gunnison river Fishing Report 2024

~~Oct. 9
 Good evening to everyone at home or wherever you may read this.  After one night dockside we were back to the boat this afternoon.  We headed to the fuel dock and changed oil and fuel filters, filled her all the way up on fuel, grabbed some brine making salt and loaded 2 weeks worth of food.  Shortly after getting back to Fishermans Landing, all our dogs got here.  I'm talking about George, Craig, Charlie, the Jer-bear, the Bry man, Bernie, Scott and the infamous J.C.  Infamous.  That's like really famous. 

 We took our time at the bait receivers to ensure we had the best that bait could offer us.  We're pretty happy with it at the moment.  For the next 4 days we'll be traveling to our destination of the Shamada seamount.  AKA Hurricane Bank.  And speaking of hurricanes, there isn't one at the moment.  Lately they've just been rolling in one after another but for now, none.  It's our destiny to get down below and catch very large yellowfin and wahoo.  Tommy spent a bunch of money and rented a system that allows us to get on the web where ever we are which allows us too look at all our weather web sites to keep track of storms that may be an issue to us.  So worry not.  We won't be anywhere near a low pressure system this trip.  Safe and sound out here as always.

 Anyways, it sure looked to me like everyone had a good afternoon hanging out, getting there cigar on and doing what they do.  We didn't even make it through dinner before the Bry-man and the Jer-bear got on what they call Team Bernard.  It's there thing to talk some smack and make fun of Scott and Bernie and it's hilarious on all sides.  Here we go.

 So for the next few days we'll be getting ready for a week of some hardcore fishing.  Rigging tackle, tuna and wahoo seminars, naps, movies, food, cocktails...  I think the next few reports will read like this paragraph we're on now.
        

 

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

Hello everybody. Good times this morning on the sea anchor. Biting bluefin tuna with a smattering of nice yellowtail to start off our day made breakfast taste that much better for everyone who attended the meal call. A half pound breakfast burrito tastes just a little better after pulling on fish for a couple hours after the sunrises. Anyhow, we had another decent day today of catching bluefin and yellowfin, mostly on blind jig strikes, and shaking off "neck-tie" yellowtail and dorado's to fill in the gaps when the tuna had their noses in the mud. For the most part, their noses stayed in that mud but when they did pop up, we made the most of it with some quality tuna fish.

Another solid day made for the decision to head coastal and see if we can't find us some yellowtail's with some size to them. We'll give this offshore scene another try later but for now, we're going to get out of the wind for a bit and give the anglers a change of scenery. We'll fill you in on our day tomorrow evening. Take care.

Today was mainly a travel day. We have a strong current working against us so we only had time for a couple drifts. However we did manage to land some 15 lb Yellowtail bottom fish. Our ETA for tomorrow is 530 to the dock.

Captain Mike Pritchard called in tonight with an update. We finished our trip with 26 Bluefin Tuna, 91 Yellowtail and 2 Dorado. There were some better scores on the Bluefin Tuna if you were in the right spot. So things are looking good out here. We have a trip leaving tomorrow night. Call Seaforth Landing at (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action.

George Davis made his eighth (his estimate) annual charter with Tommy Rothery aboard the Polaris Supreme, and met the boat when it returned to Fisherman's Landing January 13 after an 18-day excursion. It was Friday, but definitely not a bad luck day or trip, as chartermaster George bagged a 257-pound tuna for himself as the boat fished off southern Baja. He might have had a jackpot spot, but by consent the group of eight passengers had a single jackpot winner. Davis runs a construction company from Rancho Cucamonga. "Everybody got a cow," said Tommy, "and we released over 100 tuna. We ended up with 27 tuna over 200 pounds." The day's big winner was Tom Hilton of San Clemente who scored a 293-pound whopper yellowfin with a sardine on a 7/0 Super Mutu hook, 130-pound red line, 130-pound Spectra backing on a Penn 50T reel blueprinted by Cal Sheets, and a 760H Calstar rod tied by Sheridan Stanton (also on the trip). Hilton said he got the big tuna "‚Д¶in 25 minutes; my best fish ever. My biggest before was 178 pounds. "I knew he was heavy," remarked Tom, "but he bit on the last bait on the last day at the last stop of the day. The fat lady hadn't sung yet, but I could hear her warming up in the wings." Hilton also had tuna of 251, 237, 236 and 213 pounds. The water temperature in the tuna area remains at 69 to 715 degrees, anglers said. High score went to Scott Brown of Costa Mesa, with six over 200 pounds, at 279, 269, 246, 240, and a pair of 225-pounders. Scott said he fished with sardines on 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hooks, on 100-pound Ande line, 130-pound Spectra backing, a Tiagra 50W reel and a Calstar 655 TSS rod. Al Tokunaga had five, at 225, 222, 213, 208 and 201 pounds. The 27 cows was no boat record, but 27 for eight anglers may make for some kind of mark.

Monday, July 18th, 2012

Hello friends. The weather could be a lot better offshore, that's for sure. It's bumpy, it's windy, it's cold and wet - the people are not digging it at all. It's just a bad time for everyone when the boat is rolling back and forth, bouncing up and down, the wind howling, people are sick and it's just an unpleasant deal all the way around. Buuuutttttt, this problem does not exist when you're in the calm lee of an island and that's where we are, so we're pumped. Our only problem with the weather right now is sun burns and kelp flies. Needless to say, we're happy we made the move inside and with the weather still forcasted to be up offshore, we're going to give this island weather another day and brave the elements of flat calm weather and endless sunshine.

As for the fishing; it wasn't hot and heavy but it was a nice pace for the gang to enjoy. We had a few morning drifts where the dropper loops were getting bit but the seals ended that party pretty quick. So, we decided to make a move for less local harassment and we had ourselves a nice drift around lunch time that really made our day. a fly-lined sardine was the ticket to capture a nice 'tail and the fish ranged from 12-18 lbs. Quality sized fish and the kids and adults alike were having themselves a ball. After our drift dried up, we toured around various spots to no avail but were excited about the prospects of tomorrow.

Like I said, we'll be here for one more day tomorrow and come the evening time, we're going to have to start working our way up the line and try to make it the smoothest ride we can going home. With that, we'll chat with y'all tomorrow. Have a great day.

Aug. 22

We kicked the you know what out of the yellowfin today. We engaged in battle and we won. We started our drift at 6:30 this morning and drove away from them biting at lunch. The fish were from 22-35 pounds and were snapping. I don't think I've seen that good of fishing on that good of a grade since the albacore days. Hopefully this lasts for some time to come. The weather was great today but the further north we go now the more choppy it's getting. Just in time for dinner.

We've just been traveling up since our only needed stop this morning setting us up for our last day in the bluefin grounds. It sounded slow up there today but maybe they're just waiting for captain Drew to get up there. Rent rod Ryan donated a 40 pound bluefin yesterday to the galley and we were planning on eating it for dinner tonight but in the middle of the mayhem today we lost it buried under the yellowfin so he donated a few yellowfin so we're having seared Ahi instead. Mmmmm.

Today was slow fishing for Wahoo. We only landed a couple. Not many bites and some were eaten by sharks. The conditions were rough and we were rolling around pretty good. We did have a shot at some large Yellowtail. They were deep in some treacherous country. For those who buttoned down their drags and pulled with all their might were able to tear a few from the rocks. A small victory on a otherwise slow day. Tomorrow we will still be pursuing Wahoo, but will be in good country for Tuna and Yellowtail as well.