el jobean Fishing Report 2025

The 21st annual Eric Rogger charter arrived at Fisherman's Landing August 16, after five days with 18 anglers aboard Polaris Supreme. Owner-skipper Tom Rothery was at the helm. "Wow!  What an incredible day," wrote Tom August 12. "This albacore is in the cooler 76-degree water.  It wants to bite wide open. Can't say enough about how much fun today was catching big fat jumbo albacore. They tired our anglers out. By the end of the day only a few fishermen were still standing.  Chef Pedro fixed a spicy teriyaki albacore lunch that was fantastic.  For dinner he served some delicious veal chops. Today was just a great. This is what albacore fishing is supposed to be like." John Lindsey of Newport Beach won first place for a 41.4-pound albacore. He took it with a sardine on a Mustad 2/0 94150 hook on 20-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader, 20-pound P-Line, an Accurate 197 reel and a nine-foot rod of unknown make. "He fought hard," said John. "He fought for 20 minutes."
Cole Pearce of Huntington Beach was second, for a 36.4-pound albie, and Brian Harnack of Culver City took third place for a 36-pound albacore.

We just don't see the sign of 200 lb. plus tuna that we would like to. There is plenty of 70-125 lb. tuna but we are going to bust a move to look for some cows. Weather is still flat clam. Lunch was wahoo enchiladas. (Tom donated the wahoo) Dinner was a pork tenderloin. No hors d'oeuvres today. We need a break.

Good evening everyone, Today we started off our Beck 5 day charter. We woke up pointed at a new area of water that has not been prospected yet. The day consisted of warm beautiful water, one kelp, and one boomer school of smaller yelllowfin tuna. The kelp had some great Dorado fishing to get everyone on the board. A truly great area of warm blue water. If there were more kelp or objects in the water it would have been interesting to see what they may have held. Our one boomer school of tuna was awesome to see, these tuna bit like crazy. Literally anything that hit the water from trolling jigs to bare gaffs they tried to eat! We only kept a couple each because we wanted to save room for larger fish, but it was a nice change of scenery seeing biting fish. Trying for yellowtail tomorrow. Wish us luck, Team Supreme

Drove out to the honey hole and immediately saw fish. After drifting for a couple hours it became obvious that today was a different day. We had plenty of tuna around us but unfortunately they never reached the aggression level we wanted. We ended with 24 yellowfin tuna.

~~Sep 14
 Wow!  What a day.  2015!  We started it off early on anchor.  The sun wasn't even up yet and we were catching tuna and wahoo.  For about an hour there on anchor we were gettinum.  We had about 30 of those 25-30+ pound tuna and almost 20 wahoo before an hour.  Things slowed so we pulled anchor and got nasty.  We had a couple other bingers for wahoo for about 10 each time, and of course we would catch that big tuna during those drifts.  After that though, us and the 3 other boats that were here pretty much had the wahoo caught for the day.  There was a few left to be had but we mostly caught that tuna up to perhaps 40 pounds the rest of the day.  Not wide open.  We're not "fixed up".  Just steady for most of the day.  Before dark we started "the troll of shame".  I've never done that the second day of the trip.  We got 2 passengers out of there and still have 2 or 3 left who haven't caught a wahoo yet.  Oh they had there chances.  Some of those guys on that team lost 4 or 5 skin today.  But that's wahoo fishing.  Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you.

 We're going to try this again in the morning.  I would love to get 40 or 50 more tuna and a couple more handfuls of wahoo.  That would be epic.  After the morning hit we're going to make a run and try for some yellows in the afternoon.
        

The fall fishing season is on, as could be seen in the catch brought back from Alijos Rocks and The Ridge by Polaris Supreme owner-skipper Tommy Rothery, who docked his rig at Fisherman's Landing September 16 after an right-day trip. "Wow, what a great day!" wrote Tom on September 13. "We had an awesome morning bite on the Dorado; big bulls and cows. We took a break at lunch and Pedro prepared a Southwestern 10 oz. burger that was delicious. He really nails the menu with his creative spices and herbs. Back out on the deck, we had excellent fishing on the wahoo throughout the whole day. And then to finish up the day we caught some yellowfin tuna. It was just a great, fun day. Dinner tonight was a spicy ginger shrimp curry; another great dish. Our weather all day has been beautiful. I hear it's been crappy up above and hope it lies down before we start up the line." Jeff Theurer of Pismo Beach got the best dorado, a 44-pound whopper that will now be the season's best. "I got it in 15 minutes," he said, "on 40-pound line. This is my best dorado and the best on the boat this trip."
Chris Fitzgerald of Lake Elsinore won first place for a 70.2-pound tuna. He caught it with a sardine, he said, on a 3/0 Mustad hook, 60-pound P-Line on an Avet 5-2 reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod.
Wayne Campbell of Huntington Beach was second for a 70-pounder, and Bill Vogel of Oceanside won third place for a 62.6-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna. Jeff Camplese of Helena, MT took the best wahoo, a 55.4-pounder, and brought it into the lineup shot.

We at Tribute Sportfishing are feeling the Holiday Spirit and would like to give back to our Anglers, so we decided to spice things up for this weekends trip. We love our Sponsors and our fisherman enough to raffle off our own "brand new" gear purchased our given to us from them. This Friday nights trip will have new raffle prizes of... -Seeker 40 pound rod- -Okuma Cortez Reel- -5 packs of Seeker Soft Steel Ultra flouracarbon- -A case of BallastPoint Sculpin IPA- -A $25 Seaforth Sportfishing gift certificate- And a free 1 1/2 day rockfish trip aboard the Tribute. Over $800 in give aways just because we love you guys and gals that fish with us. There is also rumor that a sponsor or 2 may sweeten the pot further. Merry Christmas!

Yesterday morning we had some good fishing and the albacore and some great fishing on the yellowtail. Midday we got a nice round on the bluefin and late in the day we were back with the albacore biting full speed. It was a fantastic day. Weather was good and is still nice today. This morning we had a nice hit on the albacore. We have had some requests in the office to post the meals we serve on board, so we'll start putting some of that information on as well. Last night Chef Pedro served a wonderful duck breast fillet served in natural pan sauce. It was excellent. The night before we dined on salmon with a lemon, butter caper sauce. Also very tasty.

Some of our lunches on this trip were pork carnitas, with all the toppings and sides, and one day we had chicken marinara with pasta. Food and fishing is excellent! Paul Hess's group has also been excellent.

We will be into the dock tomorrow morning at 6am.

Thanks for checking in! Tommy and crew