Another long trip for the books

It's been a few weeks, but I had the privilege of going on another long trip. I finally got to go fishing with my old friend Brian, on his boat American Angler. The boat was as described by Randy on the Star. It was identical - sans a few details. There are no heads downstairs. I don't know why I wake up multiple times to pee when I'm on a boat. Doesn't happen when I'm at home - only on the boats. I have to think about that one. At any rate, the lack of a bathroom downstairs was a thorn. I am relatively convinced that at least some of the passengers pee in the sink. I find it hard to believe I am the center of the universe on this issue - and so the next time I am on this boat, into the sink it's going to go. The weather stunk the whole trip. The way down was only reasonable because we were going with the weather. The only reasonable weather was when we were in the anchorage area of Clarion - for dinner and sleep, and the last two days of travel before we were back at the dock. The fishing in the zone was in lumpy weather. But the fishing was good. We had four and a half days to fish - this was a 12 day trip. Once we dialed in the big fish bite to be around 4 in the morning - I promptly hooked one big fish each morning. I hooked four - and handed off one. I put three big fish in the holds - along with another seven from 100 to 160 lbs., along with a couple of hoo. Good fishing. I now have twelve big fish for the last three trips. The odds are now stacked against me for big fish on future trips. I cannot possibly keep catching big fish at this rate. 4, 5 and 3. Wow. The crew was awesome. As I suspected, Brian had assembled the best crew. Nobody had to tell any of them to do anything. They all knew exactly what to do. Every night at dinner, Brian would give everyone an update on what the fleet was doing. Brian turned into one of the deckhands whenever we were fishing. The only time he was a captain was when he was running the boat to and from the fishing zone. My partner Mark did not go on this trip. But I am certain he would have agreed that the experience would have been one of the better ones. Henceforth, I think the long trips are now down to two boats - Star and the Angler. At some point, I would like to go on the Excel and Indy. But until they get their RSW fish dialed in, it will be tough going on the big boats. By chance, I shared the stateroom with an old friend, Tom. Tom was a deckhand working with Brian about the same time I was working on the Mustang. Tom had gotten off the boats - and established himself at a very prominent BMW dealership and is doing well. He's been going on one long trip a year - similar to what I'm doing. The only thing missing - was a big fish (200+ lber). I was fortunate enough to be able to help him reach that goal. Should have seen his face. He couldn't stop staring at the fish - nor could he wipe the smile off his face. Classic. I'll write a more detailed report later on this trip.