11/02/13

The romance was rekindled today after being shunned, jilted, and stood up the prior two. Beautiful weather, good sea
conditions, and steady picking at long range size and species gamesters spawned instant forgiveness and easily drew us
back into the state of amorous invincibility that always negates the pain of past struggles. At the mercy of the
merciless, willingly following, reliably grateful for any favor shown: she's got us right where she wants us, and always
will.

Success in every case is relative. Today's haul of thirty nice wahoo, a couple of handfuls of 30 - 40 pound tuna, and a
few odds and ends served as a perfect example of this frequently offered opinion. Though the numbers were modest overall
it felt like salvation; it was salvation. Smiles, exuberance, shouts of encouragement between one another, and sincere
expressions of gratitude were the theme as fish starved anglers grasped the opportunity and settled into a full day of
fishing, and catching, they came for. It wasn't a day for the record books but it was a day that will be remembered; a
turning point, just in the nick of time.

Strategically this piece of the puzzle fell perfectly into place. By design, with plenty of communication and cooperation
among colleagues, our position in the queue came at the right time. The good fortune piece - that the fish were here with
the right disposition for our cause - was the gift, or perhaps better said the reward; a smile from Neptune.

Finding that it is best to depart a winner we began the quest for altitude satisfied that our time spent in the lower zone
captured the best of what was available. The main feature of this effort, as it is always on Royal Star, is that we were
fishing, to our nature, in the right zones. While not the most productive run there is no lamenting the strategy or
results. Frustration that our quarry was not available and/or vulnerable to our methods is built in when the results are
below our satisfaction, but there is no Monday morning quarterbacking. There are, there will be, times when the correct,
professional effort in the right place will not produce the goal. That is fishing.

Photo number one today features Seymour Lesonsky and Jimmy on the gaff with a fifty pound class wahoo that exploded on
Seymour's bait about ten feet off the transom before making a signature, lightning fast wahoo dash to the bow in about
three hot and heavy seconds. Some quick foot work by Jimmy and I averted certain disaster and ultimately led to the
capture of this prized "Skinny". Photo number two features Jose Arellano with one of his several triumphant moments of the
day. In addition to a couple of fine wahoo Jose bagged a couple of these forty pound class yellowfin tuna's.

Tim Ekstrom


Photo Here...

Photo Here...