lakeland ledger Fishing Report 2025

Polaris Supreme docked under owner-skipper Tom Rothery's hand June 26, after a five-day trip with 24 anglers for yellowtail and albacore. Tom weighed the fish at the certified scales at Fisherman's Landing, where a 48-pound yellowtail took top honors.
Terry Emmert of Douglas, WY had the first-place winner. "I got him in about 15 minutes," he said. "He just kept pulling and pulling, and he kept getting into a stringer of floating kelp. He's my best yellowtail ever." Emmert said he fished a sardine on the flyline, using a 3/0 Mustad 91450 hook on 40-pound P-Line. He had an Okuma 20 two-speed reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6470 rod, wrapped by Bill Boyce. Michael Giardino of San Pedro was second, for a 43-pound yellowtail, and Mal Wagstaff of Douglas, WY was third, for a 36.2-pound yellowtail. Three generations of Pattersons were aboard, and they posed with their fish. Liam Patterson of San Jose is eight, and he goes to Santa Teresa Elementary School, where he practices karate. Liam caught some big yellowtail, and he also got and posed with a 24.4-pound albacore, which will serve to start off this season's tally for the largest fish of that species.

Liam's dad Lane stood in with the boy, as did John Danis and John Patterson, also of San Jose and from the Patterson family.

 

Hey Anglers,

Just a follow up on the jackpot winners for our Joe Gigliotti/Accurate Trip, that arrived back to the dock on the 23rd. First place went to Dr. Alan Hermer with a 44 lb. wahoo. Second place went to Tomas

Rodriguez with a 26.2 lb. yellowtail. And third was Kevin Brumfield

with a 24 lb. yellowtail. And an honorable mention also goes to Tomas Rodrigues for his 70.4 lb. wahoo. Again we want to thank Joe for putting together such a great group of guys and we look forward to seeing you back next year if not sooner.

And speaking of sooner, we have a couple open spots on our Nov. 7th, 10-day trip with Lon and the OTR group. And the 12-day trip departing on Nov. 29th still can accommodate a few anglers. So give Susan a call and come on out and join us.

Yours Truly,

Team Supreme

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Hi friends. Final fishing day for us on-board the Supreme was fantastic. Flat-calm weather and biting Yellowfin tuna in the 15-25 lb. range. Some bigger, some smaller, but all in all, it was very good fishing in the "local" zone. Almost all of our fish came by way of surface feeding; breezers, breaking fish, and puddlers. You could see for miles today and we took full advantage of the nice weather and ended our day/trip with a nice load of tuna. There sure are a lot of fish that still remain in the day and a half and two day range and for anyone who's on the fence about doing one of those trips, needs to quit stalling and get on a boat ASAP. Good weather and good fishing at the moment, very impressive shows today were put on by the Yellowfin and it seems as if they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. We'll see.

So that is all. We ended our trip on a very high note and looking at the fish count sheet, we caught many types of species that one would expect on an eight day trip. Yellowfin tuna, Bluefin tuna, Wahoo, Dorado, Yellowtail, and Grouper are chilling in the RSW wells and awaiting a fish processor coming up tomorrow morning. This trip was an especially successful one not only by the fishing but for the weather as well. We had just a couple of hiccups in the weather but for the most part, it was always a beautiful day to be on the water. Like I said, you can't beat the variety of fish that we captured and no one is going home unsatisfied. Throw in good weather and good company and you have the makings for a successful trip, from every angle. We're pumped.

Our scheduled ETA to the docks will be 0700 tomorrow morning. Our weather is awesome and the gang are downstairs enjoying Fillet Oscar. We'll chat with you later. Good night.

-Team Supreme-

Friday, October 21st, 2011

Good evening, friends. We awoke this morning to beautiful weather and more biting Yellowtail. Talk about a healthy stock of fish, my goodness. We can't seem to get away from those things as I think with the exception of our departure day, we've caught at least one Yellowtail. After this morning's whack, we kept the bow on a northerly course to one of our favorite Yellowtail islands for our afternoon destination. Once our Wahoo tacos lunch was complete, we began the hunt for cow Yellowtail. Our cow Yellowtail count - zero. After that, we tried for some Halibut. Our Halibut count - three that were all released. You could've fried these things up in an omelet pan if you would've kept them. Bottom line, we caught two Calico bass for our day but we enjoyed the scenery and the fine weather. Kind of ironic that our favorite Yellowtail spot didn't yield us one but every other spot we visited this trip kicked 'em out. But then again, we really weren't trying very hard to capture one. Today was one of those glorified travel days and we took full advantage of lovely weather and beautiful scenery.

