willapa bay Fishing Report 2025

Wednesday, April 24th, 2012

Hi friends. Starting off the day, we were expecting rain if not when we woke up but for sure around the mid-morning time. Captain Drew told me to expect work at 0700 hours this morning and that he would call me if he was going to call off the day. At about 0615 hours, my phone rang and when I saw that my phone read "Incoming call: Drew Henderson", I nearly trampled my girlfriend to reach for the phone and hear those beautiful words of "don't come to work today". Well, Drew being the awesome boss that he is just wanted to remind me that work was still on. Disappointed is an understatement. He specifically said that he would only call to let me know that we were NOT to come into work. I reluctantly suited up for work, still a little peeved that my vision of sleeping in and an all-day couch marathon was switched back to 7-11 coffee, 5-hour energies, and arthritic hands by days end.

Now some of you might be asking "Richie. Why so grumpy about going to work?" Well, after Tuesday's primer coat application, the primer creates what is called "orange peel".The entire hull looks like a giant, white orange peel and to rid ourselves of this orange peel, what must one do to smooth it out and get prepped for the final gloss coat? If you guessed "more sanding" then yes, you are correct. From 0700 until 1630 hours on Wednesday, we had to re-sand the entire boat with 220-grit sand paper to smooth everything out. Oh, how could I forget? We did all of this under beautiful, sunny skies. That weatherman is not our friend at the moment. He was wrong about the Wednesday morning/afternoon rain but he was correct about the rainfall on Wednesday evening in San Diego.

So here it is, Thursday morning and work was called off not only because of the rain but also to relieve sore, aching muscles as the constant use of both vibrating and orbital sanders took it's toll on Drew, Jed, Mark, Tommie, Jamie and myself from yesterday and we were given the day off. Thanks, Drew.

In all seriousness, there is a silver lining to all of my complaining of long days and sore bodies. All of the hard work that we put into the boat doesn't go un-noticed when we take a look at the boat right before the first trip of the season. The boat will look stunning and it will be a pleasure to keep her maintained throughout the years. When we have to put on our sunglasses to even stare at the hull and when you see your reflection perfectly in the boat, it's sweet justice to put so much time and effort into a project and to have it come out looking so beautiful. We can't wait to see how everyone will react when they first lay eyes on the new and improved Polaris Supreme.

Anyhow, I had some time to type out a nice, long report on our day off today. Weather permitting, we'll be back at it tomorrow to finish some touch-up sanding as we get ready for the final application of the gloss coat which probably will be scheduled for either Friday or Monday. We'll chat with you tomorrow and let you know how our day went.

-Richie & Team Supreme-

P.S. Sorry about no pictures lately. There really hasn't been anything picture-worthy in the past couple of days and the pictures I would've shot, you've seen before: all of us with sanders in our hands, gloves on, respirator masks, safety glasses and looking like giant powdered donuts. I'll send some shots with the completion of the gloss coat.

~~Oct. 16
 Good evening and welcome to the Polaris Supreme. We made it out tonight on one of those day and a halfers we have all over the schedule for the next couple of weeks. We even had one lucky walk up angler who boarded us last minute. He wasn't expecting us at all. Came to fish a local boat and got the Polaris Supreme. He even was wearing our jacket. He had prime rib for dinner. So we'll be fishing tomorrow and then coming home. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
 The final weigh ins were made. Or I should say weigh in. Justin new he stood no chance so he didn't even weigh himself. Go Mark. 225 with boots on.
 
 

Friday, October 19th, 2012

Hi friends. Happy Friday to all of you back home. How are you? Good, thanks for asking. Let's get down to business.

We awoke today just like any other day. Tommy woke us all up very peacefully but at the same time gave us way too much information and had our eyes crossed before we could even get the boogers out of them, or open them for that matter. I got out of the rack, put on my fishing shorts, came out to the bench in the wheelhouse, grabbed my boots, and proceeded to put on my socks. But these just weren't ordinary socks, oh no. I pulled these particular socks over my heels and up to my calves and when I pull my socks all the way up to my calves, you know what time it is - business time.

I pulled my socks all the way up so that when my boots are at full pop-dog--rather than semi pop-dog, the way I normally wear them with shorts--they don't rub me raw. I know what you're asking yourself right now, "Richie, why on earth have you spent an entire paragraph talking about your awesome business socks and boot length?" Well, the answer is simple - we got down to some major business on yellowfin tuna, flatheads, and wahoo and I don't like getting my legs all dirty and wet. That is why my boots were at full pop-dog today.

