fort fisher Fishing Report 2025

The Pacific Voyager just got back into port from a 2 day with a few yellowfin tuna,one bluefin, and albacore. This is shaping up to be an interesting year with the first yellowfin being caught on this short trip. Call Seaforth to make reservations (619) 224-3383

Mike Pritchard checked in to let us know that the Tribute catch was now up to 89 Yellowtail. The grade is still in the 10 to 15 lb. range.

Captain Ryan Bostian called in to report the totals for today's trip to the Coronado Islands. We had 45 nice sized yellowtail. Please bring your 40 or 50 pound outfits. You can book online at Seaforth Sportfishing. The boat is departing again tomorrow at 5:30 AM. Let's go fishing!

~~Aug 5
 The pressure is off.  We never made it down to any Island today like we planned.  At about 9 am or so the sonar went clunk, clunk and we went sideways for an hour.  It wasn't the best grade but it definitely wasn't the worst.  It was this years middle grade. 8-14 pounds with a sprinkling of 16-22 pounders in the mix.  Like I said, not the best but not the 2-6 pounders either.  But for a stressed out 4 day captain, it was lovely.  They bit good for about an hour and then they backed off.  After that we dedicated ourselves to that zone.  We figured that school of 14-25 pounders was just right over there.  It wasn't.  We didn't see another school of tuna.  However, we did find a nice kelp loaded up with big yellowtail.  They bit really well for a while too.  In fact , they were on the corner like tuna get on the corner for a good 20 minutes and when they backed off the corner, they still bit good for a while.  Other then that though we didn't see much other then the occasional small tuna on the trolling jigs but we're stoked for what we got today.  The pressure is off.

 We're going to stick with the plan and spend tomorrow at an Island hopefully drifting for hours.  The weather has finally backed off after a couple weeks of blowing.  Hopefully we get some descent weather for a nice long stretch and can get back to fishing where we please when we please.
     

Yesterday we looked at 612 kelps and they were all empty. Today, the very first kelp we looked at was loaded. Aquarium style fishing for yellowtail, yellowfin and skipjack tuna.

Captain Ryan checked in tonight to report in. We had 40 passengers on a private charter catch 136 yellowtail 174 calico bass. Very good action all day.

With great anticipation of a light load aboard the Apollo, all 14 of us anglers showed up at the dock early, swapping stories about past trips. We started boarding about 9:30pm and were greeted by Capt JJ Gerritsen and the rest of his crew, we signed in and had a seat for our safety briefing. Capt JJ then asked if we wanted to head offshore for Albacore which had dramatically slowed down the last couple days or head south along the coast for a shot at Dorado and Yellowfin and Yellowtail patty hopping. Without much hesitation we decided to head south and patty hop. We got the feathers in at gray light and started the troll, within 15 minutes the yell of "Hook-up" sang out, unfortunately the mystery fish got away and we were under way again. Five minutes later we heard that yell again, the mystery fish won round two and will live another day. Third time's a charm didn't hold true for us, our third hook-up is still out there in the deep blue. At that point the first troll rotation was fired (which included me) and the second shift took over. Within 10 minutes they had our first fish on the deck, a skipjack, from that point on while looking for patties we boated about 19 skipjack. We found our first patty around 10am and moved in with hopes of a wide open bite, but to our dismay there was nobody home. That held true for the next 8 patties we found, then finally around noon with a mouth full of burger, we heard the call to get ready. Never fails every time your food is done, it's time to drop a line. As soon as our sardines hit the water the patty expolded, we ended up with 1 Dorado and 2 Yellowtail. We only found two two more patties holding fish and ended up with 1 more Dorado and 4 yellowtail. It was now time to head back to port and we again set out the troll lines and managed to pick up 7 Yellowfin Tuna on the way back in. I really enjoyed sharing the rail with a great bunch of folks and look forward to doing it again soon. If you would like any of the pictures posted please email me at [email protected] .