westport charters Fishing Report 2024

Longtime charter company Burgesons Heating and Air experienced a good stop on 18-30 lb yellowfin as well as good Skipjack fishing. Back to open party fishing tomorrow. Please bring a 20 lb rod and a 40 lb rod.

The fish were a little off today. We hit schools all day and just never got the right one to bite. Scott released a 185 lb. and a 100 pounder. Al released a 115 lb., 170 lb., and a 190 lb. tuna. Roger released a 120 lb. and kept a 220 lb. tuna. Tom released a 190 pounder. And George released a 100 lb., a 115 lb., and a 140 pounder. Weather is still beautiful. Lunch was pastrami and swiss on rye and a clam shell pasta. Dinner New York steaks. Hors d'oeuvres were sashimi and sushi. Hopefully all this fish we saw today bites a little better tomorrow.

Aug 16
    We started our morning off again in the local bluefin zone.  Things felt a little better.  There were only about half the boats that were there the day before.  It had a much less claustrophobic feel to it.  Unfortunately the bluefin didn't seem to care.  It was on the slow side.  In 4 hours we managed 9 of them with 20 yellowfin to go along with them.  We left for the day and looked around for schools.  We scratched here and there throughout the day.  We had some reports of spots of 100+ pounders up so we made it there for the evening hit but never found a school of those.  We did catch some nice grade yellowfin though so with those and the sign of the 100 + pounders we know where we're starting tomorrow.  But first things first, we're going to run into the beach and try for bait tonight and as I write this we just finished up and we're headed back out with a couple tanks of mackerel and a couple tanks of sardine that we still have for ammo.
                            

 

Great boat, great crew, great food, great passengers, good weather, slow fishing. That's just the way it went down on this day and a half. We were in tuna mode trying for nice quality albacore.

We scratched 26 and some yellows and let go lots of flats. Descent amount of fish seen at times throughout the day, but they didn't climb on our hooks. Hopefully soon coming and more consistent. Next trip is a 5 day, so stay tuned.

Captain Mike Pritchard checked in at 8:15 AM with an audio update from the Tribute out of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, CA. We have been drifting since 6:30. We have 8 or 9 hanging right now. We have had a bunch of casualties due to old line or locked up drags. We have had some quality action so far today. Our next trip is a light load. Come on out fishing with us for trophy Bluefin Tuna.

Our first YFT of the year. Let's hope he is a scout for many to come!!

Rosemont Media private charter brought out 21 passengers and they “made them pay”. They landed limits of yellowfin before noon. We recommend having a rod to fish 30-50lb test when the tuna are eating everything in the water.

~~This is the after picture of the port side navigation system. If you notice, the monitor itself is a daylight monitor. The sun is shining directly on it and you can still see the screen. This system has radar, a plotter, and a fathometer. And it's all AIS capable. (Automated identification system) All ships that have AIS, can be tracked on a website, called www.marinetraffic.com. All of the systems can be overlaid so you can have your plotter, radar, and depth viewed at the same time

 

 

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This is the starboard side navigation system. Which is identical to the port. In addition to the previous mentioned features, the monitor can be switched to a computer system which has Nobel Tech times zero catch navigation fish finding and my favorite, bottom mapping system on it. You can, and we have been, making our own bottom maps for the previous three years. Cool stuff. In addition it has live weather from Weather Works XM Weather. Also it has SeaView Ocean Imaging capabilities to where we can download water temperature, chlorophyll, sea height, ect. The port system also has its own computer.

 

~~The monitor on the left is a sound activated fathometer for fish finding. And the monitor on the right is a daylight monitor for our sonar, for fish finding. In the front is one of our pairs of Gyroscopic binoculars

~~All of these electronics need new antennas. And this is how they get there. We literally pulled out a third of a dock cart of old wiring

 

 

~~Say good bye to the old radars.

~~Drew grinding away on a little cancer on the deck.

~~The roto hammer is one of our favorite tools for chipping up cancerous areas on the deck, but the noise is unbearable to our neighbors in the boat yard.

~~The deck hatches had to be completely stripped

~~We re-skinned the outside of the galley doors. They now have a nice white formica finish.

~~Creative, yes. But I bet he spent a half hour looking for that office chair in the boat yard!

~~The boat looks kinda small in some of these upcoming pictures without Tommie in them for perspective.  ~~Jed's missing from these shots because he was taking the pictures.

 

 

~~Drew resealing inspection plates for exhaust

~~Tommie detailing wood work

~~Tommie prepping for paint

~~Final coat of deck paint. Looking good!