calling panther lake Fishing Report 2023

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 08-25-2016 Good afternoon. We just departed on the Sadie Hawkins Ladies Charter, however they are joined by a few men. We've been excited to get this trip underway to watch the ladies finally out number the guys and show their skills. We had the pleasure of meeting Charter Head Bev Seltzer during boat work and it looks like she brought a ell equipped group of anglers with her this year. We would also like to send a very special thanks to Joe Beck for hosting yet another year of the annual Bob Vance 5 day trip. Although Bob hasn't joined us in a few years, we're still proud to have his name on the trip. As always, the guys fished hard and were rewarded with a really nice catch on some yellowfin and bluefin tuna. The top guys on the list with the jackpot fish were: taking the number 1 spot, "Team Nevada" Tom Christianson with an impressive 96 lb bluefin, second spot was Damon Cassell with a 76 lb yellowfin tuna and rounding out this trips jackpot was also "team Nevada" Dan burns with a 75 lb yellowfin. Way to go guys! Look forward to next year. So, for now, it's time to eat lunch and gear up for the next 3 days! We'll check back this evening with our next report. Tails up, Team Supreme

14 yellowtail 62 calico bass 3 barracuda. Nice weather and steady picking.

~~Sep. 6
 I think I'm going to start naming my reports.  This one is called "We should have stuck with the game plan".  The plan was to start where we did, and if it didn't look good run up 40 miles to the next spot arriving just after lunch when it's bite time there.  Well we started off slow.  Conditions were a little funky.  We saw some fish, but they didn't really bite.  We caught a few yellows and the biggest ling cod I've ever seen brought up on this boat, but it wasn't good enough to stick around.  So we started off sticking with the plan when we left and went north but then we decided to do some radio fishing.  I heard 4th hand and then 3rd hand that a boat had a couple really good dorado kelps the day prior almost in striking distance and then really good yellowtail in the afternoon definitely in striking distance.  Then I saw on my water temp chart that same water just a few hours below us so we made the move.  Obviously by my whining you can tell it didn't work out.  We didn't find much kelp in the good water.  We found one OK kelp but we only caught a handful of flats.  There was a few wahoo swimming around it but we didn't catch any.

 So that's OK.  We're not worried.  We still have yesterdays afternoon yellowtail hot spot to fish.  Not today.  Should have been here yesterday. Maybe that should be the name of the report. We saw some and caught a few but it was nothing good.  So here we sit.  I'm not sure if we stuck with the game plan that it would have worked out.  There already was a boat on the spot we were headed to and it's kind of a one boat spot so maybe we didn't miss anything.

 It's funny.  I haven't written this long of a report in a long time.  If fishing was good today I probably would have written one paragraph.  I needed to rant.  Anyways we're going to stick it out here and regroup and try it again in the morning.  Hopefully we find some yellows to work with but either way we plan on looking for a dorado kelp in the afternoon.  Hopefully I only write one paragraph tomorrow.
       

 

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Good evening. With all of the life around the boat last night, we never managed to hook a fish this morning so we made a move and relocated the good sign of fish from yesterday. All in all, it was a very slow day up until the afternoon time when we got on a big breezer of smaller fish and had a nice little flurry on that smaller grade of fish. They really responded well, boiling within ten feet of the transom but for whatever reason we only managed to hook and land a handful. That was pretty much our hot action of the day. We saw a couple good spots of fish today but the Bluefin were Bluefin and it was a struggle to get a bite. There's potential for some decent hits in this area but for now, it's only for a couple of lucky boats and today, we were not a lucky boat. Sometimes, that's just how the cards fall.

With a beautiful load of Yellowtail in the fish holds and an annoying load of kelp flies everywhere else, we put a bow on the 2011 Paul Hess five day trip. Our utmost gratitude goes out to Paul for once again putting together a stellar group of folks and continuing to bring them back year after year. No matter what type of economic situation or what type of fish we catch, this group has a great attitude and they come out here to have a good time. Also, thank you to Sandra and Dave Lafferty for bringing some delicious food, especially the Cherry cobbler. We'll see y'all next year. Go Giants...not.

