From the Bridge  
By Bob Woodard, Jr, Club President

"They’re Here!" The Marlin that is, as we are now seeing fish from the Lower 500 area to Catalina and spread out all along the way. With the prices of fuel going through the roof, the coverage has been very limited. This is too bad because the volume of fish in our region is incredible! The plank boats and airplanes are seeing more marlin than they have in years so get after them!

Bob Hargraves caught his first solo fish on his boat RADAR and it was a gem, weighing 179 lbs! Nice Going Bob!!

Congratulations to Bonnie Moss for her marlin caught on the "KRYPTONITE"! That's 2 years in a row she has caught the first marlin by a woman! With just Bonnie and Walt aboard, they had their hands full. According to Walt, his princess had gone down for a quick nap and was asleep when the reel started screaming. Since goosing the boat and yelling didn't wake her up, he went for the air horn which finally did it. By now they were extremely low on line! With no cockpit controls and no time to clear gear, a couple jigs were lost as they aggressively backed down on the fish. They got it, and with it, a great fishing story not to be forgotten!

How about Harry Okuda? This guy is unstoppable! As he was returning from fishing off Ensenada on the "CHRISTINA LYNN" where he landed a 87 lb. Bigeye Tuna where he landed an 87 lb Bigeye. Hope those stay around for the TUNA CHALLENGE.

A few exotics around as we had a double on Shortbill Spearfish pulling in to Guadalupe Island and a few have been caught by the sport boats as well. Lots of Yellowtail and Dorado are moving in from the South making the kelps fun to fish and keeping the grill full.

If you haven't heard I pulled on a marlin for 7 hours and 45 minutes before the 40 lb mainline parted. It was a bait fish that came up on my short corner - a POLU KAI Mean Joe Green. The second time the fish came in the pattern, it took the drop back bait, and the battle was on. Never thought a Striper could pull so hard. For the first 5 hours I was solo, then Ken Yasuda and the gang on the "ENCOUNTER" put Paul aboard to see if I could subdue the beast with a little help. Unfortunately the beast had other plans! The good news is the fish looked healthy the last time we saw it tailing down swell, just minutes before it broke off.

Nice going on your fish later that evening Ken, and thanks for the help!

Good luck, good fishing and we'll see you here!
Best regards,
Bob Woodard Jr.