(Royal Star is on a tagging trip in the Revillagigedos archipelago, with US and Mexican scientists aboard and anglers to assist them.)

"Suffice to say that everyone now has a good idea of what this opportunity is all about as we spent our first full day of fishing pinned to the rail a good portion of the time catching very aggressive yellowfin tuna in the forty to over two hundred pound class. There were actually two distinct size classes around yesterday with some schools producing outrageous action on forty to eighty pound tuna and two other stops, one in particular that lasted over three hours, that was straight one hundred ten to one hundred seventy five pound fish with a handful of jumbos (fish over two hundred) mixed in.

"The other good news, that is perhaps as good as the fishing itself, is the fact that the sharks were only a minor nuisance compared to last year, occasionally taking a live bait or a fish, but leaving us alone for the most part.

?Į?Į"So our first day is logged as a complete success tagging eighty nine yellowfin tuna, approximately forty of which were one hundred to two hundred twenty five pounds, on the lee side of beautiful Socorro Island. The setting includes a fantastic show of steam venting from the top of volcanic Socorro. The fishing that speaks for itself, and this exemplary group of anglers that are proving we can, and will, move this industry into the future, we could not be happier. We have no plans to relocate yet as we have plenty of time remaining in the trip. "A bird in the hand," is the old saying, I believe."

The next day, skipper Tim Ekstrom reported, "Well the fishing certainly didn't slow down other than a few short lulls from a mid-day tour of the island that provided both incredible spot action on thirty to fifty pound yellowfin tuna and spectacular scenery with the lush, brilliant green north side of Isla Socorro providing a magnificent background.

?Į?Į"We set our strategy to focus again on the bigger fish during the afternoon on yellowfin tuna from one hundred twenty to one hundred seventy pounds with two coming in over the two hundred pound mark and a couple of other heartbreaks that were guaranteed jumbos.

?Į?Į"The number one rule of thumb down here is maintaining your equipment in perfect condition. Rest assured that every angler on board is in long range fishing heaven.

?Į?Į"We plan to give this at least one more day before tearing ourselves away from this incredible giant yellowfin tuna fishing to fulfill our wahoo tagging goals. On that note, the tagging is proceeding as well as we could have ever imagined with close to one hundred fifty tags deployed in yellowfin tuna here at Socorro. Especially noteworthy are the twenty five electronic or "archival" tags deployed in yellowfin tuna over one hundred pounds, with about ten of those in fish over one hundred forty pounds."