new melones lake Fishing Report 2025

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Hi friends. Final day here at Isla de Guadalupe on our Great White shark diving/research trip was a fantastic day. We had two sharks around the boat for most of the morning and sign of that Yellowfin tuna once again. Only a handful of people got in the cages today as today we were on one mission; get tissue samples for Omar and Cesar. After trying to get a good sample from one from the Supreme we knew what we had to do. Put Omar, Cesar, and Chugey in the skiff. After having several good looks at the animal, she was just too far out of reach on every pass. But the last pass, it was go time. All or nothing. Chugey cocked the dart back and got her. A beautiful display of aim and strength and wouldn't you know it, we got the sample. After two days of patience, Omar and Cesar were rewarded for their perseverance and it paid off. They now are all smiles, ear to ear. In the name of science; booyah.

Today was also a day for a little crew cage-time as well. Drew H. and Drew C. got a couple looks at one and it was time for the birthday boy, Chef David Schooler, to get his turn. The picture of Schooler in a full wet-suit was enough for most of us to call it an awesome day but after only about five minutes in the cage, Schooler got out for, as he said "fear of not living to see another birthday". Well, I figured I'd go join Scootch in the cage as he filmed the action and I'd like to spend a couple minutes talking about my experience.

First off, that was the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. The next coolest thing isn't even close. Petting Grey Whales in the San Ignacio Lagoon was a unique experience but that was nothing in comparison to being underwater and being a fingertip away from touching one of the deadliest creatures on the planet. Scootch, myself, and galley assistant Jamie, had probably one of the best shows in the cage in the three days down here and it's one we won't soon forget. Looking this creature in the eyes will humble any person and Shark Week on an HDTV does the Great White shark no justice. at all. I found myself having to put down the camera for a few occasions as trying to get a good shot was taking away too much from just admiring the presence of this majestic creature. Aside from being inches from this beast, on the next pass, we got to witness Chugey lunge the dart into the shark from the skiff as we were underwater. Game over. Sample acquired. After the sample, all we saw was a white flash as the best propelled itself from our viewing and we propelled ourselves out of the cage and the chores of closing up shop began to prepare for the ride back to Ensenada. I'm sure we'll have an accumulation of all of our photos and underwater footage from Scootch on our website and our Facebook page in the next few days. Be sure to take a peak. All in all, it was the experience of a lifetime. Everyone on-board, especially the crew of the Supreme would like to issue a major thanks to Tom and Honey Pfleger, Chugey, Scootch, Cowboy, and everyone at PIER for allowing us to be apart of this adventure. Hopefully, it won't be our last.

So that is all. Our crossing from the island to Ensenada is a tad windy but we're aren't rolling around too much so we're happy with our ride at the moment. We're scheduled to arrive to Ensenada tomorrow morning and our ETA back to San Diego is sometime tomorrow in the early evening. We'll be tying up the Supreme for Thanksgiving and we'll return to fishing for our 12-day departing on the 29th of November. We have a few spots still available so if you're interested in being apart of the big tuna chase, give Susan a call at 619-390-7890. Speaking of Susan, tomorrow (the 22nd) is her birthday and we all would like to wish her a very happy birthday and thanks for being the glue to our operation. Happy Birthday, Susan! Good night everyone and we'll chat with you on the 29th.

-Team Supreme-

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Hi friends and happy Sunday y'all. Day two of our Guadalupe Island Great White shark adventure started off the same as it did yesterday. A couple of viewings for the folks in the cages and a decent sign of that 60-100 lb. class tuna swimming but it wasn't as consistent as it was yesterday, atleast on the tuna end of things. We had sporadic shark viewing today with the majority of our views being of the "smaller" sharks. A while after lunch, "Large Marge" showed up and boy, did our viewers get the thrill of their lives. Up close and very personal cage-time as this creature really put on a good show for our party of three inside the cage. Even seeing her from the boat, it was a sight that we all won't soon forget. Aside from that, our next best viewing went to Polaris Supreme crewmen, Jed and Ensenada scientist, Omar. After hanging out in the cage for a while and without seeing a shark for a couple of hours, patience paid off and they were both treated to a nice showing on about a 15 foot shark. Most everyone had the opportunity to get a nice viewing and we're looking to finish up tomorrow with a banner day. Our weather today was much better than yesterday's wind, cloud-cover, and light rain showers that would most definitely wash off our bronze. Today, we had premium bronzing for most of the day and great visibility for our divers. Let's hope for a repeat manana. We'll chat with you tomorrow evening and wish us luck.

***2015 hours update***

At the conclusion of Chef Schooler's delicious seared Ahi dinner, the battle ensued. A singing battle between classically-trained Riley McGuire versus relief crewmember, co-owner of the M/V Pacific Queen, and my roommate, Drew Card. Early on, It looked like a sure runaway for Riley but with a some expert coaching from Drew Henderson and myself, Drew rocked a lovely rendition of Neil Diamond's classic "Sweet Caroline". After a vote, it was decided that both Riley and Drew would ultimately have to share victory as no winner could be decided upon. If I personally had to pick a winner it would be Riley on every level except for two; singing most out of key and crowd participation (you just can't help belting out the words to the chorus of "Sweet Caroline"). Those two victories definitely went to Drew. A little post-dinner fun lasted for only a few minutes as rain squalls bombed through and the wind began to howl. It only lasted about an hour or so and we're now sitting comfortably as we get rested up for our final day tomorrow. So that is all. Just thought it would be fun to send out a little bit of an entertainment report to hopefully, well, entertain you. Reports aren't always about fishing and bronzing conditions. We'll chat with you tomorrow. Good night.

