"I've had trips that had far more fish number wise, even trips that had a few more cows, but I have never seen a higher proportion of super quality fish than on this one. Of the 128 tuna we landed, 27 were not only cows (over 200) but darn big cows! If you were going to have a hot trip, this was surely the one you wanted to be on. Any tuna hooked had a very high probability of topping 100 pounds, and you can do the math for yourself to figure out the odds of an upper 200 or one of the two 300s caught.

Did it require long hours at the rail, being up uncomfortably early in the morning, keeping your tackle 110% ready at all times? You bet it did, but isn't that what these trips are suppose to be about. Ultra long range fishermen are a special breed. Relatively speaking there are only a handful of us around, but we all have the mind set that nothing is too big a sacrifice to land the tuna of our dreams.

The cow list that follows should drive home the point I've been trying to make:
Neil Campbell 224, 306 (first place jackpot winner, big fish trophy winner and personal best)
Greg De Felice 231
Ed Delaney 223,235,221,208
Nick Didovic 221
Craig Drummond 296,255, 303 (winner of 3rd place jackpot and the Rollo kite fish jackpot)
Kent "Uncle" Fukumoto 249
John Halcrow 233, 261(personal best)
George Iwashita 211
Keith Patterson 234
Mike Pihl 251,261 (personal best)
Bruce Posthumus 240, 225
Bob Ramirez 246, 223
Eddy Sisom 274 (personal best)
Matt Walenta 213, 215, 281 (second place jackpot winner and personal best)
Steve Williams 202

"Since I was honored with the award I even get to mention myself again (Larry Eilbott) as the recipient of the Sportsmanship trophy. My sincere thanks to the judges and to Izorline, it really does mean a lot to me."