myrtle beach Fishing Report 2024

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July 11
 The morning started off so promisingly. We had plans to haul butt down to the lower grounds where there had been some good kelping but we got stopped short. The setup was epic. We had a 1-2 degree water temp break, and we were instantly catching fish. They were mostly small yellowfin. There was a sprinkling of 15-20+ pound tuna in there but most were throwbacks. But it felt like the school of straight bigs was right off the bow. We found a nice kelp and caught a dozen nice yellows and some more of that small tuna with a sprinkle, and again, we felt like it was soon coming. It never came. We stayed very busy but unfortunately it was mostly that throwback yellowfin. Eventually we gave up on what we thought was our honey hole and we never found much else the rest of the day. The lower zone produced enough for the couple boats that were down there so we're going to start down there tomorrow.

 

 

 

The weather was great most of the day. It got a bit breezy late but hopefully that comes down tomorrow.
 

This trip will depart on Saturday night the 5th and fish Sunday the 6th of April. The weather is supposed to be getting much better and shouldn't be a factor on the trip. Ling cod season is open and we will be looking for seabass as well. Please call Sea Landing for reservations at (805) 564-6753.

The Apollo will be in Santa Barbara for rockfish opener on March 1st. They have OPEN PARTY trips for fishing on Sundays. The load is 25 anglers and the price is $125. Call Sea Landing now to make a reservation at (805) 963-3564.

Nov. 11

After our previous day of wide open fishing - we had high hopes of the same on giant yellow fin tuna. The day started with Captain Tommy identifying sonar readings of big schools of tuna all around us. We fished hard all day. Kites, sinker rigs, fly line, chunked, jigged, drifted and anchored. Tommy calling out the sonar readings the whole time, ", "big tuna at 20 fathoms" or "we are surrounded by school tuna 10 fathoms to 30 fathoms". We began to doubt Tommy's sonar and guessed that it was just a screen saver image. Then, in the late afternoon, tuna started flying out of the water all around us for a 1/4 mile. 100 lb to 300 lb tuna fully coming out of water and giving us a show and taunting us once more. At the end of the day Greg, Matt and Rick caught larger tuna and kept us from getting skunked. We flushed the stomachs of the tuna and found them stuffed with pelagic crabs. The sardines, mackerel and flying fish we offered were not on their menu. We hear of a place up the line where the yellow tail are biting. We are going there now.

OTR Lon Mikkelsen.

Good fishing in the morning with 70 to 100 pound fish. Most again were released. Late in the day we got lucky with two more big fish. Young Gunnar got another one over 200, and Charlie got one right at 200. Just a great trip with George Davis and his group, and an awesome crew. We will be into the Cape tomorrow to drop off the passengers to fly home and be at Fisherman's Landing on Wednesday.

One day trip 21 yellowtail, 11 dorado, 4 bluefin tuna, 2 yellowfin tuna. Fun day, back out tonight !

"Fishing today was absolutely excellent!" wrote Polaris Supreme skipper Tom Rothery August 23. "The albacore bit all day and the weather has laid down and is good. All the albies were in the 25 to 30-pound range. For lunch we had swordfish in a butter, lemon, and caper cream sauce. For dinner we had a rack of lamb with a blue cheese port wine sauce. Yummy! A couple of boats headed to Guadalupe to no avail. We still have a spot here and there on some of our upcoming trips. Give Susan a call in the office if you can get away and come fish."
Rothery docked his boat at Fisherman's Landing August 24. He spent his fishing time on the four-day trip on the albacore grounds, with a half-day at Cortes Bank, where second skipper Drew Henderson reported big numbes of large bonito biting. The bones were eight to 12 pounds, he said. John Windling of Portland, OR won first place for a 41.4-pound albacore. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 3/0 Mutu hook tied to 40-pound fluorocarbon leader and 60-pound Line One Spectra. He used an Avet JX reel and a Calstar 765 XL rod. David Schulz of Yorba Linda was second, for a 38.6-pounder, and John Thompson of Phoenix, AZ won third place for a 37-pound albacore.

The Apollo, on a 1.5 day Colonett trip, just called with 39 Yellowtail on the boat for their day, with plenty of fishing time left! There's only two more rock cod/yelowtail trips left on the Apollo before the boat goes to Santa Barbara, so get in on the action and give us a call at 619-221-8500 to reserve your spot today!