illinois Fishing Report 2025

Sunday June 22 - Excellent, excellent yellowtail fishing again today. No signs of any black sea bass. We are enjoying absolutely fantastic weather. And everyone is having a great time. Thanks, Tommy and crew

Wednesday, April 24th, 2012

Hi friends. Starting off the day, we were expecting rain if not when we woke up but for sure around the mid-morning time. Captain Drew told me to expect work at 0700 hours this morning and that he would call me if he was going to call off the day. At about 0615 hours, my phone rang and when I saw that my phone read "Incoming call: Drew Henderson", I nearly trampled my girlfriend to reach for the phone and hear those beautiful words of "don't come to work today". Well, Drew being the awesome boss that he is just wanted to remind me that work was still on. Disappointed is an understatement. He specifically said that he would only call to let me know that we were NOT to come into work. I reluctantly suited up for work, still a little peeved that my vision of sleeping in and an all-day couch marathon was switched back to 7-11 coffee, 5-hour energies, and arthritic hands by days end.

Now some of you might be asking "Richie. Why so grumpy about going to work?" Well, after Tuesday's primer coat application, the primer creates what is called "orange peel".The entire hull looks like a giant, white orange peel and to rid ourselves of this orange peel, what must one do to smooth it out and get prepped for the final gloss coat? If you guessed "more sanding" then yes, you are correct. From 0700 until 1630 hours on Wednesday, we had to re-sand the entire boat with 220-grit sand paper to smooth everything out. Oh, how could I forget? We did all of this under beautiful, sunny skies. That weatherman is not our friend at the moment. He was wrong about the Wednesday morning/afternoon rain but he was correct about the rainfall on Wednesday evening in San Diego.

So here it is, Thursday morning and work was called off not only because of the rain but also to relieve sore, aching muscles as the constant use of both vibrating and orbital sanders took it's toll on Drew, Jed, Mark, Tommie, Jamie and myself from yesterday and we were given the day off. Thanks, Drew.

In all seriousness, there is a silver lining to all of my complaining of long days and sore bodies. All of the hard work that we put into the boat doesn't go un-noticed when we take a look at the boat right before the first trip of the season. The boat will look stunning and it will be a pleasure to keep her maintained throughout the years. When we have to put on our sunglasses to even stare at the hull and when you see your reflection perfectly in the boat, it's sweet justice to put so much time and effort into a project and to have it come out looking so beautiful. We can't wait to see how everyone will react when they first lay eyes on the new and improved Polaris Supreme.

Anyhow, I had some time to type out a nice, long report on our day off today. Weather permitting, we'll be back at it tomorrow to finish some touch-up sanding as we get ready for the final application of the gloss coat which probably will be scheduled for either Friday or Monday. We'll chat with you tomorrow and let you know how our day went.

-Richie & Team Supreme-

P.S. Sorry about no pictures lately. There really hasn't been anything picture-worthy in the past couple of days and the pictures I would've shot, you've seen before: all of us with sanders in our hands, gloves on, respirator masks, safety glasses and looking like giant powdered donuts. I'll send some shots with the completion of the gloss coat.

~~Aug 16
 We had another good day today.  Well, afternoon I should say.  Yesterday, we got here at 2:30 in the PM and the fish were biting right away.  I thought for sure if we were here earlier, it would be stellar.  Nope.  2:30 was just right.  We hung out here all day not seeing any yellers, then right at 2;30, they showed up and it was good fishing for the next few hours.  We set up a little differently today and it paid off.  The grade of fish improved.  It was 70% premiums.  That's right.  18-30+ pounders.  2nd fish hold down.  We're cooling down the center well now. 

 Due to the fantastic fishing we've experienced this trip thus far, we are in need of some bait.  We're headed out to what I think is our best chance at making some.  No ones been there as far as I know for quite some time.  It's been windy.  It looks like we have a good weather window so it shouldn't look like the Flemesh Cap.  We're also hoping to run into some bluefin tuna while out there.  We're not just going out there for bait.  We're looking for something to use it on.  Let's keep the ball rolling.
       

Looks like we're going to have a light load for tomorrow's trip. I just talked to a boat out on the ocean right now and they said the weather is good. The large swell is very spread out making the ocean conditions nice. Myself and the crew will be heading out tonight for live squid. Call Seaforth at 619-224-3383 for reservations !

Aug. 18
    We fished today in the local bluefin zone.  We scratched at the yellowfin and picked at the bluefin for 5 hours this morning.  Scratch means we were getting a few here and there and pick means we were getting one here and there.  In the morning the blues were mostly 25-45 pounds and we caught half a dozen or so 60-70 pounders.  Between noon and 5:00 PM we drove around looking for fish with not much luck and we went back to the blue zone for the evening session and had a real good evening.  We picked up 7 more 60-80 pounders and the yellowfin got on us a couple times and we couldn't stop catching it until after dark.  One post it note I made today was BBB.  It's a reminder to tell you about a regular passenger of ours by the name of Bill Byler.  If you don't know Bill he is one of those loud mouth, smart mouth old retired fireman guys and he's awesome.  He is a load of fun.  Anyways he was hooked up onto one of those big Bluefins late today and I heard Gunny tell him his boots were on back wards.  I thought it was just a joke but sure enough, his darn boots were on the wrong feet.  He said he was wondering why his feet hurt so much.  I never seen that before.  He ended up catching 2 of those tonight.

    The last couple days have been choppy out here but today it was very nice.  We get in tomorrow and leave again for 4.  See you then.
                    

 

Tom Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme at Fisherman's Landing August 4 following a five-day limited load trip with 18 anglers. It was the Tom Chaparro charter, and Tom was aboard, winning the jackpot. Chaparro's tuna weighed in at 66 pounds. It took a sardine on a 4/0 Eagle Claw hook on 50-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader and 65-pound Line One Spectra. Tom fished with a Trinidad 40 reel and a Calstar 665 H rod. Mark Arbunich of Pacifica won second place for a 62.8-pound tuna, and Travis Donahue of Norco got third place for a 61.6-pound Guadalupe yellowfin tuna.

Wow what a crazy sky this evening here along the Baja coast! Yesterday we departed on our annual AHI 7 day charter. The AHI charter has been around for 23 years and going strong! Today the charter spent the day rigging up, relaxing, and unwinding to a great selection of music, complete with a special outfitted sound system here aboard Polaris Supreme for this charter. It is a truly enjoyable atmosphere here, and the weather could not be better to go with it. We are all rigged up and ready for our first day of wahoo fishing tomorrow morning. Wish us luck! Team Supreme Also we have a 10 day trip coming up with spots available! Be sure to hurry and lock in your spot so you can join us for some of this great fall fishing action!

Today was mainly a rigging day. Countless wire leaders were made and assembled by the anglers and crew. We are ready for the day brings tomorrow wish us luck.