"Hello out there in web land," read the Royal Polaris report for February 1. "Our weather today was a bit breezy, but that didn't keep the anglers of the Royal down. We had a very slow day of fishing until late afternoon. We lost our lucky log. At 17:00 hours (5:00 p.m.), we didn't have a single fish aboard the boat. But then Aaron spotted what he thought was another log, and to our surprise it was our lucky log. About 3 miles away there it was and it had birds just sitting on it. So Billy pointed the boat in that direction but time was running out. We were hoping to get to the spot before sunset.

"When we arrived to the log, bam, 17 out of our 18 anglers were on. These fish were on a mission, and their mission was to eat every thing that hit the water. For the next 45 minutes it was game on. Most of the fish were in the 40 to 50-pound range. So you could say it was a good day, or should I say it was a good hour. So the decision was made to stay offshore for another day and keep in touch with our lucky log."

At Fisherman's Landing February 6, skipper Billy Santiago Jr. weighed the big tuna from his catch. Top fish was a 263-pounder caught by Line One Spectra distributor Jerry Brown of Gold Hill, OR on a flying fish under the kite.

Brown, who once had two 300-pounders on an RP trip, disposed of this squirt in 15 minutes with heavy gear. He used a 14/0 Mustad 7691 hook on 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Jerry Brown Line One Spectra backing on an Avet T-Rex reel and a Calstar 7465 H rod.

"Unremarkable," he said of the event. "They said it was a shark at first, but Big D was up on top, and he hollered it was a tuna. We had a good trip; saw a lot of porpoise and bird schools."

Frank Harbin of Chico won second place for a 209.8-pounder. He said he got it with a squid under the kite, after a 30-minute fight. He used a 9/0 Super Mutu hook, 130-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Penn 70 VSW reel and a Calstar 6455 XH rod.

Steve Oba of Brea won third place, for a 180.3-pound tuna.

A few wahoo were caught at the Hurricane Bank when the boat tried a bit of trolling, said Santiago.

Mike Stanton of San Luis Opisbo chucked out a gold Raider to entice a 67-pound wahoo, and Bob Wolfson of Dana Point bagged a 58-pounder on a four-ounce torpedo sinker with a Burns glow-in-the-dark skirt.