manatee river Fishing Report 2025

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 07-20-2016 Yesterday did not turn out like we had hoped we spent the better part of the day looking for kelp's with no luck. We just did not have the right track traveling down. We ended up scratching a few nice yellows but overall besides the weather, today was disappointing fishing wise. This morning isn't starting off to great we rounded the corner to our destination and watched the water dropped 2°. Were sitting here in the gray light hoping that the yellowtail didn't notice it! We do have a fallback plan I certainly hope we don't have to use it! The Polaris Supreme Crew!

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 07-29-2016 Hello good morning anglers. We are already fishing this morning and have four yellowtail to our credit. We have a nice current and are waiting for things to start happening. We left yesterday afternoon with Tom Chaparro's annual five day charter with a limited load of 18 anglers. It is really quite the joy to be able to fish with such a light load on the boat. Most of Tom's guys have been out with us before and are anxious to get at it. We had a nice prime rib dinner last night and Tom and the boys gave our friend Herb Yamanaka a custom-made Oregon Duck's colored raped rod as a thank you for his many years of creating wonderful wood working's in the form of bowls cups salt shakers you name it he made it from different exotic woods and has given them out every trip. I haven't gotten a picture of the rod yet but as soon as Herb catches a fish will make sure you see pictures of both. Thanks for tuning in Tommy and the crew.

Starting to see some schools of this grade bluefin in our travels again. Make sure you bring a 40lb rod to go along with your 20 lb rod. Might be a good idea to bring some 4oz torpedos and rubber bands also. This 40 pound rod can also serve as a flyline rod if we get on a good biting school of yellowfin.

Capt Mike Pritchard from the Tribute gave us a wrap for todays trip, it was a light load of only 11 anglers and it turned out to be a great day on the water. We ended the day with limits of Yellowfin Tuna, 44 Yellowtail and 1 Bluefin Tuna. We have another 1.5 day trip leaving tomorrow night, if you want some Tuna or Yellowtail for your 4th of July BBQ now is the time. Give the Seaforth Landing a call at 619-224-3383, the weather forecast is looking really good. Hope to see you on the water.

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Hi friends. Just finishing up our day here on the Supreme. Gear is broken down, tackle is stowed top-side, and the boat is scrubbed from bow to butt. We began our day with a blind Bluefin jig strike and managed to land a few bait fish when we started to meter them pretty solid under the boat. After losing the majority of the fish we hooked, the school bailed and we soon followed. The Yellowfin weren't far behind and we managed to put together a really nice day on fish in the 12-25 lb. range with one standout landed by Henry "Blue" Maine. Henry's Yellowfin looks to go about 55 lbs. and no, it was not a Big Eye. Blue's our boy and we're very proud of him. Anyhow, most of our fish came on blind jig strikes and every now and then we'd see a nice sonar school of them and have on-the-corner type fishing. With all the action and chaos, and I do mean chaos, we have a very healthy load of tuna in our holds to compliment our Yellowtail catch from yesterday and our five Albacore from Wednesday. Everyday, things are looking more promising and more promising with Bluefin, Yellowfin, and more reported Albacore being caught, this offshore tuna thing might just be getting started. We'll see but with two straight solid tuna trips in the books, we'll be looking for a third tomorrow when we take off for five days. The weather is a bit rolly but without too much wind to jack things up and as of now (1700), our traveling weather is just fine.

So that's all. We're shooting for a 0630 ETA tomorrow morning. There will be eight long-range boats from all three landings arriving and departing tomorrow so we'll be on the hustle. We'll be dropping off Ryan and friends and picking up Joe Beck and the Bob Vance crew for a five day ocean-going party and we shall welcome them with open arms. We'll chat with you tomorrow. Take care and happy Friday.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Hi friends. We arrived to the southern Yellowtail grounds this morning to find that things were not right. We managed a few OK drifts but we didn't see the life that the boats saw in the days prior. No shortage of fish, that's for sure, they were just too scattered out and weren't in the right mode. In the afternoon, we made a run to the northern grounds to find a little bit better sign of fish and we ended our day having a couple decent drifts on some 15-22 lb. 'tails with an occasional cow mixed in. We also caught/released some dandy Calico Bass and tagged one nice Grouper. A little bit better surface iron action today than we've seen all year and our master of ceremonies, Ryan, had himself a good day until Barry broke his favorite surface iron. All in all, it was a fine day of Yellowtail fishing. Our weather was prime all day, excellent bronzing conditions as it was hot and sunny.

So we're currently making way back up to finish our trip up with some tuna. A couple boats started located some actual schools of those Yellowfin tuna and we're hoping to do that tomorrow as well. Our weather is a mild chop with some breeze but we're just fine with it, as long as it doesn't freshen up. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Good evening everyone. Like I began last trips report, I just wanted to reiterate just how quickly things can change out here on the ocean. The prior Bluefin zone that yielded us and the entire fleet a spectacular catch just a couple days before was absolutely starving for life and we never saw nor caught a Bluefin tuna today. Also, the gorgeous weather that we had been blessed with for the better part of a week was now windy, cold, and a bit choppy. The day was looking very bleak to say the least as it took us hours to land our first fish of the day, a Yellowfin tuna in the 15 lb. class. It was very slow for the morning time and all the way through lunch time. Single jig fish here, single jig fish there and with that, the announcement was made to get the Yellowtail gear ready as we would be traveling southerly for the remainder of the day to be in a position to do some Yellowtail fishing tomorrow morning.

It wasn't too long after we pointed the Supreme on our coastal course that we started getting blind jig strikes on the Yellowfins. We would consistently start jigging up double and triple jig strikes and when we finally hung a few bait fish, things got a little interesting. One of our best stops of the day was for nine Yellowfin and five Watermelons. Watermelons: a little Tommy Rothery terminology for you. These fish have been eluding the fleet for quite some time now and in traditional years, we catch these Watermelons later in the season in August/September. Not the traditional setup to find these fish in, with a Yellowfin school in warm water but for whatever reason, they were there and we managed to land five of these beauties. What is a Watermelon you ask? Albacore tuna in the 30-40 lb. class. That's right, we caught some slug Albacore today. What an awesome surprise and not only caught some, we also metered a few on the fathometer. Could this be the start of something or were they just lost souls hitch-hiking with their Yellowfin counterparts? Who knows but this next week in long-range fishing will be very interesting. Will it tell the tale if it will be the epic, super tardy Albacore season of 2011 or just a nice surprise here or there for the fleet? We'll see. Nonetheless, our first Albacore of the season were a welcome sight. We missed those beautiful specimens and we definitely took a few minutes to stare down the fish on the deck and appreciate what beautiful creatures they are. Hopefully, there are more to come.

Although we scored a decent day jigging up Yellowfin in the 12-18 lb. class, we maintained our course and our gameplan remains the same to fish Yellowtail tomorrow. It's not like we saw school after school after school. All of our jig fish were blind jig strikes and we never saw anything to get us really excited. We did have a couple stops where they rushed the boat and we had chaos on the corner but like I said, it was mostly a troll-fest today. All in all, we had a fine day and we're looking to had some 'tails to go along with our 'fins and we'll try the tuna fishing thing the day after tomorrow. Take care and wish us luck.

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Hi friends. We awoke not-so bright but very early this morning to start our day. Being the 0530 boat getting into the landing, we had to bust it into overdrive so that the Shogun, Searcher, and three 1.5 boats could unload their passengers and fish as well. In a timely manner, the Heil group and their bounty of Bluefin, Yellowfin, Yellowtail, Dorado, Halibut, Calico bass, and Barred Sand bass were successfully unloaded and we bid the boys farewell until next season. Just an awesome trip for those guys, hard to beat if you ask me and we all busted butt to find them some fish and find some fish we did - and then some. Big fish honors go for the top three Bluefin tuna; The one and only Mr. Joe De Marco -- 45.4 lb. BFT. Jim Chivas -- 41.4 lb. BFT. And last but not least, our very own Mark Clark's son, Chace, took third with his 40. 2 pounder. Good going to the gang and to Chase, remember the invaluable advice that you're Uncles' Richie and Drew gave to you. Anyhow, back out for another trip and we welcomed aboard the wildest charter-master known to man, Ryan "Black Cloud" Christianson and his group from Let's Talk Hook-Up.

So four days with the man, the myth, the legend, Ryan and his closest friends. After the tackle seminar, Ryan raffled out some goodies and Mr. Jimmy Houston won the big prize of a Shimano Tyrnos reel. Reports are sounding like a Yellowfin take-over from the previous Bluefin zone and we're going to go see what's shaking down that way and see if we can't locate the Bluefins that were M.I.A. today. If we can't locate the short-fins, we'll stay busy with some of those Yellowfins and decide our next move from that point on. Weather is great, got plenty of bait, and we'll be in the zone tomorrow...early, not late. Take care.

-Team Supreme-

Quick turn around! Quick Check in! We turned around today on our Simpatico 5 day charter in record time! Great jump on everything and now currently in route to Guadalupe. Looking like a great eta tomorrow. Pictured here is a Wahoo caught last trip! Even some skinnies at the Island!

Oct. 10

Another travel day today so another day with nothing to report. I enjoyed a nice sleeping in this morning, then ate some cereal, then cleaned an engine room along with Mark and Jed. I noticed there were some movies being played and naps being had. We're going to try our hands at some squid in the early a.m. hours to give us a little more to fish with tomorrow. We're getting in the bluefin mode tomorrow for our last day before we return to San Diego.

Mr. Joe G. Yes you Joe. I am truly sad to say that tomorrow is our last chance to catch an albacore before we square up our bet. Unfortunately even if there was a miracle and we did find a biting school I don't think we could get a hundred to make you a winner in our bet so make sure you have that bill clean and crisp. I know you know but I would have loved to lose that bet. Thankfully we had the bluefin this year covering for the albacore so we were still in good shape for the summer. Fall is here and they're still biting. Timing is everything.

Capt. Jodie called in with this trip announcement for the Apollo. "We have an overnight trip leaving from Sea Landing this Saturday night, fishing on Sunday. The cost is $145, we will be targeting White Seabass. If you are interested in this trip give me qa call at 805-963-3564.