"On the 2nd (of Feb) we had another slow day of fishing with a half dozen wahoo," wrote Excel skipper Shawn Steward, "and a couple of yellowfin up to 216 pounds. The fish stayed with their normal pattern of late and we had a good night of angling on the last few tuna we needed for the trip. We released seven yellowfin from 100 to 180 and kept 2 fish from 193 to 197 and 8 fish from 207 to 280 pounds.

"At 0500 I asked everybody to stop fishing because we had no more room in the fish holds for any more of these giants. The passengers broke down their heavy gear and we waited for daylight to try for some wahoo before we left in the late morning. We picked up 19 wahoo while looking around and our weather for the beginning stages of our journey home is very good. We are going to try for a few yellowtail on the way home so we will keep you posted."

At the dock February 8, Steward's crew offloaded an excellent catch at Fisherman's Landing that included 54 tuna over 200 pounds for his 26 anglers. The biggest was a non-eligible 292-pounder taken by David Gould of Huntington Beach. Steward called the weather over his trip good and noted a yellowtail stop at Cedros Island on the way home.

Michael Abovsky of Waltham, ME won first place for a 281-pound yellowfin tuna. He also had one at 211 pounds.

John Chambers of Grants Pass, OR was second, for a 279-pounder. John Mahany of Helendale won third place for a 257-pound yellowfin.

Steward's latest trip bought the cow total, the season's tally for yellowfin over 200 pounds, to 2149. Twelve tuna over 300 pounds have been caught. The "season" ends in June.