Big school stays
"We saw five schools of bluefin on the last day," said Shogun skipper Bruce Smith Sept 11, " and one was the biggest one I've seen. It stayed with us for two and a half hours."

Glen Brewton of Bakersfield won first place on the five-day trip, for a 99.9-pound bluefin he got with a sardine on a 6/0 Gorilla hook. "This is my first long range trip and the best fish I've ever caught," he said. "It took about 45 minutes." He said he used 60-pound clear Izorline, a Penn 4/0 reel and a Sabre Stroker rod.

Han Wang of San Jose was second, for an 89.7-pounder, and Peter Inouye of Gardena had a 74-pound bluefin tuna for third place.

Tough half hour
Mike Keating docked his Spirit of Adventure Sept 11 after a three-day trip. An encounter with some large bluefin paid off in first place for angler Rich Strub of Chino.

"How long did he fight?" I asked Strub as we viewed his 114-pound tuna.

"I kind of lost track of the time," he said. "I think it was about a half-hour. "If I'd set my drag harder, it wouldn't have taken so long. We screwed down the drag when he was at the boat, and he came right in."

Strub said he fished a sardine on a 4/0 Super Mutu, 60-pound Big Game line, a TLD 30-2 reel and a Calstar 760L rod.

Gambler wins again
Team Gambler and the Dana Point marlin cruiser Gambler scored another win Sept 11, with first place in the Rosie's Tournament at Catalina Island. The win came when Bill Miyagawa Jr., the boat's skipper, hooked and beat a 226-pound striper in about 15 minutes, said Steve "Captain P-Bod" Reschke, who was driving.

"We saw a swirl on a meatball and threw baits in," said P-Bod, and the marlin ate a mackerel. Bill was using a Mustad 94151 chrome 8/0 hook, and 50-pound Jin Kai fluorocarbon leader on 50-pound Jin Kai line. It was tournament gear. He had a TLD 25 reel and a custom caster, a Grafighter 850H rod that I built for him."

The team consisted of Bill Jr. and Bill Sr. Miyagawa, owner Dick Peckham and Terry Martin. The win was billed to be worth $50,000.

Luremakers score w/bait
"We fished at about 100 miles," said American Angler skipper Jim Slivkoff Sept 12, "on a four-day trip. Yesterday we found a school of big fish. Lots of guys threw out 25-pound line and got burned. The bite lasted an hour, and the fish were from 30 to 80 pounds."

Jeff Keywan of Lakeside bagged a fat 103-pound bluefin, good for first place, on a sardine and a 4/0 Gorilla hook. He said he fought the fish for an hour on 40-pound Maxima Crystal Ivory line on a 4/0 Penn reel, with a Calstar 665XH rod.

Brian Fransen of Simi Valley was second for a 73-pound bluefin. Art Cinffo of San Diego had a 68-pounder, good for third. Keywan and Cinffo are co-owners of Hooker Mfg. in El Cajon, makers of trolling lures.

Klein's Alijos Flyer
After a six-day flyer to Alijos Rocks, Qualifier 105 owner-operator John Klein was sore-backed. "I'm supposed to be famous for flat calm weather," said Klein, "but I haven't seen nice weather all summer.

"We had one and three-quarter days of limit fishing at Alijos Rocks," he recollected Sept 12, "on two grades of tuna from 25 to 60 pounds. There were some nice wahoo. We stopped for a few yellowtail at Benitos."

Terry Earls of Yucaipa won first place for a 93-pound yellowfin. It fought for an hour. "It was tough trying to get his head up," said Earls. "He didn't want to come up." He said he fished a sardine on a 4/0 Mutu hook, with 50-pound Big Game line on a TLD 20 reel and a Calstar 700H rod.

Bob Elliot of Huntington Beach was second, for a 91-pound yellowfin. David Valenzuela of Ventura took third place for a husky 74-pound wahoo.

Triplets
Art Taylor moored his Searcher Sept 12 after a three-day trip for bluefin and albacore. A school of bigger bluefin produced three nearly identical jackpot fish.

Bob Procter of Chino Hills beat a 72-pounder for first. He fished a sardine on a 4/0 Burns ringed hook, with 50-pound Big Game line, a Penn 30SW reel and a Calstar 655H rod. He said the fish took 35 minutes to gaff. Mark Bingham of Capistrano Beach tied with Bill Grasska of Pacific Pallisades for second. The pair had 71.9-pound bluefin tuna.

Vet Nabs First
Long-time angler Tom Maxfield of Upland won first place on the Vagabond trip that returned Sept 12 after three days on the albacore grounds. Tom fished a sardine on a 4/0 Mustad hook, with 50-pound Soft Steel line, a TLD 20-2 reel and a 655 Sabre rod, and took an 80-pound bluefin.

Richard Gallimore of Santa Paula was second, for a 78-pounder, and Dave Zachilli of San Diego was third, for a 72-pound bluefin.

"We got the best ones on the first day, on our first real stop," remembered Red Rooster III skipper Andy Cates Sept 12. His three-day trip produced a good catch of bluefin and mixed albacore.

Martin Lemp of St. Louis, MO took first place, for a 74-pound bluefin. He said he caught it with a sardine on a 4/0 Super Mutu hook, with a 50-pound rental outfit. Greg Zukharin of LA was second, for a 66.8-pounder, and Michael Lapidus of Simi Valley was third, for a 66.4-pounder. Rusty Miller, 11, of Paul Revere Middle School in Pacific Pallisades got a 58-pounder by himself, and posed with the winners.

