lake erie western basin Fishing Report 2024

Aug 15

Good evening folks. We departed today on the long running Heil 5 day charter with a bunch of familiar faces and a handfull of welcomed new ones. Our first stop was the bait recievers and boy oh boy did we get a good load of bait. Best one of the year thus far. Healthy, slimy and lively. It all starts there. It was a normal departure day of lunch, naps and fishing seminars. With mixed reports from slow to ok in the bluefin zone, we're going to start off looking in the area we finished up looking in yesterday. We'll see what we come up with and take it from there. Wish us luck.

Yesterday night Captain Ryan Bostian called in with a Coronado Islands update. We are probably having the best Yellowtail fishing we have ever seen at the Coronado Islands. Yesterday Captain Taro had a charter with 145 Yellowtail. Two days ago we had 251 Yellowtail. The boat is not sold out we do have spots available You will need a passport. Call Seaforth Sportfishing at (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action or BOOK ONLINE.

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Hi friends. Thanks for nothing, Joey. We were really looking forward to those fresh flour tortillas and now, because of you, we are burrito-less for three days. Let me guess - traffic? Anyways, we just now (08:33 hours) dropped off Riddler, Tom, and the gang to board their flights and fly back home. We've taken Jeff along for the ride with us as a bargaining chip just in case we need to barter for the aforementioned flour tortillas or who-knows-what. Our weather right now is not very Cabo San Lucas, that's for sure. It's really not that bad but it isn't quite extreme sun and bikinis and margaritas weather. At the moment, we are making horrible speed so we'll hope to make that up along the way so that we're not arriving to the docks at 17:00 hours on Friday evening. Once we get closer to home, we'll send out a better ETA to the office.

On behalf of myself and the entire crew, we'd like to thank Tom P. for allowing us to go on vacation with him; especially me. I wasn't supposed to be here and he graciously took me aboard and after what I witnessed the past two weeks, I would've been very upset as to what I would've missed. Every time Tom brings the boys and heads out with us, things are just right. They're a very cool group and we do some fun things that we don't get to experience very often. So thank you, Tom, from Drew, Jed, Mark, Gunny, Schooler, Shawn, and myself; I miss smelling your fresh coffee in the morning as you roll up to the wheelhouse. I also miss RK and his banter with Mark and his humor. I miss B-Bo and his laid back style. I miss Hoolie and thank you for teaching me how to plank. I miss Scooch, a lot; I miss your knowledge to everything that is the ocean and I miss your lower back tattoo - we all do. And most of all, I (we) miss Cowboy. We miss your scent and everything that makes Cowboy, Cowboy. Grab Chugey and let's go bowling. We can hit the ceiling with the ball too, that sounds like a real gas.

Without sounding much more like the rambling idiot that I already am, thank you to Tom P. and the gang. Let's do it again soon, yeah? So that's all. The next couple of days will be filled with various cleaning and maintenance chores, playing Siskel and Ebert in the galley (my favorite movie today was "Dark Shadows" with Jonny Depp. It was funny, it was weird, it was sexy; it was classic Jonny D, baby!), and I'm sure Jeff and I will continue our game of "100 Skittles, 1 Dixie Cup" at some point. It's basically us standing at the ladder, taping a cup to the stern and trying to shoot Skittles in to the cup. So far, we're 0/100. Good thing we have spare time for me to perfect my "J" and make it rain. We're out. We'll chat with you manana.

-The Supreme Team

65 yellowfin tuna (15-25 lbs) 129 purple skipjack aku tuna.  The skilled bait fisherman with a 20 lb setup and #2 hook was hooked up all day today.

Hello everyone, Today was spent traveling up. A great ride to end a great trip filled with a variety of fish. We would like to thank Billy Stephens for putting together such a great charter! It was a great seven day with a great group of fun anglers, and we look forward to next year! Our ETA is 5:30 See you at the dock, Team Supreme

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Hi friends. We enjoyed a nice ride up the line last night and found ourselves in a position to do some rock cod drifts for a couple of hours this morning and we added some color to our fish holds by tagging some quality lingcods and reds. After a couple hours of codding, we busted a move offshore for the remainder of the day and found a few kelp paddies holding some nice Yellowtail and one had some Dorado swimming around on it. No great numbers but the fish we did capture were quality kelp paddy species. We had gorgeous weather all day by means of a flat ocean and sunny skies. It would've been nice to add some tuna to the mix but we're happy with our outcome as a whole.

So that's it. Chef Schooler kicked out a Fillet Oscar (Fillet Mignon topped with crab meat and Hollandaise sauce) dinner and the gang enjoyed the ride up. Our gratitude goes out to Mark Costello and the gang for being a superb group to have on-board and we'll see you in the future. Our ETA tomorrow is around 0700 in the morning and we'll be turning around and welcoming aboard Chappy and friends for another five day. We'll chat with you tomorrow after the turn-around. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Hi friends. Pretty much a repeat report from yesterday. Very good fishing on 18-25 lb. Yellowtail from 0730 this morning until around noon and then it shut off as did the current. We went looking around and found a couple deals of Yellows and added a few more to our count. With that said, we're finished with the Yellowtail area and we're motoring up the line to gain some latitude and finish up our trip tomorrow a little closer to home. There's not much to report other than the fishing has been outstanding for the past two mornings on quality 'tails and we're sitting fat and happy with our totals.

