BY GUNDY GUNDERSON
SAN DIEGO –After a short stint of scratch fishing, Guadalupe Island bounced back kicking out excellent catches of trophy yellowfin tuna and some big homeguard yellowtail. Despite a bout with ravenous sharks a few weeks ago and this latest bout of poor conditions, the island has been remarkably resilient, producing good catches with a consistency, not usually associated with the island. Meanwhile, the wahoo fishing picked up out at the Rocks producing catches to 50-pounds. Bluefin tuna are still on the radar usually settling a jackpot.
RP at the ‘lupe
The Royal Polaris arrived at Guadalupe Island knowing that the bite had been slow in recent days. Its an old long range axiom, you would prefer slow fishing to good fishing when you leave the dock. Things are always changing so you want to time the upswing. The boat with Capt. Rot Rose at the wheel, sent this message after a slow start, “The weather continues to be good, with overcast skies, flat seas, but a bit of a chill in the air. We started looking around 12:00 hours, and things looked a bit off. With the reports from the other boats being slow, we were hoping that it would change for us. But for the first 4 hours, things looked bad, all we had to show for our efforts, were a few bass, that we released. But as the sun set in the west, it started. We would have a few boils, then another then bingo, we had our first fish going. We didn’t light the world on fire, but by the time for first call for dinner, we would boat a handful of yellowfin tuna. Most of the fish were in the 80 to 100-pound category. With the over cast skies, we are hoping the bait will bite before the sun comes up.”
The next day, the tuna action picked up to go with catch of yellowtail, “Today was another nice day at the office. The weather took a bit of a twist , we had cloudy skies, some drizzle and it was a bit chilly. That didn’t stop our anglers putting in a great effort. We didn’t have a lot of fish today, but the quality was excellent, with one fish around 80 pounds, and the rest going over the 100-pound mark. We also had a showing of 40- to 50- pound yellowtail today. Surprisingly, two fish where caught on the chunk, by the same angler.”
The report continued, “Conditions were tough to fish in, with the wind pushing the boat one way, and the current trying to pull it the other way. We endured lots of tangles due to the conditions. Some anglers tried for yellowtail at night, but the bite never happened. We are hoping the bite picks up, and we can get a few more of these beautiful fish.”
AA returns from the big island
The American Angler was also at Guadalupe and riding the trend of improved fishing. The boat on a Ken Corwin trip, decked a nice catch of quality yellowfin with some nice island yellows. On the trip home, the boat landed bluefin tuna. All in all a great catch. The boat sent this wrap, “The gang returned this
morning with a beautiful catch of trophy yellowfin tuna, quality yellowtail and finished up with school-sized bluefin tuna. The JP winners were 1st place, Dick Brown with a 118-pound yellowfin tuna, 2nd place, Adam Jonas with a 113-pound yellowfin tuna and 3rd place, Mark Gray with a 112 pound yellowfin tuna. Honorable mention goes to Steve Sargent and John Lingenberg with 111-pound yellowfin.
Rooster at the island
The Red Rooster finished up at the island with a good day. The boat sent this report, “Finished up our Calstar 6 Day Trip with some more nice island yellowfin, fished kelps for school grade tuna and dorado on the way home, then finished up with some cod drifts. A lot of personal best fish at the island.
Intrepid at the Rocks
The Intrepid arrived at the rocks with good timing. The seamount had not
been fished in several days. The boat with Capt. Sam Moore at the controls sent this report, “We fished Alijos Rocks yesterday and arrived around nine in the morning. We had steady action on wahoo all morning long. We decided to switch gears and go try for yellowtail off the bottom but unfortunately, the sharks were too bad and we were not able to fish it properly. We switched gears back in to wahoo and had another short window where we picked away until our day was over. Wahoo bombs and Raider jigs worked the best for our efforts at the Rocks. We are fishing the beach today in hopes to catch a little more yellowtail before we call it a trip.”
