mercer Fishing Report 2025

Polaris Supreme Update 8-5-11

Hello everyone. So here we are again as we wrap up Dr. Jim Prigmore's 4 day fishing trip. I must say, the fishing gods made us work this week and weren't quite as rewarding as we would have liked. Our first day out there was nothing short of perfect conditions, water temp, color and choice bait to choose from. We weren't graced with the counts that we were after, but the fish holds did get some company from the 3 pelagic species that wre being hunted. The anglers got a taste of what it was like to get blind jig strikes from yellowfin tuna and tuned up on offshore kelp patty fishing for dorado and yellowtail. Anytime the deck hatches are being opened and fish are sliding in, that's a good thing. Making sure to beat feet south in time to wake up to a cow yellowtail bite is exactly what we did. A few lunkers were already in the box well before the sun rose and continued into the post dawn hours. Things were looking up for the day, but as the morning progressed our conditions did not prevail. The current was not with us and we all know, you need current to catch fish. All of the grounds were covered, sometimes 2 and 3 times over until we did drop in on a couple spots that were holding some quality halibut. I believe one that was around 30 lbs hit the deck that day with a couple more just shy of that were soon to follow. As the day came to a close and the grounds were more than covered, Captain Tommy had to point the Polaris Supreme north to get us up the line for our final day of fishing. By daylight were sending bait to the bottom only to be bringing up a nice score of lingcod, vermillion reds and some miscellaneousottom dwellers. We only had til about lunch time to keep the lines wet before the trip was called from the bridge. Time to head for home.

Team Galley, as usual came through day after day with one superb meal after the next. From breakfast anyway you wanted it, to the sushi/sashimi spreads and the dinners that would rival any 5 star gourmet resteraunt. Chef's David Schooler and Barry Benson never let us down. Look for the Polaris Supreme tomorrow at Fisherman's Landing about 7 am to depart with Eric Rogger and his fine group that he brings year after year. Be sure to check back in with us as Captain Richie takes over the keyboard with has always entertaining fishing reports. Thanks for checking in and talk to you tomorrow!

Jed and crew

Jackpot winners were as follows:

1st Place: Sean Arbunich 37.2 lb Yellowtail

2nd Place: Dave Smith 35.8 lb Yellowtail

3rd Place: Steve Larsen 33 lb Yellowtail

Congratulations Winners!!

Polaris Supreme Update 8-4-11

Good afternoon and thanks for stopping by faithful Polaris Supreme followers. This morning we once again woke up to beautiful weather at the seriola lalandi grounds (yellowtail for those of you that aren't up to speed on scientific names). At o'dark thirty we already had two premiums in the box. 30 pounders. As Mr. Sun showed his face, we continued to plunk away at a few more in the upper 30 pound class. Knot too long after breakfast was done, the bending of the rods came to a hault and it was time pull the pick and go looking. South bound we headed to locate the school grade yellows. About 45 minutes into the journey, we found the right conditions and started chasing down the breezing forktails. The anglers picked away, a few here, a few there, but then the fish decided to get a nice case of lock jaw and eventually were nowhere to be found. That led us on an hour and a half tour to drag some sardines along the sandy ocean floor.Some success was had as we hauled 3 halibut over the rail, one being about 30 pounds! Congratulations Tom! After about another 2 hours of searching, it was time to switch gears and get back into travel mode. Have to make sure we cover plenty of ground the rest of the afternoon to get us into position for a few hours of wet lines tomorrow as we get ready to wrap things up and call it a trip.

This evening Team Galley is going to be serving up a delicious grande veal chop with risotto and mixed veggies. Certainly one of my favorites. Well folks, until tomorrow with my final trip undate and I turn the reigns back over to our trip reporter extraordinaire Captain Richie Elias, I say good night and check back tomorrow.

Jed and Crew

P.S. Richie, only one CB order

 

 

Polaris Supreme Update 08-03-2011

Good evening friends. So to start our offshore adventure today, the morning was surprisingly warm. We all rolled out of bed just as the sun cracked and right into shorts and t-shirts. The seas weren't quite so friendly, but very workable. Our coarseline prevailed for most of the day and gave the crew some descent looking conditions for spotting those kelps and any other activity on the water that might lead us to find a score. The kelp patties were fairly plentiful for a good portion of the day, but we just couldn't find that right boomer to shut down on. However, we were able to gather up a couple handfuls of dorado and just when we thought there might be a lull in the day, the beautiful sound of 4 clickers screaming at once got us right back in the ball game. Although nothing of size came, we did get the guys on some yellowfin tuna in the 12-15 lb range, with a couple anglers landing their first ever! As the sun closed the distance between itself and the horizon, we got on a string of smaller kelps that produced plenty of just below keeper size yellows. Those stops gave the anglers a real idea on working together at the rail in some fast paced action here on the Polaris Supreme. We got the blood flowing and gave'em a small taste of what's to come.

