potomac Fishing Report 2024

The day started well. We found a school right after daylight and had a couple good stops on 40 up to 145 pound tuna. The rest of the day stunk besides the weather. We found virtually nothing. When the sun went down I was giving up the hope of an evening shot but right as I had the towel in mid air I snatched it before it hit the ground. We found our late shot. W.F.O. some would say. The bite lasted well into dark. A definite day saver. Let's do it again tomorrow.

Drew Henderson docked Polaris Supreme at Fisherman's Landing August 12 after four days of fishing. His anglers had near-limits of yellowtail, mostly from Cedros Island, where he found mackerel to be superior bait, and fish biting at both ends. Drew said his anglers released some 200 fish. Henderson's posting for August 10 read: "We started our trip making the long haul down to Benitos Island due to the bad weather and bad offshore report. We got to the Island at about two thirty. We got held up with a giant school of 3 to 4 foot giant squid. I can't say it was bad there, I mean we caught a lot of fish we just had to go through lots of little ones to get the bigger ones. We gave the night bite a couple hours only getting ten fish and took off towards Cedros. "The morning was great. Everyone woke up to bent rods. After a couple hours the current slowed and the slime (barracuda) took over. We did a little scouting and found some large model yellows and had a couple of long plunking drifts. Then we took off to the northern head to gain some time for tomorrow and give it a check and found the honey hole. Mucho Fisho. All the beautiful grade, and they chewed until we all got our fill. We're traveling up tonight to do some offshore tomorrow until it's time to go home." Dave Betz of Huntington Beach won first place for a 27.6-pound yellowtail he bagged with a sardine on a 1/0 ringed Gorilla hook and 20-pound P-Line. He said he fished with his favorite Accurate 270 reel, and a Calstar six-foot rod. The fight ran to 35 minutes, he said. Forrest Broyles of Kelseyville got a 25.4-pounder. He was tied by Ken Wan of Oakland for second place.

Rolling down on the Ranta trip! Grease calm seas here rolling down on the Ranta 6 day trip. We had a great day of rigging, and are ready for action tomorrow. We may have a little wind this evening but it should subside by about 1 am for us. We start fishing tomorrow. Wish us luck!

We departed today on the Dan Heil Memorial charter with his son Ron Heil as charter head. It's pretty cool to see some of the old faces. Dan's charter has been with me for over 25 years. We were in a panic rush to get out and get to the local fishing grounds before dark. We got about three good hours of fishing and snagged a handful of yellowfin, a bluefin and a beautiful opah. Our weather is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for checking in. Tommy and crew P.S. Two spots left on the "Let's Talk Hookup" charter departing next Tuesday.

Sep. 5

Today was a slow day out here for us. We never did find a school. We did a little bit of scratching in the morning, the afternoon was non existent and then we scratched some for about an hour into dark. Only a couple schools seen out here today. It was a slow day for most. We're going to stick it out here for the morning and if we don't see anything in the first couple of hours we're going to work up towards home and look along the way. We're still a long way from home. There's plenty of fishy ground above here too. The weather was OK today. I wouldn't sign up for it. A little breezy and choppy but plenty fishable. Looks like we can expect it better tomorrow and a very nice ride up. Hope they're right.