montana ice Fishing Report 2025

Today we spent the day trying for Wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna. It was a grind but we were able to catch some Yellowtail, great grade Tuna, and some Wahoo. Not the red hot bite that we were hoping for but still a good time none the less. We also had to make bait tonight. It went great. Lots of mackerel came aboard and we have plenty to fish with. We will try it again tomorrow for the hoos and Tuna. Pictured here is Mick with a large Yellowtail and crewmen Jake (the Snake) and Morgan doing some shaking in the wee hours of the morning.

HOT TRIP TO BE ON!!! APOLLO still have 5 spots open for an 8 day trip leaving Mon Nov 13th at 9am & returns Tues Nov 21th at 9am. Cost is $2400. Limited load to 12 anglers. This your chance for an awesome trip. Call for info and reservations at Fisherman's Landing @ (619)221-8500

Saturday’s ULTRA limited load 2 day is for sure fishing. 

Book the last few spots to fish in comfort!

Meals included.

18 anglers max.

Call now!

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Hi friends. I don't know what's going on with me, it's like the fish just elude us in the morning time and around lunchtime, people start to get very down about our fishing day, myself included. We had a horrible morning. A boat just a few miles from us got on a kelp and had good fishing on bluefin, yellowfin, and dorado. Okay, maybe that means that we're in the right area. Nope. We went in all kinds of different directions only to find a boat already on a kelp catching fish or a boat already working the area. Very frustrating. Around lunch time, the mood on deck was starting to sour and the mood in the wheelhouse was the exact opposite of laughing babies, sunflowers, and Labrador puppies. It was straight death. I was pretty sure that I was about to lose my turkey caesar salad all over the dash and that would've been the highlight of my day up to that point. Yep, it was that bad. But as our boss's old boss, Steve Loomis, used to say, "west is best."

So I made the decision -- we're going to head west all day until we don't see a boat on the radar or we fall off the earth. As I was checking my water temperature charts, looking at the next area where I was sure that I was going to go and find another boat or non-biting fish, it happened. Not the sound of a single fish popping on the sonar or the mast-man yelling at me to rotate trollers, but the sound of a school -- a gigantic school -- on the sonar. I flipped from the computer screen to the sonar screen, throttled back the mains, and spun the wheel hard to starboard. In the excitement of the moment, I managed to tangle up the chord for the gyros in the wheel as I was spinning too (sweet), so I'm yelling in the P.A. system, chasing down the school, and trying to untangle the chord all at the same time and just like that, the school is off the edge of the screen, swimming away with my heart.

As I sit looking at a blank sweep of the sonar for a few seconds and the thoughts of ripping the wheelhouse chair from its base and throwing it out the window, I finally realize that Jed is screaming down at me from the mast. He was screaming profanities, but not directed towards me, at least not directly. His screams read something along this line, and I'll clean it up for everyone at home, "they're f-ing shinning!!" Bingo, as I came back around, the sonar lit up once again right in front of the boat and after a few seconds -- which seemed like a century -- the fathometer ran red. Oh my gosh, they're under us, thick! I can't remember if I cursed when I called for the bait to rain down on the school after we stopped the boat but I apologize to our anglers if I did. In all honesty, I don't think they could hear me on the P.A. as everyone was screaming their heads off as well and after shutting down the mains and running out to the back deck, the most beautiful sight I could've seen was right before my very eyes; fishing boiling everywhere and all the rods bent over. Sonny Jim!

We drifted with that school of five hours and after the initial rush where they were biting sixty pound line for a couple of hours, we kept two to five going for the remainder of the stop. We finished the drift with 120 bluefin tuna (limits) in the 15-30 lb. class and 40 yellowfin tuna in the 12-18 lb. class. Like I said before, Sonny Jim!

So there you have it. A day in the life of a sport-boat captain. It's life of stressing like you're a lady of the night in church and then in the blink of an eye, you're the fireman carrying out the baby from the house fire to place it into the loving arms of it's mother. Here you go, ma'am.

-The Supreme Team

Captain Ryan Bostian called in this evening with an update from “The San Diego.” We had Captain Cameron running the boat today. We had 26 anglers catch 54 Yellowtail and 2 Bluefin Tuna. We got the big boys today. Our Bluefin Tuna weighed in at 119 and 112 pounds. We had about ten bites and landed two. RECOMMENDED TACKLE 25 pound bait rod - 25 pound mono with a short 25 pound fluorocarbon. This outfit is excellent for the Yellowtail and smaller Bluefin Tuna. Be sure to use 1 or 1o hooks. 50 pound bait rod - 50 pound mono with a short 50 pound fluorocarbon leader. You will need 2o hooks for your heavy bait rod. Flat Fall rod - 7 or 8 foot rod with a Talica 12 or Talica 16. Use 65 or 80 pound spectra with a short 80 fluorocarbon leader. Make sure to have your Shimano Flatfall 200 or 250 gram model.

Another day of albacore fishing was productive again today. We had a little over a hundred today but seemed we should of had a lot more. A lot of non biting schools. Where have we seen that before all year? Oh yeah, right there. We're now heading to the south to fish offshore kelps for yellows and dorado. Weather is good. A big ground swell but not much wind on it. Lunch was awesome, some sort of salmon dish and dinner I couldn't even name so I won't try but it was fantastic. By the way, the albacore are all fatties. 30-40 pounders.

Hello everyone, Today we started fishing on our annual Hess Charter. It was a slow start but we did end up picking at a couple Yellowtail. We are by no means satisfied with what we caught, so we will be giving it another try here tomorrow. The fish we did manage to land were that great grade fish, 20- 30lbs. We are just hoping to get a great hit on them tomorrow before we head out to a new area in search of offshore exotics. Will report tomorrow, Team Supreme

We had an awesome 1.5 trip on the Apollo out of Fisherman's Landing. We left Friday night at 7 pm and headed to Punta Colnett. Weather was very nice, calm and glassy. We started fishing for Yellowtail in the early morning but no biter. We preceded fishing for Rockfish. We drifted every hot spots that Captain JJ knew and they were all very productive. We came up with lots of good quality Vermilion Reds, Lingcod and Bocaccio Rockfish. At about 3 in the afternoon, Yellowtail breezers came through and all six of us got hooked with our rockcod gangnion hooks. We ended with two 25 lbs Yellows. Next time I'll be ready. We fished until almost dark and we bagged 125 Vermillion Reds, 98 Rock cod, 25 Lingcod and 2 Yellowtail for 25 guys. Captain JJ runs a top notch operation together with Jessica, Joe, Travis and Chef Nick. They were all very professional and helpful at all times. Chef Nick serves all variety of gourmet food on the boat. Apollo will be still running trips in Fisherman's Landing until end of March and will move to Santa Barbara on April. Don't miss our overnight charter trip on Sunday, April 3rd departing Saturday at 10 pm.