Author: Bill Roecker

Long Range Reports November 13 – Long Range Fishing Big Change The transitional period the long-range fleet experiences in the fall each year is now over. You may have noticed that most of the fish taking jackpots recently have been wahoo. That’s a common thing when boats start heading into the waters off Baja from August to November. Tuna may be around, but they’re usually the 15 to 50-pound set; hence the skinnies in XL size can beat them out. Wahoo are highly desirable, but autumn long rangers really want 100 to 300-pound tuna. Pushing down into the waters over…

Go Time! American Angler reported October 19: “Today felt like we were back on a long range trip. We had very steady tuna action all afternoon. It was such good fishing I hardly had time to get a couple of photos. We have another day down here on the Ridge and then it’s time to start the move back up the line. so we are going to look at another spot in the morning and hope we have our good luck going on still.” Tiny (Wahoo) Bubbles Independence posted for October 19: “We have had good yellowfin tuna fishing the…

Skippie Pests American Angler posted October 10: “Started the morning out with just a few guys trying and things seemed to start out good. But as it would be, after daylight fish can change their habits and with that said it was hard to hook a tuna. There have been a lot of skipjack tuna, like we have seen in the past, and so it’s just part of the game we play. There is good sign of nice tuna to catch in a few different spots – so the near future looks good for upcoming trips. We have one more…

Rockin’ The Skins123  “Today we fished Alijos Rocks,” wrote Excel skipper Mike Ramirez October 3. “There was very good sign of wahoo. We were able to scratch away at the skinnies for most of the day. The Salas 6X in black-pink was the hot ticket, bait anglers also faired well. We also had a handful of 25-pound tuna in the mix. We will be working up the line in search of yellowtail tomorrow.” Skins Are In Independence skipper Jeff DeBuys posted October 3: “Steady fishing for us again here on the Indy, as the action started a bit later today,…

A Start Down The Line American Angler posted this note September 29: “As we jumped right into another year with the Ken’s Custom Reels gang we decided to put on the brakes and get the sweat off with a little yellowtail action and even though the wind was up and conditions were very tough, the gang did an excellent job of adapting. Flurry-type fishing on all yellowtail techniques kept us busy for a few hours – through the better half of the afternoon and with fish ranging from 16 to 25-pounds, it was a great way to start. With everyone…

August 7, 2014 Flurries American Angler posted August 6: “We fished for yellows again and picked away in the morning with the occasional flurry. We changed location when the conditions switched and found a honey hole where action was as good as it gets. Ending our yellowtail fishing on a high note, we are headed out for some blue water fishing on our last day. Justin is holding up one of the day’s specimens for Larry Knupp that absolutely inhaled a Salas 7X.” Steady For Hours “Good evening from the Independence,” wrote skipper Jeff DeBuys for the Indy crew August…

Excel Sportfishing posted this August 1: “Captain Justin Fleck called in late last night and gave us an update.” Fleck said, “We headed down to the Islands. We had 97 Yellowtail this morning. We then did a little looking around and we hooked five Opahs. We landed three of them. Captain Justin said, “‘I have been on the Excel a long time and I had only seen one Opah!’ “We are running back up to fish for tuna offshore in the local zone.”

Flat Water Fishing Skipper Kevin Osborne posted for the Intrepid July 23: “What a Great day we had here on the Intrepid. We got on a school of big yellows at 0600 and drifted with them until 1P.M. It was all you wanted on the 18 to 30-pound class Tails, just a beautiful grade of fish with an average of around 22 to 25 pounds. After that was done we got in out of the wind and did some Halibut fishing where we boated a few nice ones, lost a couple nice ones and released several more shorts to grow…

July 14, 2014 Multi-day Fishing Overview Tuna fishing seemed to improve a good deal for many boats on Saturday, with a couple reporting bluefin that actually wanted to bite on the full moon. Then the breeze came up, which usually puts the bluefin down, and boats with the option headed south of the upper zone, looking for some island fishing or improved chances on The Ridge. The breeze came down on Sunday. Yellowtail fishing hasn’t been as steady as it gets, but it’s been good most of the time, and lately wahoo fishing picked up again, as have the numbers…

Indy Winners Independence posted July 4: “Well, folks our four-day trip jackpot winners go as follows: 1st place goes to Jonna Plante she caught a 28-pound yellowtail, 2nd place goes to Eric Edwards with a 27.8-pound yellowtail and 3rd place goes to Randy Narramore. “Thanks again and I hope I will see everybody again in the near future.” Intrepid Finds Kelps Holding Skipper Jesus Companioni filed this report for July 5: “It was our first whole day of fishing offshore, with beautiful weather and a great group of people. We worked our way south finding kelps with nice yellowtail and…

Backtracking briefly to the story about the yellowtail bite we experienced on The 13 Spot at the top of The Ridge, I’d like to point out that Intrepid’s skipper Billy Santiago Jr.’s parking job put us exactly on top of frantically biting fish. Maybe one other reason we loaded up so well on these prime yellows was that the fish were getting tired of eating the natural feed available; a gazillion pelagic red crabs floating along on the current, so many they could be seen downward for several feet in the water. The mackerel and sardines (thanks to what we…

Intrepid returned to Pt. Loma Sportfishing June 29, after an eight-day trip captained by Billy Santiago Jr., who covered a prodigious amount of seafloor and water during that short period, venturing south as far as 500 miles. It was an open-party trip, so when I was invited, a quick round of requests was met by generous offerings from many of Oceanic Productions/FishingVideos.com sponsors. The 18 passengers aboard the sleek sportfisher enjoyed receiving two full rounds of raffled prizes, most of which were put to use on the trip, which started by fishing kelps on the way to Cedros Island. Some…

