socal saltwater Fishing Report 2023

Back after a five-day trip, the 7th Annual Paul Chappell Charter aboard the Polaris Supreme arrived at Fisherman's Landing July 10. The 24 anglers were guided by skipper Drew Henderson.
"We got some nice yellowtail at San Martin," remarked Drew, "but there's a lot of that big squid around there. You can't get any more yellows once they get on you." Chartermaster Chappell won first place for his 34.6-pound albacore. He said he bagged it with a sardine on a 2/0 Mustad 94150 hook on 30-pound Yo-Zuri line. He fished with a Penn Squidder reel and a Sabre seven-foot rod of the same era. Phil Beltrami of Napa won second place for a 33.4-pounder, and Craig Pappas of Santa Cruz won third place for a 32.4-pound longfin.

~~Oct. 12
 Here's what went down today.  Breakfast, then American Hustle(movie), then a whole lot of tuna leader making, then the Charger game.  Listen to this.  Our goofball crew member Mark Clark, well he claims to be a Raider fan but the only time he seems to care what they do is when they play the Chargers.  Myself and the rest of the crew usually bet 20 dollars on each game. Well today couldn't have played out better.  Prior to the start of the game he assumed we were betting and to rub it in that the Raiders are no good, I claimed I didn't want to bet because I'd feel I was taking money out of his sons pocket.  He insisted  we bet so we did.  I still had it planned out to give him his money back if the Chargers blew them out as the ultimate rub in.  So if you didn't know, it was a nail biter.  Mark missed the last couple minutes of the game and everyone on board made him think that the Raiders won.  He immediately came down to the galley and just absolutely let me have it.  I don't know
 how but I managed to keep a straight enough face to still have him think the Raiders won.  Ever since then he's been on cloud 9.  I don't know how and when I'll break the news and bring his reality crashing down to a major low.  I'm sure looking forward to it though.  He thinks he's up 120 bucks but more importantly to him he gets to talk all that smack. 

 Anyways, moving on.  It's cocktail hour now and soon we will be feasting on a veal chop.  One more day.  The weather is fantastic right now.  A beautiful sunset too.

         

 

Aug. 27-28

Here's a 2 dayer for you all. I forgot to write yesterday's report due to my enthusiasm not being crazy high about it. So we fished in these bluefin grounds all day yesterday and for a few hours in the morning today for not much. Yesterday we were seeing sign of fish around. We didn't see any schools driving around but we'd get a meter mark and stop the boat and after a while we'd see a handful or two sometimes more come under the boat and sometimes we would get a few and other times we wouldn't but at that rate the final tally wasn't anything to write home about so that's probably why I didn't. Today wasn't better. I can't say we ever saw a fish even on the machines. We looked through the traditional area early for nothing then went that way for a while then we turned that way for a while and then we turned that way for a while and then we called it a trip. It means nothing for future trips the way this bluefin is. Tomorrow can be wide open. A hell of a trip anyways if you've been reading you'd know it. The boats clean and everyone on board is stuffed and rested. We'll be getting in at 6:00 in the am tomorrow and then we're departing on the 9 day! I'm really looking forward to it. Getting out of this cool August offshore weather and into the warm wahooey weather. As Joe Beck would say, "yeah baby". Thanks to everyone on board and shame on those who were thinking about making it but didn't. You missed the best bluefin bite you've probably ever seen. Drew

Captain Ryan Bostian checked in tonight with an update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in Mission Bay. Today we caught 2 Bluefin Tuna, 30 California Yellowtail and 1 Pacific Bonito. We never found the big yellowtail blowout we were looking for but we did see sign of Bluefin.

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.

22 yellowtail 16 barracuda 5 bass. Flyline baits on 25 pound line worked best.

Very similar to last week with the exception of a big yellowtail day. The potential for a big yellowtail score is definitely out there but several things must come together. On Friday I thought we were going to get our shot. We stopped at a spot and instantly had 8 yellowtail hooked and we were seeing a big school around us. While we were fighting our first 8 fish the motherlode of big bull seal ions came in to ruin our fun. When the dust settled we had only landed 3 and the big school was scared away by the cute cuddly seal ions. Water conditions are about as nice as they could be with temperatures ranging from 67-70 degrees and very clean. The calico bass fishing has been good on the days we get anchovies and the barracuda continue to bite very well at times. All and all we had a very enjoyable week catching surface fish in very nice weather. Hot and sunny in flat calm seas catching gamefish describes our current conditions perfectly. Tackle to bring out remains the same. A 15 or 20 lb. rod to fish anchovies a 25 or 30 lb. rod to fish sardines a 40 lb. jig stick and an assortment of hooks (2's and 2/0's) and small egg or rubber core sinkers (1/8-1/2 oz.) will have you covered.

See you on the water!

Capt. Ryan

July 7

Today was kind of a disapointing day for me. I had plans of having good fishing in the morning at Cedros then heading to Benitos and having descent fishing there. Well the water got funky on us due to the big south swell that was pushed up from the tropical storm that rode it's way up. It was a green green green and the yellows didn't like it. They were still there like they had been for the last week but they didn't bite well. After 4 1/2 hours we gave up on it and went with plan b. We arrived at Benitos after lunch and I will say we saw a good amount of fish all over the island. The problem was the sea lion population. Those things are out of control right now. It's wierd how it works at that island. Sometimes they're tolerable and sometimes they're not. Today they were not. We're headed back to Cedros now and we'll give it another chance tomorrow. This south swell seemed to back off some late today so hopefully there is some strong current through the night tonight to flush all that icky water out of there.

I just reread what I wrote and it sounds worse than it was. We scratched out an ok day. We averaged over 3 fish per rod. Compared to the last week it was slow but back up further and we had a stellar day. See you tomorrow.