Man, you talk about depression. I can't believe it's already over. We had a very, very challenging season. In the end, totally brokenhearted. We feel like we left a couple million on the table that we could have easily collected. All we had to beat was a 313# Blue Marlin.
 I couldn't keep up with the fish reports because any information good or bad could have hurt us. Given the competition some insight. 
 Starting at the top of the season.
 Departing in Oct we have to be  constantly vigilant on weather updates. The first thing we check every morning and the last thing at night. Basically we are driving into prime hurricane locations at prime hurricane time( Nobody ever accused us of being overly intelligent).  Immediately upon our arrival we got  weather reports that a series of Hurricanes and Tropical Storms were lined up to greet us.  It took us couple days to get all the extra gear off the boat and put all the Big Game stuff aboard.   Then we got to fish for a day. One day. Then we sat as the Port Capt closed the Harbor. Then we sat some more. Long boring brutal days. Rigging and re-rigging tackle. Head spinning the entire time. At least it's about 100 degrees and 98% humidity.
 Finally the day before the Los Cabos we were able to run around and look at some condition, pretty much a mess everywhere we went. It is impossible to tell what influence the hurricanes are going to have on the conditions as there are too many variables. This one really screwed us up. The conditions stayed a mess the entire tournament season.
 We were also surprised to see that the Los Cabos tournament had switched to circle hooks only for live and dead bait. Luckily we had brought plenty with us. We typically don't use the circles for Blacks and Blues and have only a minimal amount of experience with them. At times we use very large baits and it is difficult to get the hook to rotate properly and catch in the corner of the mouth. This would prove to be very costly to us.
 The second day of the tournament there were still no qualifying fish caught. That is a lot of talent running around with no fish. We were on the bank trying to figure it out, there was little or no current. When we got current it was mostly from a bad direction. This usually scatters the fish all over the place so we were making some really bizarre tacks. I drove over a fish about 200 feet deep after briefly chasing it with the sonar and the downrigger goes off.Randy strikes the fish and line starts screaming from the reel. Like only a good fish does. These are the moments that Tournament Fisherman live for, this is what keeps them coming back. It is really a mix of so many emotions there is no way to explain it. I just know it makes my heart slam. About 250 yards away this beautiful Black Marlin launches itself out of the water like a guided missile. It makes these three spectacular jaw dropping jumps. The last one full broadside to us. It hangs in the air for what seemed like a minute, full profile. There is no doubt this fish is a qualifier, none. The estimates on board were all from 350 to over 400#'s. We are always very conservative in our estimates, overly. Way off to the right side of the fish I see this tiny splash. In a nano second it dawns on me, that was probably the hook. I push the throttles up and we never come tight. We are all professionals and handle it as such. Barely a word said and we are rigging fresh baits and fishing again within a couple minutes.
 Then your head starts the mental gymnastics. Why did we lose it? Downrigger bite, too much pressure on the feed, did we let it eat it long enough? All we know is that about $300,000 to $400,000 just swam away, without our hook in it. I remember thinking  "with the conditions as bad as they are, I hope that wasn't our only shot at the money this year"
 The Karma  caught  a qualifier the next day where we were and won a bunch of money. All good talented guys on board, Congratulations Kerwin, Boyd and Shane.
 The little Bisbees is a 2 day affair that we only got to fish one day of. We were on our way back in and spun a Turbo. Talk about heart stopping. Brown smoke pouring out and an immediate loss of power. I looked down and told the guys it was either a Turbo or a valve. If it's a valve we are done for the year. We tied the shaft down so we didn't ruin our transmission and limped into San Jose. It was difficult locating mechanics on a Sat. evening. We called everybody we knew and a lot of people we didn't. Some of the calls were to the East Coast and it was about 9 o'clock there. I can't say enough about the way Viking and Caterpillar supported us. We had Don Gemmel from Viking, Francis from Ransom marine, Steve Dillingham from Dependable, Matco everybody. I finished up on the phone around 1 am. Sunday morning the mechanics from Matco were on board and we tore the Turbos down. We got about 10 more people involved and finally got Rod Halperin the parts late Sunday afternoon. He flew in with them on Monday but they got held up in customs. I ran out to the airport with  Alejandro from Matco, he was  was driving about a 90mph,  with our import papers and barely got them released before closing. We were running within 4 hours of receiving the parts. Turns out it was good day to miss as a 500# Black and 870# Blue were caught. The Bank is looking better everyday.  TJ on the BOTTOM LINE had the 500. Nice fish
 Bisbees, the big  one, anticipation plus. We don't have much besides the area we were fishing was looking better and better every day. Shotgun start and the 2 Vikings, Crows Nest and Bad Company are the first to the spot. Way out in front of the rest of the fleet. As I am coming off  plane I am looking around thinking this looks different. I voice my concern to Anthony. Current is all goofed up as well as the water. Skipjack are on a different part of the bank. Uh, oh, not good . About 40 boats show up and are fishing the same impossibly small piece of real estate. Boring, boring day. Butting heads with all the boats all day long, nausea. Nothing caught the first day and it is all going to roll. Shotgun start on day 2 same results, Anthony and I way out in front. Today we want to start the second we get there. We make 2 tacks and Jimmy alerts me that we have a bite on the downrigger. Heart in the throat, cotton in the mouth. We wait, wait,  nice slow take and Jimmy pushes the drag up, At the same time I jazz it to help set the hook. It comes tight and we are on. This is the part where the math and strategy comes in. We had made our decision to fish where we did based on odds. About 60% of the fish coming out of that area were qualifiers as opposed to the other areas much, much lower percentage. Right now based on those odds we had a 60% chance of a multi million dollar fish on the line if it was a Black or Blue and not one of the Stripers or Sails that were on the bank. Right then this Black Marlin sticks it's head out of the water but it doesn't jump clear. Can't tell, it's head looked big enough , but Blacks have big heads. After a brief 3 or 4 minute battle we get the fish along side and it is evident it is too small. Maybe 250#'s I tell the guys to release it. We fish there for another couple hours and I watch the condition continue to deteriorate. I opt to go trolling for the late tide. We raise a Striper and a Sail. That is it for our whole Tournament. 
Recap. There were very little Blue Marlin on any of the inside banks and ridges. The 2 qualifiers were caught out in the deep, not on any structure or temperature breaks in the middle of a very large fleet. Not our style of fishing, No edge to separate us from the masses. Thats what makes the world go around.
 Already looking to next year.
The good news is BAD MARKET were the winners. These guys deserve it. That Capt. and crew are always in em. Damn good fisherman. Congratulations to them and HANG EM HIGH the second place boat and overall big money winners $2.1 Million. Too bad the SURVIVOR lost a big Black Marlin after 4 hours sounded like a beautiful fish.