Red Rooster IIII arrived under Julio Ochoa's hand November 10 after a ten-day trip with 18 anglers. It was a Charkbait charter with owner Mark Smith along as chartermaster. He wanted to thank Smitty Belts, Gary Sato, Yo-Zuri, Blackwater and his other sponsors for many prizes handed out to the anglers aboard.

Ochoa's report on November 5 was like other recent experiences: "We did not start at the rocks like we thought we were instead we started at the Rosa bank. First thing that morning we got on a very big kelp loaded with small fish, it was all four to eight pound on the yellowfin and small yellowtail. We ended up releasing everything we hooked.

"When we got on the Rosa Bank it was cooler water and we decided to work down to the southeast where there was a good temperature break. There was no shortage of kelps, but none had any life on them like the one we saw in the morning. We kept working to the southeast all day long for very little.

"The next day we started out at the "big fish grounds" with the Excel. Early in the morning we both got on common dolphin, which had forty to sixty-pound tuna that would not bite or boil on anything we threw over. We kept getting on them, hoping to get some but we ended up with the same results. We worked down towards the Lusitania Bank. On the way down we got on some black porpoise with no fish on them. We ended up coming back up the line a little after lunch.

"Late in the afternoon we managed to get some action on wahoo, dorado, and striped marlin. The grade on the dorado was twenty-five to thirty-five pounds on average, and the wahoo was on average twenty-five to fifty pounds. The striped marlin were mixed with the wahoo and dorado. Every time we got a jig strike we'd hook at least fifteen to twenty marlin; the action on the striped marlin was incredible. Today we started offshore again trying for more of the same. We ended up with good action on more wahoo, dorado and marlin."

Mike Mattusch of Mahopac, NY won first place for his 45.3-pound yellowtail, a Cedros Island mossback that took a sardine on an unknown hook. He used 50-pound Izorline on a Penn 12 T reel and a seven-foot Seeker rod.

Todd Wickstrom of Boise, ID took a 44.3-pound yellowtail for second place, and his dad Jon Wickstrom of Claremont won third place for a 36-pound Cedros mossback.

Chartermaster Mark Smith won the trolling jackpot for a 45.7-pound wahoo. He said it bit a black Marauder.