At the end of his 10-day Independence trip skipper Jeff DeBuys brought home "only" one supercow, but it was a 342-pound buster of a Tuna caught by a guy who's been after it for at least 25 or 30 years. Counting Bud's giant, there were six cows. Bud Edwards of Palmdale has been fishing long range for quite a while, but this one was the retired construction worker's first 300-pounder. "The craziest damn fish I ever saw," he told dock reporter Bill Roecker December 19 at Pt. Loma Sportfishing. "He took 400 yards straight out on the surface. He took me around the boat three times. He took me up and down the side eight times. Finally, my best fish came up on the bow." Bud said he fished a mackerel on a 7/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader and 100-pound Izorline tied to 130-pound Izor Spectra on an Avet 50 reel and a Calstar 760 H rod. If anything made Bud prouder than that big fish it was the fact that his son Ron Edwards of Fort Worth, TX won second place for a 231-pound Tuna. He also got a 201-pound Yellowfin. Ron used the same bait and gear as his dad, except his reel was an Avet 50 N. He took an hour and a half to land his first cow and his best fish. Brent Fisher of Reno, NV won third place for a 221.8-pound Tuna (his first fish ever) he bagged with a Mackerel on a 7/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 130-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon and 130-pound Line One Spectra. He fished with an Accurate 50 reel and a Super Seeker 6463 XXXH rod. Dale Austrulid of Nipomo caught a 206-pounder on a squid under the kite, on the boat's kite rig: 130-pound fluorocarbon and 130-pound Izorline Spectra on an Avet 50 W reel and a Super Seeker 6463 XXXH rod. Terry Sandoval of Anaheim slipped into the 200-pound club with a 203-pound yellowfin he took with a squid on the boat's kite rig. "Very good sign," skipper DeBuys remarked to Roecker on what he saw down South. "You've got to be prepared for these big fish. We had many casualties. You need a little luck, too." DeBuys said he was staying home for Christmas and a little golf, then would be "...back here for the flying start of the mini-Bisbee, as we call it, on December 26."