Skipper Art Taylor docked his Searcher after a four-day Braid Chartered trip. The boat's 19 anglers got off at Fisherman's Landing August 18. Chartermistress Jan Howard recalled rough waters the first day, with good albacore fishing, but the next day the albies bit real well.

"Art was just great," said Jan. "After those first two days of fishing albacore, the next morning we headed up to fish the kelps."

Angler Stanford Parks of Oxnard said, "The Searcher is a five-star outfit. I'm going to sign up for next year's trip; I didn't know you could have so much fun!"

Joe Valle of El Monte took first place with a 41-pound albacore. Joe used a Mustad 3/0 hook on 25-pound Berkeley Big Game line, a Penn reel and a Seeker rod. He didn't know the model numbers.

Don Culbertson of Sylmar was second for a 40.4-pound longfin and Mike Collins of Lompoc took third with a 38.6-pound albie.

"I slipped the first day out and pulled my hamstring," said Collins. "I caught one fish then spent the rest of the first day in my bunk. But it didn't matter; I still had a great trip. What phenomenal albacore fishing!"

"Everybody got their quota early," said Skipper Taylor. "The fish we've seen all season long are finally biting, we're all very grateful."