October signals the end of the chubasco or hurricane season at Baja's southerly tip, Cabo San Lucas. As the weather cools, the fishing tournaments heat up. Cabo hosts two major fishing tournaments in October, the Bisbee Black and Blue and the Gold Cup. A third charity tournament, held in early November, "For Pete's Sake", honors Pete Lopiccola, a revered captain who died suddenly of luekemia in 1988. The Bisbee Black & Blue touts itself as the richest billfish tournament in the world, giving up over one million dollars in prize money in 1995. this year, one hundred forty-four boats competed for the coveted top prize which included daily jackpots of over $200,000.
The 1995 Bisbee was different, as the overall high team went to "Strike One", who caught two marlin weighing 335 pounds and 310 pounds which gave them a team point total of 645 points. The team of "Strike One" consisted of Robert Fields, John Meadows, Robert Johnson, and Henry Becker, who are all from Texas. These combined fish beat Marshall Hugo's single fish weighing 599 pounds, bumping the "Respite" to second in the overall team category with 599 points.
High individual angler was Greg Grosch of Mission Viejo, CA, on "White Cap" with two marlin weighing 356 and 333 pounds, giving the team 689 points. These two fish were larger than those of the "Strike One", but one of Grosch's teammates weighed in an additional fish that was smaller than 300 pound minimum requirement. The penalty points from this fish brought their team ranking down to third in the overall team standings.
Tournament fishing for black and blue marlin involves yearly technology upgrades, including improvements in electronic fish finding and live baiting techniques. Prior to 1994, most marlin were captured on large plastic lures trolled at 9 - 12 mph. 1994 marked the first year that live tuna, trolled slowly, were considered as another standard method of baiting big fish. With the increased use of live bait, methods for secruing and keeping them alive have become more important.
Better than half the vessels fishing the tournaments now typically have transom mounted plastic "tuna tubes" for keeping live bait tunas alive for extended periods of time. Much time and effort has been expended by companies and enterprising individuals in an effort to build the perfect live tuna tube. Variables include the dimensions of the tubes themselves and the amount of water being forced over the stationary tunas' gills to keep them healthy.
Given the vast amount of tournament money at stake, everyone takes the Bisbee and the Gold Cup tournaments very seriously. Humorous stories abound concerning the things that happen in the heat of the battle. Here's some memorable moments to enrich the tournament lore.
At last years' Bisbee, an overzealous designer with excessive water pressure was seen "launching" yellowfin tuna like Saturn rockets when their pumps were turned on.
Another well-heeled, quick thinking participant reasoned that if he could corner the market on live sardines, which are used to chum up and catch the yellowfin tuna, he would be the only boat able to capture the coveted yellowfin tuna. His plans went awry after spending $6,000 on all the sardines when his captain, not wanting to draw the inevitable ire of his fellow peers, snitched off his owners plans.
Sometime records are broken in record time. Last year, Joe Mike, highly regarded captain of the "Kelly Ann, captured a new tournament record fish of 652 pounds less than one hour into the Bisbee. Before everyone could finish congratulating him, Joe MIke was in second place behind "Picante" with their awesome 993-pound fish.
Three years ago one highly regarded captain inadvertently trolled over the lures of another competitor and cut of one of his expensive lures with his propellers. In an effort to make amends that evening, the offending captain offered to give the other crew his personal best lure if they would be kind enough to send over a deckhand to pick it up. You guessed it! The next day, the "Rowanne II" trolled the "gifted" lure to fame and glory by catching the tournament winning fish.
Boundary disputes are another frequent bone of contention. Tournament boundaries are less than exactly defined so participants are frequently quilty of going just "a little bit" over the line. Another tournament rule that is openly abused is daily tournament "stop fishing" time. Anyone hooking a fish prior to tournament stop fishing time is allowed to fight their fish as long as is necessary, so long as the fish was hooked before stop fishing time. Not surprisingly, 15 minutes prior to stop fishing, there is always a rash of reported radio hookups, allowing boat captains to fish a little longer past stop time each day.
The rumors of fish being injected with large hypordermics filled with salt water are unfounded as are charges of fish having large quantities of ice forced down their throats. Both these techniques are methods to increase fish weight for weight-in.
Amazingly, tournament anglers go through all this chicanery every year to catch a fish with a brain the size of a marble. And just how smart are these fish? So far nobody's been able to interview one to get an idea. Stay tuned for the next issue as we attempt to get that elusive interview...Until then, keep your lines tight.