Spots Of Yellowtail Intrepid skipper Kevin Osborne posted for June 19: “We had a fun morning again today on the Yellows running from spot to spot as the fish were racing around chasing down baits. There were times when we had the Yellows blowing up all around the rig, creating great excitement. The surface plug guys got their share today and so did the seals, but that’s fishing. Just after lunch we loaded up on bait, so we are sitting fat as far as the bait situation goes and are headed offshore for our last day. Charter Master Jerry Guzman…

Kadota Trip Winners American Angler’s office posted this June 17: “Capt. Ray Lopez docked the boat from his 8-day trip early this morning and they had a variety of bluefin, yellowtail, wahoo and ended with a freezer special. One of the guys commented that it was like an aquarium out there. “A big thanks to Dan Kadota for being a great sponsor – as usual! “ Congrats to jackpot winners below: 1st place Ben Okazaki 72.5lb Bluefin 2nd place Steve Kadota 72.0lb Bluefin 3rd place Rick Kramer 64.0lb Yellowtail ” Big Skinnies “ Good evening from the Independence,” wrote Independence…

School Yellowfin Skipper Jeff DeBuys wrote for Independence June 9: “We started our trip offshore looking for tuna, hoping the beautiful weather we had to work with would let us find some tuna. We caught about 45 school-size yellowfin tuna for the morning with no sign of bluefin to be found. We continued the search and after running a few hours in very poor water we got on some bluefin in the 60 to 75-pound range, we ended up only landing three fish but it was good to see after a long day of grinding it out. Tomorrow we are…

Hurricane Slowing Excel Capt. Justin Fleck called in May 28 from the Excel with an update. He said they were “… still in limbo from the tropical storm and is preventing us from fishing where we wanted to. We did a little bit of fishing around Alijos Rock for some good yellowtail and there were signs of tuna around but they didn’t want to bite. We went in and checked the lower banks off the coast of Baja, which had good water around, but no signs of fish, so we are currently headed south to Hurricane Bank with an eye…

5-7-14 “Giant Big Heavy Fish” American Angler skipper Kiyohara posted May 5: “We happened to be at the right place at the right time as fishing for quality grade tuna fish was better than we have seen in a while. We had perfect conditions and 120lb to 285lb fish showing all around the boat. We had steady fishing most of the day but there was a three hour period where it was as good as it gets. We had four to seven fish hooked all the time and they were all giant big heavy fish. We had backups going in…

5-3-14 Showing Through A Plunker American Angler reported May 3: “We saw plenty of fish jumping around all afternoon but they never really got with it. Even though we barely kept one fish hooked at a time, it seemed like we were always in the game because of the way they were showing. Overall the day was a success as we were able to open the hatch and use a few tags. “The brother team of Galen Steward and Sam Cornell show off one of the better grade fish that was landed this afternoon.” Spinning On The Hook KC Brotherton…

Morning Bite Prevails Capt. Justin Fleck called in from the Excel with an update for the boat’s office. “The fishing has been a little slow the last two days with the bite being primarily from 4 A.M. to sunup. We get a chance at about 10 to 25 fish and then when the sun comes up they disappear. We do a shot at a couple big ones each day. It is a struggle throughout the day to find something to work on. But, we are putting it together to make it a good trip, the weather is nice now with…

Angler Heads Out American Angler’s office posted this April 26: “The guys headed out for their April 14-day trip on this rainy, windy Saturday morning, but by the time we talked this afternoon – the weather was coming down and everyone was getting ready for a little dinner.” Clipperton Report Royal Polaris recently returned from a trip to Clipperton Atoll. The extreme distance prevented regular postings by the boat, but on the way home a few shots were made public. In her last posting, the boat’s report noted, “Our passengers are a wonderful group and all say they had a…

Fishing Has Improved Excel Sportfishing posted April 24: “Captain Justin Fleck called in this morning with an update from the Excel. The fishing on the 22nd was slow so we made a move. After anchoring up at our present location we caught 47 tuna between 60 and 230 pounds. We caught a lot of fish in the high 100s. There is some Wahoo to go along with the Tuna. We had 13 or 14 yesterday and we caught a few for meals. This morning it started off steady. We had six or seven fish as of 6 A.M. John Montgomery…

Excel Sportfishing posted the report from skipper Justin Fleck April 22: “Capt Justin Fleck called in to say that they started fishing this morning and things have been a little slow. There is a sign of fish around but the currents have been back an forth and making it difficult. We did manage a couple fish up to 180 pounds. After looking around there was not a lot of signs of fish around and we decided to make a move and try something new tomorrow. That is the good thing about 17-day trips, we have plenty of fishing time. Hopefully…

Excel’s Fishing The Excel reached her fishing grounds and made her first posting yesterday. Today, April 22, she posted the first photo, of regular angler Bob Orth. He got his big fish (no weight was given) on a flylined mackerel, as shown in this shot from Facebook. “We’ve spent the last two days traveling down in beautiful weather. Everyone here is rigged up and ready to start fishing. Hopefully the tuna gods are on our side. We will report with pictures.” Royal Star Brian Sims has the helm of the Royal Star, out on an 11/17 day, fly down/fly back…

No wide-open bite yet, but on Thursday, April 17, at least two San Diego boats found some biting yellowtail at the Coronados Islands. Malihini of H&N reported a catch of 22 yellows, and Seaforth’s San Diego took 13, along with a lingcod. Rockfish were also caught by Malihini. Rick Marin at H&M said, “The bite’s pretty consistent, with 20 to 40 fish a day. The little ones are around 12 and the best fish around 40 pounds. It’s mostly been a jig bite on yoyo iron. A good color has been mint and white but no particular color is that…