The Latest Catch

Saturday morning, the Bisbee Fleet milled about before the Flare Gun start of the second and final day of the 2022 Los Cabos Offshore Tournament, waiting for the conclusion of Wayne's radio update of the event details as well as the recount of the activities at the scale on the first day. When Bisbee finished, he closed with a slight desperation in his voice, "BRING ME A FISH!"

During the past 42 years, Bisbee Tournaments have had many momentous events, including breaking the Million Dollar Ceiling in two of the three events:

The Black and Blue       2003 Que Sera $1,165,230 first Million dollar check ever awarded in a Sportfishing Tournament!

The East Cape Offshore 2022 Stella June $1,286,385 

The Los Cabos Offshore 2018 TBA

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!" 

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.

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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.