Fortunately there was a consolation prize of 20 - 40# yellowfin tuna near the big fish zone today. If there hadn't been, boy it would have been ugly. Once again, we encountered spot after spot of not biting big fish (in today's case the word fish was replaced by many colorful, and some not so colorful expletives) that gave us nothing in the form of excitement; not even one boil. Maddening is a good term to describe the frustration experienced on the bridge. Disappointing and disheartening are probably most appropriate to describe the sentiment on deck. As I ventured yesterday, we knew it would be no picnic. We knew we would require some divine intervention; that key element of nearly every successful fishing scenario. We didn't get it. It was our turn in the barrel. Nothing more. Nothing less. As one of my chief mentors Steve Loomis used to always say. "If you come out here often enough, you will sit in every seat in the arena". No doubt we have had a remarkable share of good fortune of late. Not this time. That's not to say we blanked out here. We certainly had a few opportunities, and landed a few big ones. But, the overall results were far below our standards, and definitely fell short of our goal.

So, with the bad news out of the way we were mighty pleased to boat forty something of the 20 - 40# school fish that saved our bacon with some quick paced action at the rail both in the morning and afternoon. The action was typical of dolphin fishing with lighting quick stops for a handful or two then we were off to get on them again. Like I said we were mighty thankful for the respite from the big fish grind, however brief, and all anglers eagerly joined the fray glad for the opportunity to clobber something, anything that wanted to bite. In addition to the actual catching portion of our fishing day, we were graced with glorious, flat calm weather that was almost surreal in light of what was happening three to four hundred miles above here. Needless to say we were glad for it. Beautiful, grease calm weather has a way of taking the sting out of even the toughest day of fishing. Every positive counted as a bonus today. Believe me, nothing good, however trivial, was overlooked.

We have one final morning to find some justice. If it is to come for us this voyage, the ridge is where it will happen. With the calm weather and no particular hurry, we will give it the majority of the morning and see. Here we go.