Independence skipper Jeff DeBuys measured Roger Eckhardt's super cow two or three times, and each time the fish figured to be over 300 pounds. Maybe it lost a couple of pounds on the way up the line, because the certified scales at Pt. Loma Sportfishing showed it to be 295 pounds. The fish was slender in the flanks for its size. It's the largest caught so far this young big tuna season, which will last until June.

Still, what a whopper! Eckhardt wasn't disappointed.

"My first trip was in 1976 on the Qualifier 105 with Don Sansome," he remembered. "I was 12. Now I'm 43, and this beats my previous best tuna of 194 pounds by a long shot."

Eckhardt is manager at Sav-on Tackle in Santa Fe Springs. He wanted to thank his sponsors. He said he got bit on a mackerel and a 7/0 ringed Super Mutu hook. He used 100-pound Izorline and 130-pound Izorline Spectra backing on an Avet 50 reel and a 7465 H Calstar rod.

"It was dusk," he said. "We stopped and baited a meter mark, and five minutes later the fish charged the boat. We got eight hooked. Mine was last hooked and the last boated. He stayed with 100 yards of the boat; I didn't want him getting any farther away than that.

"It took a while to move him the last 50 yards. I wouldn't have got him without the help of crewman John Collins. I thought my stretched-out line would bust.

"I got him to gaff in about 50 minutes," he added. "I'll take it home and cut it up for my family. We like tuna."

The fish won first place, of course.

Gary Ondrisko of Idaho Falls, ID won second place, for a 276-pounder. He said it took a sardine on a 4/0 ringed Super Mutu. He fished with 100-pound Izorline fluorocarbon, 100-pound Izorline and 130-pound Spectra on a Oenn 50 N reel and a Calstar 755 XXH Grafighter rod.

Craig English of San Diego was third, for a 259-pound tuna he caught with a chunk on a 9/0 Mustad Skipjack hook, tied to 100-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Izor Spectra on an Accurate 50 W reel and a Baby Boomer rod.

"It came in after an hour," he remarked. "It died during the fight, and it got a lot harder to reel it in."

Jim Audette of Downey bagged a 236-pound tuna with a squid on the kite with the boat's kite rig: 12/0 Mustad 7691 hook, 130-pound Izorline, 130-pound Spectra backing on an Avet 50 W reel and a Seeker 6463 XXXH rod.

John Jeffries of Claremont pulled in a 228.8-pounder after it blasted a sardine on a 5/0 ringed Super Mutu. He fished with 130-pound Soft Steel line and 130-pound Spectra on an Avet 30 reel and a Calstar 655 XXH rod.

Roy Nishino of Cypress beat a 227.8-pounder that ate a mackerel on an 8/0 Hayabusa hook. He fished with 100-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, 100-pound Big Game line and 130-pound Spectra backing on an Avet 50 reel and a Seeker 6455 XXXH rod.

Bob Kelley of Inglewood tallied a 226.6-pounder with a mackerel. He fished with an 8/0 Eagle Claw hook, 130-pound Jin Kai fluorocarbon leader and 130-pound Jerry Brown Spectra. He used a Penn 50 reel with a Baker frame and a 7465 rod.

"It's my best fish," said Kelley. "He was a hard fighter. He fought for an hour, and he broke the first gaff and took off again."

Don Farrell of Laguna Niguel caught a 223-pounder on a sardine and a ringed