Cow town, wide open.....

[Holi-e-Mackeral]

Here are the reports from 2005... just to wet everyones appetite..

Who can say that it will not happen again this season ?????

Enjoy the trips through memory lane.. Maybe anglers who were on those trips will share their memories of the epic bite of the last 25 years..

Trip reports from the fleet from Wed...

A Recap of the daily reports….


Wed., Nov. 30, 2005


The Best - from the American Angler

We have to be blessed with the best passengers in the world. We are firm believers in what comes around goes around and from the displays of unselfishness that was witnessed today - there was no doubt that it would pay off. There were multiple people; Rick Sikes, Andrew Owyoung, Russ Kimura, Ken Corwin, Ogie Vasquez, and many others that would hook fish and immediately hand them off to the other guys that have had tougher luck. To think that each fish passed off was a fish of a lifetime is not exaggerated. Because of the generosity we were blessed with the best bite and day we have ever seen on big cows. Not one to ever post numbers, we ended up the day with 22 fish over 200lbs. To think of this is mind boggling and makes me numb.
Pictured Is the group with the best karma

Independence

11-30-2005 - Hello and good evening everyone, today things looked better all the way around. We without a doubt saw the best fish sign as well as fish that wanted to bite a little bit all day today. We did have the usual number of fatalities that go along with this type of fishing, strictly trophies. Our final tally for today, 24 tuna with 13 of them over 200lbs. and the largest taped out at 290lbs., and a couple of 280"s, and it goes down from there 260, 250 , etc...while the others were 175 to 195 lbs.. Truly REMARKABLE fishing for everyone. We plan on fishing for these warriors of the sea 1 more day, in hopes of putting together another great day. The weather is still as good as it gets anywhere on the planet. Good night, and wish us luck, Jeff, Paul and the Indy boys

11-29-2005 - Hello everyone, There is definitely no sure thing when it comes to fishing these giants down here. Yesterday, we could not catch one to save our lives. Today on the other hand, we had some chances. We saw quite a few fish today, just like yesterday; they did not want to bite. We did manage to catch 11 tuna, 2 @ 280 lbs. 2@ 265 lbs., 250, 240, 227 and the rest were 175 to 195 lbs. we hope that these cows start to bite a little bit better for us tomorrow. The weather is absolutely perfect. To: Randy Nishino....Tom and I got a 280 on the kite together, signed dad. We are going to try this again tomorrow. Wish us luck, Jeff, Paul and crew

Royal Polarisâ?¦
11/30/05
Hi folks; Weather on the fishing grounds consists of 3 to 5 knots of breeze
and flat calm seas.

Fishing was absolutely fabulous today. We boated 33 Yellowfin tuna for
the day. I will guess that at least 20 were over 200#. This is absolutely
the best cow fishing Ihave ever seen in my life. If you have not booked a
ten day trip for next year I strongly recomend that you do so soon. I will
be suprised if there are any openings on a ten day trip for next season
after Christmas. Will it be this good next year? I do not know but that is
why they call it fishing......
Frank and the crew of the R.P.

Royal Star..
11/30/05
I must say I'm speechless after today's fishing so I'll let the numbers speak for themselves. We ended up with 30 fish out of two stops, 26 of which were 203-280 with 4 from 180-195. Our code boats in the area also had big days, thus making 11/30/05 one of the best days of cow fishing in the history of long range. The weather is grease calm which is making this experience all the more surreal. We are going to give this one more day before starting to work back up the line.
Shogun

11/30/05
Hello and Welcome,

As I said yesterday, today would be a day of redemption. Though we would have liked a larger piece of the pie, today was a better start to the ensuing next five days. Hopefully we can continue with our newfound glory and success and keep the ball rolling. We caught four times the amount of fish we did yesterday. Not bad. Unfortunatly we dumped quite a few fish, and I hope that we have worked out the kinks on some minor issues. Such as pulled hooks and light drags. All in all the two most important things about today was the vast improvement in weather conditions, and secondly and most important of all, we all had fun and enjoyed the day. We close out the month of November,an epic November, with a photo of former Shogun crewmeber Scott McKelvey and his cow. We will be welcoming December with open arms and good tidings tomorrow. I have set my sights higher for tomorrow and I anticipate our luck will only increase. We will check in with you tomorrow. Thank you for looking in on us, we wish you were here. Take care of yourselves and each other.





