Trip Reports

Hello anglers,

We had some action today and landed some yellowtail and dorado on kelp paddies. We had some good opportunities and plenty of fun to go with the action. We managed to stick to the theme of having fun on this trip. Dick “Captain Potatohead” would have been proud.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Hello anglers,

We started the anual Captain Potatohead trip in memory of our good friend Dick Uranga! The donatons to be sent to pancreatic cancer research (to PanCan) started coming in prior to departure with raffle tickets for prizes and donations. What a great cause!

We went out west to try for bluefin tuna on our first night. We landed a few and lost a few of these 40-60# fish. After midnight we didn’t see any schools and the trooops were tired, so we anchored at San Clemente island. We will try our luck here during the day and then try for bluefin tuna again tonight.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Hello anglers,

We've seen lots and lots of non-biting bluefin tuna this afternoon. We have high hopes for this evening and feel we are  in the right place. We tried several spots this morning for some yellowtail but there was a lack of current everywhere we went.

Here are two lucky anglers with their yellowtail. That was a highlight with along with our lasagna and salad lunch.

More later,

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Good afternoon,

We opted to fish yellowtail this afternoon. It was not very good fishing though the quality was good at 18-25#.  We tried various other spots for not much luck.  We left the yellowtail grounds to make sure we were on the fish for tonight. We’re all waiting for the sun to go down now.  We see excellent sign of 40-200+#.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We stopped on a big flat spot right before the sun went down.  As soon as the sun went down, we saw bluefin and before you knew it we had 5 or 6 going. We drifted up 10 or so of these 40-200# before we had to take off for the dock.  Good opportunity tonight, though lots of heart breaks.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good morning,

We had a few shots on these big bluefin last night.  Not as easy to get a bite as it has been the past few days but we were able to get some bites and boat some trophies.  The sun just came up and they’re back to their old selves again. So we’re going to spend some time fishing yellowtail.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good morning,

We looked at at these big bluefin all day yesterday and never got a bite, even though there was good sign throughout the day.  Then the sun went down and we made them pay. We had good opportunities throughout the night.

Our best time was from 9-11 pm where we had 2-5 going for a few hours.  After that we got a few more shots on the lures.  Then sun came up now and everyone went to bed so we’re going to make a move and see if we can’t find a kelp or some other tuna to fish this afternoon.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We traveled most of the day and saw lots of kelps with non-biting dorado.  We did scrape up a few.  We got into the local zone and found a good sign of 25-40# mixed yellowfin and bluefin.  They reacted very well but didn’t stick to the boat . Every time we stopped, we hooked a few. Beautiful fish.  We ended the trip right where we started, at the islands fishing yellowtail.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good morning guys,

We got on scene around midnight and felt like we might have been late to the party, but we got some good opportunities on 100-200# fish. We managed to land a handful and we had some heartbreaks too.

We saw fish all night and there was a little opportunity throughout the night.  Around 4 am we got on a biting school of 25-40# fish and went to work.  We’re seeing good sign this morning also.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We scratched all day today and caught fish on almost all the kelps we stopped on. We worked up to the northwest this afternoon and started seeing sign of 30-50# bluefin jumping around.  We got one school to stick to the boat and boated one.  We also had one on a kelp late in the day. We’re still rolling northwest and are going to try get on some fish to bite a flat fall tonight.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening,

We spent our first afternoon at the Coronados fishing yellowtail.  We had some action late in the day on 10-18#fish.  We’re going to head offshore tomorrow and see how the weather is.  We want to thank Izorline, Calstar Rods and Tady Lures for great sponsorship of this trip.  All off these came in handy this afternoon with yellowtail fishing.  We caught some on the Tady Lures which were given away at the start of the trip.  We caught one on the Calstar rod which was raffled off to a lucky angler,  and of course all were caught on line provided by Izorline!

Captain Mike and the boys

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

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