Jeff Gaebel of Mission Viejo won first place, for a balloon fish he bagged with a sardine on a 3/0 circle hook, on 60-pound fluorocarbon leader, 60-pound Ande line and 80-pound Spectra backing. He said it was his biggest fish.

Tom Riette of Valdez, AK had a 96.8-pounder tha won second place, and Dennis Bryant of Chula Vista was hot behind, with a 96.7-pounder. Frank Tristan of Phoenix won honorable mention for a 118.7-pound yellowfin tuna.

Destination: Alijos Rocks, Southern Banks
The long range fleet is enjoying some tropical tuna fishing at and below Alijos Rocks, and some of the fish are challenging.

"Big fish of the day," reported St. Louis Larry for the Royal Polaris November 6 (she returns November 12), "and the trip so far is unquestionably the 150-pounder Milton Stout caught on the kite."

"We managed to find two kelps that made our day, "reported American Angler skippers Brian Kiyohara and Sam Patella November 5. "The grade of Dorado was about 20 pounds average, with some in the 30-pound class. We also had 36 Wahoo to go with all the action. It sure seemed if you stuck with fishing the bombs that was key to catching them. Tomorrow, we are back in Tuna Mode and will fish the banks below Mag Bay for a few days."

The bite on big tuna at the southern banks seems to have slowed, but dorado and wahoo are biting on kelps there and outside The Ridge. Look for the tuna to go off again soon, and for some good catches along The Ridge.

Big boys bite
"We got almost all these big fish on sardines," said Royal Star skipper Tim Ekstrom after mooring November 8. "The lower banks are holding some nice tuna from 70 to 130 pounds. With sardines, that's beautiful fishing."

Ekstrom's 21 passengers racked up a dandy catch of larger tuna on the ten-day trip.

"We started at Alijos Rocks and worked our way down," he said. "It looks good for the rest of the season; we haven't scratched the surface yet on big dorado and wahoo on kelps below the Ridge."

Mark Gravasse of Santa Cruz beat a 137.7-pound yellowfin after a fight of an hour and 20 minutes.

"A mola got in the way," he said. "I thought it might cut me off." Mark's big tuna ate a sardine on a 5/0 Mustad 94150 hook tied to 60-pound blue Izorline on a Newell 646 reel and a Calstar 660H rod.

Robert Hirsch of Santa Cruz won second and third places for tuna of 133 and 120 pounds during the 5th Annual Larry Fancher Open.

"When we first got into the big ones they really cleaned us out," said Ekstrom. "For only the second or third time in my career I had to get on the horn and tell the anglers they were blowing it, that they had to gear up; we were losing fish with the 40-pound and the single-speed reels."

Breezing dorado
Twenty anglers on a limited-load seven-day trip aboard the Searcher with skipper Art Taylor returned to Fisherman's Landing November 9. They brought a good catch of yellowfin tuna and dorado from Alijos Rocks and yellowtail from San Pablo.

"It was great fishing two of the three days we were there," said Art. "They bit the sardines and the squid on the kite in 69 degrees. It was 67 at San Pablo and the yellowtail there ran 18 to 22 pounds. They all came on jigs and bait."

Jim Bailey of Lemon Grove won first place for a 106-pound yellowfin. He fished a sardine on a 5/0 Eagle Claw circle hook, with 60-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, 50-pound Big Game line and a TLD 20 reel on a custom Calstar 660H rod.

"It fought for about an hour," said Bailey. "Art had to get it out of the props."

Bernie Rubalcaba of Escondido won second and third places, for tuna of 80.9 and 80.5 pounds, and also got the trip's best yellowtail, a 43-pound Alijos mossback. Unable to pose with three fish, he opted to bring the yellowtail into the jackpot shot. Doug Collins tied Bernie for third, and posed with his fish and Chris Hergermueller of Boulder, CO and the trip's best dorado, a 26-pounder.

"The dorado were at the Rocks," said Art. "They just came breezing through."

"Just three cranks"
"We fished two days at The Rocks," said Mike Lackey after mooring Vagabond November 10. "That's where we got our big tuna. But they'd bite for an hour and a half and then shut off for several hours. Then we went inside and got our dorado on kelps."

The biggest fish came to Doug Buck of Santa Ana; a 128-pound yellowfin that took a squid fished under a kite. Ineligible for the jackpot, it got honorable mention for Buck, a Vagabond regular. He posed with the winners.

"I saw white water fly," said Buck, "and I started cranking. I only got three cranks before the line came tight, just three cranks."

Richard Conrad of Murrieta won first place for a 79.8-pound tuna. "It fought about 25 minutes," said Richard, another Vagabond regular. He said he used a sardine on a 6/0 Eagle Claw hook, 60-pound Soft Steel Ultra line and 80-pound Spectra backing, with a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar 6465XH rod.

Eddie Higihara of San Gabriel was second, for a 78.8-pounder, and Marvin Wolf of Boise, ID won third place, for a 75.5-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna.