watauga lake Fishing Report 2024

Good evening friends. Wrapping up the 2011 OTR 10-day trip, the big fish honors go as follows: Matt Kiesse - 193.6 lb. Yellowfin tuna, Lon Mikkelsen 149.4 lb. Yellowfin tuna, and Mike "Wedding Bells" Payne rounds out our top three with his 140.0 lb. Yellowfin tuna. Honorable mentions go to Doug "Stick-Bird" Pineo for his 201.2 lb cow and Yacoob Vaheb caught his personal best of 150.0 lbs. Good going to the boys and most everyone on the boat caught a very nice fish in the 75-125 lb. class. For our two days on the bank, it was decent fishing for those lunker Yellowfin's and if we would've caught what we saw, it would've been a trip for the ages. No shortage of fish around just a shortage of bites and consistency, but we made the most of our chances and ended up with a nice load of big tuna to show for it.

We'd like to issue some thanks to a few individuals aboard this last trip. First, we'd like to thank Mike Payne for bringing some crab for all of the folks to enjoy for a dinner and also for bringing some shirts from Rocky Point Resort in Petersburg, Alaska. Second, we got to thank Ben "Bendo" Meyer for once again putting together a great recipe/picture book and CD to give to the folks. Where he gets the time and energy to do such a magnificent job on that book is beyond me. That thing is pro from front to back. And lastly, Lon Mikkelsen. His enthusiasm towards fishing, trying new tactics, and laid-back attitude makes the trip for all to enjoy. He wants to catch all kinds of fish and it doesn't matter if it's rockcod, squid, cow tuna, or any other species we might fish for; he just loves to fish. Also, he's one of the funniest guys around. Thanks to everyone for joining Lon and Greg once again this year and we hope to see all of you next year. The OTR trip is a "can't miss" trip and if anyone is interested in joining Lon on the Polaris Supreme for next years trip, I have a solid piece of advice for you; book early.

So that is all. We'll be departing this evening for a 6-day Guadalupe Island trip devoting our time to Great White shark research. Our next report will be on Saturday from the cages. Take care and we'll chat with you then.

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Hi friends. Not a whole lot to report today. We made a couple of stops for the guys who wanted to fill out their Yellowtail limit and for those who just wanted to do a little catch and release. Other than that, we just ate, read, played cribbage, and took naps the duration of the day and we concluded this evening's dinner with Lon handing out a bunch of OTR gear and countless other goodies to the fine folks aboard. Tommy bypassed a two-hundred bottle of wine for a "Chum King" chumming device that you can send to the bottom, pull a cord, and chum disperses. It looks a lot like those things that when you drive up to the bank teller and you put the money or deposit into the tubes and they shoot off to the teller at Mach speed. I guess it's the gift that keeps on giving because a bottle of wine only gives you fun for one night. Looking back on it, excellent choice, Tommy.

Well, us and Tommy's new toy are going to try to capture some of those tasty Vermilion rockfish and Lingcod for a few hours tomorrow so we'll let you know how things wind up. Our weather is absolutely awesome and we're extremely fortunate to have the sea conditions that we are experiencing right now. We'll be dropping our loops tomorrow morning, wish us luck and we'll report back to you in the evening.

-Team Supreme-

Monday, November 14th, 2011

Hi friends. We made it to the grounds first thing this morning and immediately began dropping Yellowtail in the wells. It wasn't great fishing by any means but it was a good pick on 'tails averaging right around the 15-18 lb. mark. After our morning, we looked around for some tuna sign and after locating a nice school on one of the shallows, it wasn't long after we came tight on the anchor that we started hooking some. Problem was, it was mostly Black Skipjack, not cool. After a while of weeding out the junk, our fishing became pretty clean fishing on some school-sized Yellowfin. We caught a healthy catch of these Yellowfin's for the remainder of the afternoon and we also managed to capture a couple of Wahoo for our day. It was a good day for us on the Supreme and along with our good fishing, we also had pretty nice weather to boot. For tomorrow, we'll be traveling for most of the day but I'm sure we'll have some time to do a little Yellowtail and Grouper fishing. With a good load of tuna on the boat for the gang, it's time to start making way up the line and finish out our trip on Yellows and tasty bottom-dwellers.

So that is all. Our weather is a bit sloppy this evening but we'll see what happens tomorrow morning. We'll chat with you at this time tomorrow evening.

-Team Supreme-

Sunday, November 13th,  2011

Hi folks. Tough day for us as we ventured offshore in search of bigger tuna. Things just weren't right and although we saw sign of fish, it wasn't our day to catch any. With that, we motored up the line to see if we couldn't snag us some Wahoo or find some school-sized tuna. No-go on the tuna but we did troll up a few Wahoo for our day. Our day consisted of beautiful sea conditions but a ton of rain. From about mid-morning all the way until we were finished making bait this evening, it poured on us and although the boat and gear needed a good fresh watering, it got a little old after about hour five of non-stop precipitation. Oh well, it could've been worse, it could've been windy with large seas, or it could've snowed. It's just one of the many elements that we have to deal with while out on the open-ocean.

So that is all. Not too much to report other than we're making our way up the line to do some offshore fishing tomorrow for a variety of species and hopefully, our report will tell a tale of lots of different fish and sunshine. We'll see and wish us luck. We'll chat with you tomorrow.

-Team Supreme-

p.s. Everyone on the boat would like to say congratulations to Herb Yamanaka and the Oregon Ducks. The "luck" was not with the Cardinal on this day, it was all about the Ducks, good going and we miss you and your enthusiasm on this trip! Tell Donna, I say hi as well. Lastly, we miss you too, Craig. Wish you were here with the gang.