Dale Sommers won first place Feb 24, when Cates weighed his tuna at 228 pounds. Dale said he caught it on a flying fish under the kite, after a 45-minute fight. The yellowfin was stuck on a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 130-pound Izorline and 135-pound Spectra, a Penn 80 reel and a Calstar 760 rod. Ron Hirao of Huntington Beach was second, for a 216.5-pounder he got with a sardine on a 3/0 Gorilla ringed hook. He fished 80-pound blue Izorline on 130-pound Spectra, with a Tiagra 30W reel and a Calstar 6455XXH rod, and said the fight went 45 minutes.

Anthony Barksdale of Huntington Beach was third, for a 213-pound yellowfin. His fish took a sardine on a 5/0 Super Mutu hook. Barksdale used 80-pound Izorline with 80-pound Spectra backing, a Penn 50W reel and a Calstar 655XXH rod.

Blake Smith of Brea had a 201.7-pounder and a 200-pound tuna. He chunked his fish with a 5/0 Super Mutu, hook, 80-pound clear Izorline, a Shimano 50W reel and a Calstar 655XXH rod.

Another 201.7-pounder was bagged by Ed Kurzawa of Cypress, who fished a sardine on an Eagle Claw 2004 hook, tied to 80-pound blue Izorline and 80-pound Spectra on a Shimano 50W reel and a Calstar 6455XXH rod. Ed's fish fought for 45 minutes.

Wahoo fishing was good, said skipper Cates, with anglers averaging eight each.

On hot streak
"The weather today at Roca Partida was nice and warm, with perhaps 10 knots of breeze," noted Frank LoPreste's report Feb 20. "We started at daybreak, with Accurate Reels owner Jack Nilsen getting a kite bite that turned out to be a 180-pound yellowfin tuna. Our morning was rather slow, however the few fish we got were 150 to 160 pounds.

"About 16:00 hours things got rolling pretty darn good and we had very good fishing till 19:00 hours. We caught several fish on the kite, about 6 on the chunk, and several more on the caballito. Most of our fish were from 100 to 150 pounds, and we ended the day with 43 fish. Just about all of that fish had to go into the center well, which means we are having a pretty good trip. I am quite pleased, because this trip could have been a disaster. We are going to fish here till 07:30 hours, Thursday morning and then take off for Cabo."

There were 23 anglers aboard Royal Polaris for the 17-day trip that moored Feb 25. Joe McBride of Chattaroy, WA had the best tuna, a 245-pounder, but wasn't in the jackpot. He bagged his tuna with a squid and the fishing kite. The squid was on a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook, tied to 130-pound clear Izorline and the 135-pound Spectra. He fished a Penn 50W reel and a Calstar 6455XH rod.

Bob Pound of Elsinore was first, for a 222-pound tuna. Bob has been known to hoist such a tuna from the deck. Deckhand Jacob Emerling provided a photo of himself hoisting a 287-pounder taken by Dick Jones a year ago, apparently wresting the weight-hoisting title from Pound. Bob got the big fish honors this time, though, and said he did so with a flylined skipjack.

He said he used a 12/0 stainless steel Mustad hook, 135-pound Izorline and 135-pound Spectra backing on a Penn 50SW reel and a Calstar 765H rod. Pound is on a hot streak, taking two firsts and a second in his last three trips.

Marcos Biddle of San Anselmo was second, for a 212-pound tuna, which came on a squid under the kite. Biddle used a 9/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 135-pound Izorline and 135-pound Jerry Brown Spectra on an Accurate 50W reel. "I had an old rod," he said, "called a Calstar Deckhand, a 755XH. My best tuna before this one was a50-pound bluefin. This one came quick to the boat, but then he sounded."

Regular David Choate of Torrance took third place, narrowly beating Stasi Velonakis and Jack Nilsen. Choate's tuna went 185 pounds. He said he nabbed it with a caballito on a 6/0 Gorilla hook, with 100-pound blue Izorline and 135-pound Spectra on a Penn 50T reel blueprinted by Cal Sheets, and a 66460XXH rod. The fight went 30 minutes.

"I gave away five Accurate reels on the trip," said Jack Nilsen. "One for the first tuna, one for the first wahoo; we even gave an Accurate reel for the first squid."

New boat owners
Bill Cavanaugh has become the owner of the Pacific Queen. In another part of the same deal, the Queen's former owners, Sam Patella and Brian Kiyohara, have become owners of the American Angler.

"I'll be holding to the same schedule, basically," said Cavanaugh Feb 22. "But I hope to add some two and three-day trips on the Queen during the late season. We'll be running day trips on weekends and day-and-a-half trips on the weekdays. We'll probably start making regular runs in April."

February 23, 2002

Tuna Status Quo
Reports from the past week indicate slower, more scattered fishing for big yellowfin in the islands. What's implicit there is that fishing at its worst in the Revillagigedos is about as good as the world's other hotspots are at their best. Also, not all fishermen keep everything they catch, as the following story and photo sent from Pat Cavanaugh of the Excel indicate.

"Bruce Posthumus hooked a nice fish on 60-pound test. After about 30 minutes of pulling on the fish. Bruce broke his rod in half. Normally in that situation the crew would step in and hand line the fish until we could splice the fish onto another rod and reel. It is fairly common. But Bruce likes to do things on his own. It is all part of the challenge for him. I respect that very much and always have.

"Bruce had thought about what to do in this situation and it worked just fine. He just turned the rod and reel upside down so that the closest guide to the broken end became the tip. Then he just pulled on the fish left-handed. It worked great. After all that, we released the tuna estimated at about 165 pounds, the third nice fish that he has released."

What's in store
Tommy Rothery of the Polaris Supreme had this to say as he traveled down: "I have been getting a lot of comments from anglers on the chance of El Nino water conditions for this coming season, but to be honest about it, we don't see the signs for one yet. Conditions are forming along the equator that might lead to one, but all the conditions from Clipperton Island at 10 degrees North Latitude to San Diego look very normal.

The first day coming down the meter was constantly marking bait and we saw dolphin all thought the day. Today the water was green and full of plankton and red crabs. The seiners are seeing huge areas of tuna below and east of San Benedicto and Socorro Islands. The Breezer (the old Polaris Deluxe ) is at Clipperton Island, reporting all the 100-pound tuna you want and normal or below normal water temps. This is all excellent signs of a great season to come, but no El Nino yet."

"Just before dark"
"We tried San Benedicto for nothing," said Qualifier 105 skipper Rodney Okimoto at the dock Feb 22. He had just moored after a 12-day fly down, fly back Imperial Beach Fishing Charter trip to the Islas Revillagigedos. "And at Roca Partida it was tough and scratchy for two days. We tried Clarion, and it was in a funk. When we got back to Partida we had a good day, and stayed there five days.

"The best bite," continued Okimoto, "was just before dark. We'd wait for it all day, but sometimes it was so fast we lost a lot of fish. Wahoo fishing was okay, but not on the troll. The skin kept us interested."

Charlie Dodd of Imperial Beach bagged a best-ever 202-pound tuna, and first place for it. He said his previous best tuna was a 35-pounder. He got the tusker tuna on a squid under the kite, with the boat's kite rig: a 10/0 Eagle Claw 9011 hook, 100-pound Big Game line, 135-pound Spectra backing, an Accurate 50SW reel and a Calstar 6465XXH rod. The fight lasted an hour. Don Winnie of Imperial Beach was second and third, for tuna of 181 and 166 pounds. Those fish also came on the kite, with squid.