Winner Gets His Best

"He just took off when he bit," said Tony Kaleikilo of Ventura at the H&M Landing scales, "and it seemed like he went a quarter of a mile before he slowed down; I was about to get spooled. Oh, yeah, he's my best fish ever."

Tony's yellowfin, caught aboard Red Rooster III with skipper Andy Cates, weighed 95 pounds even; a big fish for light line. Cates hung it on the scales September 28, after the five-day Arnie Cohen charter with 27 anglers.

Kaleikilo's yellowfin took a sardine on a 3/0 Super Mutu hook, tied to 30-pound Ande line and 80-pound Izor Spectra. He said he fished with a Penn Torque 3/0 reel and a Truline six-foot rod.

Ewell "Butch" Frazier of Long Beach won second place for a 53.7-pound tuna, and Eric Rojas of Northridge took third place for a 51.8-pound Guadalupe Island yellowfin tuna.

"We had a couple of lucky kelps," said skipper Cates, "with a lot of 20 to 30-pound tuna. The big ones off the island were hard to come by, but of a very good quality." Like other skippers in San Diego's long range fleet, Cates is feeling positive about the prospects for a good snap on the larger model tuna at the big island some time in the near future.