st johns river palatka Fishing Report 2024

Well, things do change. Conditions aren't looking good. The water here is dirty and just not right for a good yellow bite. Hope it changes.

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Hi friends. Big, beautiful 25-45 lb. yellowfin with a few handfuls of those beastly bluefin is what was on our plate today. We had a couple of good drifts in fantastic weather that made our day just dandy. Everybody is really amazed by this quality grade of yellowfin and I'm personally amazed that crewmember Mark doesn't have his own television show. Networks are missing out on what a goldmine following Mark around with a camera would be, 24/7. Some people might think that they're paying a healthy sum of money to come out fishing on a long range boat but I look at it like, people are paying a lot of money to come spend a few days with Mark Clark.

Anyhow, here is a short recap of our day: good morning (0545 hours), good breakfast (French toast, sausage, and eggs), good trolling rotations, good fishing, good weather, good sunshine, good lunch (chili), good fishing, good afternoon snacks, good galley assistant/chef-in-training (Shawn), good friends, good times, good dinner (roasted turkey with all the goods), good showers, good squid making, good night. It's alllllllllllll good. We allllllll bundle.We'll chat with you tomorrow.

P.S. Thank you to Jim Bostian for hooking us up with the San Diego merchandise. You're the man and if you're ever looking to hop on a 3/4 day boat, hop on the San Diego our risk losing us as friends forever. Thanks Jim.

Today we scoured the zone we had been seeing our tuna and today they were nowhere to be found. Hoping they show themselves again tomorrow. 16 yellowtail 3 dorado 59 bonito 1 skipjack.

~~Sep. 18
 Well we had some action today.  We fished our wahoo/tuna honey hole.  It wasn't red hot but we made some drifts and caught some fish.  Our last couple schools we saw before lunch didn't react so we took a tour.  We found some tuna a couple hours into the tour.  The bigger ones.  The 25-35 pounders but we weren't ready.  Some were napping or lounging.  It hit us quick.  Everyone that made it out hooked up but it didn't last long.  We got on a couple of more deals after that but they were smaller fish.  12 pounders so we continued on our tour.  We looked for yellowtail in the afternoon but like everywhere right now it seems, there wasn't any current. 
  The weather straightened out for us today.  It was nice again.  We have one day left to fish and we want to do it catching yellowtail.  The elusive yellowtail.  That's usually the fish we don't have trouble finding but we've struck out this trip on them thus far.  We have about 30.  We want more so that's what we'll do.  From where we'll be fishing we can fish until lunch but then we have to hit the road for home.
       
 

The Endeavor out of Ventura Harbor Sportfishing checked in with us after returning from an Overnight trip with 26 anglers.

Fish Count:
5 Lingcod
4 Kelp Bass
9 White Seabass
27 California Sheephead
2 California Yellowtail
6 Cabezon
260 Ocean Whitefish
112 Rockfish

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived this morning to the docks at around 0700 and said good-bye to our friends from SDG & E. We unloaded a beautiful catch of Yellowtail and a dazzling assortment of other tasty fish and the big Yellowtail honors go as follows: Lenny Campos - 26.2 lbs. Ulises Ochoa - 25.0 lbs. Rodger Schwecke - 24.8 lbs. Congratulations and thanks once again to the entire gang and we'll see everyone next season. After unloading, refueling, a couple of minor maintenance projects, loading groceries, and scrubbing the boat from mast to water-line, we loaded up another eager group of passengers and set sail for greater points south on another three day extravaganza.

 

Our group is quite the mix of Polaris Supreme veterans and Polaris Supreme first-timers but it's looking like we're going to have a fun group to fish with. We're headed right back to where we ended up last trip and with a steady flow of other boats in our wake, we're wasting no time in getting down there. We'll try and relocate some squid for a little while and if we can't, we're bombing on down to our honey hole with plenty of sardines and one tank of squid from last trip. We're knocking on wood and wishing upon lucky stars that our honey hole can give us one more chance at some good fishing before the place gets too congested. Please send us some luck from the beach. This is a team effort.

