santee cooper catfish Fishing Report 2023

June 28
We found some action early this morning on a kelp with some yellowtails.  Mark found it but I don't think I can give him credit for it.  "twelve  oclock, a trash can lid.  Oh I lost it. oh nine o'clock. ile in a half.  No, half mile.  Two trash can lids.  Oh I lost it".  The second time he lost it he looked ion the wrong side of the boat so i found it and  it was a good sized kelp.  Oh Mark.  Anyhow, everyone on the boat got to pull and tug on a little yeller and tag one or two if they chose.   We hit it a couple times before getting in tuna mode.  Things looked very similar to yesterday.  Many spots of yellowfin around, just no meat to it.  I'm talking 6-12 fish schools mostly and they weren't very interested in us.We worked very hard for just a handful of fish.  The good news is it wasn't boring as I think I mentioned last night.  The fish kept us on  our toes.  Good sight seeing.  Good fishing, bad catching.  Oh well.  We still had a good time out here on our first trip of the year and we have our passengers to thank.
Please excuse the spelling.  I'm sitting back in my chair as I write this and the letters on the screen are to small to see and the E on this keyboard keeps falling off.  We'll get everything under control real soon.

 

"We fished at Cedros Island and we fished on offshore kelps," said Polaris Supreme skipper Drew Henderson July 28. He'd just ended a five-day Catchy Tackle trip with 24 anglers, and was weighing the catch at the Fisherman's Landing scales.
"We got yellowtail, dorado and some non-biting albacore," he added, "and; wow!" The albacore he hung on the scales pushed the numbers up to 41 pounds even. "That's the best one so far this season," I remarked. Henderson high-fived angler Al Brandenburg, who grinned and brought his fish over to the side for some photos. Brandenburg said he got the big longfin on a sardine and a 2/0 Flyliner hook. He used 30-pound Izorline on a Trinidad 30 reel and a Calstar 700 M rod. He won second place in the jackpot. Harvey Rosen of Benecia bagged a 43.6-pound yellowtail on the dropper loop to win first place. "He fought like a bulldog," said Rosen, who used a sardine on a 4/0 Mustad hook with 60-pound Izorline XXX mono, an Avet 4-2 reel and a Seeker 6460 glass rod to beat his fish in ten minutes. Don Spitzer of Petaluma was third, for a 33.8-pound yellowtail. Chartermaster Wayne Martin hoisted a dorado he said was typical of those encountered on kelps.

Today we spent the day in the crows nest looking for kelps. We had 73 degree water and flat seas . We were able to find some nice kelp patties with some Dorado and a few Wahoo on them. Nice little hits of action through out the day. Tomorrow we will be at Guadalupe Island to try for trophies. Here we have Gary with a great kelp patty Dorado on the light line! Also here is Mark with his first wahoo of the trip!

Nov. 15

                Not much to report from us today.  It was a pretty uneventful day.  We traveled all morning until after lunch when we arrived to the Islands, and we never saw a yellowtail.  It was dead as can be at this place.  We took the tour, well as much as we could in a few hours, and ended up back here in the lee.  We were and still are catching calico bass and things.  We did hook something big, a yellow or a big halibut or even a seabass, but we'll never know because the hook straightened out right before we could see it and the fish got away.  And that's it.  We're going to try and keep our anchor hung right here and see what kind of conditions we have here in the morning for our last day of fishing.  As soon as the wind backs off enough for a tolerable ride offshore Tuesday morning, we'll be on our way home.

                                                                                                               

Skipper Drew Henderson docked Polaris Supreme July 13 after a three-day trip with 23 anglers. "There's good sign of fish down to at least 150 miles," he said. "The ocean is nice, and about 67.3 degrees." Don Todd of Sun Valley won first place on the trip for his 37.8-pound albacore. He said it grabbed a sardine on a 3/0 ringed Super Mutu hook tied to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader and 30-pound P-Line on a Penn 555 reel and a seven-foot rod. "That fish made my day," said Don. "It felt good!" Sam Ferarelli of Los Alamitos got a 34-pound albacore and Dennis McNeely of Santa Cruz found a 33.6-pounder for second and third places.

Captain Mike Pritchard called this afternoon and called in to report 45 Yellowfin Tuna in the 12 to 18 pound class. We did hook up a few larger Bluefin Tuna but lost them all. We are now in the zone and look forward to putting together a nice catch. We will be fishing this area all day tomorrow as we are on a 2.5 day trip. Stay tuned ...

We worked hard to get our hundred fish today. Lots and lots of schools that didn't cooperate all that well. They were biting pretty good at the end with steady hook ups on the but hooked bait on the bow. We're grateful with the action and catch we got today. We'll be signing off for a little over a week. The next trip is a 7 day departing on October 7th. Take care then, bye bye now.

"It was really good fishing wahoo at the bank," said Rothery at the sales. "We stayed there two days and then went in to the southern banks where the big fish were." All the big fish (there were 13 tuna over 200 pounds weighed on the certified scales at Fisherman's) came from the southern banks. There were just as many from 100 to 200 pounds as there were cows, and those were found in both spots. "The Baja tuna were real steady biters," said Rothery. "There were lots of ‚Дтem around, we could see ‚Дтem at the surface and on the meter most of the time." Research biologist Chugey Sepulveda got the big one, related his pal and fellow biologist Scott ("Scootch") Aalbers of San Diego. Chugey wasn't able to be at the weigh-in. The fish weighed 306.2 pounds. Chugey had two more cows, at 220 and 201 pounds. "Scootch" said Chugey got the big one and the others on one of the boat's heavy rigs and the kite. He used two sardines on 6/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, tied to 130-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra, on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. "He got it on the next to the last day," said Scootch, "about four p.m. He fought it for an hour and 15 minutes, and it wrapped him around the anchor line about 15 times. The crew helped out a lot with the fork." Tom Bass of Newport Beach won second place for a 274.8-pound tuna. He also had a 232 and a 206-pound yellowfin. Tom said he got his fish on a sardine and an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, pm 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader of 15 feet, tied to 130-pound Izor Spectra on a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 6460 XXH rod. Hack Bernstein of Valencia bagged a 269.6-pounder. He fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 130-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izor Spectra on a boat rig: Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. Pat Jaeger of Bishop posed with his daughter Maggie, three, and the 268-pound tuna he got with a double sardine rig on the kite. He said he used 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izor Spectra on a Penn 50 W reel and a Baja Boomer rod. Ryan Gillette of Orange was another who used a double trouble sardine rig on the boat's rod and reel to take a 246-pounder. Robert Kalatschan found a brace of cows, at 226 and 213 pounds. There were two more cows that appeared at the scales without tags, said Susan Rothery. One weighed 214 pounds and the other went 202.