mike lanes Fishing Report 2024

"Here it is 10:30 in the morning and we already have 16 Yellowtail on the boat," said on an enthused Captain Ryan. He went on, "They seem to be biting a little bit here today. We're having a nice stop, we just gaffed one. Fly line baits are once again the way to go. 25 lb. test is what you should use. We've been seeing these fish down here, some of them bite, some do not. We've had a good shot at them this morning. We have 16 on the boat with 30 anglers. So it's a relatively light load for what we have been carrying. We've had some loads on here the last couple of weeks. The way I look at it, it is like a restaurant. You never want to eat at a restaurant that doesn't have any people at it.

"Come on down and join us. We go out every day, 5:30 AM we depart Seaforth Sportfishing. Bring a 25 lb. live bait rod, bring a 40 lb. rod to Yo-Yo with and you will be all geared up. This fish are right in the 20 lb. class, some bigger, some smaller. Have a good day, I'll check back later with a final report."

Many of you know Captain Ray Montera who has been involved in sportfishing most of his life. In March, his 32 year old Chris son was severely injured in a C4 blast in Afghanistan. We are holding a fundraiser on October 8th at the Bali Hai on Shelter Island. He is one of our own and we are rallying to support him.

As an Army soldier, Chris Montera was often taken aback when people would thank him for doing the job he loved. On a fateful day in March, he came to face the sacrifice. He was on a dismounted mission and was hit with explosion of C4, which literally blasted and propelled him into a grape field. He suffered major issues with blast lung and severe burns over much of his body. For 9 days he was on ECMO (lung bypass) until he was stable enough to be transported to BAMC in San Antonio for the treatment of his shrapnel wounds and third degree burns. On April 2 a fungal infection set into the wounds on his lower extremities and Chris underwent bilateral AK amputation of his legs. He was further diagnosed with an incomplete spinal cord injury in the thoracic area of the spine at VA Polytrauma Center in Palo Alto.

Through all of this, Chris remains focused and committed to rehabilitation. It is estimated that he will remain in Palo Alto for 3-6 months while he works to regain his upper body strength, which will be necessary for the next stages of rehab in the C5 program at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego where he will be fitted with prosthetic legs and with determination will learn to walk again. There is no doubt in our minds that Chris will recover to live an independent life. The goal of this fundraiser is to be able to assist Chris with expenses he will no doubt encounter on his journey to independence.

The event will be held at the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island On October 8th from 6:00-10:00 pm. There will be food stations serving food from many San Diego restaurants along with a no host bar. A raffle, live, and silent auction will take place during the event along with live entertainment by Mango Bay and World Famous Jim Gibson. The outpouring of support of raffle and auction donations from the sportfishing community, tackle, fishing supply manufacturers, and local businesses has been phenomenal. The evening will be great fun for all and will serve to help a young man who put it all on the line.

There are several ways you can help:
First and most important is attend the event.

Tickets are $50 in advance or $450 for a block of 10

Advance ticket purchases will include 3 raffle tickets and assorted swag

Cannot attend but would like to help, make a cash donation in any amount.

Donate an item for the raffle or auction. Anything from fishing items, art, gift certificates, clothing...anything is greatly appreciated.


We look forward to having you at the event. The sport fishing community has come together to take care of a wounded warrior of their own, and it promises to be a fun filled evening for all.

To purchase tickets for Island Nights at the Bali Hai, please visit our website at http://christophermonterasupport.com/island-nights-at-the-bali-hai

To donate items for our raffle/auction please visit our website and complete the donor form http://christophermonterasupport.com/sponsors-anddonors-supporters/donor-form

We stopped and fished briefly on some yellowtail this afternoon and had some great action. We then continued on traveling in smooth weather. However, if we were going the other way it would be snotty and rough. We had a tender cooked shaved beef with a Burgundy sauce, baby snow peas and roasted potatoes for dinner. Still rolling down to Alijos, and should be fishing by mid-morning.

~~Sep 14
 Wow!  What a day.  2015!  We started it off early on anchor.  The sun wasn't even up yet and we were catching tuna and wahoo.  For about an hour there on anchor we were gettinum.  We had about 30 of those 25-30+ pound tuna and almost 20 wahoo before an hour.  Things slowed so we pulled anchor and got nasty.  We had a couple other bingers for wahoo for about 10 each time, and of course we would catch that big tuna during those drifts.  After that though, us and the 3 other boats that were here pretty much had the wahoo caught for the day.  There was a few left to be had but we mostly caught that tuna up to perhaps 40 pounds the rest of the day.  Not wide open.  We're not "fixed up".  Just steady for most of the day.  Before dark we started "the troll of shame".  I've never done that the second day of the trip.  We got 2 passengers out of there and still have 2 or 3 left who haven't caught a wahoo yet.  Oh they had there chances.  Some of those guys on that team lost 4 or 5 skin today.  But that's wahoo fishing.  Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you.

 We're going to try this again in the morning.  I would love to get 40 or 50 more tuna and a couple more handfuls of wahoo.  That would be epic.  After the morning hit we're going to make a run and try for some yellows in the afternoon.
        

Captain Ryan Bostian called in with the Coronado Island reports. Today we went out with 36 passengers 43 Yellowtail. There are two bodies of fish out at the islands. There is a school of 23 to 30 pounders and another school of 11 to 17 pounders. The fish are biting the fly-lined sardines and mackerel. And for those who like fishing iron the surface iron is working too. The San Diego departs daily from Seaforth Landing in Mission Bay. You can call (619) 224-3383 to get in on the action or you can book online.

The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego,CA checked in with us today:

A few quick opportunities on the yoyo jigs produced 31 yellowtail. Tomorrow’s trip has been cancelled due to weather. Friday March 26 is our next trip.

The Pacifica returned from a 2-Day 976-Tuna sponsored trip.

Final Count:

26 anglers

89 California Yellowtail

5 Yellowfin Tuna

42 Skipjack Tuna

5 Bluefin Tuna

What an absolutely, fantastic, unbelievable day. We had more marlin than you can imagine. We hooked and are released over 220.
The wahoo fishing was also fantastic. The group had a blast pulling in "crocodile" size wahoo. And we topped off the day with even bigger dorado than yesterday. The weather is good and we just had an awesome day on all three, wahoo, dorado and marlin.