lake of the woods mn Fishing Report 2025

Good morning everyone, Today we had some good yellowtail fishing. A lot of fish around, but pretty hard to catch. Random flurries through out the day made it possible for us to be able to piece together a nice day. The fish were boiling up around the boat pretty good, but did not bite as good as we would have imagined. They must be on krill or red crab or something. Whatever they are keyed in on it is not what we have.....yet. We will give it the day tomorrow, wish us luck, Team supreme

Monday, June 11th, 2012

Hello friends. Well, the countdown is on. Come Saturday, the Polaris Supreme will be departing on her first trip of the 2012 season and the excitement level around here is very high. With all of our major maintenance projects being completed, we've shifted our focus to cleaning up the mess that the past month and a half as created along with finishing up some of the little "knick-knack" projects. Today, Jamie got serious in the galley wiping down the ceiling, the walls and countless other cleaning and organizing projects while Chef Schooler took inventory and is preparing for a fun day of shopping for the galley. As far as the rest of us, Mark, Tommie, Drew and myself have been doing various wood-work refinishing, organizing the engine room and deck, firing all the machinery up and working on the A/C unit. I'm pretty excited to see how the A/C will run this year as we've done some fine tuning to the unit to make it run more efficient with less noise. We'll see how everything goes when we install the new evaporator on Thursday. Jamie did a super clean in the galley, Schooler took inventory, and the bossman organized the wheelhouse and made various upgrades to some of our weather and fishing programs. We had all hands on deck today and we'll be popping in and out throughout the week to ensure that all systems are a go come Saturday.

So that's all. We're getting pretty fired up as the day is soon arriving that we shove off and hopefully find ourselves knee deep in some of those beautiful Bluefin tuna that are running around offshore and some homeguard Yellowtail at the islands. But for now, we'll just keep getting things cleaned up and organized. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Richie & Team Supreme

Mike Pritchard called in this morning with this report for the Tribute. "We've had a very nice start here this moring. A couple of kelps have been absolutely fantastic. Great Yellowtail fishing to go along with some Yellowfin and Dorado. We caught 160 Yellowtail out of 2 drifts. A lot of the fish were caught on surface irons, swimbait and even poppers.

"We are now targeting some tuna or maybe some Dorado. We'll keep you informed."

Hello Everyone, Today was a great day of rigging. Nice weather, we are ready for the warm water fish tomorrow! Wish us luck, Team Supreme

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.

Managed 4 nice Bluefin and Yellowfin in a less than ideal sea state today

Today we went out with 33 anglers and caught 54 yellowtail. The hot ticket today was a scrambled egg colored yo-yo lure. Make sure you bring fresh 40 or 50 lb mono on your yo-yo rod. The ocean was a little bumpy today but it is forecasted to get better. Overall conditions look very good in the area, don't miss out !

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Good evening. With all of the life around the boat last night, we never managed to hook a fish this morning so we made a move and relocated the good sign of fish from yesterday. All in all, it was a very slow day up until the afternoon time when we got on a big breezer of smaller fish and had a nice little flurry on that smaller grade of fish. They really responded well, boiling within ten feet of the transom but for whatever reason we only managed to hook and land a handful. That was pretty much our hot action of the day. We saw a couple good spots of fish today but the Bluefin were Bluefin and it was a struggle to get a bite. There's potential for some decent hits in this area but for now, it's only for a couple of lucky boats and today, we were not a lucky boat. Sometimes, that's just how the cards fall.

With a beautiful load of Yellowtail in the fish holds and an annoying load of kelp flies everywhere else, we put a bow on the 2011 Paul Hess five day trip. Our utmost gratitude goes out to Paul for once again putting together a stellar group of folks and continuing to bring them back year after year. No matter what type of economic situation or what type of fish we catch, this group has a great attitude and they come out here to have a good time. Also, thank you to Sandra and Dave Lafferty for bringing some delicious food, especially the Cherry cobbler. We'll see y'all next year. Go Giants...not.

