okaloosa Fishing Report 2024

July 19
  Today went well I thought.  Starting with our ride up last night.  As good as it gets.  Flat calm.  The only swell was a long swell that would slowly, gently rock the boat.  We slept like babies.  In fact, I think I woke up with my thumb in my mouth.  I let everyone sleep in if they chose to.  We didn't start fishing until just before 9:00 in the morning.

  We were pleasantly surprised with the fishing.  It was good.  We tried for some more yellows, for us, and to check out the grounds for future trips as well and they bit well.  We kept 2-4 going the whole time until we drove away from them.  "We left them biting".  Our favorite thing to say out here.  After that we ran up and made a few drifts for some Cod.  We had the time and I had a few requests so we caught a few rockfish.

  Now we're headed home.  The crew's scrubbing the boat, I'm writing this, I think there may be a poker game going on, and we're just hanging out and enjoying ourselves and the beautiful ride up.  The wind and swell are on our stern.  That storm out there is blessing us with a lovely ride home.  Its like we're riding down but we're going up.  Timing is everything.  Sometimes it all comes together and this trip was one of them.

  So we'll be home bright and early tomorrow and of course we'll be headed back out a few hours later.
         

Make sure to start looking for father son, father daughter, mother son, mother daughter, or any combination trip! 

The season is right around the corner!

There are lots of trips and opening for your next memory available now.

July 25
    A little bit of a slower day out here for us.
    
      We started our morning off all alone where we saw a few big schools late afternoon yesterday figuring we'd for sure be in them.  Un touched schools didn't make them bite any better.  We fished and caught a few in the same zoneish that we've been fishing before looking elsewhere for something fresh.  We ended right back where we'd been and saw the same thing.  Big schools that don't bite well.  We managed a few more of the 60-80 pound grade and a few handfuls of the 25-40 pound grade and some more 18-25 pound yellowfin before it got dark on us.  The weather all day was nice and we're headed back in now with fillet mignon coming up shortly. I hope I made this trip sound fun because that's what it was.  We were drifting 75 percent of the time with a chance any second for a bite. Thanks to Paul and the gang.  We always have fun together.
                            

 

211 yellowfin 2 bluefin out of one 5 mile drift. Hook size is crucial in getting bites. Match the hook size to your line size and bait. Check with the crew on the way out to make sure what you’re tying on is what we recommend.

~~This is the after picture of the port side navigation system. If you notice, the monitor itself is a daylight monitor. The sun is shining directly on it and you can still see the screen. This system has radar, a plotter, and a fathometer. And it's all AIS capable. (Automated identification system) All ships that have AIS, can be tracked on a website, called www.marinetraffic.com. All of the systems can be overlaid so you can have your plotter, radar, and depth viewed at the same time

 

 

~~
This is the starboard side navigation system. Which is identical to the port. In addition to the previous mentioned features, the monitor can be switched to a computer system which has Nobel Tech times zero catch navigation fish finding and my favorite, bottom mapping system on it. You can, and we have been, making our own bottom maps for the previous three years. Cool stuff. In addition it has live weather from Weather Works XM Weather. Also it has SeaView Ocean Imaging capabilities to where we can download water temperature, chlorophyll, sea height, ect. The port system also has its own computer.

 

~~The monitor on the left is a sound activated fathometer for fish finding. And the monitor on the right is a daylight monitor for our sonar, for fish finding. In the front is one of our pairs of Gyroscopic binoculars

~~All of these electronics need new antennas. And this is how they get there. We literally pulled out a third of a dock cart of old wiring

 

 

~~Say good bye to the old radars.

~~Drew grinding away on a little cancer on the deck.

~~The roto hammer is one of our favorite tools for chipping up cancerous areas on the deck, but the noise is unbearable to our neighbors in the boat yard.

~~The deck hatches had to be completely stripped

~~We re-skinned the outside of the galley doors. They now have a nice white formica finish.

~~Creative, yes. But I bet he spent a half hour looking for that office chair in the boat yard!

~~The boat looks kinda small in some of these upcoming pictures without Tommie in them for perspective.  ~~Jed's missing from these shots because he was taking the pictures.

 

 

~~Drew resealing inspection plates for exhaust

~~Tommie detailing wood work

~~Tommie prepping for paint

~~Final coat of deck paint. Looking good!

 

 

First things first !! I think a hearty Sportfishingreport.com congratulations are in order for J.J Gerritsen and the crew of the Apollo for their clean #1 sweep in annual SFR fishcount standings for 2006. Yellowfin Tuna # 1!!!!!!!!!!!, Albacore Tuna # 1!!!!!!!, Dorado #1 !!!! Very impressive numbers indeed !!!! Way to go guys, awesome year !!!!So when good friend and Santa Barbara local Doug Browand called and said a bunch of local firefighters and friends had chartered the #1 boat in the land for a little Island Freelance trip, I was packing my gear and clearing my schedule in a hurry. We loaded up on time and headed out of Sea Landing in Santa Barbara straight to Santa Rosa Island in case the squid and WSB wanted to show. J.J promised us some outrageous rockfish and lingcod action if the seabass were still MIA. We gave it a solid effort but with no signs of squid or WSB we motored up and headed out to some of Captain J.J's secret rocks and reefs. The first drift of the day produced monster reds and chuckles that rival some of the nicest and biggest rockfish I've seen and caught in many years. The Channel Islands Rockfishing is on Fire !!!!!! Throw a bunch of nice legal lings into the mix and you're talking a really fine day of fishing and a great time for all. The fishing at the Islands is only going to get better and J.J and the boys on the Apollo will be there fishing for them everyday. Check their website for their open party schedule and don't forget about the upcoming SFR charter on the Apollo.

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 07-30-2016 All I got to say is what difference a day makes. Holy cow what a great day fishing yellowfin tuna! We had a blast as you can see by the pictures they were boiling in the corner and it was deep blue beautiful water and everybody was happy! Fun fun day great fishing and beautiful weather and now we are off to another adventure for tomorrow! Thanks for tuning in the Polaris supreme crew.

Polaris Supreme Trip Report 09-08-2016 Good evening Supreme fans. We departed nice and early this morning on Brad Bogart's 6th Annual 2 day Tuna Charter. The crew worked double time to get the boat untied sooner than normal to get Brad and company out on the water and fishing ASAP and we did. We left the dock with a fairly set game plan and within a couple hours that all totally changed. Just shows you how things can change at the drop of a hat. On our way out to our intended destination, we happened to stumble upon a school of a really nice grade of yellowfin tuna that wanted to chew good. It was change of pace fishing and catching this 30 lb. grade of tuna that we haven't seen in some time. It's a bonus when you get to change your plans for the better. We spent the rest of the afternoon on these very manageable schools until it was dinner time. Tomorrow should fair out the same way with hopes of this fish sticking around and making a day of it. The guys went to bed after a nice prime rib dinner and a few less fish tags on their belts ready to get back at it in the morning. Check in tomorrow to see how we ended up. I can't close this report out without giving a huge thank you to Vernon "Paddy" Burke and his Simpitico crew for an epic 5 day trip. These guys hung in there with 5 days of trophy style bluefin fishing and we know they are taking home some sore arms and backs to the great state of Texas. They say everything is bigger in Texas, well not your bluefin tuna boys! We're already looking forward to seeing them back next year for another week out on the water. So for now, this is Team Supreme singing off and wish us luck tomorrow! Tight lines, Polaris Supreme