Well guys this report has been a long time coming. Our ability to send e-mails was non existent because of our southern proximity and the fact that we could not initialize our new system in a zone this far south. I am very disappointed that we could not send daily reports as we certainly had plenty to talk about but such is the nature of working with high tech equipment at sea. The good news of course is that we are now back on line and will be able to send reports while traveling north from Cabo San Lucas.
Overall I would consider this last Clipperton voyage one of the finest I have ever made in that we enjoyed not only fantastic fishing for trophy yellowfin but tremendous diversity in fishing methods and conditions that not only kept us on our toes but enabled us to employ almost all of our past lessons at Clipperton to our advantage. Tremendous kite action, chunking, live anchoveta, live caballito, and local big baits were all used successfully while both drifting and at anchor. In addition, mother nature smiled graciously on us for four straight days while the wind howled and seas turned nasty. It just so happened that during this unusual stretch of ugly weather that the fish much preferred the lee side of the island and we spent the vast majority of our time fishing and catching in this picturesque, tranquil zone. Daytime, evening, morning, and afternoon all produced at least one memorable jolt of action with the most consistent catches rewarded to the early birds who hard fished the crack of dawn. Despite the fact that the dawn bites were the most consistent and produced the greatest number of big fish, the dramatic bite of the trip: by far the most memorable, was the early evening ripper on the 21st. that demonstrated to all just what Clipperton island really has to offer.
It began as a slow drift picking a few fifty to seventy pound fish and seeing an occasional bigger fish roll on our chummed Panamanian anchoveta on the outside. With the day waning and little going on we elected to sit and wait hoping a school would happen upon us while we drifted through the "perfect" zone. The perfect zone began to kick out a few sharks and as my patience gave out and I hit the start buttons, long time Royal Star angler Bob "poacher" Ryan worked his magic hooking a nice yellowfin only he knows how far upswell. With a long time to wait and the timing perfect I figured that a few more scoops of anchoveta couldn't hurt our odds. As if on cue, I hopped up on the tank and a spot of good sized tuna erupted on a ball of our previously chummed anchoveta that had bravely ventured away from Royal Star in search of greener pastures. When the tuna arrived, these same brave souls lost their nerve and graciously led the ravenous school of yellowfin directly to Royal Star where I was waiting to feed them plenty more. In the next few moments, every line in the water had a fish hanging with anglers valiantly struggling to follow along. Yellowfin tuna anywhere from fifty to two hundred pounds were plowing through the stern and charging through the lights and countless sharks in the fray gave our second string of anglers a hard time but unbelievably enough scratched only one fish. Of course plenty more tuna were also hooked but beyond the excitement of the tuna biting was the visual show as darkness fell and the unbelievably brazen tuna continued their assault lit up in powder blue under the gleaming lights. Not one or two but dozens of fish were charging through with the bigger models like chunky line men, thick but agile and the smaller fish teaming with the sharks attacking in groups. Half a dozen fish in the one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty pound class were the result of this bite in addition to a handful of one hundred pounders and some release size models that were happily sent back to Neptune carrying identifying tags from the tuna commission in their sides. Their is really no way to script the intensity of such moments suffice to say that exhilarated was an understatement in describing the emotion following such an awesome experience.
Now that we are back on line and I have a few days while traveling north, I will think of a few more adventures to relate and pass them on. In the meantime we have very good traveling weather and are making good time planning on a nine a.m. arrival in San Diego on Thursday, April 29th.