charlie`s Fishing Report 2024

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Hi friends. We're still traveling down in decent weather, with plenty of sunshine to make for an enjoyable trek. Although, the travel days can be very monotonous, we always find something out of the ordinary to do to break up the boredom. Today was a unique day, even by our standards; and even after all of the sea time that passengers and crew members alike have accumulated over the decades, we still found ourselves in activities, scenery, and fishing that we don't experience everyday.

Now, I'm not trying to make roses out of you-know-what; we caught Yellowtail today. That's all. We didn't run into the first wave of Albacore or run up on a breezer of giant Bluefin tuna. Nope, we simply caught beautiful 18-22 lb. Yellowtail. Before I go any further - I am not bashing the Yellowtail fishery in any way shape or form. We had a great time doing it today and in all honesty, typing out words to explain the amount of fun we had for an hour would bore everyone half to death. What garners this report is simply the hour-long spectacle that was associated with our Yellowtail fishing. Having wide open fishing and not really trying to compete with other boats or boost our own egos is fun enough, trust me. Just good old fashioned yankin' and crankin' is what we did today but add in the sight of breaching Humpback Whales (two adults and one cute little calf, literally within casting distance) with the backdrop of one of the most beautiful destinations that we fish in one of the most isolated places in the Eastern Pacific was something I'll never forget. Like I said, it was Yellowtail fishing; but add in the group of gentlemen that we shared this experience with, it was hard not to just stop for a moment and take everything in. All in all, it was a super fun day.

I'm sorry for the lengthy report. I'm reading three books at the moment and one of them is 83 Neurobic exercises to increase mental fitness and it encourages you to do some off-the-wall stuff - things that you normally wouldn't do to keep your brain healthy. It's a fascinating read and I'm applying a lot of the little things that the book says to do. I'm sure that I'm driving the crew crazy with how stoked I am to do these things; from switching my watch to my other hand, to navigating my way around the wheelhouse with my eyes closed and let my senses other than sight guide me around (don't worry, I'm not driving), to putting different types of tape on the keyboard (don't ask) - it's all really interesting to me and it's keeping the travel days fresh and exciting. So, I apologize for this whacky report but I'm helping to keep my brain stimulated and hopefully yours too.

Anyhow, With this particular trip -- or any 17-day trip, for that matter -- there is always something new to do to keep us on our toes. From rigging up "Bruce" our new anchor (insert circus music here) to finding a good book to read to learning a new way to rig tackle or just enjoying the ride with some good friends, the entire experience of traveling down to our destination can be looked at in multiple ways - today was one of those good travel days and I felt like sharing it with everyone because we're pumped. Other than good weather and good food, I'll leave y'all with a few more clues as to what in the heck we're doing with our time. It involves: five grown men, a food processor, Yellowtail Milt, a deck brush, and a bait scoop. Stimulate your brains. We'll chat with you manana.

P.S. Devon, Alayna, and Lyall - I caught y'all a delicious Calico Bass today. I wanted to release it but mortality was imminent. I am deeply sorry. Scootch didn't even try to save it either so it's half his fault. Sorry.

Sep. 9

It was awesome yellowtailing this morning. As soon as we got to the grounds it was on and that time was dark 30. That's right. It wasn't even daylight yet and we were gettin um. Nice big fat yellows. As soon as daylight hit we were still gettin um and we kept gettin um for a few more hours too. And after that, we made a move and we were gettin um there too. So lunch time came around and Chef Shawn made yellowtail sandwiches and guess what, they were awesome. After that we worked up up up to get us in position for bluefining tomorrow. The weather coming up is not good. As I write this at the Charger halftime my legs are 6 feet apart for balance. Sometimes my butt is against the wall and I can barely reach the keyboard. The weather man is calling for better weather tomorrow. Should we believe him?

Ryan Bostian called in to give his report for fishing at the Coronado Islands. He reported that the Islands have seen a huge invasion of Squid over the last 11/12 days. The squid in turn have attracted a number of fish. Including 25 to 45 lb. Yellowtail & 25 to 65 lb. White Seabass. They are also seeing a lot of Sand Bass & Barracuda. Just a lot of fish. Ryan's best quote was "Go fishing, because you just might catch the biggest fish of your life." That says it all.

If want more information or want to make a reservation call Seaforth Sportfishing at 619-224-3383. Ryan has trips every day leaving at 5:30 AM & returning around 5:30 in the evening.

We had a nice afternoon hooking fish landing was okay lot of tackle failures
and losses to the sharks! But we still managed to put a nice afternoon
together. It's absolutely a beautiful grade of fish! Most of the anglers
hooked for five of these fish! We are having to fish the 30 and 40 lb. test
to get a bite here. Not ideal for getting the larger Tuna away from the
sharks. Hopefully they bite heaver line tomorrow!
 

Captain Ryan Bostian called in this afternoon with an update from the 3/4 day boat The San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. Today Captain Taro was at the helm. We had 137 Yellowtail for our group. They were biting on fly-lined baits, Yo-Yo jigs and Dropper Loop. You must have a passport to fish the Coronado Islands now. If you want to go fishing there you need to get one! Today we had 137. Yesterday we had 114. And on Saturday we had 96 Yellowtail. It is biting good!

4 yellowtail and plenty of reds and rockfish. The islands continue to move in the right direction.

Aug. 15
    We started our morning off in the local bluefin zone.  We caught 12 of them, 2 of them being the 50+ pounders while the rest were that beautiful manageable 30-40 pound fish and we caught a few yellowfin.  On drift number 2 we hooked and lost one.  Do to the amount of boats thinking the same thing we were and the lack of fish I was seeing being brought over the rail, I decided to leave early and look for yellowfin for a while.  It wasn't long before we found some, and then some more, and then some more.  It pretty much was like that for as long as we fished it which was until after 5 when we went back to the zone where we started.  We had good fishing pretty much all day long.  The only negative thing about it was the grade of fish was a bit on the smaller side.  They weren't runts but they weren't great either.  12 pounds is the short version.  They averaged out to be 12 pounders.  We looked all around for a bigger grade but it pretty much was what it was.  I did think that the area we finished up in yellowfin wise had quite a few more 20 pounders mixed in than what we'd been fishing so it may be something to look at tomorrow.  We finished up right where we started and we had a long 2 1/2 hour drift.  We caught a yellowfin every once in a while, we landed 4 of the 30-40 pound bf's and caught 1 70ish pounder and lost at least 4 of those.  We are going to drift tonight and do it again tomorrow.
                                

 

I have always felt that it takes 3 full days to give the Coronado Islands a thorough check. Today was day # 1 and we caught 31 bonito and 100 rockfish. Spent a lot of time looking for yellowtail and never found anything substantial. Saturday is a definite go with a light load at this time.