busse woods Fishing Report 2024

We had decent fishing again today at the Halibut grounds. We had a total of 11 nice flatties today. Then it shut off. It was a bit windy today. We will be back out soon. Listen to the audio from JJ for upcoming opportunities to fish on the Apollo. Thanks to JJ for being a great sponsor!

Oct. 11

We didn't connect on the bluefin tuna today. The fish was down or gone but it sure wasn't available for us or anyone else in the area to catch so that's it. We're done with this years Davis ultra limited load 15 day trip and we're headed for the barn. We'll have a big load of cow tuna to unload tomorrow and after an oil change, fuel fill and some grocery's we'll be heading back out on Joey G's Accurate sponsored 8 day trip.

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.

~~Aug 5
 The pressure is off.  We never made it down to any Island today like we planned.  At about 9 am or so the sonar went clunk, clunk and we went sideways for an hour.  It wasn't the best grade but it definitely wasn't the worst.  It was this years middle grade. 8-14 pounds with a sprinkling of 16-22 pounders in the mix.  Like I said, not the best but not the 2-6 pounders either.  But for a stressed out 4 day captain, it was lovely.  They bit good for about an hour and then they backed off.  After that we dedicated ourselves to that zone.  We figured that school of 14-25 pounders was just right over there.  It wasn't.  We didn't see another school of tuna.  However, we did find a nice kelp loaded up with big yellowtail.  They bit really well for a while too.  In fact , they were on the corner like tuna get on the corner for a good 20 minutes and when they backed off the corner, they still bit good for a while.  Other then that though we didn't see much other then the occasional small tuna on the trolling jigs but we're stoked for what we got today.  The pressure is off.

 We're going to stick with the plan and spend tomorrow at an Island hopefully drifting for hours.  The weather has finally backed off after a couple weeks of blowing.  Hopefully we get some descent weather for a nice long stretch and can get back to fishing where we please when we please.
     

Bluefin in our crosshairs for our upcoming 6 day. School size fish like this and a chance at trophies!

July 29
  Today was just one of those days for us.  Well, I was controlling where we fished so I guess I just had one of those days.  No, we're a team out here, WE had one of those days.  We zigged instead of zagged.  We turned left instead of right.  During our zig, we found two kelps that were truly loaded with nice looking tuna according to my machines, but darn-it if they wouldn't bite.  We have to figure they were kelps that got fished the day before and needed more time to recoup.  During that time, there was a small area of kelps being found that were holding Dorado and mostly small tuna, but they were all taken by the time we made it in there.  We tried to pick off one into the east and then north but we never could find much before we ran out of time.  We scratched out a bit more than 50 mixed fish today so it wasn't a total loss.  We just had one of those days.

  The weather right now couldn't be better.  We deserve it.  We had a windy few days to start out the trip.  All and all it was a great trip.  A great group and good fishing.  We'll be home tomorrow and back out for another 5 shortly there after.
  
  As of now I'd pick Mark to win the "Biggest Loser" competition.  Chef David made an amazing lasagna last night and Justin had a big ole piece while Mark ate a salad.  Who would of thought our hill- billy, poor grammar speaking Mark "the crow" Clark would pass up lasagna for a salad.  Next thing you know he may exercise during his way...  OK, I can't even finish writing that it sounds so ridiculous.
          

~~This is the after picture of the port side navigation system. If you notice, the monitor itself is a daylight monitor. The sun is shining directly on it and you can still see the screen. This system has radar, a plotter, and a fathometer. And it's all AIS capable. (Automated identification system) All ships that have AIS, can be tracked on a website, called www.marinetraffic.com. All of the systems can be overlaid so you can have your plotter, radar, and depth viewed at the same time

 

 

~~
This is the starboard side navigation system. Which is identical to the port. In addition to the previous mentioned features, the monitor can be switched to a computer system which has Nobel Tech times zero catch navigation fish finding and my favorite, bottom mapping system on it. You can, and we have been, making our own bottom maps for the previous three years. Cool stuff. In addition it has live weather from Weather Works XM Weather. Also it has SeaView Ocean Imaging capabilities to where we can download water temperature, chlorophyll, sea height, ect. The port system also has its own computer.

 

~~The monitor on the left is a sound activated fathometer for fish finding. And the monitor on the right is a daylight monitor for our sonar, for fish finding. In the front is one of our pairs of Gyroscopic binoculars

~~All of these electronics need new antennas. And this is how they get there. We literally pulled out a third of a dock cart of old wiring

 

 

~~Say good bye to the old radars.

~~Drew grinding away on a little cancer on the deck.

~~The roto hammer is one of our favorite tools for chipping up cancerous areas on the deck, but the noise is unbearable to our neighbors in the boat yard.

~~The deck hatches had to be completely stripped

~~We re-skinned the outside of the galley doors. They now have a nice white formica finish.

~~Creative, yes. But I bet he spent a half hour looking for that office chair in the boat yard!

~~The boat looks kinda small in some of these upcoming pictures without Tommie in them for perspective.  ~~Jed's missing from these shots because he was taking the pictures.

 

 

~~Drew resealing inspection plates for exhaust

~~Tommie detailing wood work

~~Tommie prepping for paint

~~Final coat of deck paint. Looking good!

 

 

We are gearing up for our upcoming 7-10 day trips down south. Ready to get our masks on and pull on some fish.