Trip Reports

Fishing news and tackle tips!

Trip Reports

Aug 31 (1.5 Day Trip) Turner’s Outdoorsman

Good morning anglers,

Pretty good sign of yellowtail this morning in the 15-30lbs.  They weren’t really in the biting mood but we scratched some on the fly-lined sardines, yo yo jigs and the colt snipers.  It fizzled out around 11 am though. We’re on the hunt for bluefin now.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening anglers,

We had a very long afternoon as we looked at lots of big bluefin with very few bites. We broke it up and filled some sacks with some nice big sheepshead and giant reds.

At the bottom of the 9th ,on the way home at 930, we found a school that acted right. We were unbundling rods and tying lures back on.  It was a very good opportunity on 70-200lb fish. They stuck with the boat for about a hour.  We had lots of bites, lots of heart breaks, lots of tangles, but we scored some trophies like this 188# Danielle landed.  Great way to end the trip!

Captain Mike and the boys

Caught on a Diawa SL lure

August 31st, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Aug 29 (2.5 Day Trip)

Good morning anglers,

We’ve scratched up some dorado this morning on kelps while we’re rolling up the line. We’re going through a patch of green water right now, but trying to punch through and find some yellowfin for the afternoon,

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening anglers,

We scratched up some yellowfin this afternoon. We did not see a whole lot, but we managed to gather up a few. They were 15lb average. A fly lined sardine and colt snipers were the ticket.

We also found some nice schools of mixed grade 15-25lb bluefin.  We got a little shot in the evening when they put on good show! We tried light line fishing. It was tough to get a bite, but it was fun.

Captain Mike and the boys

August 29th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Aug 28 (2.5 Day Trip)

Good morning anglers,

We opted to check out a new area of water today due to the lack of biting fish locally.  We pointed south when we left the point and were rewarded this morning with some excellent grade dorado ranging 10-20lbs.  Very tough to find a kelp at the moment, but we’re hoping there’s another juicy one on the bow.

Captain Mike and the boys

One of the many dorado bites this morning!

Good evening anglers,

Pretty tough to find a kelp this afternoon, but we managed to scrape up some more dorado down here. We saw scattered jumpers all over the place.

We’re now starting to see some yellowfin and skipjack as well. We had some action on jig strikes as well.

Captain Mike and the boys

Brian and son, Hunter, with a pair of yellowfin. Hunter’s first yellowfin after catching his first dorado earlier today!

August 28th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Aug 22 (Lady Angler Searcher Special 3-day trip)

Hello anglers,

We departed yesterday on our annual ladies trip. We looked for kelp paddies yesterday evening for some yellowtail and doroado. We landed just a few fish but it was a chance to wet a line on our way out to the tuna grounds. The weather is outstanding with calm seas.

Capt Armando looked around last night for a school of bluefin and had some success. We landed four fish in the 40-70 pound range on flat fall lures and 80 pound test. If you are coming out on a trip in the future, don’t forget a heavy outfit for that type of fishing.

We found a school after daylight and drifted for a while catching bluefin up to 70 pounds.

More later,
Captain Art and Team Searcher

Holy Cow, (Lori) Sachau!

August 22nd, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Aug 21 (Lady Angler Searcher Special 3-day trip)

Hello anglers,

We departed yesterday on our annual ladies trip. We looked for kelp paddies yesterday evening for some yellowtail and doroado. We landed just a few fish but it was a chance to wet a line on our way out to the tuna grounds. The weather is outstanding with calm seas.

Capt Armando looked around last night for a school of bluefin and had some success. We landed four fish in the 40-70 pound range on flat fall lures and 80 pound test. If you are coming out on a trip in the future, don’t forget a heavy outfit for that type of fishing.

We found a school after daylight and drifted for a while catching bluefin up to 70 pounds.

More later,
Captain Art and Team Searcher

Glenda landed her tuna after an assist from Capt Art. TIP: Try a flyline sardine and 30 pound line with a #2 hook.

Hello anglers,

Excellent fishing today for bluefin tuna 30-80 pounds! We spent a lot of time drifting with fish hooked, and really good signs of fish throughout the day. The preferred method was flyline sardine on 30-40 pound line and fluorocarbon with a #2 J-hook or a small circle hook. Changing your bait and making sure you have a bait that swims was key.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Ginny and Captains Ryan and Armando with a nice bluefin

August 21st, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Aug 19 (1.5-day trip)

Good afternoon anglers.

We started our morning out west to try for some yellowtail and bluefin. We had a little bit of action in the morning, but for the most part is was a little slow at the bank. We decided to pick up the anchor and head towards the larger bluefin zone. Just after lunch we arrived on scene.

Right as we arrived in the zone we began to see large breezers right on the surface. We just slid into our first school and are currently engaged in a battle. These fish our responding well to the fly line live sardine on 30lb test. We are hoping to have a very productive afternoon here!

Captain Armando and Team Searcher

Way to go James!

Good Evening Anglers,

We spent our afternoon and evening in the bluefin zone. Once we found the water we wanted to be in, we began to see some amazing signs of fish. We started seeing large schools up on the surface all around us. After a couple of stops we spotted an extremely large breezer in the distance, it was more than a football field in size.

When we got up to it and started a chum line, the fish immediately got around and underneath the boat, and of course came that favorite word “Biter!” We drifted on that stop til dark. It was quite a show school after school came up around us and stayed with us as we hooked more. These were some quality 50 to 70 pound blue fin tuna. The tuna wanted to bite the lighter line, so of course we had some casualties. The trick seemed to be the flyline sardine on 30 or 40 pound test. We also hooked some fish on the sinker rig and the chrome jig.

We are on our way home after an amazing chicken teriyaki dinner. It was a great end to our 1.5 day and we had alot of fun with some great passengers.

Captain Armando and Team Searcher

August 19th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Aug 17 (Extended 1.5-day trip)

Good morning anglers,

Beautiful weather here this morning.  We’ve scratched up a nice morning on 20-30lb yellowtail.  Fly-lined baits and yo-yo lures seemed to be the hot ticket today.  There are some small bluefin we’re catching here as well.  The bite died around 10am so we picked up the anchor and we’re going to go look for bluefin this afternoon.

Captain Mike and the boys

Crewman Kaden and young Derek with a larger yellow.  Derek’s been red hot on the yo yo lure this morning.

Good evening anglers,

We started seeing signs of 25-70lb bluefin right after lunch today.  We couldn’t get going until about 230 however.  We got on a good one and drifted all afternoon this afternoon until about 6. We had 1-4 going the whole time.

TIP: Light line fishing and small hooks was the key.  Beautiful weather and good fishing great way to wrap up our day.

Captain Mike and the boys

Derek and dad Atushi bending on some quality bluefin together

August 17th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Aug 15 (3-day trip) Captain Potatohead Memorial and “Fun”raiser

Hello anglers,

We tried hard at San Clemente island, but didn’t have too much production. We also tried for bluefin later but got to the party a little late.
However, we had lots of fun with plenty of great items to raffle off and some costumes to lighten things up.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

A sample of today’s yellowtail, caught on live sardines

Thanks for raising money for Pancreatic Cancer Action Network!

August 16th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|
Go to Top