ketchikan Fishing Report 2024

RECENT NEWS!!! I WILL BE PUTTING SOME MORE OPEN PARTY TRIPS ON THE APOLLO. These trips will be limited to only 20 people. Can you imagine a boat like the Apollo with only 20 people or less every day. I will be running Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th. I'll be fishing the northern Channel Islands for rock fish, lingcod and potentially Sea Bass and Halibut. The price will be $ 175 pp. Please email me at [email protected] for more details or to make reservations, call Sea Landing at (805)568-0460.

Nov. 19

Good evening once again everyone. Well, we broke up the day this morning with a couple hours worth of fishing. Unfortunately we didn't catch much but we were due to travel all day today but we had an hour or two to spare so we took it. The weather has breezed up for sure. It is a bit of a bumpy ride but it's not horrable. We only had one other day of windy weather the whole trip so we'll take it. In a whole it was a rather slow trip. We did catch a lot of big beautiful dorado and we can't complain at all about the amount of wahoo we caught or the amount of tuna we caught either for that matter. We lacked on the larger sized tuna and we didn't connect with the yellowtails on the way home either but hey, you've heard this before, "that's fishing". I hope and I think I can speak for everyone on board and say we had a great ten days out here. I said it in my first report and I'll say it again, I love this group. This is not your mystery passenger Ed writing to you but your captain/ co-captain/ deckhand Drew writing this and I'll write this on behalf of all the crew members abourd the Polaris Supreme, thank you charter heads Lon and John and thank you to all who joined us.

I would also just like to thank all who came out fishing with us this year and in years past. You are what allows us to do what we love to do and what allows us to pay our bills and raise families doing what we love to do so unfortunately, for the last time this year, we all say THANK YOU and we'll hopefully see you next year!

Had a PM 1/2 day and fished locally. 

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Hi friends. Just finishing up our day here on the Supreme. Gear is broken down, tackle is stowed top-side, and the boat is scrubbed from bow to butt. We began our day with a blind Bluefin jig strike and managed to land a few bait fish when we started to meter them pretty solid under the boat. After losing the majority of the fish we hooked, the school bailed and we soon followed. The Yellowfin weren't far behind and we managed to put together a really nice day on fish in the 12-25 lb. range with one standout landed by Henry "Blue" Maine. Henry's Yellowfin looks to go about 55 lbs. and no, it was not a Big Eye. Blue's our boy and we're very proud of him. Anyhow, most of our fish came on blind jig strikes and every now and then we'd see a nice sonar school of them and have on-the-corner type fishing. With all the action and chaos, and I do mean chaos, we have a very healthy load of tuna in our holds to compliment our Yellowtail catch from yesterday and our five Albacore from Wednesday. Everyday, things are looking more promising and more promising with Bluefin, Yellowfin, and more reported Albacore being caught, this offshore tuna thing might just be getting started. We'll see but with two straight solid tuna trips in the books, we'll be looking for a third tomorrow when we take off for five days. The weather is a bit rolly but without too much wind to jack things up and as of now (1700), our traveling weather is just fine.

So that's all. We're shooting for a 0630 ETA tomorrow morning. There will be eight long-range boats from all three landings arriving and departing tomorrow so we'll be on the hustle. We'll be dropping off Ryan and friends and picking up Joe Beck and the Bob Vance crew for a five day ocean-going party and we shall welcome them with open arms. We'll chat with you tomorrow. Take care and happy Friday.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Hi friends. We arrived to the southern Yellowtail grounds this morning to find that things were not right. We managed a few OK drifts but we didn't see the life that the boats saw in the days prior. No shortage of fish, that's for sure, they were just too scattered out and weren't in the right mode. In the afternoon, we made a run to the northern grounds to find a little bit better sign of fish and we ended our day having a couple decent drifts on some 15-22 lb. 'tails with an occasional cow mixed in. We also caught/released some dandy Calico Bass and tagged one nice Grouper. A little bit better surface iron action today than we've seen all year and our master of ceremonies, Ryan, had himself a good day until Barry broke his favorite surface iron. All in all, it was a fine day of Yellowtail fishing. Our weather was prime all day, excellent bronzing conditions as it was hot and sunny.

