volusia county Fishing Report 2024

Drew Henderson brought Tommy Rothery's Polaris Supreme home after a five-day trip with 24 anglers to Guadalupe Island. He said he got some fish at Westy's Hole, but the sharks were bad there. Marco Ramirez of Torrance won first place for a 74.8-pound tuna. He nabbed the yellowfin on a sardine and a 2/0 Gamakatsu hook. He said he used 40-pound Seaguar fluoprocarbon and 80-pound Power Pro Spectra on a Sealine 50 reel and a five and a half-foot Lamiglas rod. He remarked that he almost got too tired to reel during the one-hour fight. Michael Rayner of LA was second, for a 71.2-pounder, and Rodger Kang of Fresno tied him with a tuna of exactly the same size.

Captain Ryan Bositan called in today at 12:50 PM with an audio update from the San Diego out of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, CA.  We are currently drifting right now.  We have two 70 pounder Bluefin Tuna on the deck.  We have dumped 5 or 6 of them.  They are not coming in too easy today.  We also caught a half dozen Yellowtail on the way to the tuna grounds.  

RECOMMENDATIONS
A 25 pound outfit for fishing the kelps for Yellowtail
A flat fall outfit with Spectra and a 2 speed real for the Bluefin

We are fishing offshore tomorrow come and join us.

Dan and his brother David spent the day with us landing 6 Yellowtail and 2 Yellowfin tuna. Fun fishing the weather was excellent. 

"It was really good fishing wahoo at the bank," said Rothery at the sales. "We stayed there two days and then went in to the southern banks where the big fish were." All the big fish (there were 13 tuna over 200 pounds weighed on the certified scales at Fisherman's) came from the southern banks. There were just as many from 100 to 200 pounds as there were cows, and those were found in both spots. "The Baja tuna were real steady biters," said Rothery. "There were lots of ‚Дтem around, we could see ‚Дтem at the surface and on the meter most of the time." Research biologist Chugey Sepulveda got the big one, related his pal and fellow biologist Scott ("Scootch") Aalbers of San Diego. Chugey wasn't able to be at the weigh-in. The fish weighed 306.2 pounds. Chugey had two more cows, at 220 and 201 pounds. "Scootch" said Chugey got the big one and the others on one of the boat's heavy rigs and the kite. He used two sardines on 6/0 Mustad 7691 hooks, tied to 130-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izorline Spectra, on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. "He got it on the next to the last day," said Scootch, "about four p.m. He fought it for an hour and 15 minutes, and it wrapped him around the anchor line about 15 times. The crew helped out a lot with the fork." Tom Bass of Newport Beach won second place for a 274.8-pound tuna. He also had a 232 and a 206-pound yellowfin. Tom said he got his fish on a sardine and an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, pm 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader of 15 feet, tied to 130-pound Izor Spectra on a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 6460 XXH rod. Hack Bernstein of Valencia bagged a 269.6-pounder. He fished a sardine on an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 130-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izor Spectra on a boat rig: Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod. Pat Jaeger of Bishop posed with his daughter Maggie, three, and the 268-pound tuna he got with a double sardine rig on the kite. He said he used 100-pound P-Line and 130-pound Izor Spectra on a Penn 50 W reel and a Baja Boomer rod. Ryan Gillette of Orange was another who used a double trouble sardine rig on the boat's rod and reel to take a 246-pounder. Robert Kalatschan found a brace of cows, at 226 and 213 pounds. There were two more cows that appeared at the scales without tags, said Susan Rothery. One weighed 214 pounds and the other went 202.

"Just what we had hoped for!" reported Owner-Skipper Tommy Rothery aboard the Polaris Supreme November 26. "We had a really fun day on some of the bigger grade yellowfin. We landed nine fish over 100-pounds. Charlie got one at 213-pounds and Gunnar, one of our first timers, got the biggest one for the day that weighed in at 230 pounds. He did it all by himself from start to finish. And by the way, he is only eleven years old. He also landed another one that was well over 100 pounds. Our weather is fantastic. We are hoping for another fun day tomorrow."