Joe Crisci brought Red Rooster III home to H&M Landing after a 10-day trip with 29 anglers aboard, including outdoor writer Jim Niemic and chartermaster Norm Fujimoto, a rep for Izorline and Calstar, the trip's sponsors. "We had some very good wahoo fishing the first afternoon we arrived on The Ridge," said Joe, "where the water was 72 degrees. We weren't really ready, and we lost a lot of fish; I'll bet everybody dumped at least two. But we got some, too." The big wahoo of the catch weighed in at 77 pounds, caught by Sanny Westfall of San Diego, who won the Coveted Trolling Jacket for his feat.

"We found some good yellowfin action off Mag Bay," continued Joe, "but no dorado there. We went down to look at the lower banks, and not far from one of them we found a gigantic school of dorado, there must have been a square mile of 'em. There were jumpers everywhere! Below that, the water was green and 79 degrees. We went back up and looked at the Spud for nothing and then up to The Ridge again for some more yellowfin we got the three biggest fish there, on the kite."

Pat Dirindin of Ft. Lauderdale, FL won first place for a 150.8-pound tuna that ate the squid dangled under the kite. The squish was pinned to a 10/0 Mustad 7691 hook and the kite outfit made use of 130-pound Izorline, 130-pound Line One spectra on an Accurate 50 W reel and a Calstar six and a half-foot rod.

Alex Kitzes of Hercules won second place for a 141-pound tuna, and Rob Campbell of Sequim, WA produced a 139-pound yellowfin tuna; that was big enough to take third place.

The Rooster's next trip is a five-day, leaving December 26.