First off, I must extend my apologies to everyone, but especially our big fish champions Doug Taylor and Dave Hall, who did not receive proper credit for their incredible catch and releases of three hundred pound yellowfin tuna. Each day I typed and sent reports but apparently, due to poor satellite transmissions, they all were not posted; specifically the 17th, 18th, and 19th. Although we checked to see if the reports were going up on the 20th, it seems our wires got crossed and we did not realize that all the reports were not posted until yesterday. After re sending all the daily reports, I was assured by Bill Grimsley's team at Corporate Network Professionals that they were up as of about noon. Such are the realities of satellite communications. Once again my apologies as I, perhaps more than anyone, wanted the reports to be posted on a daily basis. In the meantime, if you all wish to see the individual fishing days of this voyage chronicled, prepare yourselves as I admit I may have been a little long winded.

Now, the promised statistics day has arrived as we totaled up everything tagged and released during our eight and one half days of fishing within the Revillagigedo island reserve. All numbers represent yellowfin tuna and Wahoo that were tagged and released.

Yellowfin tuna

324# - Doug Taylor
300# - Dave Hall
256#, 202# - Corbett Wright
231#, 204 - Pete Aivadijian
214# - Gary "Big Fish" Sato
211#, 209# - Steve Shaffer

Another seven yellowfin tuna were released that were in the gray zone between 195 - 200#
60 yellowfin tuna between 125 and 185 pounds were released
25 yellowfin tuna between 100 and 125 pounds were released
40 yellowfin tuna between 50 and 100# pounds were released
The remaining 375 yellowfin tagged and released were between 5 and 50# with all sizes in between.

The total number of Wahoo tagged and released was 127.

A total of 44 archival tags were surgically implanted in yellowfin tuna.

All other tags placed in Wahoo and yellowfin tuna were the plastic "dart" type tags.

I know that numbers cannot always be relied upon to represent the success, or lack thereof, on certain fishing trips. These statistics however are very admirable highlighting a fantastic adventure filled with almost nonstop daytime fishing action. Admittedly, the ravenous shark populations made the pursuit of Wahoo and tuna challenging at times. But the end result, verified by solid statistics, is a highly successful tagging voyage. I suspect I have bored everyone enough with the flowery descriptions this trip so here it is less the filler. For all out, ass kicking, full speed fishing action, this trip would be hard to beat. After departing Isla San Benedicto, not once did we pull the anchor to go looking, or drop the anchor to spot fish, where we did not have almost immediate fishing action on either yellowfin tuna or Wahoo. Lots of fishing, lots of action, lots of challenge, lots of fun. For anglers who love action, as well as share an interest in the scenery and setting around them, it would be almost impossible to top these voyages.

That said I will save a few final thoughts for tomorrow prior to our arrival in San Diego. Thus far the ride up the line has been what one would expect heading northwest at this time of year - plenty of bump and jump, plenty of rock and roll, plenty of hanging on. Yes sir loads of fun.


Tim Ekstrom