lake norman bass Fishing Report 2024

With good signs of big tuna on the lower banks - perfect for our Mag Bay trips - we have some late openings due to cancellations.

Our first trip departs Mag Bay on Nov 27, returning on Dec 4 (Tuesday to Tuesday), and will fish 6 full days right in prime big fish waters.

Please contact Chris Yamada at [email protected] or 310 701 7650 if you have any interest or questions. These are awesome trips, only 10 anglers, and I invite you to join us for an excellent time.

20 passangers, 16 Yellowtail, 46 Bonito, 100 Rockfish. It’s not easy. But if you are willing to grind the full size yo-yo lure on every stop you may just have a very good day.

Our private charter had to display some good old fashioned patience today. In a typical 3/4 day trip we can expect to make about 3-5 moves thru ought the day looking for fish. Today however, we did not find what we were looking for until our 9th stop of the day. The rapidly changing conditions coupled with the short windows of biting fish have been driving yours truly crazy the past couple of days. Today's photo will show you why we have been putting ourselves thru such mental anguish. Today's final count for our 31 passengers is 11 yellowtail 20 calico bass 16 barracuda 7 rockfish. Our yellowtail today weighed 20-35 pounds and were biting the fly lined sardines the best.

21 yellowfin tuna 7 skipjack. Had enough fish under and around the boat to catch 200. Unfortunately we never found a school that was easy to hook. We will try again tomorrow. Starting to see some large sardines. Please bring some size 2 and 2/0 hooks.

Today our 24 anglers landed 7 bluefin tuna from 70-85 pounds. First time anglers, seasoned anglers, captains, crewmen and all the way up to our office personnel. Nobody is off limits when it comes to the frustration and lack of sleep that a bluefin can create. However, if you stick with it, come prepared and keep an open mind. You will eventually be rewarded with a fish of a lifetime.

Sep. 2

Well we started in some traditionally tasty grounds today. The weather was magnificent and so was the water we were in. Warm and a beautiful glassy blue. It was also lively as could be. There were birds buzzing around all over, little dabs of dolphin, big herds of dolphin that were "all birded up"(that's code for "looks right"), a dead animal floating,(known for holding lots of dorado),kelp paddies and floating fishing gear buoys(also known for holding mucho dorado and wahoo). Well none of it was holding !@#$. I'm just bummed about it too. We had this area all to ourselves for 3 days in early September with beautiful weather and fishing conditions and it stunk. I can't sugar coat it. We covered a lot of good looking spots for not much fish. It just wasn't there. If I had a time machine I would go back 5 days ago and do it all over again. We would start above and fish our way down instead of starting below and fishing our way north. At least then my stress level wouldn't be high because we'd have fish in our holds. Fishing would be so easy with a time machine. Maybe I shouldn't write such downer reports but my friend Rob on board says he enjoys reading the good with the bad and you know what, this sort of thing happens. Fishing can be good and it can be bad. Oh well but hey, our trip is only half over, we're going to catch a bunch of yellows tomorrow, get some bait, maybe catch some more yellows and some more bait then go and whip on the tuna. Right? I hope so.

Your bummed but still very high spirited captain, Drew

54 yellowtail 56 barracuda 12 calico bass 7 bonito. Another fun day of steady action.

49 yellowfin 48 skipjack. Didn’t find the right school until we were out of time, and daylight.