Press release Finnseeker

The 4th Annual Finnseeker Mako Madness Tournament out of Dana Point this last weekend sporting its new tournament format whereby rewarding both catch and released mako divisions was a huge success with 166 released mako's in two days and 7 boated mako's. Teams from as far as Montanna and Arizona participated in this years event.

Past tournaments rewarded only released mako's whereby this years tournament and format was modified to rewarded both released mako's and caught mako's over 100lbs the required tournament minimum weight.

29 Teams entered this year with 5 teams been disqualified prior to start fishing for not having one team member attend the mandatory Captains meeting on Friday night as required by the rules. As tournament policy these teams were refunded their money including the two teams whom had to withdraw before start fishing due to boat breakdowns.

With the new tournament format allowing teams to depart 4.00am after a visual check in 22 teams headed out early on Saturday and could start chumming at their spots but were not permitted to have any lines in the water until 6.00am start fishing.

At 6.21am Captain Matt Potter of team "Breakaway" last years 2nd place winners with over 30 released fish started to radio in their catches. This is required to authenticate and document each catch and release by means of the tournament supplied camera provided. The radio chatter could be heard amongst other teams knowing that in this early stage of the tournament they all had stiff competition with Team Breakaway setting the pace again.

Team Wine Cooler with angler Harlem Johnson from Fullerton California were the first team to call in a boated mako at 1.18pm for the catch division and putting them in the lead which weighed in at 119.4 lbs.

Captain Bill Clark of Team Dream Weaver challenged Team Breakaway's releases at 7.28am and the race was on between them in the exciting release division early in the day which changed by the minute between the following teams in hot persuit Teams Psyco-Fish, Corina Corina, PE, Seawolf and Rough House.

Inbetween all the many releases team TailChasher with Angler Shane Robertson from Newport Beach had boated their first mako at 1.22pm which weighed in at 125 lbs putting them into first place and accross the board for the Saturday daily jackpots.

Team Irene with Angler Alex Hornaman from Garden Grove radioed in at 3.37pm that they had also boated their mako which weighed in at 111.lbs putting them into third place overall by the end of Saturday

There were 66 released mako's by the end of Saturday with several big mako's lost and the top relese teams for the day been Team Rough House 6 releases, Corina Corina 5 releases, Seawolf, 5 releases, Dream Weaver 4 releases, Pe 4 releases.

Sunday started off with Capt Hal Williams of Team Ashley Ray calling in the first hook up at 6.03 am setting the pace for the day and boating a mako at 1.10pm weighing in at 89 lbs. Capt Tim Heitkemper of Team Pilar found the hot spot Sunday with 5 releases and boating a mako at 1.03pm which weighed in at 92.8 lbs.

Team Psyco-Fish with Captain Mike Moss and his 10 year old son Jacob Moss boated their first mako at 11.34 am weighing in at 90.3 lbs and with several releases Sunday found them in the running for Sundays jackpots.

Team Seawolf Captain Mike Schmidt called in that they had boated their mako at 3.35pm and had 25 minutes to race in the harbour to get their fish to the scales before 4.00pm stop fishing and the scales closing. Seawolf's mako weighed in at 88 lbs .

Team Captain Mark Urkov of Team Rough House from Huntington Beach were rewarded for the most released mako's over two days winning the $2000.00 cash prize

The awards surprised many since no legal mako's were boated Sunday whereby putting the most released teams in contention for the daily jackpots , all teams received their cash winnings at the awards dinner and drawings. We thank all our sponsors and anglers for participating in this years Mako Madness and look forward to July 24/25th 2004.

Tournament Results: ( MORE PICS) Click here

Big Fish Division:
1st Place Team TailChaser Angler Shane Robertson 125 lbs $7100.00
2nd Place Team Wine Cooler Angler Harlem Johnson 119 lbs $2568.00
3rd Place Team Irene Angler Alex Hornaman 111 lbs $1712.00

Most release Division:
Team Rough House 9 releases $2000.00
Team Corina Corina 7 releases
Team Seawolf 7 releases $1400.00
Team Breakaway 6 releases
Team Pilar 5 releases $ 900.00

Team Tailchaser : Jim Weisshaar , Jon Taylor, Shane Robertson, Tom Wessler, Capt. Bill Gorham

Team Wine Cooler : Harlan Johnson, Richard Lopez, Kevin Johnson, Peter Jimenez, Forrest Johnson III

Team Irene : Alex Hornaman, Gary Smith