big sandy lake Fishing Report 2024

Aug 11

I'm not sure how i feel about today. I know at 3:30 I felt real bad. Extremely frustrated to say the least. 2 of the boats we were fishing with found schools early in the morning and drifted with it most of the day scratching away at the bluefin the whole time while we drove around seeing nothing. The other 2 boats we were with connected around 1:00 in the afternoon and were gettin um, so I was feeling sad and mad. I told Mark to switch gens and broke out the volt meter to see if we had a short somewhere. I figured there had to be a reason we were the only boat not drifting. We were looking in the same water with the same machines trolling the same jigs but just not seeing it. The truth of the matter is there was nothing wrong with the boat, her captain or the crew. Sometimes your just that guy. Sometimes your front row and sometimes your nose bleed.

OK, enough wining. The day turned out just fine. At 3:30 we found a boomer school and drifted on the 25-45 pound bluefin almost till dark. Everyone caught at least one with top dog Phil boating 6 of those beauts. The weather was great in the morning but increased wind velocity throughout the day and it was pretty choppy at dark. So with the weather coming up and our bait situation worsening, we're heading down to fish for yellows and try for some macks.

July 9

We had another good morning today. We got on the fish around 6:30 in the morning and fished it until it went dead at 8:30. 20-25 pound yellowtail. Uh huh. After that we scratched another dozen fish on a few stops and decided to take off around 10 in the morning. We looked around until dark in good looking water but never found anything. A lifeless ocean outside the islands unfortunately.

So we have to head north tonight and we'll be looking for tuna tomorrow until we have to go home. The weather is starting to get choppy where we are now. My legs are spread outside my shoulders to help keep my balance. I think we should have some descent weather where we'll be tomorrow morning but it looks like the wind is on it's way.

Happy Easter! I have decided to put some ultra limited load open party trips together for fishing the northern Channel Islands this weekend. I have set up two trips on Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th of April. I anticipate trying to find sea bass in the morning and falling back on rock fish and ling cod for the rest of the day. These trips will be limited to only 20 people max!! This just seems to me to be such a great opportunity to get out to the islands on such a nice boat without having to deal with a crowd. The trips will depart from Sea Landing in Santa Barbara at 9pm Friday and Saturday night. The cost will be $175 per person. Please come join me and the crew aboard the Apollo next weekend. I look forward to seeing you.

Please call Sea Landing to make Reservations at (805) 963-3564.

Aug 10

Good evening folks. We departed today on Eric Rogger's annual 5 day trip. We took a while at the bait receivers. The bait they had wasn't all that bitchen. We took a couple lids that should do fine for the trip but I'm not so sure about the rest. Time will tell but it may turn on us. Hopefully we'll be able to use it tomorrow on big schools of bluefin before it turns solid red. We're going to start off looking for the elusive bluefin first thing in the morning and put in a day doing that. It's beautiful weather today and we're enjoying a great ride now and the passengers are enjoying the departure meal of prime rib and sides. Wish us luck

Drew signing out till tomorrow

The old adage “I’d rather be lucky than good” was the story for us today. Before we even fired up the Binos our autopilot found us a kelp patty that kicked out 66 yellowtail (12-25lbs). After our kelp the weather kicked up substantially making it very difficult to work. We did however see some tuna but did not get a bite. A 40 lb flyline setup was the best today.

The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego,CA checked in with us today:

36 yellowtail 1 calico bass. Did a lot of driving to get a few good shots. Conditions seemed to be improving today, hoping for a big hit in the near future.

The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego,CA checked in with us today:

8 yellowtail and an assortment of bottom critters. Made multiple stops on different schools of yellowtail throughout the day for very little reaction. They are there but currently in a funk. Tomorrow is a new day.

Mike Pritchard called in with this report from the Tribute. "We had a little bit of the choppy weather hear today. We have a little over 50 mixed fish. So far we have caught some Dorado with Bluefin mixed in. We still have plenty of daylight left and we're hoping to pull in some more Bluefin. We'll keep you posted as the day progresses.