First off congratulations to the Make-A-Wish Tuna Challenge organizers for bringing in more than a quarter of a million dollars for their very worthy charity. From their website, here's the feel good story of the weekend:

"The young lady who finished in 2nd place for the 12-15 y/o juniors was Meagan Shea. She finished 2nd by 0.2 lbs with an Albacore to the first place winner Jonathon Raskin. She however is a winner for a different reason. She was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and recently finished her chemotherapy and is in remission, which allowed her to fish on the family boat Ehukai! Great story of a Make A Wish kid triumphing over cancer and the reason that all of the Tuna Challenge volunteers do what they do! Meagan's uncle, Brian Shea donates all of the PMI Stanley Thermos' that each angler got in their angler bags."

The Reel Eze was the runaway winner after getting into a school of solid yellowfin tuna.

Lyle Hall led the Reel-Eze onslaught with a 50.8-pound yellowfin that earned him the Robert Thomas Memorial Grand Prize award for top angler. But it didn't stop there. Gary Burke with a 42.4, Steve Nagel with 38.6 and Butch Jorden with a 38.4 yellowfin made it a slam dunk for the Reel Eze.

Maggie Osborne was top lady angler for a 38-lb. yellowfin on the Endeavor. For more results, go to www.tunachallenge.org.

And speaking of runaways, there could be none bigger than Rob Webster's team on the Magellan during the BAC's Master Angler Billfish Tournament. Not only did they blow the doors off with 3 fish the first day, they added another 2 fish on Saturday to, well, run away with the premier amateur marlin event.

"Everything just went their way," said Jimmy Decker of the Balboa Angling Club. "One of their guys saw a couple tuna boil, tossed out a bait on a 7-foot tuna rod and a marlin ate it. It was 20-pound with a 40-pound leader and they brought it to the boat and released it."

Decker said the action again took place in inside Baja, this time in the afternoon.

"There were a bunch of jig bites about 4 in the afternoon in the same area the Magellan got their fish the day before," said Decker. "It was about 13 miles from the 425 on a line in towards Ensenada."

Turning to the freshwater scene, up and coming bass pro Billy Skinner nailed down his first tournament win on a pro circuit with a win on Lake Mead to go with his second on Lake Havasu on the WON BASS circuit.

The tournament only pulled 35 boats, a situation not helped by Angler's Choice running a team event on the ever-popular Lake Havasu.

Skinner, who moved to Havasu to promote his pro career, was one of the few Havasu locals to leave the comfort of home to fish both Mead and an earlier event at the dreaded Mohave. Congratulations, Billy.

Rich Holland's Roundup