island beach Fishing Report 2024

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. 

~~Aug 17
 We figured it out.  The Cortes Bank isn't good right now for bait, or game fish.  Somebody had to be the guinea pigs.  Why not the boat full of fish already.  Check that off the list of places not to go for a while.  One thing I can say about that place is the weather there was fantastic.  Such a smooth ride around the area.  Not a common thing for that place.  If you aren't going to catch much you might as well do it in good weather.  But if you've been keeping up, we've had a great trip.  We're rolling in fat and happy.

 It sounds like they're having a tough time keeping good bait in the receivers as of late so we're going to get next to the harbor early morning and try and catch a tank of mackerel for our next trip leaving tomorrow.  4 days.  See you then.
     

7 yellowfin 47 yellowtail 5 dorado 5 skipjack. Never got a shot at a legitimate school today. Try again tomorrow.

Happy Easter! I have decided to put some ultra limited load open party trips together for fishing the northern Channel Islands this weekend. I have set up two trips on Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th of April. I anticipate trying to find sea bass in the morning and falling back on rock fish and ling cod for the rest of the day. These trips will be limited to only 20 people max!! This just seems to me to be such a great opportunity to get out to the islands on such a nice boat without having to deal with a crowd. The trips will depart from Sea Landing in Santa Barbara at 9pm Friday and Saturday night. The cost will be $175 per person. Please come join me and the crew aboard the Apollo next weekend. I look forward to seeing you.

Please call Sea Landing to make Reservations at (805) 963-3564.

Tuesday July 2nd, 2013

Hi friends. Well, here we are. Fingers to the keyboard once again and anyone who knows me, knows that I can't type without jamming out to my Wiz Khalifa! Anyhow, Team Supreme; living the dream, one nautical mile at a time. Yep. Our maintenance period is complete and we are bound for greater points south. Chef Schooler just kicked out the prime rib and all the passengers and crew are fat and happy. With that being said, you know it's our first night back on the boat and we're kicking off our 2013 Summer season with our amigo Archie and his Motley Crue that he's invited along with him. Here we go...

We departed Fisherman's Landing this morning and headed to the bait receivers to load up on some sardines, mackerel, and anchovies. With that, I'd like to say two things: One - I would want no part of being a bait boat skipper right now. No part. Those guys are busting their you-know-whats to load our wells with sardines and it's not easy going right now. Kudos to those men. Two - I've now witnessed a bait-making seminar on a five-day trip. Is this 1992? I feel like I'm a part of history. When the bait loading gets tough, the tough get sabiki rigs. One could moan and groan forever about what we don't have but as Jed and Sweet Georgia Brown like to say "ain't nobody got time for that!" Anyways, we've got an OK load of bait and we'll see how those little critters live in the morning.

We'd like to use said sardines, mackerels, and anchovies on some bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, and yellowtail tomorrow so we'll be in the hot offshore zone seeing if we can't put our bait to good use. I'd like to say a word about the bluefin fishing other than how much I love it: a boat caught a 175 lb. bluefin today and had the same size fish jumping around the boat. Bring the appropriate gear! Don't go elephant hunting with a .22. Bring yourself a two-speed reel and fill that bad boy up with some 50 or 60 lb at least!

Man, I'm all over the place tonight. So, back on track. We're going offshore fishing tomorrow, the weather is lovely, and everyone is pretty lit up right now and ready to pull on something. We'll see what tomorrow brings and we'll report it to you ASAP, you know that.

Before I go, one last bit of nonsense. Jed was attacked by a seal today. It was hilarious. The bait receivers are no joke, they've got this one knothead that has no fear and although I saw no fear in the seals eyes, I saw plenty in Jed's and I laughed. Next thing you know--after Jed nearly trampled me--his  eyes locked with mine and it was on! But, I was laughing so hard at Jed's reaction that I couldn't move and just like that, he vanished. Although we're clear of scars on our bodies, we're emotionally scarred and we're now damaged goods. Hopefully, we can recover and be able to load bait in peace with our friendly pelicans. Anyhow, that was my favorite part of the day and I had to share with everyone. Classic.

Alright, enough of my babble. Mark's driving, Springsteen on the Ipod, and we're talking about the glory days. Mark has a few more glory days under his belt because he's 97 years old but I've got a glory story to tell as well. We're out.

-The Supreme Team

 

P.S. I promise that I'll have a lovely FISHING report for everyone tomorrow. Mark says that I'm a bad, bad man. He wanted me to type that. Thanks, Mark.

27 pass. 3 bluefin tuna at 135 lbs, 132 lbs and 80 lbs. 2 yellowtail. Had a couple shots at trophy’s. Sinker rigs on 50 lb with a 6 oz torpedo and 150-250 gram Flatfalls on 50 or 60 lb was the best today. A 40 lb flyline outfit is also recommended. Two speed reels that are at least a 12 size will increase your chances drastically. Seaforth Sportfishing has two speed reels for rent.

Great boat, great crew, great food, great passengers, good weather, slow fishing. That's just the way it went down on this day and a half. We were in tuna mode trying for nice quality albacore.

We scratched 26 and some yellows and let go lots of flats. Descent amount of fish seen at times throughout the day, but they didn't climb on our hooks. Hopefully soon coming and more consistent. Next trip is a 5 day, so stay tuned.

~~AUG. 6
 We fished hard today.  It felt like a kind of slow day but when you look at our tally it shows we had a good day.  We just never got steady more than a couple of drifts.  We'd stop and get a handful and then have to go again.  Other than a few hour long drifts that is.  But at the end of the day, when only half the people were fishing and I had a yellowtail to give away because the angler who caught it had his limit already and nobody handed me over a tag, I knew it was a good day. 

 Things didn't start off so hot though  Nope.  I knew our bait was dying but I thought we were good for another day of fishing before it would croak.  I was wrong.  "Red Boy".  The sardines were red.  Most were either floating belly up or lying at the bottom of the tank.  We made it through though.  We worked hard and had a good day.  The yellows were nice ones too.  20-25 pounds in the morning and 14-25 pounds in the afternoon.

 The weather through here was great today.  I'm not sure we've had one day at this Island this year where the wind wasn't ripping through the south end where we've been fishing.  Now we have one and it looks like it will remain true tomorrow as well.  We saved one tank of bait from last trip.  I knew the first morning we may not have any survivors for our last day if we didn't save our one tank of good bait.  Hopefully we find something to use it on.  I know we'll be making horrific speed coming up so we won't have any time to "work" an area.  We just have to pick a course and hope for the best.  See ya.