pymatuning lake Fishing Report 2023

The San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego,CA checked in with us today:

No yellowtail for us today, even though we did stop on a few schools. Canceled for tomorrow due to lack of reservations.

Sep. 6

Well we accomplished what we wanted to do today. We gave everyone a good shot at one of those cow bluefin tuna. It was at 6:05 in the am when the school got on us. We started off hooking yellowfin and watching those 100 +sers blowing out around the boat. It didn't take long for us to start hooking them. We drifted for a couple of hours with bluefin hanging on the lines. Like always with these beasts the hook to land ratio was not good. There were alot of heartbreaks for the passengers and myself and the crew. We only landed 4 of them all in the 130's. We lost a lot more then that. A few just mere feet away from being gaffed. It' a sad thing to have one of these on for an hour only to lose it in the end. Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you. After the school left us we pretty much had to point her for home with a good load of fish from the trip and smiles on the lucky 4 and tears in the eyes of the rest. Short lived though. We get over these

things. You'll get them next time. We're experiencing a very nice ride home. Finally we get to wear shorts and teeshirts out here. Nice. Thanks to everyone on board. We'll be arriving tomorrow and then turning around on a 5 day trip. Should be good fishing. See you then.

~~Aug 5
 The pressure is off.  We never made it down to any Island today like we planned.  At about 9 am or so the sonar went clunk, clunk and we went sideways for an hour.  It wasn't the best grade but it definitely wasn't the worst.  It was this years middle grade. 8-14 pounds with a sprinkling of 16-22 pounders in the mix.  Like I said, not the best but not the 2-6 pounders either.  But for a stressed out 4 day captain, it was lovely.  They bit good for about an hour and then they backed off.  After that we dedicated ourselves to that zone.  We figured that school of 14-25 pounders was just right over there.  It wasn't.  We didn't see another school of tuna.  However, we did find a nice kelp loaded up with big yellowtail.  They bit really well for a while too.  In fact , they were on the corner like tuna get on the corner for a good 20 minutes and when they backed off the corner, they still bit good for a while.  Other then that though we didn't see much other then the occasional small tuna on the trolling jigs but we're stoked for what we got today.  The pressure is off.

 We're going to stick with the plan and spend tomorrow at an Island hopefully drifting for hours.  The weather has finally backed off after a couple weeks of blowing.  Hopefully we get some descent weather for a nice long stretch and can get back to fishing where we please when we please.
     

10 bluefin tuna 2 yellowfin tuna. We are seeing fish from 10 lbs to over 200 pounds. A 25 lb bait rod, a 40 lb bait rod and a 50,60 or 80 lb rod is recommended. If you do not own the proper tackle. Seaforth is renting 50 lb rods with a 2 speed reel. These rental rods have already conquered a lot of our fish.

We are putting the Tuna to sleep here aboard the Polaris Supreme! Great grade again 60-110 lb fish. Big fish paired nicely with great weather. We are loving it! 

Here we have Crewman Jake and Chef Roger rocking this Ahi to bed! About to sleep nicely in the 32 degree RSW fishhold.

Sep. 8

We woke up this morning on the drift. I heard Tommy doing the stop and go on his watch early in the morning meaning he was seeing schools. He woke the rest of us up bright and early and it didn't take too long before we started hooking fish. They were the 15-18 pound bluefin and they weren't biting as well as you'd think they would judging by all the fish around the boat. We kept drifting though trying the patient mode. It's a lot easier to be patient with non biting fish when the other boats aren't getting stops. After a while and a few handfuls of BFT we gave up on these fish and went searching for some new ones. It took a while but around lunch time we found a nice big fat kelp and it was an aquarium underneath. Good viewing and catching on lot's of different fish from small throwback yellowtail to small tuna and tuna up to 32 pounds and lots of dorado. Yes it's that time of year. The water warmed up considerably in the last week or so and with that came schools of yellowfin and now the dorado in numbers. We'll take um. Crowd pleaser's is what they are and you know us, we like to please crowds. After a couple hours fishing there we went searching for something new unsuccessfully so we ended up back on our kelp and caught some more dorado and a few more tuna. We're now headed for the yellowtail grounds and everyone is fat and happy and we're planning on some good pulling on big yellows tomorrow.

I ate the escolar again substituting it for the prime rib in the fajitas we had for lunch today. It was smooth sailing John and I mean that in a good way. No problems down there. The fish isn't the best fish in the ocean. The flavor is great though the texture is a bit soft. Opening day for pro football so I'll leave you with this. Go Chargers! Let's do some competing this year. My Pad's couldn't do it so now it's up to you guys. Come on now!

8 Bluefin and 3 Bonito today for our group. The big one weighed in at 215 pounds gill and gutted (probably 240lbs) The fish was caught on a flatfall and 100 pound test.