oc maryland Fishing Report 2025

~~Sep. 18
 "Fixed up" is a good expression to describe our day today.  We had very good yellowfin tuna fishing.  We arrived to our destination shortly after breakfast and after about 1/2 an hour of searching we found what we were looking for.  A school of 25-30 pound yellowfin.  It bit for a little while before we had to relocate the school, which we did a few times.  After that we found a different school of a more mixed grade of 10-30 pounders that we hit a couple times.  Then we found a school of mostly 16-22 pounders that we did well off of.  I think you get the point.  We had a good day.  Along with all the tuna we caught, we also managed 7 wahoo and 4 dorado.  I'll say it again, we had a good day.  We're feeling satisfied.  Worth the days travel to get where we've been the last couple days, that's for sure.

 The weather today was fantastic.  Fan tastic.  We'll be traveling tonight and sleeping in tomorrow.  We're shooting to be fishing tomorrow afternoon.  We'd like to top off on some yellers.
        

"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.

Often times the very FIRST piece of the puzzle is the most difficult to locate. Today we stopped on multiple small schools of yellowtail that were surprisingly hard to hook. Full size yo-yo jigs on 40 lb mono produced the first 2 yellowtail of our season. We also spent a couple hours fishing the bottom to assure everyone had plenty of white meat. We’re hoping this is just the tip of the iceberg. Make those resos !

Couple of long drifts with steady action produced 51 yellowfin tuna 96 skipjack tuna. 20 lb bait rod and a 40 lb bait rod.

Nov. 14

                We had very good wahoo fishing today. We caught a lot of wahoo.  You don't see it much better then what we had today.  At least for a few hour window there.  We got our scratch on early, then we got our catch on mid to early afternoon, and then we went back to scratching till dark.  It was good.  I think I may of seen it better, I probably have in 15 years but this was pretty darn close to as good as I've seen, again, at least for that few hour window mid morning. 

                As much as myself and the rest of everyone on board would love to stay here another day, the wind is coming.  We'd have good weather tomorrow but we'd have to seriously pay for it on the ride home if we stayed.  So we're headed across to the Cedros area and we're expecting good weather during the ride across.  Who knows, maybe we'll find a kelp for some dorado and more wahoo tomorrow morning.  If not, we should be fishing for yellows by or after lunch tomorrow. 

Oct. 21

Trip wrap up: It was a hell of a trip with a great group of guys, with great tackle from Accurate and great food from Shawn. Yes we had some nausea from hurricane Paul but that's something you have to deal with sometimes in long range sportfishing. Thank you so much Mr. Joe Gigliotti and The staff at Accurate for letting us use and lend out your Accurate tackle.

Jackpot goes as follows: Dale Goss took 1st with a 52.6 pound wahoo, pizza man Joey G. took 2nd with a 50.4 pound yellowfin tuna (I told you Joe), and Gary Rogers took 3rd with a 40.2 pound yellowfin tuna. An Honorable mention goes out to Steve Lowe for his 56.4 pound wahoo he caught on the troll.

Today we left with our good friend George Davis and his group of dudes on a 14 day trip. Yup, a glory run going down down down. Our bait was fair and seems to be swimming in circles in the tanks and not dying off so that's good. We rigged up our rods and reels today taking our time because we have some time with some travel days ahead of us. We haven't had a true departure travel day for a long time now and I have to say it's nice not being in a rush to get everything done at once. There were some movies played today and a lot of sleep going down in the staterooms. Chef Shawn put out a nice little Sushimi snack that went down quick. Tomorrow we'll do our tackle fishing seminar for Wahoo after breakfast and then I'm sure there will be more movies and naps in everyones future. Travel days are nice. Can you say 1492 and Titos ! See ya.

P.S. We may loose satellite phone service on Wednesday and if we do we will try to keep you updated through Susan via the Radio and have her type up the reports and email them out.

P.S.S. If you have received this email directly from the boat the guys have asked me to put you on the email list. You now have the boats direct email and you may send the boys emails. Girls please be careful what you say the crew and I will be able to read what you put out.

Thanks for tuning in Tommy.