"Way to go"
"We saw really good life at the Rocks and on The Ridge," said Polaris Supreme skipper Dan Hall, back from a ten-day trip Sept 18. "We got yellowtail to 35 pounds on The Ridge, and we saw tons of skipjack and bait. There were big yellowtail on Thetis Bank, also on the 23." Hall said the water was blue and 73 degrees at Alijos Rocks, and 74 degrees and off-color on parts of The Ridge.

"Rail riding's the way to go," pronounced Richard Orr of Belmont, who won first place for an 87-pound yellowfin. He rode the rail for 15 minutes with his 80-pound gear after the fish took a sardine on a 4/0 Mustad hook. He said he fished 80-pound Big Game on a TLD 50 LRS reel, with a Grafighter 760 rod.

There was a 100-pound fish, but that angler didn't enter the jackpot. Philip Fortier of Hermasillo, Mexico was second, for an 82-pound tuna. Rob Engelhart of Corvallis was third, for an 80-pound yellowfin. Anthony Crawford of Chico used a sardine and 60-pound gear to take a 54-pound yellowtail on the dropper loop, and Ron Carlton of Orange dedicated the 52-pound dorado (largest of the season so far) he caught on a Mean Joe Green Zuker's jig to his father. The pair posed with the winners.

Nine-Mile yellowfin
"There's yellowfin on the Nine-Mile Bank," said Seaforth Landing manager John Yamate Sept 18, "but they've been there a long time, maybe a couple of months, but they won't bite. They seem to be from about 15 to 30 pounds. Lots of our skippers have seen the fish when they swing outside on their way down to the Coronados Islands."

New Yorker first
Thomas Pack of New York City got the best fish taken on a fly during a fly fishing charter aboard the Shogun that returned Sept 19. Pack's fish was a 30-pound bluefin tuna, and it worked him over for an hour, he said. He used a Sea Habit fly in blue and white anchovy color, with a 2/0 Mustad hook. The group got two bluefin and numerous albacore, dorado and skipjack on the fly. Some anglers used conventional gear during a bluefin bite and bagged a fair catch of bluefin with sardine baits. Bruce Smith skippered the three-day trip.

Bluefin fishing scratchy
American Angler skipper Jim Slivkoff brought his anglers home from a three-day trip Sept 19. John Loera of LA won first place for a 44-pound bluefin he caught after a 20-minute tussle. He said he used a sardine on a 4/0 Super Mutu hook, with 30-pound clear Izorline, a Trinidad 16 reel and a Loomis seven-foot rod. "Big Wave Dave" McAllister of San Clemente was second, for a 43-pounder. Tom Kelley of Murrietta won third place for a 37-pound bluefin tuna.

One regulation ripper
"Our day began with encouraging signs," wrote Tim Ekstrom Sept 17, "which continued to build as the morning progressed. Jumping small and school sized yellowfin (12 to 25 pounds), along with steady jig strikes led us to our final destination where the quality improved and the fish wanted to bite. After the previous two days of tough scratching, the wide-open afternoon action had a therapeutic effect on all of us. We got on several different spots where the fish wanted to bite and one stop that was a regulation ripper. Getting "fixed up" on this size yellowfin, we headed northwest in the late afternoon planning to spend our final day in search of the quality bluefin."

Guadalupe Island produced the winning fish, a 74-pound yellowfin. Russell Hitomi of Palo Alto caught it on a sardine and a 4/0 Super Mutu hook. "I fought it 40 minutes," said Russell. "It took me around the anchor three times." He fished 40-pound clear Izorline, a TLD 20-2 reel and a Calstar 765M rod. Mark Soules of Point Loma and Ti San Li of Santa Monica were second and third, for a 39.6-pound yellowtail and a 39.5-pound bluefin tuna.

DeBuys finds bluefin
"Good fishing," remarked Red Rooster III skipper Jeff DeBuys Sept 19 following a three-day Charkbait charter. Mike Ray of Huntington Beach was first, for a 44.7-pound bluefin. He said he got it with a sardine on a 3/0 Eagle Claw hook, after a ten-minute fight. He fished 30-pound P-Line a TLD 15 reel and a 665 Sabre rod. Julius Estanilao of Carson was second, for a 44.5-pound bluefin. Tom Jenkins of El Monte had a 44.3-pound bluefin tuna.

