russian river ca Fishing Report 2024

Epic fishing is here once again! 10 cows hit the deck, topped with a 307!! Thanks United Composites, Okuma, Phenix Rods, and Seeker for outfitting us with what I think are the best on the market if your looking for cow gear. Now these days I should say super cow gear!!! Not to forget owner hooks!#okuma #phenixrods #unitedcomposites #seekerrods

This season has been full of extreme conditions. Our weather has been either flat grease calm with air temps pushing triple digits or victory at sea borderline dangerous. Our fishing has been either crazy wide open or scary slow. Today’s trip had a little of everything. Strong South wind in the morning followed by calm seas in the afternoon. Empty kelp patties in the morning followed by crazy wide open bonito smash. We never found a wide open dorado kelp but managed to scratch 27 along with 8 yellowfin tuna and a handful of yellowtail and skipjack.

Captain JJ has been catching fish and having fun. For the next week he is chartered up but he does have a trip for April 10th.

We're on our way home after an absolutely great day of fishing," said Mike Pritchard. "We ended up with 136 Bluefin tuna, 8 Dorado, 6 Yellowtail and 50 Skipjack. It was very, very good fishing for a 1 Day trip.

"We are leaving on a 1.5 Day trip tonight that is sold out. But there is room on Suday night's 1.5 Day trip. If you are interested give Seaforth Landing a call at 619-224-3383."

Tom Rothery docked his Polaris Supreme July 18 after an eight-day trip with 16 anglers aboard. His group found some good fishing at Alijos Rocks and Alijos Bank.
"Yesterday we had good fishing on wahoo in the morning," he wrote Sunday July 15, "and excellent fishing on tuna in the afternoon. The average weight on the tuna ranged from 45 to 70 pounds. Our weather is still good. Chef Tommy put out some great meals again. Lunch yesterday was yellowtail served over fresh spinach, surrounded by black beans with a spicy avocado cilantro sauce. And dinner was Cornish game hens topped with a spicy apricot sauce on wild rice with grilled asparagus on the side.
"Fishing this morning has started off again with wahoo biting and this afternoon we will fish the tuna again. We still have some open spots on Sept. 8th an 8-day trip, if you want to come get some of these wahoo. Give Susan a call at 619-390-7890."
Boat builder Harold Davis fished on the trip. "It was a great group," said Harold, "and we had four guys who had been skippers on the Bongos boats in Newport Beach. The whole group was good fishermen; we didn't have many tangles or much shoulder bumping. We had excellent food, too, like prime rib, rack of lamb, Ahi steaks with wasabi. My best fish was a yellowfin tuna, but I got some wahoo on bombs; purple bombs."
Zander Rodriguez of Loveland, CO made his first long range trip with the group. Zander is entering the University of Colorado this fall as a baseball pitcher, at age 18. He also plays golf. He had the second-best yellowtail at 44.2 pounds, a wahoo, and also got a white seabass on the 13 Spot.
Skipper Rothery weighed the best fish on the certified scales at Fisherman's Landing. Daniel McCaffery of Norco won first place for a 60.8-pound yellowfin tuna. He said he fished a sardine on a 2/0 Super Mutu hook. He used 40-pound Big Game line on a TLD 20 reel and a seven-foot glass Calstar rod.

Bob Wolfson of Dana Point was second, for a 56.4-pound tuna, and Harold Davis, the boat builder from Morro Bay, won third place for his 52.4-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna.

After a juicy prime rib dinner and a movie last night, the guys were fast asleep. Today after breakfast we did our tuna and wahoo fishing seminars. After lunch we spent the afternoon reading, leaders, rods, reels, and putting together a few spare gaffs. Our bait looks beautiful and the weather going down great. There is a couple of guys who couldn't make it this year that we already miss being around. Charlie we miss you doing laps. Hope your wife is doing well. And Jimmy, Javier said today would have been a great day for bean soup! Our evening consisted of chicken Cordon Blue, another movie and back to bed. Tomorrow we may do a little fishing for meals and hors d'oeuvres. We will let you know how it goes.

Well if we thought yesterday was phenomenal, today was even better. I know I'm repeating myself but the fishing was just great again on the wahoo and dorado. And yes the marlin are still here and wanted to play. We have good weather and this is a nice way to end the trip. Great group, great fishing, great crew.

Conditions at the islands are improving very fast. We saw a couple of schools of yellowtail today and landed one. Excellent red fishing on some well rested stones.