The best trip of the current big fish season ended when Randy Toussaint docked his Royal Star at Fisherman’s Landing February 5 after a Braid trip with 21 anglers including chartermaster Dennis Braid aboard. The group caught 30 tuna over 200 pounds, including two over 300 pounds.

“It was incredible!” said skipper Toussaint to dock reporter Bill Roecker. “We had four really intense bites. Two of them were at dusk, and two happened at dawn.”

Bruce Helton of Phoenix got the big fish, a 338-pound yellowfin, on his first trip in seven years. Helton works on medical equipment as a field engineer. He said the fish went straight up and down very quickly and took him around the boat once.

“He came up on the starboard corner,” said Bruce. “My best fish before this one was a 75-pound that I got on an eight-day trip.”

Helton said he fought the tuna for an hour and 20 minutes. He baited a sardine on a 7/0 Mustad Demon circle hook. He fished with 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 100-pound Line One spectra on a Penn 30 SW reel modified by Cal Sheets and a Calstar 760 M rod. He also had a 231-pound tuna.

Larry Ward of East London, South Africa won second place for the other supercow, a 305-pounder. He also had two cows at 254 and 213 pounds. He got the big one on a sardine and a 9/0 Eagle Claw hook tied to 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 130-pound Line One spectra on a Cal Sheets modified Penn 50 reel and a Calstar 765 H rod.

John Cox of Irvine took his best tuna ever and just missed the 300-pound mark with a 298-pounder. The fish won him third place and beat him up for two and a half hours. He said it bit on a sardine and a 6/0 ringed Mustad Demon hook. He fished with 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 100-pound Izorline spectra on an Accurate ATD 30 reel and a Super Seeker 2x4 rod. He also got a 252 and a 203-pound tuna.

Kohei Kikuchi of Nipomo tripled with tuna of 281, 243 and 208 pounds. He fished salami mackerel on 11/0 Mustad 7691 hooks. He used 130-pound Big Game fluorocarbon and 130-pound Izorline spectra on a Penn 80 S reel and a Calstar 6460 XXH rod.

Robert Hirsch of Santa Cruz bagged a 281 and a 256-pound tuna. He also caught an archival-tagged 100-pounder, which will bring a $250 reward. He fished with sardines on 8/0 Eagle Claw hooks. He said he used 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 130-pound Izorline spectra on a Penn 30 W reel modified by Cofe and a Calstar 765 H rod.

Jack West of Glen Burnie, MD took a brace at 276 and 267 pounds. He fished chunks on a 6/0 Mustad 7691 hook. He used 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon, 130-pound Izorline spectra, a Penn 50 W reel and a Calstar 7460 XH rod.

Mark Bower got a 252-pounder with a salami on a 10/0 Super Mutu Owner hook. He fished with 130-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon, 130-pound Line One spectra, an Accurate ATD 50 N reel and a Calstar 700 XXH rod.

Bruce Lozekar of Homer, AK caught a pair at 246 and 211 pounds, on salami mackerel. He said he used 10/0 Mustad 7691 hooks on 130-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 130-pound Line One spectra. He fished with a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 7460 XH rod.
Art Nolen of Ocean City, MD got a 240 and a 211-pounder. He baited sardines on 5/0 Mustad Demon hooks. He used 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 100-pound Line One spectra on an Accurate ATD 50 reel and a Calstar 7460 XXH rod.

Alfredo Salgado of Norco caught a 238-pounder after an hour and a half fight. He said it bit a sardine on a 6/0 Mustad Demon hook tied to 130-pound Ande line and 130-pound spectra on a Penn 50 SW reel and a Calstar 765 H rod.

“The meanest fish I ever caught,” remarked Salgado.

Marius Coetzee of South Africa bagged a brace at 232 and 216 pounds. The big one was his best fish and came in 25 minutes. He hooked ‘em on salami mackerel with 20/0 Eagle Claw hooks. He used 130-poundSeaguar Premier fluorocarbon, 130-pound Line One spectra, a Penn 50 reel and a Calstar 760 H rod.

Martin Rudolph of LA cranked up a 217-pounder after it bit his salami mackerel on a 6/0 Gamakatsu hook. He fished with 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 130-pound Line One spectra on an Avet 50 reel and a Calstar 6465 XH rod.

David Green of San Diego got his 215-pounder in 35 minutes after it bit a salami mackerel on a 20/0 Mustad circle hook. He fished with 130-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon, 130-pound Line One spectra, an Accurate ATD 50 reel and a Calstar 765 H rod.
Michael Green (David Green’s brother) of Miami, FL took a 205-pounder on a salami and a 10/0 ringed Owner Super Mutu hook. He said he used 130-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon, 130-pound Line One spectra, an Avet 50 reel and a Calstar 6460 XH rod.

