west coast salmon Fishing Report 2024

Tommy Rothery returned Polaris Supreme to Fisherman's Landing November 18 after a ten-day Ocean Tackle Research charter. The boat had 13 anglers aboard. Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen of Hood River, OR saw his father, Bill Mikkelsen of Olympia, WA land the season's first super cow; a tuna over 300 pounds.
"It was full-speed fishing," said Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen. Bill Mikkelsen's big fish won first place after it weighed in at 308.8-pounds, caught on a fly-lined sardine. Bill used the boats gear, including a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 100-pound P-Line, and a Shimano rod and reel.
"Tommy said it was tail-wrapped from the beginning," said the elder Mikkelsen. "And he was, but he got lose and went on another run. He took me around the boat twice." "We started with yellowtail fishing on the ridge that turned out to be a real good bite," said Rothery. "We easily could have got limits on yellowtail and dorado, but these guys normally release most of their fish. We had one day of awesome marlin fishing, which this group enjoyed quite a bit." "I think we had maybe 200 hookups on marlin," said John Esler of Portland. "But our yellowfin bite was pretty amazing. Once Tommy would find them, he'd shut the motors off and just drift. They didn't need a lot of chum either, they were boiling all around the boat." Esler landed a 206.7-pound yellowfin.
Matt Kiesse of Cederville, CA was second place with a 279.8-pound yellowfin.
"The trip was just spectacular," said Kiesse. "We got everything." Lon Mikkelsen was third with a 277.9-pound tuna. The trip scored five tuna over 200 pounds.

44 pass. 156 yellowtail 17 barracuda 5 kelp bass. Flylined bait, surface iron and yo-yo. Passports required.

Open party 2 day trip on the Apollo. The only one of the year!! We will be targeting bluefin tuna and yellowtail!! Contact Fishermans landing for details. Ticket price is $489.00 per angler. Don't miss your chance!

14 yellowfin tuna and 5 bluefin tuna. Once again, unbelievable amount of tuna in our zone. Most of the fish are strung out on tiny chovies making them very difficult to hook. A dedicated flyliner with 25 lb has a chance at a yellowfin. A dedicated flatfall or sinker rig fisherman with 50 lb has a chance at a bluefin.

~~Nov. 12
 I'm not sure how to write about today because I'm not sure how I feel about today.  I'm definitely proud of us.  We fished hard today.  A lot of the boat was up before 4 trying to get a bite going and didn't let up till dark.  Now that's some hardcore fishing right there.

 We started in the last weeks hot spot.  Us and 2 other boats.  It didn't take long for the 2 other boats to leave the zone.  They were both on the latter parts of there trips and needed to head north.  We stuck it out as long as we could picking one here and one there along with a bounty of skipjack but most of the passengers stuck it out and stayed at the rail.  Like I said, I'm proud of them.  3 hours and 30 fish later we gave up and headed to different grounds in a direction for a boat more fresh out on there trip.  After lunch we arrived and again, I'm proud of these guys.  Once again we were picking one tuna here and one tuna there along with more skipjack and small dorado but once again these guys kept at it and fished hard.  Well the ratio got better and better until at the end it was pretty good fishing.  The grade could've been one more notch up but it is what it is and we understand that.

 We're on our way to try and make some mackerel and we'll be headed to cow town the following day.  We're going to give it at least a day and give everyone on board an opportunity to catch a major cow tuna.  Wish us luck.
      

Another great start today. The Yellowtail are biting extreme well. It was a great couple hours of fishing to start the day. 

After we had enough inshore fishing we decided to head offshore to look for Bluefin. We were able to connect later in the day, with 5 Tuna up to 40 lbs. 

Tough conditions offshore, hoping the tuna will bite better soon.

We will be in tomorrow morning,

Team Supreme