Fishing was so good the experienced anglers had to take a break, on the best trip of the summer to date. It was a seven-day Blackwater trip with 17 anglers aboard Royal Polaris, which ended August 16 when owner Frank LoPreste docked the boat at Fisherman's Landing.

"Weather at Alijos Rocks today consisted of 12 knots of breeze and plenty of sunshine," said the boat's report for August 12.

"Fishing was absolutely sensational. We started the morning with about 15 Yellowtail and one 60-pound Yellowfin tuna for the three or four guys that were fishing. After breakfast we trolled around and picked up 13 Wahoo.

"We anchored up to fish tuna about 09:00 hours and we left at 16:00 hours. We left because our passengers could not pull on fish any longer. We had eight fish from 105 pounds to about 135 pounds. We had lots of fish from 50 to 80 pounds, and also some in the 20 to 25-pound category.

"In the late afternoon we fished Grouper and caught two good ones. We also picked up a couple more Wahoo. Tomorrow we will fish Grouper and Wahoo in the morning and then fish tuna for a few hours and probable leave Alijos around 15:00 hours.

"Please note that we have two seven-day trips coming to Alijos Rocks in early September. The Newell trip has four openings and the YO's has two openings. Call Scotty or Andrea if you are interested.

"P.S. Anyone that has been to YO's tackle shop, knows Jimmy Lew. Well today Jimmy was making some top-shot leaders and glued his hands together. So Big D know what to do, but his new name is now Jimmy Glue."

Chartermaster Don Kuroye of Calabasas got the biggest tuna of the trip on the kite with a squid bait. It weighed 142.4 pounds.

"He ran off about half the Spectra on an Accurate 50 W reel," said Don, "at least 300 yards."

The jackpot winner was John Yoneda of Escondido, for a 107-pound yellowfin he got with a sardine on a 3/0 ringed Super Mutu hook. He fished with 40-pound Blackwater shock leader tied to 60-pound Blackwater Spectra on an Accurate 870 two-speed reel and a Calstar 800 M rod.

"It took about 30 minutes," said Yoneda. He got wrapped on the anchor line, but Jesus got him off. He took me around the boat twice."

Seaforth Landing manager John Yamate took second and third places for his bait-caught tuna of 95 and 105 pounds. Yamate fished with his two sons and tackle manager John Rowe, who also supervises the Friends of Rollo charity that takes hundreds of kids fishing. Rowe got a tuna on the kite that was within a pound of Kuroye's. "We spent two and a half days at Alijos and a day at Cedros," summed up Tracy Kuroye, "and the weather was beautiful."