Chartermaster Dennis Braid caught a 205-pound tuna with a salami on a “big J-hook,” 130-pound Momoi fluorocarbon and 130-pound Cortland spectra. He fished with a Penn 50 W reel and a Braid four-foot, eight-inch XXH rod.

Tim Wilson of San Diego bagged a 204-pounder with a sardine on a 6/0 ringed Super Mutu hook tied to 100-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon, 100-pound Line One spectra, an Avet 30 reel and a Super Seeker 2x4 rod.



Lost Icons

California has lost two famous men in recent days. They were both good friends to me, the ocean and hang gliding. Neither was known as a fisherman, but both loved the “fish frys” we used to enjoy many times per year. It was my pleasure to provide the fish.

LeRoy Grannis was one of the best-known photographers in surfing. He died in hospice in Torrance February 3. His picture and life story graced the front page of the LA Times’ Late Extra section for Saturday, February 5. “Granny,” as everyone called him since childhood, was 93, and he surprised all of his friends by living on many months beyond the death of the love of his life, his wife Katie.

One of the original surfers in 1931, LeRoy built his first board from a pine slab. He started surfing in his hometown of Hermosa Beach, and told me he fished a bit under the pier. Later he co-founded the periodical that became Surfing Magazine. His surfing career was interrupted by WW II, when he was a flight instructor. After the war he took up photography, worked in his own darkroom, and went back to surfing. He sold photos to surfers for a buck apiece. Reef Magazine paid him five dollars, and his surfing photography career was launched. He got a waterproof camera and never looked back.

Granny helped make SoCal surfing known internationally, and each year went to Hawaii to shoot his friends on big waves. When things got so commercial he couldn’t stand it, Granny left surfing and shortly afterward took up shooting from hang gliders, as a passenger. He made some famous photos there, too, often flying with La Jolla’s Burke Ewing (who also flew with his dog and his girlfriend on a butterfly-painted glider) and other tandem pilots at Torrey Pines. When he couldn’t go up, LeRoy found different spots on gliders to mount his cameras, and got some very unusual shots that way.The photo here is one of those outboard shots.

A bad landing with another pilot left Granny with a busted ankle and orders from Katie not to go up anymore. He was retired from his regular job as switchboard installer for PacBell, but he needed to get back to the water. Boardsailing filled the bill, and soon Granny was on a board, having fun, shooting his buddies and figuring out new places (like the top of the mast) to get boardsailing photos. He and Katie spent their later years living near South Carlsbad State Beach.

LeRoy Grannis is survived by his four children: John, Nancy, Kit and Frank, by six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. Granny is remembered fondly by nearly all surfers.

Dave Kilbourne flew his home-built 16-foot standard hang glider for an hour and six minutes from Mission Ridge in the Bay Area. With that feat, he became the first pilot to stay aloft for over an hour. He landed at the bottom of the ridge. That flight made him a figure of great historical importance in hang gliding, during its beginnings in 1971.

The first time he went to Mission Ridge Kilbourne realized his 13-foot flat kite, one he used for water skiing, wasn’t going to let him soar. Dave built himself a 16-foot standard glider sans kingpost, which he felt was useless weight. That glider was still primitive by present-day comparison, but it got the job done. Kilbourne transitioned from flat kites to hang gliders with a few other early pilots.

Kilbourne was born in 1940. I met Dave and his then-wife Donnita (the former Donna Holland) at Guadalupe Dunes near Santa Maria, another seaside flying site. Donnita was nearly as famous as Dave then, as the world’s first female pilot. Kilbourne worked with her earlier at HP, when he was also flying flat kites on water skis. He’d been a track star in high school and went to San Jose State on a football scholarship. A concussion ended that. They married in 1975, about the time I met them.

Like many other pilots, Dave came to Torrey Pines to enjoy the consistently smooth and steady sea winds there. During the later 1970s and through the 1980s he was regarded as one of the fathers of hang gliding. He made hundreds of friends and helped many younger pilots during that period at Torrey Pines and other sites.

Kilbourne worked as a machinist. In 1984 he completed a Vari Eze homebuilt sport airplane, a canard, and transitioned to flying powered aircraft over a period of several years. From 2004 until his death on his birthday February 1, he was spending about half his time in New Zealand and half in the US.

Dave Kilbourne is survived by his former wife Donnita, now married to Brad Hall, and by his present wife, Pam. Both women reside in Carlsbad. The photo shown here is taken from the DVD “Big Blue Sky,” taped and produced by Bill Liscomb of San Marcos.