lake waconia Fishing Report 2025

Sunday, August 19th, 2012

Hi friends. The past couple of days has seen us hit numerous beautiful kelp paddies and after weeding through excellent dorado fishing and nauseating yellowtail fishing (WFO 3-5 pounders, all released with the exception for a handful of standouts), we have little tuna to show for our efforts. It's just a matter of finding the right deal that wants to get with it and we haven't been the fortunate ones since our incredible Friday. Anyhow, on a lighter note, the bronzing offshore is just top notch. Gosh it's nice. Beautiful weather has been a big bonus and we're hoping to finish off the trip with a bang tomorrow and fill up with some tuna fish to go along with our weather. Wish us luck tomorrow and don't go chasing waterfalls.

Mark's Hardhat Update:

Mark has been issued the hardhat on two separate occasions for two minor offenses for a total of ten minutes of helmet time thus far. There's still time for him to commit a major penalty and be forced to an all day helmet show. Fingers crossed.

A five-day Dan Heil Annual Charter aboard Polaris Supreme with Skipper Drew Henderson, arrived August 21 at Fisherman's Landing. "It's been 20 years now, since '87," said chartermaster Ron Heil, "that I've been doing this trip. My father Dan, who passed away this last season, had been doing it since Tommy (Rothery) bought the boat back in '80 or '81." Dan Heil had been chartering with Rothery since the early eighties on the Polaris Deluxe, now the Breezers. He sailed with Rothery on the Polaris Supreme since '85. Rothery bought the boat from Bill Poole in 1987. "It was a little choppy on that first day," said Skipper Henderson. "But we had great albacore fishing. Cedros was great, we spent a half-day kelp fishing with little action, so we finished up at Benitos, and it was all the fish you could get." "We had a good trip and great timing," continued Heil, who hails from Portland, OR. "Drew did a great job, right out of the chute the first day, we were on a great albacore bite. It was a well rounded trip."
Mike Hunting of Riverside landed a 48.4-pound yellowtail at Benitos Islands, good for first place in the jackpot. Mike fished a sardine on a 5/0 Owner hook, 40-pound P-Line, an Avet HX 2-speed reel, and a Calstar rod. "We were in a shallow spot on the ridge" said Hunting, "and there were guys losing fish in the kelp. So when I got bit, I decided he wasn't gonna get to the kelp, so I buttoned down, past strike, and started cranking." Bill Byler of Covina was second for a 37.6-pound albacore and Gary De Void of Encinitas was third for a 36.4-pound albie.

Saturday Aug. 4th, 2012
Hello from the bridge of the fabulous  Polaris Supreme.
Fishing for Saturday was another mixed bag out here on the offshore tuna grounds.
Like yesterday, it started out slow, but by mid day we had found our stride and started connecting with those beautiful 35-45 lb yellowfin tuna. We scratched at them all afternoon and by the end of the day, we had put another fantastic day together. We also came upon a nice school of Blufin to cap things off.
The rack of lamb dinned with all the trimmings was a great way to end things. Chef Schooler has been fatting us up nicely.
Weather is still good and knowing the potential for Sunday, well were pretty pumped up!
Check back tomorrow for a detailed recap.
Todays report was compiled by Charter Head Tom Chaparro.
 

Sep. 8

We woke up this morning on the drift. I heard Tommy doing the stop and go on his watch early in the morning meaning he was seeing schools. He woke the rest of us up bright and early and it didn't take too long before we started hooking fish. They were the 15-18 pound bluefin and they weren't biting as well as you'd think they would judging by all the fish around the boat. We kept drifting though trying the patient mode. It's a lot easier to be patient with non biting fish when the other boats aren't getting stops. After a while and a few handfuls of BFT we gave up on these fish and went searching for some new ones. It took a while but around lunch time we found a nice big fat kelp and it was an aquarium underneath. Good viewing and catching on lot's of different fish from small throwback yellowtail to small tuna and tuna up to 32 pounds and lots of dorado. Yes it's that time of year. The water warmed up considerably in the last week or so and with that came schools of yellowfin and now the dorado in numbers. We'll take um. Crowd pleaser's is what they are and you know us, we like to please crowds. After a couple hours fishing there we went searching for something new unsuccessfully so we ended up back on our kelp and caught some more dorado and a few more tuna. We're now headed for the yellowtail grounds and everyone is fat and happy and we're planning on some good pulling on big yellows tomorrow.

