“We have truly become spoiled this trip, but nothing is being taken for granted. We have been blessed with nice weather and overall good fishing conditions which add up to a great day. We started up just before daylight when we hooked our first fish and it lasted until after dark when we boated our last fish. There were slow times throughout the day but there were also some pretty good rallies to be had. Most of the fish brought aboard were 120 to 190 pounds with Doc Metcalf doing his magic again with a 237-pound fish.The greatest victory of the day was Glenn Bummer with his all-time best 287 pounder that he caught after an epic battle.”



Bubbles Bags Big Boy

Paul Sweeney of Fishing Videos.com is out on the Excel, shooting HD video and still photos. He wants to catch his first 100-pound tuna, which seems reasonable to expect on a trip into far southern waters. The Excel filed its first fishing report January 27, written by skipper Justin Fleck.

“Our first two days fishing down here in the lower zone have brought good action on wahoo, with some quality tuna mixed in. The mornings are spent trying for tuna where we have picked up few on chunks and live flying fish. The afternoons are used to look for wahoo with the trolling jigs, before we try for tuna again just before sunset.

Congratulations to Bob "Bubbles" Maugh for catching his first 300 pounder today. His fish fell for a Yummee Flyer floated underneath a helium balloon and it weighed in at 322.2 pounds on the boat's certified scale. Here are some pictures from the past two days.”



Wolfson Gets Best Tuna

"Hello Folks," said the Royal Polaris report for January 27, "we had blue skies and blue seas, puffy clouds and calm breezes today. We picked away at some nice tuna again today 120 to 195 pounds! Bob Wolfson caught his personal best Yellowfin tuna at 270 pounds. David Fay battled a 256-pounder for several hours and we were all relieved to see it brought aboard the boat. Same stuff tomorrow. Thanks for checking in!”



Real Deal Cows

Royal Star reported for January 27, 2011: “Real deal cow fishing here today that started with a good morning bite and culminated with a ripper at dark on straight jumbos with five heavy cows hanging at once. We ended up with 35 fish, most of which were 110-195 with seven from 205 to 298 pounds. We did suffer a few casualties on the cows but overall this veteran Braid group did a great job of using the right gear and working together. Needless to say we're looking forward to the next four days and are hoping to keep up the pace. Our shot today shows John Cox who raised the bar with a 298.”