kite for example when one was available.  On the third day it couldn't be avoided.  He got up on that kite and when he did this particular time he hooked a big one and he handled it as well as anyone.  I mean he kicked that fishes @$$.  He came to battle and he won.  It taped out as a 193 pounder.  After that it wasn't hard to get KC up on the kite when a spot was presented.  It went from where the heck is KC, to him not leaving the rail at all.

 I let Mark know the Raiders lost.  I did it in a mean way too.  His birthday was the 16th I believe, and Chef Mike baked him a cake and we all sang happy birthday and when it was over, I gave him my birthday present which is spilling the beans on lying about the Raiders beating the Chargers.  Ha ha Mark.

 The weather was a lot less steamy the last few days down there.  It was still hot, but once the clouds went away it didn't feel like a sauna there anymore.  Although myself and a few others got the worse case of burnt lips we ever had.  I did it in a dumb way too.  I knew I should go get my chap stick from my room on the first day down there but my lips did;t feel like they were getting chapped so I thought, because of the humidity my lips weren't drying out and I didn't need protection.  Dumb, stupid and idiotic.  My lips may not have dried out but they still got as burnt as ever.

  So that's it.  We now travel for a few days.  The crew has plenty to do.  Clean, clean clean and sleep.  The passengers will be sleeping and celebrating a wonderful trip.  We'll be trying to break up the ride on our last day of travel by looking for a dorado kelp but that's still not for a couple more days.
      

 

Last minute trip cancellation just opened up one spot on our Guadalupe 6 day coming up! Jump on before someone else does!

~~July 2
  Good evening everyone. We're out fishing again on a wonderful 2 day trip. That means we fished this afterrnoon and we have all day tomorrow. I was pretty pumped when we left the dock. The bluefin reports were good and the local guys were catching yellowfin close to home. We got a pretty good load of bait and took off on the hunt. We got the goose egg today. The very unfortunate 0. It was definitely a time of day thing because we saw a couple schools and plenty of loose fish, they just wanted nothing to do with us this afternoon. We're going to gather ourselves and get set up on the bluefin grounds tonight and hopefully make up for today tomorrow.

 The weather today was great and as always we hope for the same tomorrow. Also I love our new electronics. Wait till you see it.

Wow what a great day! We had an awesome morning bite on the Dorado. Big bulls and cows. We took a break at lunch and Pedro prepared a Southwestern 10 oz. burger that was delicious. He really nails the menu with his creative spices and herbs. Back out on the deck we had excellent fishing on the wahoo throughout the whole day. And then to finish up the day we caught some yellowfin tuna. Just a great, fun day. Dinner tonight was a spicy ginger shrimp curry. Another great dish. Our weather all day has been beautiful. I hear it's been crappy up above and hope it lies down before we start up the line.

This year is my 20th straight season operating a boat at the Coronado Islands. The fishing that is happening right now is the best I have ever seen. Boats from 10 ft to 124 ft all drifting and getting them. Don’t miss out on this amazing display of bio-mass. Please be responsible and only keep what you need. Have fun, be responsible and help a kid or a beginner. The guys are getting them again this morning. 75+ out of their first stop.

Plenty of stops on breezing, foaming, jumping, tuna. Colt Snipers and flylined bait on 25 lb. 16 yellowfin tuna, 14 bonito tuna, 1 mahi, mahi, mahi, mahi, mahi.