For our final day, we'll be fishing for Yellowfin tuna, Bluefin tuna, and Dorado in the "local" zone. A couple boats had some hits on Yellowfin and they said the size of the fish was around 30 lbs. so we'll have to go catch a bunch and decide for ourselves the true weights of those critters. Our weather is A++ and we'll be in the zone at first light tomorrow. Wish us luck.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

G'day mates. Not a whole lot to report today. Good Yellowtail fishing for the anglers who were inclined to do so and a notch better on the grade with a good percentage being in the 18-22 lb. range. We also managed to snag up a couple more Wahoo and late in the day, we had a tuna school that we pulled some Yellowfin from the thick world of Skipjack land. Other than that, we enjoyed a nice day of weather and we're currently motoring up the line to hopefully do a couple hours of coastal/island fishing before we have to kick it up for home tomorrow.

For dinner this evening, Chef Schooler and Jamie dished out a rack of lamb plate with pesto bow-tie pasta, a tomato stuffed with wild rice, Parmesan cheese, Italian sausage that was baked oh so deliciously, and to top the meal off; warm brownies with ice cream. Nice. Like I said, we're enjoying our weather and we'll see what happens tomorrow in regards to fishing. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Hi friends. What turned out to be a promising, hot and sweltering day, turned out to be exactly the opposite by days end. We woke up to some of the most optimum bronzing weather of the year as it was hot and sunny before the sun even was above the horizon. It was instant jock-strap and sun-visor weather and the fishing got hot and hectic right off the get-go. Good Dorado fishing on 12-20 lb. flatheads and the action was just enough of a steady pace that it wasn't absolute pandemonium. After our first stop, you couldn't help but think we were going to mop up within the next hour or two. Exactly the opposite, we never found another school of biting Dorado and we began trolling around for the remainder of the day and although the day was pretty much a bore from that point on, we managed to snag a couple of nice, open-water Wahoo. Throughout the day, the weather went from too hot with no breeze to way too much breeze and a building sea to go along with it. The gang hung tough and we tried our very best to locate something good but it just wasn't in the cards today.

Before dinner, we ducked into the coast to do some grouper fishing and we managed to entice a few of those tasty bottom-dwellers to bite right before dinner. Dinner was money, by the way. Fresh Wahoo Almondine with wild rice was on the menu and it was a tasty treat for everyone to enjoy. For tomorrow, we'll be offshore once again looking for tuna, Wahoo, Dorado, and whatever else decides to bite. We'll give it all day until we have to start working our way up towards San Diego. Thanks for checking-in and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Good evening, friends. No current; no chaos. That was the motto of our day. We saw lots of good tuna life in multiple spots but without any tide, the bite was a picky one, at best. We managed to capture some Yellowfin tuna in the 12-25 lb. range along with some of my favorite fish in the ocean, the Bluefin tuna. They were healthy specimens too with an average of 25 lbs. Throw in some OK Yellowtail fishing, a handful of Wahoo and Dorado and one Grouper, and our day wasn't all that bad, just not steady enough action to really get us going. Anyhow, we still managed to end our day with a decent enough score on the various species and we're currently en route to "greener pastures".

We'll be in a different location to target some tuna, some Wahoo, and some big, bull Dorado. We've got our sun visors on stand-by and our jock straps (literally) all strapped up and ready to go. The reports call for massive mahi's, so we're going to see if we can't get in on some of that action ourselves. Our weather is OK and we'll report with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

p.s. Lori - I love you and miss you very much! - Dave

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Hi friends. Working our way down to the numbers today wasn't anything to write home about. So, I won't. Arriving to our destination in the late afternoon, we managed to snag one really nice Wahoo in the 65 lb. range to go along with a few Mahi-Mahi's. We got the pick down for tuna after a short tour and it didn't take long to see where we needed to be and need to stay for tomorrow. Good surface signal as tuna's were boiling around pretty good and although the ones we hooked were small--and ultimately released--we did see some better grade fish in the melee. The bites have been a morning-time deal, so we'll be patient and wait to see what tomorrow bring us. Hopefully it's a bunch of tuna in the 15-50 lb. class. We'll see.

