woods lake Fishing Report 2024

The Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing August 19. Tom Rothery skippered the five-day trip with 24 anglers, and remarked that this Dan Heil memorial trip was the 23rd for the charter group. Jeff Hoover of Richland, WA won first place and took over the top spot in the jackpot and for the best bluefin of the season. "He fought for 45 minutes," said Geoff. "He was the strongest fish I ever felt, and my best fish ever. He beat me up!" Hoover said he baited a sardine on a 3/0 Super Mutu hook. He used 40-pound line, a Penn two-speed reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod. Bob Hagan of Ramona was second for a 38-pound Opah that erred on a sardine. Mike Myer of La Mirada won third place for a 37.6-pound albacore, but declined to stand in the lineup, so Gene McKenna of San Jose stepped up with his 30-pound dorado.

The Ranta Charter started off fishing yellowfin tuna with a decent little score on school sized fish ranging from 10-20 pounds. Most of the fish were caught on the flylined sardine with 30 pound test and a 2/0 hook. We also had as handful of troll fish that came off of green and black zuker feathers. The next day we sought after some quality yellowtail between 20 and 30 pounds. Sadly, these fish didn't show like we hoped they would have. We saw a couple small schools of fish that came up and boiled in the chum, but nothing would stick with the boat. Fish were being caught on flylined sardine, yo-yo jigs, and everyone's favorite technique, the surface iron. We managed to pick away at some of these fish in the morning before calling it quits and moving on in search of a better bite. After hearing reports of the yellowfin bite picking up, We decided to make a run to the grounds to get in on the action. We arrived mid-morning with high expectations, as a couple other boats in the area had some big scores off big schools of yellowfin. It didn't take long for our dreams to turn to reality as a four way trolling hookup turned into a wide open bite. They were biting anything that was thrown in the water for a solid hour until most of the passengers had their fill pulling on these tuna, that averaged 15 pounds. We had a couple more stops for not as much success before pointing the boat towards something new. The last day of fishing was spent offshore looking for kelps, but dirty water and 20 mph winds made it hard kelp finding conditions/ However, we managed to pick up a few nice Dorado as well as a couple more yellowfin to add to our total. This was a great trip with some awesome people, a couple a which had their first experience out here fishing saltwater. A big thanks to Dan Ranta for putting this all together, we hope to see you all out here again sometime soon! Till next time, Team Supreme

Our good morning has continued on and it's been absplutely great fishing here." Mike continued, "So far we have limits of Yellowtail & 150 Yellowfin tuna. The fishing is very good, the kelp fishing is very good & there is really nice weather to go with it. The weather is supposed to continue for the next few days.

"We still have room on tomorrow night's trip. If you'd like to go out on the boat call Seaforth Sportfishing at 619-224-3383."

87 yellowfin 4 skipjack. A couple lucky stops made our day. Highly recommend having a 20lb rod with size 2 hooks and matching flouro.

Tom Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme at fisherman's Landing October 13 after an eight-day trip with 22 anglers.

"We had another fantastic day fishing the 30 lb. class tuna," he wrote Friday, October 10. "Our weather is beautiful. We are going to finish up our trip with some yellowtail fishing before heading home. The guys are having a great time. We've had good fishing, good company and good food. And on that last note, for dinner we had a really good honey dijon mustard crusted wahoo. Just superb. Our next trip is full but if you have some time our 10-day with Larry Brown on Oct. 25 still has some open spots. He has over 15 sponsors for many freebies and raffles. Give Susan a call in the office, at 619-390-7890."

Rothery reported water temps along The Ridge as 79 to 84 degrees, and 72 degrees at Alijos Rocks. He stayed just a day at The Rocks, without seeing much sign of tuna that wanted to bite.

"The Ridge was excellent for dorado, yellowfin and yellowtail. We got off the high spots and off floating kelps," he said.

Two brothers, Scott and Neil Langlois of Rancho Cucamonga, showed off a typical dorado and a wahoo.

Kevin Veal of Huntington Harbor won first place for a 37-pound wahoo that ate his Tady 45 jig in a new green/gold combination. He said he fished with 40-pound P-Line, an Accurate B2 870 reel and a Seeker CBJ 100F.

Steven Belardes was second for a 36-pound wahoo, and chartermaster LeRoy Balardes won third place for a 31.6-pound yellowfin tuna.

Here is a suggested tackle list for our 5:30 - 5:00 Coronado island trips for February and March. (1) a yo-yo outfit, this outfit should be a 20 or 30 size reel spooled with 40 lb. monofilament. Any 6 - 8 ft. rod rated for 40 lb. will work good. (2) Deep water cod rod. This outfit should be a 20 or 30 size reel spooled with 65 or 80 lb. spectra. Any 6-8 ft. rod capable of handling a 16 oz. sinker will work good. (3) a 25 or 30 lb. live bait outfit. This outfit should be a 20 size reel spooled with 25 or 30 lb. monofilament. A 7-8 ft. Rod rated for 25-30 lb. will be perfect. TERMINAL TACKLE. An assortment of torpedo sinkers from 6-16 ounces. A dozen rockcod hooks. We really like Mustad EZ baiters in the 10/0 size. A pack of size 2/0 live bait hooks. We really like Mustad 94150 A couple of heavy lures. Salas 6x jr and Salas 6x in blue/white and scrambled egg are perfect. Most of our trips we have been fishing deep water in the morning and shallow water in the afternoon. As soon as we see yellowtail the rock fishing will take a back seat.

2 stops for 205 yellowfin tuna and 75 skipjack. Amazing local tuna fishing continues !

JJ is running 1.5 day trips to Punta Collonett. Last trip they scored limits of big Reds and a ton of big Lings. Call Fisherman's Landing now at (619) 221-8500 to get in on the action. Tell them SFR sent you.