News, stories, and updates from the Bisbee's circuit.
TOURNAMENTS
LCO time has finally arrived, and our Bisbee Team is confident this will be another one for the record books.
Around two dozen teams arrived for our "Pre-Registration Day," only to realize they were the Guinea Pigs for introducing Bisbee's new "High-Tech Registration Solution!"
TOURNAMENTS
Team STELLA JUNE'S angler, Hugo Pina, boated a 375-pound black marlin on the second day of the three-day event earning the Team a colossal $3,430 per pound payday equaling $1,286,385 of the $1,614,425 shared among the 6 winners of the 97 Teams competing.
This raised the expectations of the Bisbee Teams for another record-breaking year for the two remaining events held in Cabo San Lucas during the last half of October.
TOURNAMENTS
Team Stella June’s 375-pound black marlin caught on the second day of the 3-day event held in the East Cape area earned the Team an enormous $1,286,385 payday at Saturday Nights 23rd East Cape Offshore Awards banquet held on the sand in front of the Buena Vista Oceanfront and Hot Springs Resort managed by the Valdez Family for the past 46 years.
TOURNAMENTS
Wanna be a millionaire? So did the ninety-seven teams still hoping to get in the hunt on the final day of the 23rd Annual Bisbee ECO! With the first two days of fishing behind them, a few awaiting the 7:30-am start were hoping to add to their successes.
Joe Musich aboard "Buena Fortuna" released a dorado 25 minutes after the flare gun went off – the first fish of the day. Hopefully, he would live up to the name of his boat, translated as "Good Fortune!"
TOURNAMENTS
Long after lines out, Team Stella June arrived with a black marlin that was the first qualifying billfish to be brought to the scale during the first two days of competition. The usual debate, "Would it qualify?" ricocheted through the enormous crowd of spectators. The noisy debate continued as the scale was zeroed, and the giant fish was hoisted up. Seconds went by as the numbers settled on the scale and stopped. "THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE POUNDS," Wayne Bisbee declared.
TOURNAMENTS
Ninety-seven boats crossed the starting line determinedly – with a plan. Although, admittedly, some looked like they had no "plan" in mind!
Some teams targeted a single species, billfish, dorado, or yellowfin tuna.
Those Teams targeting billfish complained that they found the dorado to be a nuisance. However, most billfish hooked did not meet the Tournament's minimum weight of 300-pounds, so they were released.
TOURNAMENTS
The 2022 Bisbee's East Cape Offshore edition begins with 97 teams who, for the third year in a row, are vying for another RECORD-BREAKING TOTAL of $1,614,425, according to the final numbers listed in CatchStat. Anglers from Cabo to La Paz share optimism after the positive results of several successful events for specific species kicking off this season in Baja.
TOURNAMENTS
For the 20th time in the 41-year history of the BLACK and BLUE, a ONE MILLION DOLLAR check was presented to the tournament winner!
Team BRANIFF, a FIRST-TIME WINNER aboard a Pisces Fleet boat, the 58' Dona Homa, with Captain Lupe at the wheel and angler Andres Pineda on the rod, caught what turned out to be the largest fish weighed in during the event – a 489-pound blue marlin earning the TEAM over $1,000,000.
TOURNAMENTS
After the last team had lost the final hooked billfish on Thursday, Wayne Bisbee, Tournament Director, declared, “Friday, the final day of the 2021 Black & Blue, will be like no other in the history of competitive big sport fishing tournaments in the world.”
“A $9,000,000 shootout between 199 Teams for the largest single-day prize ever awarded in a Bisbee tournament.”