dowagiac river Fishing Report 2025

Sunday, August 4th, 2013

13:53 hours update:

Hi friends. After a brief snafu (spelling?) with the sea anchor, we rolled right into stops on Bluefin tuna with our best drop yielding 35 of those tunas. Most of the fish were in the 14-22 lb. range but we did manage a few whacks on that 40-60 lb. grade as well. Our good friend Travis Donahue decided that throwing a 9'3" Ulua with 40 lb. test was just a stellar idea and managed to hook a dandy of a fish. I'm pretty sure a new style of angling was invented; it was crouching Travis, boot camp deluxe, and an antenna. Travis did his best but Gunny couldn't take it anymore and had to assist little Travis and the battle ensued. Guns had that fish about 2 feet out of the gaff reach of Mark and myself and just like that, sorrow. The Bluefin tuna won this battle and looked to be in the 120 lb. range. Oh brother.

Anyhow, we've been underway for a few hours now, headed to greater points south. Up next on our itinerary is do some Yellowtail fishing. We have a lot of water to cover and we're hoping to be fully engaged in a miracle and stumble upon something this afternoon when we get out of this cooler water and into some of that warm H20. We're hopeful. The gang just enjoyed a spaghetti and meat sauce lunch and Little Chappy just threw on "The Hurt Locker". Everyone is either playing Siskel and Ebert or snoozin'. Our traveling weather is absolutely gorgeous and we'll report back to you tonight with an update of how our afternoon went. Talk to us, Goose. Talk to us...

20:00 hours update:

Well, we never stumbled upon something glorious, or anything for that matter, but we gave it our all and when that failed, the gang had a poker tournament. Anyhow, Chef Shawn and Sweet Dee are preparing some type of shrim and scallop feast and the knock just came under my size 11, not-so-Tuff boots and that means it's dinner time. We'll be to the Yellowtail grounds tomorrow morning and we're hoping for a clobber fest. Take care. Happy Birthday, Zeb.

The team you dream about,

-The Supreme Team

 

P.S. Hi Drew!

Captain Ryan Bostian called in this evening with an update from “The San Diego.” We had Captain Cameron running the boat today. We had 26 anglers catch 54 Yellowtail and 2 Bluefin Tuna. We got the big boys today. Our Bluefin Tuna weighed in at 119 and 112 pounds. We had about ten bites and landed two. RECOMMENDED TACKLE 25 pound bait rod - 25 pound mono with a short 25 pound fluorocarbon. This outfit is excellent for the Yellowtail and smaller Bluefin Tuna. Be sure to use 1 or 1o hooks. 50 pound bait rod - 50 pound mono with a short 50 pound fluorocarbon leader. You will need 2o hooks for your heavy bait rod. Flat Fall rod - 7 or 8 foot rod with a Talica 12 or Talica 16. Use 65 or 80 pound spectra with a short 80 fluorocarbon leader. Make sure to have your Shimano Flatfall 200 or 250 gram model.

8 yellowtail 150 assorted rockfish 65 reds.

126 yellowtail 21 bonito. Come prepared with a yo yo rod and a bait rod. A few 6x jrs and a few 1 oz egg sinkers. Surface iron also produced for the seasoned Angler.

Stopping a school of tuna that is swimming at 8 kts often requires a lot of chum. Thanks to the best bait company in the business @everinghambaitbarge we managed to get a few schools to hang out with us for awhile. 42 bluefin 18 yellowtail.

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.
                                

 

Back to the Islands starting tomorrow (Nov 1).  Please bring a 40 lb yo-yo setup and a 25 lb bait setup.  For all you jig fisherman.  We will be targeting yellowtail and all other gamefish. Who knows, maybe even a stray Bluefin Tuna.  Passport required.

Captain Cameron Cribben checked in this evening with an update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. Today we had 17 anglers catch 6 Yellowfin Tuna and 7 Bluefin Tuna (up to 192 pounds). The Yellowfin Tuna were in the 15 to 18 pound class. The Bluefin Tuna were 25 to 35 pounds and we had 2 over 100 including this beautiful 192 pounder. The opportunity to capture a fish of a life time continues.