Once again it came down to the final hour and the big fish were making us sweat. The day got off to a shaky beginning with the area we had been fishing drying up and us in search mode for almost three hours before the right bunch was finally located. Unfortunately we encountered the right bunch at siesta time (high noon) and although we knew the fish were there, we had to follow along and be patient until conditions began to look right. After a couple of fruitless attempts and a couple of hours we finally connected with a few good ones in the 150 - 160# class just before the final hour. As expected, the day progressing into afternoon brought about the change in sign and things were beginning to look right. We lined up for one final shot and the closing image was one that will be burned into our memories for quite some time. The last big chumline was laid and once again the 80 - 200# yellowfin erupted chasing the boat for almost a half mile before arriving immediately off our stern. Big fish tearing through the corner in crystal clear, flat calm conditions is a sight to behold and judging by our last two Panama voyages appears to be what one can expect when we find them down here. We managed to land a few more from the final show including the final fish of the voyage that weighed in at 190# even. The sad part of course is that our time in the hot zone came to an end just as conditions were becoming right but such is fishing and at the very least we know that there are plenty out there waiting for us on the next voyage.
As this trip comes to an end I marvel at the difference from our last voyage in indications and conditions. Although we by no means slaughtered the fish, we had good signs of trophies every day following the first two and at least a fair shot at them on four out of five. Again the theme was big fish this voyage and although we had a modest mix of release size tuna in our catch, the majority of fish landed were in the one hundred thirty pound class or better. The one fantastic afternoon now five days past was quite a sight with a school of straight big fish in bite mode perfectly demonstrating just how incredible the big fish potential in this region is. We continue to learn and I can say with absolute certainty that our results are going to improve drastically if we get on them the next few trips. As we all know the learning curve is still very much in effect down here but the grade is leveling out a little more each day. Overall we all enjoyed a very nice trip with beautiful, flat calm weather, a decent catch and some excellent shots at trophy yellowfin, and of course some fun anchor fishing that produced a wealth of action and variety.
I also want to mention that again we had a beautiful load of anchoveta for chum and hook bait and every single angler had good bait to use at will whenever the boat was stopped fishing. The individual anchoveta on this voyage were actually significantly bigger than the previous making for better hook baits when fishing the big tuna. In addition, the ability to chum liberally definitely makes a huge difference on these tuna schools and we had plenty to heave over the side right down to the final stop of the trip.
Now we head in to begin the turn around process again and with some good luck we will have another load of bait for the next voyage in a couple of days. We will keep you posted as such as well as begin our regular fish reports on the 12th.

Our final trip photo features long time Royal Star veteran Marian Muser who landed this one hundred thirty six pound yellowfin on the final stop of the trip. A veteran to long trips and trophy tuna fishing, Marian made short work of this beautiful specimen and can't wait to go again next season.