nj striper 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-

Ryan Bostian from the San Diego out of Seafourth Landing checked in.  We had 6 Bluefin Tuna, and 122 Yellowtail.  Took us awhile to get them located but once we did it was very fun!

"It was really good fishing wahoo at the bank," said Rothery at the sales. "We stayed there two days and then went in to the southern banks where the big fish were." All the big fish (there were 13 tuna over 200 pounds weighed on the certified scales at Fisherman's) came from the southern banks. There were just as many from 100 to 200 pounds as there were cows, and those were found in both spots. "The Baja tuna were real steady biters," said Rothery. "There were lots of ‚Дтem around, we could see ‚Дтem at the surface and on the meter most of the time." Research biologist Chugey Sepulveda got the big one, related his pal and fellow biologist Scott ("Scootch") Aalbers of San Diego. Chugey wasn't able to be at the weigh-in. The fish weighed 306.2 pounds. Chugey had two more cows, at 220 and 201 pounds. "Scootch" said Chugey got the big one and the others on one of the boat's heavy rigs and the kite. He used two sardines on 6/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, tied to 130-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra, on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. "He got it on the next to the last day," said Scootch, "about four p.m. He fought it for an hour and 15 minutes, and it wrapped him around the anchor line about 15 times. The crew helped out a lot with the fork." Tom Bass of Newport Beach won second place for a 274.8-pound tuna. He also had a 232 and a 206-pound yellowfin. Tom said he got his fish on a sardine and an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, pm 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader of 15 feet, tied to 130-pound Izor Spectra on a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 6460 XXH rod. Hack Bernstein of Valencia bagged a 269.6-pounder. He fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 130-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izor Spectra on a boat rig: Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. Pat Jaeger of Bishop posed with his daughter Maggie, three, and the 268-pound tuna he got with a double sardine rig on the kite. He said he used 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izor Spectra on a Penn 50 W reel and a Baja Boomer rod. Ryan Gillette of Orange was another who used a double trouble sardine rig on the boat's rod and reel to take a 246-pounder. Robert Kalatschan found a brace of cows, at 226 and 213 pounds. There were two more cows that appeared at the scales without tags, said Susan Rothery. One weighed 214 pounds and the other went 202.

~~Aug. 26
 Good evening everyone.  We wrapped up our trip today.  And it was an interesting day.  First off the weather continued to produce variable wind.  Flat calm and gorgeous.  Onto the fishing.  As you know we almost had no sardine today.  We used it well though for the time we had it.  The bluefin floated today.  Everywhere you looked there was a 30-50 pound bluefin gently rolling on the glassy surface.  Other times you would see the whole school swimming on the surface.  It definitely had that feel to it.  We caught 30 fish from 30-50 pounds this morning before we ran out of bait.  For the time being it was great but sad when we ran out.  We still had a couple tanks of big mackerel to use and Tommy had it figured out where we would use it.  So we made a few hour move and it didn't take long after we arrived to the honey hole before we were gettinum.  Big yellowfin.  45-65 pounders.  It felt like we were anchored up at Alijos Rocks when the tuna were around there.  Those fish liked our mackerel.  We caught a few over 20 of those bad boys before they quit biting.  I wish we could be in 2 spots at once.

 So we have a 1.5 day trip leaving tomorrow afternoon Aug. 27 and we want you to go.  Let me try and talk you into it.  Now this is me speaking truth.  Not blowing smoke at you.  The weather still is fore casted to be great great.  Variable wind.  Now I told you we had great fishing this morning while we had bait.  A lot of the boats that had just left on there trips that had bait all day drifted all day.  Not all but a lot. They drifted and they caught. It's a good time to go fishing I'd say.  Good grade, good fishing. Let us take you fishing, feed you great, show you a good time and hopefully the bonus, catch lots of fish.
        

Well, we had a great day today. Everybody had a blast fishing lots 60 -100 lb. tuna. Pat Jaeger landed a 195 and a 213 pounder. Chuegy pulled in a 225 pounder. There were a couple more around 165 or so. We did stop at lunch for a delicious pork shank with spiced white beans and saffron pilaf. It was really good. And our weather is also good. So another wonderful day out here. Look at our schedule and find a trip that will work in your schedule and come out and have some fun.

Hello everyone, Another outstanding day of Bluefin Tuna fishing. the grade is great 20-40 lbs. We caught our daily limits early spent the afternoon looking for giants. Unfortunately we were not able to put any on the boat. We will be in tomorrow and out for 6. NOTE: the couple pictured are from the same house hold. Will report again tomorrow, Team Supreme

Captain Ryan Bostian checked in this afternoon with an update from “The San Diego” out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay! Today we had 44 anglers catch 68 Yellowtail and 2 Bluefin Tuna. Our Bluefin Tuna were very nice grade today. We had on fish weigh 86 pounds and another at 103 pounds. In addition, we lost a few other jumbo Bluefin Tuna. The hot ticket today was a flat fall fished on 60 or 80 pound test.

Captain Matt and the boys burning the midnight oil for twenty 35-50 lb bluefin and 1 yellowfin. Put the J hooks away and exchange them for circles when Mr. Bluefin is around.