Excel arrived November 10 after the annual Merritt trip with chartermasters Brad & Jeanie Merritt on board along with 29 other anglers. There were five tuna over 200 pounds on the boat, said skipper Justin Fleck. "Yellowfin fishing was good," he said, "on tuna from footballs to cows. We tried Alijos and we got a few wahoo there, but the bronze whaler sharks were there and they ate almost every tuna and a couple of the wahoo. The whalers were ten to 15 feet long, and thick."

LA motorcycle officer and Excel regular Roy Moy only needed 20 minutes to subdue his first-place 205.8-pound tuna. He told Roecker it took a sardine on a 5/0 Hayabusa hook and Department of Fish & Game Regulations100-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon. He fished with 130-pound Line One spectra on an Avet 30 W reel and a Calstar 765 H rod.

Dennis Lyons of Martinez won second place for a 203-pound, best-ever fish he bagged with a 6/0 Mustad Demon hook on 100-pound Izorline. He used 130-pound spectra, a Penn 30 reel and a Seeker 6465 XXH rod.

Bob Neal of Huntington Beach won third place for a 127-pound tuna. "A big guy with a little fish," he joked as he stood in the lineup shot.

Bill Siddall of Fountain Valley believes that he catches big fish when he doesn't enter the jackpot. He told Roecker he proved it again with his 240-pound tuna. It bit a squid under the kite, baited on a pair of 10/0 7691 Mustad hooks on 100-pound Big Game line and 130-pound spectra. He fished with a Penn 50 SW reel and a Calstar 760H rod, a rig that went into the water so he could finish his tussle with a backup.

The man with the biggest tuna stood at the right end of the lineup shot. Paul Viale of Brookings, OR got a 249-pounder after a two-hour fight. His best-ever fish came on a kite rig with a squid on a 20/0 Mustad circle hook, tied to 100-pound fluorocarbon, 130-pound spectra on a Penn 50 VS reel and a Talus seven-foot rod.

Gail Wade-Adams, pictured the woman who holds the San Diego fleet's best-ever tuna record (341 pounds) for the fair sex, had a 200-pounder to make her trip. She got it with a squid under the kite, with the bait on a Mustad 7691 hook. She fished with 130-pound Izorline and 130-pound Izorline spectra on a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 7455 XH rod. "I got him to the boat in about 20 minutes," she said. "But then he took off and got tailwrapped and went down and I was on him for an hour and 20 minutes."