Today we had on board George Marquis, George Soroka, Alan Marks and Dave Amaral for a shared tuna fishing trip aboard RELENTLESS. Today we left the dock at 0430 under a bright moon and clear skies with no wind at all. Once offshore heading east we were able to observe the Lunar Eclipse with the moon disaperaing before our eyes. Once we arrived on the bank we saw one other charter boat hooked up and worked the area hard after marking some decent fish and observing whales in the area. After a while I decided to head about eight miles to the SE to an area that I thought may be holding fish. Once I arrived, I found absolutely nothing no whales, bait or birds. I trolled back to the bank and after checking for weeds and resetting the rigs around noon when a fish finally hits the port spreader bar. After a while Dave Amaral is working hard as this what I thought was a very larg fish, kept taking line when close to the boat. Dave did an excellent job and Greg (mate) leadered the fish close to the boats so I could sink the gaff into his shoulder. I was shocked to see the fish was only 49". Once back on the troll we saw more pods of pushing fish but you could not get near anything on a greasy calm sea.
Tomorrow due to the tides, I will be off the dock at 0400 and hope they want to eat early.
Dave