So that is all. Very nice traveling weather that at one point was kind of windy and chilly, turned into classic sunshine, a light breeze, and some heat. Good bronzing conditions. Anyhow, we'll chat with you tomorrow and wish us luck.

-Team Supreme-

p.s. Today, mega-deckhand/galley assistant Mark Clark turned 45 years of age. Although physically and legally he might be 45 years old, anyone that knows Mark knows that mentally he turned about 15 years of age. If only we all could be so lucky to be as youthful and energetic when we all start climbing over that dreaded hill. With that, Mark tells Ana "ti amo". We're out.

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Hi friends. Standard travel day for us here on the Supreme. After the morning seminar concluded, Joe handed out some goodies, including Accurate T-shirts, fish processing gift certificates, jigs, and the big one; an Accurate reel was raffled off and the winner was Gary Rodgers. I've fished with Gary ever since my first trip working on a boat back in 2000, so I can say this with all the honesty in the world that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. With all of our morning duties and chores completed, we found ourselves at one of our favorite Yellowtail spots around 1400 hours and we decided to give it a peak and see what was up.

What was up was a good bite on mini cows. All the gorgeous 18-25 lb. Yellowtail you wanted, all fat and happy on squid. Really healthy fish and we had a couple nice drifts on those critters. We caught them using every single method of Yellowtail fishing that we employ and after just a few hours of fishing, we were happy with our totals and happy with a little break in the traveling and we are currently making the run below to do some tuna, Wahoo, and Dorado fishing. We'll be there tomorrow sometime in the early afternoon and with the reports sounding encouraging, we're excited about the future prospects. No doubt.

For dinner this evening, we switched it up from our normal chef, David Schooler, and brought in some relief to give Schooler a night off. Chartermaster Joe Gigliotti decided to try on the chef's hat and made us some homemade sausage, pepperoni, bruschetta, onions, and olives pizza and talk about fat and happy, that is every single passenger and crewmember on-board right now. With everybody in a pizza coma, we're all enjoying a fine down-swell ride and our weather is quite pleasant this evening. Easy sleeping tonight and we'll catch up with you tomorrow morning.

-Team Supreme-

P.S. Sarah, Tom is lonley and misses you!

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

Hello friends. We departed San Diego Bay and its "red tide" early this morning and with our bait loading and tackle storage out of the way, we're getting settled in for the next couple of days to do some eating, napping, relaxing, and tackle rigging. For this trip, long-time Supreme regular Joe Gigliotti is our master of ceremonies and he's brought along some goodies from Accurate reels for our limited load of anglers to try out for the trip. We're outfitted with some 50 lb. two-speed outfits and hopefully we'll be putting them to good use on some tuna of the same size and bigger. Our options sound pretty good at the moment; Alijos is still Alijos circa 2011, the Ridge sounds like a good shot at a variety of gamefish, there's some offshore tuna, and there's always some island Yellowtail fishing just to name a few.

For now, we're just enjoying the fine traveling weather and for tomorrow, we'll be dragging some jigs and we might make a stop at an island to do a little Yellowtail fishing before we keep on keepin' on to the south. It's good to be back out on the water after a few days in. We're recharged, we're refocused. and we're ready. Here we go.

-Team Supreme-

Captain Ryan Bostian checked in this evening.  The audio was broken up but wait for it.  They had 61 Yellowtail and a good pick on Calicos.  The load is light tomorrow and very light this coming week.

