Trip Reports

Good afternoon,

We got into the Ridge around lunch time and saw this incredible sign of yellowtail that we’ve been hearing about the past week, and so far it is on par.  They’re biting pretty good, about 2-10 going since we got here. Fly line fishing, yo yo fishing, and surface iron fishing.  The grade is beautiful, as well.  About 75% of it is 18-25lbs the rest is 12-15lbs we’re letting a lot of them go.  Very fun fishing so far. Hopefully it keeps up!

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We had good yellowtail fishing this afternoon until about 5pm when we lost our current and sign of fish.  We’re going to spend another day at this tomorrow.  We also caught a few nice grouper while yellowtail fishing.

Fun day, nice weather. Hoping for some more tomorrow.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good morning:

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We had some good tuna fishing again this afternoon at the Rocks. There were some small ones mixed in towards the end of the day, but lots of 18-30# fish.  Very fun fishing.

We also managed to scrape up a dozen more wahoo as well, and so we got everyone at least one wahoo which we are very happy about.

We took off at dark and are headed for The Ridge for tomorrow. We’ll be there after lunch.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good morning:

After traveling for two days, we arrived at Alijos Rocks this morning. There is some sign of wahoo and we’ve been scratching at them all morning. There’s also mixed-grade tuna weighing 12-25#. We are trying to figure out where to put the anchor down but have been getting attacked by small tuna everywhere we stop.  Hopefully it cleans up this afternoon as we piece it all together.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We scratched up some more wahoo this afternoon.  Then around 3 pm we got the right anchor job, and started picking on the premium 20-30# yellofwin that are here.  We had a good few hours on them and then got charged by the sharks and shut down.

So we pulled the anchor and trolled up a few more wahoo for our day.  The wind came down and but we still have a  big swell here.  We’re going to give it another day before we move on.

Captain Mike and the boys

Hello anglers,

We are seeing some spots of tuna just south of San Diego today. We are trying to get them to bite.

Earlier we saw a school of dorado on a kelp paddy. We managed to land one on a live sardine, hoping to find a few more!

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Hello anglers,

We had very good action today with 8-25# yellowtail associated with kelp paddies. We have been busy all day with plenty of opportunity and loads of fun.

Best methods:

• Fly-line a live sardine with 30-pound mono and a number 2/0 J hook (Fly-line Technique video)
• Yo-yo lures and 60-pound line (YoYo for Yellows video)
• Blue and white Salas 6X and 6X JR worked well today too. (Check out Fred Brandt’s YoYo lures on these)

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Hello all,

We had some opportunity on bluefin tuna last night. We used heavy line and 200-300 gram knife and flat fall lures.

We arrived on scene at 10 pm and started landing fish right away. Then the fish vanished at 1 am. Our anglers had a chance at catching a bigger tuna though! Hoping for some chances during the day today.

Check out a recent Tackle Tip Thursday on lures for bluefin: Tackle Tip Thursday Vol. 186 (Knife Jigs for Bluefin)

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Hello anglers,

We stayed in the bluefin zone yesterday with very little success. The bluefin did their dissappearing act again.

We saw a few fish in the afternoon and managed to land two 75# fish. We headed south to look for kelp paddies.

More later,
Captain Art and Team Searcher

Good morning,

We are seeing kelps with good fish on them thought they are not biting that well. But we’re scratching pretty good and there are lots of kelps to stop on.  We’re catching them on the flyline baits and the surface irons.

It was nice and calm this morning but the wind is starting to come up, so we’re going to start sliding into the east to find some kelps in better weather.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We ended up putting it together in the end of the day and ended on a high note.  We found a couple good kelps late in the day and had some wide-open action on 8-20# yellowtail and some dorado mixed in.

We had much nicer weather into the east here in the evening. Fly lined baits on 40lb were the key to success late in the day.

Captain Mike and the boys

p.s. Check out this tackle tip  for Fly Line Technique (and all our other helpful tackle videos) Fly Line Technique

Good morning,

We headed back to where we left off yesterday and arrived on scene around 2:30pm. The fish were in a different mode today and conditions looked a lot different.  We got one bite and had one fish just before dark.  We slid down the beach last night and are scratching at yellowtail and dorado at the moment.  No big hit yet but we’ve scratched a few.

Captain Mike and the boys (and Christine)

Good evening,

We scratched some fish in the morning and worked up to where we saw that sign of tuna yesterday.  We saw the same sign and it acted a little better today.  It was very close to being right.

We got a few bites and managed a couple bluefin and a yellowfin 25-50lbs.  We’re going to try kelping again tomorrow in a different zone.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good morning,

We’re seeing very good sign of mixed bluefin and yellowfin. At the moment they’re foaming and breezing around. We’re scratching a few on the light line at the moment but they aren’t biting great. These are 25-50# mixed fish.  We hooked a few on the lures most of our bites have come on the bait though.

Captain Mike and the boys (and Christine)

Good evening,

We had some very good opportunities today on these mixed yellowfin and bluefin. They were biting pretty good this afternoon.

We started fishing light tackle (25# test) and were losing a whole bunch. Once we got everyone switched over ,we started putting them on the boat.  Lots of bites, good fishing today. Flylined bait on 40# test was the go-to this afternoon.

Captain Mike and the boys (and Christine)