Tomorrow is a brand new day as we head south to the yellowtail grounds to target big numbers on 18-25 lb forktails and go in search of those mighty 30-50 lb cow yellows! The weather forecast looks great and we are excited. Just as I'm typing up the evening report, I smell the aroma of Chef David's famous seafood alfredo pasta seeping it's way into the wheelhouse. With shrimp, giant scallops and an A alfredo clam sauce, it's always a gormet delight! If there's one cure to a rough day of fishing, it's to sit down to an amazing meal prepared by none other than the Polaris Supreme's "Team Galley". So on that note, I'm going to head downstairs to enjoy a tasty dish myself. Until this time tomorrow my friends, I bid you a good night.

Jed and the one and only Team Supreme

Polaris Supreme Update 08-02-2011

Good afternoon sports fans! Reporting to you live from the bridge of the Polaris Supreme, we departed today on Dr. Jim Prigmore's 4 day fishing extravaganza. We have an ample load of beautiful sardine on board with us and are anxious to get them over the rail and let the feeding begin. Where we end up isn't set in stone yet, but where ever we do end up, we are going to show this eager group of anglers how we do it Baja California style. The weather is gorgeous rolling down the line and let's hope that holds up for us over the next 4 days.

We were lucky enough to have our lunch plates graced with Chef David Schooler's Polaris Supreme style cheese burgers that had to weigh at least a half-pound sided with some awesome maccaroni salad. As always on our departure days, the group will be putting down a more than healthy portion of the always delicious prime rib. So our hopes are high and our fingers are crossed to go get the job done Supreme style. Well, it's about time to head downstairs for the fishing seminar to get the guys all tuned up on fishing for the days to come. Make sure to check back with us tomorrow after dinner for our day 1 report. Talk to you tomorrow!

Tight lines and bent rods,

Jed and Team Supreme

P.S. We would like to send out one last thank you to Mr. Tom Chapparo and his fine anglers with and extra special thanks to Mr. Herb Yamanaka and his beautiful gifts that he so graciously brings us every year. A big congratulations goes out to our jackpot winners: 1st Place goes to Joe Gigliotti with a 39.6 lb yellowtail, 2nd place was Charter Master Tom Chapparo with a 38.8 lb yellowtail and not very far out of 2nd place was Dr. Steven Gammer with a very nice 38.2 lb yellowtail.

We have had some great fishing this morning. Including nice sized lingcod and trophy reds. We are also getting some action on the bank rockfish too.The SAT TV is ready for the football games and we look forward to seeing who wins in today's playoff games.

Polaris Supreme Update 9/24-25/2011

Good morning friends and trusty followers. We arrived at the docks this morning right ontime at 7 o'clock. The crew has been hard at it since 5 o'clock pulling out our healthy catch of mixed tuna, limits of yellows, limits of dorado and a few other colorful bottom fish. The anglers were up not much after us to start bringing up the gear from their staterooms and enjoy a continental breakfast on the way in. It was quite enjoyable to spend a few minutes in there with them and bid farewells till next year. All in all, listening to the guys chat, everyone sounds like their expxectations were met and exceeded. All of you friends and families reading this better be ready for some really fun stories! We appoligize about not checking in yesterday with you. The crew got up nice and early to start on our chores to prepare for our arrival and to make sure that all of the guys had a very relaxing travel day back home. I can tell you that there is more than and handful of them flat out need some rest. Sore arms and achey fingers prevailed on this last day. But I guess that's how it goes when you're pulling on fish for a week straight. It was a pleasure to take a break in between working and talk with everyone and reflect back on the last 7 days on the water and share some fun stories from the trip. It sounds like once again the Polaris Supreme crew : Captain Drew, Jed, Justin, Joey, Mark, Chef David and his awesome galley assistant Jaime aimed to please and succeeded. If it meant keeping the lines tight or serving up and A+ cuisine, we got it done. I'll give it 2 thumbs up from the bridge for this whole 8 day trip!!

As we speak, the results are in from the scales. Jackpot results are in: 1st Place winner is Mr. Paul Briscoe with a 34.6 lb Yellowtail, 2nd Place goes to Henry Proo with a 27.2 lb Yellowtail, and 3rd Place goes to Dave Miera with a 27 lb Yellowfin Tuna. Congratiulations guys! Way to go!

