Well it comes as no surprise that flat calm weather offshore motivated the albacore and tuna in the lower zone to rise from the deeps in quantity and return to a surface foraging mode. Typically this mode translates into good fishing for our fleet and today was no exception as all of our colleagues on the grounds put together very good scores of mainly albacore with a mix of bluefin, yellowfin, yellowtail, and dorado. As it was a turnaround day for Royal Star we were relegated to shining the nickel seats with our rears but the excitement of the big day was contagious as we listened to reports all day long of forty to one hundred twenty fish stops coming in from our friends on the grounds. It was a good day to be long range fishing.

Needless to say we are fired up as we trek southward nurturing the hope that fishing tomorrow will be at least as good as today and perhaps even better. The typical pattern is for these up periods to last at least a few days so we will see. One thing certain is that if they stay up and we get on them tomorrow they are in big trouble. On board this voyage is our annual Steve Kimbrough group that consists of many extremely competent anglers who know how to dish out some real punishment to any kind of fish when they go on the bite. We are ready. Actually we are more than just ready. We are bristling with anticipation as there is nothing this crew enjoys more than getting up to our elbows in our work. We have four fishing days to make it happen on this five day voyage and plenty of good options in addition to the offshore grounds. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though. First things first we will be in the offshore zone tomorrow to throw our hat in the pool and keep these fish located. Look for reports to continue throughout the voyage.

Tim