Well I have to say that although we saw more than enough tuna to get the job done getting the job done at Clarion this round proved an insurmountable task. We did catch some; typical scratch fishing is how I would describe it, but given that the majority of the day's catch was made during the first thirty minutes of daylight, and the remainder of the day was painfully slow, we had our fill when day two on the outside came to an end.

No doubt about it these tagging voyages in the Revilla's have set a standard so titanic that even normal "good" fishing pale's in comparison. Two or three nice tuna in a day would typically produce one happy angler content that the time and effort was well rewarded. Since 2007 the Revilla tagging standard has been more in the neighborhood of two to three an hour, some days even more, with consecutive day's of such a pace consuming every waking moment of angler's time. Not so much of yet this voyage. Is it all over? Are they all gone? Did they all get caught? Is the sky falling?

I am tempted to answer with some wise crack but I'll spare reader's my attempt's at direct humor. It just doesn't seem to work for me. The answer to all the above questions is no. Plain and simple. First of all we are seeing plenty of fish that are simply not biting. Second fish regularly move in and away from these islands. The data from this tagging project clearly demonstrates such movements. While there are still plenty of fish around presently there is nowhere near the quantity we have been seeing during the previous couple of months. The bulk of them are probably touring around out there five, ten, twenty, or fifty miles away from the island. If my take is worth two bits, though I hesitate to mention it, I feel that this round has been negatively affected by the moon cycle. My lack of reference to the full moon is intentional, though this round it is indeed the full that elicited a significant change. This pattern is a repeat of what occurred during the last cycle as well.

I won't spend much time on how moon phases affect fishing production because there are no definite answers. Suffice to say however that with the changing moon cycles so changes the tides, current, many times wind and sea state, forage behavior and availability, and correspondingly the fishing. Whether it will change for the better or worse with a on coming full or new moon phase is indefinite. The fact that some kind of change will occur probably eight or nine times out of ten is not.

So, change or otherwise we head back inside in search of something much better in the way of quantity than Isla Clarion could muster. Quality on the outside was definitely not the issue. Though the bastards wouldn't bite we saw a boat load of big bruisers crashing all around. Maybe next time.

Not for master Royal Star/Revillagigedo tagging veteran Doug Taylor however. Doug was the chosen one today picking off a mid day 245 on the stealth gear that required a back up, and a boat ride to finally subdue. This fish, and observing the successful outcome of what was shaping up to be a very difficult battle, was a big morale booster for all of us. Toss in the fact that the big fella was fondled, tagged, photographed, and released and the outcome was that much more successful. Congratulations to Doug on a great catch and continuing to do more than his part for science. A better friend to Royal Star is not to be found.

Tim

Photo Here...