here are some guys that come to mind in my area. Mike long, the uribe's, greg vella(japan), cy fuki, thigpins, velvick, crupi, harrison, kadota, murphy, semintel, john csorba(catches big fishin tourneys), todd holder(same as john), buckley, and I still feel the best big fish fisherman of all time is Jim Mason. He doesn't fish much anymore but if you were to ask randy at lake casitas he would tell you that Jim has caught far more big fish then anyone else there. I know for a fact through fishing w/ him(he and I had a 10 double digit fish day) and photos, he has caught over 1000 (believe it or not. I have watched him fish big fish since 1983) ten pound plus fish. I also give jim credit for being the first big bait fisherman in southern california. I was selling the guy 6 and 7" renowskis in 1985 thinking he was crazy (at the time that was a huge bait). Marv bendalin met him in my shop and they created the dinosaur lure. Also there was a book written about big fish in the 90's, jim is in it everywhere. What is really amazing is in the book you will see the names of the guys who had caught big fish @ the time and jim is connected to at least helf of them. Hats off to long he is the best now but I look at jim as the best of all time. well that should get a few comments. hahahaha thanks eric (eric's tackle shop, ventura)