“Another banner day of Big Tuna fishing,” said the Intrepid report for December 14, “with many 120 to 180-pounders coming aboard. By lunch we had our fill of tuna and went out on the hunt for some Wahoo. They were also eager and willing to jump on the jigs and bombs with the Big Catchy Tackle Spinner Bombs being the hot trolling jig. Even trolling around, second skipper Mike Pritchard tied into a 160-pounder on a Catchy Jig! The last four days have been a fisherman's dream when it comes to Long Range fishing. The bites we had at times are hard to describe, but if you can imagine 100 to 180-pound yellowfin going full speed for two or three hours at a time, then you can see what we experienced. We are all very sore and tired with sore backs, but will enjoy a day of rest tomorrow as we change locations.”



“Overall Grade Is Beautiful”

“Today started off like the past few days,” noted skipper Jeff DeBuys aboard Independence, “very busy, and the afternoon we went looking for some bigger fish. We did not see any bigguns, so I have to say the afternoon was slow for us. The over all grade of fish in the morning is beautiful, 120 to 150 pounds. We have one more day of fishing, and I hope to have a real barnburner to finish off. Excellent weather still.”



Bigburgers

“They were huge! A lot of the guys just flat out couldn't finish them off,” claimed the report from Royal Polaris December 14. “That's right, it was cheeseburger day on the RP. If that wasn't enough tonight is the sushi buffet. Who needs to catch fish with that menu? But catch we did as we put together another fine day of the same quality fish we've been getting here. Biggest fish today topped out around 185 pounds. It seemed that the fish were just a little tougher than yesterday, or maybe we're just getting tireder. We started fishing around 4 this morning and though winding down it is still going on now around dinnertime. Well, we'll get what sleep we can and do it all again and maybe better tomorrow.”



Book Report

The happy arrival of our new book, “At The Rail: Long Range Fishing,” has allowed us to ship all of the orders we have on hand. The rest of the paperbacks have also arrived, so we have plenty for stores as well.

The hardbound copies have yet to return from the Arizona bindery. We will ship those within a day or two of their arrival, but it remains uncertain if the hard copies of ATR will make it home in time for Christmas morning. We’ll keep you updated.