"There's an awful lot of tuna at Guadalupe Island," said Spirit of Adventure owner-skipper Mike Keating at H&M Landing October 10. "There's a lot more there than there is at Alijos Rocks. But they don't bite very much.

"The sharks are still there," he continued, "but they didn't really bother us. The conditions are good, and the current is running okay most of the time."

Keating's 19 anglers were on a five-day Central Valley Marine charter, with chartermaster Brett Townsend. They didn't have a lot of fish, but they had a decent catch of quality yellowtail and yellowfin tuna.

Kyle Hazen of Discovery Bay is 14 and a student at Liberty High in Brentwood. He won first place for a 73.6-pound tuna that bit on a sardine pinned to a 3/0 Gorilla hook. He fished with 40-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, 40-pound Izorline and 80-pound Izor Spectra. He used a Tiagra 16 reel and a Seeker 6470 rod.


Mat MacDuffee of Santa Cruz won second place, for a 71.3-pound tuna, and Jim Hart of San Jose was third, for a 69-pound Guadalupe Island yellowfin tuna.