steamboat fly Fishing Report 2024

~~Oct. 9
 Good evening to everyone at home or wherever you may read this.  After one night dockside we were back to the boat this afternoon.  We headed to the fuel dock and changed oil and fuel filters, filled her all the way up on fuel, grabbed some brine making salt and loaded 2 weeks worth of food.  Shortly after getting back to Fishermans Landing, all our dogs got here.  I'm talking about George, Craig, Charlie, the Jer-bear, the Bry man, Bernie, Scott and the infamous J.C.  Infamous.  That's like really famous. 

 We took our time at the bait receivers to ensure we had the best that bait could offer us.  We're pretty happy with it at the moment.  For the next 4 days we'll be traveling to our destination of the Shamada seamount.  AKA Hurricane Bank.  And speaking of hurricanes, there isn't one at the moment.  Lately they've just been rolling in one after another but for now, none.  It's our destiny to get down below and catch very large yellowfin and wahoo.  Tommy spent a bunch of money and rented a system that allows us to get on the web where ever we are which allows us too look at all our weather web sites to keep track of storms that may be an issue to us.  So worry not.  We won't be anywhere near a low pressure system this trip.  Safe and sound out here as always.

 Anyways, it sure looked to me like everyone had a good afternoon hanging out, getting there cigar on and doing what they do.  We didn't even make it through dinner before the Bry-man and the Jer-bear got on what they call Team Bernard.  It's there thing to talk some smack and make fun of Scott and Bernie and it's hilarious on all sides.  Here we go.

 So for the next few days we'll be getting ready for a week of some hardcore fishing.  Rigging tackle, tuna and wahoo seminars, naps, movies, food, cocktails...  I think the next few reports will read like this paragraph we're on now.
        

 

~~Oct. 24
 We fished today with all our buds.  Obviously it was the best game in town.  We had boats from San Diego up to Ventura all nestled in sharing the same honey hole.  15 of us to be exact.  It all worked out though.  It was a nice spread of fish.  Everyone was able to scratch.  Scratch, scratch, scratch.  From after daylight until after lunch.  Then things went dead for the most part, so we pulled anchor and found a nice school to drift on.  After a long drift the day was pretty much over.  We drove around, made another anchor job but the fish were done.  Just like us.  We're done for the week.  It's up to you whether or not we fish this next up coming weekend.  Halloween weekend.  See you there?

 Oh, the fish today were tuna.  Yellowfin.  Smaller.  We had a couple handfuls of 30-40 pounders first thing, but as soon as the current picked up, for some reason the bigguns split.  So we stayed busy with the smaller ones.  Veal.  Oh, and they found sardine again.  Loaded up.  So don't worry 10 dayers.
                         

Today was one of those days in which our anglers and ourselves will probably remember for the rest of our lives. Not because of the amount of fish we caught, but the tremendous shows these fish put on. It all began this morning when we found a fishy area on our way to a spot in hopes of wahoo, tuna and grouper. We spotted a nice bird school in some beautiful looking water. When it first came into sight, still a couple miles away, we saw some 30lb grade tuna jumping around in the middle of it. When we got up to it, the scene was a bit different. The tuna were pushed off of it by a jumbo school of big stripped marlin. And what a show they put on for us. A couple of our anglers presented their bait or jigs in the right place and the right time and hooked into these big beautiful fish. They where tail-walking and jumping high out of the water everywhere. On top of that, we were constantly seeing free-swimming marlin on all sides of the boat. Some even came within five feet of the boat! There were literally hundreds of marlin around the boat. It was truly a sight to behold! Finally, after battling and releasing all the marlin we hooked, we carried on making our way to one of our spots that has been extremely productive for big wahoo, tuna and grouper the past couple months for us. When we got there we quickly boated a couple handfuls of very nice mid-sized yellow fin tuna. Even though the tuna where present, there was little to no sign of wahoo. All of our anglers having wahoo on their mind, we decided to make our way to a spot about nights run from where we were. We will be there at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Wish us luck and we will check in tomorrow. Tight Lines, Team Supreme

