We were blessed with beautiful weather and great yellowfin fishing.

We enjoyed calm seas up to the east today, and managed to limit out on yellowfin tuna. The tuna probably averaged 25-30 pounds, with two or three over 40. Home early, and hungry. I've held out all day for this evening's feed. Thanks Mike and Daphne! Happy Thanksgiving!

The fish were smaller today, but plenty hungry.

We made the decision shortly after 10:00 AM that we had enough tuna. The couple hours of fishing prior to that were steady enough to land close to forty fish. There were a few wahoo bites around, so I suggested trolling down the color change in the hopes of finding one. We lost one before we got out of the tuna fleet, and missed another one an hour later. Just before picking our lines up for the day we caught a gaffer dolphin, for a little variety! Thanks again Ricky.

We had pretty good tuna fishing today.

There was a brisk north to northeast wind this morning which made the ocean choppy and the air chilly, but once we got to the fishing grounds, we had tuna action right away. We wound up with a nice catch of mostly yellowfins, with a few 20 pound blackfins mixed in, in fact we had three citation blackfins today, two 22 pounders and a 24 pounder. By the afternoon, the wind had begun to moderate, and it looks like tomorrow is going to be NICE! The fishing is great and the weather looks super for the next several days, so take advantage of it!
Thanks Lance for another memorable trip, and "way to go Jackie"!

There were only a few of us out today, and I was the only one who fished to the south.

The boats that fished further up the line had great blackfin tuna fishing today. Down on our end, we had a mixed bag of wahoo, dolphin, and a couple of blackfins. We finished up with six wahoos, all over 30 pounds, the largest a 45 pounder. There was a good sign of bailer dolphin along a color change, but the seas were choppy enough that it made dolphin fishing difficult. We still caught about twenty before giving up on them. We threw in a couple of blackfins just to complete the meat fish grand slam! Thanks for a great day Josh!

Well, the blow appears to be over. It was slick calm yesterday and today, but of course my charters for Friday and Saturday couldn't hang around. The good news is that the boats that went out yesterday had good catches of yellowfin. Wish I could have been there!

On another note, I had to round up some more fabric before starting to fiberglass the inside of the skiff. I got started around 1:00 and managed to glass all the corners, including the chine block, stem and transom corners. Tomorrow I'll glass the bottom and sides.
Still, I'd rather be fishing!

This fall (so far) has been about the worst for weather that I can remember.

I can't get out to fish, which leaves me disappointed, and so are my customers. Not too much we can do about it. Fortunately, it looks like some better weather in the forecast, starting in a couple of days. Thank goodness, we need it.
Fortunately I have been able to keep myself busy with the skiff, and since I last mentioned it, I have done a couple rounds of rough sanding on the sides, and the outside, for all practical purposes, is ready for primer. We flipped her back over this morning and the work began on the inside. I ground off the excess glue that didn't get wiped off before, and laminated another layer of plywood to the inside of the transom. After screws are removed and holes filled, the inside will be ready for glass.

We headed out in search of a king mackerel today, but our weather window was narrower than we had hoped.

After catching bait this morning, I headed further south than normal to look for some warmer water and some king mackerel action. I never really found what I would call optimum conditions before the north wind started blowing 25 or so. We did catch three fish in one spot, but I jogged up the line in hopes of finding something better, and closer to home. We never did, and decided to wrap it up early, shorten the butt kickin', and call it a half day. Twice a year since she was teeny, I snap a photo of Madison. You'll see her again in June! Thanks for everything guys. EAT AT WINKS!

It was too windy to go offshore this morning so I worked on the skiff most of the day.

Grinding fiberglass is my least favorite part of boatbuilding, but one that must be done. I ground the skiff so it would accept the thickened epoxy that fills the weave of the fabric. Next comes sanding. Uuugghhh!

The weather wasn't picture perfect, but we made it out, fished all day, and scrapped out a catch of fish.

It was breezy out of the northwest this morning, but we headed up the line to look for a tuna. We had pretty good action throughout most of the day, and wound up with a nice catch of blackfins, two yellowfins and a few dolphin. Thanks Steve for putting the trip together. Hope to see you guys again soon!

Today my number one helper stuck around to mix epoxy for me as I glassed the skiff.

Yesterday I filled all the screw holes and this morning I went over it with a grinder again, to prep for the glass job. I got all but ten feet of one side finished before I ran out of fabric. Still, the bulk of it is done. It looks like I'll be fishing this week, so the skiff will be placed on the back burner for a while.

This morning I trimmed off the excess from the bottom planking and took the 36 grit to the bottom.

By George, it looks pretty good! I bought a sheet of 1/2" marine fir plywood to laminate to the transom for strength. I'll wind up putting another layer on the inside as well. After screwing and gluing the plywood on the transom, I chose a nice piece of mahogany (compliments of my ol' buddy Ben) to cap the stem. Lots of glue and a handful of bronze ring shank nails later, and the stem is capped. Now Simon can crash into the docks without doing too much structural damage.
One of these days (soon I hope) the wind is gonna quit blowing and I'll have some fish stories to tell again!

Yesterday I built the chine blocks and keelson. Today was devoted to planking the bottom.

I stayed at it all day, and figured when Simon got home from school he would be available to mix glue and be an extra set of hands. I must say that I was disappointed when he said that he didn't want to work on the boat today, he wanted to go down the street and play with his friends. Then Kelly reminded me that he is an eight year old. Oh well. Idid finish planking the bottom, and after I get the edges trimmed off the bottom tomorrow, it'll really start to take shape.

I got a full day in on the skiff, and wrapped up on the side planking this evening.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get her flipped and the bottom planked.