watauga river Fishing Report 2025

July 18 We couldn't get in our groove today. Stops for 1,1,1,1,1. Saw plenty of fish. Nothing I would call a school but descent balls of fish that just wouldn't react for us. And that's all I have to say about that. Arrive depart tomorrow on another 5 day. July 17 We made awful time coming up the line from Cedros last night then all day we got tied up with all the tons of bluefin schools we passed along the way. 60 miles of the fish. We also scratched yellows on the kelps we went by. The albacore evening area moved up 20 miles and we didn't get to the grounds until 3:15.

 

 

 

We did manage to find a couple hungry biting schools of albacore before dark and put some more meat on the boat currently chilling at a comfortable 30 degrees. Weather is fine and we're going to enjoy some delicious lamb chop for dinner and hit the rack. We'll be here tomorrow to finish up the trip. We are far away from home but we'll stay as long as the fish are biting. Sorry Tommy, we might be getting home late on Monday. July 16 For the past 2 weeks if you were a long range boat at Cedros you just rolled up to a certain spot on the island, shut down and made a day of it. Not today, that certain spot was not happening today. We had to fish. It took a while to locate them but around 11:30 we did. 6 schools up at a time. Unfortunately they were not biting fish. We'd stop on a big school for 6, stop on one for 3,1,0,6,12, like that. At 5:30 we stopped on the mother load school and had them almost jumping in the boat they were so thick but yet again, it didn't bite like advertised. We did get quite a few there and hit a couple more schools before dark where we caught some fish. Perfect weather today and should remain that way for at least a couple more days. We're going to take advantage of the glassy sea and head back offshore for the remainder of the trip. Good night. Drew and the famous crew of the Polaris Supreme. July 15 We started off at the night before hot evening bite area with the fleet. We drove 20 miles to far before light. A code boat who had a later jump passed through that area at daylight and found some biting albacore. So the fleet slides up 20 miles. When we got up there we had time for a couple of stops before the door slammed shut. From then until we left, SLOW. We started to slide down. 20 miles later we're back where we started and we see the fish. 1 good stop, 3 short stops and 1 great stop later, we're headed down to the Island for some great yellowtail fishing and sun block wearing weather. Oh yeah, the weather today was just fine. Drew and the crew. July 14 Good afternoon viewers. We arrived at the dock early this morning and weighed up jackpot. 1st was Tim Ryan with a 36.6 albacore. Second was Kirk Kirkpatrick with his 34.6 pounder and bringing up third was Dennis Mc Neely with one at 33.6. We are now rolling down in beautiful much overdue sunny weather. We have a full load of fantastic sardine and passengers eager to use them. I'm just sitting in the wheelhouse starring at my water charts and listening to my code boats trying to figure out where to be tomorrow. We're going to start somewhere offshore tuna fishing. The reports don't sound to great so we might have to do some fishing tomorrow and try and relocate these albacore. The weather forecast looks great so we have that going for us. It's almost seminar time and shortly there after dinner time.

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

Hi friends. We made a morning of a steady yellowtail pick but it was pretty much a one shot deal. We picked and scratched for a couple of stops after our initial morning deal but it was pretty apparent to us that greener pastures lie somewhere else. About mid-morning time, we began motoring on south to see if we can't set ourselves up for some tuna and wahoo tomorrow. We enjoyed hot, windless traveling weather and many of our anglers and crew took the opportunity to get their bronze on and let me tell you, it was good bronzing today. Anyhow, we're getting some rest in anticipation for tomorrow. Wish us luck and we'll keep you updated on our progress.

