topaz lake Fishing Report 2025

Aug 12
    Today was awesome.  We woke up drifting catching fish and that's about what we did until dark.  I'm not kidding you.  We moved the boat just a handful of times but never for more then 10 minutes.  It was drifting with always at least one on the hook.  In the morning until after lunch it was mostly bluefin in the 30-45 pound range with the occasional 60-80 pounder.  I have to tell you that that's a much more manageable grade.  It's a much better fish to start off on than those 60-80 pounders.  Don't get me wrong, you know I love catching those beauts but they make a much better cherry than ice cream if you know what I mean.  We had that kind of day where if we catch them tomorrow it will be the cherry on top.  The rest of the day we got into yellowfin tuna mode and it was game on for those fish.  Tommy decided to save our sardine on board it being they were feeding on the anchovy that went over the side so that's what we used.  Chovy baby.  I can't ever remember fishing anchovy for tuna on this boat.  I have to go back to my mission bay days to remember that but I didn't forget how to do it.  I wrote this in the beginning of the season and I'll write about it again.  If you're coming on a future trip, please remember to bring the lost art of anchovy fishing skills.  A big part of that is an anchovy rod and reel.  Something light that's meant for 20-25 pound test with a nice free spool to help you toss those anchovies away from the boat.  I hate to say it but if that means you need to bring your coffee grinder so be it.  
    The weather is still good!  Man I hope this can hold up for at least my buds on the upcoming Heil 5 day trip leaving the day after tomorrow.  We're staying put right here for our last day fishing tomorrow.  We're hoping we can get more of the 60-80 pounders tomorrow but we will be stoked with the 30-45's as well.
                                    

 

We gave it the Dark till Dark effort and came up dry. We did however see multiple very nice schools of yellowfin that were not interested in our hooks.

~~Nov.10
 OK.  It took until 4:00 this evening but I finally made up my mind of where we're going to go.  All day long it's been running through my head.  "rocks or ridge, rocks or ridge.  They both had there advantages and disadvantages but I believe I made the choice with the more advantages for this stage of the trip.  It's like a chess game out here sometimes with the rest of the fleet.

 So as you know we traveled all day.  We did a fishing seminar shortly after breakfast and I feel I got everyone on board super pumped on catching cow tuna so now we're going to have to do it.  No pressure though.  Tackle rigging, naps, relaxation, antsy.  Basically all the feelings.  Right now most of the boat is watching a batman movie loudly.  Some are lounging on the upper deck but dinner should be soon and off goes the movie.  It smells terrific too.  Baby back ribs tonight.

 So we have about 1/2 a day of traveling left to do and then we'll be in full fish mode for about a week straight.  Here we go.
          

Capt Mike Pritchard called in from the Tribute on the second day of their trip, we have had very good fishing so far. Yesterday we had around 60 Yellowfin Tuna, 20 Yellowtail, 2 Bluefin Tuna in the 70 pound range, and 1 Dorado, today was more of the same with around 50 mixed fish so far and hopefully more to come. We do have some trips on line with spots available give the Seaforth Landing a call at 619-224-3383 to get on any open trips.

Oct. 12

Well we had a super busy day aboard the Polaris Supreme today. It all began at 4:00 a.m. when the crew woke up and started pulling our catch of cows and wahoo out of the fish holds. We tied up dockside at 6:00, off loaded all the passengers gear and then the fish. It was a long process. We got everything up to the top of the docks and then came the weigh in. I believe we ended up with 16 over 200 pounds and the one we taped at 297 ended up being just that. Damn. 3 pounds off. What a bummer? It was still a personal best for our friend George. Way to go sir.

After that there was a big work list to be done to prepare for the next trip but we got ur done and departed on Joe Gigliotti's 3rd annual Accurate sponsored 8 day trip this afternoon. We got a good load of bait and we're currently in route to the bluefin grounds. There was a couple of lucky boats today and many wiffs but we're going to try and get lucky tomorrow. It sure would be nice to get the sweat off on some 40-60 pound b.f.'s tomorrow let me tell you. So that's it. Good weather, good food and good company. Mostly regulars on this trip. There's only a couple of new faces. We'll keep you posted.

The Annual SFR charter aboard the Apollo with Captain J.J Gerritsen and crew was a big success !! The Apollo is running out of Sea Landing on beautiful Santa Barbara Harbor, the closest harbor to the outer Channel Islands. Great weather meant an ideal cruise over to San Miguel Island for some of the finest shallow water rockfishing you'll find anywhere. 300 feet down you say, maybe 200, how about 100 feet ? No way. The offshore terrain around San Miguel is so rugged and marked with underwater pinnacles, we spent most of the day fishing in 25 to 90 feet of water. Lighter rigs, jigs, leadheads and swimbaits were the order of the day, and the San Miguel rockfish were in a hungry mood. We started catching fish before daybreak and spent the rest on the trip hauling up huge reds, chuckles and lings, all sporting some of the most vibrant colors I've seen on any fish in a long time. Awesome day!! We limited out on huge rockfish, slammed about 50-60 grumpy whitefish, 5-6 huge goats and 16 or so pre-historic looking lings before calling it a trip. Epic day !!!! The jackpot was a nail biter as Shawn Suhr's huge lingcod and Art Moralez's giant goat battled to a near dead heat. Captain J.J needed to come down and settle the score, with the final vote went going to Shawn's 12-13 pound ling. Great job Shawn. Captain J.J and his crew did an awesome job as always and the Apollo is looking as spotless as ever. The Apollo will be in Santa Barbara till around mid May before moving down to Fisherman's Landing in San Diego. Call Sea Landing at 1-805-963-3564 or log onto www.apollocharters.com for their schedule. Great trip everyone !!!. email me at [email protected] for any photos. Thats the word on the water. Don

Sept. 9, 2012

Polaris Supreme Mid Day Report

Wow what a morning. Crazy El Nino Generated Weather. Thunder Storms, Lightning Strikes next to the boat, Rain, Rain, Rain. There I said it El Nino! I don't know what everybody was waiting for. We have been driving around in 72 degree water for a month now its a steady 74 and pushing 80 east of Guadalupe Island. It's September 9th and we are catching yellowfin and bluefin 70 to 160 miles from San Diego with no signs of it slowing. Today, we have caught only rat Yellows so far but have high hopes for this afternoon.

Tommy And Crew.

The Apollo will be moving to Sea Landing very soon. The Rockfish opens on March 1st. The Apollo has OPEN PARTY trips every Sunday. The price is $125 and the load is limited to 25 anglers. Call Sea Landing at (805) 963-3564 and make your reservation now.