lake hartwell striper Fishing Report 2024

The Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing August 19. Tom Rothery skippered the five-day trip with 24 anglers, and remarked that this Dan Heil memorial trip was the 23rd for the charter group. Jeff Hoover of Richland, WA won first place and took over the top spot in the jackpot and for the best bluefin of the season. "He fought for 45 minutes," said Geoff. "He was the strongest fish I ever felt, and my best fish ever. He beat me up!" Hoover said he baited a sardine on a 3/0 Super Mutu hook. He used 40-pound line, a Penn two-speed reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod. Bob Hagan of Ramona was second for a 38-pound Opah that erred on a sardine. Mike Myer of La Mirada won third place for a 37.6-pound albacore, but declined to stand in the lineup, so Gene McKenna of San Jose stepped up with his 30-pound dorado.

"It's 1 O'Clock here & I think we have 10 Yellowtail on the boat." Ryan went on, "we're seeing them pretty good here this morning. These are very big fish, we have lost another 10 for sure. We had one stop where we hooked 4 and lost them all. That's just the way it goes with this sized fish. They are bigger today, about 25 pounders. Biting mainly to fly line bait, we have caught a couple fish on the yo-yo and on surface lures. But they are maily biting the fly lined bait. I'll give you a final talley on the way in. As of 1:00 PM I know we have at least 10 Yellowtail on the boat maybe a couple more. And we're still seeing them hook a few. I'll get back to you later.

Captured this nice #25 Halibut today, looked at quite a bit of Yellowtail that was not biting. 

27 yellowfin(20-60lbs) 16 yellowtail 2 dorado. The anglers who were willing to change their bait out every 60 seconds were rewarded with beautiful grade yellowfin tuna. Belly and shoulder hooked baits on 30-50lb line and a small circle hook worked best.

We worked hard to get our hundred fish today. Lots and lots of schools that didn't cooperate all that well. They were biting pretty good at the end with steady hook ups on the but hooked bait on the bow. We're grateful with the action and catch we got today. We'll be signing off for a little over a week. The next trip is a 7 day departing on October 7th. Take care then, bye bye now.

Mike Pritchard called in with this report for the Tribute. "We're wrapping up the 1st Day of our 2 Day Western outdoor News Trip. We had great, great fishing today. We caught limits of Yellowtail, 90 Yellowfin tuna, 5 Bluefin, 9 Dorado & a sprinkling of Skipjack.

We're going to shut down for the evening and be back fishing for more tuna in the morning. This is really great fishing regardless of the time of year.

It's a good time to hop on a boat. If you're interested give Seaforth Sportfishing a call at 619-224-3383."

Grinding away at good ones! Today was better fishing. It was still a grind but we were able to get some real trophies for our last day. Pictured here we have Mic with his beautiful Yellowfin. Also we have Jim Holman and Jon Collins with their big fish of the trip! Nice Job guys!

Polaris Supreme docked at Fisherman's Landing July 24 following a five-day, 24-passenger charter with owner-skipper Tommy Rothery, who was credited by other skippers with finding a new area of albacore to the west of the previous location. Brad Donnelly of San Clemente won first place on the Tuna Trackers trip, for a 52-pound yellowfin. He said he took it with a sardine on a 3/0 Eagle Claw hook and 40-pound Soft Steel line. He used a Penn 4/0 reel and a Seeker 6465 H rod. Mike O'Donnell of Palmdale was second, for a 45-pound albacore. Jason Severen of Petaluma tied with Tom Donnelly of San Clemente for third place. Each had a 42-pound albacore.