Trip Reports

Fishing news and tackle tips!

Trip Reports

May 28 (3 day trip)

Good evening anglers:
We left this morning on our 3-day Memorial Day trip with Izorline pro-staffers, Norm and Howard on board. We picked up an amazing load of bait, ate lunch and headed down south. By evening we were able to locate a nice school of large grade bluefin tuna. It took awhile to get with it, but then those famous words we all love to hear came….”BITER!!”

We had some bites on the jigs and on the sinker rig. Randy was able to land this 170 pound fish with a flyline sardine on 100lb test! That is pretty impressive. It’s dark now and we are on the hunt for a night bite. We are very excited for our next upcoming days of fishing!

Armando and the Searcher crew

Check out these tackle suggestions: Tackle for Offshore Trips

Congrats to Randy!

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

May 27 (2.5 day trip)

Good evening anglers,
Congratulations to Jeff L, who today captured his very first bluefin. Jeff captured his fish with a brand new Tady Teaspoon lure, with one of Searcher’s awesome loaner setups.

The daytime bite was a little slow today but with the sign we saw, we know things are going to just get better and better. We saw school after school but the fish are still not incredibly eager, however we did catch some nice ones. It’s dark now and we are currently pulling on one fish and seeing huge schools. We will be at the dock in the morning to wrap up this trip.

It’s been an incredible trip with some amazing people!

Armando and the Searcher crew

Check out these tackle suggestions: Tackle for Offshore Trips

Jeff and his first bluefin

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

May 26 (2.5 day trip)

Good afternoon fellow anglers,

We left yesterday evening for a 2.5 day trip, with 17 very excited anglers. The bluefin have been biting very well in the dark, so our goal was to reach the grounds extremely early in the morning. Everyone ate a delicious dinner, they got rigged up, and were on their way to their bunks for a very short nap.  Once we reached the zone we were able to locate a very nice school of fish that wanted to stick to the boat.

Thanks to some good information we knew what we were up against, and so the anglers were advised to fish no less than 80 pound test and that really paid off! We landed some some beautiful bluefin tuna in the dark. Not one fish was was under 100lbs, including the amazing 192lb bluefin caught by Steve R. Once the sun came up we looked at a few more schools of tuna that would not cooperate, so we spent the later morning looking for kelps and have had a lot of fun catching some quality yellowtail. It’s been a great trip so far and we still have so much time left to go!

Armando and the Searcher Crew

Check out these tackle suggestions: Tackle for Offshore Trips

Steve R. started his trip off right with this 192# bluefin!

Good evening anglers,

We had some very fun fishing this afternoon! We found school after school of the 200 pound range bluefin. It’s great to be able to say that the kite is back in action. Although it was tough to get on the right school, we finally found one that wanted to play. We managed to land three kite fish in the 200 pound range and one jig fish right before dark. We also hooked quite a few on the sinker rig but those proved difficult to land. But that definitely did not end the day of fishing.

As I am writing this at 9pm we just hooked our first fish in the dark. Lately that has been the best fishing. Doug had 2-100lb bluefin last night on the knife jig. Do not forget your heavy gear! We have to get back to work and try to hook some more.

Armando and Searcher crew

Check out these tackle suggestions: Tackle for Offshore Trips

Caught on the kite by day!

May 26th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

May 16 (2.5 day trip)

Good morning anglers,

We relocated the fish we were on yesterday and stopped on very large school this morning, We were able to plunk up almost what we needed to get our limit.  Still a very good sign this morning and all the fish but one came on the fly-lined baits.  They were 25-70lbs. We’re going to give this a break for a few hours and do some scouting and come back to it in the evening.

Captain Mike and the boys

Check out these tackle suggestions: Tackle for Offshore Trips

Brian with a 70lb bluefin he caught on a fly-lined sardine on 40#. 

May 16th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

May 15 (2.5 day trip)

Good morning anglers,

We saw incredible signs of 40-60lb bluefin last night in the dark, but could not get the right school. We’re seeing the same sign after sunrise as well. We’ve started scratching away at them very slowly.

Our main focus is to stay on the fish until bite time today or tonight. We are getting some opportunities though. We’ve caught them pretty much every way: fly line, sinker rig and on the lures.  If these things decide to bite, we’re going to be in business.

Here is young Keegan with a 50lb model he caught on a Diawa SK lure.  He’s currently pulling on another.

Captain Mike and the boys

Great job, Keegan! Save a few for your dad to catch too!

Good evening anglers,

We had a very slow afternoon. There is still a very good sign but it’s very difficult to get a bite. We did our best to stay on them all day and it paid off.  These fish seem to be in a mode they want to bite at night. We had very good action on the flat falls and most of the fish were 40-50 lbs. A handful were smaller ones and a handful were bigger ones including three fish over a 100#.

Captain Mike and the boys

Albert caught this a 100#+ on a flat fall

May 15th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

May 9 (2.5 day trip)

Good evening anglers,

We had a great afternoon, sliding on big breezers of this 40-60lb bluefin. They put on quite a show after lunch then dissapeared for a while. We found them again late and are getting a little opportunity on the flat falls. It’s a very good sign of this fish locally. Time to come fishing!

We have our limit for two days of fishing on a beautiful grade of bluefin and are heading home. We still have a few spots available for a few weekday 2.5 day offshore trips.

Captain Mike and the boys

May 10th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

May 8 and 9 (2.5 day trip)

May 8

Good evening anglers,

We had a very long afternoon.  We looked at a very large area of bluefin today–mixed grade from 15-25lbs and 40-60lbs.  It was very frustrating to see fish shining all around the boat, boiling up a little, but not biting. At about 1pm we made a 50+ mile move and it paid off.  We were rewarded with a ripper of a flat fall bite from 11pm to 1am.  Just need a few more in the morning to finish up our quota.  We’ll check back tomorrow.

Captain Mike and the boys

May 9

Good morning anglers,

Happy Mother’s Day! The fish we were on last night! They popped up a few miles away and we’re currently in a plunker now. Most of the fish are coming on the sinker rig, and a few on the fly line as well.  Beautiful weather, good fishing. We couldn’t ask for much more.

Captain Mike and the boys

May 9th, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

May 2 (2.5 day trip)

Good morning anglers,

We’ve had some good action on the yellowtail up to 15 lbs today. Much nicer conditions down here in our new location.  We have also been seeing good signs of mixed-grade bluefin here. We’re seeing and hooking some big ones down here, but we haven’t landed any yet.  Hopefully we get some more opportunities this afternoon.  Here is Gary with a yellowtail off the first kelp of the day.

Captain Mike and the boys

Gary and a kelp patty yellowtail

Good evening anglers,

We saw good sign of these big bluefin this afternoon amd evening. They were not very “user friendly” however.  Mike did manage to land a 50lb on the flat fall though.  We also scraped up a few more yellowtail this afternoon. We’re going to poke around for a few hours and see if we can “flat fall” some up.

Captain Mike and the boys

Congrats to Mike for his flat-fall bluefin!

May 3rd, 2021|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|
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