Excel arrived at Fisherman's Landing June 20 after a fun-filled five-day trip with skipper Shawn Steward. The 34 anglers aboard included some family groups, including the Cornettes of Julian, who scored big on several species.

Mom Lisa won first place for a 37.4-pound bluefin tuna she bagged with a sardine on a 3/0 Mustad hook, 40-pound Big Game line on an SL40 H reel and a Calstar 670 rod.

Son Cody, who plays football and basketball at Julian High, took 14 yellowtail on the surface iron. He said the iron that worked best for him was a blue and white Tady 45, fished on 40-pound line.

Dad Chris had to be proud of his family, and he posed with an albacore.

"Today we had bluefin and yellowfin on the menu," wrote Steward June 18, "and we feasted on both of them and once again we had greasy calm weather. We had a good biting school in the mid morning that we picked steady on bluefin from 20 to 45 pounds and there was some 15 to 25 pound yellowfin mixed in to keep it interesting.

"Later in the day we tried some porpoise and had staedy yellowfin strkes on those before they would not let us get close to them anymore. In the late afternoon things seemed to be down but we picked up a few more yellowfin and bluefin for the effort."

The day before, Steward wrote, "Today we had an absolutely beautiful day of yellowtail fishing in flat calm sunny weather. 18 to 35-pound yellowtail were on the chew and they ate everything but the paint on the hull. We had a great surface iron bite with swarms of yellowtail following the jigs and to go with it we had some calico bass up to 9 pounds that we caught and released as well."

Kevin Pfeif of Costa Mesa (yes, that Kevin Pfeif, who now officially has the all-time, all-tackle IGFA yellowtail record for his Guadalupe mossback) won second place, for a 34.5-pound bluefin.

Chris McClary of Costa Mesa won third place, for a 34-pound bluefin tuna.