Trip Reports

Fishing news and tackle tips!

Trip Reports

Trip #26: Sep 27-Oct 4 (7 day) Seeker Rods

Good morning anglers,

We had a very busy morning yellowtail fishing on the beach. This morning’s bite was as good as it gets on the 12-18lb yellowtail. Everyone’s having a good time with some excellent surface iron and yo yo fishing, along with the fly-lined baits. The bite has slowed down and but we’re still picking.

Captain Mike and the boys

Chris with a yellowtail caught on a fly-lined sardine.

Good evening anglers,

The yellowtail fishing has slowed down quite a bit but we’re still able to manage a few more yellowtail. We also have some tasty bottom grabbers to add to the mix and keep us at the rail. We’re hoping for a few more this evening. We’re going to try this again in the morning.

Captain Mike and the boys

Brian caught this nice yellowtail late today

October 1st, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Trip #26: Sep 27-Oct 4 (7 day) Seeker Rods

Good evening anglers,

We started traveling south yesterday afternoon. We have beautiful weather going down swell –7 or 8 knots of breeze this morning and down to nothing now. We’ve been looking the whole way down and have managed to capture a handful of dorado. We haven’t stumbled upon the right one, though we are still looking!

Captain Mike and the boys

Here’s Shanon and crewman Bryce with a travel day dorado

September 30th, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Trip #26: Sep 27-Oct 4 (7 day) Seeker Rods

Good afternoon anglers,

We had a stop on 30-50lb bluefin when the sun came up, and it looked like we were going to really get going there and then it shut off. We managed a dozen or so, and have been seeing schools all morning and not gettting any bites or any reactions.

We’ve seen some spots of 30-70lb yellowfin as well, but they’re all acting wrong as well. We tried a giant foamer of 200lbers and got no bites this afternoon. The fish just aren’t biting today.

We’re on the hunt for some big ones as we start sliding south for the remainder of the trip.

Captain Mike and the boys

Doug with the yellowfin caught this afternoon.

September 29th, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Trip #26: Sep 27-Oct 4 (7 day) Seeker Rods

Good morning anglers,

We’ve had some action on mixed grade bluefin up to 45lbs. We had a little action in the dark on the flat falls. Most of our fish came from one stop around 10am and everyone had one on. It was petty good action! We’re still seeing it this afternoon but they aren’t biting as well. Hoping for some afternoon action.

Thanks to Seeker Rods and Fred Brandt for the sponsorship of this annual trip and all the giveaways.

Captain Mike and the boys

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Searcher regular, Kevin J, shows off his bluefin from this morning’s stop

Good evening anglers,

We were able to scratch on the mixed grade bluefin all day. We had good action and saw fish all day. We also had a little action on the flat falls this evening as well. For those that stuck it out late, we managed to boat a few 40-50lb bluefin. We’re hoping for some more of this grade in the morning.

Captain Mike and the boys

Jesse and a 45lb BFT from this evening’s bite

September 28th, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Herzog Electric Private Charter: 2 day (Sep 25-27)

Hello anglers,

We started our trip with some action this afternoon, It was good fishing for dorado and yellowfin tuna. We located a kelp paddie and everyone had some fun to start the trip. It was good to get the novices some time at the rail and use of the tackle.  We are now headed south hopefully for some more yellowfin tuna.

Capt Art and Team Searcher

Happy angler with a nice dorado!

Hello anglers,

We travelled south overnight and started with some more dorado on the troll. We plan to troll and locate tuna with our sonar. Based on previous reports, that was the method of choice. We had plenty of action with spots of mixed tuna, both skipjack and yellowfin. We stayed busy all day and everyone had a great time.

Capt Art and Team Searcher

A group of happy fisherman with tuna and dorado from one of today’s stops.

September 26th, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Herzog Electric Private Charter: 3 day (Sep 22-25)

Hello anglers,

We started the day with a shot at big bluefin tuna. The bite didn’t last very long, but we had some chances with bites on kite baits. We landed two big ones: Rob landed a 205 # and Cole landed a 255 #.

We tried for yellowtail again at lunch time and had some action on 18-25 pound yellows. Everyone had a great time this trip with plenty of action and a chance at quality bluefin.

Capt Art and Team Searcher

Cole and his 255# bluefin tuna

September 25th, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Herzog Electric Private Charter: 3 day (Sep 22-25)

Hello anglers,

We are on day 2 of our Herzog Electric 3-day charter. We spent the morning trying to get the bluefin tuna to bite without a lot of luck, so we moved spots. We had some fun catching a few yellowtail around lunch. Live sardines and 25 pound test were the tackle winners with that. We are headed back to the tuna area hopefully for some action this afternoon.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Father and son each caught a nice yellowtail

Good afternoon anglerrs,

We had some action this afternoon with bluefin tuna, primarily on the kite outfits. We had a dozen bites and landed four nice  ones: 180, 155, 150 and 120 pounds. These are very nice fish, and so we had a great end for the day. We will try again tomorrow.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

The 120# bluefin on the scale!

September 23rd, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Herzog Electric Private Charter: 3 day (Sep 22-25)

Hello anglers:

We departed this morning with our great group from Herzog Electric and others. We had some action this afternoon on a kelp patty. There were plenty of opportunities to catch dorado and small yellowfin tuna. It was some good action for the beginners to get their techniques down.

We are headed west in search of bigger yellowfin and bluefin tuna.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

First-time angler, Ted, caught a small dorado on a live sardine

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September 23rd, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|

Extended 1.5 day trip: Sep 20-22

Good Afternoon Anglers,

    Last night up to the north west last night in search of bluefin tuna. Early in the morning we spotted a school of fish puddling on the surface.

We initially assumed it was bluefin but once we got a little closer, we were very pleasantly surprised to see it was large yellowfin tuna. Once we got on the school we had a few bites right away. We lost quite a few fish due to light line, but once we got our anglers fishing the 40 pound we started bringing them over the rail. These are big fish,Megan landed a 74 pounder!  We are still on the same drift and picking away with the fly line baits and the kite.

Armando and The Searcher.

Matt got a nice one too, with Bryce and Justin on the assist, even Captain Mike got in on the action. We are still on the 

Good evening anglers,

After finishing our long drift for yellowfin tuna this morning, we went on the hunt. We were seeing a lot of large “foamers” of bluefin but they would not cooperate, so we made a move. As evening approached we found the water edge we wanted to be on and found a very large school of big bluefin just beneath the surface. We hooked a big one right away, and as it got dark we put the sinker rigs and flat falls to work. The school stayed with us for a few hours, and we were able to land some very nice fish.

We had an amazing trip with a great group. We are on our way home and will be at the dock in the morning.

Armando and Team Searcher

Josh landed this 140 # bluefin on a sinker rig with a sardine

September 21st, 2020|Categories: Capt Art's Blog, Trip Reports|
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