iowa great lakes Fishing Report 2025

Fishing report for the week of sept 16-22. This past week was all about looking thru the binoculars and praying that you find the lucky kelp. Scores for the 3/4 day boats this week have ranged anywhere from 0 to 150 fish. The highlight of our week was a kelp we found on Thursday which kicked out 44 nice size dorado and 100 yellowtail. On Friday we caught our first yellowfin tuna of the season. This season is showing no signs of slowing down so make those reservations and come on down.

Sep. 5

Today was a slow day out here for us. We never did find a school. We did a little bit of scratching in the morning, the afternoon was non existent and then we scratched some for about an hour into dark. Only a couple schools seen out here today. It was a slow day for most. We're going to stick it out here for the morning and if we don't see anything in the first couple of hours we're going to work up towards home and look along the way. We're still a long way from home. There's plenty of fishy ground above here too. The weather was OK today. I wouldn't sign up for it. A little breezy and choppy but plenty fishable. Looks like we can expect it better tomorrow and a very nice ride up. Hope they're right.

Hi Anglers,

Good afternoon. We canceled our 3-day trip over the weekend awhile back, and just got lucky and picked up a private charter today that booked the whole boat. So we will be on our way tomorrow afternoon to the land of milk and honey. The main thing that I wanted to get out though, was the phenomenal amount of fish spotted by the SAC spotter plane. Can't give out particulars because it's proprietary. But it's a lot of fish in close. We should literally get two full days fishing.

We're pretty excited and we will be updating the website from the boat.

So far I'm only set up to send out these personal reports when I'm at the dock. Hopefully we'll be able to do it from the boat soon. So keep track of us on the website until I get back. And by the way we still have open spots on our 5-day departing Monday July 23 and 2 spots on our 5-day departing July 28th. Come fish!

Thanks!

Tommy

If you have ever wanted to catch a yellowtail you should go fishing now. 52 pass. 246 yellowtail on flylined bait, small yo-yo jigs and surface iron.

Captain Mike Pritchard called in last night from the Tribute. We wrapped up our 1.5 day trip. We fished out West. We had 56 Bluefin Tuna (38 pounds), 52 Yellowfin Tuna, 38 Yellowtail, and other assorted fish. We have another 1.5 day trip that departs on Monday night. We also have a 4.5 day trip departing Thursday night with a few spots. Call Seaforth Landing at (619) 224-3383 or book online via www.tributesportfishing.com.

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.

We left on a 1.5 trip yesterday and headed south, at daybreak the jigs went in and it didn’t take long to hear the sound of “HOOKUP” from there on we would stop on plenty schools of yellowfin tuna, yellowtail and Mahi Mahi . it was a fun day.

We had an awesome 1.5 trip on the Apollo out of Fisherman's Landing. We left Friday night at 7 pm and headed to Punta Colnett. Weather was very nice, calm and glassy. We started fishing for Yellowtail in the early morning but no biter. We preceded fishing for Rockfish. We drifted every hot spots that Captain JJ knew and they were all very productive. We came up with lots of good quality Vermilion Reds, Lingcod and Bocaccio Rockfish. At about 3 in the afternoon, Yellowtail breezers came through and all six of us got hooked with our rockcod gangnion hooks. We ended with two 25 lbs Yellows. Next time I'll be ready. We fished until almost dark and we bagged 125 Vermillion Reds, 98 Rock cod, 25 Lingcod and 2 Yellowtail for 25 guys. Captain JJ runs a top notch operation together with Jessica, Joe, Travis and Chef Nick. They were all very professional and helpful at all times. Chef Nick serves all variety of gourmet food on the boat. Apollo will be still running trips in Fisherman's Landing until end of March and will move to Santa Barbara on April. Don't miss our overnight charter trip on Sunday, April 3rd departing Saturday at 10 pm.