Owner Frank LoPreste brought home Royal Polaris and its 29 passengers to Fisherman's Landing November 18. The 10-day Davis Boats charter fished trophy-sized tuna at Hurricane Bank. The boat returned with five tuna over 200-pounds.

First time long-ranger Maryanne Olley of Kill Double Hills, North Carolina thought her first big fish was going to pull her over.

"The biggest fish I've ever caught before this trip was 20-pounds," said Maryanne, "So I had an awesome time. We had great camaraderie, great food and I'm already booked for an 18-day next year."

Thirteen-year old Zach Schenk of Santa Cruz landed a 193-pound yellowfin on the kite. Zach said the fight lasted an hour and a half.

"I helped Zach a little by holding onto the reel," said Chartermaster Mike Stanton, "keeping it from twisting back in forth, but he figured it out real quick. He said on the way down that if he caught a fish over 100-pounds, he'd shave his head."

"I personally got snake-bit on the kite," said Kelly Palmer of Valencia, "but that was just my bad luck. The kite produced well, it was the way to go.

"We had great weather on the way down, and great weather coming back. For two days coming back up, it was like glass."

On that ride up north, Royal Polaris found a hot bite off a small kelp paddie to finish off the trip.

"I've never seen a dorado bite like that," said Richard Grimes of San Francisco. "It was off the hook! They were eating everything, I put one of my tags on a hook and ???Bam!' they'd hit it. Big dorado too."

"Frank took a chance," continued Grimes, "but is it really a chance when you're a pro? Nobody could have done it but him."

Brandon Kreutel of SDLongRange.com, said "it was three days of anticipation which proved to be worth it, because we had solid full-speed fishing at the Hurricane."

Kreutel will be posting his report within the next two days at his site.

Mike Stanton of San Luis Obispo took first place with a 189.9-pound yellowfin tuna. Mike fished a sardine on a 5/0 ringed Super Mutu hook, 90-pound Momoi with Jerry Brown Spectra, a Penn 50T, and a 7460 Calstar rod custom-wrapped by Yo's.

Carlos Becerra of San Pedro was second with a 178.3-pound tuna, and Robert Deloaca of Rancho Cucamonga was third with a 177.3-pound yellowfin.