Sad times following our arrival in the much heralded bait grounds of Puerto Vallarta as we struggled through a dusk through dawn mission that yielded no more than one hundred fifty baits. I'm not certain if you are all aware of the Ekstrom mainland Mexico bait curse but it appeared that my three year run of bad luck on catching caballito was strong as ever. As a side note I must point out that despite past poor results on catching caballito for our Clipperton island voyages, we have managed to prevail making incredible catches of trophy yellowfin on big baits we found at Clipperton. This knowledge was little consolation Thursday night however as there is simply no substitute for a beautiful load of caballito when fishing at Clipperton island. With this in mind we elected to give the bait pursuit another go last night before blasting off for Clipperton with whatever bait we had in the hold and our fingers crossed. It was a fortuitous decision.

Although we sacrificed a half day of Clipperton fishing time, we now have a brimming load of caballito and much more confidence while heading for the world's most incredible giant yellowfin tuna fishing destination. It just so happened that last night was completely different with conditions making a one hundred eighty degree turn from the previous night and the bait apparently appreciating the difference. By zero one hundred we had more than enough bait and the next long leg of the journey to Clipperton island began. We are of course satisfied the sacrifice was worth it and needless to say are elated to finally shake the dreaded no caballito catching monkey off our back We are presently cruising south in calm, balmy seas with a beautiful three day weather forecast ahead. Our Clipperton arrival time will be shortly after dark on the evening of the eleventh when we will no doubt be ready to get down to business on catching tuna.