st joe bay Fishing Report 2023

July 28
    Today we had about as good of yellowtail fishing as you can get.  Quality to quantity ratio, holy Toledo.  18-25 pound fish and they were biting pretty much as full speed as yellows bite for a couple hours and after that it slowed down but they were still biting well for a couple more.  If you have read my past reports you know that surface iron fishing on big yellows is my favorite kind of fishing and it was pretty much wide open on the surface iron.  Holy Toledo!  I'm not the only one who felt this way either.  We have a Polaris Supreme first timer on board, his name is Josh and he may love it more then me.  He named his dog after a surface iron.  Tady.  How cool is that?  We've had a tank of mackerel on board for about 3 weeks and we finally let them go today.  On hooks that is before getting eaten by yellows.  In the late afternoon ewe looked for bait and found some a couple hours before dark and caught a tank full of nice mackerel.  We restocked our supply.  We made a couple drifts along a kelp line while the sun set and tugged on a few calico bass and now we're headed up to fish tuna tomorrow.  Sweet dreams.
                            
    Oh yeah, Happy Anniversary to Renee.  I think you know who that's from Renee.
                    

 

~~Nov.10
 OK.  It took until 4:00 this evening but I finally made up my mind of where we're going to go.  All day long it's been running through my head.  "rocks or ridge, rocks or ridge.  They both had there advantages and disadvantages but I believe I made the choice with the more advantages for this stage of the trip.  It's like a chess game out here sometimes with the rest of the fleet.

 So as you know we traveled all day.  We did a fishing seminar shortly after breakfast and I feel I got everyone on board super pumped on catching cow tuna so now we're going to have to do it.  No pressure though.  Tackle rigging, naps, relaxation, antsy.  Basically all the feelings.  Right now most of the boat is watching a batman movie loudly.  Some are lounging on the upper deck but dinner should be soon and off goes the movie.  It smells terrific too.  Baby back ribs tonight.

 So we have about 1/2 a day of traveling left to do and then we'll be in full fish mode for about a week straight.  Here we go.
          

HOT TRIP TO BE ON!!! APOLLO still have 3 spot open for a 6 day trip leaving Fri Oct 13th & returns thurs Oct 19th. This your chance for an awesome trip. Call for info and reservations at Fisherman's Landing @ (619)221-8500

Nice yellow Pablo! Made a little bit of squid and things were looking pretty fishy. Got one fish and saw some more. Game fish scene is straightening out.

Hands down the best fishing the AZTEC has ever seen!! Our standouts were a 321lb, 298lb, & 292lb. We also had 48 more Bluefin from 50-120lbs and 407 Yellowfin!!
***Call Seaforth to book the AZTEC 619.224.3383

"What an absolutely, fantastic, unbelievable day," wrote Tommy Rothery aboard his Polaris Supreme November 2. "We had more marlin than you can imagine. We hooked and are released over 220. The wahoo fishing was also fantastic. The group had a blast pulling in "crocodile" size wahoo. And we topped off the day with even bigger dorado than yesterday. The weather is good and we just had an awesome day on all three: wahoo, dorado and marlin." The next day Rothery wrote, "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." Rothery docked at Fisherman's Landing November 6 after his Larry Brown charter with 22 anglers. "The place was thick with marlin," he remarked. "There's lots of bait and the water where we're fishing is 78 to 79 degrees." Dr. Chris Minnick of Pasadena won first place for a 71.6-pound yellowfin. He said he bagged it in about ten minutes,, after it bit on a sardine pinned to a 3/0 Hayabusa hook. He used 60-pound Soft Steel Ultra line and 80-pound Izorline Spectra backing on an Avet EXW 4-2 reel and a Calstar 765 L rod.
Mike Mayes of Rnancho Santa Margarita won second place for a 54.6-pound wahoo. Ron Stafford of Minot, ND won third place for a 53-pound yellowfin tuna. A gentleman identified as "Duke" posed in the lineup shot with a typical dorado from the trip.

Hello Everyone, It has been pretty action packed today. Starting with biting Yellowfin Tuna in the dark then, changing to picking at Grouper and Wahoo during the day. Now settling back into a night time pick on the Yellowfin Tuna. It seems like there is always something going on. We are loving the variety and cannot wait for what tomorrow brings. Will Report again tomorrow, Team Supreme

~~Sep 13
 Thank goodness for slow speed.  Even though we got a really good jump yesterday, we weren't going to be getting anywhere down below till late tomorrow.  Our speed was horrible.  1.5 knots below average.  But we sped up this morning.  Yup.  This morning we were only making .75 knots below average.  That all costs a whole lot of time when you're traveling great distances so we decided we'd have to be stopping short.  So that's what we did this afternoon, arriving at 4:30.

 Wow!  It didn't take long before everyone had a tuna on.  And they weren't those 8-14 pounders either.  There were some of those, but the majority of them were those 20-30 pounders.  I say again, "wow".  It bit steady the whole time we which is a couple of hours.  During the stop, I had tied a few hooks and cast a few baits out, you know , like we do, and quite a few times the hook would fall off and I would scratch my head and ask myself, " are my knots failing"?  They weren't.  It took crew member Justin to spot a wahoo flying out of the water to figure it out.

 So we wound them in and threw back the marauders.  Before dark, which wasn't long, we had a little binger for 5 and then one for 1 50 pounder.  Say it with me now.  "Wow"!  We aren't going anywhere tonight.  We'l just kick back and see what the day has to offer.

 My buddy Glen caught the 50 pound wahoo today.  Every year for a while now he has been the last member of the little troll team that I like to call, " the troll of shame"  That's the last few people on board who have not yet caught a wahoo.  He will not be joining that team this year.  Nope.  This year he can join the heckling party.  He get's to see what it's like from the other side.  Way to go Glen.