Polaris Supreme Update 9-23-2011

Hello friends and happy Friday! We hope that all of your work weeks went as great as ours did. If so, I know one thing is for sure, I bet you didn't have as much fun as we did! Being out here on an epic 8-day fishing trip on the Polaris Supreme and calling it work is nearly impossible. As we brought this one to a close, we had most of a day to cruise up the coast and get some lines in the water before we had to officially call it a ball-game. Those who wanted to tag just a few more ended up getting rewarded for hanging in there. With the fish holds already stuffed with beautiful tuna, yellowtail, and dorado we had a day to kind of mess around fishing for fish we don't normally target. The best stop of the day was a wide open bite on lunker calico bass that we let almost all go to live the life calico's do along with some better than keeper sized white sea bass! Glenn Briscoe capturing 2 himself, way to go Glenn! We also caught a few handfuls of big yellows that we set free as well. The guys who decided to sit the afternoon out just sat around and enjoyed watching their buddies tug on their final few fish while sipping on some cold beverages. Drew finally had to call it around 3 o'clock so we could start making way towards San Diego. Tomorrow is an all day travel day with the last of the gear break-down and a nice list of deck chores for the crew. Let's hope the weather prevails for us on the ride up. It's been pretty nice for us almost all trip so hopefully we can squeeze one more day out, especially for Chef Schooler so he can work his magic in the galley for the always tasty surf and turf.

Tonight on the Polaris Supreme menu, the passengers were so kind as to donate some yellowfin tuna for some awesome sesame seed crusted seared ahi. Tuna doesn't get any fresher than having it out here 24 hours after bringing it over the rail. I can't wait. Well, I'm going to sign off til tomorrow gang. Check back in tomorrow afternoon for our ETA or you can always call the office as well to find out when we hit the dock so you can come meet us and check out our amazing catch. Til then, time to go start enjoying your weekend!

Jed and The Supreme Crew

Polaris Supreme Update 9-22-2011

Another pleasurable day today aboard the Polaris Supreme wouldn't you know. We spent the first half looking for a wahoo once again coming up dry. The rest of the day was spent on anchor. I love anchor fishing. Bow in the wind, engines off and the captain on deck. Yellowfin tuna was on the menu. Good scratch fishing today. Steady most of the time with a few lulls. And wouldn't you know it, we even threw some Bluefin tuna on deck today too. Plenty of dorado and yellowtail to pull on also but we were letting them all go because we have plenty of those in refrigeration already. With the fish holds plugged and the last one ready we head up the line for a day of D, all of the above. We're going to try for every thing from wahoo to sea bass tomorrow. Who knows what the day will bring. I'll let you know tomorrow though. Talk to you then. We'll see ya!

 

Drew and da crew

Polaris Supreme Update 9-21-2011

You know when you walk into the galley at 11 in the morning and see 8 passengers sitting down drinking a beer that fishing is either slow or very good. In our case today it was because fishing was great. We woke up this morning and brushed our teeth, had a cup of coffee, then put the jigs in the water, in that order. Seconds later the jigs got bit and it was game on. A couple hours later we were done fishing dorado. A beautiful grade of dorado it was. 15 to 20 pounds with a few bigger in the school. A half hour later we put the anchor down on another spot and again it was game on. A couple hours later we were done fishing yellowtail. A good grade of yellowtail it was as well. 16 to 18 pounds with a few bigger ones. We then took a break and enjoyed a lovely lunch. After that we went on a quest to find wahoo and grouper coming up unsuccessfully. Beautifully weather today if you like it hot and I do with the perfect breeze to keep you from overheating.

We're heading up the line now to try it tonight on anchor for grouper, Pargo or whatever else will bite the lines and will try for tuna tomorrow. Wish us luck.

Team Supreme

 

Polaris Supreme Update 9-21-2011

Not much to report today. We started our morning out at the Rocks and didn't see much sign. A handfull of tuna and a handfull of yellowtail. We got out of there mid morning and went kelping the rest of the day. From two oclock on we were in pristine warm lively water. Clouds and clouds of flyers around and we got the feeling that with a boomer kelp, we'd get down to business. Unfortunately all we saw were small kelps. We're going to head inside tonight and try for some action on all of the above. It's time to go eat some babyback ribs and hit the rack.

Team Supreme

Polaris Supreme Update 9-19-2011

Hello everyone. Not a huge report today. We got to the yellowtail grounds just before sunrise. As the sun cracked, so did the bite. It was anywhere from steady pickings to full speed for an hour and a half. Then, like a light switch, it shut off. For just having a few hours to soak some baits at those grounds, we got what we wanted. Time to continue south once again to 8-day range and start looking for wahoo, fatter tuna and maybe a kelp with some dorado. Time for me to turn in and get some zzzzzzz's for tomorrow's action. See ya tommorow!!

