willamette river Fishing Report 2025

Ryan Bostian called in from the San Diego with this report. "We've been fishing offshore & the Yellowtail fishing has been excellent. We have been fishing kelp paddys 20 to 40 miles from home. The Yellowtail fishing is starting to slow down a little bit. The body of fish we have been fishing is starting to move on out to the northwest. However, today Capt Ray went out with 31 passengers. We caught 12 Yellowtail, 1 Skipjack, 7 Dorado and 40 Bluefin tuna. It was an excellent, excellent day. There were some very nice schools of tuna out there. It's getting to be that time of year that is going to turn more into tuna time. We should start to see more Yellowfin tuna in the counts, or more Bluefin.

"If you want to go out with us we have trips everyday. We leave the dock at 5:30 AM. The ticket price is $130.00. That includes your Mexican Fishing License. It's just a great time of year, there are a lot of fish within 40 miles of San Diego

Oct. 5

I'm lying. Its actually Oct. 6 as I write this. It's Drew here, back from a few trips spent on land and fresh out for a healthy 40 day stretch. It appears I have some large shoes to fill as Cap. Richie has been putting the wood to the tuna fish out here lately. Well mother nature welcomed me back with some wind. Thanks mom. We arrived to the fishing grounds we chose to start about an hour ago and threw out the sea anchor in hopes that the tuna will find us rather then vice versa. It's easier that way when you have the wind like we do and if the tuna do find us it will be much more comfortable with the bow to the wind like it is with the chute out. We'll know the answer to that in about an hour or more. Baits o.k. There is much more sardine alive this morning then I thought there would be. So that's it. There's a dorado swimming around out my wheelhouse window so I'm going to go make someone catch it.

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

~~Oct. 9
 Good evening to everyone at home or wherever you may read this.  After one night dockside we were back to the boat this afternoon.  We headed to the fuel dock and changed oil and fuel filters, filled her all the way up on fuel, grabbed some brine making salt and loaded 2 weeks worth of food.  Shortly after getting back to Fishermans Landing, all our dogs got here.  I'm talking about George, Craig, Charlie, the Jer-bear, the Bry man, Bernie, Scott and the infamous J.C.  Infamous.  That's like really famous. 

 We took our time at the bait receivers to ensure we had the best that bait could offer us.  We're pretty happy with it at the moment.  For the next 4 days we'll be traveling to our destination of the Shamada seamount.  AKA Hurricane Bank.  And speaking of hurricanes, there isn't one at the moment.  Lately they've just been rolling in one after another but for now, none.  It's our destiny to get down below and catch very large yellowfin and wahoo.  Tommy spent a bunch of money and rented a system that allows us to get on the web where ever we are which allows us too look at all our weather web sites to keep track of storms that may be an issue to us.  So worry not.  We won't be anywhere near a low pressure system this trip.  Safe and sound out here as always.

 Anyways, it sure looked to me like everyone had a good afternoon hanging out, getting there cigar on and doing what they do.  We didn't even make it through dinner before the Bry-man and the Jer-bear got on what they call Team Bernard.  It's there thing to talk some smack and make fun of Scott and Bernie and it's hilarious on all sides.  Here we go.

 So for the next few days we'll be getting ready for a week of some hardcore fishing.  Rigging tackle, tuna and wahoo seminars, naps, movies, food, cocktails...  I think the next few reports will read like this paragraph we're on now.
        

 

Sep. 6

Well we accomplished what we wanted to do today. We gave everyone a good shot at one of those cow bluefin tuna. It was at 6:05 in the am when the school got on us. We started off hooking yellowfin and watching those 100 +sers blowing out around the boat. It didn't take long for us to start hooking them. We drifted for a couple of hours with bluefin hanging on the lines. Like always with these beasts the hook to land ratio was not good. There were alot of heartbreaks for the passengers and myself and the crew. We only landed 4 of them all in the 130's. We lost a lot more then that. A few just mere feet away from being gaffed. It' a sad thing to have one of these on for an hour only to lose it in the end. Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you. After the school left us we pretty much had to point her for home with a good load of fish from the trip and smiles on the lucky 4 and tears in the eyes of the rest. Short lived though. We get over these

things. You'll get them next time. We're experiencing a very nice ride home. Finally we get to wear shorts and teeshirts out here. Nice. Thanks to everyone on board. We'll be arriving tomorrow and then turning around on a 5 day trip. Should be good fishing. See you then.

Just what we had hoped for! 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 lbs. and Gunnar, one of our first timers got the biggest one for the day that weighed in at 230 lbs. 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 lbs. Our weather is fantastic. Dinner was incredible. Pedro laid out another killer sashimi and sushi appetizer and followed up with a dinner of fresh yellowtail with a Chardonnay, lemon, shallot sauce. Richie said it was probably the best fish dish he has ever had. We are hoping for another fun day tomorrow. Wish us luck. Thanks for checking in.

Myself and the crew would like to thank everyone who joined us for this past season. 2016 will forever be remembered as one of the most unique years. From huge schools of non biting yellowfin tuna to foamers of big bluefin that enjoyed eating surface poppers. This season proves that none of us know anything about the ocean. We will shut down for a month or so to handle our annual maintenance. We look forward to fishing with everyone again in 2017.

Captain Andrew Viola called in a bit ago with an update from the Pacifica out of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, CA. We returned this morning from a 1.5 day trip and the fishing was as good as it gets. We had limits of Bluefin Tuna and 10 Yellowfin Tuna. The Bluefin were mainly 18 to 25 pounds but we also had 5 or 6 fish in the 60 to 80 pound class. We did manage to catch two of the bigger models (150 and 170). We have a 1.5 day trip tonight with a few spots and an overnighter on Thursday. Come out fishing on the Pacifica.