Trip 26 (5 day) Sep 20-25 Ultra-limited load
Hello anglers:
After a slow start to our day with more yellowfin tuna that didn’t want to bite, we changed things up and the second half of the day was much better! We found a school of yellowfin tuna that wanted to bite. Everyone had multiple chances at landing a good-size yellowfin tuna. Lots of fun and action!
Capt Aaron had a great afternoon fishing with our “Hook and Hand” outfits from Accurate Products and Seeker rods. He used 25 pound mono, 25 pound flourocarbon and an Owner mutu circle hook (size 2). He was able to keep everyone busy by hooking and handing fish. Great job Capt Aaron and a big thank you to Accurate Products!
He is pictured with Devon Provance and her nice yellowfin tuna.
Hoping to repeat our day tomorrow. Team Searcher
Trip 26 (5 day) Sep 20-26 Ultra-limited load
Hello anglers: We have spent most of the morning drifting with yellowfin tuna around the boat. The challenge has been to get them to bite! We’re trying 20-25 pound test line with flourocarbon and a #2 hook. Lots of fish have been hooked by the crew and handed off to the passengers. The encouraging sign is that there’s plenty of fish around, just not too many landed.
Jereck Provance from Murrieta got this tuna landed!
Team Searcher
Yesterday day’s end report
Hello anglers,
We spent the day at San Clemente island. We saw some tuna in a couple of different areas. We landed a few yellowtail on live sardines.
We are moving east to try for yellowfin tuna. Wish us luck and biting fish!
Team Searcher
Trip 26 (5 day) Sep 20-25 Ultra-limited load
Hello anglers: We stated our trip close to home yesterday and managed to land a few 30-pound yellowfin tuna. With only 14 anglers aboard, we were able to give everyone the attention to gear and bait, and anything else they needed!
Due to the weather forecast and a tropical depression in our southern path, we travelled west. We are at San Clemente Island today where we see a sign of the nice-ize bluefin here. One angler landed a 50 pounder this morning! The current changed up, and so the fish we are seeing isn’t biting. We’re hoping for a change with the current later today.
In the meantime we switched gears to try for some yellowtail. We have landed a few, and Dan Carrier from Irvine is pictured with crewman Ben Hart and a good size yellowtail. (Sorry, we had a transmission error with the photo!)
More later, Team Searcher
Trip 25 (6 day) Sep 14-20 Penn Open with Steve Carson
Hello anglers: We travelled north to the coast to try for yellowtail this afternoon. Unfortunately we had bad timing–the current went slack as soon as we arrived at our first stop. We saw plenty of yellowtail, it just wouldn’t bite for everyone.
However Team Ohio (Ron Shultz and Brian Virost) had some luck. Each of them landed a good size yellowtail.
The highlight of the day was the galley! Dan and Charley put out a spread of fresh yellowfin tuna sashimi and California rolls for this afternoon’s snack. Then we had fresh wahoo with a butter lemon sauce for dinner. Great job, chefs!
Team Searcher
Trip 25 (6 day) Sep 14-20 Penn Open with Steve Carson
Hello anglers, What a great day on The Ridge today! We had excellent yellowfin tuna and wahoo fishing, with a few yellowtail, dorado and a pargo too. We had action for most of the day, starting with yellowtail before daylight, wahoo before lunch and then a great tuna bite for the afternoon! We finished off the day trying to get everyone a wahoo and we came close.
Click here for some wahoo fishing tips: Getting prepared for wahoo!
The weather was good, with light winds and sunny skies. It was a classic “Ridge” day with variety and lots of action.
We are headed north tonight with hopes of some fishing time tomorrow afternoon on the coast.
Captain Art and Team Searcher
Trip 25 (6 day) Penn Open with Steve Carson
Hello anglers,
We finally made it to The Ridge! There were so many sharks at our first stop here, that we couldn’t really land any yellowfin tuna. So we decided to travel another 30 miles to the south where the reports were good and the sharks weren’t as numerous.
We arrived late in the afternoon and had steady action on 12 to 30 pound yellowfin tuna. Everyone had a good chance to land a fish and we had a great time! We are spending the night so we have some time to try it all again tomorrow.
Captain Art and Team Searcher
Trip 25 (6 day) Penn Open with Steve Carson
Hello anglers: Anglers were busy today rigging up their gear, with lots of anticipation for tomorrow. Everyone is getting wire leaders ready for a chance at a wahoo in the next two days. The crew had an assembly line set up to make live bait leaders for everyone to use for a wahoo.
Read all about wahoo fishing in our “Ask A Captain” article titled Wide World of Wahoo.

Ron Schulz and friends enjoy dinner with a view! Chef Charley’s lasagne, Chef Dan’s fresh bread, and veggies from Rick DeVore’s ranch! And perhaps a certain Michigan IPA is on tap at this table too?
Steve Carson had some more giveaways after dinner to keep anglers entertained with new gear. Everyone went to bed early to rest up for the next two days.
We plan to arrive to the fishing grounds mid-morning tomorrow.
Team Searcher
Trip 24 (1.5 day) Sep 12-14, 2016 Jackpot winner
Congratulations to Joe Tyler of Long Beach, CA for his 39# yellowfin tuna, winner of the jackpot!