I ate the escolar again substituting it for the prime rib in the fajitas we had for lunch today. It was smooth sailing John and I mean that in a good way. No problems down there. The fish isn't the best fish in the ocean. The flavor is great though the texture is a bit soft. Opening day for pro football so I'll leave you with this. Go Chargers! Let's do some competing this year. My Pad's couldn't do it so now it's up to you guys. Come on now!

Long time friend, crewmen, passenger, and father Dave Dunham passed away earlier this year. His daughter Julia picked off a beautiful Yellowfin Tuna to start off the morning Hope you are proudly looking down smiling today Dave.

Report 7-23-2016 Good Evening everyone. We cleared the point today around 1 o clock with a beautiful load of mid sized sardines. Immediately we were in the midst of a weird local weather system consisting of a unusual south wind and a choppy south swell. The conditions made it a little rough for the first hour or so, but then started to calm down and we eventually we settled into a nice downhill ride for dinner. Coincidentally around dinner time we came across a couple schools of yellowfin tuna. We made a quick drift before first call and was able to hook and land one. We may have only landed one but the grade of the fish was excellent. A solid 18 lb Tuna, a very refreshing grade of fish compared to the 10 ponders we have been seeming earlier this summer. Hopefully there is something to this and it builds into a legitimate biting school of fish. Very excited to see what the next few days hold. Unfortunately our second to none fish care had the fish spiked, bled, and into the frigid RSW fish hold before the camera was able to make its way down from the wheelhouse. So no picture was taken.We are traveling down tomorrow and will start fishing bright and early.Wish us luck!Team supreme

July 21
  Well, we started off in the hot yellowtail zone this morning.  Us and 4 of the other long range boats.  I'm not at all going to call it a bust, it just wasn't what we were hoping/expecting.  Things were a little on the slow side.  It perked up for a little while but it was short lived.  It wasn't bad.  I mean we caught almost 50 yellows there before lunch.  And they were nice ones too, let me tell you.  26 pound average is my guess without weighing a single one.  Maybe 28, OK.  But by lunch it was done, done, done.  So we got mobile.  It wasn't for a few hours before we found something worthy to shut down on.  We found a kelp and caught another 25 beautiful tails.  I mean beauts.

  

 

So we can't complain.  75 gorgeous  yellowtail today to go with flat calm, sunny weather.  I can think of many, many days out here where I would have paid plenty for a day like we had today.  We're making that move while we still can.  We'll be getting our Island on tomorrow.  Hopefully we can put some more quality yellows on board and fish our last couple days up there in tuna land.

  Getting to know your crew:  Mark didn't inherit his eating habits from his dad.  Nope.  Mr. Clark himself is out here in the flesh and I've bussed his plate twice now and I haven't seen a finished plate by a long shot.  Mark would never.  Especially now with him being hungry all day and all with the diet.  Oh, and I guess I have tendonitis in my Supinator muscle which is awesome  Stoked.

  Matt Hess?  Shame on you buddy.  I'm supposed to give you a shout out here and I don't even no what to say to you I'm so disappointed. Oh well, see you next time I guess.  And Joe Miller.  My buddy Joey.  You were the first one Jed and I asked about.  Get yourself all fixed up and we'll see you next year.  We love you and we miss you buddy.
          

Today we enjoyed the calm comforts of the island. We scratched all day on nice quality yellowfin tuna. All in the 35-45 lb range. There were larger ones that were hooked but the the great whites had their way with us. Some anglers lost as many as two in the 60lb class due to the toothy critters. It was a good show and pretty impressive to see a 12-16' great white eat a 60 lb tuna in a couple of bites. We also had some pretty impressive bites as our dinner was an excellent Parmesan encrusted yellowtail with rice pilaf and a mixture of zucchini, mushrooms and onions. Tomorrow morning we will give it one more shot here. Thanks! Tommy and crew