Another big day of fun on the waterfront as multiple big long rangers made the turn and quickly diffused the carnival like atmosphere alive with energy. Fired up by the sight of so many successful catches being unloaded fishermen embarking on their vessels of choice mingled with those returning extracting tales and tips from afar to fine tune their upcoming approach with real time information. Between that and the opportunity to interact with so many other departing anglers the morning had a distinctly positive tone that was welcome to my eye.

So effective was the run down that anglers received while we tended to the task of completing a two and a half hour turn around that when we had our opening meeting and safety seminar a few hours later they were nearly as informed as I about the overall picture and our many different options. It made for a lively discussion as we steamed south opting for a wealth of fishing time on this annual seven day North County Fire fighters run.

We'll see how it shakes out in the end. For now we are pleased with the idea of six fishing days targeting everything from yellowfin, bluefin, and dorado offshore to coastal yellowtail and of course the coveted Guadalupe yellowfin. Good working weather for at least a couple of days promises a pleasant time of it as we apply our effort to the offshore pursuit of tuna and dorado for the opening round. Between a primo load of bait, an epic group of positive, like minded anglers, and a present set of options almost too good to be true we are ready to set the ball in motion.

Of late though this offshore tuna has been a little slippery to say the least. Keeping this in mind we head forth with measured enthusiasm considering day one a prospecting mission with encouraging odds. Either way reports with details will continue throughout the week.

Tim Ekstrom