Trip Reports

Have you heard?

Shawn Trowbridge is joining Team Searcher and will be operating fishing trips along with Captains Art and Aaron!

We are thrilled to add such an experienced and well-liked skipper to our team. Many anglers know his name since he’s operated a variety of other San Diego-based sportboats, and owned and operated his own boat out of Seaforth Landing.

Shawn is celebrating his 30th year of maintaining a US Coast Guard license with his first issue in 1988.

In his career, Shawn has fished from southeast Alaska to Puerto Vallarta and all the fishing spots in between!

Shawn currently resides in Idaho and loves the outdoors–can you tell? Fishing, snow sports, hunting are just a few of his favorite activities, especially when in the company of his family.

Join us in welcoming Shawn to Team Searcher and look for him on your next trip!

Check out the awesome package available at the Fred Hall Show (March 22-25) in Del Mar! Stop by the CCA booth outside the show to take advantage of this offer.

CLICK HERE: Searcher CCA Cal FredHall Poster

For just $50, you’ll receive:

• Annual Coastal Conservation Association Membership ($30 value) which supports conservation and enhancement of marine resources and coastal environments.
• Single day entry into the show ($17 value).
• Searcher Sportfishing raffle ticket for a free spot on a 1.5 day fishing trip ($495 value). Winner will be drawn after the show and you need not be present to win.
• Goodie bag containing coupons for show special offers, literature, stickers, and a Searcher Sportfishing frig magnet!

It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning, talking to anglers about BLUEFIN! Capt Art and anglers from Silver Gate Yacht Club shared stories about catching and how to improve catch success with kites, Yummee flyers, working with wind, and surveyor’s tape!

Get the scoop on kite fishing before the season begins! Click here: KITE FISHING!

Bluefin think these are YUMMEE!

Displaying the kite.

Surveyor’s tape on your line for visibility.

Jeremy Moore of Eastvale, CA brought his son Jacob fishing in August, 2017. That qualified Jeremy for our SONAR promotion, as he brought a “New Angler” to Searcher Sportfishing. His name was added to the year-long raffle, and in December, Capt Art pulled Jeremy’s name and he WON!

As we do every year, the grand prize winner received a rod/reel combo and a free 3-day trip aboard Searcher! Jeremy is booked for his free trip in 2018, and now has a beautiful new rod/reel combo to bring along.

Check out all the SONAR details here: SONAR. Bring a friend and win!

We are grateful to Penn for the rod (PENN Carnage II series model #CARBWII3080C70) and reel (Fathom FTH15LD2) .This combo came highly recommended by Penn pro-staffer, Steve Carson.

The perfect match for the Fathom FTH15LD2 is the PENN Carnage II series rod. It fishes 30-pound line perfectly, it makes hooking a “football” tuna fun, but can still land a 60-pound bluefin.

Props were tuned to their original specs.

It’s time again for our annual dry dock period of maintenance and inspections. Searcher is in San Pedro at Al Larson Boat Shop. Team Searcher is working with the capable crew at the boat yard to get our girl ship-shape for her 48th year of operation!

Searcher’s hull (in the bow) with 47-year-old bare wood, ready for repainting.

Congratulations to the winners of the Accurate/Seeker “Season Closer” 6-day Guadalupe Special:

1. Dale Bunting – Cambria, CA – 131# yellowfin tuna
2. Andy Ratsky – Calabasas, CA – 128# yellowfin tuna
3. Gary Wheeler – Apache Junction, AZ – 128# yellowfin tuna

Hello all,

Our final day of fishing for 2017 was a success! Everyone had plenty of opportunity to hook a quality yellowfin tuna today as well as a quality yellowtail. The weather finally let up and it was a great day of fishing in good weather. Here is Andy Ratsky from Calabasas with one of the four good size tuna he landed this trip, Andy used a loaner outfit from Gary G. from Accurate Fishing Products with a Seeker rod. He also was kind enough to hand off other fish he hooked today to 2 people that hadn’t landed a tuna yet. Thanks to Andy for his generosity.

Travelling tomorrow and arriving in San Diego on Friday.

Team Searcher

Hello all,

We have had a great morning fishing for tuna and yellowtail. Steady action on fish over 100 pounds with a few 25-40 pound tuna mixed in and some nice size yellowtail 25-35 pounds. All the fish were hooked on flyline live sardines and 80 pound test and a 4/0 Owner circle hook. 

Here’s Teresa Reynoso with her 91 pound tuna that she landed with just a little help from Capt Art around the anchor line. Capt Ryan helped Teresa hold the fish up for this photo. Hoping for more action this afternoon. We are very close  to reaching our goal of everyone landing a big tuna.

Team Searcher

Hello all,

Another windy, windy day. It was very hard to fish, but we managed to land a few good grade fish: we caught a few in the morning, with a lull until late in the day. We are slowly but surely getting everyone onboard a quality tuna. We are hoping that the wind backs off tomorrow and we can land a few more.

Here is Elbie Bartolome from San Diego with the 116-pound tuna he hooked. The crew helped finish this fish off with multiple trips under the anchor line. Glad we were able to help get this fish on deck.

More tomorrow,

Capt Art & Team Searcher