Wood is a Royal Star/fishing term originating from the slang "putting the wood to them" saying for any variety of victorious sporting/hunting outcomes. From baseball, to hockey, to anything that calls for the victor to use an implement, that can be conceived of, abstract or otherwise, as a club, the shortened version here carries a unique classification reserved for special, wholesale slaughter type occasions. We don't use it often.

Recognizing that abuse of the term would dilute the significance, we reserve broadcasting the special definition to our colleagues for deserving events, stops, or days only; today was one of them. Wood - no need to provide more when relating information over the wire; when that term is included in a transmission our friends within range know to come running.

Again forty to seventy pound yellowfin tuna were the quarry, again incorporated were a minority percentage of 15 - 25# fish, again the weather was perfect - just enough breeze to float a kite, and again the catching on this larger size class tuna was a good as it gets; so good in fact that we departed in the mid afternoon with full limits leaving a vast number of disappointed, still hungry tuna behind. The occasion to leave wide open biting fish in this size class does not come often. I was going to say does not come often enough but that is not true. The fact that it does happen this way perhaps only a couple of handfuls of times a year is what makes it so incredibly rewarding.

As a group of about fifteen anglers still charged on adrenaline following two days of this caliber action gathered on the stern they were treated to the final show after we spruced up the deck and idled away from our little Eden. The remaining sardines that successfully ran the gauntlet during the day to find refuge beneath Royal Star became the focus of a swarm of tuna insistent on making a meal of every last one of them. In this miniature version of "Lions to the Christian's" the doomed sardines found themselves exposed in the center of the coliseum with nowhere to go and a pride of hungry lions advancing without mercy; the added twist was that the coliseum, in this case Royal Star, was moving just slow enough to provide false hope. The misfortune of the condemned became our grand spectacle as they desperately pursued a hopeless objective being mauled, hammered, and violently destroyed in countless dramatic surface explosions along the way. The whoops and cheers of the crowd only ceased when the last of the unfortunates was chased down and annihilated confirming the ultimate finality of the event . Such is the plight of the poor sardine; not a single one got away.

I could carry that story much further but the risk of reprisal from some nut misunderstanding my sense of humor is too great. Needless to say we are laden with fish concerned with little other than heading up the line perhaps doing a little fishing along the way. Good weather in the forecast promises continuing comfort for this group of anglers who are sated, satisfied, and delightfully sore.

Photo for the day features brawny crewman Blake Wasano doing the lifting on this seventy pound class yellowfin tuna for first time long range angler Randall Yee. Graduating to long range after a few years fishing in the local fleet Randall was treated to the finest example possible of why so many anglers choose to make long range voyages. Between the fishing itself, the quality of individuals sharing the deck, and the professional dedication of our crewmen Randall has been enlightened to an experience unimaginable until lived in the first person. I'll delve into this topic tomorrow or beyond. It is about time I extend some more love and sugar to our guys who are the fabric of this operation. There are none like them; in fact, none that are even close.

Tim Ekstrom

Photo Here...