Rep Richard Hightower of La Mirada was aboard, bringing many samples from his clients: Hayabusa hooks, Newell reels, Allstar rods, Seaguar fluoro and mono,Yo-Zuri lures and baitmakers, Catchy tackle spinner head and Sea Strike jigs. All passengers received packages and hat-drawn prizes.

The expedition began with a day at Alijos Rocks, for a good catch of tuna of 25 to 75 pounds. On the front end of a pack of at least four other boats, DeBuys had a notion to head in to The Ridge, which was also "rested." Tuna and yellowtail were encountered on the 23 and the 38, but few wahoo and no bonanza bites, so Jeff tried Thetis Bank, which was promising, but no quite the right stuff either.

DeBuy's premonition
"I've got a feeling about the Spud," DeBuys told his anglers, and in worsening weather slipped south to anchor on the Potato Bank before dawn. First light showed a few pesky marlin ready to play, and a fair pick on regulation tuna, with some bigger biters on the kites. When DeBuys began to move off the bank, he spotted a big school of breezers, and raced after it.

"Throw it heavy on the port side!" he instructed over the deck speakers, and Cates tossed several scoops of sardines as anglers baited mackerel made the night before in Mag Bay. Tuna splashes went off like mortar bursts off the corner, and thrown baits were scarfed as quickly as they hit the choppy sea. A game of screaming "Aargh!" developed among the hook-setters, and the skippers shouted to fish mackerel on the heavy gear. Those who fished the skipjig were rewarded with smashing takes.

These tuna were at last ready to chew, and they were the right kind, from 30 to over 80 pounds. The boxes were full when the school moved on, and DeBuys went after it again. The yellowfin obliged once more, and once more again, when Jeff said, "We've got enough. Let's go looking for other species."

We pushed north, into what sailors used to call a spanking breeze, in fact, what just about anyone would call a spanking.

DeBuys pulled into Mag Bay again and we replenished our mackerel. The bait bit so well the tanks were filled in less than an hour, with green and Spanish mackerel bout eight or nine inches long. We spent the night there in the quiet, resting at anchor.

Under a stinker
In the morning the wind seemed at last to be coming down, though seas were still large and choppy. Jeff took us some 30 miles out, where we found a putrid sea lion floating, a school of dorado beneath the corpse. That was a dandy bite, but it ended after 20 minutes as we drifted off the seal, and the fish didn't want to go again, so DeBuys went on.

In the afternoon a floating stick six inches thick and eight feet long proved to harbor a mother lode of dorado. When we were done with them we had all we needed, and the Rooster pointed its bow toward Cedros Island and the trophy-sized yellowtail reputed to be hanging off the south end and at Chester Rocks, across the straits at Punta Eugenia.

"I've got a feeling about this, too," said DeBuys, and suggested that anglers switch from the circle hooks most had been using on the tuna to conventional J hooks, for a higher percentage of success on the homeguard mossbacks. It was now flat calm and almost windless on the big saltwater lake between Cedros, Natividad and Eugenia.

Chester Rocks slugs
Not long after we arrived, Scott "Lumber" Stevenson of Harbor City was one of the first to connect with a big slug of 35 or 40 pounds. His "Aargh!" was truly inspiring. We thought his 'tail was big, until Don DeVore of Perris came up with a honker that later weighed a startling 54 pounds. The big yellows bit until the current died. Anglers were regularly rocked or kelped by the big fish, but 15 or so were put aboard, much against their will.

"Let's head on up to the north end of the island," said DeBuys. He had that feeling again. We arrived at mid-afternoon, and just off the lighthouse came to a place where the calm was replaced by a breeze coming around the point. Shortly, the current picked up, and first bonito and then yellowtail came into our chum line. The yellows bit on the iron and on the mackerel even better.

It only took a couple of hours to fill out our limits. Frank McLaughlin of Garden Grove tried a mackerel on the dropper loop and came up with a black sea bass of over a 100 pounds, maybe 125 or better. As the crew attempted to lip-gaff it for release, the fish broke loose. It pained DeBuys to leave his working anchorage, but he couldn't leave the big bottom-dweller to float off disabled, se we chased it down.

An unexpected save
At the first touch of the gaff, the black giant revived suddenly, and dove powerfully, not to be seen again. We all thought it had made a depth where it could thrive, that it was a perfect ending to a near-perfect trip. The fish holds were full, the weather was down, and we were bone-tired fishermen. Our last evening meal was lobster and prime rib. The whole experience was one none of us is likely to forget.

At the dock Nov 18, the jackpot was won by Ron Graver of Lancaster. Ron only needed 15 minutes to bring his 84-pound yellowfin to gaff, after it inhaled his sardine on a 6/0 Super Mutu hook, tied to 80-pound Big Game line on a 633 Newell reel and an Calstar 760M rod. Frank McLaughlin was second, for an 80-pounder, and Hightower won third place, for a 73-pound yellowfin tuna. Don Devore posed with the winners, with his huge yellow. Big John Young of Sacramento had the second-best yellowtail, a 46-pound Chester Rocks tackle-buster.

"Very, very good"
Mike Lackey brought Vagabond home to Point Loma Sportfishing after a five-day trip to Guadalupe Island.

"Whitey's still there at Outer Rock," he said. "He bothered us by taking the bigger fish we were getting there, until we had to leave and go up to Westy's. But fishing was very, very good, and the water was 67.5 degrees. Yellowtail fishing was also good, on the dropper loop and on the flyline."

At the dock, Randy Simpson of Salt Lake City won first place, for a 78-pound yellowfin. He said he nabbed it with a sardine on a 4/0 Mustad hook, on 40-pound Soft Steel line, with a Penn 500 reel and a Seeker 660 rod. Jan Ishii of Rancho Palos Verdes was second, for a 71-pounder, and Mary Beth Saline of Salt Lake City was third, for a 62-pound yellowfin tuna.

Big skin wins
A nine-day Polaris Supreme trip ended Nov 18 when skipper Vic Moore tied up at Fishermans' Landing. Phil Lambert of Long Beach won the jackpot, for a 57-pound wahoo. Lambert said he got his tusker "skin" on a sardine, with a 4/0 Super Mutu ringed hook, 40-pound blue Izorline, a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar 765L rod custom-built for him by Taka Tanaka.