-Team Supreme-

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

Hi friends and good evening from Guadalupe Island. We cleared Ensenada customs at 0100 on Friday morning and traveled all throughout the day to arrive to the island last night at around 2200. We got our bearings straight this morning and got the cage in the water around mid-morning. While eating breakfast and awaiting the cage briefings, we had a friendly juvenile shark swimming right next to the boat for an hour or so. When we got our divers in the water, it wasn't long before this little guy was giving our divers a nice little opportunity for some up-close and personal views. While in the cages, our divers saw Yellowfin tuna in the 50-100 lb. range all throughout the day, which made for some excitement from us fishermen and fisherwomen on-board. Although the "smaller" shark was a sight to see, we had been hearing rumor of a giant female lurking around these parts. In the afternoon time, we saw her, Large Marge. Not necessarily the longest shark seen but my goodness, she is one of the girthiest sharks our scientists have ever seen. In all honesty, this beauty of a shark is as wide as a school bus. Only a few of the divers were able to see her from the cages but the folks who viewed her from the boat were in shock by the size of this animal. Hopefully, everyone gets to witness this behemoth from the cage.

With our shark viewing and tuna viewing all day, we're hunkered down in the cove and the guys and gals are enjoying some Prime Rib before they hit the racks. It was a successful first day of "getting our feet wet" and tomorrow, we're hoping for a full-day of sharks and tuna and hopefully some time for a little research for our PIER guys and our scientists from Ensenada, Omar and Cesar. Omar and Cesar are hoping for some tissue samples so we'll hopefully make their wish come true. The female we saw today has plenty of tissue to give and hopefully, they can get a sample from her and not the other way around. We'll report with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 07-09-2016 Hello and good evening fisherman. Its not just a tough day for the Polaris Supreme but its a tough day for the fleet. We started our morning by slowly picking away at the yellowtail. It wasn't just tough to get bit but it was even harder to keep your fish from going into the nasty rocks. We then decided to switch to plan B and explore some uncharted waters for the rest of our day. We ended up bring aboard a handful of small yellowtail and dorado. We are now heading to an area where we will be targeting white seabass and premium sized yellowtail. We should be arriving there a few hours before gray light. Tight lines, Team Supreme

Aug. 14
    Arrive depart today.  We offloaded a beautiful catch, got fuel, changed oil + fuel filters, swapped out some crew and left the dock by 10:00.  We're good.  We left on a very long running charter called the Heil charter.  I won't go into our bait loading, I'll just say we have some bait on board.  We were in the fishing grounds before 3:00 this afternoon.  The couple boats that departed yesterday had some good yellow finning.  When we got there it just had that "should've been here yesterday" kind of feel to it.  We didn't see much.  We had one long drift where we picked up 14 but other then that it didn't feel like we were going to get a hit so we rolled out of that zone.  Below there didn't look much better until right around 8:00 when the sun fell we had a good old fashioned blind jig strike that resulted in a good stop.  We always fish till the end over here and tonight we were rewarded.  The fish bit full speed but only for a flash but it was long enough to get everyone on board at least one with many getting three or more.  They were snapping.  I call departure fish free fish because we weren't even supposed to be fishing.  They're free.  Anyways we're going to fish again tomorrow.  See you then.
                             
     Oh yeah, the weather is still sooo nice.  We're going to have to pay for this stretch.

35 pass. 140 yellowtail 33 bonito. I know some of you are wondering why we have fish in burlap bags. At the end of the trip we take our fish out of the fishhold and put them in bags so our customers don’t have to carry their fish home in their backpacks. Their core temps are 35 degrees.

Captain Mike Pritchard checked in with an audio update from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay.  We have been drifting for 5 hours now.  We have 16 Bluefin Tuna in the 60 to 80 pound class.

The Tribute is online at Seaforth by the seashore.

Just what we had hoped for! We had a really fun day on some of the bigger grade yellowfin. We landed nine fish over 100 pounds. Charlie got one at 213 lbs. and Gunnar, one of our first timers got the biggest one for the day that weighed in at 230 lbs. He did it all by himself from start to finish. And by the way, he is only eleven years old. He also landed another one that was well over 100 lbs. Our weather is fantastic. Dinner was incredible. Pedro laid out another killer sashimi and sushi appetizer and followed up with a dinner of fresh yellowtail with a Chardonnay, lemon, shallot sauce. Richie said it was probably the best fish dish he has ever had. We are hoping for another fun day tomorrow. Wish us luck. Thanks for checking in.

Very good sign of albacore/bluefin today. There were spots up puddling and boiling around everywhere. Not too many big schools though, so it was good scratching from daylight to dark. The tuna are from 12-40 lbs. Mostly 20-30 pounders. Some of the bluefin we've seen jumping are over 100 lbs., but we haven't gotten close enough to even try. Weather couldn't be better. It's like we're fishing in the bay. We'll be at the dock tomorrow morning and departing on another 3-day. It's prime rib night and just heard 1st call so see ya!

Polaris Supreme Trip Update 11-14-2019 After taking a little break we're back out in action today. This morning we got a nice early departure from the dock at 6 AM on The Annual OTR Eight Day Trip. It's always a fun group of people and were looking forward to getting down south into some variety! Our bait we picked up in San Diego looks great and our ride down is very comfortable. We will be spending the next two days traveling down doing the usual. Rigging tackle eating good food and taking a few naps! We had Breakfast Burritos this morning, Dorado Tacos for lunch and Prime Rib for dinner. Everyone is all tucked in and sleeping soundly. Thanks for tuning in The Polaris Supreme Crew!