BUTTONED DOWN & BACKWARD!!! Independence skipper Jeff DeBuys brought the boat home to Pt. Loma Sportfishing January 22 after the last long trip of the fall-winter season, a 16-day run with 25 anglers aboard. They had six cows. The trip was sponsored by Rick Ozaki of West Coast Marketing, who was aboard as chartermaster. He had an encounter with a supercow. Ken Buzzell of San Pedro won first place in the jackpot for a 273.9-pound yellowfin, a fish he'd been hoping for over a long time, his best tuna ever. Ken said his tuna ate a sardine on a 5/0 ringed gorilla hook tied to 100-pound Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon. "I got him in 15 minutes," said Ken. "He came in backward, tail-wrapped." Buzzell used 100-pound Momoi line and 130-pound Line One Spectra on an Avet 30 W reel and a Calstar 770 H rod, wrapped for him by Alex Masumoto of The Rusty Hook. Louie Marzari of Yorba Linda won second place for a 271-pounder. "I'm 69," he told Bill Roecker. "He was cooperative, I got him in 20 minutes with heavy drag." Skipper DeBuys was standing nearby. "Man drag," said DeBuys with a grin. "Louie got him on man drag." Louie said he baited a sardine on a 5/0 Hayabusa hook on 100-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and 100-pound Yo-Zuri line, with 130-pound Power Pro Spectra. He fished with an Avet 50 reel and a Calstar Baby Boomer rod. Tony Sanders of Torrance won third place for a 250-pounder. He also had one at 222 pounds. He said the big one fought for two and a half hours. Sanders fished a sardine on a 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hook tied to 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader. He used 100-pound P-Line for a topshot, tied to 130-pound Izorline Spectra on a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 665 XXH rod. Jeff Liu of Alameda got a 240-pound tuna with a sardine on a 5/0 ringed Gorilla hook on 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon. He fished with 130-pound Line One Spectra, an Accurate ATD 50 reel and a Calstar 7465 H rod. "My best before was a 237-pounder," said Jeff, "so I didn't beat it by much!" Charley Smith of Menifee took 40 minutes to whip a 218-pound tuna that gobbled a sardine on a 5/0 Super Mutu hook. He went light, with 80-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon, 80-pound Izorline and 100-pound Izorline Spectra on an Avet HX reel and a Calstar 660 H rod. Chartermaster Rick Ozaki had a good story. "I was on a fish that was over 300 pounds for 45 minutes," he remembered. "I had him close, and I saw the line pop out of his mouth when he chewed through it." DeBuys liked what he saw from his anglers. "We got near-limits of tuna. This was the right group for the job," he said. "Wherever we went, wherever I turned the boat, we had good fishing. It was an expert group."