lake winnie Fishing Report 2025

On the second of May we hauled the boat out of the water and started boat work and today on the 10th of June we are still hard at it. Our main goal this year is cosmetics we have painted the whole exterior of the hull above and below the water line the inside boat works the house bait tank storage racks and the wraparound and the decks. We're now starting on interior cosmetics carpeting all the floors ceilings and walls of the whole boat. Quite the extensive maintenance definitely the most boat work we have ever done at one time.
Captain Tommy Rothery

Tommy Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme after the annual George Davis Expedition, with only eight anglers aboard. Rothery tied up at his space on the inner wing at Fisherman's Landing, ending his long range season on a positive note with a visit to Baja's southern banks and the Cleofas Bank, where all the fish that were kept were caught. Four cows were among the fish offloaded January 13. "All the big fish were from Cleofas," said Tommy. We released about half the fish we caught there, and nearly everything, including 15 big tuna, we caught up above. "So many people put so much emphasis on their pile of fish at the dock," remarked Rothery. "It disgusts me." Rothery and his anglers consistently release many fish of all sizes. Charlie Middleton of San Pablo got two cows; one with a sardine and the biggest one on a chunk. His tuna weighed 201.4 and 245.6 pounds. He said he fished with 8/0 Gamakatsu hooks, 130-poudn Maxima line and 130-pound Spectra backing on a Penn 80 SW reel and a new Ugly Stick 130-pound class rod. "That rod works good," said Charlie, who got his smaller fish in only 15 minutes. Al Tokunaga of North Hollywood took a 232.4-pounder after a 30-minute tussle. He said the fish bit on a sardine pinned to a 9/0 Eagle Claw hook. He fished with 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Spectra, with a Cal Sheet-s prepped Penn 50 S reel and a Calstar 6455 XH rod. "I used an eight-ounce torpedo sinker attached with a rubber band," noted Al. "He bit right after daylight. They were down there about that time every day." Roger Brown of Riverside bagged a 210.9-pounder with a mackerel on a 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hook. He said he fished with 100-pound Jin Kai line and 130-pound Jerry Brown Line One Spectra on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a Calstar 6455 XH rod. Brown's fish was notable in that it fought for 35 minutes, and then pulled skipper Drew Henderson over the side when he single-gaffed it. They were both brought aboard without further incident. Rothery noted that he will be doing boat work from now until May 31, when he will begin his summer season of three to five-day trips.

~~Aug 30
 Today didn't go as well as we were hoping. The plan sounded so good in my head too. You don't believe me? Come inside my mind and tell me it didn't sound like a good plan, you'll be a liar. The plan was to start here and work there. We were supposed to catch a bunch of yellowtail, then catch a wahoo or two, then scratch at some dorado here and there along with another wahoo or two, then we were supposed to get a small hit on wahoo in the end before finding the motherload of dorado.

 Well, there wasn't much yellowtail. The little bit of dorado we saw either didn't bite or was small. And we didn't see a wahoo until the end. We did see a school of good grade yellowfin that wasn't in our plan. It didn't bite for long though. It was on the corner biting every bait for about three minutes. Just long enough for everyone to get one and then they vanished. I drove around thinking I would easily find the school again but we never did. We lost at least 6 wahoo on the last spot we checked and landed none. The wahoo won today.

 Cool things of note today- the sailfish we caught, a couple marlin hooked and the orcas we saw. In the 14 seasons I've been out here I can only remember a handfull of times seeing killer whales so it's not too often we see them. We also don't catch sailfish too often.

 Tomorrows plan- wahoo!

1 yellowtail 31 calico bass 82 whitefish 2 sheepshead. Conditions seem to be improving daily but the fish we see are still in a funk. What we’re seeing as far as water temperature, color and current is “text book” for good fishing, only time will tell.

June 30

We tried our hand at the elusive White Sea Bass today and that's exactly what they were. Elusive. We didn't see the life we were expecting to see. We covered a lot of ground today looking for them but we never found them. We caught some trophy calico bass at one spot and we tried and checked a couple traditional yellowtail hot spots for nothing. One plus thing about today for me is we fished most the day where I have never fished before in my 13 full seasons on this boat. Now I know why. The day wasn't a total loss though. We found an area that had a huge bird school in it but it went down by the time we got there but we know the conditions were much improved from a week ago so maybe tomorrow they'll be hitting. We may have just got there too late. With about an hour left of day light we hit a spot of those big big yellows and we caught quite a few of those before our day ended. And last but not least we ended with a 20ish pound seabass and a 20ish pound halibut. We will stay the night and try it where we are in the morning. It's good sleeping weather where we are. I may be sleeping with my thumb in my mouth tonight.

Where'd they go?? We got a few wahoo today, but nothing like yesterday. Our day consisted of scratching away at yellowfin, yellowtail, pargo, dorado, and wahoo on some different spots. Don't get me wrong. It was not a bad day fishing, just not like yesterday. Our weather is still good. Actually it's too hot, the water is 83 degrees. Not bad for the fish, but warm for us. Tomorrow we will be off shore kelping for wahoo, dorado and tuna until it's time to head home and wind up this fantastic trip. It's going to be a great fall season. Thanks for checking in. Tommy and crew

The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego,CA checked in with us today:

Still sign of yellowtail around but we were unable to capture one. Our passengers went home with plenty of taco meat.

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