merritt reservoir Fishing Report 2024

Drew Henderson brought Polaris Supreme home July 5 after a five-day trip with 24 anglers.

"We fished Cedros again a half day," wrote Drew July 3, "and had a nice drift in the morning but then the fish went down quick which has been the routine. We put our anchor down and had a nice pick on the yellows and all the other fish you could catch. We had to bail out at 11:00 a.m. and made a couple stops on the way up the line then we had to go full cruise to get ourselves to the tuna grounds.

"The next day started off painfully slow but right around 1:30 we had our first school and shortly there after we got on another one that we drifted on until dark."

At the dock, Drew summed up his last day of fishing, the 4th of July: "We spent the day looking offshore. We got about 75 fish, and mostly we had three or four going for several hours."

Bob Morehouse of La Crescenta won first place for a 54-pound yellowfin he bagged with a sardine on a 2/0 Mustad hook, with 30-pound Big Game line, a TLD 1`5 reel and a Calstar six-foot rod.

Chris Stavaridis of Venice was second, for a 48-pound tuna, and Tony Sabatino won third place for a 46-pound yellowfin tuna.

2 Yellowfin Tuna, 2 Yellowtail, 28 Skipjack Tuna.  Light loads and good weather all week.  We saw this floating yesterday.  Looks expensive.

~~Sep. 20
 The ride going up last night wasn't good, although I can't say it was awful either.  It was just your average windy rough ride up the line.  I'm just not used to it, that's all.  The weather for the most part these last couple months for me has just been so good.  It doesn't matter because the weather got good again for the important part which is the fishing.  And we took advantage of it.  We found our dorado kelp.  The dorado were small to big and they were plentiful.  It was our first dorado kelp of the year.  Finally. Though we've had plenty of other specie to keep us busy this year. If you know me you know I'm all about the competition so I like to make searching for kelps fun.  Today I challenged Mark to a kelp off which means the person who finds the loaded dorado kelp wins.  He found it and of course I couldn't be happier about it.  It may be the only thing I'm glad to lose to.  Of course he wanted me to tell you all about it.  He finally beat me. It was the cherry on top of this wonderful trip.  Another one in the books.  We're headed back to the barn all fat and happy.  Fat from too much eating and happy with all the fish we caught.  We'll be dockside tomorrow morning at 6:30 and yes, we will be heading back out to sea.  I'll be taking the LA Rod and Reel club out fishing for a couple days.

 Good fishing again today in the local tuna grounds it sounds like.  Let's make it one more tuna trip for the year before it's over.  Our October 3rd and 6th trips are both for sure goes.  Let's, and by that I mean you, make our September 26th and 29th trips a go too.  Come fishing!  My baby can be without her dad for another week if it means she gets those shoes she's been begging me for.  5 months old and she's already begging for shoes.  Holy Toledo.
     

GREAT TWO DAY TRIP!!! APOLLO got mixed bags. With 26 Anglers they caught 21 Dorado,17 Yellows,4 Yellowfin,20 Rockcod,20 Lings. Good catch. Place your reservation now at Fisherman's Landing @ (619)221-8500

Drew Henderson docked Polaris Supreme at Fisherman's Landing August 12 after four days of fishing. His anglers had near-limits of yellowtail, mostly from Cedros Island, where he found mackerel to be superior bait, and fish biting at both ends. Drew said his anglers released some 200 fish. Henderson's posting for August 10 read: "We started our trip making the long haul down to Benitos Island due to the bad weather and bad offshore report. We got to the Island at about two thirty. We got held up with a giant school of 3 to 4 foot giant squid. I can't say it was bad there, I mean we caught a lot of fish we just had to go through lots of little ones to get the bigger ones. We gave the night bite a couple hours only getting ten fish and took off towards Cedros. "The morning was great. Everyone woke up to bent rods. After a couple hours the current slowed and the slime (barracuda) took over. We did a little scouting and found some large model yellows and had a couple of long plunking drifts. Then we took off to the northern head to gain some time for tomorrow and give it a check and found the honey hole. Mucho Fisho. All the beautiful grade, and they chewed until we all got our fill. We're traveling up tonight to do some offshore tomorrow until it's time to go home." Dave Betz of Huntington Beach won first place for a 27.6-pound yellowtail he bagged with a sardine on a 1/0 ringed Gorilla hook and 20-pound P-Line. He said he fished with his favorite Accurate 270 reel, and a Calstar six-foot rod. The fight ran to 35 minutes, he said. Forrest Broyles of Kelseyville got a 25.4-pounder. He was tied by Ken Wan of Oakland for second place.

31 bass 47 whitefish for our 11 anglers. We spent our day in the shallows trying to stay in position to catch a yellowtail but never connected. Still plenty of action for our light load.

Capt Ryan Bostain checked in from the San Diego the 3/4 day boat out Seaforth Sportfishing, we just finished up our second trip of the year. And boy was it a good one, we had Mexican limits of 110 Yellowtail for our 22 anglers. Most fish were caught on the yoyo jig, we did get some on the surface irio but you had to wotk hard for the surface bite. To get out with us give us a call at the landing at 619-224-3383 or go to www.seaforthlanding.com and reserve your spots. All the 3/4 day boats down in the zone got limits today. Come on down and get in on the action.

4 bluefin 4 yellowfin 14 yellowtail. We looked at bluefin all day, they were just in a funk. Tomorrow is new day.