Rookie long ranger Alec Robbie hadn't been out for more than eight days (that trip was on the Rooster with Bill Roecker and got Alec into the Sportfishing Calendar for July 2009), but that didn't seem to matter as he caught three giant yellowfin on the Red Rooster III's annual June Heat excursion. The fish weighed 314.8, 285.5 and 221.5 pounds: not bad for a rookie.

The big fish was used for a Gyotaku print custom-made by Peter J of Newport, shown here in the photo.

Robbie told Roecker he only got sharked once on the trip, which says something about his luck, because everyone else had many more contacts with grinners. Alec won a new Accurate ATD reel, since he got his supercow on an Accurate trip with an Accurate reel. The college student used sardines on Mustad 6/0 ringed Demon circle hooks. He fished with 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon, 130-pound Izorline and 130-pound Line One spectra on an Accurate 30 reel and a Calstar 770 XXH rod.

"He took me down to my last 20 wraps," said Alec. "The clips were on the backup rig. He fought for 45 minutes and stayed outside the whole time. He took me around the boat once, and he came up on the bow.

"I expected tough fishing. I put in a lot of time at the rail and stayed out there at night, and it paid off with the 221-pounder that I got about 11 PM when everyone else was in bed."