upper delaware river Fishing Report 2025

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

Hi friends. Fishing today was just beautiful today on 16-22 lb. yellowtail down here. We had a few of those "premiums" in the mix and a few shakers but for the most part, it was a really nice grade of 'tail. Our key to success today was finding--as Tommy puts it--fresh balls [of yellowtail]. Classic run 'n gun fishing for the morning as the guys on jigs and fly-lined sardines were getting their fill but once our drift was established, the dropper loop guys got in on the action too. Anyways, it was a good morning bite in the "drift zone" but a little after lunch, things shut off and we toured around trying to find another ball without much success. Speaking of lunch, chartermaster Joe Gigliotti did it again. He owns the pizza game and made a really awesome lunch for the guys. Sausage, pepperoni, olives, barbecued chicken, chicken and pesto, and smoked fish, capers, and onions were being devoured by the gang. Joe rocks. I only had a couple bites of each because my nutritionist, Chef Shawn, didn't think I needed the extra carbs and fat. I had salad and a banana. Eyes on the prize, baby. Anywho, it was definitely a morning thing and we'll be here for one more morning to see if we can't connect on some more fresh balls [of yellowtail] and let the weather fade out before we boogie out of here to get in some offshore tuna and dorado action. Oh yeah, we need to make some bait too.

As I type this, the time is 0245 hours in the morning and it's starting to rain, Gunny is all slicked up downstairs braving the elements, and I'm up here in the cozy wheelhouse contemplating typing a report for another hour and fifteen minutes until we have to wake up Tommy and Mark. Nah, I can't do Gunny like that. Anyhow, bait-making isn't all that great as Gunny has made a couple pieces and a couple of flying fish for next trip and I've made one lizard fish. Pumped.

Speaking of pumped, the gym here on the Polaris Supreme is overloaded with muscle right now. Last night before dinner, Tommy was in the wheelhouse gettin' his leg and core workouts in while I was out back in the "gun zone" getting my diesel on with some upper body workouts. Tommy was rockin' out a few sets of crunches, squats, and toe raises, I was in the gun zone jackin' out sets of chin-ups, tricep dips, push-ups, and leg lifts. It was on. So my fellow pump brother, Riddler the Ripped One, and I were getting all swollen and admiring each others work, and here's Gunny taking a shower. He doesn't have a membership to the gym yet but we'll find a way to get him one, don't you worry, Tommie. If you're nickname is "Gunny", you'd better be shredded to the max and not applying cocoa butter moisturizer when Riddles and I are getting wrenched. I'm proud of you, Riddler, I'll be your spotter anytime. If only we could get him bronzing...

Staying with the last topic, Drew and I took what might be the best photo ever this evening. A rainbow showed itself in the distance and what a beautiful rainbow it was. Instinctively, Drew leaped into my arms and I held him like a baby lamb in my toned arms and Mark snapped a photo of the exchange. The picture is just fabulous, Drew being held up by "Richie Gun Racks", his smile ear-to-ear, and a beautiful rainbow in the background. Just lovely.

So that's all. Life on the Supreme is grand right now and I've got to go and make some bait. Like I said, we'll be here tomorrow trying for some more 'tails. Hopefully, the action is a real fat burner and we're just going crazy all day. We'll see. Okay, I gotta go. Bait, bait, bait!

-The Supreme Team

Sept. 29

Well today was more of the same. We woke up to coffee, machaca and eggs and a Tom Cruise movie. Then we rigged up our heavy gear and did our tuna seminar. Then we trolled it up for a bit and looked at a couple of kelps for some neck tie size dorado which we let go. Then we had a nice taco salad and some kind of a room temp soup which was good and then some chose to take a nap while others chose to listen to football and do what guys do while we listen to football. After that it was dinner time and then a quick nap before arriving to the bait grounds at 11:00 PM. Bait fishing wasn't a great success but we did manage to catch 13 nice size squid that will fish beautifully on the kite. Hey, that's 13 200+ pound tuna as far as I'm concerned. Now everyone is in bed and I'm up driving and writing this.The weather couldn't be better and we're about half way there so a little more relaxation before we get down and dirty for several days straight.

The Polaris Supreme Crew.

Right now a boat could leave San Diego and choose any direction except east and see tuna. Unbelievable amount of fish, however bites are very hard to come by. 4 bluefin from 60-85 lbs 2 yellowfin tuna at 15 pounds

~~Aug 25
 We had a slow day today.  The morning seemed promising.  We caught a little but we saw a whole lot.  If just one of those schools we saw this morning wanted to bite a little we would of had a great day.  That seems to be the deal this year though.  Today, we hit the wrong schools.  We caught about 20 ish this morning from 30-50 pounds.  The afternoon stunk.  We ran in to where we finished up last night and it was muerto.  We ended up in an area late that had mucho fish but unfortunately they were all small.  We didn't even try them.  It wasn't worth wasting our precious sardine for. 

