Mike Ramirez skippered his inaugural ten-day trip and docked the Excel October 30 at Fisherman???s Landing. His 27 anglers had limits of dorado and a good catch of yellowtail, along with some tuna and wahoo. One of the tuna was nearly 180 pounds, caught by a lady angler.

"It went well," said Ramirez. "The weather was the nicest I've seen in a long time. There's lots of black porpoise and good sign of tuna, but not many big ones yet. The water on The Ridge has improved to 75.7 degrees and cleaned up, with wahoo in it. Yellowtail fishing was good at Geronimo, and we had some great dorado fishing on a big turtle."

Caroline Sanderson of Mammoth Lakes won first place for her 179.9-pound tuna. She got it with a sardine on a 9/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 130-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon and 80-pound Big Game line. She used 100-pound Spectra backing and a Penn 50 SW reel with a Calstar 6460 XH rod.

"He bit on the slide, " said Caroline, "and he got into the Spectra five times. He fought for an hour and 25 minute, mostly on the stern, straight up and down. He's my best fish ever, and I've been going once a year for nine years."

Ray MacMillan of Kona, HI was second, for an 81.4-pounder, and Bob Seidler of Huntington Beach won third place, for a 72.2-pound yellowfin tuna. Mario Munoz of Orangevale stood in with the group, posing with a 61.2-pound wahoo.