George Davis made his eighth (his estimate) annual charter with Tommy Rothery aboard the Polaris Supreme, and met the boat when it returned to Fisherman's Landing January 13 after an 18-day excursion. It was Friday, but definitely not a bad luck day or trip, as chartermaster George bagged a 257-pound tuna for himself as the boat fished off southern Baja. He might have had a jackpot spot, but by consent the group of eight passengers had a single jackpot winner. Davis runs a construction company from Rancho Cucamonga. "Everybody got a cow," said Tommy, "and we released over 100 tuna. We ended up with 27 tuna over 200 pounds." The day's big winner was Tom Hilton of San Clemente who scored a 293-pound whopper yellowfin with a sardine on a 7/0 Super Mutu hook, 130-pound red line, 130-pound Spectra backing on a Penn 50T reel blueprinted by Cal Sheets, and a 760H Calstar rod tied by Sheridan Stanton (also on the trip). Hilton said he got the big tuna "‚Д¶in 25 minutes; my best fish ever. My biggest before was 178 pounds. "I knew he was heavy," remarked Tom, "but he bit on the last bait on the last day at the last stop of the day. The fat lady hadn't sung yet, but I could hear her warming up in the wings." Hilton also had tuna of 251, 237, 236 and 213 pounds. The water temperature in the tuna area remains at 69 to 715 degrees, anglers said. High score went to Scott Brown of Costa Mesa, with six over 200 pounds, at 279, 269, 246, 240, and a pair of 225-pounders. Scott said he fished with sardines on 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hooks, on 100-pound Ande line, 130-pound Spectra backing, a Tiagra 50W reel and a Calstar 655 TSS rod. Al Tokunaga had five, at 225, 222, 213, 208 and 201 pounds. The 27 cows was no boat record, but 27 for eight anglers may make for some kind of mark.

One day trip 21 yellowtail, 11 dorado, 4 bluefin tuna, 2 yellowfin tuna. Fun day, back out tonight !

Today we started our Thorne family four day trip. Most of the fishing seems to be slightly out of our reach today. However we were able to pull on some fish. Mostly Skip Jack and small Yellowtail. Not necessarily the targeted species but great fun for the kids as well as a good starter for the adults.Nothing is better practice for following your lines than a school of wild Skipjack! Here we have Kingston and Justine with the perfect starter fish to get the skunk off and release back into the ocean. Now we are ready for tomorrow. Targeting Yellowfin Tuna and Dorado .

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

Hi friends. Yes, don't adjust your monitors, it is a live report from the long-range vessel Polaris Supreme. After a good week of maintenance (except for making sure our Sirius radio properly functioned) and cleaning, we departed Fisherman's Landing this morning at 0700 hours for a 17-day excursion with Mr. Tom Pfleger and friends. After loading a couple of hundred scoops of sardines, we cleared the point at 1000 hours and as anyone who knows a thing or two about weather and sea conditions in San Diego -- or any coastal Southern California area -- knows that our ride out this morning was rather sporty. We hadn't even cleared the point and the circus ensued.

The first day of a new season is always comical for us "seasoned" crew members. It's one of the funniest days of the year for me, that's the truth. Eight veteran, long-range mariners stumble and tumble their way about the boat like the time a baby takes its first step - banging into walls, tripping over their own boots and heck, a few of us even fought the urge to vomit. Granted, the weather was less than ideal but this happens on the ride to the bait receivers sometimes, let alone rockin' and rollin' in a confused sea a mile from them. Even with all of the flubs and flounders of the first few hours of being back on the boat, we're alive and if you know us, we're going to be just fine. I never really appreciated such an event before; going back out on our first crazy adventure of the year with my older brothers and that is exactly what we are - a family, and we're all back and ready to do this.

Since I have the time, I'll fill y'all in on the status of my previously mentioned "family" members. Riddler is doing just fine; he's switched from white Air Monarch Nike's to all black Nike's which he sometimes pairs with black socks - which looks amazing, by the way. Drew got married in November and then hurt his thumb in a roller-blading accident. As a few of you whom where at the Fred Hall show might have heard, Gunny's daughter was in a car accident but other than a few "minor" injuries, she's doing just fine and will make a full recovery. Jed didn't hurt himself this winter so we're pumped to have him healthy for a full season - although, we do have some time-in once we complete this trip so there is still time for his fingers to hurt but we're hopeful he'll be just fine come June. Mark only looks three and a half months pregnant rather than his usual eight and a half months preggo and his son was accepted in St. Joseph's law school, so that's dandy. Chefs' Schooler and Shawn are great and yours truly is doing fantastic - here and ready to do some bronzing after my Guatemalan bronze-a-thon a week ago peeled off the other day. Bottom line, we couldn't be better. We're pumped to be back.

Anyhow, today was nothing to write home about other than traveling and napping but we figured that we'd do so anyways. I can't reveal all of our secrets of all the fun we're going to have on this trip but I'll give you just a tiny glimpse of the craziness that we're about to take part in: on-board we have low-carb ice cream, Yellowtail roe, a paddle, a 12-volt motorized reel, and a man by the name of "Cowboy". I'll leave the rest to your wild imaginations. Good night now.

-The Supreme Team

P.S. We miss you, Chugey, and your bicycle-kick wake-ups.