barren river Fishing Report 2023

Sep. 17

Our morning started off at 4:30. There was some good meter life on the first spot we looked at so we woke everyone up to try it and we had it figured out in the first 45 minutes. A few good grade yellows and a whole lot of smaller ones so we brought the lines in and continued down. An hour later we tried another spot for some more nice yellows but not enough so we continued down. The next spot a couple hours later was a disappointment. Not much yellowtail and not much wahoo. We got one wahoo almost to gaff before it spit the hook and swam away. So we continued down. The next spot we tried produced one beautiful wahoo and showed pretty decent sign of good grade yellowtails that didn't bite like you'd think. We caught some but it didn't keep us anchored up till sunset so we continued down. 1:30 hours later we were anchored up on our last spot of the evening and again it showed pretty good sign of yellows that bit pretty good for us up until dark. It was good enough to stay put and try it in the morning. We might of caught 1 million dorado today. I lost track at around one hundred and three but it might have been around 1 million. Unfortunately most of these dorado weren't much bigger then a neck tie and we let most go to fight another day. The weather was windy today. Wind and swell but for some reason it wasn't bad fishing weather. Maybe because our usual direction we worked was down but even when we would slide on a jig strike we never took any mean snaps. The wind came down after the sun went down so we're hoping it stays down.

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Aug 24

First of all I'd like to say that I'm aware I spelled whine wrong yesterday. As soon as I hit send I realised it so don't mention it. Secondly I'm going to let Mark write the report tonight so here we go. Enjoy.

Nevermind that. Mark refused. Anyways, we departed today on the old Bob Vance 5 day trip. PLenty of food, fuel, bait, passengers, crew, water, tackle and whatever else we use out here on board. We had a nice lunch, nap and seminar today and will be looking for tuna first light and before in the dark. Dinner was spectacular as always with the usual prime rib and sides. I also enjoyed a delicous mango sorbet with some kind of strawberry glaze sauce stuff on it also topped with fresh strawberries. Write to you tomorrow. See you later.

Aug. 9
    Good evening folks from the bridge of the Polaris Supreme.  Let me just start off by telling you how beautiful of a night it is out here.  First of all the ocean is flat calm.  Just a super light breeze and no sea.  It's almost like we're in the bay right now.  The moon is full, huge and bright as can be and it's lighting up the night.  

    We left today on an Eric Rogger 5 day charter.  I think it's in the 30's on number of consecutive years he's been doing this one so our hat goes off to him. Owner/operator Tommy is back on board so I'll be running as second captain this trip.  I think the sardines grew about 90 percent in length and weight since the last time we got bait 3 days ago.  They're lunkers.  They'll make great yellowtail bait and I'll bet the bluefin will dig them, we'll have to see about them yellowfin.

    I guess you can tell by my questioning of the last paragraph that we didn't get in them this afternoon.  The darn fish just moved too far away for us to reach on our departure day today.  We got there minutes late but there was some pretty darn good hits this evening so we're excited about tomorrow.
                        

 

Hey guys, the yellowtail counts at the Coronado Islands have dropped a bit the past couple of days. There are a couple reasons for the slower fishing. First reason is the south wind we have had for the last two days. This south wind has dropped the water temp a few degrees therefore making the yellows a little less active. The second reason is the seal ions have stepped up there game. In the last three days we have lost at least 40 yellowtail to the lions. Good news is , the south wind is predicted to end by the end of today. Starting Tuesday we should start to see the water begin warming again. With the warming water the yellowtail should get more active making them easier to hook. With the seal ions acting as a tax collector it just comes down to the fact that we need to hook more fish. When we are hooking more fish both the seal ions and us can get our share. The best way to hook these yellowtail has still been a flylined sardine on 25 lb. test. The Coronado Island yellowtail have not gone anywhere , they are still there. We just need the water to warm a tiny bit so we can start catching them again. Look for better counts in the next few days. Today's photo is of a father and son with 3 yellowtail caught on Saturday. Quality family time in the outdoors is what it is all about ! Grab your son, daughter , grandson , granddaughter , nephew or niece and enjoy some time on the ocean with us.

The beat goes on at the Coronado Islands ! Today we caught 38 yellowtail 22 barracuda and 3 kelp bass. Fly lined sardines and surface lures were the best today.

Aug 14

Not much action in the morning for us. We were seeing very little and not catching much and had little time to do it so we searched in new grounds. We saw a couple of real good schools that wouldn't cooperate only managing to hook and land 1. We had a kelp for some 18-25 pound yellows so maybe we'll see more of that in the near future. It was a tasty looking zone. I wish we would've had more time to look in it but we were too far from home so we had to head it for the barn. Great weather today and we're forecasting more of the same in the foreseeable future. We'll be a little later to the dock with an eta of about 9:00 am and Tommy will be handling the next trip of 5 days.

Captain Mike Pritchard called in at 10 PM last night with an audio wrap up from the Tribute out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego, CA. We had steady action all day on our 12 hour drift. We had fish hanging nearly all day long. We ended up with 17 Bluefin Tuna (70 to 90 ponds) including a 133 an a 150 too. We had some Epic Battles and fun fishing for our group today.

We are departing tonight on another trip we would love to see you on the Tribute!

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 Sept. 5
 The bluefin were a no go again today. We once again saw plenty of schools, they just don't bite. We ended up picking up 3 60-80 pounders. I wanted at least 3 to make jackpot easier, unfortunately for an easy jackpot but fortunately for a Mike Grella, 2 of them were caught by the same man and no one person can take more hen one place. We'll just have to weigh a bunch of those wahoo. We scratched at the yellowfin all day long. In the afternoon we were seeing straight schools of it but it wouldn't bite too well. One at a time. Anyways, the fat lady has sung. We are on the way to the barn all fat and happy. It's been a great trip. Lots of wahoo, yellows and tuna. Tommy will be coming back out for 5 days and I'll be going home. Ever since my wife went back to work I only get to see her and my daughter on the weekends that we're in for the morning and for the last month that's only been once so I'm looking forward to spending some time with them and watching some NFL,
 eating some bluefin and wahoo and relaxing. See you all in 5 days.