merrill creek reservoir Fishing Report 2024

~~9-7-2014

 Good evening folks. So today was a rather tough day of fishing. The weather certainly didn't cooperate with us for the entire day. Mixed up choppy seas with a little better than 15 knots of wind. As we all know that makes for less than ideal fishing conditions, but the guys still hung in there and when it came time to stop on a breezer, meter mark or a nice size kelp patty, then still got out and got their lines wet so bravo to them.  We still managed to scratch up a few yellowfin throughout the day with a couple tuna right at Sundown to take us into wine tasting and dinner. They always say that a tough day of fishing can be cured by a great meal and that was sure the case today. Chef David certainly out did himself once again with a beautiful fillet mignon and king crab leg meal for us tonight. That put some smiles on some faces without a doubt. But that's trhe great thing about this group, they aren't out here just to fish, they love to enjoy the full experience.  To wrap up the night, we dished out probably the tallest "decadent" chocolate cake a la mode that I've ever seen! Wow! That sent them to bed with full bellies and a nice ride up to tomorrows tuna grounds for round 2 of tuna fishing. Wish us luck and check back in tomorrow for the days run down.

 P.S. The entire group here would like to send a huge congratulations to Mr and Mrs. Taylor Gledhill as they welcomed their healthy 7lb 17oz 19.5 inch baby girl into the world today at 4:20. Grandpa Robin and Uncle Rob can't wait to come home and see you guys! From the Blue-White group and the whole crew here on the Polaris Supreme...CONGRATULATIONS!!

 Captain Tommy,Jed, Gunny, Mark, Mike, Chef David and The Gringo

Ryan Bostian called in with this update on fishing on the San Diego, "Boy we pulled one out of the hat today, we had zero Yellowtail on the boat at about 1:30 PM. We found some fish late in the day, we caught 15 Yellowtail, 57 Barrcuda and 25 Rockfish for 34 passengers. The water temperature dropped a little this morning with the wind that we had yesterday and the water gradually crept up and got right back up to 63.5 degrees, 64 degrees. The Yellowtail are still down here, excellent, excellent fishing late in the day. We ended up with 15 of them we lost at least another 15. The same story as earlier, they are nice size, in shallow water. If you are coming down bring 25 or 30 lb. test with 2/0 hooks and be ready to fly line some bait. You can also surface lure on the top for the folks that like to do that.

"We run every single day aboard the San Diego. If you'd like to make reservations and join us please call Seaforth landing at 619-224-3383."

~~Aug. 26
 Good evening everyone.  We wrapped up our trip today.  And it was an interesting day.  First off the weather continued to produce variable wind.  Flat calm and gorgeous.  Onto the fishing.  As you know we almost had no sardine today.  We used it well though for the time we had it.  The bluefin floated today.  Everywhere you looked there was a 30-50 pound bluefin gently rolling on the glassy surface.  Other times you would see the whole school swimming on the surface.  It definitely had that feel to it.  We caught 30 fish from 30-50 pounds this morning before we ran out of bait.  For the time being it was great but sad when we ran out.  We still had a couple tanks of big mackerel to use and Tommy had it figured out where we would use it.  So we made a few hour move and it didn't take long after we arrived to the honey hole before we were gettinum.  Big yellowfin.  45-65 pounders.  It felt like we were anchored up at Alijos Rocks when the tuna were around there.  Those fish liked our mackerel.  We caught a few over 20 of those bad boys before they quit biting.  I wish we could be in 2 spots at once.

 So we have a 1.5 day trip leaving tomorrow afternoon Aug. 27 and we want you to go.  Let me try and talk you into it.  Now this is me speaking truth.  Not blowing smoke at you.  The weather still is fore casted to be great great.  Variable wind.  Now I told you we had great fishing this morning while we had bait.  A lot of the boats that had just left on there trips that had bait all day drifted all day.  Not all but a lot. They drifted and they caught. It's a good time to go fishing I'd say.  Good grade, good fishing. Let us take you fishing, feed you great, show you a good time and hopefully the bonus, catch lots of fish.
        

Saturday, August 3rd, 2013

Why hello there, friends. How are you? Us? Fine, thanks. What did we do today? We caught 76 Bluefin tuna, some Yellowtail, and a Dorado. We caught Bluefin tuna in every single scenario you could have imagined. Jig strikes, sonar schools, meter marks, kelp-associated, and we also caught one off of the biggest breezer most of us have ever seen. I'm not kidding, this thing was a 1/4 mile long. Crazy. Anyhow, the grade for the most part was 16-25 lbs.and most came out of one drift just after lunch, but we had a shot later in the day when some big fish found us and we landed a handful of those 40-60 pounders. All in all, it was a good day for Chappy and the boys and we've decided to give this another shot tomorrow. No shortage of Bluefin bown this way. We never went long without seeing a school to play with, but most gave us the slip with the exception of a select few. F-ing Bluefin, they're so wiley!

Our weather is fine; a little bit of swell with a little bit of wind, but the wind is cold, real cold. Other highlights of the day included Herb Y. handing out his handmade wood bowls, nutcrackers, pepper grinders, and all the University of Oregon gear that you could shake a stick at. I scored a sweet U of O golf jacket. Pumped. Chappy got in the mix and handed out some charter T-shirts for what will be the Ted Windham Inaugural Charter. Thanks to Herb and Tom for the swag.

So that is all. Chef Shawn kicked out some killer sushi appetizers today and just now kicked out some killer lamb chops. Mama D also kicked out the most wicked brownie, praline, chocolate chip, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce dessert I've ever witnessed and we thank her for that. Team Galley was on it today, boy. Alright, we're going to give this tuna thing another morning and gather a game plan whether we'll bomb down to the Yellowtail grounds or stick it out offshore. We'll let you know. Wish us luck.

-The Supreme Team

P.S. Tomorrow is Jed's birthday! I wrote this today in case I forget tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Zeb.

25 bluefin. Managed to keep a couple schools around the boat today and pick at them. A bait fished on 30lb flouro with a size 2-1/0 hook got most of our bites.

48 yellowfin 89 skipjack 36 yellowtail 5 dorado. Aquarium style on a lucky kelp.

We finally got settled in here late. The fishing was good, with a lot of action and a lot of variety. Tuna was the main game in town, they started small but eventually cleaned up into a nice 18-35 lb average. Mixed in with the Tuna were some Yellowtail, Grouper, and a Wahoo. A nice mixed bag to start off with.

~~Aug 16
 We had another good day today.  Well, afternoon I should say.  Yesterday, we got here at 2:30 in the PM and the fish were biting right away.  I thought for sure if we were here earlier, it would be stellar.  Nope.  2:30 was just right.  We hung out here all day not seeing any yellers, then right at 2;30, they showed up and it was good fishing for the next few hours.  We set up a little differently today and it paid off.  The grade of fish improved.  It was 70% premiums.  That's right.  18-30+ pounders.  2nd fish hold down.  We're cooling down the center well now. 

 Due to the fantastic fishing we've experienced this trip thus far, we are in need of some bait.  We're headed out to what I think is our best chance at making some.  No ones been there as far as I know for quite some time.  It's been windy.  It looks like we have a good weather window so it shouldn't look like the Flemesh Cap.  We're also hoping to run into some bluefin tuna while out there.  We're not just going out there for bait.  We're looking for something to use it on.  Let's keep the ball rolling.