4/29/12

Parting at the city gates
spoken gratitude and warm embrace
we toil onward drawn from home
the sea before us broad alone

There have been various past calls for me to divide my daily narrative into the barest detail. And while
I would never dream of succumbing to the will of anyone, suggestions, and criticisms, can be thought
invoking. The passage above says it all, succinct, robust, yet very small.

Photos for the day feature another master angler and long time Royal Star friend Dr. Stuart Exall. To
Stuart we are inexpressibly grateful for his ceaseless positive demeanor, and sincere promotion of our
fishery to the world. It is because of Stuart that we have the acquaintance of the Thai anglers; and
because of this our knowledge of fishing, and tackle, has broadened immensely.

During this voyage Stuart again had the pleasure of introducing many veteran long range anglers to the
equipment favored by the "Thai Contingent". Drawing side glances and a few raised eyebrows at first, many
of the long time veterans were amazed, as was I originally, at the effectiveness of this equipment that
is totally foreign, and completely contrary, to the west coast idea of what is practical for catching
giant yellowfin tuna.

Seeing is believing though and several of the uber veterans took a turn behind the "tiny" gear to
discover that the impossible is not. As master anglers they felt and understood the dynamics immediately
and recognized that such equipment is far from ridiculous gimmickry; it is effective in the right hands
at the right time.

As well on this note I assign much credit to Greg DeFelice who also fished the jigging type tackle
putting on a clinic in the process. One of Greg's deuces, a 218 if I remember correctly, was landed in
less than fifteen minutes using a single speed, relatively small jigging reel and tiny little rod; the
pressure one can apply with these rigs is mind boggling.

Back to Stuart however we are tremendously fortunate to have him on board any Royal Star voyage as a
positive influence and fantastic angler. Once again Stuart demonstrated his easy going style and obvious
experience landing three fat deuces including this third place jackpot winner at 246.2.

So much for the shortened version...

Tim Ekstrom


Photo Here...

Photo Here...