1986 saw us fishing in the 15th Annual Los Angeles Billfish Club Avalon Invitational Billfish Tournament.

After the tournament, a seasonal highlight popped up in October with a fantastic showing of Bigeye tuna just south of the (Coronados) Islands. People were catching 4-5-6 fish a day. Geoff, Kenneth, Bud Perkins and I headed down there. We started trolling and when the first batch of these feeding tuna showed we "punched it" and ran to the spot. As we did so we got bit - a marlin!. I cranked it in and we then started throwing bait at the breaking tuna. We "hung" two of the bruisers and on one of the fish Bud, Geoff and I took turns (on 30) and brought it in (159 pounds! Should have saved it for the later Tuna Challenge tournament). Meanwhile Kenneth was cranking away on another huge fish (on 30). When he tired we all took turns, but Bud got a little impatient and tighted down on the drag a little too far - crack! Goodbye fish. While this was happening Geoff and I were up on the bow throwing bait and hooking one after another only to have them unbutton, break off, or whatever.