"We fought the weather once again as the wind and huge groundswell never seems to go away," read the American Angler report January 24. "We scratched away throughout the day but things didn't get right until the afternoon. Whether or not it was time of day or in the right place at the right time we had a great stop right before dark. There was plenty of action as bites were easy and fast to come by. After scratch fishing for cows this was just what the Doctor ordered. The boys are pictured with some of the fish after they got done gill and gutting all the fish."



Found The Calves Right Away

“We arrived at the lower banks around 0300,” wrote Excel skipper Justin Fleck January 25, “and spent most of the morning looking around to try and figure out the water structure. After we found where we thought that we wanted to be, we put the anchor down and sat for a few hours with no luck. In the afternoon, it wasn't hard to find fish but they were not the size we were looking for. At the end of the day we covered a ton of good territory but came up empty-handed. We are going to spend the night and hope that it was just a down day. Wish us luck...”



Making A Move

“We left January 19 on the Jerry Brown Line One Spectra trip. We had stormy weather all the way down and the first three days on the lower banks. With only a handful of fish we are now traveling to the outside zone. Our computer is down so the reports will be updated through the office,” said the report from Royal Polaris January 25.



A Big Improvement

“Randy Royal Star skipper Randy Toussaint drove around with Justin all day yesterday,” Royal Star skipper and co-owner Tim Ekstrom told Bill Roecker January 26, “and nothing much happened until just before dark, when the boat got a 232-pounder.

“Today, Randy says the weather is beautiful, with four days of Santa Ana weather predicted. This morning they’re already got six good fish on the boat, from 150 to 295 pounds!”