big stone Fishing Report 2024

59 bluefin 37 yellowfin. Quite a few bites on the 30-40lb flylined baits today. Sinker rigs, colt snipers and flat falls still getting plenty of action.

Polaris Supreme returned October 14 under skipper Drew Henderson's hand. Drew took his 23 anglers on a seven-day adventure, returning to Fisherman's Landing, where he weighed the best of the catch. "We had a very good afternoon at the Bush," (San Benitos Islands) said Drew, "and we spent some time looking for kelps. Alijos Rocks gave us some really good yellowtail fishing in the dark. We had four or five fishing going. We also tried Guadalupe Island, where we got a few tuna but saw very little." "We had a couple hours of very good dropper loop yellowtail fishing," Drew wrote October 0, "on 25-35 pound fish in the morning. When that slowed we stayed busy with smaller grade tuna and the occasional mahi. We made a tour and got the anchor back down around lunchtime and had the same action but with an occasional larger model tuna being hooked. We hooked 10 and landed four 50 to 60-pounders. After dinner the few that still had the energy to fish all caught several more of those big yellows before we took off at 10:00. We're now spending the day traveling up the line and will be arriving to finish up the trip at Guadalupe Island for a day and a morning." The certified scales provided the winners. Dennis Sewell of Walnut creek won first place for a 68.2-pound tuna.

"It took a lot of line," remarked Dennis. "It fought for a half-hour." Sewell baited a sardine on a 2/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 40-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and 40-pound P-Line, and fished with an Accurate 870 reel and a six-foot rod of unknown origin.

Jake Hamstra of Tulare won second place for a 66.6-pound yellowfin, and Tom Kroes of Tipton won third place for a 60.2-pound tuna. David Richardson of Hacienda Heights stood in with the winners, with his 52.2-pound wahoo, a fish that took his trolled Catchy Tackle spinner head jig in pink and black.

Once Again the ocean proves to us that everything will balance out if given enough time. Just last week it looked as if we would never touch our gaffs again. Today our 31 anglers were treated to a long drift that ended with 19 bluefin tuna from 60-100 lbs and 2 20lb yellowfin tuna. Preparation, an open mind and understanding that Mother Nature is the one one in charge is all you need. A wise old man once told me “we’re only as good as the fishing” today the fishing was very good and we are thankful.

47 nice grade Yellowfin, 7 Yellowtail and a Bluefin for today’s group in awesome weather.

Sunday, September 9th, 2012

Hi friends. We woke up today to a lovely Sunday brunch complete with Belgium waffles, bacon, eggs, and bloody mary's. I didn't have any. Sad face. After brunch, we were treated to all of nature's glory with rain, lightning, and thunder. Some of the strikes were less than a mile from us. Amazing. Anyhow, after a carne asada taco lunch and more cocktails that I didn't have, we made it to the fishing grounds and enjoyed a couple of drifts on a beautiful grade of yellows up to twenty-five pounds. They were biting that yo-yo jig real nice but our bite was short lived. After the sun had set, we sat down to a prime rib dinner and lots of red wine that I didn't have and we finished off with pecan pie and ice cream. I had some.

So that was our day in a nutshell. Hopefully the fish aren't as crabby tomorrow and we can get down to business. Wish us luck and we'll hit you up on Monday night. Peace out, homies.

Back after a five-day trip, the 7th Annual Paul Chappell Charter aboard the Polaris Supreme arrived at Fisherman's Landing July 10. The 24 anglers were guided by skipper Drew Henderson.
"We got some nice yellowtail at San Martin," remarked Drew, "but there's a lot of that big squid around there. You can't get any more yellows once they get on you." Chartermaster Chappell won first place for his 34.6-pound albacore. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 2/0 Mustad 94150 hook on 30-pound Yo-Zuri line. He fished with a Penn Squidder reel and a Sabre seven-foot rod of the same era. Phil Beltrami of Napa won second place for a 33.4-pounder, and Craig Pappas of Santa Cruz won third place for a 32.4-pound longfin.

Nov. 11

After our previous day of wide open fishing - we had high hopes of the same on giant yellow fin tuna. The day started with Captain Tommy identifying sonar readings of big schools of tuna all around us. We fished hard all day. Kites, sinker rigs, fly line, chunked, jigged, drifted and anchored. Tommy calling out the sonar readings the whole time, ", "big tuna at 20 fathoms" or "we are surrounded by school tuna 10 fathoms to 30 fathoms". We began to doubt Tommy's sonar and guessed that it was just a screen saver image. Then, in the late afternoon, tuna started flying out of the water all around us for a 1/4 mile. 100 lb to 300 lb tuna fully coming out of water and giving us a show and taunting us once more. At the end of the day Greg, Matt and Rick caught larger tuna and kept us from getting skunked. We flushed the stomachs of the tuna and found them stuffed with pelagic crabs. The sardines, mackerel and flying fish we offered were not on their menu. We hear of a place up the line where the yellow tail are biting. We are going there now.

OTR Lon Mikkelsen.

Ryan Bostian called in with this report on the San Diego, "I'm off the boat today, I just got a call from Captain Brian as of noon he had 13 Yellowtail on board. It's the same old story we are landing about 1/2 of the fish that are hooked due to the size and location of these fish. A lot of them are 25 lbs. and bigger, and most of them are located in shallow water.

"Make sure you bring your "A" Game if you come down to fly line some sardines with us. You'll need 2/O hooks, 25 or 30 lb test. a nice firm drag and be prepared to hook into some beautiful Yellowtail.

"We offer these 5:30 to 5:00 Trips everyday out of Seaforth Sportfishing. I'll call back later to give the final talley, but as of noon they had 13 Yellowtail on the deck and still plenty of fishing time left in the day. If you'd like to go out with us please make reservations at 619-224-3383."