pine island florida Fishing Report 2024

SUMMERTIME CONDITIONS ! Hey guys. Two days ago the water at the Coronado Islands was hovering right around 60 degrees and the fishing was slow. Conditions started improving rapidly yesterday afternoon and subsequently so did the fishing. Today we went out with 43 anglers and captured 25 calico bass 58 barracuda and full Mexican limits of sandbass. While we did not manage to catch any yellowtail today, we did however enjoy steady action from start to finish. I took a photo of our temp gauge for all you yellowtail hunters out there. With water temperatures like this. It won't be long before the yellows get back on the bite. Be here the day it happens, not the day after !

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Hi friends. We're still traveling down in decent weather, with plenty of sunshine to make for an enjoyable trek. Although, the travel days can be very monotonous, we always find something out of the ordinary to do to break up the boredom. Today was a unique day, even by our standards; and even after all of the sea time that passengers and crew members alike have accumulated over the decades, we still found ourselves in activities, scenery, and fishing that we don't experience everyday.

Now, I'm not trying to make roses out of you-know-what; we caught Yellowtail today. That's all. We didn't run into the first wave of Albacore or run up on a breezer of giant Bluefin tuna. Nope, we simply caught beautiful 18-22 lb. Yellowtail. Before I go any further - I am not bashing the Yellowtail fishery in any way shape or form. We had a great time doing it today and in all honesty, typing out words to explain the amount of fun we had for an hour would bore everyone half to death. What garners this report is simply the hour-long spectacle that was associated with our Yellowtail fishing. Having wide open fishing and not really trying to compete with other boats or boost our own egos is fun enough, trust me. Just good old fashioned yankin' and crankin' is what we did today but add in the sight of breaching Humpback Whales (two adults and one cute little calf, literally within casting distance) with the backdrop of one of the most beautiful destinations that we fish in one of the most isolated places in the Eastern Pacific was something I'll never forget. Like I said, it was Yellowtail fishing; but add in the group of gentlemen that we shared this experience with, it was hard not to just stop for a moment and take everything in. All in all, it was a super fun day.

I'm sorry for the lengthy report. I'm reading three books at the moment and one of them is 83 Neurobic exercises to increase mental fitness and it encourages you to do some off-the-wall stuff - things that you normally wouldn't do to keep your brain healthy. It's a fascinating read and I'm applying a lot of the little things that the book says to do. I'm sure that I'm driving the crew crazy with how stoked I am to do these things; from switching my watch to my other hand, to navigating my way around the wheelhouse with my eyes closed and let my senses other than sight guide me around (don't worry, I'm not driving), to putting different types of tape on the keyboard (don't ask) - it's all really interesting to me and it's keeping the travel days fresh and exciting. So, I apologize for this whacky report but I'm helping to keep my brain stimulated and hopefully yours too.

Anyhow, With this particular trip -- or any 17-day trip, for that matter -- there is always something new to do to keep us on our toes. From rigging up "Bruce" our new anchor (insert circus music here) to finding a good book to read to learning a new way to rig tackle or just enjoying the ride with some good friends, the entire experience of traveling down to our destination can be looked at in multiple ways - today was one of those good travel days and I felt like sharing it with everyone because we're pumped. Other than good weather and good food, I'll leave y'all with a few more clues as to what in the heck we're doing with our time. It involves: five grown men, a food processor, Yellowtail Milt, a deck brush, and a bait scoop. Stimulate your brains. We'll chat with you manana.

P.S. Devon, Alayna, and Lyall - I caught y'all a delicious Calico Bass today. I wanted to release it but mortality was imminent. I am deeply sorry. Scootch didn't even try to save it either so it's half his fault. Sorry.

Aug 15

Good evening folks. We departed today on the long running Heil 5 day charter with a bunch of familiar faces and a handfull of welcomed new ones. Our first stop was the bait recievers and boy oh boy did we get a good load of bait. Best one of the year thus far. Healthy, slimy and lively. It all starts there. It was a normal departure day of lunch, naps and fishing seminars. With mixed reports from slow to ok in the bluefin zone, we're going to start off looking in the area we finished up looking in yesterday. We'll see what we come up with and take it from there. Wish us luck.

We had decent fishing again today at the Halibut grounds. We had a total of 11 nice flatties today. Then it shut off. It was a bit windy today. We will be back out soon. Listen to the audio from JJ for upcoming opportunities to fish on the Apollo. Thanks to JJ for being a great sponsor!

Tommy Rothery finished up a three-day trip on his Polaris Supreme and tied up at Fisherman's Landing July 12. "We had good fishing on albacore," he said, "and bluefin fishing was okay, too. I think I saw the longest spread of albacore I've seen in five years. We had some kids who fished for tuna with iron from the bow, The Ironmen. They did great!" Hubert Bell of Bonita won the jackpot for a 47-pound albacore, the best one to come in to the docks this season. He said it bit on a sardine pinned to a 2/0 Super Mutu hook on 30-pound P-Line. He used an Accurate B-2 500 reel on an 800 M Calstar wrapped by Don's Bait & Tackle. Tom Carr of San Diego won second place for a 42.4-pound bluefin and Lohn Storms of Vista won third place for a 38.6-pound bluefin tuna. The Ironmen kindly posed for Bill Roecker's camera. They were Hugh Seifert, 14, Hunter Lane, 14, and Jorge daSilva, 13, all of Poway. Hugh and Hunter will go to Poway High and Jorge to St. Michael's. The boys said they got most of their fish with chrome and blue Tady 9 jigs and Megabait darts or knife jigs.

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.

Captain Mike Pritchard called in at 12:24 with an audio update from the Tribute. We have 16 Bluefin Tuna, 1 Yellowfin Tuna and 16 Yellowtail. It's beautiful weather. Very good fishing we have lost a little a few fish too!

We had awesome variety this year on our 8-10 day trips. Especially the Dorado fishing on kelp patty’s!