Frank LoPreste docked his Royal Polaris at Fisherman's Landing June 16 after a week-long trip to Alijos Rocks and waters offshore Baja. Tuna fishing was fair and yellowtail fishing was very good at The Rocks, with the second-biggest yellowtail caught on the kite that dock reporter Bill Roecker could remember.

The giant homeguard took a double trouble sardine rig under the kite and pinned 20-year-old James Springer to the rail, said Springer's grandfather, Nobu Oshiro, a long-time Royal Polaris regular.

"I've been taking him fishing on the RP since he was nine years old," Nobu said. "Now he's going to college and he's going to be a lawyer, maybe an environmental lawyer. You took his picture when he was a little kid."

Skipper LoPreste hung James' big yellow on the scales, and the numbers came up to 62.6 pounds.

"I saw him hit," remembered James. "It was crazy; I saw a flash and then he was gone and the line came tight. I almost flew overboard."

Some 15 minutes later James decked his prize, his best yellow ever, which won the Rollo Jackpot for the biggest yellowtail of the trip. He said he was using the boat's kite rig: 7/0 ringed Super Mutu hooks, 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a 50 W Tiagra reel and a heavy rod.

James has finished his second year at George Washington University in Washington D.C. and will spend next year going to school in Costa Rica.

Dan Thorburn of Shimano split the jackpot with Robert Hindle of Marina del Rey. Both men had yellowfin tuna of 56 pounds. Thorburn fished his sardine on a 5/0 Super Mutu hook, with a 30-pound wind-on Shimano leader and a prototype Shimano reel and rod. Hindle pinned his ???dine on a 4/0 Mustad hook. He used 30-pound P-Line and 65-pound Spectra on a Daiwa Sealine reel and a Truline CX 44 rod, he told Roecker. The fish fought for 45 minutes.

Brett Kopitz of Simi Valley won third place for a 54-pound yellowfin tuna, a fish he took with 40-pound line.