October 25, 2009 — by Dave Lear
The 10 Brothers Fishing Team, a collection of siblings and in-laws, were the big winners in the 29th Annual Bisbee’s Black & Blue Marlin Tournament, which ended last night. The cash prizes and other awards were presented at a festive awards ceremony at the Plaza Puerto Paraiso in downtown Cabo San Lucas.
10 Brothers team member Tony Boratto outlasted a 305-pound blue marlin on the last  day of fishing to win the biggest prize of the night. Fishing aboard Extraction, a 48-foot Ocean Yacht, Boratto’s largest fish ever earned the team $559,363. The awards included second place in the tournament, tournament jackpot and captain categories, along with daily jackpots, which included rollovers from the previous day when no qualifying fish were boated.
“It was a tough fight,” Boratto said at the scales. “My shoulder still hurts, but it’s the best pain I’ve ever experienced. That’s the biggest fish I’ve caught in my life.” The Extraction is skippered by Capt. Ramon Hiram Montano Ruelas, of Cabo. This is the fifth year the 10 Brothers have competed in the Black & Blue.
The San Diego, California team fishing aboard Mi Novia, a 50 Mikelson yacht, is taking home $436,603 after landing the largest fish of the event, a 375-pound blue marlin. Angler Bryan Miller and his buddies won first place in the tournament, jackpot and captain awards, along with four jackpots from Day 1.
In the release division, Team Lucky Ducks fishing on Ole Ole, a 33 Blackfin, pocketed $33,150 by releasing the first blue marlin. Carpe Diem and Reata del Mar were also awarded cash prizes for releasing blues. Seventy-one billfish were caught by the 94 boats fishing this year’s event, with 67 released for a release ratio of 94.4 percent. Surprisingly, no black marlin were caught this year.
“It was an unusual tournament for us, to say the least,” tournament director Wayne Bisbee told the packed crowd on the plaza before the fireworks finale. “A week ago we were looking at cancellation because of Hurricane Rick and a lot of our teams couldn’t make it. But we pulled it off thanks to the group that stuck with us. So thank you all for coming, thanks to our wonderful sponsors, and we look forward to bigger fish and bigger awards next year as we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Black & Blue.”
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