Eight pounds short
"I lost a bigger one to a shark," said first-place angler Morgan Celaya of Newport Beach Sept 21. He had just finished a six-day trip with Royal Polaris owner-operator Frank LoPreste that fished offshore waters and Guadalupe Island, where the biggest tuna were caught.

"The sharks got about 15 of those nicer tuna," noted skipper LoPreste.

Ceyala's yellowfin weighed 92 pounds. He said he got it with a sardine on a 4/0 Super Mutu hook, 30-pound Maxima line, a Newell 338 reel and a Seeker six and a half-foot rod. Frank Alepe of Wilmington was second, for a 77-pounder, and Don Morita of Culver City was third, for a 65-pound yellowfin. Morita also won the Rollo jackpot.

Dr. Denis Inaba, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Newport Beach, caught a cabrilla, a fish seldom if ever seen at Guadalupe Island. "Delicious," he remarked.

His best bluefin
Michael Frantz of Hickman took first place aboard the Searcher with skipper Art Taylor on a trip that returned Sept 21. The winning bluefin was a 51-pounder that Frantz nabbed with a sardine bait on a 3/0 Gamkatsu circle hook, 30-pound Big Game line, a Sealine 50 reel and a Seeker Black Steel eight-foot rod. He said he got the fish in 30 minutes. Bobby Vairo of Newport Beach and Willie Hendrix of Richwood, TX were second and thrid, for bluefin of 45 and 44.7 pounds.

No shark bites
"We had excellent yellowfin fishing on the Ranger Bank," said Excel skipper Pat Cavanaugh Sept 21. "We tried Benitos, but it didn't bite and we went up to Guadalupe Island. We didn't have a shark problem."

James Isaacs of Stevenson Ranch and Gerard Tuttoilmond of Lake Elsinore tied for first place, with identical 87.4-pound Guadalupe yellowfin. Ron Taylor of Grand Junction, CO was third, for an 84-pound yellowfin tuna. Anglers on the trip had limits of yellowfin.

Fill 'er up
"We had yellowfin to 25 pounds on the Ranger Bank," said Qualifier 105 skipper Rodney Okimoto Sept 22, "and then we tried Guadalupe. Two white sharks there ate about 20 percent of the fish we hooked. One was about a 12-footer. It looked like a female. One of the guys said he thought the sharks were almost full, because we started getting the heads again."

"I got my best yellowfin," said Steve Hymer of Carlsbad. He won first place, for a 63-pound Guadalupe yellowfin that took his sardine on a 5/0 Gorilla hook. He said he used 50-pound Ande tournament line, a Penn 30SW reel and a Penn International six and a half-foot rod. Kado Barbosa of Monrovia was second, for a 50-pounder, and Dennis Daniels of Dexter, MI found a 48-pounder, good for third place.

Nicer bluefin bite
"We went southwest," said Vagabond skipper Mike Lackey Sept 23, "and yesterday we stopped at 9:30 a.m. and plunked until 6:30 p.m. We got our one-day limits on bluefin up to 70 pounds. There's good albacore sign; we had about 3/4 limits."

Troy Boddy of Corona won first place on the three-day trip for a 71-pound bluefin. He said he got it with sardine on a 3/0 Gamakatsu hook, 25-pound Maxima line, a TLD 15-30 reel and a Seeker seven-foot Black Steel rod. Chartermaster Rich Fagner of Anaheim was right behind him with a 70-pounder.

Bluefin and yellowtail
"It's still about 66.7 degrees out there about 120 to 130 miles," said American Angler owner Dan Sansome Sept 23. "It was a four-day trip. We got about 1/2 limits on bluefin and 3/4 limits on albacore. We also had nice yellowtail, to 30 pounds, on a paddy 30 to 40 miles southwest of the Cortes Bank."

Juan Ossa of Claremont took first place with a 59-pound bluefin. He said he got it with a sardine on a 6/0 Eagle Claw standard hook, 40-pound clear Izorline, a Penn 500 reel and a Calstar 670 rod. Mark Conway of North Hollywood was second, for a 51-pounder, and Robert Lopez of Glendale was third, for a 47-pound bluefin tuna.