ballards Fishing Report 2025

Covered a lot of water and chased small spots of bluefin almost all day long. At the end of the day we only managed to land 6 bluefin from 25-80lbs. Tomorrow’s a new day.

Many of you know Captain Ray Montera who has been involved in sportfishing most of his life. In March, his 32 year old Chris son was severely injured in a C4 blast in Afghanistan. We are holding a fundraiser on October 8th at the Bali Hai on Shelter Island. He is one of our own and we are rallying to support him.

As an Army soldier, Chris Montera was often taken aback when people would thank him for doing the job he loved. On a fateful day in March, he came to face the sacrifice. He was on a dismounted mission and was hit with explosion of C4, which literally blasted and propelled him into a grape field. He suffered major issues with blast lung and severe burns over much of his body. For 9 days he was on ECMO (lung bypass) until he was stable enough to be transported to BAMC in San Antonio for the treatment of his shrapnel wounds and third degree burns. On April 2 a fungal infection set into the wounds on his lower extremities and Chris underwent bilateral AK amputation of his legs. He was further diagnosed with an incomplete spinal cord injury in the thoracic area of the spine at VA Polytrauma Center in Palo Alto.

Through all of this, Chris remains focused and committed to rehabilitation. It is estimated that he will remain in Palo Alto for 3-6 months while he works to regain his upper body strength, which will be necessary for the next stages of rehab in the C5 program at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego where he will be fitted with prosthetic legs and with determination will learn to walk again. There is no doubt in our minds that Chris will recover to live an independent life. The goal of this fundraiser is to be able to assist Chris with expenses he will no doubt encounter on his journey to independence.

The event will be held at the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island On October 8th from 6:00-10:00 pm. There will be food stations serving food from many San Diego restaurants along with a no host bar. A raffle, live, and silent auction will take place during the event along with live entertainment by Mango Bay and World Famous Jim Gibson. The outpouring of support of raffle and auction donations from the sportfishing community, tackle, fishing supply manufacturers, and local businesses has been phenomenal. The evening will be great fun for all and will serve to help a young man who put it all on the line.

There are several ways you can help:
First and most important is attend the event.

Tickets are $50 in advance or $450 for a block of 10

Advance ticket purchases will include 3 raffle tickets and assorted swag

Cannot attend but would like to help, make a cash donation in any amount.

Donate an item for the raffle or auction. Anything from fishing items, art, gift certificates, clothing...anything is greatly appreciated.


We look forward to having you at the event. The sport fishing community has come together to take care of a wounded warrior of their own, and it promises to be a fun filled evening for all.

To purchase tickets for Island Nights at the Bali Hai, please visit our website at http://christophermonterasupport.com/island-nights-at-the-bali-hai

To donate items for our raffle/auction please visit our website and complete the donor form http://christophermonterasupport.com/sponsors-anddonors-supporters/donor-form

Had a great wahoo next year! 7-10 day trips are the place to be ! 

~~Aug. 26
 Good evening everyone.  We wrapped up our trip today.  And it was an interesting day.  First off the weather continued to produce variable wind.  Flat calm and gorgeous.  Onto the fishing.  As you know we almost had no sardine today.  We used it well though for the time we had it.  The bluefin floated today.  Everywhere you looked there was a 30-50 pound bluefin gently rolling on the glassy surface.  Other times you would see the whole school swimming on the surface.  It definitely had that feel to it.  We caught 30 fish from 30-50 pounds this morning before we ran out of bait.  For the time being it was great but sad when we ran out.  We still had a couple tanks of big mackerel to use and Tommy had it figured out where we would use it.  So we made a few hour move and it didn't take long after we arrived to the honey hole before we were gettinum.  Big yellowfin.  45-65 pounders.  It felt like we were anchored up at Alijos Rocks when the tuna were around there.  Those fish liked our mackerel.  We caught a few over 20 of those bad boys before they quit biting.  I wish we could be in 2 spots at once.

 So we have a 1.5 day trip leaving tomorrow afternoon Aug. 27 and we want you to go.  Let me try and talk you into it.  Now this is me speaking truth.  Not blowing smoke at you.  The weather still is fore casted to be great great.  Variable wind.  Now I told you we had great fishing this morning while we had bait.  A lot of the boats that had just left on there trips that had bait all day drifted all day.  Not all but a lot. They drifted and they caught. It's a good time to go fishing I'd say.  Good grade, good fishing. Let us take you fishing, feed you great, show you a good time and hopefully the bonus, catch lots of fish.
        

Captain Ryan Bostian called in last night with an update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing. The water temps are still hot. We have 72 to 77 degree water. Today we had 47 anglers catch 131 Yellowfin Tuna. It is hight risk fishing. On good stop makes the difference. Be sure to prepared for Anchovy and Sardine fishing. Come on down and go fishing with us this fall.

Capt Ray is out today with 30 anglers. Hopefully we can keep our yellowtail streak alive. The weather is forecasted to be very nice this week. Come join us !

On the second of May we hauled the boat out of the water and started boat work and today on the 10th of June we are still hard at it. Our main goal this year is cosmetics we have painted the whole exterior of the hull above and below the water line the inside boat works the house bait tank storage racks and the wraparound and the decks. We're now starting on interior cosmetics carpeting all the floors ceilings and walls of the whole boat. Quite the extensive maintenance definitely the most boat work we have ever done at one time.
Captain Tommy Rothery

~~Nov. 18
 Well, we just finished up our last day of our last trip of 2014.  We fished the coast for yellowtail and junk this morning.  And remember by junk I mean the small good eaters.  It was a successful morning.  The sun wasn't even up yet and we were getting yellows and others.  It was good fishing.  The grade was small, 10-12 pounders but we didn't have more then 8 yellowtail on board prior to today so we were tagging them.  For a little while anyways.  We let everyone get a few along with there junk before looking for something else.  We made a few drifts after that for another couple handfulls of yellows and some whitefish and stuff and then it was mid morning and we had to call it and head for home.  So that's what we're doing now.

 Another successfully trip I'd call it.  We had some action the first couple days fishing, then we got to see the 2-300 pounders boiling around(unfortunately none would bite but they were there), and then we had some great action on wahoo and tuna, and then we finished her off up above getting action on the yellers.  We'll be unloading at 6:30 tomorrow morning, and like I said, we'll be tied up for a while.  So it's that time.

 It's time to write this.  I write this at the end of every season.  I should just copy and paste it every year because it's the same, as it should be.  I'd just like to thank everyone who fished with us this year and in previous years on behalf of myself, the crew, and all the way to Tommy and Susan from the bottom of our hearts.  You're what keep us going year after year.  You're the reason we can take care of ourselves and our families.  You're why we can enjoy life off of the boat and on the boat.  You make our world go round.  THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

          It's been a fantastic year.  We'll see you all at upcoming fishing shows and on future trips.  See you around.