st johns river Fishing Report 2024

Nov. 13

We finished up the trip today mostly concentrating on yellowtail. We kept the wire on in case we got into some wahoo and weren't going to steer away from tuna either. Well we did get a wahoo today. A nice fat one. 60 pounder? We'll see at the dock. We saw a few schools of tuna that wanted nothing to do with us and we saw a few foamers of good grade yellowtails. We got on top of one of those foamers and they flashed us for a second and then left us. We only caught a handfull before they were gone. We chased down a few other schools but they all sank out before we could get to them.

To recap the trip we caught all you want on big fat dorado, lots and lots of school grade yellowfin tuna and had a pretty good catch of wahoo throughout the trip. We spent two full days hunting the cow yellowfin and saw plenty each and all day but only have a couple trophies to show for our efforts. A lot of non biting fish but that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. We only had a couple days of choppy weather and other then that it's been beautiful. We're heading home right now with just a fantastic ride up the line.

Drew

Hi all my fishing friends:

We are having a great season. The blue fin have been biting mixed with yellow fin and even a smattering of albacore. I have some great opportunities to get out on the Apollo with me and enjoy the great weather and great fishing that we've been having this season.

We have two two day charters that needs anglers. The first two day trip departs Thursday 9/13 at 9 p.m. fishing Friday 9/14 and Sat. 9/15. This trip is limited to 18 passengers. Cost is $650 per angler and includes food and permits. This is a great opportunity to fish on an ultra limited charter with a great group of people. Please contact Dan H. @ 310.704.1497

Another opportunity to fish aboard the Apollo with us has opened up. This is a 2 day trip that fishes September 27-28 (departing the night of the 26th). This outing is limited to 16 anglers.

The unusual part of this trip is half the anglers will be fly fishers. If you conventional fish, this means you get the stern to yourself as fly rodders like the sideways drift of the boat and stay on the windward side on the bow. Fly rodders are the first in on the slide but based on past averages, conventional will still out-fish us 5 to 1. The trip is 670.00 and includes fishing permit, bunk and food. Drinks, crew tip and fish cleaning is extra. If interested or you need more information, contact Michael Schweit at 818-601-9702 or [email protected].

We have a 5 day trip to Guadalupe that needs 2 people. Cost is $1850.00. This trip departs early morning on the October 1st. Fishing October 1 to 6. Only 11 passengers on this one. Contact, Steve Lee 949 683 7957.

I hope some of you will be able to join us on some of these great adventures.

Thanks,

JJ and the crew of the Apollo

Encouraging sign in full day range. 19 Bluefin 7 Yellowfin 7 Yellowtail 31 Bonito. 

San Diego regulars Eli Malfavon and Elmer Mun display a couple nice yellowfin they landed in our all day drift. We stopped the boat once for 103 yellowfin and 27 skipjack.

Capt Ryan Bostain checked in from the San Diego, they have been fishing offshore the last week and have been scratching away getting 20 to 40 Yellowfin Tuna a day. But yesterday we had a private charter that was a rent rod group, we found our first really aggressive Yellowfin. We got on the school of fish that ranged from 20 to 60 lbs, and we ended up putting 92 of these fish on the boat. If you come down make sure to bring a variety of set ups, make sure you have gear ranging from 25 to 50 lbs as they were biting the heavy line yesterday. The jigs and poppers have been working well also. We depart everyday at 5:30 am, we are headed out right now and will check back in later.

Fishing today was absolutely fantastic. The morning started out slow. We were scratching on the anchor. We thought we were in for another slow day. But we made a move to a new area and had some phenomenal fishing on some nice grade yellowtail. Beautiful average of about 22 lbs or so. We were fishing with a porpoise school and sharks.

Lots of surface iron. Lots of action. Weather is good. Nice and sunny in the afternoon. Tomorrow we'll be be looking for some cow yellowtail.

Thanks for checking in. Tommy and crew

Polaris Supreme docked September 17 at Fisherman's Landing under owner Tom Rothery's hand following an eight-day Gary Roberts charter trip to Alijos Rocks and The Ridge. "It was a good trip," said Roberts, "with lots of fish caught and lots of fish lost." Sizeable tuna were hard to catch at the rocks, said Tom, because the skipjack, small tuna and sharks were all thick and hungry. The tuna were there, however, as were some wahoo. The Ridge got a good lock from the 24 anglers aboard the Supreme. They said there were plenty of yellowtail and lots of grouper and snapper biting there. Rothery said the temperature on The Ridge was very warm, at 81.5 degrees. Tom estimated that his anglers each released about 20 small tuna and four or five yellowtail. Jay Kotsier of Tulare showed off a pink pargo, also known as red snapper. These are excellent eating, especially if they have been kept in refrigerated sea water instead of under a frozen brine spray. Tom, Kroes of Tipton was first, for a 65.2-pound yellowfin tuna he got with a sardine on a 5/0 Mustad hook, 50-pound Big Game line, a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar 7465 rod. Everett Combs of PAZlm Springs was second, for a 62-pounder, and Alan Holleyman of Napa won third place for a 60.6-pound tuna. Bill Kuehl of Poway stood in with the winner, posing with his 50-pound wahoo taken on a Burns Bomb in Christmas colors.

We fished our first day of the 5 day offshore kelp hunting. We saw plenty of kelps most having mucho yellowtail and mucho dorado on them. Unfortunately they were not in the moods to eat. We scratched out 60 mixed fish for our efforts today. We're heading for Benitos Island to fish for the night and at least a few hours in the morning. If it doesn't look good we will shoot down to the next island, Cedros.