"Today was exactly what we needed," wrote Excel skipper Justin Fleck July 23, "a great day of fishing on huge yellowtail. We started the day with steady action on 20-40 pound yellows on the anchor just outside the kelp line. After loosing the first several to the stringers, we moved out to deeper water and continued to keep 3-5 fish going the whole time.

"Things slowed down for a while in the afternoon so we took a tour around the island. Around 1830, the birds fired up on the kelp line and you could see the yellows under them. We stopped the boat and here they came. Ready or not, you had one on. The action continued right into the dark before they finally backed off. Tomorrow we will be fishing the beach for reds, lings, and halibut. The weather remains flat calm."

The trip was a five-day Braid excursion, with Dennis Braid as chartermaster.

"The water was just like it is here in the harbor," commented Braid. "It was really nice weather."

Fleck weighed the fish on the certified scales at Fisherman's Landing. Chas Schoemaker of Glendale won first place for a 39-pound bluefin tuna that ate a sardine on a 3/0 Eagle Claw hook. He said he used 25-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and 25-pound Big Game line, with a Torium 20 reel and a Calstar 700 M rod.

Joe Ludlow of Newport Beach was second, for a 35-pound yellowtail, and Stevie Root of Lake Elsinore won third place for her 34-pound bluefin tuna.

Father-son team Herman (82 and still fishin') and Harold Owens of Sacramento posed with a brace of the fish they caught aboard the Excel.