islamorada hump Fishing Report 2025

A fun action filled day today. We were offshore fishing tuna and yellowtails on kelps. Plenty of tuna sign but they were like they've been, reluctant to bite. We managed to land a couple per rod. The yellows on kelps produced better results. Good fishing on some 10-14 pounders, mostly 15-25 pounders. Again, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We're going to be fishing Cedros Island tomorrow for those jumbo yellows.

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.

Nov. 10

                We're chalking up today as a travel day.  We started off fishing for yellowtails but it didn't work out too well.  The people who tried hard got a couple and some nice sheepshead but it wasn't good.  Choppy weather too so we started to slide down after a couple hours.  After that we looked at a couple spots for nothing.  We did the rest of our seminars, that being wahoo and big tuna, and mostly just headed down.  It doesn't look like we've seen the worst of this wind yet.  We're expecting the worst tomorrow till noon and then it starting to back off.  Hopefully it's workable and we can catch some wahoo tomorrow, but if not, we still need to travel down some to put us in position for the following couple of days.  I think these guys on here want a cow and we're going to give them some.  Or try our best at the very least.

                                                                               

Today we spent our final day offshore. We had a few hours to try for some kelp patty Tuna and Dorado. We tried multiple kelp's for nothing. However we did have one kelp patty that was an absolute aquarium. It was wide open for the smaller yellowfin tuna. It was incredible action to end on. We also caught a few bonus Dorado as well. A fantastic Finnish to a five day trip.

Captain Ryan Bostian called in last night with an update from the San Diego out fo Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, CA. Today we had 24 anglers catch 2 Wahoo and 52 Yellowtail. The fishing was very good. We did have lose 4 Wahoo. The grade on the Yellowtail was very nice. The majority of the Yellowtail was 12 to 20 pounds. Amazing fishing and very low pressure at the islands. I would not be surprised if we see some Bluefin Tuna. We can now keep Bluefin Tuna in Mexican waters. Call Seaforh Sportfishing at (619) 224-3383 or BOOK ONLINE at www.thesandiego.com.

Wow! What a fish. #214 Bluefin. Landed in less than an hour. Accurate Valiant 1000 and Shimano Rail Rod on #100. Dead Flyer. Had a few Yellowtail and a Yellowfin as well.