western rivers Fishing Report 2023

We had a very very good afternoon of yellowtail fishing today. The grade was 16-22 pounds with some going larger. We took off at dark and will be looking offshore tomorrow for wahoo and dorado.

Another outstanding opportunity to fish aboard the Apollo with a great group of fishing folks! There are 4 Openings on a 2 Day Trip on September 22 & 23 (Thurs. & Fri.), departs Sept. 21 (Wed.). Limited Load of 18 anglers. Group has fished together for over 10 years. The cost of the trip is $600 per angler includes meals and Mexican permits. Contact Charter Master, Dan Freeman at 714.747.0573 or [email protected]

Fall Fishing Season doesn't get any better.

~~August 1
 Good morning.  It's morning time for me.  1:53 am.  I'm  writing about yesterday.  I'd call it good fishing.  Nothing crazy, just steady scratch fishing for most of the day.  Same old grade, 14-22 pounders.  Same basic grounds.  It was a lot more fun than that sounds though.  Come on, good fishing on a good grade of fish.  What more could we ask for?  Better weather? OK.  But sometimes you get wind.  When life gives you lemons...  Seriously though, we had a whole lot of wind today.  Here's the thing though.  The boat drifted great.  We may have had over 20 knots of wind, but the boat drifted like we had 10.  A little wind burn and some chapped lips is all.  As long as the fish bite and no one gets hurt.

 Good fishing or not, we decided to take a break from that wind this afternoon.  We made a little move where the wind gets blocked by The Island.  What a difference.  I compared it to sitting in a spa.  Just that, aaahhhhhhhhh feeling.  We even caught some fish.  There were some spots of YT's up and at dark we caught 4 grouper, a halibut and a tail on a drift.  Then we anchored up for Seabass and had dinner.  We haven't caught a Seabass yet but we're hoping at or just before daylight we get some.  One boat had some around these parts yesterday.

 So that's it.  We'll be here again tomorrow.  20 minutes left on my watch and I'll be going back to bed for a few more hours.  Stay classy everyone and thanks for stopping by.
       

Mike Pritchard called in with this report for the Tribute. "We're just rollin' out of our 2nd stop. We picked up 25 Bluefin & we still have a couple of fish hang'n. We also caught a half dozen Skipjack, 6 or 7 Dorado here for the morning. We are seeing a very, very good sign of tuna. I know there are a couple guys here who have done very well. We're talking over 100 fish for the morning, with some Yellowfin tuna as well. We'll keep you posted."

Nice grade of Yellowtail on kelps, with really good sign of Tuna that were hard to catch. Also more Dorado showing on kelps, but the 2 we hooked, found their freedom.

Aug. 20
    Another fantastic day out here for us.  We had a great nights sleep.  The boat just gently rocked us to sleep just like a baby.  We tried for a gray bite but only caught one.  It didn't take long looking for a school before we found one.  We short stopped 15 yellowfin and then it didn't take long to find another deal and that one was good for a 2 hour drift.  When that dried up it didn't take long to find another one and that one was good for a 2 1/2 hour drift.  After that it was lunch time and we're pretty much done with the yellowfin.  We spent the last half of the day looking for bluefin unsuccessfully.  We're going to head for some new grounds.  And by that I mean some water I can't remember ever fishing in.  We have reports of some bluefin schools so we're going to check it out.  We'll be there first thing.  I'll let you know.

    The weather today got interesting.  It stayed pretty much windless through out the day so it remained similar to a lake, but around 9:00 in the AM it started dumping rain on us.  And I mean dumping.  Everyone on board scrambled for there rain gear.  I got to try out my new Aftco raincoat and it worked great.  During the down pour the lightning that was around got pretty darn close so I had everyone go indoors to wait it out.  It didn't take long to pass and we continued fishing and catching.  After that it stayed dry the rest of the day.  The boat got a nice fresh water rinse.
                                    

 

Capt Mike Pitchard called in an on the water report for their overnight trip, fishing has been very goos. We have about 60 mixed fish, with a really good Yellowtail bite now and a few nice ones in the mix. We also have a handful of Yellowfin and Bluefin Tuna, we are starting to run short on time but still fishing. Hopefully we can get a few more before we are done, we are leaving on a 1.5 day trip tonight. Hope everyone is having a great 4th of July.