ELLEN'S FIRST TUNA!

.. ><)))*> I took Ellen on her first fishing trip - a two-day on board the Pacific Queen out of San Diego. We had flat calm waters and partly cloudy skies the entire trip. We traveled Wednesday night to the fishing grounds which were 120 miles from Point Loma. Thursday morning we trolled around looking for schools of yellowfin tuna. The fish were scarce, but Ellen managed to land one of only 5 tuna caught for the entire two days of fishing. Her fish weighed 25 pounds and she was the envy of nearly everyone on board. She caught the fish on her own custom made fishing rod (built for her by Grandma Jan, of course.) Not even Grandma Jan caught a tuna on this trip (although I did catch 2 dorado, those high flying blue and yellow neon fish that reach our plate as Mahi Mahi.) There were only 27 game fish caught by the 21 anglers - 12 yellowtail, 10 dorado and 5 yellowfin tuna. Ellen and I were the only women on the boat and we took home 3 of those 27 game fish.

The fishing was so poor and so far from home that the Captain moved the boat closer to home the second day and we fished for rockfish. Ellen and I each caught rockfish before we stowed our gear for the ride home.

Ellen is a very gutsy petite pecheuse as she fought off mal de mer the first day of the trip. She was at the rail fishing whenever the boat stopped on a school of fish and her determination paid off.

We got home late Friday night. Ellen was up bright and early Saturday morning and beat me out of bed - her tuna was waiting to be canned. She ended up with 2 cases of canned tuna from her fish and she did most the work including labeling her jars. She is looking forward to tuna sandwiches and tuna noodle casserole made from her fish. Ellen even helped process the rest of the fish (about 20 pounds of Mahi Mahi fillets). I trimmed the fillets and she bagged, sealed and labeled the fillets. We finished the day by making Beer Batter Fish and Chips for dinner and celebrating the great fight her fish fought.

Pecheuse