 

Team Supreme

Polaris Supreme Update 9-18-2011

Hello everyone. So here we are at the end of our first "travel" day on the Polaris Supreme. Wait a minute, why did I just call it a travel day if we fished all day? I"ll tell you, because we had an awesome score of yellowfin tuna "traveling" right over the rail and into our 30 degree RSW holds all day long! It looked like 5 minutes after 6 in the AM was breakfast time for the tuna down here. They wasted no time getting our blood pumping and adrenaline flowing as the clickers went screaming. The morning continued with no breaks with the crew eating breakfast on deck wihle they were always on the run. Easily piecing together a late morning, it was now time to shut down on the boomer of the day. You could have called it what you wanted, a buffet at sea with all you can eat, or simply a Wal-Mart Superstore: one-stop shopping. I thing you get the point; if an angler wanted to get rid of some tags, it was game on. To add some color to the afternoon, a couple nice kelps were so generous as to hand over about 30 or so 14-28 lb flatheads (dorado to the non-fisherman). So, for the most part that was the program today. Right around the pre-dinner hours Drew got her pointed in a southerly direction for some o'dark 30 "cow" yellowtail fishing. Wish us luck on our start to day 2.

From the galley for the evening, Chef Schooler served up his famous shimp and scallop seafood pasta which is always a crowd favorite. It's a sure sleeper after a hard day of fishing! Before i go for the evening I would like to let all of you that just can't quite get enough time off of work to ride one of our long-range trips, we have something JUST for you! Tommy and Susan were so gracious as to work some 1.5 and 2 day trips right in the middle of our summer schedule. Come join us out here and fish a short-range trip in long range luxury! The yellowfin are snapping and the dodo's have officially moved into 1.5 and 2 day range! Call Susan at the office : (619) 390-7890 for all of the details. Hope to see you out here.

Til tomorrow,

Jed and The Supreme Crew

Hello Everyone, We just departed on our annual AHI charter. Defiantly a great group of anglers who know how to have a little fun with each as well as put some fish on the boat. At the moment we have the outdoor speaker system hooked up and secure, a beautiful load of bait aboard, and the Supreme pointed south eagerly steaming to our destination. Will report again tomorrow, Team Supreme

Hi fishing friends, I've decided to put another open party trip together. This trip will depart on Saturday night the 5th and fish Sunday the 6th of April. The weather is supposed to be getting much better and shouldn't be a factor on the trip. Ling cod season is open and we will be looking for seabass as well. Please call Sea Landing for reservations at (805) 564-6753. Thank you and hope you can make it.

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived this morning to the docks at around 0700 and said good-bye to our friends from SDG & E. We unloaded a beautiful catch of Yellowtail and a dazzling assortment of other tasty fish and the big Yellowtail honors go as follows: Lenny Campos - 26.2 lbs. Ulises Ochoa - 25.0 lbs. Rodger Schwecke - 24.8 lbs. Congratulations and thanks once again to the entire gang and we'll see everyone next season. After unloading, refueling, a couple of minor maintenance projects, loading groceries, and scrubbing the boat from mast to water-line, we loaded up another eager group of passengers and set sail for greater points south on another three day extravaganza.

 

Our group is quite the mix of Polaris Supreme veterans and Polaris Supreme first-timers but it's looking like we're going to have a fun group to fish with. We're headed right back to where we ended up last trip and with a steady flow of other boats in our wake, we're wasting no time in getting down there. We'll try and relocate some squid for a little while and if we can't, we're bombing on down to our honey hole with plenty of sardines and one tank of squid from last trip. We're knocking on wood and wishing upon lucky stars that our honey hole can give us one more chance at some good fishing before the place gets too congested. Please send us some luck from the beach. This is a team effort.

 

So there you have it. Our weather as we are steaming down the coast is gorgeous. A mild swell and light winds have made for premium traveling conditions and we'll be more than pleased if it continues until Wednesday morning but as we've seen, things can change in the snap of a finger. We're just enjoying the fact that the ride is currently beautiful, the Prime Rib was once again delicious, and our spirits are high. We'll report to you tomorrow.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Hi friends. The result of this morning's squid float was two deck wells and the port slammer being loaded up with squid. It was a great float with the entire crew waking up to get the job done in just about twenty minutes. What was an ocean void of squid-life at 1:45 AM  was then corroded with calamari at 2:00 AM. Swimming with the thousands upon thousands of squid were baby Mola-Mola's that were about the size of a hub cap. We had to push them out of the way to close the crowder without getting a few of those baby beasts in the net. We got all the bait we needed and then some along with some cool views of amazing ocean life.

