port saint joe Fishing Report 2025

Today we departed on Bob Vance's annual 5-day charter. It's always great to see Bob and his group. He is one of our longest running charters, and while there are always a couple new faces, there a quite a few that have been with Bob since the beginning. We spent the day traveling, preparing our gear, and dined on a monstrous grilled steak and potato for dinner. We are underway and anxious to get our lines in the water. Check in tomorrow. Thanks, Tommy and crew

Captain Ryan Bostian called in today to let everyone know that they will be changing focus from the offshore grounds back to the Coronado Islands. The last week the offshore bite has slowed down while the Yellowtail fishing at Coronado Islands has picked up. Please be sure to bring all your Yellowtail gear. We are starting these trip tomorrow.

Captain Ryan Bostian called in this morning with an update form the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing. The boat is out today we haven’t heard from them yet. We caught 4 Bluefin Tuna over 100 pounds. This is once in a lifetime opportunity. We only have a handful of reservations for tomorrow. We are a definite go! Please be sure to be prepared with a heavy rod. We recommend at least a 50 pound outfit. You can also bring a lighter outfit for the Yellowtail. Listen to the audio for all tackle details. The picture is from yesterday’s trip!

Plenty of bites and opportunity today as we landed 4 nice bluefin.

Tip from the crew: make sure your spectra is put on your reel properly with a line winding machine.

Today we went out with 39 anglers and landed 25 yellowtail. The quality of these fish is the talk of the boat the last couple days. The average size of our yellowtail today was 25 lbs with several fish over 30 pounds. 50 lb. mono and a heavy lure is the preferred setup right now.

37 anglers, 10 yellowtail, 18 bonito, and 48 rockfish. We will be at the dock for the next few days while our first real weather rolls in.  We are online till the end of December. Make those reservations.

Yesterday we had a travel day. It was a little bumpy and choppy coming up the line. The passengers just relaxed and enjoyed a fresh tuna sandwich and Ceasar salad for lunch and for dinner we were treated to crab stuffed chicken on rice with a black bean sauce and grilled squash on the side. Really good. This morning we are still traveling and it is still bumpy. It looks like it is nicer up above and we should have a nice afternoon and a few hours of fishing before we have to head in. We will be a the dock at 6:00 am Wednesday morning.
We have a last minute cancellation on our trip that departs tomorrow. It is Don Fischbeck's annual 5 day charter. Give Susan or Don a call if you can get away and come fish.

Suggested tackle for 7:00-4:00 local 3/4 day trips. (1) A 25 or 30 lb. outfit to fish fly line sardines , sliding egg sinker and squid and a lead head and squid. This outfit can also double as a light dropper loop rod for shallow water rockfish. (2) A 40 or 50 lb. outfit. This will be a heavy dropper loop rod for targeting yellowtail , white sea bass and halibut down on the bottom. (3) A deep water rock cod outfit. A 20 size reel filled up with 65 lb. spectra and a 7 ft. rod stiff enough to handle a 16 oz. sinker. If you only want to bring one rod a 30 lb. outfit would be your best bet. TERMINAL TACKLE (Hooks) a pack of size 2 live bait hooks for fishing anchovies and small squid strips. A pack of size 2/0 live bait hooks for fishing live sardines and live squid on an egg sinker. A pack of size 4/0 live bait hooks for fishing live squid on your heavy dropper loop rod. A few long shank rock cod hooks may be usefull but not mandatory on the days we fish deep. (Sinkers) an assortment of sliding egg sinkers from 1/8-1 oz. an assortment of torpedo sinkers from 2-16 oz. Sinker size will be determined by depth of water and strength of current. (Lead heads ) An assortment of "banana" shaped lead heads from 1/2 - 2 oz.