So there you have it. We're enjoying a fine ride as we motor back to port and we're shooting for a 0730 ETA tomorrow morning. We'll be coming back out with the Costello gang for five days of fun with Captain Drew Henderson at the helm. We'll check back with you tomorrow and have a good weekend.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Hi friends. We finally made it to the hot Bluefin grounds in the afternoon and as soon as we arrived, the bite shut off. We saw good life and a few schools but we never saw the whites of their eyes. There is potential to scratch out a day here as the few boats that were in the area all day had a few fish to show for their efforts. Based on that, we rigged up and tossed out the sea anchor and will be drifting offshore all night. There is a ton of life around us right now with squid, sauries, and birds all around so hopefully with all of this life, we'll wake up and pick away at some shortfin's. Wish us luck.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Good evening friends. Yellowtail fishing aboard the Polaris Supreme was outstanding today. From right after breakfast until the late afternoon, we were pulling on 'tails in the 14-20 lb. class. Massive breezers, meter marks, and color spots were repeatedly located and we enjoyed steady catching all day long in beautiful weather. We had a very entertaining day and the evening time found us on the hunt for "premiums" which we managed to boat one right around 35 lbs. Hot rigs today was 30 lb. test, fly-lining a sardine with a J-hook tied on. No fluorocarbon, no designer circle hooks. A Yellowtail's mouth is like sandpaper, so there is no reason to waste the money on more abrasion resistant/expensive line and a hook that is designed to be set in the corner of the mouth so you don't get chewed off by a fish with teeth. With the exception of cow tuna fishing, we see more fish lost on circle hooks than landed. Granted every type of tackle worked today but time after time, we see just a simple 30 lb. rig filled with mono and tied up with a J-hook catching more fish than a rig with fluorocarbon and designer circle hooks. For Yellowtail fishing, it's an unnecessary expense when a so called "cheap rig" will get the job done just as good. Hey, when you step foot on the Supreme, you can fish with whatever type of tackle you wish. But take it from the people who are out here everyday, when it comes to Yellowtail fishing, keep it simple. Outfit yourself with mono and a J-hook and save that money that you would've spent on the fluoro/designer hooks because you're going to need to put it towards your fish processing bill. Get what I'm saying?

So that is all. The gang has had their fill on Yellowtail so the decision was made to venture offshore to focus on tuna fishing for the remainder of the trip. A couple of our community boats had an OK day on the Bluefin grounds so we're looking forward to seeing if we can't track down a few schools and add to our beautiful catch of Yellowtail before trips end. Our weather is a little bumpy but everyone is too tired to notice, they're out and so are we. Wish us luck and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

Happy Hump Day,

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Hello friends. We began the hunt for Bluefin tuna early this morning by shutting down in the gray light on a school of tuna and just as soon as everyone woke up to begin fishing, they vanished. So we followed suit and the hunt for greener pastures commenced. It took us a little while to get a school located but when we got it located, it was a good one. We immediately saw fish boiling up good all around the boat and we hooked a few right off the bat. We landed a handful and we lost a handful but what we did land were a beautiful grade of Bluefin in the 25-35 lb. range. With the massive surface show 360 degrees around the boat we decided to get the kite out. Multiple fish attacked the baits but missed the hooks and after that, all we could do was watch them boil within ten feet of the baits and turn their nose away from our double sardine rigs. We watched the show for a couple of hours before they bailed and it was a slow day from that point on. We did pull a couple of nice Yellowtail from a kelp paddy and we even trolled up a smaller grade Bluefin tuna later in the day. Not too shabby considering a lot of boats in the prior weeks have been calling in zero's for fish counts, so we're very happy with what we caught and we'll be back on the tuna grounds after we do some Yellowtail fishing. A couple of boats in our long range community had a pretty steady day on smaller grade Bluefin in another area so we'll keep our ears open to that developing situation. Like I said, we're going to go do some Yellowtail fishing as the bite has been hot and we're looking forward to finding out for ourselves just how hot the bite is.

So that's it. Our weather is fair and we're in excellent company with Paul Hess and his good friends. We'll be in the zone first thing tomorrow morning and we'll report back to you tomorrow. Take care now.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

P.S. Te amo, Anna. From: Mark.

