"Another beautiful day of fishing here at the island," wrote Excel skipper Shawn Steward August 17, "with non-stop action throughout the day. Along with tremendous yellowfin action, we had good fishing on 25 to 40-pound yellowtail. All the fish came on flylined sardines and 40 to 60-pound line. We also had some good action on the surface poppers and Yummee Flyers. All in all the day was awesome and tomorrow we are going to look at some other areas and make room for other boats coming into this area."

Shawn's anglers had the best tuna catch yet this season from the island on the Tuna Wars charter, with great weather, 46 big yellowtail and five wahoo gracing the take.

SAC president Bob Fletcher played upon his notorious luck, bagging the best fish of the trip, a 109.8-pound yellowfin.

"He fought hard, right to the gaff," said Bob at Fisherman's Landing August 20. "He was mean. A couple of guys got spooled on 40-pound line."

Fletcher went for the 60-pound stuff, bagging his prize on a sardine and an Eagle Claw 7/0 hook. He said he fished with 60-pound Big Game line, 60-pound fluorocarbon leader and 65-pound Spectra backing on a Trinidad 40 reel and a Calstar 800 H rod.

Mark Shimozaki of Lodi was second, for a 92.8-pounder, and Frank Griskus of Bakersfield won third place for a 73.6-pound yellowfin tuna.

Chartermaster Carl Fanucchi of Bakersfield got the first fish, a wahoo, on a Marauder with a mirrored finish. He also took some nice tuna.