Back to Friday for a moment, it was a decent day of Yellowtail fishing on the Polaris Supreme and what kept it from being a very good day was our score at the end of the day. For various reasons, we lost more fish than we tagged but we ended up with a respectable count on the 'tails. We also added plenty of white meat to our RSW hold and when the hatch was shut for the evening, we felt content with a solid day of catching fish in nice weather.

Saturday morning found us fishing the bait balls of squid as we attempted to snag a White Seabass or two. We didn't give it long before we began the chase for some more Yellows' and after a couple anchor jobs, we found yesterday's batch of fish but this time we were armed with plenty of freshly caught squid. Even with our brand new supply of bait we once again lost more than we hooked but just like Friday, we managed to piece together a nice catch of Yellows' in the 15-28 lb. range. Beautiful grade of fish, from the Yellowtail to all the various "taco meat" fish that we captured as well. Again, we are satisfied with our day but felt we should have done a lot better with our hook-to-land ratio. That's fishing though. There will be days that we land most of what we hook and there will be days that we don't. Just remember that when on a trip fishing for coastal species on the Polaris Supreme or any vessel, don't treat it as if they don't require the respect and attention to detail that offshore tuna would muster. Make sure your gear is in proper working order, properly set your drags, tie good knots/connections, and always have fresh line to start the day after a day of catching fish. Regardless of the fish lost, we are happy with our load in the fish hold and we had a very enjoyable trip.

So that is all. Good times were had by all and we'd like to thank Bret and the SDG & E gang for joining us for three days of good fishing, good food, and good friends. We're rolling up the line in rolly seas and our scheduled ETA to Fisherman's Landing is 0700 hours. We'll be turning around for another three day adventure and we'll chat with you tomorrow. Good night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-  

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived at the Yellowtail grounds today with the anticipation of a banner day as yesterday's reports from our long range brothers would give us no reason not to think so. We attempted to crowd some squid up for our bait arsenal but were unsuccessful in the early morning hours and continued on our trek towards the fertile fishing grounds. Once we arrived, it wasn't too long before we settled back on the anchor and had a few fish going. We hooked them using every possible method that we typically apply to catching Yellowtail...to be continued.

PS: 0200 hours update: Squid are floating!!! Gotta go, better report tomorrow. Sorry. Decent Yellowtail fishing today with some other tasty treats to join them in our fish holds. We'll be in Yellowtail land tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Hi friends. We departed Fisherman's Landing this morning on our annual Seifert, Lane, and Da Silva three day trip with a full load of bait and a full group of familiar faces. Bait loading went smoothly and we're currently motoring down to points South to begin our fishing activities. Reports sound pretty good at one of our favorite Yellowtail fisheries and we expect to do battle with the mighty Jack's sometime tomorrow.

All is well with the crew as we're all back from our 4th of July vacation and happy to be back to work, just doing our jobs and doing what we love. Chef Schooler/Chef Barry are about to kick out the Prime Rib feast, Drew is showered up and ready to serve the feast, and Tommy is downstairs giving the troops the evening briefing. We have nice weather rolling down and we're ready to get after it.

Not a whole lot to report this evening. Hopefully we have more to report tomorrow, we'll see. From the bridge of the Polaris Supreme, we bid you farewell and have a fantastic night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Captain Mike Pritchard called in this with an audio wrap up from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.

Today we finished with 71 Yellowfin Tuna, 8 Bluefin Tuna, a couple of Yellowtail and Dorado.

We are out on a 3.5 day charter tonight.

We have some limited load 1 day party trips available Monday-Wednesday.
Give Seaforth landing a call (619) 224-3383

Aug. 9
    Good evening folks from the bridge of the Polaris Supreme.  Let me just start off by telling you how beautiful of a night it is out here.  First of all the ocean is flat calm.  Just a super light breeze and no sea.  It's almost like we're in the bay right now.  The moon is full, huge and bright as can be and it's lighting up the night.  

    We left today on an Eric Rogger 5 day charter.  I think it's in the 30's on number of consecutive years he's been doing this one so our hat goes off to him. Owner/operator Tommy is back on board so I'll be running as second captain this trip.  I think the sardines grew about 90 percent in length and weight since the last time we got bait 3 days ago.  They're lunkers.  They'll make great yellowtail bait and I'll bet the bluefin will dig them, we'll have to see about them yellowfin.

    I guess you can tell by my questioning of the last paragraph that we didn't get in them this afternoon.  The darn fish just moved too far away for us to reach on our departure day today.  We got there minutes late but there was some pretty darn good hits this evening so we're excited about tomorrow.