Phil Bell of Playa del Rey and the LA Rod & Reel Club had a pretty good start to one of his days aboard the Red Rooster III with skipper Andy Cates when the boat stopped to fish overnight at Cedros Island on a five-day Larry Brown charter. "I was sleeping in the galley about four a.m. when the cook woke me up to say that deckhand Tom had just got a whopper yellowtail. He gaffed it himself. So I got up and went outside, and got a big white seabass, a huge yellowtail and a thresher shark," said Phil to dock reporter Bill Roecker at H&M Landing September 2. He was helped to display his fish by his son Andy of Coos Bay, OR.

Phil won first place for his big "biscuit," caught on a mackerel on a dropper loop sunk with eight ounces of weight. He said he used 60-pound Izorline and 80-pound Power Pro spectra on an Avet LX reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6465 H rod. The white seabass weighed 51 pounds, a sleek trophy in itself. His big yellowtail weighed 43 pounds.

Larry Brown of Playa del Rey won second place for a 39.4-pound yellowtail. He wanted to thanks some of his sponsors: Avet Izorline, Owner and Phenix Rods. David Leffman of El Paso won third place for a 36.6-pound yellowtail.

Lisa Kenny of San Diego got her best yellowtail ever, a 32-pounder, and posed with Captain Cates.