"Save the best for last, finish off with a bang," posted Larry Eilbot for the Royal Polaris December 16, "hey, I could go on with cliches like that all day long but let's get real. Remember, we could only fish until around 10 this morning, and the first bite didn't come for almost two hours, but by the time we took off all three of the kite ineligible jackpot fish had been landed just today! We'll start with Neil Campbell who was on his bait fish forever and finally landed the fish he's been gunning for years. It was a 306-pound monster, which was the longest tuna I've ever seen. You could almost call it skinny and it still was the fish of lifetime and Neil's personal best and first ever over 300. Next there's Matt Walenta whose 281-pound bait fish broke his rod in the last seconds of the battle and he personally with bare hands pulled in the fish the final few feet. Matt was also was on the fish a very long time and they even had a backup rod on stand by initially as the line was melting off his reel.

The fish was so strong he had to fight the whole battle in low gear and it takes a long time to wind all that line in low even without a fish on it. Luckily the fish was completely docile in the end or the broken rod could have ruined his day instead of giving him a personal best. George Iwashita landed a 211, Ed Delaney yet again had an incredibly long battle but was victorious over a 221 bait fish, Bruce Posthumus, our catch and release specialist, did it again on an estimated 225 bait fish. Kent (A.K.A. Uncle) Fukumoto admittedly needed some assistance from crew member Eddie in landing his 249-pound bait fish.

About then things began to quiet down and we thought it was all over, but in an amazing display of ninth inning heroics, John Halcrow landed the last major tuna of the trip, a 261 bait fish that was his personal best. Three new personal bests in one morning. As so often happens, it appears the action has really began building in the last couple of days, and who knows what would have happened if we had a full day today, or a few more days to try. They'll be just that much bigger when we come back here next year or sooner as almost every one plans on doing. The weather is unreal good, couldn't order better traveling weather.