westport outfitters Fishing Report 2023

Today we scratched away at a nice grade of yellowtail. Our weather is calm and we had a fun day of island fishing. Thanks for checking in.

Hello everyone, Today we departed on our Briscoe 8 day trip. We are loaded up with some large sardines from San Diego and headed south. We have quite a few options to head towards but right now we are weighing our options and seeing how the weather forecast will play out. Right now however, we are just concentrated on rigging up and enjoying the ride! Will report again tomorrow, Team Supreme

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

Hi friends. Fishing today was just beautiful today on 16-22 lb. yellowtail down here. We had a few of those "premiums" in the mix and a few shakers but for the most part, it was a really nice grade of 'tail. Our key to success today was finding--as Tommy puts it--fresh balls [of yellowtail]. Classic run 'n gun fishing for the morning as the guys on jigs and fly-lined sardines were getting their fill but once our drift was established, the dropper loop guys got in on the action too. Anyways, it was a good morning bite in the "drift zone" but a little after lunch, things shut off and we toured around trying to find another ball without much success. Speaking of lunch, chartermaster Joe Gigliotti did it again. He owns the pizza game and made a really awesome lunch for the guys. Sausage, pepperoni, olives, barbecued chicken, chicken and pesto, and smoked fish, capers, and onions were being devoured by the gang. Joe rocks. I only had a couple bites of each because my nutritionist, Chef Shawn, didn't think I needed the extra carbs and fat. I had salad and a banana. Eyes on the prize, baby. Anywho, it was definitely a morning thing and we'll be here for one more morning to see if we can't connect on some more fresh balls [of yellowtail] and let the weather fade out before we boogie out of here to get in some offshore tuna and dorado action. Oh yeah, we need to make some bait too.

As I type this, the time is 0245 hours in the morning and it's starting to rain, Gunny is all slicked up downstairs braving the elements, and I'm up here in the cozy wheelhouse contemplating typing a report for another hour and fifteen minutes until we have to wake up Tommy and Mark. Nah, I can't do Gunny like that. Anyhow, bait-making isn't all that great as Gunny has made a couple pieces and a couple of flying fish for next trip and I've made one lizard fish. Pumped.

Speaking of pumped, the gym here on the Polaris Supreme is overloaded with muscle right now. Last night before dinner, Tommy was in the wheelhouse gettin' his leg and core workouts in while I was out back in the "gun zone" getting my diesel on with some upper body workouts. Tommy was rockin' out a few sets of crunches, squats, and toe raises, I was in the gun zone jackin' out sets of chin-ups, tricep dips, push-ups, and leg lifts. It was on. So my fellow pump brother, Riddler the Ripped One, and I were getting all swollen and admiring each others work, and here's Gunny taking a shower. He doesn't have a membership to the gym yet but we'll find a way to get him one, don't you worry, Tommie. If you're nickname is "Gunny", you'd better be shredded to the max and not applying cocoa butter moisturizer when Riddles and I are getting wrenched. I'm proud of you, Riddler, I'll be your spotter anytime. If only we could get him bronzing...

Staying with the last topic, Drew and I took what might be the best photo ever this evening. A rainbow showed itself in the distance and what a beautiful rainbow it was. Instinctively, Drew leaped into my arms and I held him like a baby lamb in my toned arms and Mark snapped a photo of the exchange. The picture is just fabulous, Drew being held up by "Richie Gun Racks", his smile ear-to-ear, and a beautiful rainbow in the background. Just lovely.

So that's all. Life on the Supreme is grand right now and I've got to go and make some bait. Like I said, we'll be here tomorrow trying for some more 'tails. Hopefully, the action is a real fat burner and we're just going crazy all day. We'll see. Okay, I gotta go. Bait, bait, bait!

-The Supreme Team

The Annual SFR charter aboard the Apollo with Captain J.J Gerritsen and crew was a big success !! The Apollo is running out of Sea Landing on beautiful Santa Barbara Harbor, the closest harbor to the outer Channel Islands. Great weather meant an ideal cruise over to San Miguel Island for some of the finest shallow water rockfishing you'll find anywhere. 300 feet down you say, maybe 200, how about 100 feet ? No way. The offshore terrain around San Miguel is so rugged and marked with underwater pinnacles, we spent most of the day fishing in 25 to 90 feet of water. Lighter rigs, jigs, leadheads and swimbaits were the order of the day, and the San Miguel rockfish were in a hungry mood. We started catching fish before daybreak and spent the rest on the trip hauling up huge reds, chuckles and lings, all sporting some of the most vibrant colors I've seen on any fish in a long time. Awesome day!! We limited out on huge rockfish, slammed about 50-60 grumpy whitefish, 5-6 huge goats and 16 or so pre-historic looking lings before calling it a trip. Epic day !!!! The jackpot was a nail biter as Shawn Suhr's huge lingcod and Art Moralez's giant goat battled to a near dead heat. Captain J.J needed to come down and settle the score, with the final vote went going to Shawn's 12-13 pound ling. Great job Shawn. Captain J.J and his crew did an awesome job as always and the Apollo is looking as spotless as ever. The Apollo will be in Santa Barbara till around mid May before moving down to Fisherman's Landing in San Diego. Call Sea Landing at 1-805-963-3564 or log onto www.apollocharters.com for their schedule. Great trip everyone !!!. email me at [email protected] for any photos. Thats the word on the water. Don

Strong south wind made things interesting today but we’re able to find a lucky kelp in the bottom of the ninth. We managed our quota of green dorado and 16 yellowtail.

138 Yellowfin, 39 Yellowtail and 44 Skipjack. Beautiful weather and biting fish.

Captain Ryan Bostian checked tonight with an update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.  We have been fishing offshore still.  We have had a lot of ups and downs.  We are seeing schools of Bluefin Tuna of various sizes.

