west branch Fishing Report 2024

Drew Henderson docked Polaris Supreme at Fisherman's Landing August 12 after four days of fishing. His anglers had near-limits of yellowtail, mostly from Cedros Island, where he found mackerel to be superior bait, and fish biting at both ends. Drew said his anglers released some 200 fish. Henderson's posting for August 10 read: "We started our trip making the long haul down to Benitos Island due to the bad weather and bad offshore report. We got to the Island at about two thirty. We got held up with a giant school of 3 to 4 foot giant squid. I can't say it was bad there, I mean we caught a lot of fish we just had to go through lots of little ones to get the bigger ones. We gave the night bite a couple hours only getting ten fish and took off towards Cedros. "The morning was great. Everyone woke up to bent rods. After a couple hours the current slowed and the slime (barracuda) took over. We did a little scouting and found some large model yellows and had a couple of long plunking drifts. Then we took off to the northern head to gain some time for tomorrow and give it a check and found the honey hole. Mucho Fisho. All the beautiful grade, and they chewed until we all got our fill. We're traveling up tonight to do some offshore tomorrow until it's time to go home." Dave Betz of Huntington Beach won first place for a 27.6-pound yellowtail he bagged with a sardine on a 1/0 ringed Gorilla hook and 20-pound P-Line. He said he fished with his favorite Accurate 270 reel, and a Calstar six-foot rod. The fight ran to 35 minutes, he said. Forrest Broyles of Kelseyville got a 25.4-pounder. He was tied by Ken Wan of Oakland for second place.

This past week had a little bit of everything. Good fishing in flat calm weather to slow fishing in choppy weather and even some searching for kelp paddies in socked in fog. Our scores this week averaged 3-80 yellowtail 2-10 dorado per day and even 13 bluefin tuna on our Friday charter. Overall I would say that we are experiencing GOOD 3/4 day fishing. Most of our fishing has been taking place between 20 and 40 miles from Mission Bay. Even though our counts have been good , we still have some inherit risks that go along with offshore fishing that you should be prepared for. Whenever we fish offshore , we know that we are taking part in a "high risk , high reward" fishery. Since we are relying on finding kelp paddies in order to find fish , the possibility of never stopping the boat is real. The flip side of never stopping the boat is ; we may stop the boat once and have the best fishing of our lives. With another tropical storm down south , I believe that our fishing is only going to improve over the next month. Typically our offshore season continues until we get the first couple real storms from the pacific northwest. We run everyday , if you would like to join us call 619-224-3383 for reservations.

Hello Everyone, Today we had another outstanding day of fishing. Lots of Bluefin in the 20-40lb range as well as some great grade Yellowtail. We spent the afternoon trying to make some bait for tomorrow. We caught Spanish mackerel pretty steady for a while before the wind forced us to head to the anchorage for the night. Tomorrow we will start by targeting Yellowtail and chasing big ones in the evening. Wish us luck, Team Supreme

Captain Ryan Bostian from the San Diego out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego, CA.  Today we had great fishing and a light load.  Our 9 anglers ended up with 45 California Yellowtail (LIMITS) and 45 Vermilion Rockfish (LIMITS).

The wind is coming up so our next fishable day will be on Saturday.  Call the landing to get in on the action.

Fishing yesterday was absolutely fantastic. The grade of albacore that we were catching was beautiful with half being 30-40 lbs. and the other half averaging 22 lbs. Weather yesterday and today is excellent. This morning we are already into albacore, blue fin and yellow fin. Looks like a another great day on the water. Check our schedule if you want to come out and get into some of this good fishing. Thanks for checking in. Tommy and crew

Our private charter went the distance today. They were rewarded with 31 yellowfin 22 dorado 66 yellowtail 46 skipjack.

Aug 20

Good afternoon everyone reading. It was a turn around day today. Everything went smooth. We departed on our annual "Lets Talk Hook Up" 4 day trip this afternoon with a full load of passengers. The bait thing went smooth today as well. Good looking bait for us today. We're thinking we'll have no bait issues this trip unless we run out catching tons of bluefin but we welcome that. That's the best problem to have out here. It sounds like a slow day today in the bluefin grounds. I'd rather it be slow while we're at the dock then when we're out fishing though. We'll see what happens tomorrow and take it from there. The weather now is lovely but the weather forecast appears to be less then good. Let's hope they're wrong about that one. It's just about time for our tackle seminar followed up with the prime rib so I have to go.

Jody called in with this fishing wrap-up, "We were able to fish San Miguel all three days. These 1 Day Trips produced excellent Rockfish & Lingcod fishing. If you are looking to go out on an Open Party Trip you and schedule a trip by going either to the Apollo website or give Sea Landing in Santa Barbara a call 805-963-3564.