Justing Fleck took his 34 Excel anglers south on a six-day trip to the Benitos Islands and Cedros Island. Between the two, however, the boat fished offshore on the Dan Colonello charter.

"We had a wide-open surface bite at Cedros," said Fleck, "on jigs, bait, whatever you wanted to fish. When we went down south, we found good kelps in 75-degree water off Hipolito, but no wahoo on them. We tried the albacore on the last day and got about 50."

George Milliron of Riverside won the jackpot for a 37.6-pound albacore. "I got it with a sardine," he said. "I used a little 1/o ringed Super Mutu hook and 30-pound Big Game line I got off the boat. My reel was a Trinidad 14 and a Calstar 6460 rod made for me by Howard Hada."

Bill McKeever of Santa Monica was second, for a 36-pound longfin, and Ken Bell of Camarillo bagged a 40.8-pound halibut during the surface bite at Cedros with a flylined sardine.