sw oregon Fishing Report 2024

Aug. 15
    We started our morning off in the local bluefin zone.  We caught 12 of them, 2 of them being the 50+ pounders while the rest were that beautiful manageable 30-40 pound fish and we caught a few yellowfin.  On drift number 2 we hooked and lost one.  Do to the amount of boats thinking the same thing we were and the lack of fish I was seeing being brought over the rail, I decided to leave early and look for yellowfin for a while.  It wasn't long before we found some, and then some more, and then some more.  It pretty much was like that for as long as we fished it which was until after 5 when we went back to the zone where we started.  We had good fishing pretty much all day long.  The only negative thing about it was the grade of fish was a bit on the smaller side.  They weren't runts but they weren't great either.  12 pounds is the short version.  They averaged out to be 12 pounders.  We looked all around for a bigger grade but it pretty much was what it was.  I did think that the area we finished up in yellowfin wise had quite a few more 20 pounders mixed in than what we'd been fishing so it may be something to look at tomorrow.  We finished up right where we started and we had a long 2 1/2 hour drift.  We caught a yellowfin every once in a while, we landed 4 of the 30-40 pound bf's and caught 1 70ish pounder and lost at least 4 of those.  We are going to drift tonight and do it again tomorrow.
                                

 

~~Sep.21
 So we fished today on our open party 1.5 day trip.  What a morning.  We got on a school early.  In the dark.  I saw them on the sonar, then stopped, then looked out the window and there they were, swimming around under the lights.  So I dropped a bait in the water and a minute later I had a tuna on board.  So I woke up the crew and the passengers and we commenced fishing.  Before the sun came up we were finished.  I mean we had our daily limit of yellowfin so we passed the school off to another boat and moved on.  The reason we were able to get it done so quickly this morning was because the fish were small.  Unfortunately that's what the plan was all along.  The good grade tuna schools are missing here in 3 day range at the moment.  we've seen this before.  It's no surprise during a tuna season.  I don't believe it's over.  Just temporarily down.

 So we wanted to get our tuna out of the way early and then concentrate on finding dorado kelps, but we never found too much for dorado kelps.  The wind blew too.  It was perfect weather this morning, but by lunch it was blowing a good 25 knots.  Not comfortable.  Thing went back down though.  It didn't stay windy.  It's nice now.

 We get in tomorrow and we're going to take a couple of days off so we'll see you when we see you.  And by that I mean write and read.
   

Very good sign of albacore/bluefin today. There were spots up puddling and boiling around everywhere. Not too many big schools though, so it was good scratching from daylight to dark. The tuna are from 12-40 lbs. Mostly 20-30 pounders. Some of the bluefin we've seen jumping are over 100 lbs., but we haven't gotten close enough to even try. Weather couldn't be better. It's like we're fishing in the bay. We'll be at the dock tomorrow morning and departing on another 3-day. It's prime rib night and just heard 1st call so see ya!

Aug. 25

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Bluefin are the most unpredictable fish out there that we fish for. If you would have told me yesterday that we were going to have a day like we had today, I would have laughed in your face. Never again though. I will never trust this fish. For the last several days the bluefin fishing was very poor. I really thought that it was over for the year. I was wrong. Today we experienced the best bluefin tuna fishing I have ever seen. This is on a quantity to quality ratio that I'm talking about here. In my 13 years of long ranging, today was the best for the Bluefins.

Just after 6:00 this morning we stopped on a single fish mark under the boat. Just after 6:00 tonight we left them. The whole time we drifted it was pretty much wide open. The fish were from 25 up to 75 pounds. Most of them being in the 30-40 pound range. Once again we went into battle and we won. Oh yeah, we fished in the rain. At around 11:00 it started raining and it never stopped. Everyone on board was absolutely drenched all day and it was awesome. By the end of our stop no one was fishing so Mark and I grabbed a couple of rods and boated 3 of them ourselves. It was only Mark and I fishing and I was bringing one in and wouldn't you know it, when the fish was at gaff, there was Mark's spectra tangled all over my fish. 2 anglers fishing and he manages to make a big tangle. MAAAARK!!! I would have made him put on the dunce helmet but he was already wearing it. Heres why. There was a 2 fish tangle and Mark grabbed 1 of the rods to unwrap it and he dropped it right in the water. MAAARK!!!. Unbelievably another person fishing managed to hook one of the guides on the rod and we got it back. Fish and all. I immediately tossed Mark the yellow dunce helmet and he wore it all day.

Needless to say everyone on board is beat tired and we will not have any trouble sleeping through the night tonight. We're headed for the yellowtail grounds now and will be there first thing in the morning.

Polaris Supreme Trip Update 08-07-2019 We spent the day today looking for kelp patties that might be loaded with Dorado Wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna or Yellowtail. It didn't work out! This pretty much winds up the trip for us. Today was a bust fishing wise but the dinner was a bonus! Roger cooked up pork Oso Buco and Cheese Orzo. It was absolutely delicious! Tomorrow we will be traveling up cleaning the boat headed back to San Diego for a Friday arrival. Here is a few photos from yesterday that deserve posting.

Polaris Supreme Trip Update 11-3-2012 Report

 

The last travel day of the trip. Yes we get in tomorrow morning at 8 am. The boat will have one night in and then we're off with the O.T.R. group on a 10 day trip. Last night we stopped and played a game called flying fish. Myself, Matty and Mark got down. I live for competition. Your parents always teach you it doesn't matter if you win or lose as long as you tried your best. That's a bunch of crap. Winning is everything. I scored 18 points with 1 assist taking the trophy. Yup Lon, we got you some flyers for the kite. Today's just like the rest of travel days. There's a movie going, people hanging out outside in this nice weather and some zzz's going down as well. Jeremy's vacation is over today. He just got cell phone reception so income the texts so he's staying busy.

See You All Tomorrow. Drew

Apollo docked December 9 at Fisherman's landing after an eight-day trip with just 11 anglers, who visited Alijos Rocks for some nice tuna fishing with skipper J.J. Gerritsen. Many large yellowtail were also caught.