Weather took a turn for the worse. Today it was darn right sloppy looking for tuna. Although there was fair signs of 25-35 lb tuna, it wasn't what we were looking for. We were on what little sign there was of 200 lb tuna most of the morning, but it didn't want to bite. Scott caught and released a 110 pounder and Tom lost one well over 200 lbs. One other boat picked up two over 200 lbs., otherwise that was the only sign of cows seven boats had for the day. The water has cooled off quite a bit. Otherwise there is still plenty of bait around. We are going to bust a move tonight. We will be traveling two more days. Oh yea, lunch was bar-b-que beef, hors d'oeuvres more sushi and sashimi and dinner was Chilean sea bass in a mango salsa with fresh jalapenos and cilantro. Man that was good. I had two helpings myself! Thanks!

Supreme Update

There has been excellent bluefin fishing at 120 to 150 miles the last few days! In response the POLARIS SUPREME is putting the follow two day trips on line to specifically target these fish in this area as well as the yellowtail on the kelp patties in that zone.

Depart July 4 Wed 1pm Return July 6 Fri 11am $685 All inclusive

Depart July 6 Fri 1pm Return July 8 Sun 11am $685 All inclusive

 

The fish are between 120-150 miles and departing at 1 pm in the afternoon will easily put the SUPREME on the fishing grounds by 5 am the following morning and allow her to fish until 8pm that evening. Giving you, the angler, a true full day to target this beautiful grade fish. Come join us on an all inclusive limited load charter. This is an opportunity you don't want to pass up!

 

You can book these at Fisherman's Landing. Please give Susan a call in the office if you have any questions. 619-390-7890

 

Thanks,

Tommy

 

Polaris Supreme docked under owner-skipper Tom Rothery's hand June 26, after a five-day trip with 24 anglers for yellowtail and albacore. Tom weighed the fish at the certified scales at Fisherman's Landing, where a 48-pound yellowtail took top honors.
Terry Emmert of Douglas, WY had the first-place winner. "I got him in about 15 minutes," he said. "He just kept pulling and pulling, and he kept getting into a stringer of floating kelp. He's my best yellowtail ever." Emmert said he fished a sardine on the flyline, using a 3/0 Mustad 91450 hook on 40-pound P-Line. He had an Okuma 20 two-speed reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod, wrapped by Bill Boyce. Michael Giardino of San Pedro was second, for a 43-pound yellowtail, and Mal Wagstaff of Douglas, WY was third, for a 36.2-pound yellowtail. Three generations of Pattersons were aboard, and they posed with their fish. Liam Patterson of San Jose is eight, and he goes to Santa Teresa Elementary School, where he practices karate. Liam caught some big yellowtail, and he also got and posed with a 24.4-pound albacore, which will serve to start off this season's tally for the largest fish of that species.

Liam's dad Lane stood in with the boy, as did John Danis and John Patterson, also of San Jose and from the Patterson family.

We had a good day on the albacore. Everyone is having a great time in spite of the fact that the weather is sloppy and rough. However it looks like tomorrow it might lay down and we will have good weather. Let's hope. As I'm sure everyone knows by now, we have the Guadalupe permits. We might go there on our next two trips. Check in tomorrow for an update.

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 08-20-2016Good afternoon everyone. We departed today on the Joe Beck/Bob Vance Annual 5 Day Charter. Not long after the morning offload, the boat was fueled up, groceries loaded we were headed out to the tuna grounds that have recently popped up. There isn't much time to waste when there can be quite a bit of time to fish on the departure day of a 5 day trip. We loaded up on a fairly descent variety of sardine, got all of our seminars out of the way and went right into rigging up. We arrived at the area we wanted to look at not too long after lunch and stumbled on few schools right away. Nothing wanted to bite in any volume right off the bat, but Tom Christiansen got down with his jig and managed to hook up on something nice. After about a good half hour on the bow, he was able to land about a 110 lb. beautiful bluefin tuna. Not bad at all for his effort on 40 lb.test. Great way to start the trip. We spent the remainder of the day trolling around yummy flyers trying to locate a nice school to shut down on, but it looked like the fish went down for the afternoon. We'll camp out here tonight, enjoy a nice prime rib dinner and get back at it first thing in the morning. Well check back in with you tomorrow.Tight lines,Team Supreme