Trip Reports

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