8/10/13

Like so many times in the past, just when one begins to lose faith and is consumed with doubt, a little something occurs to
lift confidence and restore belief. Bluefin tuna, particularly this season, have a way of breaking down even the most durable
characters. Even when one is right - in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing - there is little guarantee
that success will follow. Timing is everything; and perseverance.

That's not to say that success on these wily devils is pure luck, far from it, but they sure can make it seem that way. And
of course a little good luck, or a lot, does go a long way. Whether we were lucky on this occasion or something else, we
ended the day, literally, with a full fire drill style ripper on 30 - 40# bluefin after a long full effort covering many,
incredibly tasty looking zones for close to nothing.

Around thirty minutes from dark, with little in the hatch for the effort I was lamenting the injustice, the slight, that has
been somewhat of an unfortunate theme this season - there have been an awful lot of unproductive days looking in zones that
are historically, that should be, more consistently reliable. Though we have had perhaps more than our share of the good
bluefin catching to be had so far this season it still feels like there should be more, especially in light how much fish
there has been around.

But that is the big caveat, the one that is most maddening and typical of bluefin. With as much fish as there has been much
of it spends the majority of it's time well below the range of our eyesight, fathometer's, and sonar's. Needless to say it is
mighty difficult to find them, and remain located, as such.

Suffice to say that this time find them we did. Not in massive proportion yet - twenty six of the coveted beauties hit the
deck in the eleventh and a half hour that brought us well into the dark, but there is, there will definitely be more. This
was no anomaly. Tomorrow will tell the real tale though as we, and my beloved colleagues who at this time are akin to the
charging cavalry, throw our full weight into the effort.

Photo number one today features big fish of the evening, a 63 pound dandy bluefin, and triumphant Royal Star veteran Mike
Nagao. Photo number two features accomplished young angler Kyle Suezaki and Steve Gregonis hamming it up with Kyle's second
thirty five pound class bluefin of our last chance of the day stop.

Tim Ekstrom




Photo Here...

Photo Here...