big manistee river Fishing Report 2024

163 yellowtail 2 yellowfin 3 skipjack. Steady action all day. We even had some whales swing by and say hello.

Nov. 16

                I'm pretty sure there are no yellowtail on this side of the Island.  If there were, we would have seen them.  This place was very lively this morning.  Pretty much, everywhere we looked, there was good bait and bird sign.  I'm sure if there were any yellows around they would have made a showing.  We stayed in the best area for hours, drifting for groupers and halibut and what ever else would bite our lines hoping to see those yellows pop up but they never did.  They weren't around here.  Unfortunately, we couldn't look anywhere else because the weather was no good.  It was fine where we were.  A strong wind but the swell was blocked by the Island.

 

                So we're just sitting here now waiting for the wind to back off above here.  We're messing around catching bass.  The wind pretty much went away in the lee here.  Hopefully that's a sign things are backing off up above here.  We should be on our way home around midnight.  Our weather program shows very tolerable weather then.

                                                                               

Father, Daughter Ahi ! Conditions are trending in the right direction. It won’t be long now. Hope your here. 10 yellowfin for 26 anglers. Private Charters the next 2 days.

Four big bluefin bit for anglers fishing aboard the Fischbeck Charter aboard the Polaris Supreme with skipper Drew Henderson, and three of them were decked. Drew weighed the fish on the certified scales at Fisherman's Landing July 23 after the five-day trip with 23 anglers. He also weighed an unusual escolar, caught at night. The boat returned with a catch of yellowfin tuna and albacore.
Dick Emerson of Roland Heights won first place for his 134-pound bluefin, and also took over first place for that species on Bill Roecker's big fish list for the season.

Dick said he cranked that baby aboard in only 15 minutes on his single-speed Accurate 665 reel. The tuna took a sardine on a 5/0 Eagle Claw hook, on 60-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and 50-pound Big Game line. Emerson used a Fenwick 665 rod, he added. Tom Donnelly of San Clemente got second place for a 126-pounder, which will make second on the big fish list. His fish fought for 40 minutes on 60-pound Seaguar Fluoro leader and 60-pound P-Line. Bill Byler of Covina made it a trio of 60-pound Fluoro users, and won third place for his 105.6-pound bluefin, which came on a small Accurate 870 reel.
The escolar came to Jason Severn of Petaluma. The 31-pound, strange-looking critter (some scientists think the escolar may be a progenitor for tuna) bit on a squid that Severn was fishing in the dark.
Skipper Henderson said his anglers were treated to a show of jumping bluefin, many of which were larger than the fish his anglers caught. They didn't want to bite, however, and it didn't take long for a fleet of seiners to show up with their spotter aircraft.

Aug 12
    Today was awesome.  We woke up drifting catching fish and that's about what we did until dark.  I'm not kidding you.  We moved the boat just a handful of times but never for more then 10 minutes.  It was drifting with always at least one on the hook.  In the morning until after lunch it was mostly bluefin in the 30-45 pound range with the occasional 60-80 pounder.  I have to tell you that that's a much more manageable grade.  It's a much better fish to start off on than those 60-80 pounders.  Don't get me wrong, you know I love catching those beauts but they make a much better cherry than ice cream if you know what I mean.  We had that kind of day where if we catch them tomorrow it will be the cherry on top.  The rest of the day we got into yellowfin tuna mode and it was game on for those fish.  Tommy decided to save our sardine on board it being they were feeding on the anchovy that went over the side so that's what we used.  Chovy baby.  I can't ever remember fishing anchovy for tuna on this boat.  I have to go back to my mission bay days to remember that but I didn't forget how to do it.  I wrote this in the beginning of the season and I'll write about it again.  If you're coming on a future trip, please remember to bring the lost art of anchovy fishing skills.  A big part of that is an anchovy rod and reel.  Something light that's meant for 20-25 pound test with a nice free spool to help you toss those anchovies away from the boat.  I hate to say it but if that means you need to bring your coffee grinder so be it.  
    The weather is still good!  Man I hope this can hold up for at least my buds on the upcoming Heil 5 day trip leaving the day after tomorrow.  We're staying put right here for our last day fishing tomorrow.  We're hoping we can get more of the 60-80 pounders tomorrow but we will be stoked with the 30-45's as well.
                                    

 

Polaris Supreme Trip Update 09-29-2019 This nice grade tuna (20 to 40 pounds) is really giving us a hard time. We must've made over a dozen anchor jobs today following that around. Finally just before dark it wanted to settle in and bite good. We were keeping 10 going at a time for a while. It was all that nice quality with no skipjack! We landed a few yellowtail today and of course skipjack and small tuna everywhere we went. The weather did the same thing! I'm calling it the Camelot affect windy crappy weather at night and it gets nice starting in the morning and then starts all over with the nasty weather at night. Will be here again tomorrow and try this one last day before we have to head up the line. The Polaris Supreme Crew

August 22   
We got in there and got things done pretty fast this morning.  We docked at 6:30 and were off loaded and on our way to the fuel dock after an hour.  We handled fuel and an oil change and had passengers on the boat by 10:00.  So we got a good jump which allowed us extra time and the bait receivers to search through our options to ensure we had the best bait available.  We took what we call firecracker sardine.  A mix of mostly 4-6 inch sardine.  It didn't look so hot going in but it's seems to be getting the hang of living in our wells now.

 It didn't take long before we were arriving to the fishing grounds.  We found a few schools before dark and scratched out 20 something tuna before dark.  We're going to drift here tonight and start off here in the morning.
      

Good afternon faithful Supreme followers. Checking in from the bridge as we head south to the tuna grounds on this 2 day adventure. Tommy, Susan and the crew would like to start by thanking Mr. Robin Gledhill for putting together yet another great group for his annual Blue-White 5 day charter. He never ceases to make it a pleasurable vacation for both his anglers as well as the crew. From 0 dark thirty to night fall with bent rods and the variety of fish coming over the rail to the evenings hosted by Chef Shawn with his A+ meals and Mr. Gladhill serving up the numerous different wines that are brought along to wet the lips after a busy day of fishing. We always enjoy watching our buddy Kenny "Hammertime" Holland engage in battle with any fish he swings on because let me tell you, that's a show folks, that one intense fella! Our own Capt. Tommie "Gunny" Miles found out that himself and Kenny spent time on the same ship at the same back in the 1980's when Gunny was in the Marine Corps and Kenny was in the Navy!!! Small world!! Thanks once again Robin for a great trip and and we look forward to seeing you and the gang next year.

So as I check in here, we have her pointed south toward a nice looking pocket of water that we are hoping will be holding a nice kelp or maybe a lucky school of tuna to get the trip started. We shall find out just before dinner tonight. The weather isn't too bad at the moment, a little wind and a hint of a roll when the boat stops, but shouldn't be to bad for us though. Let's hope everything weatherwise prevails so we can have a productive day tomorrow. We wanna welcome Chef David "Shabba" Schooler back into the galley for the next couple trips after a little bit of time off. Always fun having that guy around the boat. He started things off with a real tasty lunch this afternon by serving up a cheese ravioli topped with marinated chicken and peso sauce sided with a chicken ceaser salad. And of course tonight we'll have a prime rib dinner for the guys which is always a crowd favorite.

That's it for now folks, wish us calm seas and bent rods tomrrow as well as Captain Drew to enjoy his couple days off with his wife and Domino the dog after over a month out here on the boat. I know right now as I type this up, he's glued to his TV catching up on the final season of Breaking Bad (him and I are addicted to that show!) We'll give you another check tomorrow evening after fishing and let you know how the day went.

Jed and Team Supreme