West Coast Angler - Long Range Fishing Reports

Bill Roecker for FishingVideos.com & the San Diego Sportfishing Council

Net Update

November 18, 2007

By Paul Sweeney

Fishin’ The Hurricane

Owner Frank LoPreste brought home Royal Polaris and its 29 passengers to Fisherman’s Landing November 18. The 10-day Davis Boats charter fished trophy-sized tuna at Hurricane Bank. The boat returned with five tuna over 200-pounds.

First time long-ranger Maryanne Olley of Kill Double Hills, North Carolina thought her first big fish was going to pull her over.

“The biggest fish I’ve ever caught before this trip was 20-pounds,” said Maryanne, “So I had an awesome time. We had great camaraderie, great food and I’m already booked for an 18-day next year.”

Thirteen-year old Zach Schenk of Santa Cruz landed a 193-pound yellowfin on the kite. Zach said the fight lasted an hour and a half.

“I helped Zach a little by holding onto the reel,” said Chartermaster Mike Stanton, “keeping it from twisting back in forth, but he figured it out real quick. He said on the way down that if he caught a fish over 100-pounds, he’d shave his head.”

“I personally got snake-bit on the kite,” said Kelly Palmer of Valencia, “but that was just my bad luck. The kite produced well, it was the way to go.

“We had great weather on the way down, and great weather coming back. For two days coming back up, it was like glass.”

On that ride up north, Royal Polaris found a hot bite off a small kelp paddie to finish off the trip.

“I’ve never seen a dorado bite like that,” said Richard Grimes of San Francisco. “It was off the hook! They were eating everything, I put one of my tags on a hook and ‘Bam!’ they’d hit it. Big dorado too.”

“Frank took a chance,” continued Grimes, “but is it really a chance when you’re a pro? Nobody could have done it but him.”

Brandon Kreutel of SDLongRange.com, said “it was three days of anticipation which proved to be worth it, because we had solid full-speed fishing at the Hurricane.”

Kreutel will be posting his report within the next two days at his site.

Mike Stanton of San Luis Obispo took first place with a 189.9-pound yellowfin tuna. Mike fished a sardine on a 5/0 ringed Super Mutu hook, 90-pound Momoi with Jerry Brown Spectra, a Penn 50T, and a 7460 Calstar rod custom-wrapped by Yo’s.

Carlos Becerra of San Pedro was second with a 178.3-pound tuna, and Robert Deloaca of Rancho Cucamonga was third with a 177.3-pound yellowfin.

“Full-Speed Fishing”

Tommy Rothery returned Polaris Supreme to Fisherman’s Landing November 18 after a ten-day Ocean Tackle Research charter. The boat had 13 anglers aboard. Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen of Hood River, OR saw his father, Bill Mikkelsen of Olympia, WA land the season’s first super cow; a tuna over 300 pounds.

“It was full-speed fishing,” said Chartermaster Lon Mikkelsen.

Bill Mikkelsen’s big fish won first place after it weighed in at 308.8-pounds, caught on a fly-lined sardine. Bill used the boats gear, including a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 100-pound P-Line, and a Shimano rod and reel.

“Tommy said it was tail-wrapped from the beginning,” said the elder Mikkelsen. “And he was, but he got lose and went on another run. He took me around the boat twice.”

“We started with yellowtail fishing on the ridge that turned out to be a real good bite,” said Rothery. “We easily could have got limits on yellowtail and dorado, but these guys normally release most of their fish. We had one day of awesome marlin fishing, which this group enjoyed quite a bit.”

“I think we had maybe 200 hookups on marlin,” said John Esler of Portland. “But our yellowfin bite was pretty amazing. Once Tommy would find them, he’d shut the motors off and just drift. They didn’t need a lot of chum either, they were boiling all around the boat.”

Esler landed a 206.7-pound yellowfin.

Matt Kiesse of Cederville, CA was second place with a 279.8-pound yellowfin.

“The trip was just spectacular,” said Kiesse. “We got everything.”

Lon Mikkelsen was third with a 277.9-pound tuna. The trip scored five tuna over 200 pounds.