Sepp Steffany poses with his freshly caught Masi Masi (Dolphin Fish). Weighing in at 27.2 lbs., the fish - not Mr. Steffany, this Masi Masi went on to win Sepp the second place standing in the Masi Masi category.

The opening "toot" opened the tournament's official "lines wet" for the first day, although instead of trolling in the harbor, the boats revved their engines and rocketed out of the harbor. Traffic into and out of the harbor was put on hold by the Harbor Master and the boats rapidly settled into several groups defined merely as "fastest", "faster", and "not so fast". In under 10 minutes the fastest boats were out of the harbor and on their way to game fishing fame and glory, soon followed by their slower, more cautious competitors.