Trip Reports

Hello anglers,

We arrived on The Ridge this afternoon to nice conditions and 73 degree blue water. We trolled around for wahoo and had a few fish on the troll, as well as casting lures and live bait. Almost everyone caught a wahoo this afternoon, and that was our goal when leaving the dock. We hope to accomplish that goal tomorrow. We also had some good tuna fishing late in the day before sunset. The average tuna was 15 pounds with a few smaller and a few in the 20 pound range. We released a lot of small ones today and just kept the ones big enough to keep. Hoping for a repeat tomorrow.
Captain Art and Team Searcher

Get wahoo ready here: Must-haves for Wahoo

Good evening anglers,
We are on our way back to San Diego after wrapping up our extended 1.5 day trip. Throughout the morning and early afternoon the fish were not cooperating. We saw a lot of good signs with bird schools  all over with fish boiling beneath them. However they were very difficult to hook. We had quite a few stops with some decent reaction and a few bites. As the day went on we remained positive and finally got our shot. We found a large school underneath a large spot of terns and the bite was on. We were able to pick up some nice bluefin and some nice grade yellowfin. We had a great time with some amazing passengers.

Captain Armando and the Searcher

Review our tackle tips and subscribe to our YouTube channel here: See Searcher Sportfishing on YouTube

Good Evening anglers,

We departed this morning for our extended one and a half day trip. After departing the bait receiver we had a quick run to the local bluefin grounds. Once we arrived on scene we began to see the bird schools and foamers. With only a few hours to fish, we managed to land 20 very nice bluefin tuna. The majority of our bites came on the fly line sardine on a 25 or 30 pound test setup. We have an entire day in this zone tomorrow and are very excited to put some more fish on the deck.

Captain Armando and The Searcher Crew

Check out Capt Armando’s very own tackle tip video on sinker rig set-ups: Sinker Rig tips

Hello anglers:

We are in a different area today and there is a tremendous amount of bluefin tuna here. The fish are mostly 30-80 pounds with some 100 pound fish seen. We are catching a few fish in nice weather and having some fun.

Best methods today: flyline sardine and live sardine (nose-hooked)  on a sinker rig. Hoping for more this afternoon.

Here is the Jackpot fish so far!

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Review our tackle tips and subscribe to our YouTube channel here: See Searcher Sportfishing on YouTube

Hello anglers,

Once again we have seen tremendous signs of bluefin tuna. This morning we had decent fishing with plenty of opportunities. The best method was to use 30# line and a live sardine. In the afternoon there were big schools on the surface with not too many bites. We did mange to land two fish in the 130# range.There were other chances using a flying fish on the kite and a couple of 80# fish on flat fall lures.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Review our tackle tips and subscribe to our YouTube channel here: See Searcher Sportfishing on YouTube

Hello anglers:

Best methods today: 80 pound test flyline sardine and live sardine (nose-hooked)  on an 10 ounce sinker.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Review our tackle tips and subscribe to our YouTube channel here: See Searcher Sportfishing on YouTube

Hello anglers,

It was a very different day today with good sign of fish before daylight and then very little after the sun came up. We saw and caught a few fish after lunch and then we had to wait until 5 pm to finally get a stop. We had a little action right before sunset to save the day.
We are relocating to a little different area for tomorrow further west. Wish us luck!

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Hello anglers:

We started our trip with Norm F. from Izorline International with everyone receiving free shirts and goodie bags with line, lures, fishing supplies and more. Many thanks to Norm for his fun sponsorship. We got started fishing right away with a stop for some 25-40 pound bluefin tuna. We drifted for three hours and had fish around us the whole time. Hoping for more tomorrow as we are staying in the same zone.

Captain Art and Team Searcher

Review our tackle tips and subscribe to our YouTube channel here: See Searcher Sportfishing on YouTube

Good morning anglers,

We have been looking at large schools of bluefin and yellowfin today. They are still in a funky mood and not sure what they want to bite. We have gotten a few bites but have not landed one. We did have some good action on the yellowtail on kelps which was a really fun break from the tuna fishing.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening anglers,

We looked at tuna all afternoon and got very few bites. We caught one for our day and it was a big one. These bluefin and yellowfin tuna in this zone are in a non-biting mode at the moment. We’re hoping it will change in the next few days.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good morning anglers,

We woke up to very good sign of 50-80lb bluefin around the boat. We managed to get one on the flat fall at about 5am this morning. Since then we’ve been able to scratch up some more smaller bluefin and yellowfin, as well as yellowtail on kelps. Overall, it’s been very tough to get a bite today. We’ll check back later.

Captain Mike and the boys

Good evening anglers,

We had some scratchy fishing this afternoon on kelp patties. And we ran into these big bluefin again this afternoon and had a few opportunities. We hooked a few and only landed two. These fish are very tough to get a bite on. One of them was landed on an old Penn Baja special. Both were caught on the flat falls.

Captain Mike and the boys