Roy Rose brought Frank LoPreste's Royal Polaris home May 10 after an 18-day trip with 22 anglers that visited the Hurricane Bank and the Buffer Zone off Clarion Island. He tied up at Fisherman's Landing and unloaded the boat's final catch of the season, which included seven tuna over 200 pounds. All but one of the big ???uns was caught on the kite.

The biggest one weighed 277 pounds on the certified scales at the dock, caught by Keith Patterson of Santa Fe Springs.

"He came up and grabbed the bait," said Keith to dock reporter Bill Roecker, "and away he went! My new rod worked awesome, it really handles those big kite fish. Dharyl (crewman Dharyl Shelbourne) got some good footage of part of the fight. He came up in the port corner."

Keith said he fished a flying fish under the kite, on a 20/0 Mustad circle hook. He used 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a Penn 50 W reel and a Seeker 6463 XXXXH rod.

Phil Faubert of Huntington Beach took his first long range trip. He returned with two cows, the only person aboard to manage the feat. The yellowfin weighed 225 and 205 pounds.

"I had a lot of fun," he said. "The crew knew exactly what they were doing. I can't wait to pick a date and go again!"

Phil said he got his tuna with flyers on the kite. He used 20/0 Mustad circle hooks, 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Tiagra 50 W reel and a Shimano six and a half-foot rod.

Rocky Opliger of Cherry Valley bagged a 218-pounder, "?Ķa mean fish," he said, "and he kept on dogging me in circles with the sharks on him."

The fight took an hour and ten minutes. Rocky used a flyer under the kite on a 20/0 Mustad and 130-pound Line One Spectra on a Penn 80 S narrow reel by Cal Sheets, and a Calstar 6460 XXH rod.

Steve Emert of Dublin took a 201-pounder on a flyer and a 20/0 Mustad hook with the kite and 130-pound Line One Spectra. He said he used a Penn 80 N by Baker/Sheets and a Seeker 6463 XXXXH rod.

Kathy Rounds of San Diego, long-time Royal Polaris regular and a prominent femal big tuna specialist, won the jackpot for the trip's only sardine-caught cow.

"He was about a 20-minute fish," she said to Roecker. "All the fish on this trip fought really hard, and they had short sickles, like they were travelers."

Kathy baited her ???dine on a 6/0 Super Mutu hook on straight 100-pound blue Izorline and 130-pound Izor Spectra. She fished with an Accurate 30 and a Calstar 760 M rod.

Rocky Opliger won second place for a 138.4-pounder, and Kathy Rounds topped her trip by also winning third place, for a 135.8-pound tuna.

Skipper Roy Rose summed up the last trip for his boat.

"We had very good wahoo fishing," he said. "And the sharks were bad. I'll go on record with that."