Foamers on Toussaint
"There is only one word to describe the fishing here today (Oct 23) on my namesake bank; epic," wrote Randy Toussaint. "We started out the morning by catching all the 12 to 25-pound dorado we wanted on a log provided by hurricane Juliet, then spent the rest of the day hitting schools of tuna in the 90 to 200-pound range. The aerial displays on our chum as we pulled into the schools was nothing short of incredible, but by the end of the day a 150-pound tuna boiling right on the corner didn't even get a reaction. Our total on the tuna was 61 for the day, 50 were 90 to 170 pounds, with one that taped 212, the rest were 50 to 60 pounds."

"We hit a number of those foamers," said the Royal Star skipper on the dock Oct 30, "and in the best school they were straight 150 to over 200-pounders. They only bit for that one day. The next day they acted normal again, and wouldn't bite. But the day they bit, we got over 50 that were above 100 pounds. That's probably my best trip for big tuna on a fall ten-day.

"And there's tonnage of tuna on The Ridge. We ended up with limits of tuna and dorado. Wahoo fishing was poor, even though we tried for two days. The water on the Toussaint Bank was about 78 degrees, nice and warm."

The big fish weighed in at 211.6 pounds. Hooked by two anglers, it wasn't eligible for the jackpot. It was successfully brought to gaff by Darrin Seiji of San Francisco, after he deep-hooked it with a mackerel on 100-pound line. The other angler's hook pulled out.

Dave Coopman of Huntington Beach won the jackpot for a 157-pound yellowfin. He said he got it on a mackerel pinned on an 8/0 Eagle Claw 2005 hook, with 80-pound clear Izorline and a Penn 30SW reel by Cofe and a Seeker Black Steel six-foot rod.

Dave's nephew Jim Coopman, also of Huntington Beach, was second. He got a 151-pounder. Don Erickson of Huntington Beach was third, for a 144-pound yellowfin tuna.

"Saw a splash"
"I saw a splash, so we went over there on top of it and found a good meter mark," said skipper Jim Slivkoff of the American Angler Oct 31. "They came up and it was Katy, bar the door!

"We hooked 60 in three hours, and decked 20 of those big tuna. We didn't have mackerel for bait; they bit the sardines." Slivkoff had 25 passengers, including Pronto owner Alan Fay, who got three of the big foaming yellowfin.

The bite on big tuna near the Toussaint Bank provided Richard McCutcheon of Dana Point with his lifetime best yellowfin, a 156-pounder. He won first place as well. He got his trophy with a sardine on a Hayabusa 8/0 hook, 80-pound Big Game line, a TLD 50LRS reel and a Calstar 660XXH rod, after a 50-minute fight.

Art Caballero of Temple City was second, for a 140-pounder. Brock Anderson of Huntington Beach was third, for a 133-pound yellowfin. Posing with the winners were Jeremy Snyder of Riverside and Ben Naranjo of Oxnard, who caught dorado of 47 and 44 pounds.

"On big ones"
"We got our best fishing at Alijos Rocks," said Excel skipper Bill Cavanaugh on Halloween after an eight-day trip with 31 anglers. "We had a day on big fish, with difficult conditions." His anglers had a good catch of yellowtail along with limits of yellowfin.

"We got the anchor down this morning at 0330 this morning," he wrote on Oct 28. "At around 0730 we had a school of straight bigger fish move in on us and from then until 4:00 in the afternoon it was good fishing. I would call the grade of tuna we had today excellent, with the average around 70 pounds.

"There was a period of time when the fish settled in on us, and if you made a decent cast and your bait swam away from the boat, you got a bite. Once again, I can't stress this point enough, the guys that really worked at it with bait selection, fishing the right gear with the right size line and the right size hook, and made a decent cast out away from the boat did by far better than most.

"For example, in four hours I hooked 12 fish and that was when I had time away from chumming and gaffing and tangles and everything else. The gear to use on the fish today was 50-pound line, a 7/0 Eagle Claw 2004 or 2005 circle hook, and a San Diego knot, tied perfectly with no kinks, in the line above your hook. The bite was over by 4:00 in the afternoon and I re-anchored for yellowtail. We picked up a couple of yellows and three more tuna before dark. It was an excellent day of fishing. We are staying here tonight."

Bob Benjamin of Santa Clarita was the first-place winner, for a 95-pound yellowfin he nabbed with a sardine on a 6/0 Eagle Claw hook, 50-pound Maxima, a TLD 20-2 reel and a Calstar 765L rod. He said the fish fought for 40 minutes. Danny Ramos of National City was second, for a 90-pounder, and Jack O'Keefe of Malhuem, MA was third, for an 88-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna.