So we're currently making way back up to finish our trip up with some tuna. A couple boats started located some actual schools of those Yellowfin tuna and we're hoping to do that tomorrow as well. Our weather is a mild chop with some breeze but we're just fine with it, as long as it doesn't freshen up. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Good evening everyone. Like I began last trips report, I just wanted to reiterate just how quickly things can change out here on the ocean. The prior Bluefin zone that yielded us and the entire fleet a spectacular catch just a couple days before was absolutely starving for life and we never saw nor caught a Bluefin tuna today. Also, the gorgeous weather that we had been blessed with for the better part of a week was now windy, cold, and a bit choppy. The day was looking very bleak to say the least as it took us hours to land our first fish of the day, a Yellowfin tuna in the 15 lb. class. It was very slow for the morning time and all the way through lunch time. Single jig fish here, single jig fish there and with that, the announcement was made to get the Yellowtail gear ready as we would be traveling southerly for the remainder of the day to be in a position to do some Yellowtail fishing tomorrow morning.

It wasn't too long after we pointed the Supreme on our coastal course that we started getting blind jig strikes on the Yellowfins. We would consistently start jigging up double and triple jig strikes and when we finally hung a few bait fish, things got a little interesting. One of our best stops of the day was for nine Yellowfin and five Watermelons. Watermelons: a little Tommy Rothery terminology for you. These fish have been eluding the fleet for quite some time now and in traditional years, we catch these Watermelons later in the season in August/September. Not the traditional setup to find these fish in, with a Yellowfin school in warm water but for whatever reason, they were there and we managed to land five of these beauties. What is a Watermelon you ask? Albacore tuna in the 30-40 lb. class. That's right, we caught some slug Albacore today. What an awesome surprise and not only caught some, we also metered a few on the fathometer. Could this be the start of something or were they just lost souls hitch-hiking with their Yellowfin counterparts? Who knows but this next week in long-range fishing will be very interesting. Will it tell the tale if it will be the epic, super tardy Albacore season of 2011 or just a nice surprise here or there for the fleet? We'll see. Nonetheless, our first Albacore of the season were a welcome sight. We missed those beautiful specimens and we definitely took a few minutes to stare down the fish on the deck and appreciate what beautiful creatures they are. Hopefully, there are more to come.

Although we scored a decent day jigging up Yellowfin in the 12-18 lb. class, we maintained our course and our gameplan remains the same to fish Yellowtail tomorrow. It's not like we saw school after school after school. All of our jig fish were blind jig strikes and we never saw anything to get us really excited. We did have a couple stops where they rushed the boat and we had chaos on the corner but like I said, it was mostly a troll-fest today. All in all, we had a fine day and we're looking to had some 'tails to go along with our 'fins and we'll try the tuna fishing thing the day after tomorrow. Take care and wish us luck.

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Hi friends. We awoke not-so bright but very early this morning to start our day. Being the 0530 boat getting into the landing, we had to bust it into overdrive so that the Shogun, Searcher, and three 1.5 boats could unload their passengers and fish as well. In a timely manner, the Heil group and their bounty of Bluefin, Yellowfin, Yellowtail, Dorado, Halibut, Calico bass, and Barred Sand bass were successfully unloaded and we bid the boys farewell until next season. Just an awesome trip for those guys, hard to beat if you ask me and we all busted butt to find them some fish and find some fish we did - and then some. Big fish honors go for the top three Bluefin tuna; The one and only Mr. Joe De Marco -- 45.4 lb. BFT. Jim Chivas -- 41.4 lb. BFT. And last but not least, our very own Mark Clark's son, Chace, took third with his 40. 2 pounder. Good going to the gang and to Chase, remember the invaluable advice that you're Uncles' Richie and Drew gave to you. Anyhow, back out for another trip and we welcomed aboard the wildest charter-master known to man, Ryan "Black Cloud" Christianson and his group from Let's Talk Hook-Up.

