Mike Ramirez brought Excel home to Fisherman's Landing December 21 after a nine-day trip to The Ridge and the lower banks with 27 passengers. They found limits of yellowtail and a fair catch of small tuna, with some other species mixed in. "We spent one whole day on the lower banks," said Ramirez, "and we located several schools of what looked like big fish, but we got no response from any of the schools we tried. So we went up to The Ridge and Cedros/Benitos, and Benitos was very good for nice yellowtail out by the boiler. School tuna were thickest on the 13 Spot."

Andrei Kozlov of Kharkov, Ukraine won first place for a 46.4-pound white seabass he got at Cedros Island around eight in the evening. He said he got his best-ever white on a sardine and the dropper loop with eight ounces of weight. He pinned his 'dine to a 7/0 Mustad Demon circle 4X hook on 60-pound Big Game line. He used a rental outfit with an Accurate BX-2 500 reel and a Seeker Black Steel 6460 H rod.

Steve King of Libby, MT won second place for a 36.8-pound white seabass. "Bronco" Bill Johnson of Norwalk won third place for a 37.8-pound grouper and Mike Carmona of Eagle Rock stood in with the lineup holding his 60-pound wahoo, best of the trip.