lake erie western basin Fishing Report 2025

This year is my 20th straight season operating a boat at the Coronado Islands. The fishing that is happening right now is the best I have ever seen. Boats from 10 ft to 124 ft all drifting and getting them. Don’t miss out on this amazing display of bio-mass. Please be responsible and only keep what you need. Have fun, be responsible and help a kid or a beginner. The guys are getting them again this morning. 75+ out of their first stop.

Our full day trip was turned into a 1/2 day trip due to rough seas. We did however get a couple of good shots and ended with 28 yellowtail. Looking forward to spending an entire day on the grounds tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 7th, 2013

Hi friends. We arrived back to the docks this morning at 06:30 hours and did our usual offloading procedures. Unloaded Tom and the boys, their gear, their beautiful load of Bluefin and Yellowtail, loaded groceries, cleaned the boat, cleaned the fish holds, refueled, changed oil/fuel filters, the girls made up the bunks with fresh linens and cleaned, freshwater the boat, vaccuum the upper deck/wheelhouse, clean/restock the galley, do the windows, load our new passengers and their gear, and take off for another adventure all within 4 hours of docking. We hustle, we know. We also managed a mass substitution of team members. Riddler, Jed, Shawn, and Dee headed for home and Drew, Matt, Schooler, and Ali relieved the gang from last trip.

With that, we headed to the bait recievers, loaded up on a decent load of sardines, and cleared the point by noon. After Schoolers famous bratwurst lunch, we knocked out our tackle seminar and hung out for a bit until we started fishing around 17:00 hours.

Our fishing was just OK. We managed to land a couple handfuls of Bluefin in the 30 lb. range before the sun settled below the horizon and nightfall ended our day. It was a very picky bite but the quality is what we're likin' the most. We're going to enjoy our traditional first night dinner of prime rib, idle downswell for a calm dinner seating/comfy nights sleep, and hit this again first thing tomorrow morning.

In closing, we're hopeful about the potential for tomorrow. Our weather is a bit sloppy but it's plenty fishable; just a tad bit wet and windy. Anyhow, we're here and we're looking forward to snappin' Bluefin tomorrow morning. Wish us luck.

Your friends until the end,

- The Supreme Team

 

P.S. Mark would like to say thank you to Mal "Mole" Wagstaff for the clothes. Thanks, Mall.

We departed this morning nice and early with Garry Roberts and 19 other anglers for Garry's annual charter. We got a good load of bait, the weather is nice and everyone is excited to see what the next 9 days will bring. Wish us luck and we will keep you posted. Thanks, Tommy and crew

Capt. Ray went out today with 22 passengers. Final fish count for the day is. 1 calico bass 2 sheephead 7 red rock cod. 90 whitefish 110 rockfish. Tomorrows trip looks to have a light load. On January 1st we will shut down for our annual maintenance period.

The spring Season is nearly upon us and we will be taking the Apollo to Santa Barbara for the rockfish opener and hopefully a productive seabass season. We have an unusual amount of open weekend dates for this spring, between March 1rst and May 15th. Take a look at our calendar at apollocharters.com. Take advantage of these rare openings and book your own charter with me and my excelent crew today. Come fish with us out of Santa Barbara and experience the easiest and shortest ride to Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands. This means more fishing time and easier access to those harder to reach destinations. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you, J.J. Gerritsen.

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Hi friends. I don't know what's going on with me, it's like the fish just elude us in the morning time and around lunchtime, people start to get very down about our fishing day, myself included. We had a horrible morning. A boat just a few miles from us got on a kelp and had good fishing on bluefin, yellowfin, and dorado. Okay, maybe that means that we're in the right area. Nope. We went in all kinds of different directions only to find a boat already on a kelp catching fish or a boat already working the area. Very frustrating. Around lunch time, the mood on deck was starting to sour and the mood in the wheelhouse was the exact opposite of laughing babies, sunflowers, and Labrador puppies. It was straight death. I was pretty sure that I was about to lose my turkey caesar salad all over the dash and that would've been the highlight of my day up to that point. Yep, it was that bad. But as our boss's old boss, Steve Loomis, used to say, "west is best."

So I made the decision -- we're going to head west all day until we don't see a boat on the radar or we fall off the earth. As I was checking my water temperature charts, looking at the next area where I was sure that I was going to go and find another boat or non-biting fish, it happened. Not the sound of a single fish popping on the sonar or the mast-man yelling at me to rotate trollers, but the sound of a school -- a gigantic school -- on the sonar. I flipped from the computer screen to the sonar screen, throttled back the mains, and spun the wheel hard to starboard. In the excitement of the moment, I managed to tangle up the chord for the gyros in the wheel as I was spinning too (sweet), so I'm yelling in the P.A. system, chasing down the school, and trying to untangle the chord all at the same time and just like that, the school is off the edge of the screen, swimming away with my heart.

As I sit looking at a blank sweep of the sonar for a few seconds and the thoughts of ripping the wheelhouse chair from its base and throwing it out the window, I finally realize that Jed is screaming down at me from the mast. He was screaming profanities, but not directed towards me, at least not directly. His screams read something along this line, and I'll clean it up for everyone at home, "they're f-ing shinning!!" Bingo, as I came back around, the sonar lit up once again right in front of the boat and after a few seconds -- which seemed like a century -- the fathometer ran red. Oh my gosh, they're under us, thick! I can't remember if I cursed when I called for the bait to rain down on the school after we stopped the boat but I apologize to our anglers if I did. In all honesty, I don't think they could hear me on the P.A. as everyone was screaming their heads off as well and after shutting down the mains and running out to the back deck, the most beautiful sight I could've seen was right before my very eyes; fishing boiling everywhere and all the rods bent over. Sonny Jim!

We drifted with that school of five hours and after the initial rush where they were biting sixty pound line for a couple of hours, we kept two to five going for the remainder of the stop. We finished the drift with 120 bluefin tuna (limits) in the 15-30 lb. class and 40 yellowfin tuna in the 12-18 lb. class. Like I said before, Sonny Jim!

So there you have it. A day in the life of a sport-boat captain. It's life of stressing like you're a lady of the night in church and then in the blink of an eye, you're the fireman carrying out the baby from the house fire to place it into the loving arms of it's mother. Here you go, ma'am.

-The Supreme Team

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Good evening, friends. We departed on an open party 5-day trip today with a healthy load of people and a healthy load of bait. Our weather traveling down is quite nice and we're looking like the weather is going to clean up for the next few days, so we're pumped. As far as the fishing outlook, one boat in the area today did equally phenomenal on bluefin and yellowfin. Straight up.We'll be in the area tomorrow and we'll chat you up tomorrow on our day.

Getting back to yesterday, we'd like to thank Paul Hess and his crew that tagged along with him this year. If I recall, this was Paul's 12th annual trip and we look forward to seeing him, his son, Matt, and the rest of the gang that comes back year after year (thanks for bailing, Boomhower. More bluefin and yellowfin for us.) Anyhow, It's a fantastic trip, one of my favorites every year, and we'll see y'all next year.

So that's all. We'll chat with you tomorrow.