They went off the bite today. A few were landed employing the same strategy of sitting and waiting. But the desire to find something better finally rousted us from our berth and set the wheels of a fruitless search in motion. Not from a lack of fish though. Man what incredible sign. As the afternoon developed fish showed up from who knows where and toured the edge in enormous schools clearly visible, high and dry on the surface. Taking a page from the bluefin playbook however they chipped, flipped, rolled, and lazily lolled showing absolutely zero interest in our offerings.

Not quitters in nature we gave them every opportunity to change their mind. Four hours later and a tank of bait lighter we threw in the towel with absolutely nothing for the effort - they won; that round anyway. Though we opted for a move inside to mix up the scenery, action, and variety we are steadfast in our resolve to mete out some justice to those well deserving bastards upon return. But that’s a story for another day.

While the bag was nigh empty we departed east satisfied that we actually did some fishing today. Just firing up and moving around was cathartic after remaining stationary for almost 80 hours. Violating the golden rule of “don’t leave ‘em to find ‘em” we may indeed live to regret the decision from a point of production. But we won’t as fishermen. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

To say the ride across was beautiful is an understatement. As the sun set astern vagrant wisps of breeze and quicksilver swells gently buffeted and swayed us into the night. Calm suffused into all things as the easy going elicited fine tales of fishing and friendships following a stellar chef’s feast. Tomorrow is a new day.

Photo for the day features long time Royal Star veteran Gary Hunt who was on a roll a couple of days prior landing this dandy and a couple of others on the fly line tackle.