assateague Fishing Report 2025

Tom Rothery brought his Polaris Supreme home to Fisherman's Landing January 11 after a 16-day trip to the Hurricane Bank and the Southern Banks of Baja. There were seven anglers on the annual George Davis expedition, and they produced ten more cows for the record.

In his report from the boat on Friday January 2, Tom reported a good day of fishing.

"Yes, now this is what I'm talking about," he wrote. "We finally got a break in the weather. It is beautiful and we have left Hurricane Bank. We are now heading to the upper banks. We will be there tomorrow night. Yesterday was an ok day of fishing. George kept a 219 and released a 185. Jeremy released a 140.

"Craig kept a 205 and by the way that was a mistake yesterday. Craig kept a 210 pounder. Al kept a 100 for his buddies that are going to Ennis hunting. They are going to open pit barbeque it on a spit like a pig. Now, that sounds interesting. ‚Д®

"Charlie released a 125 and Scott released a 140. Each day we also had five to 12 fish that we caught that were under 100 pounds and were not mentioned. These all were released.

"Yesterday we also had good wahoo fishing. Jeremy and Craig both caught 4 and Gunnar and Al got 3. Everybody else had a couple a piece. Overall the trip to Hurricane Bank has been very good with eight tuna over 200 pounds, and excellent wahoo fishing."

Chartermaster George Davis of San Dimas won the jackpot while catching four cows. His tuna weighed 241.8, 219.8, 213.6 and 208 pounds. The big one came on squid on the kite, he said.

George fished with 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. He said the big one came to gaff in just 20 minutes.

Allen Tokunaga of North Hollywood won second place for a 224.6-pounder.

"These Hurricane Bank fish seemed a little tougher than the ones on the inside," he remarked. "This one took me 40 minutes. He went around the boat a couple of times, and then came up on the port side of the stern."

Al fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, on 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader, 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra. He used a Penn 50 reel modified by Cal Sheets and a Calstar 6465 XXH rod.

Scott Brown of Costa mesa won third place for his 213.2-pounder. He also got a 202.6-pounder. He fished a small jack under the kite on a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook. He used 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"The big one was a 20-minute fish," he remarked. "He came to the boat pretty good."

One big tuna was eaten by the passengers and crew while the boat was still fishing. It was a 215-pounder caught by Craig Johnston of Costa Mesa, who also got a 204-pounder. Craig said he got them on the kite, on double sardine baits pinned to 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks. He fished with a 130-pound Momoi topshot on 130-pound Izorline Spectra, with a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"It took about 30 minutes," he said. "We had rough seas then; it was a fun fight."

Jeremy Chandler of San Dimas got a 203.6-pounder on a jack under the kite on a 7/0 Mustad 7691 hook and the boat's kite rig.

Today was a tough day. The fish were there and the conditions were good, the fish were just less eager. Everyone was on the right program when it came to hustling the fish in to avoid the sharks. So the opportunities we did have we were able to capitalize on. Pictured here are fishing buddies Sean with Mark, and Dennis with Travis showing off their captures! Good going guys!

Hello and Happy New Year,

The Apollo has recently returned from Mag Bay. We spent the month of December down there doing 5.5 to 7.5 day fly down fly back trips. The cow fishing was tough however we managed some very solid trophies for our efforts. For the 3 trips we did, we caught 8 fish over 200# the smallest went 219# and the biggest went 268#. There was steady action on 20 to 50# tuna most of the time and very good wahoo and dorado fishing to be had.

We are now setting up our schedule for 2013 and have our calendar of available dates on line at apollocharters.com, go to the calendar page and click or scroll the month you want to see. We will be starting the season in Santa Barbara beginning in April and will stay in Santa Barbara thru most of June hoping for a spring sea bass and halibut run this year. There are many prime charter dates available right now so give me a call now if you are interested in setting up a fishing trip for this season.

Lets make it a great year.

Thanks, JJ

We arrived at noon and had a good hit on the 80-100 lb tuna, but we didn't see anything bigger. Weather is sloppy again, but got nice in the afternoon when we went looking around. So we will keep looking for the big ones and check back with you tomorrow.Thanks,Tommy and crew

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

Hi friends. Flat calm weather, sunshine, and Yellowfin tuna was on our wish-list today and our wishes were granted. It took the fish a little while to wake up this morning but when they showed their faces, we located them and introduced ourselves. We caught fish all sorts of ways today; jumpers, puddlers, breezers, jig strikes, meter marks, sonar marks, and the fishiest birds of all, Tern birds, were helping us locate schools today. We never had a really great stop but we pieced together a lot of good stops and we ended up with a fine catch for our anglers. Throw in some Bluefin and a few nice Dorado for color and you have the recipe for a fantastic day on the water. I honestly feel that with a little less boat pressure, the schools would've been more bountiful but it's hard to find much more to complain about today other than that. Everybody had a shot at a good school and we feel fortunate to be in the zone when they did pop up. It was easy to see them pop up from just about anywhere with the weather we had today. Jock straps and sun visor weather for sure.

So that's all. We're headed up the line and wish to arrive sometime around 0900 hours in the morning. We'll see what kind of speed we make rolling up. Our next report will come to you on Thursday evening as we depart on a 1.5 day trip. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Saturday, September 10th, 2011

Good evening folks. We arrived this morning at 0800 hours, unloaded our fish and guests, and departed the docks @ 1300 hours to embark on our 2-day trip. Our bait looks OK, plenty good enough for some offshore fish to accept our offerings. The reports from the area are different. As of 1830, the boats were just now starting to get some jig strikes and see more sign of fish. Nonetheless, we'll be there first thing tomorrow morning to give it a full day and see what we can come up with. The weather here and for most of the coast is absolutely gorgeous, so we like that a lot. We also like that the forecast calls for more of the same. We're hoping the weatherman is correct and the fish pop up here for us tomorrow. Wish us luck and have a great day.

-Team Supreme-

27 yellowtail 130 assorted rockfish 5 calico bass. For a brief period this morning the yellowtail reacted a bit better than the last couple of days. Hoping it’s a sign of things to come.

Capt Mike Pritchard checked in with this report from the Tribute. "Another great day of fishing here. We have limits of Yellowtail. Now we are in search of some Bluefin. We have caught one so far.

Wow! What a fish. #214 Bluefin. Landed in less than an hour. Accurate Valiant 1000 and Shimano Rail Rod on #100. Dead Flyer. Had a few Yellowtail and a Yellowfin as well.