helena Fishing Report 2025

Capt Ryan Bostain called in from the San Diego, they headed offshore again however the tuna were not willing to bite. We spent most of the day in pursuit of tuna and ended they day with 12 mixed tuna, which was 9 Bluefin Tuna and 3 Yellowfin. We decided to start looking for kelp fish later in the day and found some willing Yellowtail, the final tally was 130. They were not huge, mostly from 7 to 12 pounds, plenty good enough for the many beginners to offshore fishing. We are going to stick with thhisa offshore fishing for a while, to get on a trip call the landing at 619-224-3383 or you can book your spot online. There is plenty of tuna around however today they were off the bite, hopefully they will bite tomorrow.

Aug. 25

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Bluefin are the most unpredictable fish out there that we fish for. If you would have told me yesterday that we were going to have a day like we had today, I would have laughed in your face. Never again though. I will never trust this fish. For the last several days the bluefin fishing was very poor. I really thought that it was over for the year. I was wrong. Today we experienced the best bluefin tuna fishing I have ever seen. This is on a quantity to quality ratio that I'm talking about here. In my 13 years of long ranging, today was the best for the Bluefins.

Just after 6:00 this morning we stopped on a single fish mark under the boat. Just after 6:00 tonight we left them. The whole time we drifted it was pretty much wide open. The fish were from 25 up to 75 pounds. Most of them being in the 30-40 pound range. Once again we went into battle and we won. Oh yeah, we fished in the rain. At around 11:00 it started raining and it never stopped. Everyone on board was absolutely drenched all day and it was awesome. By the end of our stop no one was fishing so Mark and I grabbed a couple of rods and boated 3 of them ourselves. It was only Mark and I fishing and I was bringing one in and wouldn't you know it, when the fish was at gaff, there was Mark's spectra tangled all over my fish. 2 anglers fishing and he manages to make a big tangle. MAAAARK!!! I would have made him put on the dunce helmet but he was already wearing it. Heres why. There was a 2 fish tangle and Mark grabbed 1 of the rods to unwrap it and he dropped it right in the water. MAAARK!!!. Unbelievably another person fishing managed to hook one of the guides on the rod and we got it back. Fish and all. I immediately tossed Mark the yellow dunce helmet and he wore it all day.

Needless to say everyone on board is beat tired and we will not have any trouble sleeping through the night tonight. We're headed for the yellowtail grounds now and will be there first thing in the morning.

The San Diego has finished their three quarter day trip on Monday with 2 Bluefin Tuna (30-40lbs) and 5 Yellowfin Tuna.

The San Diego will be fishing OFFSHORE through FRIDAY 6/17. These trips are limited to 45 people and reservations are required!  Recommended tackle for these trips is a MINIMUM of 50# monofilament for the big Bluefin! Live bait and poppers have been working well.

The El Gato Dos returned from a 3/4 day trip on Sunday with 1 Bluefin Tuna (124lbs) and 1 Yellowfin Tuna.

Today was a tough day at the island. There was a lot of fish around but we had trouble getting bites. However the bites we were able to get were great grade. Most being 50-70 lbs and one standout that was well into the mid hundreds. We are going to try our hand at the variety the day after tomorrow. Hopefully Wahoo, Dorado, Grouper, and school sized tuna. Pictured here is Randy with the big tuna of the day also pictured is John in the heat of battle with his tuna.

July 12

Like i said before, we were going to start our morning off tailing. Yellows that is and that's exactly what we did. The fish bit OK for an hour or so. They were mixed grade from 10 all the way up to 20+ pounds. Mid morning we headed offshore and had some pretty steady yellowfin striking. We even got them biting bait for a couple stops. On one we had 22 and the other 13! Those are our best yellowfin stops of the year. We kept heading south throughout the day striking them up but the further south we went the smaller the fish got and the windier the weather got. Around 6:30 we stopped on a jig strike and took a good roller and things went flying so with the small grade of fish we were catching and the unsafe drifting conditions, we called it a day. We're headed to Cedros to do some fishing on those big fat yellowtails we've been catching there and to get out of this weather.

~~Sep. 6
 I think I'm going to start naming my reports.  This one is called "We should have stuck with the game plan".  The plan was to start where we did, and if it didn't look good run up 40 miles to the next spot arriving just after lunch when it's bite time there.  Well we started off slow.  Conditions were a little funky.  We saw some fish, but they didn't really bite.  We caught a few yellows and the biggest ling cod I've ever seen brought up on this boat, but it wasn't good enough to stick around.  So we started off sticking with the plan when we left and went north but then we decided to do some radio fishing.  I heard 4th hand and then 3rd hand that a boat had a couple really good dorado kelps the day prior almost in striking distance and then really good yellowtail in the afternoon definitely in striking distance.  Then I saw on my water temp chart that same water just a few hours below us so we made the move.  Obviously by my whining you can tell it didn't work out.  We didn't find much kelp in the good water.  We found one OK kelp but we only caught a handful of flats.  There was a few wahoo swimming around it but we didn't catch any.

 So that's OK.  We're not worried.  We still have yesterdays afternoon yellowtail hot spot to fish.  Not today.  Should have been here yesterday. Maybe that should be the name of the report. We saw some and caught a few but it was nothing good.  So here we sit.  I'm not sure if we stuck with the game plan that it would have worked out.  There already was a boat on the spot we were headed to and it's kind of a one boat spot so maybe we didn't miss anything.

 It's funny.  I haven't written this long of a report in a long time.  If fishing was good today I probably would have written one paragraph.  I needed to rant.  Anyways we're going to stick it out here and regroup and try it again in the morning.  Hopefully we find some yellows to work with but either way we plan on looking for a dorado kelp in the afternoon.  Hopefully I only write one paragraph tomorrow.
       

 

We have a 2-day trip coming up and need some people to help fill it. This could be a great opportunity to get in on some sea bass action. There were already a few 40# sea bass caught at the channel islands last weekend Here is the info for the trip. I hope to see you there.

2 Day trip on the Apollo
Departs: Friday April 29, 2011, (8:00 p.m.)
Fish: Saturday, April 30, 2011 and Sunday May 1st, 2011
Returns: Sunday, May 1, 2011 (evening)
Landing: Sea Landing, Santa Barbara, CA
Targeted Species: Seabass, Halibut and Rockfish
Meals: Has not been included
Drinks: Have not been included
Fish Cleaning, Jack pot, and Gratuity are extra
Price: $320( paypal: [email protected])
Reserving a spot: In order to reserve your spot, I will need a 50%
deposit ($160.00). The balance shall be due one month prior to
departure.
Cancellation Policy: No refunds can be issued; it is your
responsibility to find a replacement. In the event the boat is cancelled
due to inclement weather the trip will be re-scheduled.
Contact Info: Steph Franklin, 35 W. Main Street Suite B124, Ventura,CA 93001;
phone #805.708.5276 or [email protected]

Hi again anglers:

We have another trip that has two spots open. This is short notice but hopefully someone will he able to take advantage. This one is a two day departing Tues, August 28th at p.m. fishing the 29th and 30th. The trip returns on the night on the 30th. Jack Nilson from Accurate will be on this one and there will be a reel giveaway. Cost is $550 and includes food and permits. For more info or to sign up please contact Warren at 909-223-2644