So that's it. Our weather is lovely and I'm sorry I don't have an awesome, wordy report to give to you. It's just been good fishing, good weather, and good people. Not much more to it. Pretty simple, just the way we like it. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Hello friends. Yellowtail fishing was top notch for us on the Supreme this morning. It started off on the drift for a few quality 'tails and a 45 lb. White Seabass landed by Trampas Costello. We decided to get the anchor down and once we got 'er hung, it was a steady pick on 18-25 lb. fish all the way until after lunch. Really a beautiful grade of fish and we couldn't be happier with our morning score. Once we lost our conditions, we pulled anchor and searched around for a while before we settled back into our "cow zone" and managed to hook a few and land a couple fish in the 35 lb. class before the sunset. Today was a great day of catching quality Yellowtail in the Baja sunshine and we'll be doing it again tomorrow, hoping for the same success. We're currently in the hot night-bite zone, hoping for a bunch more of those gorgeous Seabass and maybe a Yellowtail or two, we'll see. Wish us luck and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

P.S. Leslie - Steve says hi and instead of a cruise, you two are coming out here next year.

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Good evening everyone. Overall, today was a slow day but we did manage to catch some fish and we didn't go very long without seeing a spot of jumpers, hooking up on the troll, or stopping on a kelp. We caught a few 12 lb. Bluefin and managed to troll up a handful of 15-22 lb. Yellowfin tuna. All throughout the day, we saw Bluefin boilers until the late afternoon when we lost our water conditions so that's an encouraging sign to see so much fish spread out for miles and miles. Same story today for the fleet, slow fishing for most with the exception of a few token vessels getting lucky. One of these days, we'll be the lucky ones.

Although we saw a good amount of life, today was too slow of a pace to keep us around so we're making a move to do some Yellowtail fishing. We'll be there tomorrow morning, our weather is very favorable, and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

Hi friends. The seas are calm, the skies are clear, and the Supreme is back on the path after dropping off Paul Hess's group and picking up Mark Costello and his closest friends. We're loaded up a good supply of bait and when I say loaded, I mean loaded. We'll be giving the Bluefin area a check first thing in the morning as it sounds like that fishing out there is starting to take shape. It sounds like the lucky boats are getting a little bit luckier and the unlucky boats are still gathering up a few to boot. We'll be there to find out tomorrow and we'll make a decision on our next plan based on our morning. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Friday, August 17th, 2012

What's good, people. There are two kinds of Sinclairs in this world, Upton and Matthew. We had both today. Our fishing was Upton Sinclair-style, real good, and we have Matthew Sinclair and his mustache to help us on deck this trip. We caught all of the major species today and we even got our bronze on. First of the season! You farmers and your tans were no match for the Baja sun that we soaked up today. It was hot and flat out here, check the pictures if you don't believe me. Polaris Supreme. Come to think of it, ever since I took my shirt off, the fish wouldn't stop jumping into the boat until I buttoned her back up at days end. Ouch. Anyhow, awesome fishing at the Ridge today and just when we thought it was all said and done, Tommy "Black Eyes" Miles found a kelp at five miles that kicked out all the flatheads we could handle. Never underestimate the blackhawk and his powerful vision. Oh yeah baby, I done told y'all once to get on our level and I don't like to repeat myself. Ronny and the boys are so pumped right now. Big yellowfin, big bluefin, small yellowfin, small bluefin, big dorado, small dorado, big yellowtail, and small yellowtail. Oh yeah, we even hooked a really nice striped marlin today too. Abbey Wombat (the U.S. womens soccer star) couldn't be more proud of us right now. God Bless America.

So what's the plan for tomorrow? I don't know, I'm just a deckhand but I'll ask the skipper ... skipper says it's a secret. Intriguing. We'll report back tomorrow.

Drew Henderson docked Polaris Supreme at Fisherman's Landing August 12 after four days of fishing. His anglers had near-limits of yellowtail, mostly from Cedros Island, where he found mackerel to be superior bait, and fish biting at both ends. Drew said his anglers released some 200 fish. Henderson's posting for August 10 read: "We started our trip making the long haul down to Benitos Island due to the bad weather and bad offshore report. We got to the Island at about two thirty. We got held up with a giant school of 3 to 4 foot giant squid. I can't say it was bad there, I mean we caught a lot of fish we just had to go through lots of little ones to get the bigger ones. We gave the night bite a couple hours only getting ten fish and took off towards Cedros. "The morning was great. Everyone woke up to bent rods. After a couple hours the current slowed and the slime (barracuda) took over. We did a little scouting and found some large model yellows and had a couple of long plunking drifts. Then we took off to the northern head to gain some time for tomorrow and give it a check and found the honey hole. Mucho Fisho. All the beautiful grade, and they chewed until we all got our fill. We're traveling up tonight to do some offshore tomorrow until it's time to go home." Dave Betz of Huntington Beach won first place for a 27.6-pound yellowtail he bagged with a sardine on a 1/0 ringed Gorilla hook and 20-pound P-Line. He said he fished with his favorite Accurate 270 reel, and a Calstar six-foot rod. The fight ran to 35 minutes, he said. Forrest Broyles of Kelseyville got a 25.4-pounder. He was tied by Ken Wan of Oakland for second place.