There's still fish on the beach," said John Grabowski after docking the Red Rooster III February 4, "and you'll hear more about that tomorrow when the American angler gets in. We started out there, but after a slow day e got bait at Mag Bay and looked again. I didn't see much fish, so we went out to the Hurricane Bank and did very well. There were lots of tuna from 160 to 290 pounds. While we were there, the bite went from daytime to night. I'd say the best bait might have been squid on the kite." The Rooster had 46 cows on the 15-day trip. Ed Scheenstra used squid with a balloon to take the trip's best tuna, a 280-pounder. He said he fished with 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hooks, 130-pound Soft Steel Ultra line, 130-pound Spectra on an Accurate 50 reel and a an unknown rod. The rig belonged to second skipper Julio Ochoa.

He fought for about an hour," said Scheenstra. "I saw him take it; boom! Then he took me around the boat twice. He came up on the bow and they opened the gate for him." Seeker rep Brian Porter of Downey was second, for a 271-pound yellowfin. "He got wrapped around the anchor line for about a half-hour," said Brian. "The total time was about an hour and 15 minutes."

Porter said he fished chunks on 11/0 ringed Super Mutu hooks, with 130-pound Soft Steel Ultra line and 130-pound Line One Spectra backing on an Avet 50 reel and a Seeker 6463 XXXH rod. He won the Seeker award for the best fish to come on a Seeker rod, nd he also had a 256-pounder. Daniel Jones of Long Beach was third, for a 266-pound tuna he bagged with a squid under the kite on a 12/0 Mustad 7691 hook. He said he fished with 130-pound Soft Steel Ultra line and 130-pound Spectra Line One on an Accurate 80 reel ("The best reel I ever touched in my life!") and a Seeker 6463 XXXH rod. He also had tuna of 228.5, 228.1 and 224 pounds.

Bill Kuehl of Poway got four: 251, 235, 231 and 227 pounds. Rich Rose also had four: 232, 231, 229 and 206 pounds.