Alijos tuna bite
"We have had absolutely gorgeous weather here at Alijos since Friday" said Frank LoPreste's Royal Polaris report for Oct 29. "Today the wind kicked up to about 15 knots. Fishing has been pretty consistent the last couple of days. We have experienced excellent fishing on the yellowfin from 20 to 90 pounds, with the biggest approximately 110 pounds. We have caught scattered wahoo and a few dorado. At night, we have had excellent fishing on YT from 20 to 40 pounds. Today is our last day at Alijos and this afternoon we will be heading to the Thetis Bank and the 23 Fathom Bank looking for wahoo, pargo and dorado."

At the dock Nov 3, LoPreste's 33 anglers had limits of yellowfin to 121 pounds, near-limits of yellowtail, a nice catch of dorado and a few wahoo, including a stub of 77 pounds. "The big yellows came up and bit at Chester Rocks," said Frank, "and they bit on the flyline."

"This was the best trip of my whole life," said Jim Ross of Bridgeview, IL. He won first place, for a 92-pound yellowfin that he bagged with a sardine on an Eagle Claw 4/0 hook, 50-pound P-Line, a Penn 15KG reel and a Seeker rod. John Martini of Long Beach won second and third places, for tuna of 87.1 and 86.6 pounds.

Curt Yen of Sacramento, on his rookie trip, took a 71-pound squat wahoo with a sardine on straight 50-pound monofilament. He posed with the winners and remarked, "I'm going to try Las Vegas next."

All sardine fish
"Happy Halloween, everyone!" wrote second skipper Jason Reese in the Shogun report. "It's really nice fishing here at Alijos Rocks all by ourselves. We enjoyed another gorgeous day of weather combined with some really good fishing. Some anglers like Ruben Salse were red hot!

"I think every bait Ruben cast out resulted in a tuna bite. We even had a tuna that tired out the original angler, but with the help of another passenger we landed a really angry fish. Skipper Bruce had a larger model hooked on a jig, he was eventually spooled by that bruiser. It was a fantastic day on many levels."

"Our best tuna were all sardine fish," said Shogun skipper Bruce Smith, just returned from his ten-day Alijos Rocks trip Nov 3. "It was nice weather and good fishing."

Brian Evans of Costa Mesa won first place, for a 79-pound yellowfin. He said he got it on a sardine pinned to a size one Mutu hook, 40-pound blue Izorline on a Penn 4/0 reel and a Seeker 655 rod, after a 50-minute fight. Mike Campouris of Rio Oso was second, for a 77-pounder, and Dough Hath of Agoura Hills took third, for a 74-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna.

First Revillagigedos trip
"Good morning folks," wrote Red Rooster III skipper Andy Cates on Halloween, "We are on our way to Roca Partida. We will be there at 8:00 this morning. Everyone is hoping for some good wahoo action today. Yesterday at Clarion Island it all happened in the afternoon.

"In the morning we did a tour around the island for only 10 wahoo. We got the anchor down at about 11:00 and started to get bites right away. We picked away the rest of the day, ending up with 30 quality tuna. We see more of the 70 to 90-pound fish here now. The better size fish do come around so there are chances at them. Here are a couple of the bigger fish of the day, both caught on tube mackerel. Pete Wight is shown here with his new personal best, a 220-pounder.

Cates and his 25 passengers were the first of the new season to try Hurricane Bank and the Revillagigedos archipelago, returning to H&M Landing Nov 4 with a load of tuna over 100 pounds and a good catch of wahoo.

"The weather was very warm, at 95 to 98 degrees," said co-skipper Jeff DeBuys, "and it was about 100 percent humidity. The water at the Hurricane Bank was 83 degrees, and at Clarion it was 85. The balloon and flying fish or sardines were the best method of getting at the bigger fish. We never put a squid in the water. The average tuna was about 100 pounds. At Hurricane they were 125 pounds."

Peter Wight of Torrance won first place for his 220-pound yellowfin. "It's my best yellowfin ever," said Peter, who also fishes giant bluefin on the east coast. "I was fishing my last bait on the last day." He said he got his trophy on a mackerel, with an Eagle Claw 118 Mag hook, 100-pound clear Izorline, a TLD 50-2 reel and a Calstar 6465XXH rod, after a 25-minute fight.

Tom Schneider of El Cajon was second, for a 202-pound yellowfin he took with a flying fish on the boat's kite rig, in one hour. "It's my best tuna, you betcha," said Schneider. "It was quite an experience, and a hell of a fight. I didn't know a 200-pound fish could pull that hard. You go down south, you learn a lot fast."

John Nelson of Escondido was third, for a 188-pound yellowfin tuna.

"Very encouraging," remarked skipper Cates. "This was the best sign of tuna at the first of the season, with clean, sharkless fishing, in the last four years."