Frank LoPreste's Royal Polaris docked at Fisherman's Landing February 25 after the annual 18-day Accurate Flyback trip with Gary Gillingham as chartermaster for the 24 anglers aboard. There were four cows, with many smaller tuna and a variety of other species. "It must have been the blind squirrel syndrome," joked Roger Hawtree, in the main photo of Hawaii as he posed with his brace of cows at 248 and 209 pounds. They were the two largest fish of the trip. Roger said he got the big, the first-place winner, on a salami mackerel and an Eagle Claw 18/0 hook tied to 130-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon. Hawtree is a long-time long ranger. He told dock reporter Bill Roecker he used 130-pound Line One spectra on an Accurate ATD 50 reel and a Calstar 770 XH rod for a half-hour before it came to the boat.

Chartermaster Gillingham, in photo #1 of Accurate also bagged a brace of cows at 208 and 202 pounds. He fished with sardines on 6/0 Owner Offshore hooks tied top 130-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon and 130-pounbd Line One spectra on an Accurate ATD 30 (he used an Accurate 80, a salami on the kite with a 20/0 Mustad hook on the smaller fish) and a Calstar 770 XXXH rod. "The big one took 45 minutes," he said. "The last 15 minutes was brutal, with the fish up close and that heavy rod bent almost double over the rail with me down in the corner."

Rob Creek, in photo #2 of San Juan Capistrano had a surprise when a 72.9-pound wahoo appeared under his kite-baited salami. "My best one ever," he said. "The thing just slashed back and forth, trying to take it."