The last month of long range fishing produced plenty of dorado. This one seems destined to offer wahoo in big numbers. The last five or six boats to come in all had at least 100 skinnies aboard, and the wahoo are biting well under kelps and on the high spots of The Ridge. Kelps are the best bet at the moment, but that may change as the fish school on The Ridge, looking for meatballs of sardines and other baitfish.

"We took a look down around the lower banks today," wrote Excel skipper Justin Fleck October 26, "trying to catch a trophy or two. The good news is that for the first time this year, there was very good sign of cows! The bad news is that we were unable to get them to bite. We stopped on a few different schools and they would hang around the boat for a while but they just wouldn't take a bait. The weather is good now so we are going to spend tomorrow down here and try this again."

The next day, he wrote, "Today we took the necessary tour of the lower banks along with the Qualifier 105 to try and locate this bigger fish. We both saw very good life every where we went, such as birds, bait, dorado, marlin, and lots of porpoise. Although we both agree this place is going to pop any day, we were unsuccessful on putting any cows aboard. The next few weeks will be very interesting. Tomorrow we will spend the day outside the ridge, concentrating on wahoo and big bull dorado. The weather remains gorgeous."

The water temperature on the lower banks was 83 to 84 degrees, said Justin; probably still too warm for the cows to go on the bite. Back at Fisherman's Landing November 1, skipper Fleck weighed the best fish from the Eric's Tackle 10-day trip with 31 anglers.

Warren Bergman of Mira Loma won first place, for a 58-pound wahoo he bagged with a gold Raider jig on 50-pound P-Line. He said he used a Newell 533 reel and a 6480 Calstar rod.

Dean Weber of Lakeside Bait & Tackle was second, for a 43-pound skinny that also bit on a gold Raider. Randy Corbin of Ventura won third place for a 41-pounder that bit on a Tady BA jig in Burgundy tint.