 The good news about not catching much fish this afternoon is we still have some of a tank of sardine left to fish with this morning.  It's 4:00 AM as I write this and we just finished up with our attempt at bait making.  We caught plenty of bait, but it wasn't a good size for the tuna that's out here so we're going to try and make some lemonade here.  We're going to take our big spanish mackerel and take it to where the 150+ pound bluefin live.  We'll do this after we run out of sardine this morning.  No one has tried that cow BF with a couple tanks of spanish yet.  Maybe that's the key to it all.

 The weather remains great.  We had a few hours this afternoon where things were getting interesting.  We had a descently strong wind out of the southeast and with it came some rain.  It wasn't all that neat but it didn't last long.  Things went back to butter.  Nice.
       

Hello and good morning! We will be pulling into the dock in a couple of hours off of our 3 day open group. The fishing was tough and you had to work hard to put a fish on board. This group was one of the hardest fishing and courteous toward each other group I have ever fished with. Good job Katrina and Guy's . We will be at the dock for 3 days before resuming our season. We will see you out on the 8th on the Bill Stephens charter. Tight Lines The Polaris Supreme Crew.

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Hi friends. Bait-making at 0300 hours this morning went very well us. The bait is on the large side but we're hoping to find some large mouths to feed them to. After only catching a couple of 'tails in the AM, we took to the open ocean and were rewarded with lovely weather that was just what we needed. The seas were still kind of confused but with a light wind, the hunt for kelp paddies and breezers was a pleasurable day aboard the Polaris Supreme.

We jigged up some small yellowfin throughout the day, most of which were released, but we had a couple of standout moments to share. First off, Steven Lowe caught a beautiful wahoo on the troll. Sweet. We also had a kelp paddy that kicked out a bunch of really beautiful mahi-mahi's. It was a little crazy there for a minute. Things almost got out of hand, but you know us, we don't let any fish--especially those silly dorados--get the best of us. After calming the situation down and restoring order, we had a box full of flatheads. Booyah. Our last fish of the kelp was caught by our master of ceremonies, Joe Gigliotti. Joe put down the cards and poker chips for a few moments to land himself a 40 lb. yellowfin. That crazy card shark, he's so savvy! Joe pulled off a veteran move: let all of the other anglers fish off the dorado's and then when we thought the game was over, G-Money played us all for fools and landed himself the token tuna. Nice job, Joe.

So that was how our fishing went today. I can't leave you without letting y'all know about what else went down today: I bronzed. I know, right? After nearly having all of my espresso-brown tan blown off by Hurricane Paul, Momma Nature showed us her love and gave us gorgeous weather and sunshine for the day. Our weather today started out pretty okay but by days end, it was flat calm with just a breath of wind - A+. Just a beautiful day for soaking up the sun and burning fat. That's right. Along with the bronzing, hot dorado action, and awesome weather, I managed to get in a couple hours of getting my swell on. Yeah, I said it. Like I told Gunny today," I wish they made a size large shirt with the sleeves of an extra large." He laughed.

Off topic, once again, I would like to say something. This crew is just dandy. If you don't want to party with us, I don't want to live. We're all about getting stretched, Hunger Games book club meetings (Drew is almost headed for the final book), and living a more healthy lifestyle. We aren't just dieting, we're working on our strength and conditioning too. I'm changing my lifestyle, Mark is changing his lifestyle, and next trip, Drew "Chuck Norris Wears Drew Henderson Pajamas" Henderson is changing his lifestyle. It's fantastic! But not to forget, we're fish-hungry fishing machines as well. What the bow and arrow is to Katniss Everdeen, a rod and reel is exactly the same to us. It's like an extension of our limbs. It's just so natural and pure. So you throw in the fact that we are all some pretty darn good fisherman--even Mark with his swing-for-the-fences style of angling--you've got the ingredients to have yourself just a rollicking good time here on the Supreme. We have fun, we fish, we life a healthier lifestyle, and last but certainly not least, we bronze. Sonny Jim.

For tomorrow, I see no other reason not to workout, bronze, and go catch some 18-22 lb. yellowfin tuna in sunny, windless weather. That's our plan, anyways. If we do well on the yellowfins, we get to do my favorite activity that we do here on the Polaris Supreme: fish for BIG bluefin tuna...and bronze while doing it. See ya.

The team you dream about,

P.S. Joe Gigliotti would like to say hello to his striking daughters Nicki and Alex. There are a lot of crayons in this box that we call "the universe" and you two shine the brightest. Very sweet, Joe. Very sweet indeed.

Polaris Supreme Trip Update 08-04-2019 We have caught some nice quality the last couple days just lacking in numbers! Were going to make a little move here see if we can't change that! Just yellows here today no sign of grouper or Wahoo. Weathers great going to spend the rest the day looking for Dorado and yellowfin tuna patties. The Polaris Supreme Crew !

We traveled down to do some island fishing and late in the day we got into some excellent quality yellowtail. However, it wasn't going to stop there. Our evening bite was fantastic. Absolutely beautiful big yellowtails. Most all were over 30 lbs and lots over 40 lbs. Today was a fun day to be on the water. Thanks for checking in. Tommy and crew P.S. We still have a couple open spots on Garry Robert's 9-day. The fishing has been great at Alijos. Come out and join me and Drew. It's going to be a great trip.