New Year's Day Bite

"We got down to the Banks yesterday midday, " reported Excel skipper Justin Fleck January 1, 2014. "After bouncing around a little bit the fishing has been good. Most of the fish we're catching fish from 50 to 100 pounds. We got several fish in the 170 to 195-pound range, and we caught one Cow at 210 pounds yesterday afternoon. Anyway we're getting steady action, they started biting in the morning, and we usually have two or three hooked. The guys are having a good time, the weather is coming down we're looking forward to the next couple days here. We're hoping to catch a couple more big ones."

Intrepid Call-In

"Captain Billy Santiago Jr. of the Intrepid called in a report of good fishing at the Bank," noted the boat's office New Year's Day, "with steady action on 60 to 260-pound tuna and fair wahoo fishing. The weather was up the last couple of days but it is getting better. They still have one more day of fishing and will get some pics and reports out as soon as possible."

Beastly Close Out

"What a way to close out a great 2013," posted Royal Star skipper Brian Sims January 1. We learned a little something yesterday and turned that into a pretty good day of tuna fishing. Bites were not all that easy to come by but the quality today was excellent. We are plugging away at quantity as well. Five cows hit the deck throughout the day: Jan Abbott 203, Neil Barbour 209, Brooks Brown 221, Rick Maxa 227 and our final tuna for 2013, Neil Barbour with a 340-pound beast. With a couple more days to fish and improving weather we are off to a solid start.

"Neil gets the honors today, he earned them. This was a knock down, drag out brawl to the bitter end. Thankfully we won this time and Neil has his prize."