When we walk off the boat at the end of a trip, what determines whether or not it was a good trip? Remembering that this is a vacation and that the experience will last much longer than the amount of fish in your freezer is very important. Some of the worst trips we have ever been on has been when fishing has been at its best. When fishing is good, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the situation. Our worst emotions such as greed,jealousy, and selfishness can easily come into play. This particular trip was a great success for several reasons.

There was a perfect mix of people aboard this trip whose long range fishing experience varied greatly. We had 30 year veterans aboard as well as several first timers and rather than having the newcomers become intimidated, everyone bonded together as a family and helped each other out with advice whenever necessary. By the end of the trip, people that were strangers at the beginning, now have lifelong acquaintances that they will have forever.

It also helped that the weather was nice and coincidentally the fishing was also outstanding. Because fishing was good there were lots of chances to not only test a lot of tackle, catch a lot of quality fish, but also to share bites as the people that were "hot", often times handed fish off to those who weren't. In the end, no matter how big the fish was or who was fighting it, there was 100% backing from everyone else on the boat for a successful ending.

Lastly,the presence of a lady always helps and we were lucky enough to have Jennifer Barner aboard. Not that it is uncommon to have ladies aboard because there are many that fish, although there never seems to be enough. Having ladies around is a big help for several reasons. It keeps testosterone levels down to a minimum as our kindergarten tendencies are kept at bay with the never-ending battle of keeping our gentlemanly ways. It is funny how everyone including myself, unconsciously holds our stomach in whenever she was around. For the ladies reading this please do not be intimidated by the big fish as Jennifer was able to land 2 fish over 200 pounds, as easily as anybody else.

As you can probably figure out by now, we have too much time on our hands during the travel north. For those of you concerned with our ETA, it is going to be late because of the 25-30kt winds and rough sea conditions we battled the first 250 mile leg of our journey.