After looking around all morning at dry kelp paddies, we got on some ponies (common dolphins) and landed 14 of those beautiful 25-45 lb. yellowfin tunas. Unfortunately, that was our only go-around on those things and they vanished. It didn't take us long to locate a beautiful kelp paddy and it was on like Donkey Kong. The mahi's bull-rushed us and they were a really nice grade too. I'd say that the majority of the fish were in the 15-22 lb. range and they put on quite the show. Not quite a kelp paddy off of Mag Bay action but plenty close enough. No matter where they are, they're the hardest fish to gaff and they get us all wet. After finishing up our Mexican limit on those things, the tuna got in on the action and bit very well for us. For the most part, they're footballs, but a couple standouts were landed after the initial melee had passed. Joe Gigliotti got himself another beauty and Jeff Hauser got himself a dandy too. Good job guys, way to give a hundred and ten percent. The two luckiest anglers of all were Hart Brauer and Skip Hess II a.k.a. "Skipper Jenkins". Hart and Skip were our luckiest of the lucky lambs today and landed themselves one wahoo each. Fine work, boys.

So here we are. About to wrap up our second annual Gigliotti/Accurate 8-day adventure and we're going to bypass the bluefin zone. I know, I know. I'm as disappointed as anyone, but there's no reason to bomb up from where we are to the bluefin zone where the scores have been quite unflattering. The weather isn't very sweet right now either. What was a beautiful morning of bronzing quickly turned into jacket/slicker weather after lunch. As of now, we're traveling up the line to look at another area for a few hours to try and locate some more of those big ole yellowfins. Our ride is OK. We're not pounding or scooping the bow or anything but we're doing a little bouncing, like our car is on hydraulics in the ghetto. Hence, I'm listening to Backspin, channel 46 on SiriusXM radio - old school hip-hop. Bumpin'.

Wish us luck tomorrow and we'll give you a wrap-up report tomorrow. Peace out, homies.

P.S. The Hunger Games epidemic is spreading through the boat like a wildfire. Star galley assistant Patrick is a closet Hunger Games reader. I caught him hiding behind the cooking area, sitting on a milk crate just reading away. He told me that at first, he wasn't all that pumped on reading about the life of a sixteen year old girl but once you get into the world of Katniss, you can't escape it, and Patrick is like a fish in a barrel. You don't have to make excuses to me, Patrick, even old men like you can enjoy the Hunger Games without guilt. Add one to the book club meetings. You know where the coffee is, Patrick.

Oh yeah, before I forget. The other day, Mark Clark celebrated his birthday and I totally spaced on it. He turned 86 years old. Happy Birthday, Mark. See ya.

It's time to start thinking about the summer fishing schedule. We have a couple of opportunities to offer if you want to jump on a trip. First we have two spots open on a 5 day trip departing the morning of the 24th of May and returning on the 29th. The trip is limited to 10 people. This has always been a fun trip. Next is a shimano sponsored 1.5 day trip on June 21rst. limited to 20 people. There are 9 spots available. Please contact Fisherman's Landing to make a reservation. (619) 221-8500.

Started our drift with no boats in sight. Ended our drift with the same.

10 nice Bluefin, lost a few. A very nice Yellowfin and Yellowtail on kelp near by. 

Nice Day!!!!

Captain Ryan Bostian just called in with an update from The San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. Today we had 33 Yellowtail (18 to 31 pounds) for 48 anglers. They fish were biting good in the morning on YoYo Iron. Then in the afternoon the surface action picked up. We are seeing lots of fish and things are looking good for the Coronado Islands. Call Seaforth Sportfishing or Book Online at the San Diego website to get in on the action.

Fish report for the first week of October. Anybody who has spent any amount of time in San Diego knows that October is a great month to fish and this October has been no exception. Limit style yellowtail fishing has been the norm rather than the exception this week. On Saturday we stopped on a kelp first thing in the morning and caught 250 yellows and left them biting. On days like Saturday when we catch a lot of fish in the morning our 35 degree refrigerated fish hold is really nice. Along with the great yellowtail fishing we have also had a sprinkling of 20 lb. dorado 25 lb. bluefin tuna and 20 lb. yellowfin tuna in the mix. All in all I would say we are having great fishing with no end in sight. Reservations are very important this time of year so if you plan to come fishing call 619-224-3383.

Sunday, August 26th, 2012

Hi friends. Typical day aboard a long range boat today. All of the deck crew was up at 0230 hours dealing with a maintenance issue that took a couple hours to resolve, back to bed for roughly an hour, wake up and start our day--hey now, that Ice Cube tune just came on 90's on 9 as I type again and yes, today was in fact a good day--off with some jig strikes on those beautiful 25-50 lb. yellowfin with only a handful of those 12-18 pounders in the mix. We hit a couple of schools throughout the day, had our normal slow time around lunch and in the afternoon time, just as I was half way through my strawberry popsicle, we got on a breezer, I reluctantly ditched my popsicle, and we drifted the rest of the day nailing those big yellowfin tuna. After drifting for the rest of the day, we put out the sack with a couple hours of daylight and the six people who were at the rail continued to catch fish on the sea anchor all the way until dark.

Excellent fishing on that really good grade of tuna. With only a few handfuls of that small fish and dorado, those big fish really were on it today and we'll be here tomorrow to try this all over again. Hopefully tonight we'll make some squid and this weather will come down a little bit. It's a little rolly out here but as long as we're catching beautiful tuna, we won't complain too much. See ya.

-The Supreme Team