Fish Report for 3-31-2004
Royal Star Fish Report
3-31-2004
Royal Star
Our final day began in grease calm weather with a good hit on big baits gearing up for our final shot at trophies before heading for home. As it turned out, a huge rain squall arrived shortly after daylight effectively shutting us down for a couple of hours until the weather cleared enough for us to start up and get to looking. It took a couple of hours before the spot was finally found but find it we did and same as yesterday it was loaded with mixed sizes of fish. Unfortunately it was no go on the big fish that boiled up good on several occasions but showed zero interest in biting what we had to offer. The smaller fish were ravenous today actually hassling us to some extent but we weren?t complaining as all the release size models were tagged and sent on their way in the name of science. Speaking of that, we tagged and released over eighty yellowfin tuna this voyage ranging from twenty to fifty pounds. Same as last year, we are the only long range fishing vessel working in conjunction with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission on this project and are both honored and pleased to be included in such a worthy endeavor. Finishing our time in the ?upper? zone around noon after landing another handful of fifty to eighty pound models, we got underway for Panama City with plenty of time to spare in the event we encountered the signs we were looking for while heading across the most productive areas. It just so happened that we did find another good area that was loaded with fish but the majority were taggers with a fair mix of forty to seventy five pound fish mixed in. We did hook four or five more good fish including at least one cow but we only landed one about one forty and another around one hundred while the others went on their way for the usual variety of reasons. The final stop was a beautiful show and a fine send off with the sun setting in the west and bait flying over the side while the Panamanian tuna crashed their way up the chum line in a fine farewell to Royal Star until next season?