thermalito afterbay Fishing Report 2025

July 31

This morning we had a good drift. We drifted along for a few hours catching mostly 40-70 pounders sometimes with as much as 5 going at a time. Unfortunately at around 9:30 am it stopped biting. We tried to be patient but it was done. After that it was a very slow day for the whole fleet. Most of the fish went down and the schools we found the rest of the day didn't want to play. A little before dark they got back in the mode and we had a nice stop on which started off 12-18 pounders and then turned into 30-40 pounders. That's it for this trip. We're headed back to the dock and are scheduled for a 6:00 eta. The big guy Tommy Rothery is taking the boat out for a 6 day trip and Richie will be coming back out too so the reports should get more entertaining. I'll be going home to hang with my lovely wife and needy dog. Take care all.

Ryan Bostian called in with this update on fishing on the San Diego, "Boy we pulled one out of the hat today, we had zero Yellowtail on the boat at about 1:30 PM. We found some fish late in the day, we caught 15 Yellowtail, 57 Barrcuda and 25 Rockfish for 34 passengers. The water temperature dropped a little this morning with the wind that we had yesterday and the water gradually crept up and got right back up to 63.5 degrees, 64 degrees. The Yellowtail are still down here, excellent, excellent fishing late in the day. We ended up with 15 of them we lost at least another 15. The same story as earlier, they are nice size, in shallow water. If you are coming down bring 25 or 30 lb. test with 2/0 hooks and be ready to fly line some bait. You can also surface lure on the top for the folks that like to do that.

"We run every single day aboard the San Diego. If you'd like to make reservations and join us please call Seaforth landing at 619-224-3383."

Aug 17

We started off early yesterday morning in the hunt for yellowtail unsuccessfully. Great fishing on it the day before but the water dropped 2+ degrees and they were very inactive. We were getting the "should've been here yesterday" vibe so we took off to fish for yellowfin. After a couple hour move and a few hours in the zone, we were getting the "should've been here yesterday" vibe again but shortly after chowing down a big fat cheeseburger the call came down from Gunny. "kelp". It's those black eyes I tell you. Gets um every time. After that we pretty much drifted till dark scratching at 20-40 pound yellowfin with the occasional flurry for 20 or so. In fact right at dark there was about 6 people fishing, all with one on and the 18 other anglers standing around with a cigar and a cocktail in hand.

The weather was choppy and rolly today but it didn't bother us. As long as your catching fish who cares what the weather does. We were all very sore and tired after today and I think we're all ready for a nice pork chop meal and a pillow and blanket. We'll be fishing for yellowtail all day tomorrow then setting us up for our last day of bluefin fishing.

Mama bear- The litluns doing fine. Pretty much had a bent rod all day.

July 21
  Well, we started off in the hot yellowtail zone this morning.  Us and 4 of the other long range boats.  I'm not at all going to call it a bust, it just wasn't what we were hoping/expecting.  Things were a little on the slow side.  It perked up for a little while but it was short lived.  It wasn't bad.  I mean we caught almost 50 yellows there before lunch.  And they were nice ones too, let me tell you.  26 pound average is my guess without weighing a single one.  Maybe 28, OK.  But by lunch it was done, done, done.  So we got mobile.  It wasn't for a few hours before we found something worthy to shut down on.  We found a kelp and caught another 25 beautiful tails.  I mean beauts.

  

 

So we can't complain.  75 gorgeous  yellowtail today to go with flat calm, sunny weather.  I can think of many, many days out here where I would have paid plenty for a day like we had today.  We're making that move while we still can.  We'll be getting our Island on tomorrow.  Hopefully we can put some more quality yellows on board and fish our last couple days up there in tuna land.

  Getting to know your crew:  Mark didn't inherit his eating habits from his dad.  Nope.  Mr. Clark himself is out here in the flesh and I've bussed his plate twice now and I haven't seen a finished plate by a long shot.  Mark would never.  Especially now with him being hungry all day and all with the diet.  Oh, and I guess I have tendonitis in my Supinator muscle which is awesome  Stoked.

  Matt Hess?  Shame on you buddy.  I'm supposed to give you a shout out here and I don't even no what to say to you I'm so disappointed. Oh well, see you next time I guess.  And Joe Miller.  My buddy Joey.  You were the first one Jed and I asked about.  Get yourself all fixed up and we'll see you next year.  We love you and we miss you buddy.
          

2 days of searching was rewarded with a bottom of the 9th rally on good grade yellowtail. Flylined sardines on 25 lb is the most productive right now.

We returned from an 8-day trip on the day before Thanksgiving. The trip was slow overall with a few great highlights. We had one good day of tuna fishing where we landed about 75 tuna ranging in size from 15# to 75# topped with 6 fish at the end of the day which weighed from 156# to 224#. A few wahoo and good yellowtail fishing on medium grade yellows ballanced out the trip.

~~Oct. 11
 And here's what we did today.  The crew rigged up mucho tackle.  I'm talking the grande stuff for the grande fish.  After that and after breakfast we did our tuna seminar and I talked Tommy into doing a couple parts of the seminar.  All I know for the past 10 years is my tuna seminar.  It's nice to get a different perspective.  Anyways, after that we were finishing up tackle rigging when poof, all three trollers went off.  So we caught a couple meals.  3 nice dorado.  So then it was lunch time of street tacos.  And then some napping went down and the afternoon movie was Caddy Shack.  When 5:00 rolls around it's cocktail hour and it looks glorious.  Drinks, cigars, and friends.  Then we had baby back ribs for dinner.  Once again like the first 2 nights we tried for some giant squid to use as bait, but we were unsuccessful. 

 Still no storms brewing up down below and we're getting more and more confident we won't be getting pushed out of the fishing grounds until we say so.  2 more days of travel before we arrive.  Everyone is enjoying themselves now because in a couple days, it's going to be war.  We'll be battling it out with 200+ pound tuna and wahoo.
      

22 Anglers, 22 Yellowtail, and 87 Bonito. Light loads and good action.