John Grabowski brought Red Rooster III home June 30 after the annual Seeker Rods/Bill Casper charter. Bill Casper Jr. was chartermaster, and 28 anglers were aboard. Many were experienced jig casters, said the skipper.

On June 26, Grabowski reported the inside was popping: "We found Dorado and even a WAHOO on various kelp paddies, giving us the impression there could be that needle in the hay stack that we are always trying to find while offshore fishing. With the water temperature in the low seventies and the color a beautiful offshore blue and the weather in our favor we felt we had an above average chance to go looking offshore another day, so after dark we slid Southeast another 35 miles and are presently working up the outside of the lower banks in search of that big bonanza. This morning we stopped on one kelp for a nice bunch of 10 to 20-pound Dorado."

On June 27, he wrote, "The last couple of days gave me the impression while fishing offshore that we were fishing on an eight or ten-day trip in the fall. We had good tuna and Dorado jig strikes, we found both species on kelps, along with our lone kelp paddy wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna under porpoise. The tuna we caught yesterday were not the size we target under porpoise schools in the fall, but nice 18 to 30-pound fish that at times gave us wide-open action for short periods of time, making for a productive day of offshore fishing, complimented by limits of Dorado."

On the dock, John summed it up: "Thetis Bank is right, now, and The Ridge is very good. We had excellent yellowtail fishing; limits of yellowtail, limits of dorado and near-limits of tuna. There's a 20-mile stretch of water outside Thetis where we got jig strikes on everything."

An hour after daylight one morning, Scott Smith of Poway tossed out a blue and white Salas 6X jig, got bit, and 25 minutes later brought a 64-pound yellowtail to gaff.

"My best one, you bet," he smiled.

Jim Odlum of Mission Viejo won first place for a 114-pound yellowtail that came on the kite with the boat's kite rig. A pair of sardines were the bait, on 9/0 Eagle Claw hooks. The kite rig used 80-pound Izorline, a TLD 30 reel and a Seeker 6455 XXH rod. Odlum also won the Seeker Trophy for the best fish on a Seeker rod, presented by Bill Casper Jr. and Brian Porter.

Bill Walsh of Chino Hills was second, for a 98-pound tuna, and Seeker rep Roy Casey of Seal Beach won third place, for an 86-pound Alijos Rocks yellowfin tuna.

The lone wahoo (season's first from the inside) came from under a paddy to snap up a blue and white Zucker's skirted jig trolled by Gus Ohm of LA. It weighed 30 pounds.