Captain Mike’s Blog

Tackle Tip Thursday Vol. 192 (Fisherman’s Landing’s Red Shirts)

August 4th, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, Tackle Tip Thursday|

World-famous Fisherman’s Landing in beautiful San Diego would like to let long-range anglers know about the helpful service they provide to make your departures and arrivals as easy and safe as possible. Get to know the fine folks that help you save your energy for fishing and help you out with your valuable gear!

Want more tackle tip videos? Here’s our channel “Searcher Sportfishing on YouTube”

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Aug 3 (8 day) Turners and Izorline Sponsored

August 3rd, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, Trip Reports|

Good morning,

We had excellent yellowtail fishing this morning. It was “all you wanted” on 15-25# fish.  Most of the time we had 2-8 fish hooked, and then we had a hour when it was full-speed and everyone had one on.

Very good surface iron yoyo and fly line fishing.  Now we’re going to target grouper, then take off and try find a kelp on our way back up.

Captain Mike and the boys

Dale captures a keeper YT.

Good evening,

We  ended up catching a few grouper this afternoon on the dropper loop and the yoyo jigs, as well as some more yellowtail which we released.

We left The Ridge about 3 p.m. to look for a kelp but the conditions weren’t quite right and we found kelps with no fish associated.

We’re still rolling up. Going to try find a good kelp tomorrow, weather permitting.

Captain Mike and the boys

Long-time angler, Bob B, is pretty pleased with his first-ever grouper!

Aug 2 (8 day) Izorline and Turner’s Outdoorsman sponsored

August 2nd, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, 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

Aug 1 (8 day) Izorline and Turner’s Outdoorsman sponsored

August 1st, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, Trip Reports|

Good morning:

We started scratching this morning all morning on these premium grade tuna.  It started to die out around 10am  but we have had a few good go-arounds.  We moved south down the edge and started seeing it good again and we’re starting to scratch on them here. The majority of them are 18-30lbs.

Captain Mike and the boys

The Flaxington boys caught some of the action from this morning!

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

Wendy of Izorline Fishing Products shows off a nice tuna from Alijos Rocks

Jul 31 (8 day) Izorline and Turner’s Outdoorsman sponsored

July 31st, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, 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

Congrats Rob!

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

Great job, Jeff!

Tackle Tip Thursday Vol. 191 (Get Bluefin to Bite in a Foamer)

July 28th, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, Tackle Tip Thursday|

All anglers can probably agree that it can be a frustrating thing when the bluefin are right there but just don’t seem to be biting. Billy gives a few pointers that can help to seal the deal and get that bite.

Want more tackle tip videos? Here’s our channel “Searcher Sportfishing on YouTube”

🎣Reel in more Tackle Tips here! Subscribers get hooked up to new videos first!

 

Jul 26 (4 day) Offshore

July 26th, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, Trip Reports|

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

Long-time Searcher angler, Pat G, with a nice size yellow on a yo-yo- lure. He and his nephew Jacob are doing quite well today.

Jul 25 (4 day) Limited Load

July 25th, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, Trip Reports|

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

One of the 80# bluefin we landed last night

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

Mike and crewman Niko got that bluefin aboard!

Jul 23 (3 day) Limited Load

July 24th, 2022|Captain Mike's Blog, Trip Reports|

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

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