01/18/15

An immensely gratifying turn of events as luck this morning was in our favor. Perhaps there was a little more to it than luck - lessons hard learned tend to elicit hyper astute evaluation and adjustments, but still, no matter how much fishing the fisherman is responsible for, the fish themselves, and conditions, must align. There have been an awful lot of days in my career when I figured the reason something didn't go our way correctly and made the necessary adjustments only to have conditions change again and add to my vexation. But that didn't happen today.

A classic morning hit on the big baits produced hot and heavy action for the better part of an hour. A handful of jumbos, biggest of which was 267, a couple more handfuls of mid grade 100 - 150's, and a boon of smaller, havoc wreaking fish in the 25 - 70 pound class had the boys jumping and energized. After piecing this fishing together over the past few days more or less one at a time it felt good to stretch out, cut loose, and do some bona fide clobbering. Ahhh...

And even better, a few hours after the morning session, we settled in for a successful afternoon of steady scratching. It wasn't a barn burner, and we had to scrap with the locals winning some battles and losing others to get the job done, but the quality was right and the hatch continued to open; a good note to end the day on.

Primo weather and conditions were the icing on the cake. Especially poignant after enduring a couple of days of the opposite participation on deck was notably affected. Everyone was out and at it enjoying the good fishing and beautiful weather combined. Enduring even a little of the opposite has a distinct way of illuminating the value of such divine opportunity. Today nothing was left on the table.

Photo today features long time Royal Star veteran Jim Marshall. No stranger to battles with giant yellowfin Jim handily dispatched this 267 on the big gear. No mercy, direct drive; exactly how we like it.

Tim Ekstrom

Photo Here...
Photo Here...