Trip Reports

Fishing news and tackle tips!

Trip Reports

May 13-14 (May 12-15) Rich Denio and Friends Charter

Good morning,

We had a long day looking hard all day. We saw some signs of fish throughout the day, and stopped on a couple of schools for no bites. Last night we got some opportunities and we were able to scratch at 40-90lb bluefin throughout the night. We’ll see what happens for our last night.

Captain Mike and the boys

May 14

Good morning,

We decided to do some rock-codding yesterday due to the lack of daytime biting fish. WE sacked up some nice taco meat!

We slid back into the bluefin zone in the afternoon and saw some scattered sign similar to yesterday. But when the sun went down, the fish didn’t show. We drove around until 1 a.m. when we had to head to the dock.

We managed another handful of fish of a few small schools.

Captain Mike and the boys

Jackpot fish weighed 98lb!

May 15th, 2023|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

May 12-13 (May 12-15) Rich Denio and Friends Charter

Good evening,

We saw very little sign of bluefin until late this afternoon. We looked hard all day and scratched up a couple handfuls of yellowtail throughout the afternoon and looked at a couple nice schools late today.

We’re hoping for some action tonight!

Captain Mike and the boys

May 13

Good morning,

We had a few good opportunities throughout the night on 40-90lb bluefin. We capitalized on our first stop of the night, then scratched our way through the night. We saw good schools all night! We’ll see what happens today.

Captain Mike and the boys

It was a busy night!

May 13th, 2023|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Nov 21 (November 15-23) Ridge Special

Good evening,

We started on The Ridge this morning where we caught tuna our first day down here.  We saw almost not sign at all, but we stuck it out until 11 a.m. But it became obvious that it was a bust–the water had rolled over.

We took off looking for a kelp and after about 4 hours, Captain Ryan spotted a 30-ft kelp from a few miles away with dorado jumping on it.  We scored on this one. All you want yellowfin tuna, all you want dorado and a few lucky guys got a wahoo.

We’re headed up for yellowtail on the beach tomorrow.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We got up to the area around Isla Natividad around 9am and started seeing fish right away.  We’ve been picking and scratching all day. We have been seeing fish all day. They are not that eager but we’re putting a nice day together.  Yo-yo was the best, but we are catching some on the dropper loops as well. Beautiful grade at 17-20#and a few 25-30# fish mixed in. 

We’re rolling up. Going to do a few cod drifts for our last day of the season tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing everyone out next year

Happy holidays,

Captain Mike and the boys

November 21st, 2022|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Nov 19 (November 15-23) Ridge Special

Good morning,

We slid further down The Ridge last night to try for some yellowtail and see if there was any wahoo around.  We haven’t seen any wahoo yet but we had a pretty good shot at some big yellowtail that are 20-45lbs, mostly 30lbs and up.  There was a one hour bite window and then we just caught them one at a time until lunch. Big bruisers on the mackeral we caught the other day and on the yo yo jigs.  We’re moving up to  see if we can find some ‘hoos now.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

Minimal sign of wahoo this afternoon but we did hook one and lost it at gaff.  We had a drift on mixed-grade tuna as well in our search. They were 10-25lbs.  We ended the day here grouper fishing.  We managed a handful of these beasts.  We’re going to try a little tonight them move up to where we were yesterday for our last day on The Ridge.

Captain Mike and the boys

Grouper caught on 80# with a dropper loop and large Spanish mackerel

November 20th, 2022|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Nov 18 (Nov 15-23) Ridge Special

Good morning,

We got to the ridge at 0600, made one quick pass and saw sone premium tuna and put it down.  They started biting right away. Very good fishing from about 630-8 am then we started to pick at them.  The grade is primarily 20-45lbs.  We lost all of our current here now and we’re looking around waiting for some flow.

Captain Mike and the boys

Ernie got a taste of the tuna!

November 18th, 2022|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Nov 17 (Nov 15-23) Ridge Special

Good morning,

We started at San Pablo this morning for no sign of yellowtail despite the beautiful water and conditions.  So we started sliding down the beach and got into some 20-30lb yellowtail.  We’re catching a few on the yoyos but the bonito are pretty bad. We’ll see if it cleans up here.

Captain Mike and the boys

Nice one, Rick!

Good evening,

Our yellowtail fishing never cleaned up this morning so we took off.  We got into some good biting fish here after lunch. They are 18-22# yellowtail.  Clean fishing on the dropper loops and yoyo jigs.  They bit right until the sun went down.  Very fun fishing.

We’re headed down to The Ridge.  We will be there in the morning.

Captain Mike and the boys

Searcher family member, Doug, gets a yellowtail

November 18th, 2022|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Nov 13 (November 7-15) Ridge Special

Good evening,

We had a nice little cherry on the trip this morning.  We stopped to fish yellowtail on the coast and got into some bigger fish –17-25lbs.  We had one stop where they were boiling around, biting the surface iron.  The rest of the morning we scratched, drifting along and yoyo fishing.  It got breezy this afternoon.  We’re anchored up eating dinner then were going to head for home.

Captain Mike and the boys

EVENING REPORT

CAPTION FOR PHOTO

November 14th, 2022|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Nov 12 (November 7-15) Ridge Special

Good morning,

Beautiful weather here again this morning and we were greated with some biting fish.  We have had a couple good shots at these wahoo this morning and scraped up a few in between.  We are catching some of these 15-25lb tuna in our wahoo stops as well as some dorado.  We’re trying to get everyone a wahoo here before we take off and start rolling up.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good afternoon,

We managed to get everyone a wahoo here this afternoon, so we are pumped! That’s one of our goals when we run down here 500 miles. The last few we got were so great big ones too, real trophies. We’re rolling up to try catch some bigger yellowtail tomorrow to finish our trip off.

Captain Mike and the boys

Shane (left) and Dale with a real trophy!

November 12th, 2022|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Nov 11 (November 7-15) Ridge Special

Good morning,

We camped out last night in hopes we could strike up some wahoo today, but that didn’t happen. We had one strike first thing in the morning and then drove around for hours trying to catch some more and never did.  We have scratched a few more drifting and on the anchor throughout the morning.

This tuna fishing remains excellent and is still very available. We are on a different program here now since anglers got what they wanted. We’re throwing back 18-20# tuna at the moment. We’ll see if these wahoo want to cooperate a little better this afternoon.

Captain Mike and the boys

Kenny got a wahoo!

Good evening,

We scraped up a couple more wahoo this afternoon and some dorado to go along with it.  It’s a fair sign, but they just don’t seem to be in the right mode.  This tuna is pretty available as well but we aren’t keeping it anymore.  Beautiful weather here this evening.

Captain Mike and the boys

Kurt got his wahoo! Andrew with the assist.

November 11th, 2022|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|
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