Big skinny bluefin
'This is only the third time all year we've got on those big ones for a good bite," said Royal Star co-skipper Tim Ekstrom Sept 14 after a five-day trip. "The Excel and the Rooster had a shot at them earlier. These were big, skinny fish, and they were empty."

"I found a sardine in one of them," said his counterpart Randy Toussaint, "but I think it was mine. On Monday they floated everywhere, bluefin up to 80 pounds. Tuesday, it was all little fish. Wednesday we went to Guadalupe for some of the bigger yellowfin, but the sharks ate maybe 20 of the 40 or 50 we hooked. They were big ones, maybe 2000 pounds, 15 to 17 feet long. So we left. Thursday we found five schools of big bluefin, 100 to 150-pounds, but only one would bite. We got ten of them aboard, at about 115 miles. There were two bigeye that we caught out of that same school of bluefin. One was a 120-pounder."

Marshall Thompson of Coeur d'Alene, ID had the biggest bluefin, a 126-pounder. "This is definitely my best fish ever," he said. "And on my first long range trip." He used a sardine on a 6/0 Eagle Claw hook, 80-pound Big Game line, a Newell 641 reel and an All Star Avenger six and a half-foot rod.

Kent Richardson of Spokane was second, for a 124-pounder, and Victor Ness of Carlsbad was third, for a 121-pound bluefin tuna.

RP reports BFT
Roy Rose moored Royal Polaris Sept 15 after a five-day trip for bluefin and albacore.

"So we started to troll once again," reported the ship's update three days earlier. "Roy spotted 5 seagulls flying around a balloon. Before we could even get to the seagulls, the sonar lit up. Threw bait, threw it good! They're under the boat, get your heavy gear, it's bluefin!

"Then our slow day turned into a very good day. Bluefin were boiling all around the boat, and boy, did they want to bite. The bluefin were in the 60 to 90-pound range. Once they started biting, they didn't stop until first call for dinner. We landed 64 of these large bluefin tuna."

Dan Manelli of San Anselmo has a 300-pound yellowfin, and took top honors on the season's last five-day trip with an 87-pound bluefin. He said he fished a sardine on a 3/0 Super Mutu hook, tied to 60-pound blue Izorline, 60-pound Spectra, a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar GR765H rod. John Wichman of Oceanside was second, for a 77-pounder, and Robert Hulbert of Sacramento was third, for a 74-pound bluefin tuna. "It was a really good bite," said Wichman.

Alijos yellowfin snap
Limits of yellowfin to 90 pounds came to anglers aboard the Excel on a six-day trip that arrived Sept 15 with skipper Bill Cavanaugh.

"This was the real deal," he said. "We put the wood to 'em, and you can quote me. We got there about 6:30 a.m. but they didn't really bite until 11:00, then they bit all day, into the dark. "It was breezy, and they bit some on the kite. They ate the yoyo jig, and they would have bit the skip jig. If you threw in off the stern, it was instant."

Morris Lerner of Carlsbad is 91. He caught a 45-pound wahoo the hard way, on bait without a wire leader. There were a few wahoo in the 40 to 50-pound range and some yellowtail and dorado among the tuna.

Anthony Sowondo of Laguna Niguel won first place for his 90-pound yellowfin. He said he used a sardine on a 6/0 Super Mutu hook, with 60-pound clear Izorline and 130-pound Jerry Brown Spectra backing on a Tiagra 30 RS reel, with a GR765L rod. Anthony said he beat the fish in about 20 minutes.

Bob McConihay of Newbury Park said he got his second-place 87.7-pound tuna without a fighting belt, and that he wouldn't do it again. Chartermaster Gary White of Let's Talk Hookup was third, for an 87.3-pound yellowfin tuna.

San Martin albacore
"We fished at 115 miles most of the time," said American Angler skipper Jim Slivkoff Sept 16 following a four-day trip, "and we got some nice albacore off San Martin. When we came in it was flat calm."

Rob Dela Victoria won first place, for a 127-pound bluefin, the only fish hooked or decked during a brief encounter. "They came right up to the boat," said Slivkoff, "and went under and went on."

Dela Victoria's bluefin took a sardine on an Eagle Claw 5/0 circle hook, he said, on 50-pound P-Line a TLD 25 reel and a Calstar 655XH rod, and fought for an hour. Mike Stimpson of Lemon Grove was second, for a 28-pound albacore. John Borger of San Clemente.

Huffing & puffing
"We fished the open water and Guadalupe Island," said Vagabond captain Mike Lackey Sept 16. "It was tough."

Mark Spangler of Alta Loma won first place on the four-day trip. He bagged a 70-pound Guadalupe Island yellowfin.

"I was huffing and puffing after a while on that fish," said Spangler. "And I thought it was 50 pounds."

Spangler's bait was a sardine, on a 4/0 Mustad hook, 40-pound Momoi line, a Penn 16S reel treated by Cal Sheets and a Calstar 6460 rod. The tuna came aboard in 35 minutes, he said.

Al Hernandez of Santa Ana was second, for a 52-pound yellowfin. Ray Berkeley of Rialto was third, for a 48-pound yellowfin.

Sharks got some
Norm Kagawa kept his anglers late at Guadalupe Island for the yellowfin fishing. Crewmen said some fish were lost to sharks, but the majority of hooked fish were decked.

Gene Foster of Bellflower took first place with an 88-pound yellowfin. He said he beat it in 40 minutes, after it took a sardine on a 2/0 Super Mutu hook on 40-pound blue Izorline. He used a GLS45 reel and a Seeker 670 rod. "This is my best yellowfin," he said.

Jack Knightlinger of Torrance was second, for an 86-pounder, and Gary Hutton of Orange got third place, for an 81-pound yellowfin tuna.