lake murray sc Fishing Report 2024

Tom Rothery brought his Polaris Supreme home to Fisherman's Landing January 11 after a 16-day trip to the Hurricane Bank and the Southern Banks of Baja. There were seven anglers on the annual George Davis expedition, and they produced ten more cows for the record.

In his report from the boat on Friday January 2, Tom reported a good day of fishing.

"Yes, now this is what I'm talking about," he wrote. "We finally got a break in the weather. It is beautiful and we have left Hurricane Bank. We are now heading to the upper banks. We will be there tomorrow night. Yesterday was an ok day of fishing. George kept a 219 and released a 185. Jeremy released a 140.

"Craig kept a 205 and by the way that was a mistake yesterday. Craig kept a 210 pounder. Al kept a 100 for his buddies that are going to Ennis hunting. They are going to open pit barbeque it on a spit like a pig. Now, that sounds interesting. ‚Д®

"Charlie released a 125 and Scott released a 140. Each day we also had five to 12 fish that we caught that were under 100 pounds and were not mentioned. These all were released.

"Yesterday we also had good wahoo fishing. Jeremy and Craig both caught 4 and Gunnar and Al got 3. Everybody else had a couple a piece. Overall the trip to Hurricane Bank has been very good with eight tuna over 200 pounds, and excellent wahoo fishing."

Chartermaster George Davis of San Dimas won the jackpot while catching four cows. His tuna weighed 241.8, 219.8, 213.6 and 208 pounds. The big one came on squid on the kite, he said.

George fished with 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. He said the big one came to gaff in just 20 minutes.

Allen Tokunaga of North Hollywood won second place for a 224.6-pounder.

"These Hurricane Bank fish seemed a little tougher than the ones on the inside," he remarked. "This one took me 40 minutes. He went around the boat a couple of times, and then came up on the port side of the stern."

Al fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, on 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader, 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra. He used a Penn 50 reel modified by Cal Sheets and a Calstar 6465 XXH rod.

Scott Brown of Costa mesa won third place for his 213.2-pounder. He also got a 202.6-pounder. He fished a small jack under the kite on a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook. He used 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"The big one was a 20-minute fish," he remarked. "He came to the boat pretty good."

One big tuna was eaten by the passengers and crew while the boat was still fishing. It was a 215-pounder caught by Craig Johnston of Costa Mesa, who also got a 204-pounder. Craig said he got them on the kite, on double sardine baits pinned to 7/0 Mustad 7691 hooks. He fished with a 130-pound Momoi topshot on 130-pound Izorline Spectra, with a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

"It took about 30 minutes," he said. "We had rough seas then; it was a fun fight."

Jeremy Chandler of San Dimas got a 203.6-pounder on a jack under the kite on a 7/0 Mustad 7691 hook and the boat's kite rig.

34 yellowtail 33 bonito 100 red rockcod.  Myself and the crew would like to thank everyone who rode with us this year.  We will now shut down for approximately 1 month to do our annual maintenance.  See you next year.

We had some good fishing on the yellows today around 12-18 pounds with some at 25 lbs. We released 100's of smaller ones.

There was plenty of action. The guys are having a great time. Our weather is ok not great, not bad. There is a little bit better sign of albacore. They are improving from what it has been recently. We will fish the yellowtail again tomorrow and save the last couple of days for tuna fishing. For dinner we had turkey breast with sausage bread stuffing and a sage wine sauce. So goodnight and wish us good luck for tomorrow!

Thanks! Tommy and crew

11 pass. 2 yellowtail 53 calico bass and plenty of whitefish and rockfish. Extremely light load for tomorrow.

JJ is running 1.5 day trips to Punta Collonett. Last trip they scored limits of big Reds and a ton of big Lings. Call Fisherman's Landing now at (619) 221-8500 to get in on the action. Tell them SFR sent you.

Captain Ryan Bostian called in this evening with an update from “The San Diego” out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay, CA. Today we had a light load. We had 17 anglers catch 85 Yellowtail (up to 20 pounds). The Yellowtail are mainly in the 4 to 10 pound class but we did have a nice one today that was 20 pounds. There are Bluefin Tuna in the area but we did not catch any of them today. RECOMMENDED TACKLE 25 pound bait rod - 25 pound mono with a short 25 pound fluorocarbon. This outfit is excellent for the Yellowtail and smaller Bluefin Tuna. Be sure to use 1 or 1o hooks. 50 pound bait rod - 50 pound mono with a short 50 pound fluorocarbon leader. You will need 2o hooks for your heavy bait rod. Flat Fall rod - 7 or 8 foot rod with a Talica 12. Use 65 or 80 pound spectra with a short 80 fluorocarbon leader.