Royal Star finds the cows... again...

From the Royal Star Website...


10/19/05
For a day that began with an incredible run of bad luck that cost us at least four two hundred pound class yellowfin tuna for a variety of reasons, the most significant if which was an unfavorable change in the weather, we managed to tread water until the odds came around preventing a humiliating debut as the village idiot. This was a bona fide day of trophy yellowfin tuna action that saw all five of the long range vessels in this area score multiple two hundred pound class fish in addition to decent scores on one hundred fifty to one hundred ninety five pound models. I simply can not relate the impact of these stops where herds of giant yellowfin come crashing out of the water throwing bait, spray, and themselves in every direction. It is these moments that we live for. These moments that drive us to challenge, compete, and prevail. Simply put: this is the apex of Southern California style live bait fishing.

If it hadn't happened for numerous consecutive years on fall ten day voyages I could talk about how amazing or unusual these big fish in this zone are but the history is impossible to ignore. Ten day fall long range voyages in the months of October through December have become consistent producers of yellowfin tuna in the one hundred fifty to three hundred pound class. Not every trip mind you but it seems that at least one or two, some years more, trips a season return with tales of unreal offshore giant yellowfin action and trophies in the holds to prove it.

Speaking of trophies I have to return to my original story of hard luck that befell us yesterday right from the get go. There were plenty of opportunities to go around and we were certainly getting ours, but true to the nature of big fish angling, the margin for error is zero and we were on the wrong side of the equation. It never ceases to amaze me that even when everything is perfect one little shift in the trend can throw your game off, and once the snowball begins rolling down hill, it can be very difficult to stop. A perfect example of this was our first day where we were living right landing an amazing ninety percent of the big fish we hooked contrary to the traditional averages of about fifty to seventy percent; fifty percent of course being a bad day. On cloud nine with swollen pride, we began day two ready to resume our activities and were torn down, kicked about, ravaged, and reduced to sniveling by dumping the first seven big fish we hooked.

That's right, seven in a row! Needless to say tensions were high and a few expletives were thrown about as several of the trophy class bruisers were lost within plain sight only yards from gaff (another common occurrence in trophy yellowfin angling). Landing the last two from our banner morning stop did wonders for morale and the next stop, two and one half hours later, the odds definitely turned in our favor when we landed the first fish we hooked at about one sixty, the second at three hundred six, and the third at two hundred thirty. From the bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap in a snap of the fingers; or in this case a couple of grueling, hour long battles.

To top it off mastman and long time Royal Star crewman Joey Conrad made the spot of the year picking off a area of crashing trophy yellowfin a mere ten minutes before full blackness in windy, choppy conditions with four to six foot seas. This amazing feat of talent and perseverance propelled into our final stop of the day that produced momentary pandemonium as the voracious giant yellowfin came up the line meaning business hammering about seven of the first ten or twelve baits to hit the water. When the smoke cleared from the initial rush we had four fish remaining and managed to land three a one seventy, a one eighty, and a final two twelve to finish our day on a good note.

It was a long story I know but it is a great example of just how this trophy yellowfin tuna fishing goes down. Needless to say we are especially pleased with our exceptional good fortune landing the three hundred pound trophy as well as all the other big fish yesterday. The newest member of the coveted three hundred pound yellowfin tuna club is Ernie Adams who definitely earned his fish of a lifetime the hard way. Like all of the fish in this area, I have never seen a fish pull harder or put up a more valiant effort. Damn are these fish mean and tough! Huge congratulations to Ernie and all the other fortunate anglers to land trophies this trip.

Now the giant yellowfin phase is over as we head up the line contending with a weather change as we do so. We hope to offer a few more opportunities at variety tomorrow before continuing up the line to fish our final day on the coast.