Bill Roecker interviewed Tim Ekstrom the afternoon the skipper arrived in San Diego. Tim and most of the anglers aboard took the fly home option after this special trip to the islands in the Revillagigedos archipelago. The boat will return to Fisherman's Landing the morning of February 28.

The tagging trip was special, because no fishing is allowed in the near shore waters of the preserve. Mexican and American scientists and anglers cooperate on the tagging trips to study the giant yellowfin tuna that thrive and migrate there. Here is some of what Ekstrom had to say:

"This is our fifth tagging trip since 2006. I think the fishing was very good, comparable to four of the five trips, but this trip was more consistent at the 3 major islands. We got 60 to 200-pound fish at San Benedicto Island on the first day, and 114 of those on the second. I was amazed, because for the first time in some years, there were no sharks.

"At Socorro Island we spent two days, and tagged 160 tuna on the first day. About130 were the same size as they were at San Benedicto. It was just like the old days. We always fished with the heavy gear. And there were no sharks, another bonus.

"Then we fished at Roca Partida for two days. We found good sign of smaller fish there; the information from the outside was encouraging. It was a little sharky until we got to the outside. We spent 4 days at Clarion and enjoyed phenomenal fishing. On our worst day we still got 28 fish.

"At Clarion we tagged 59 tuna, and five were over 200 pounds, on the first day. On the second day six were over 200 pounds, and 40 were 130 to 287 pounds. I got really good photos and so did several of the anglers.

On day three the shark-free fishing came to an end. They moved in like a school of tuna. They were schooling silky sharks, pelagic schooling sharks.

"On the last day there were still sharks around, but they weren't intolerable. At lunchtime we got on a school of big tuna from 160 to 220 pounds. Everybody had one going for a while. It was crazy! And a good way to finish, ended on a high note. We rode on grease all the way home.

"Here's the breakdown on tags," continued Ekstrom. "We installed 21 archival tags, and tagged 568 tuna, and 79 wahoo. We were just six shy of our record. The great part of was 60 pounds or more. This year we pull-tagged only 11 fish, the rest of them came aboard. "I love the way the angers embrace the tagging effort. In southern California we've been at the lower end of the evolutionary scale. On this trip they had such a great time???it's a real eye-opener for me. The measure of success is not a dead fish on the deck.

"We saw tons of whales. Something that was very strange, we saw very few wahoo anywhere.

"Three of our tagged fish have been re-caught this year. Dr. Dave Hall's fish and Warren Sakamoto's fish are two that were tagged during last April's tag trip. I understand there's one more coming on the Rooster this Sunday."