 

So there you have it. Our weather as we are steaming down the coast is gorgeous. A mild swell and light winds have made for premium traveling conditions and we'll be more than pleased if it continues until Wednesday morning but as we've seen, things can change in the snap of a finger. We're just enjoying the fact that the ride is currently beautiful, the Prime Rib was once again delicious, and our spirits are high. We'll report to you tomorrow.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Hi friends. The result of this morning's squid float was two deck wells and the port slammer being loaded up with squid. It was a great float with the entire crew waking up to get the job done in just about twenty minutes. What was an ocean void of squid-life at 1:45 AM  was then corroded with calamari at 2:00 AM. Swimming with the thousands upon thousands of squid were baby Mola-Mola's that were about the size of a hub cap. We had to push them out of the way to close the crowder without getting a few of those baby beasts in the net. We got all the bait we needed and then some along with some cool views of amazing ocean life.

Back to Friday for a moment, it was a decent day of Yellowtail fishing on the Polaris Supreme and what kept it from being a very good day was our score at the end of the day. For various reasons, we lost more fish than we tagged but we ended up with a respectable count on the 'tails. We also added plenty of white meat to our RSW hold and when the hatch was shut for the evening, we felt content with a solid day of catching fish in nice weather.

Saturday morning found us fishing the bait balls of squid as we attempted to snag a White Seabass or two. We didn't give it long before we began the chase for some more Yellows' and after a couple anchor jobs, we found yesterday's batch of fish but this time we were armed with plenty of freshly caught squid. Even with our brand new supply of bait we once again lost more than we hooked but just like Friday, we managed to piece together a nice catch of Yellows' in the 15-28 lb. range. Beautiful grade of fish, from the Yellowtail to all the various "taco meat" fish that we captured as well. Again, we are satisfied with our day but felt we should have done a lot better with our hook-to-land ratio. That's fishing though. There will be days that we land most of what we hook and there will be days that we don't. Just remember that when on a trip fishing for coastal species on the Polaris Supreme or any vessel, don't treat it as if they don't require the respect and attention to detail that offshore tuna would muster. Make sure your gear is in proper working order, properly set your drags, tie good knots/connections, and always have fresh line to start the day after a day of catching fish. Regardless of the fish lost, we are happy with our load in the fish hold and we had a very enjoyable trip.

So that is all. Good times were had by all and we'd like to thank Bret and the SDG & E gang for joining us for three days of good fishing, good food, and good friends. We're rolling up the line in rolly seas and our scheduled ETA to Fisherman's Landing is 0700 hours. We'll be turning around for another three day adventure and we'll chat with you tomorrow. Good night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-  

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Good evening everyone. We arrived at the Yellowtail grounds today with the anticipation of a banner day as yesterday's reports from our long range brothers would give us no reason not to think so. We attempted to crowd some squid up for our bait arsenal but were unsuccessful in the early morning hours and continued on our trek towards the fertile fishing grounds. Once we arrived, it wasn't too long before we settled back on the anchor and had a few fish going. We hooked them using every possible method that we typically apply to catching Yellowtail...to be continued.

PS: 0200 hours update: Squid are floating!!! Gotta go, better report tomorrow. Sorry. Decent Yellowtail fishing today with some other tasty treats to join them in our fish holds. We'll be in Yellowtail land tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Hi friends. We departed Fisherman's Landing this morning on our annual Seifert, Lane, and Da Silva three day trip with a full load of bait and a full group of familiar faces. Bait loading went smoothly and we're currently motoring down to points South to begin our fishing activities. Reports sound pretty good at one of our favorite Yellowtail fisheries and we expect to do battle with the mighty Jack's sometime tomorrow.

All is well with the crew as we're all back from our 4th of July vacation and happy to be back to work, just doing our jobs and doing what we love. Chef Schooler/Chef Barry are about to kick out the Prime Rib feast, Drew is showered up and ready to serve the feast, and Tommy is downstairs giving the troops the evening briefing. We have nice weather rolling down and we're ready to get after it.

Not a whole lot to report this evening. Hopefully we have more to report tomorrow, we'll see. From the bridge of the Polaris Supreme, we bid you farewell and have a fantastic night.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Capt Ryan called in from the San Diego, they wanted everyone to know the are still fishing offshore. Today we ended the day with 105 Yellowfin Tuna and a handful of Dorado, a few Yellowtail. The fishing is still great down here, we need a few more to make tomorrows trip a go, our loads are light and the weather and the water is perfect. We depart everyday at 5:30am and return around 5pm, to book a spot give the landing a call at 619-224-3383 and get in on this action. Come on down and see us at Seaforth landing.

slow start to our trip. However we did manage to catch some Yellowfin our first day.

will report again tomorrow, 

Team Supreme