So there you have it. We're enjoying a fine ride as we motor back to port and we're shooting for a 0730 ETA tomorrow morning. We'll be coming back out with the Costello gang for five days of fun with Captain Drew Henderson at the helm. We'll check back with you tomorrow and have a good weekend.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Hi friends. We finally made it to the hot Bluefin grounds in the afternoon and as soon as we arrived, the bite shut off. We saw good life and a few schools but we never saw the whites of their eyes. There is potential to scratch out a day here as the few boats that were in the area all day had a few fish to show for their efforts. Based on that, we rigged up and tossed out the sea anchor and will be drifting offshore all night. There is a ton of life around us right now with squid, sauries, and birds all around so hopefully with all of this life, we'll wake up and pick away at some shortfin's. Wish us luck.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Good evening friends. Yellowtail fishing aboard the Polaris Supreme was outstanding today. From right after breakfast until the late afternoon, we were pulling on 'tails in the 14-20 lb. class. Massive breezers, meter marks, and color spots were repeatedly located and we enjoyed steady catching all day long in beautiful weather. We had a very entertaining day and the evening time found us on the hunt for "premiums" which we managed to boat one right around 35 lbs. Hot rigs today was 30 lb. test, fly-lining a sardine with a J-hook tied on. No fluorocarbon, no designer circle hooks. A Yellowtail's mouth is like sandpaper, so there is no reason to waste the money on more abrasion resistant/expensive line and a hook that is designed to be set in the corner of the mouth so you don't get chewed off by a fish with teeth. With the exception of cow tuna fishing, we see more fish lost on circle hooks than landed. Granted every type of tackle worked today but time after time, we see just a simple 30 lb. rig filled with mono and tied up with a J-hook catching more fish than a rig with fluorocarbon and designer circle hooks. For Yellowtail fishing, it's an unnecessary expense when a so called "cheap rig" will get the job done just as good. Hey, when you step foot on the Supreme, you can fish with whatever type of tackle you wish. But take it from the people who are out here everyday, when it comes to Yellowtail fishing, keep it simple. Outfit yourself with mono and a J-hook and save that money that you would've spent on the fluoro/designer hooks because you're going to need to put it towards your fish processing bill. Get what I'm saying?

So that is all. The gang has had their fill on Yellowtail so the decision was made to venture offshore to focus on tuna fishing for the remainder of the trip. A couple of our community boats had an OK day on the Bluefin grounds so we're looking forward to seeing if we can't track down a few schools and add to our beautiful catch of Yellowtail before trips end. Our weather is a little bumpy but everyone is too tired to notice, they're out and so are we. Wish us luck and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

Happy Hump Day,

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Hello friends. We began the hunt for Bluefin tuna early this morning by shutting down in the gray light on a school of tuna and just as soon as everyone woke up to begin fishing, they vanished. So we followed suit and the hunt for greener pastures commenced. It took us a little while to get a school located but when we got it located, it was a good one. We immediately saw fish boiling up good all around the boat and we hooked a few right off the bat. We landed a handful and we lost a handful but what we did land were a beautiful grade of Bluefin in the 25-35 lb. range. With the massive surface show 360 degrees around the boat we decided to get the kite out. Multiple fish attacked the baits but missed the hooks and after that, all we could do was watch them boil within ten feet of the baits and turn their nose away from our double sardine rigs. We watched the show for a couple of hours before they bailed and it was a slow day from that point on. We did pull a couple of nice Yellowtail from a kelp paddy and we even trolled up a smaller grade Bluefin tuna later in the day. Not too shabby considering a lot of boats in the prior weeks have been calling in zero's for fish counts, so we're very happy with what we caught and we'll be back on the tuna grounds after we do some Yellowtail fishing. A couple of boats in our long range community had a pretty steady day on smaller grade Bluefin in another area so we'll keep our ears open to that developing situation. Like I said, we're going to go do some Yellowtail fishing as the bite has been hot and we're looking forward to finding out for ourselves just how hot the bite is.

So that's it. Our weather is fair and we're in excellent company with Paul Hess and his good friends. We'll be in the zone first thing tomorrow morning and we'll report back to you tomorrow. Take care now.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

P.S. Te amo, Anna. From: Mark.

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Hello friends. We're back in business as we departed on our annual Paul Hess five day trip this morning. Paul has been putting together a great group of anglers for the better part of a decade on the Supreme and we're happy to see all the familiar faces that he's brought aboard this year. Our bait loading went smoothly and we've been traveling in calm weather ever since leaving the harbor around lunch time. With boats spread out in different areas along the coast and offshore, we're taking our time in deciding what our game plan is. Part one of our journey will be on the hunt for Bluefin tuna tomorrow morning as one of our companions in the long range fleet saw good sign and had an OK day on the shortfins today. We'll begin looking around in the morning and we'll see if we can't boat a couple of tuna fish tomorrow before we worry about part two. Wish us luck and we'll report back to you tomorrow.

Happy Monday,

-Richie and Team Supreme-