Polaris Supreme Update 08-03-2012

Hi Anglers

Today started off bad for the first half. We just couldn't get it right . Then around mid day we found the school we where looking for. What were we looking for and found you might ask? Strait 33 t0 45 pound Yellowfin Tuna. What a beautiful grade of fish, thats all you heard captains on the radio saying all afternoon. We ended up having a great day. The main thing that frustrated us this morning was 4 out of the 8 long range guys put together a great morning on nice grade yellowtail. One of the guys even drifted all day on yellows and tuna. Now don't get me wrong I am really happy for him but I want to be that guy. Maybe tomorrow. We are experiencing great weather and hoping for more of that also. Mom, Taylor is having the time of her life so not to worry she is being spoiled. Thanks for tuning in Tommy.

JJ has 21 White Seabass and 1 nice Halibut today. Call Sea Landing now to get on the Apollo at (805) 963-3564.

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

Hi friends. We had ourselves a very productive morning down here on the yellowtail grounds. We awoke this morning to beautiful, balmy conditions and after catching only a couple of premiums, we bailed back out to the drift zone. The drift zone once again was kind to us, as that quality 16-22 lb. grade bit the jigs and dropper loops for us all morning. Really fun fishing on a really nice grade of 'tail. Unfortunately, as the wind picked up speed around lunch time, our lines went slack and the yellows stopped biting. Bummer. To throw salt on the wound, the weather kept freshening up and we had to make a run for cover for the afternoon.

I'm thankful to say that we did find shelter for the evening. Although it's still blowing thirty-plus knots with gusts up to forty knots, there isn't the washing machine sea conditions that we had in the afternoon. The wind this evening was like the clock concept of the arena in the second book of the Hunger Games series "Catching Fire". It would blow from the east, then the southeast, then the south, and so on. Every time the wind direction changed, we ran for cover and hid until the direction would change again. We're very smart!

Like I said, we're sheltered away for the night and the wind is letting up now, so we're pumped. We'll try for bait throughout the night/morning and then try for some yellows when we're all finished with the bait-making. After that, we're hoping to bust a move offshore and focus on tuna for the remaining three days of the trip. With a favorable weather forecast, our excitement is high and let's see if we can't get on some of that nice grade yellowfin and bluefin. Stay tuned.

-The Supreme Team

Polaris Supreme returned October 14 under skipper Drew Henderson's hand. Drew took his 23 anglers on a seven-day adventure, returning to Fisherman's Landing, where he weighed the best of the catch. "We had a very good afternoon at the Bush," (San Benitos Islands) said Drew, "and we spent some time looking for kelps. Alijos Rocks gave us some really good yellowtail fishing in the dark. We had four or five fishing going. We also tried Guadalupe Island, where we got a few tuna but saw very little." "We had a couple hours of very good dropper loop yellowtail fishing," Drew wrote October 0, "on 25-35 pound fish in the morning. When that slowed we stayed busy with smaller grade tuna and the occasional mahi. We made a tour and got the anchor back down around lunchtime and had the same action but with an occasional larger model tuna being hooked. We hooked 10 and landed four 50 to 60-pounders. After dinner the few that still had the energy to fish all caught several more of those big yellows before we took off at 10:00. We're now spending the day traveling up the line and will be arriving to finish up the trip at Guadalupe Island for a day and a morning." The certified scales provided the winners. Dennis Sewell of Walnut creek won first place for a 68.2-pound tuna.

"It took a lot of line," remarked Dennis. "It fought for a half-hour." Sewell baited a sardine on a 2/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 40-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and 40-pound P-Line, and fished with an Accurate 870 reel and a six-foot rod of unknown origin.

Jake Hamstra of Tulare won second place for a 66.6-pound yellowfin, and Tom Kroes of Tipton won third place for a 60.2-pound tuna. David Richardson of Hacienda Heights stood in with the winners, with his 52.2-pound wahoo, a fish that took his trolled Catchy Tackle spinner head jig in pink and black.

Well, we had a great day today. Everybody had a blast fishing lots 60 -100 lb. tuna. Pat Jaeger landed a 195 and a 213 pounder. Chuegy pulled in a 225 pounder. There were a couple more around 165 or so. We did stop at lunch for a delicious pork shank with spiced white beans and saffron pilaf. It was really good. And our weather is also good. So another wonderful day out here. Look at our schedule and find a trip that will work in your schedule and come out and have some fun.