merrill creek reservoir Fishing Report 2024

There were plenty of seiners. Our weather continues to be good. As we dine on steak and lobster we are looking forward to tomorrow to do some kelping. Our web master who handles all our updates will be out fishing himself for the next few days, so there won't be any reports posted until Thursday. Give Susan a call if you have any questions. Thanks and wish us luck.

Here’s the report and photos from Tuesday’s 2 Day trip: 41 Bluefin -28 from 60-90lbs -5 right at 100 -8 from 115-190 lbs 25 Yellowfin 20 from 25-40lbs 5 from 40-100lbs **Long drift all day. This big grade is biting the fin bait well. Bring your heavy tackle 60,80,100,130. The weather is improving so we posted a 1.5 Day trip for Thursday. It’s a DEFINITE RUN!! ***Call @seaforthlanding to book the AZTEC 619.224.3383.

Friday, August 2nd, 2013

Hi friends. We landed 40 Bluefin most in the 35-55 lb. class Through the morning till lunch time in one long drift. late in the day we sat on another school and managed to land a few before dinner was served. As of now, we're sitting on the "sack" and we're metering fish all the time. We'll see what happens in the morning when we wake up. Hopefully, we can pick away at 'em on the bag and never have to move. We'll see what happens. Weather was ok and looks even better for the next few days.

We're happy with our day as some of the boats down here didn't even break double digits. So, we'll take it and run with it. Chappy and the boys are doing just fine and we'll be making a decision tomorrow whether or not to stay put for Bluefin or make the run down to the Yellowtail grounds. Stay tuned. Take care.

-The Supreme Team

Polaris Supreme Update 08-02-2012

Hi Anglers. I'd just like to start by thanking our Polaris Supreme passengers on the last trip. You did a fantastic job and the crew enjoyed fishing with all of you. Even you Byler. Congrats to Mr. Myles for taking first place in the jackpot with his 39 pound bluefin tuna. Also want to give a shout out to a Mr. Jack and Mark for staying close behind taking second and third places with a yellowfin and another bluefin. I better see all of you next year.

After doing our normal arrive depart chores of offloading fish and passengers, scrubbing the boat, fueling the boat, loading groceries and the new passengers we were off again.

We departed on Tom Chaparros 14th annual charter. This year he turned it into a 6 day. We got our bait and now we are underway. We will do the norm here this afternoon. A lot of rigging up tackle, napping, reading and just hanging out enjoying the day. We have high hopes in the offshore tuna grounds tomorrow so check back and I'm sure we will have a good report.

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-

Sunday, September 30th, 2012 -- Departure report.

Hi friends. We departed at 1800 hours on yet another 1.5 -day trip. After last trips bait, I was deathly concerned about what type of load we were going to get and to all of our surprise, we received a healthy and plentiful load of bait. We'll see how it fares throughout the night into tomorrow but for now, I'm pleased with those little critters. Hopefully, we put them to good use tomorrow.

For tomorrow, we'll be hitting the local grounds to try our hand a little closer to home. I'm excited about the prospects of finding something decent but I'm more excited about our weather outlook. Our program is showing five knots or less for the morning and afternoon so we're hoping the weatherman calls it right and Mama Nature gives us a break from yesterdays beating.

Anyhow, we're munchin' on some prime rib and getting our tackle put together. We'll be looking for a school in the dark to shut down on and we'll take things from there. Wish us luck and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

July 29
  Today was just one of those days for us.  Well, I was controlling where we fished so I guess I just had one of those days.  No, we're a team out here, WE had one of those days.  We zigged instead of zagged.  We turned left instead of right.  During our zig, we found two kelps that were truly loaded with nice looking tuna according to my machines, but darn-it if they wouldn't bite.  We have to figure they were kelps that got fished the day before and needed more time to recoup.  During that time, there was a small area of kelps being found that were holding Dorado and mostly small tuna, but they were all taken by the time we made it in there.  We tried to pick off one into the east and then north but we never could find much before we ran out of time.  We scratched out a bit more than 50 mixed fish today so it wasn't a total loss.  We just had one of those days.

  The weather right now couldn't be better.  We deserve it.  We had a windy few days to start out the trip.  All and all it was a great trip.  A great group and good fishing.  We'll be home tomorrow and back out for another 5 shortly there after.
  
  As of now I'd pick Mark to win the "Biggest Loser" competition.  Chef David made an amazing lasagna last night and Justin had a big ole piece while Mark ate a salad.  Who would of thought our hill- billy, poor grammar speaking Mark "the crow" Clark would pass up lasagna for a salad.  Next thing you know he may exercise during his way...  OK, I can't even finish writing that it sounds so ridiculous.