chatfield Fishing Report 2024

This year is my 20th straight season operating a boat at the Coronado Islands. The fishing that is happening right now is the best I have ever seen. Boats from 10 ft to 124 ft all drifting and getting them. Don’t miss out on this amazing display of bio-mass. Please be responsible and only keep what you need. Have fun, be responsible and help a kid or a beginner. The guys are getting them again this morning. 75+ out of their first stop.

Polaris Supreme update 08-15-2012

              Our day started off today in flat calm weather and high hopes that we were going to score big.  We worked our water break way out to the north west away from where we have been catching most of our fish.  About 20 miles away I thought "What the heck am I doing?  What if they start getting them?"  We made a sweeping turn out to the west and immediately found our first small paddy of the day.  We were immediately rewarded with a frenzied bite of mixed yellowfin, bluefin, dorado and small yellowtail which were released.  When the dust had cleared we had about 35 mixed fish.  And back up to the wheelhouse and mast we all went to find another one.  After about a half hour of searching and lunch time approaching , we hadn't found another one.  And then of course, my worst nightmare occurred.  Signs of the fish starting to bite 20 miles back where I left from.  This is one of those times you wish you had a button you could push just once a trip to put you somewhere instantly.  
Of course you'd probably want to push it again and go back where you
just were once you got there.   That's probably why they don't make such
a devise.  That and the lack of technology to do so.  Anyway, off we went two hours south.  Back to where we started our morning.  As we arrived it turns out that only one boat had really caught much of anything and he was definitely one of those lucky guys.  He had had a phenomenal day on that small grade yellowfin and bluefin.  As the passengers began to break down their gear and we headed north, our day went from slow to the insane.  We spent the rest of the hours until heading for home late, in a wide open bite for small yellowfin and bluefin.  With the odd big yellowtail, 18 pounds or more and dorado, 15 pounds thrown in.  Talk about carrying around a horseshoe and waiting until the last minute to use it.  It was a fantastic topper to Eric Rogger's 28th ? or 30th long range charter with me.  And also a befitting ending to Alex Crandall's last hurrah before he heads off to Afghanistan.  Alex it was awesome to have you and your dad on board to spend time together. Thanks for sharing that time with us on board the
Polaris Supreme.  Thanks Paula for letting them go.    We will be
heading up the line and into San Diego a couple hours late tomorrow.  
Somewhere around 8:00 am or so.  We will report tomorrow on the jackpot fish and give you a trip wrap up.
Thanks for tuning in,
Tommy and the awesome crew of the Polaris Supreme

Oct. 5

I'm lying. Its actually Oct. 6 as I write this. It's Drew here, back from a few trips spent on land and fresh out for a healthy 40 day stretch. It appears I have some large shoes to fill as Cap. Richie has been putting the wood to the tuna fish out here lately. Well mother nature welcomed me back with some wind. Thanks mom. We arrived to the fishing grounds we chose to start about an hour ago and threw out the sea anchor in hopes that the tuna will find us rather then vice versa. It's easier that way when you have the wind like we do and if the tuna do find us it will be much more comfortable with the bow to the wind like it is with the chute out. We'll know the answer to that in about an hour or more. Baits o.k. There is much more sardine alive this morning then I thought there would be. So that's it. There's a dorado swimming around out my wheelhouse window so I'm going to go make someone catch it.

Today we had a good morning hit on the better grade tuna. Once the sun came up the tuna were still there and biting, but the skip jack moved in as well. Eventually it settled into a pick on the great grade tuna through the skip jack. We also had some Grouper and large Yellowtail mixed in. We will be in search of Wahoo tomorrow.

I apologize but we are having problems sending out emails from the boat so I couldn't give a daily report. It should soon be taken care of. Our first day was mostly a travel day due to the lack of fish offshore. We were in great looking water most of the day but could not find any fish to work with. That seems to be the trend offshore lately. The next two days we fished for yellowtail at the beautiful island of Cedros. Our first day there we scratched most of the day on anchor doing well on the great great quality fish. They are averaging close to 30 pounds this year again. In the late afternoon we took a tour and found big balls of the yellows at the surface feeding on krill. They were being very stubborn and didn't care to much about us but were very interested in the krill they were eating. Jerks. After a great nights sleep in the calm of the island we began our next day. We had very good fishing. The grade was a bit smaller averaging 15-20 pounds but that is still quality fish. They were hitting good for most of the morning. Just after lunch it sizzled out so we went in search of some more trophies. We found them but again they sure didn't bite like you would have thought. We had 30 more of the trophies before taking off up the line to put us in position to fish offshore for tuna our last day. We found an area of jumping bluefin late morning and fished two hours there before we had to head home. We tried quite a few different spots and they laid under the boat each time for as long as we sat there but were reluctant to bite. We caught two bluefin from 25-35 pounds and lost a nice albacore. I'm pretty excited about what I saw offshore today. It looked much better than it has in the past week. The water is warmer and cleaner and there is fish in it. The offshore season is here. Thank you once again Mr. Larry Brown and to all the kids and dads aboard this trip. Me and my crew had a blast. Drew and the greatest crew around.

Hello and good morning! We will be pulling into the dock in a couple of hours off of our 3 day open group. The fishing was tough and you had to work hard to put a fish on board. This group was one of the hardest fishing and courteous toward each other group I have ever fished with. Good job Katrina and Guy's . We will be at the dock for 3 days before resuming our season. We will see you out on the 8th on the Bill Stephens charter. Tight Lines The Polaris Supreme Crew.

Our first YFT of the year. Let's hope he is a scout for many to come!!

Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing July 24 following a five-day, 24-passenger charter with owner-skipper Tommy Rothery, who was credited by other skippers with finding a new area of albacore to the west of the previous location. Brad Donnelly of San Clemente won first place on the Tuna Trackers trip, for a 52-pound yellowfin. He said he took it with a sardine on a 3/0 Eagle Claw hook and 40-pound Soft Steel line. He used a Penn 4/0 reel and a Seeker 6465 H rod. Mike O'Donnell of Palmdale was second, for a 45-pound albacore. Jason Severen of Petaluma tied with Tom Donnelly of San Clemente for third place. Each had a 42-pound albacore.