Just returned from a nine-day open party trip November 9, Vagabond skipper Mike Lackey stood at the Pt. Loma Sportfishing scales, weighing his catch.

"The Rocks were slow," he said to dock reporter Bill Roecker, "with a lot of nicer tuna showing on the outside, in deep water. It looked like they were chasing flyers out there.

"We went in to The Ridge and found some pretty good wahoo fishing all along it. Then we found a big school of yellowfin tuna outside of Turtle Bay.

"We ended our trip with some excellent yellowtail fishing off Canoas. They were really biting on the yoyo iron; it didn't matter what color. We had good weather the whole trip. It was typical fall fishing."

Jeff Viamari of Yarmouth, MA won first place for a 91.8-pound yellowfin tuna he took with a sardine on a 4/0 Gamakatsu hoo tied to 50-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader and 50-pound Big Game line. He used a Saltiga 50 reel and a Calstar 665 H rod to do the job in 20 minutes.

"I put the rod on the rail, thumbed the spool and ground him in," said Tom.

Mike Graves of La Quinta won second place for a 90-pounder, and A.D. Johnson of San Diego won third place for an 88.8-pound Alijos Rocks yellowfin tuna.

Tom Byma of Bellflower got his best yellowtail ever, a 48.4-pounder, on a sardine and 40-pound line.