Norman Kagawa docked his Shogun at Fisherman's Landing April 4, Easter morning. He was just back from an incredible early season open party adventure to Alijos Rocks and Alijos Bank.

"We always make this trip to Alijos in April," he told Bill Roecker. "We're just a little earlier this year. On our first day at The Rocks we saw sign of tuna and yellowtail, so we went out to the bank that night to make bait and try for big yellowtail.

"Willie Yip of San Francisco got an 80-pound tuna about 2 AM on the dropper loop, so we hung around the bank for the rest of the trip. We got up to a dozen of those big yellowtail each night.

"I couldn't believe the grade of tuna we caught during the day. They were an honest 40-pound average, with a few each day of 60 or 70 pounds or more! We had five over a hundred pounds. They bit on the kite, too, on paired sardines. One guy got two tuna at once, one on each hook.

"On the way home, we stopped at a place I hadn't fished before up the lee side. It looked likely, and they came up and boiled in the circle before I could get the anchor down. We started about 6 pm and got 54 nice big 25 to 35-pounders in the next two hours. They bit on yoyo and surface jigs and bait."

Willy Yip said, "We were fishing in 280 feet for bait, when some of the guys started getting cleaned by yellowtail. Then the bait just disappeared, so I dropped down a Spanish mackerel on a 6/0 hook with a 16-ounce weight. That's when I got that first big tuna."

Eugene Lamont of Pinole won first place for a 104.4-pound tuna. He said he got his best-ever fish with a sardine on a 3/0 Mutu hook tied to 50-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader and 65-pound Izorline Spectra. He used an Avet 5-2 reel and a six-foot Fenwick rod.

John Talbot of Richmond won second place for a 103.4-pound yellowfin. It bit a sardine on an 8/0 Super Mutu hook under the fishing kite. He used 130-pound Soft Steel Ultra leader on 80-pound Izorline Spectra, with a Tiagra 30 W reel and a Black Steel Seeker 6460 H rod.

Dave Hensley of Ontario won third place for a 102.2-pound yellowfin. Jerry Talbot (John's son) got the trip's best yellowtail, a 57-pound slug, and stood in with the winners for a lineup shot.