whakatane Fishing Report 2025

Today our 30 anglers were treated to a 6 hour drift which resulted in 33 bluefin tuna from 60 to 100 pounds and 1 twenty pound yellowfin. We managed to keep 1-8 fish hooked at all times. Our bites were coming on 40&50 lb flyline sardines and 130-160 gram Shimano Flatfalls as well as 100 gram Shimano Colt snipers. TIP FROM THE CREW: In order to keep the deck clean and safe. We rinse with a saltwater hose constantly. Wearing rubber boots or waterproof shoes is recommended.

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Hi friends. Long time - no talk. We've decided to update everybody on our annual maintenance season to begin our 2012 season. We hauled the boat out at Knight and Carver Yacht Center and immediately dove into our projects that should take us the next three weeks to complete. Painting the outside/inside of the boat, refinishing the rails, and repainting the deck are just a few of the cosmetic projects on our list along with numerous mechanical projects to ensure that the Polaris Supreme not only looks good but operates at tip-top performance. This time of the year is always bittersweet. It's nice to maintain the boat and get her looking good for the up-coming season but it's also terrible to see a boat like this. The boat is unrecognizable, she sits on blocks, dirt and paint dust everywhere, grease, mud, and tools lying everywhere and it's hard to believe that she'll look like a brand new boat in a few weeks. But somehow, it happens and we hope that everyone will appreciate the hours we put into keeping the vessel looking good and running smoothly for you.

Anyhow, we'll report back to you daily and every few days or so, we'll send some photos along so that you can see what Tommy, Drew, Jed, Mark, Tommie (new guy) and myself are up to on the boat. Hopefully, I'll be able to type after twelve hours of sanding and grinding. Take care everyone.

-Richie and Team Supreme

It's late in the season, but Guadalupe Island is still holding and producing good catches of quality yellowfin tuna.

"We just returned this morning from another very successful Fall Guadalupe trip," said the report from the charter boat Apollo October 25. "This was another charter with 12 friends. We made good time getting to the Island and arrived at the south end around 9:30 am. There were good biting school size (25/40 lb) yellowfin tuna biting on the anchor. There were also a few schools of better grade (50/100 lb) fish to be found if one was willing to work for it. We were willing! We worked the Island for 4 days mainly targeting that better grade YFT and produced a beautiful catch of 127 Yellowfin tuna. The biggest was 108 lbs with 6 other fish breaking the century mark."

The good fishing at the island could go on until Christmas. It usually lasts until the water drops below 67 degrees or so. Old-timers tell stories about fishing yellowfin or bluefin tuna at the island when there was snow on the peaks. Guadalupe is the one destination that consistently produces yellowfin tuna of 50 to 100 pounds or more short of Alijos Rocks, another full day's cruise south.

35 pass. 140 yellowtail 33 bonito. I know some of you are wondering why we have fish in burlap bags. At the end of the trip we take our fish out of the fishhold and put them in bags so our customers don’t have to carry their fish home in their backpacks. Their core temps are 35 degrees.

The Lupe was poop. Heading up for a couple days of albacore fishing.

10 yellowfin 1 bluefin 3 skipjack. We put our McDonough charter group on enough fish to sink the boat. Unfortunately the tuna didn’t want much to do with our hooks.

July 13
    We had some good tailing today.  We were a little slow out of the gates.  We didn't get on them until a few hours after daylight but when we did it was good fishing on the 18-25 pound fish.  We had one of those good old long drifts where we were gettin um.  Of course after a while we had a lull so we went searching and found some mixed grade yellowtails eager to bite.  They were mostly 10-14 pounds with a few 16-18 pounders in the mix but it was still fun and they were biting.  We did that for a couple hours and left them biting to find the bigger grade of fish we were fishing in the morning and wouldn't you know it, we got an evening whack.  A sun setter.  Now this fish seemed to be even bigger than the morning grade.  I'm talking 22-28 pounders this time.  Maybe a few bigger.  At dark we decided we had enough yellowtail and we'd like to top off with some more yellowfin and try for some bluefin in a couple of days so we'll be running up tonight.  The weather for us was good
  and the forecast for the future looks tasty.  5 knots of wind makes my mouth water.  Everyone on board here is fat and happy.  What I mean by that is they're being fed well and are having a good time.

 

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

Hi friends. Yes, don't adjust your monitors, it is a live report from the long-range vessel Polaris Supreme. After a good week of maintenance (except for making sure our Sirius radio properly functioned) and cleaning, we departed Fisherman's Landing this morning at 0700 hours for a 17-day excursion with Mr. Tom Pfleger and friends. After loading a couple of hundred scoops of sardines, we cleared the point at 1000 hours and as anyone who knows a thing or two about weather and sea conditions in San Diego -- or any coastal Southern California area -- knows that our ride out this morning was rather sporty. We hadn't even cleared the point and the circus ensued.

The first day of a new season is always comical for us "seasoned" crew members. It's one of the funniest days of the year for me, that's the truth. Eight veteran, long-range mariners stumble and tumble their way about the boat like the time a baby takes its first step - banging into walls, tripping over their own boots and heck, a few of us even fought the urge to vomit. Granted, the weather was less than ideal but this happens on the ride to the bait receivers sometimes, let alone rockin' and rollin' in a confused sea a mile from them. Even with all of the flubs and flounders of the first few hours of being back on the boat, we're alive and if you know us, we're going to be just fine. I never really appreciated such an event before; going back out on our first crazy adventure of the year with my older brothers and that is exactly what we are - a family, and we're all back and ready to do this.

Since I have the time, I'll fill y'all in on the status of my previously mentioned "family" members. Riddler is doing just fine; he's switched from white Air Monarch Nike's to all black Nike's which he sometimes pairs with black socks - which looks amazing, by the way. Drew got married in November and then hurt his thumb in a roller-blading accident. As a few of you whom where at the Fred Hall show might have heard, Gunny's daughter was in a car accident but other than a few "minor" injuries, she's doing just fine and will make a full recovery. Jed didn't hurt himself this winter so we're pumped to have him healthy for a full season - although, we do have some time-in once we complete this trip so there is still time for his fingers to hurt but we're hopeful he'll be just fine come June. Mark only looks three and a half months pregnant rather than his usual eight and a half months preggo and his son was accepted in St. Joseph's law school, so that's dandy. Chefs' Schooler and Shawn are great and yours truly is doing fantastic - here and ready to do some bronzing after my Guatemalan bronze-a-thon a week ago peeled off the other day. Bottom line, we couldn't be better. We're pumped to be back.

Anyhow, today was nothing to write home about other than traveling and napping but we figured that we'd do so anyways. I can't reveal all of our secrets of all the fun we're going to have on this trip but I'll give you just a tiny glimpse of the craziness that we're about to take part in: on-board we have low-carb ice cream, Yellowtail roe, a paddle, a 12-volt motorized reel, and a man by the name of "Cowboy". I'll leave the rest to your wild imaginations. Good night now.

-The Supreme Team

P.S. We miss you, Chugey, and your bicycle-kick wake-ups.