james river Fishing Report 2025

July 26
    And we're off on another 5 day trip.  Things didn't go so hot at the bait receivers.  The bait we got was healthy, we just weren't allowed to take a full load.  We were shorted 75 scoops or so.  Anyways, we looked for fishies this afternoon.  We saw some small spots of yellowfin right out of the gates that wouldn't bite, and then didn't see anything until almost dark.  A sonar ball of yellowfin produced three fish so we got jackpot handled already. 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  We're going to slide down a little tonight and look in an area that produced some pretty darn good yellowfin fishing today.  The weather is magnificent.
                            

 

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 boat's 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."

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 07-11-2014

Hello Sportfishing Fans. We are off on Bill Stephens annual 5 day with out Bill. He couldn't make it due to work scheduling. What a bummer working all year putting together a trip and not being able to go. Any way we all appreciate it. From all of us on the Polaris Supreme Thanks Bill. We have started the trip off with a bang at the bait receiver's picking up a nice load of 6 in. sardines and cured anchovies to go with a couple of tanks of green back mackerel Drew and the boys caught last trip. It looks like there is some tuna fish to catch very close to home so why not stop and try it? We did and we saw a couple schools of bluefin. One acted like bluefin but on the other we hooked 3 and caught 2-35 pounders. I wish that stuff would move south 150 miles. That would make it more convenient for a long range boat. We also caught a handful of yellowfin. We're going to head south and probably start early in on the coastal grounds for yellowtail before heading offshore to the tuna grounds in the afternoon.

The weather is getting windier the further south we go so we're planning on it wind tomorrow.

One stop late in the day accounted for all of our tuna. We ended up with 68 yellowfin 6 bluefin 29 yellowtail 7 bonito.

Captain Steve Gawitt just called in with an update from Aztec with an offshore update from San Diego. This morning on our first drift put 24 Bluefin Tuna, 2 Yellowfin Tuna, and 1 Yellowtail on the deck. We are seeing bigger Bluefin Tuna and we have had a fair amount of missed fish.

The Aztec is running Overnight trips departing from Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. You can call (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action.

Nice bluefin making for a great starter and finisher for our 6 day trips. Next one leaves August 23rd!

Retired LA motorcycle officer Joe Beck served as chartermaster aboard the Polaris Supreme, and came back June 16 with the best yellowtail of the boat's five-day visit to Cedros/Benitos. Owner Tom Rothery skippered the trip, and docked his rig at Fisherman's Landing.

Beck got a 36-pound yellowtail with a sardine bait, and won first place. Gene Lujan of Salinas won second place for a 35.4-pound yellow, and Karen Jackson of Acton tied with Tom Mortenson of LaVerne for third place. Both had 32.6-pound yellowtail. Scott Chapman of Mira Loma caught a 41.2-pound halibut, a thick, sand-colored flatfish.

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

Hi friends. We made it back up to the tuna grounds at first light and found absolutely beautiful weather and the "football" yellowfin tuna were hungry today. Steady jig strikes all morning all the way up until we found a kelp that accounted for most of our score on this day. It was a really fun kelp too. You could look in the water and see brown for most of the stop and these fish were on the squid real nice and the skip jig as well. Kub Ito even got in on some hand-line action which was pretty entertaining. Speaking of Kub, Kub had ten minutes of hardhat time for two minor offenses. Good job, Kubby bear. Anyhow, fun morning of fishing and flat calm, sunny weather to boot. A fine way to end a fine trip and Joe Beck and the boys are pumped.

Anyhow, we're traveling up the line in a very calm ocean and we're looking to arrive to the docks at 0600 where we will be getting the boat turned around and heading out on our annual Gary Roberts 9-day trip. We'll chat with you tomorrow evening sometime. Take care.

P.S. Absolutely no hardhat time for Mark this trip. Shocking, I know. Granted he was in the galley this trip but nonetheless, he was on the boat. Good job, Mark. You now have nine days to reclaim that beautiful yellow dome of yours. Stay tuned.