So four days with the man, the myth, the legend, Ryan and his closest friends. After the tackle seminar, Ryan raffled out some goodies and Mr. Jimmy Houston won the big prize of a Shimano Tyrnos reel. Reports are sounding like a Yellowfin take-over from the previous Bluefin zone and we're going to go see what's shaking down that way and see if we can't locate the Bluefins that were M.I.A. today. If we can't locate the short-fins, we'll stay busy with some of those Yellowfins and decide our next move from that point on. Weather is great, got plenty of bait, and we'll be in the zone tomorrow...early, not late. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 12-02-2018 We got into Guadalupe Island with about two hours to fish before dark. The school we got on was not large but we managed to hook several nice fish the biggest one being 135 pounds. The two boats fishing the island while we traveled down today had probably one of the best days of the year. Super stoked and excited for tomorrow! Weather is of course excellent at the island . We will be checking in tomorrow evening after hopefully an awesome day. The Polaris Supreme Crew!

We don’t ever take for granted just how lucky we are to have perfect weather and phenomenal fishing in the end of October. 177 yellowfin tuna.

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 10-23-2019 Another fantastic day of fishing! We had a good day on the Wahoo and a fantastic day on 40 to 45 pound yellowfin tuna. Weather again was epic and were going to do this another day. The guys are tired worn out but having a great time. See you tomorrow. The Polaris Supreme Crew!

Monday, October 1st, 2012

Hi friends and happy October to all of you. First off, I was going to smack that weatherman right in the mouth this morning but he was pretty dead-on with his prediction of this evenings weather, so we cool again. Our ride back to San Diego Bay is a beautiful, moon-lit excursion -- a perfect ride for a fillet mignon dinner. The weather wasn't all that bad today, just about ten knots more breeze than predicted and the seas were spaced out and low today so it was just windy. Like I said, the weather now is just dandy so I can't be all that bummed about the excess wind.

We started off this morning in the eastern edge of things and although my gameplan for the day was right on, my execution was about an hour or so behind. We were hoping to catch a bunch of yellowfin and dorado this morning and then roll out to the west all day, get to the western edge and look for bluefin and albacore to end the day. After screwing around in the eastern zone and having not caught a fish for a couple of hours we slowly motored out to the west and just before lunch -- thinking I was hot stuff with thirty tuna and a dozen dorado on the boat -- a boat to to the west got on a kelp that ended his day. Ugh, just where I wanted to be too. After that, we plotted the position and kicked her up on our westerly tack to get out there by the afternoon time.

The bad thing about this whole scenario was that we never found the kelp our "buddy boat" bagged for us. The good news is that we found one of our own. A big, beautiful lady-of-a-kelp with a "smaller" sister about a thousand yards upswell of her and once we set up the drift for both of them, it was on like donkey kong. We had a really fun afternoon pulling on 12-22 lb. yellowfin tuna and a really nice grade of dorado to go with the tunas as well. It wasn't WFO at all, just a steady pick with three to five going all the time. The gang had a ball and before you knew it, we were finished up with our daily limit of yellowfin tuna and dorado. Better late than never.

The one thing that I'm feeling down about is the fact that we never made it out to the western edge to look for bluefin and albacore. But we had a fine day of fishing on yellowfin and flatheads and the passengers are pumped. Good times! We'll be in tomorrow morning at 0600 hours and we'll be back out on Wednesday night for another day and a half trip. We'll chat with you then. I'm sorry for the long report. Direct your slick comments to Tommy and he'll pass them along to me at a later date. Good night.

-The Supreme Team