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Hello friends. We're back in business as we departed on our annual Paul Hess five day trip this morning. Paul has been putting together a great group of anglers for the better part of a decade on the Supreme and we're happy to see all the familiar faces that he's brought aboard this year. Our bait loading went smoothly and we've been traveling in calm weather ever since leaving the harbor around lunch time. With boats spread out in different areas along the coast and offshore, we're taking our time in deciding what our game plan is. Part one of our journey will be on the hunt for Bluefin tuna tomorrow morning as one of our companions in the long range fleet saw good sign and had an OK day on the shortfins today. We'll begin looking around in the morning and we'll see if we can't boat a couple of tuna fish tomorrow before we worry about part two. Wish us luck and we'll report back to you tomorrow.

Happy Monday,

-Richie and Team Supreme-

We had an awesome 1.5 trip on the Apollo out of Fisherman's Landing. We left Friday night at 7 pm and headed to Punta Colnett. Weather was very nice, calm and glassy. We started fishing for Yellowtail in the early morning but no biter. We preceded fishing for Rockfish. We drifted every hot spots that Captain JJ knew and they were all very productive. We came up with lots of good quality Vermilion Reds, Lingcod and Bocaccio Rockfish. At about 3 in the afternoon, Yellowtail breezers came through and all six of us got hooked with our rockcod gangnion hooks. We ended with two 25 lbs Yellows. Next time I'll be ready. We fished until almost dark and we bagged 125 Vermillion Reds, 98 Rock cod, 25 Lingcod and 2 Yellowtail for 25 guys. Captain JJ runs a top notch operation together with Jessica, Joe, Travis and Chef Nick. They were all very professional and helpful at all times. Chef Nick serves all variety of gourmet food on the boat. Apollo will be still running trips in Fisherman's Landing until end of March and will move to Santa Barbara on April. Don't miss our overnight charter trip on Sunday, April 3rd departing Saturday at 10 pm.

"This trip was as planned," said Polaris Supreme skipper Drew Henderson at Fisherman's Landing October 15. "It went perfectly." He had just returned for a seven-day excursion south, with 24 anglers. Brian Henricks of San Pedro won first place for a 123-pound tuna. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 3/0 ringed Super Mutu hook, tied to 50-pound fluorocarbon leader, 50-pound pink Ande line and 65-pound Spectra backing on a Tiagra 20 reel and a six and a half-foot custom Shikari rod. "He kicked my butt," remarked Henricks, "for an hour and a half." Scott WEolff of Simi Valley was second for a 109.4-pounder, and he was tied by John Drnello of Templeton, who got his 109.4-pounder on 40-pound line. He said it was the first big fish of the trip.

This past weekend we went out with 33 anglers on both of our trips. Saturdays fishing was a little bit better as far as quality is concerned. On both trips we ended up with limits of rockfish but Saturday we caught 80+ red rockcod to go along with 3 lingcod and plenty of chilies and Boccaccio. Sunday we had a bit of a wind swell come up making the drift rather fast. Sundays count was 63 reds 2 lings and limits of rockfish. The weather forecast looks good for this week.

Oct. 6

My sea anchor trick didn't work today. I had dreams of drifting beautifully on the sea anchor catching wide open yellowfin, bluefin and dorado but those were just dreams this time. We caught a handful of yellowfin and then had to pull it. The rest of the day was very slow for most the fleet. There were a few fresh kelps found today, and I mean a few but all the rest of the fish caught today were on kelps being fished all week long. Boats were waiting in line to fish them and I just can't do that. Not that there is anything wrong with it. These local guys are very very good at what they do and some of that involves keeping track of kelps for weeks at a time and that takes a great talent. We didn't have a whole lot of fish on board at 4 O'Clock but then we found the kelp of the day for us. It started off straight trout size yellows, then the skip jack started mixing in, then the yellows backed off and it went straight skipjack, then the tuna started to mix in, then the tuna overtook the skipies and it was straight tuna for a while. Not wide open but a steady pick of 3 to 4 going for a while. The day maker. And that was our day.

 

Tune in tomorrow for another exciting day aboard the Polaris Supreme.