Filling the Wells

Bluefin finally cooperated today. With a tremendous effort by all involved we loaded up the wells to maximum capacity - it took all day and diligence at every stop. This size class we're collecting are extremely picky eaters. The Shogun crew led by Norm, Gunny, Cha-Chi, Matt, Pat and Randy along with our team had to have extreme patience and perserverance. These fish are very tough to collect. But today on every stop we were able to get 2-4 to bite- we often lost a few due to the reliance on light tackle. A larger class the third year juvenile bluefin were also present- and a half dozen fish were released with tags once they were deemed too large for the wells. All the fish are measured- and the smallest was 26.7 inches (about 10 lbs) and the largest 36 inches - a robust 38-40 lb fish. All the bluefin are in great condition and tonight with a sliver of the moon we're able to watch about 17 swim below decks here on the Shogun. Tomorrow is another day- and we hope to put some archival tags in small bluefin. Tagging for a living and saving the PBFT!