henry`s fork Fishing Report 2024

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.

We woke up to jock strap and sun visor weather this morning. Did some rigging and had roast beef in a portabella mushroom sauce for lunch. We had good success acquiring yellowtail and tuna for hors d'oeuvres and proceeded to eat them in the form of sushi and sashimi. Dinner is coming up in a few minutes, halibut in a lemon butter caper sauce. We are going to consolidate our sardines and swing by the bait grounds to pick up a tank of greenies. We will see you tomorrow on the tuna grounds.

Tommy Rothery returned Polaris Supreme to Fisherman's Landing November 18 after a ten-day Ocean Tackle Research charter. The boat had 13 anglers aboard. Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen of Hood River, OR saw his father, Bill Mikkelsen of Olympia, WA land the season's first super cow; a tuna over 300 pounds.
"It was full-speed fishing," said Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen. Bill Mikkelsen's big fish won first place after it weighed in at 308.8-pounds, caught on a fly-lined sardine. Bill used the boats gear, including a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 100-pound P-Line, and a Shimano rod and reel.
"Tommy said it was tail-wrapped from the beginning," said the elder Mikkelsen. "And he was, but he got lose and went on another run. He took me around the boat twice." "We started with yellowtail fishing on the ridge that turned out to be a real good bite," said Rothery. "We easily could have got limits on yellowtail and dorado, but these guys normally release most of their fish. We had one day of awesome marlin fishing, which this group enjoyed quite a bit." "I think we had maybe 200 hookups on marlin," said John Esler of Portland. "But our yellowfin bite was pretty amazing. Once Tommy would find them, he'd shut the motors off and just drift. They didn't need a lot of chum either, they were boiling all around the boat." Esler landed a 206.7-pound yellowfin.
Matt Kiesse of Cederville, CA was second place with a 279.8-pound yellowfin.
"The trip was just spectacular," said Kiesse. "We got everything." Lon Mikkelsen was third with a 277.9-pound tuna. The trip scored five tuna over 200 pounds.

~~Sep. 20
 The ride going up last night wasn't good, although I can't say it was awful either.  It was just your average windy rough ride up the line.  I'm just not used to it, that's all.  The weather for the most part these last couple months for me has just been so good.  It doesn't matter because the weather got good again for the important part which is the fishing.  And we took advantage of it.  We found our dorado kelp.  The dorado were small to big and they were plentiful.  It was our first dorado kelp of the year.  Finally. Though we've had plenty of other specie to keep us busy this year. If you know me you know I'm all about the competition so I like to make searching for kelps fun.  Today I challenged Mark to a kelp off which means the person who finds the loaded dorado kelp wins.  He found it and of course I couldn't be happier about it.  It may be the only thing I'm glad to lose to.  Of course he wanted me to tell you all about it.  He finally beat me. It was the cherry on top of this wonderful trip.  Another one in the books.  We're headed back to the barn all fat and happy.  Fat from too much eating and happy with all the fish we caught.  We'll be dockside tomorrow morning at 6:30 and yes, we will be heading back out to sea.  I'll be taking the LA Rod and Reel club out fishing for a couple days.

 Good fishing again today in the local tuna grounds it sounds like.  Let's make it one more tuna trip for the year before it's over.  Our October 3rd and 6th trips are both for sure goes.  Let's, and by that I mean you, make our September 26th and 29th trips a go too.  Come fishing!  My baby can be without her dad for another week if it means she gets those shoes she's been begging me for.  5 months old and she's already begging for shoes.  Holy Toledo.
     

Located a couple of good schools today but only managed to land 5 yellowfin and 2 skipjack. Back at it tomorrow.

~~Aug 2
 Today was a bit on the slower side.  Until the end but I'll get to that.  We woke up in hopes of getting a sea bass bite going but that was only a fairy tale.  We got a few yellows is all.  After, we made some grouper drifts and caught some more of those Broomtail Groupers.  Something like 4 or 5 of them along with some calico bass and yellows while we drifted along.  And for the rest of the day we pretty much hung out in the lee of the island and drifted here and there and caught a handful of yellowtail here and there.

 Like I said, we fished the lee today.  No wind for us.  It was lovely.  We had plans for dinner at 7:30, so at 7:00 i hopped in the shower to get cleaned up because I was serving, and while I was in there, I heard some cheering, and then again some hooting and hollering hen I was getting out.  It turns out the first round of cheers came because of a nice sea bass they brought in.  The second was for a yellowfin tuna that was landed.  I went down and got the tables set and while I was doing this they kept catching yellowtail, tuna and seabass.  After we made first call we had a whopping 1 person come in to eat.  Team galley understood though.  We knew that there may possibly be no fishing time for the next day due to bad weather running up the line.  So we kept catching fish and one by one, passengers would come in and scarf down some dinner, which was a lovely meatloaf that was fantastic, and then go back out and catch some more fish. 

 This lasted until after 9:00 and then we took off.  We ended the stop with 30 yellowtail, 5 white seabass up to about 40 pounds, and something like 6 or 7 on the tunas. We prepared the deck for a rough ride home, and set sail toward the beach  to try and improve our conditions.  The swells always less on the coast rather than offshore.  I doubt we'll have any time to fish tomorrow.  Travel day.
      

Had a great morning bite this morning! We did so well that we decided to take a scenic tour of the island to give the people a look. Tomorrow we may try for tuna but we will also try to mix it up with some yellowtail!

Today was tough fishing. We were able to hook and land more fish today and they were all better grade. The fish today were also more eager to eat bigger line and hooks as opposed to the ones yesterday. Because of that we were able to put the wood to them and bring them to the boat quickly. We had some shark casualties but nothing too extreme. In fact the ones that were getting chased by the sharks charged the boat to try and evade them. So as long was we were ready with a gaff and able to steer the fish clear from the propellers and rudders we had some fish that came right in. Overall a tough but fruitful day. Wee will be looking for kelp's tomorrow targeting school sized Tuna and Dorado.