CritterChatter™ Blog
Critter Control Fifth in Sailfish Pro Series
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – The 2009-2010 Sailfish Pro Series Post-Season Playoff concluded Sunday, May 2, in Miami Beach after a two-day finale to crown its champion. Seven teams made their way to Miami to compete in the Sailfish Pro Series Championship to compete for the total purse of $150,000 in Sunday’s Finale.
Saturday’s first head-to-head battle was between 2nd seeded team De~Bait~Able owned by Michael Walsh and wildcard qualifier team Tagline owned by Gaston Legorburo. Team De~Bait~Able slowly built a lead over team Tagline and capitalized on their opportunities. In the end, it was team De~Bait~Able who prevailed with 14 releases over team Tagline’s eight releases.
The second head-to-head battle was between 3rd seeded and two-time World Sailfish Champions team Get Lit, owned by Kitt Toomey and 6th seeded team Wet Dream (sponsored by Critter Control), owned by Kevin Clark. It was a heated competition from the start with local Miami boat Get Lit charging ahead with a six-fish lead by noon (15-9). Within an hour Islamorada’s Wet Dream had released a triple and a double to close the gap. Get Lit released another fish and immediately following Wet Dream released a double to catch back up. With Get Lit’s ½ fish advantage for placing in the top 4 teams in the regular season, Team Wet Dream has to catch two in the final minutes to win. In the final two minutes Wet Dream called in a hook-up but fell one fish short.
Owner Kitt Toomey stated, “It was one of the best competitions we have ever had.” Team Get Lit ended up with 21 ½ fish. Team Wet Dream broke their previous team record by releasing 21 sailfish. Jill Clark caught 8 sails for the Traverse City-based Wet Dream team, while Kevin Clark finished with 6 sailfish. Mates Justin Miller, Hunter Barron and Sam Warden caught 2-3 sailfish each as well.
The third head-to-head battle was between 4th seeded team Sandman, owned by Sandra MacMillan and 5th seeded team Advanced Roofing, owned by Michael Kornahrens. Sandman lost a triple towards the end of the day and was unable to recover from their loses as Advanced Roofing continued to build their lead and ended up with 15 releases to team Sandman’s 7 releases. A total of 86 fish were released by six teams in eight hours of fishing Saturday where two teams (Get Lit and Wet Dream) caught half the fish.
On the final day team De~Bait~Able fought their way to 1st with 15 releases and a payout of $100,000. Coming in a close second with 11 releases was team Get Lit with a payout of $25,000, third is team Advanced Roofing with four releases and a payout of $15,000, and fourth is regular-season points leader team Vitamin Sea Too with four releases and a payout of $10,000. In only its second season teams competed for over $2.25 Million in prize money.
