“Today we turned our luck around and had some action on big tuna,” noted skipper Justin Fleck aboard Excel January 26.

“The fish got on us in the grey and stuck with us all day. Most of the fish were in the 125 to 175-pound class but we did manage to boat a few fish from 200 to 255 pounds. Big fish honors today goes to Vince 'fat head' Otani with his 255-pound yellowfin caught on a fly lined sardine with 130-pound fluorocarbon and an 8/0 eagle claw 2004 hook. There were also plenty of heartbreaks today, which goes with the territory I guess. The weather is now flat calm and we will be here again tomorrow.”



Cows And Flat Calm

“Slow picking but the quality made for a nice day,” observed Royal Star skipper Randy Toussaint from the southern banks January 26.

“We ended up with 14 fish, six of which were 203 to 295 pounds, with the rest ranging from 100 to 197 pounds. Everything was on the 100 to 130-pound flourocarbon and a flylined sardine, with the exception of one cow taken on the chunk. Our weather is flat calm and the forecasts say we can look forward to at least three more days of this. As most of you know from following along with the reports, the weather is critical on these lower banks so good forecasts are a cause for celebration. We are sitting tight tonight, with hopes they're on us again tomorrow.

“Today's shot shows Jan Abbott and Bruce Lozekar hanging on heavies.”