September 26, 1982

 
Late in the afternoon on the last day of the LABC Avalon tournament one of the boats reported a large area of fish east of the island and gave out the numbers. We wrote them down for the following day. The next day, taking the boat back to San Diego we (Geoff Halpern, Carolyn and I) headed for those numbers. First thing in the morning we got bit, but it fell off. Very shortly thereafter we got bit again and Geoff brought it in. It then became obvious that the weather was rapidly deteriorating and we thought it best to head for San Diego. Thus we trolled away from that nice area and headed down "the Ridge." We had found ourselves in a huge following sea with 8-10 swells and the wind along with it. Half way down the ridge we spotted a tailer surfing along in the swells and at the same time he saw us. How he saw the jigs back there I'll never know, but he just turned, dashed in and grabbed one of the lures. Carolyn did the honors and we managed to keep the boat turned so that she didn't get soaked. Once we had the fish we headed down-swell to the Point and the Marlin Club where Skelly Wilbur, a Marlin Club regular, commenting on the weather, stated: "You earned them."