There were 32 anglers aboard Excel for the annual Sogioka/Stires charter, a five-day trip that returned July 28 with limits for all who wanted to fish hard. Justin Fleck skippered the trip, and Don Sogioka was chartermaster.

The trip fished for albacore, but the longfin proved hard to get. An albie still made it into the jackpot, however.

Aaron Wenzel of Redlands won first place for a 37-pound yellowtail. He’s 16, and goes to Redlands East Valley High. He said he got his big yellow, his best ever, on a sardine on the dropper loop, with a ten-ounce sinker on 40-pound Izorline, an Avet LX reel and a Calstar 700 H rod.

“I hooked him on the stern of the Excel,” said Aaron, “and he pulled me over really quick. He took me around the boat once in the dark and then came up on the starboard side.”

Aaron’s fraternal twin brother Sean was also aboard as was father Steve. The two boys posed for a picture with some of the yellowtail from Cedros. Both are in the band at school.


Giovanni Braida of San Dimas won second place for a 34.6-pound yellowtail. Norm Sogioka won third place for a 28.4-pound albacore.

One angler who fished hard was 90-year-old Beans Sogioka, patriarch of the clan. He got a limit of yellowtail at Cedros Island, and told dock reporter Bill Roecker he didn’t think he’d be going fishing any more.

Beans has been saying that ever since he came back from a big tuna trip with six cows several years ago. He would definitely be missed at the docks if he quit. Other anglers said he moved about the boat with agility once he was aboard.

Beans has been a farmer all his life, he told Roecker. His father came from Japan around 1910, and Beans was born on the farm in Baldwin Park in 1919. Beans will be 91 in September. He served in the US Army as a medic during WW II, at Madigan General Hospital in Seattle. After the war he got a farm in Chino, and he’s still there. Don Sogioka is his son; Bruce and Norm are nephews. The family has been fishing together for decades.