lahaina Fishing Report 2025

"The X-Raps were working real good on the slide," said Polaris Supreme skipper Tom Rothery July 21 at Fisherman's Landing. "It seemed like the best colors were silver or bonito color. The zucchini colored skirted jigs were working real good on the troll. Fishing was good; we got enough fish, with good yellowtail at the islands and good albacore fishing offshore." David "Sammy" Samuelson of San Diego won first place on the trip, for his 37.4-pound albacore. He said he got it with a sardine on a 2/0 hook tied to 30-pound P-Line, a Saiwa reel and a Calstar six-foot rod. Bob Pollack of San Diego won second place for a 33.4-pounder, and Dick Emerson of Rowland Heights won third place for a 32.8-pound albacore. Jonathan Kendrick of Oakley stood in with the winners to show his 37-pound dorado, caught on a Zucker's jig in Mexican Flag colors.

~~Aug. 19
 The ball stopped rolling for us today.  We got it rolling briefly but then it hit a hill again.  We started where we left off last night.  We weren't alone.  We just weren't seeing the schools on the edge of the fleet so we mosied our way up to the next area and we were late to that party.  So again we mosied our way up and at 1:30 we were still skunked.  We got off on our own and then finally spotted a breezer up and got on it and it bit pretty well for a while.  We caught 50, mostly the good grade yellowfin before they quit biting.  After that we really didn't see much for the rest of the day.  It was our day today.  Hopefully we can turn it around tomorrow.

 If you think about it though, the fish we caught yesterday were free, so if you add it to what we caught today, we had a stellar day.  I like to think of it like that.

 We're going to try to catch some bait tonight.  We have enough for tomorrow, but if we have a good day like I expect, we may be out of position to catch bait the following night so we're going to try and get it done tonight.
    

~~Sep. 17
 We had bad odds today.  We fished for wahoo and our fish hooked to fish landed ratio was poor.  It always is with wahoo but I feel today was extra bad.  I think if you're landing half of what you hook with wahoo you're doing OK.  Today at best we were 1/3.  At best.  I called out to 2 of our anglers fishing today and asked what there ratio was for the day and I got a 1/2 and a 1/4.  Then my buddy Dave came up to the wheel house and said he was 0/4.  So that gives you an idea.  If we would've caught half of what we hooked today we would've had a really good day.

 Alright.  I'm done whining.  I'm still glad we came here.  Everybody got there chance at a wahoo and there's still a chance for some more tomorrow.  We're headed inside now and we'll be fishing for wahoo while we're looking for tuna first thing tomorrow morning.  The weather now is fantastic.  A little weird this morning with mixed swell and a wind coming from the southwest but it's beautiful now.

 We couldn't come to an agreement on a price for someone to wear Mark's shirt today.  Justin wanted 200 and Mike said he'd do it for 150 but I couldn't find enough people to chip in.  It was a good one too.  He was wearing a white shirt today, so by 9:00 this morning he could've entered a wet t-shirt contest.  He may have won too if you're into guys like Mark.
        

~~Sep. 12
 Slow morning, strong afternoon was how the fishing went down today.  We had 2 fish by lunch time and I was feeling the pressure.  Thankfully at noon the sonar went boom boom and we went sideways for a few hours.  Let me try and give you a picture of how things looked out here.  The fishing was wide open on a mixed school of skipjack and yellowfin.  We had 23 passengers and basically 23 rent rods.  Chaos out here on the Polaris Supreme.  And by chaos I mean fun, fun, fun.  At any given time we had half the passengers with fish on while the other half were tying on hooks.  It was pretty funny looking at 12 people at a time in the center of the boat tying on hooks.  Usually our customers have 10+ rods with hooks on them ready to go but all our anglers had one.

 Here is how I describe stand up tuna fishing.  It's not like freshwater angling.  Freshwater angling is more like an art.  It can be very peaceful and relaxing.  You use light tackle and  finesse.  With stand up tuna fishing, we can hook 24 fish at one time with every fish swimming a different direction with every crew member screaming out directions.  Gaffs are flying, reels are screaming and lines are snapping and it's some of the funnest $%^& in the world.  That's what today made me want to write.  We had a good time.

 We're on our way in already and we leave again tomorrow for 8 days.  See you then.
         

Thanks for the amazing response to the OPEN Shimano Charters we scheduled for the Channel Islands this spring. The response was so positive that I spoke with the folks at Shimano and they agreed to put another trip on line. This one will be set for fishing on March 13. That would be departing at 9pm on the night of the 12th. This trip will be just like the others. Shimano will provide a bunch of outfits for fishing butterfly and lucanus systems. There will be give aways of tackle and goodies as well. Please email me if you would like to join us on this trip.

Schools of bluefin where a little harder to come by yesterday fortunately we still where able to put together a day. 85 yellowtail 6-15 pounds 6 dorado and 3 bluefin.

The wahoo fishing has greatly diminished. Since we have plenty on board, we decided to take off to the tuna grounds where the reports have been good. We should be there in 48 hours. Weather is sloppy, choppy.

Tommy and crew

Today we covered over yesterday’s hot zone and beyond to only locate one school. Ended the with 2 yellowtail, a round of bonito and plenty of bottom fish. Hopeful the yellowtail are ready to eat tomorrow after today’s hiatus.