Not much in the way of a strong finish on the offshore grounds as the albacore pulled one of their almost predictable fast ones showing for only a brief period mid morning and not giving up much in the way of scores. Honestly, true to my nature I took off in search of something, anything better as the lure of that pot of gold over the horizon is often too strong for me to resist. Unfortunately, especially over the past three years, such ambition has been consistently thwarted as the volume of fish down here hasn't supported the "westward ho" mentality. So chalk up another miss to Capt. Ekstrom that truthfully was fairly easy to swallow in light of the fact that the spread between our tally and our colleague's was relatively minimal. More importantly, the fact that our sights are set on far better than mediocre fishing is enough to maintain the enthusiasm for such moves time and again. Anyone who has fished with me knows that in the end the equation balances in enormous favor of the drive for bigger and better things. A few strikeouts are inherent, but the big days, the material of legends, are discovered by looking.

So we wrapped it up mid afternoon straight lining for San Diego and our 0730 ETA at Fisherman's Landing tomorrow. Regardless of today's results we have a fantastic catch of premium yellowfin tuna and yellowtail in the RSW tanks in prime condition for unloading and processing tomorrow. In closing for this voyage I want to extend our most sincere gratitude and appreciation to this group of anglers who really are the most important component to a successful trip. Headed up by the core "Barking Spiders" group that has been joining us now for ten years, all participants quickly melded together to form an epic group of cooperating anglers focused on having a great time fishing and helping one another at the rail.

To give you an example I'll reference a scenario I saw played out several times during the voyage beginning on day two of fishing. Like always some anglers get in the groove and seem to get bite after bite virtually unable to do anything wrong while others are struggling. This typical pattern almost always flows through the group as some anglers get hot and others go cold from day to day. In this case of this voyage the anglers who were on a roll began offering the fish they hooked to those who weren't spreading the wealth to include all in the days fishing success. This kind of compassion goes a long way towards building lasting memories among fishing friends and creating new friendships and respect on long range vessels. As I stated earlier in the trip these guys get it in every respect. There are serious fishermen focused on their sport but equally focused on having a great time in the process. So again our thanks to all and special thanks to Mark Mayeda, Jim Wade, and Gina Giordano whose photos taken during the trip will be shared with you all over the next few days.

Look for Capt. Randy Toussaint's reports to continue next week as he takes full command on the annual John Kashiki seven day voyage departing tomorrow.

Tim Ekstrom