san juan river Fishing Report 2023

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

Hi friends. Today, a couple boats came out of their days looking like Kate Beckinsale and some boats came out looking like the love-child of Whoopi Goldberg and Gary Busey. I'd like to think we were somewhere in between. Anyhow, we caught a few handfuls of nice bluefin, a couple of nice yellowtail and one really nice dorado. It's just a matter of finding one that wants to stick with us and bite. Our weather is okay and we'll be giving it our all tomorrow. See ya.

The spring Season is nearly upon us and we will be taking the Apollo to Santa Barbara for the rockfish opener and hopefully a productive seabass season. We have an unusual amount of open weekend dates for this spring, between March 1rst and May 15th. Take a look at our calendar at apollocharters.com. Take advantage of these rare openings and book your own charter with me and my excelent crew today. Come fish with us out of Santa Barbara and experience the easiest and shortest ride to Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands. This means more fishing time and easier access to those harder to reach destinations. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you, J.J. Gerritsen.

Fishing Update

Our Sat. Sept. 10th 2 Day is a go!!!!!  We are still looking for a few more anglers to join us, but we are going fishing!!!!

Well we are back out on the water. We departed today on a 5-day with 24 anxious anglers. There are some new faces mixed in with some regulars. Our weather looks like it is going to be good. We will be heading for open water to look for tuna. Dinner tonight was a superb prime rib, with fresh vegetables and potato.

Thanks for checking in.

30 pass. 12 yellowtail 4 yellowfin tuna 2 dorado. Decent yellowfin sign but they were difficult to hook. Light line and small hook was the best chance. We also managed 2 dorado. Can’t say I have ever seen dorado in 66 degree water but nothing is normal anymore.

Tommy Rothery returned Polaris Supreme to Fisherman's Landing November 18 after a ten-day Ocean Tackle Research charter. The boat had 13 anglers aboard. Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen of Hood River, OR saw his father, Bill Mikkelsen of Olympia, WA land the season's first super cow; a tuna over 300 pounds.
"It was full-speed fishing," said Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen. Bill Mikkelsen's big fish won first place after it weighed in at 308.8-pounds, caught on a fly-lined sardine. Bill used the boats gear, including a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 100-pound P-Line, and a Shimano rod and reel.
"Tommy said it was tail-wrapped from the beginning," said the elder Mikkelsen. "And he was, but he got lose and went on another run. He took me around the boat twice." "We started with yellowtail fishing on the ridge that turned out to be a real good bite," said Rothery. "We easily could have got limits on yellowtail and dorado, but these guys normally release most of their fish. We had one day of awesome marlin fishing, which this group enjoyed quite a bit." "I think we had maybe 200 hookups on marlin," said John Esler of Portland. "But our yellowfin bite was pretty amazing. Once Tommy would find them, he'd shut the motors off and just drift. They didn't need a lot of chum either, they were boiling all around the boat." Esler landed a 206.7-pound yellowfin.
Matt Kiesse of Cederville, CA was second place with a 279.8-pound yellowfin.
"The trip was just spectacular," said Kiesse. "We got everything." Lon Mikkelsen was third with a 277.9-pound tuna. The trip scored five tuna over 200 pounds.

Captain Mike Pritchard called in to report 17 Yellowtail from our first kelp. We also had 2 Bluefin Tuna up to 65 pounds. We are seeing spots of Bluefin today and some other boats have scores up to 30 fish. The weather is fantastic. Stay tuned ...

Mike Pritchard called in with this report from the Tribute. "So far we have a really good sign of Bluefin. We have definitely lost a lot more than we have landed. Right now we have 7 or 8 fish. The fish are running 40 lbs. to 50 lbs. Some of the fish we have lost is just due to insufficient tackle. These are really very large Bluefin. I know there was 1 Bluefin caught here yesterday that ran about 180 lbs. So if you are coming out on a trip you want to make sure you bring the right tackle. 40 lbs. would be the bare minimum. We'll keep you informed as the day progresses.