We recommend a 20 pound outfit with 1 or 2 size live bait hooks with a fluorocarbon leader.  Bring a heavy rig to fish the big ones.

We had jumbos today 55 Pound Yellowfin 125 Bluefin Tuna 177 Bluefin Tuna

Excellent sign of fish around come on out and fish on the San Diego.

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived this morning to the docks at around 0700 and said good-bye to our friends from SDG & E. We unloaded a beautiful catch of Yellowtail and a dazzling assortment of other tasty fish and the big Yellowtail honors go as follows: Lenny Campos - 26.2 lbs. Ulises Ochoa - 25.0 lbs. Rodger Schwecke - 24.8 lbs. Congratulations and thanks once again to the entire gang and we'll see everyone next season. After unloading, refueling, a couple of minor maintenance projects, loading groceries, and scrubbing the boat from mast to water-line, we loaded up another eager group of passengers and set sail for greater points south on another three day extravaganza.

 

Our group is quite the mix of Polaris Supreme veterans and Polaris Supreme first-timers but it's looking like we're going to have a fun group to fish with. We're headed right back to where we ended up last trip and with a steady flow of other boats in our wake, we're wasting no time in getting down there. We'll try and relocate some squid for a little while and if we can't, we're bombing on down to our honey hole with plenty of sardines and one tank of squid from last trip. We're knocking on wood and wishing upon lucky stars that our honey hole can give us one more chance at some good fishing before the place gets too congested. Please send us some luck from the beach. This is a team effort.

 

So there you have it. Our weather as we are steaming down the coast is gorgeous. A mild swell and light winds have made for premium traveling conditions and we'll be more than pleased if it continues until Wednesday morning but as we've seen, things can change in the snap of a finger. We're just enjoying the fact that the ride is currently beautiful, the Prime Rib was once again delicious, and our spirits are high. We'll report to you tomorrow.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Hi friends. The result of this morning's squid float was two deck wells and the port slammer being loaded up with squid. It was a great float with the entire crew waking up to get the job done in just about twenty minutes. What was an ocean void of squid-life at 1:45 AM  was then corroded with calamari at 2:00 AM. Swimming with the thousands upon thousands of squid were baby Mola-Mola's that were about the size of a hub cap. We had to push them out of the way to close the crowder without getting a few of those baby beasts in the net. We got all the bait we needed and then some along with some cool views of amazing ocean life.

Back to Friday for a moment, it was a decent day of Yellowtail fishing on the Polaris Supreme and what kept it from being a very good day was our score at the end of the day. For various reasons, we lost more fish than we tagged but we ended up with a respectable count on the 'tails. We also added plenty of white meat to our RSW hold and when the hatch was shut for the evening, we felt content with a solid day of catching fish in nice weather.

Saturday morning found us fishing the bait balls of squid as we attempted to snag a White Seabass or two. We didn't give it long before we began the chase for some more Yellows' and after a couple anchor jobs, we found yesterday's batch of fish but this time we were armed with plenty of freshly caught squid. Even with our brand new supply of bait we once again lost more than we hooked but just like Friday, we managed to piece together a nice catch of Yellows' in the 15-28 lb. range. Beautiful grade of fish, from the Yellowtail to all the various "taco meat" fish that we captured as well. Again, we are satisfied with our day but felt we should have done a lot better with our hook-to-land ratio. That's fishing though. There will be days that we land most of what we hook and there will be days that we don't. Just remember that when on a trip fishing for coastal species on the Polaris Supreme or any vessel, don't treat it as if they don't require the respect and attention to detail that offshore tuna would muster. Make sure your gear is in proper working order, properly set your drags, tie good knots/connections, and always have fresh line to start the day after a day of catching fish. Regardless of the fish lost, we are happy with our load in the fish hold and we had a very enjoyable trip.

So that is all. Good times were had by all and we'd like to thank Bret and the SDG & E gang for joining us for three days of good fishing, good food, and good friends. We're rolling up the line in rolly seas and our scheduled ETA to Fisherman's Landing is 0700 hours. We'll be turning around for another three day adventure and we'll chat with you tomorrow. Good night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-  

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived at the Yellowtail grounds today with the anticipation of a banner day as yesterday's reports from our long range brothers would give us no reason not to think so. We attempted to crowd some squid up for our bait arsenal but were unsuccessful in the early morning hours and continued on our trek towards the fertile fishing grounds. Once we arrived, it wasn't too long before we settled back on the anchor and had a few fish going. We hooked them using every possible method that we typically apply to catching Yellowtail...to be continued.

PS: 0200 hours update: Squid are floating!!! Gotta go, better report tomorrow. Sorry. Decent Yellowtail fishing today with some other tasty treats to join them in our fish holds. We'll be in Yellowtail land tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Hi friends. We departed Fisherman's Landing this morning on our annual Seifert, Lane, and Da Silva three day trip with a full load of bait and a full group of familiar faces. Bait loading went smoothly and we're currently motoring down to points South to begin our fishing activities. Reports sound pretty good at one of our favorite Yellowtail fisheries and we expect to do battle with the mighty Jack's sometime tomorrow.

All is well with the crew as we're all back from our 4th of July vacation and happy to be back to work, just doing our jobs and doing what we love. Chef Schooler/Chef Barry are about to kick out the Prime Rib feast, Drew is showered up and ready to serve the feast, and Tommy is downstairs giving the troops the evening briefing. We have nice weather rolling down and we're ready to get after it.

Not a whole lot to report this evening. Hopefully we have more to report tomorrow, we'll see. From the bridge of the Polaris Supreme, we bid you farewell and have a fantastic night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-