Suffice to say that everyone now has a good idea of what this totally unique, perhaps once in a lifetime, 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 agressive 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.

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. Between the setting, that includes a fantastic show of steam venting from the top of volcanic Socorro, the fishing that speaks for itself, and this expemplary group of anglers that are proving we can, and will, move this industry into the future, we could not be happier. Needless to say we have no plans to relocate yet as we have plenty of time remaining in the trip. "A bird in the hand" I believe is the old saying.