lake bardwell Fishing Report 2024

The fall fishing season is on, as could be seen in the catch brought back from Alijos Rocks and The Ridge by Polaris Supreme owner-skipper Tommy Rothery, who docked his rig at Fisherman's Landing September 16 after an right-day trip. "Wow, what a great day!" wrote Tom on September 13. "We had an awesome morning bite on the Dorado; big bulls and cows. We took a break at lunch and Pedro prepared a Southwestern 10 oz. burger that was delicious. He really nails the menu with his creative spices and herbs. Back out on the deck, we had excellent fishing on the wahoo throughout the whole day. And then to finish up the day we caught some yellowfin tuna. It was just a great, fun day. Dinner tonight was a spicy ginger shrimp curry; another great dish. Our weather all day has been beautiful. I hear it's been crappy up above and hope it lies down before we start up the line." Jeff Theurer of Pismo Beach got the best dorado, a 44-pound whopper that will now be the season's best. "I got it in 15 minutes," he said, "on 40-pound line. This is my best dorado and the best on the boat this trip."
Chris Fitzgerald of Lake Elsinore won first place for a 70.2-pound tuna. He caught it with a sardine, he said, on a 3/0 Mustad hook, 60-pound P-Line on an Avet 5-2 reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod.
Wayne Campbell of Huntington Beach was second for a 70-pounder, and Bill Vogel of Oceanside won third place for a 62.6-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna. Jeff Camplese of Helena, MT took the best wahoo, a 55.4-pounder, and brought it into the lineup shot.

6 Bluefin Tuna and 8 Yellowtail. Amazing opportunity to catch a fish of a lifetime. Trips are $175 per person(starting Monday) and limited to 44 pass. Please bring a 25 lb bait rod, a 40 or 50 lb bait rod and a flatfall outfit. No passport required.

Nov. 8

Go fly a kite. We did. Awesome weather and great signs of big tuna all around us. We hit them with everything we had -kites, sinker rigs, fly line sardines, mackerels, flying fish on 100 lb then 80 lb, then 60 lb, then 40 lb, then 30 lb nothing. Chunking - nothing. Anchored, then drifted, then trolled. We proved that fishing does not equal catching. If you listened close enough - you could hear the cow tuna laughing at us. We found solace in chef Schoolers platters of sashimi, wonton cups filled with marvelous ahi poke and bacon wrapped asparagus. We heard of a place where 30 lb Dorado and mid sized yellow fin play. We are going there now.

Your charter head Mr. Lon Mikkelsen

Nov. 8

Timing is everything. And so far our timing for the most part has been a little off, whether it be wrong day or wrong time. This morning we caught some quality fish. Less of them then we were hoping but we caught a handful of 35-50 pound yellowfin mixed in with several handfuls of smaller ones and a couple of wahoo. It didn't take long for Tommy to figure out that this was the wrong day not time. So we took off from there in search of. We found a few more wahoo on our next spot but only landed one before we kept sliding down to new zones. We fished a couple other spots for just a couple more fish while setting ourselves up for some stellar bait making. We got that job done before dinner and as I write this we are anchored up in cow town. We're expecting a couple slowish days while we're down here but the fish we land should be trophies.

The weather down here remains good. Clear skies, little wind and it's hot and muggy. Well I'm going to go back to bed for another hour or so. Check back to see how many trophies we get today.

Drew