Over its 46-year history, the Bisbee’s Black & Blue has hosted a wide variety of teams. Some are perennial regulars with proven success like private boat owners Martha McNab (Retriever) or Allen Stuart (Wild Hooker). Others know and have fished together before, so there’s familiarity there. And some are medley teams that connect via chats, the Bisbee’s web site or dock connections to put together a group to compete. With the emphasis on experience and teamwork that last option can be hit or miss. But on the first day of the 2026 contest, hit is the operative word.
George Kypreos of Las Vegas and his girl friend had never fished the Black & Blue before, yet participating this year was a goal. So Kypreos did his homework.
“We knew we wanted to come,” he explained. “We found the right captain and boat and put it together. It was just going to be me and my girl friend, but others joined in and here we are at the weigh scales on the Day One.”
Cantango Spartan’s Revenge (60 Viking Convertible), with veteran skipper Jeff Villarreal at the helm, took full advantage of beginner’s luck when a marlin stuck mid-afternoon.
“We hadn’t had a bite up until 1 pm and everyone was bummed,” Kypreos recalled. “Then we heard the rod go off and the fish started jumping. We all started guesstimating the weight and settled on 500 pounds. We were stoked.”
Kevin Miranda was on the 80-pound trolling combo spooled with 100-pound test main line and 400-pound leader. The hookup came on the outside of outer Gordo Bank on a translucent blue and pink Andy Moyes plug. The fight lasted about 2.5 hours. At the scales, the weight was announced at 491 pounds. With the team entered in the majority of the daily jackpots, including $10,000, that catch is worth $1.9 million in prize money.
“It was the best day on the water ever,” Kypreos adds. “It’s was sunny and beautiful and the water was flat. We were like on a yacht. We saw a few other boats in the distance, but we were pretty much alone. And that was the big one for everybody!”
For the rest of the fleet, fishing was surprisingly slow, compared to the hot bite during the preceding Bisbee’s Los Cabos Offshore. One black marlin was released, along with 10 blue marlin. Team A Bluish Hue (Capt. Keith Hilton/Trojan) was the Day 1 release winner with one verified blue on its ledger. Releases must be videotaped and confirmed each evening by tournament judges.
As the name implies, the Black & Blue is limited to black and blue marlin entries only. The minimum criteria in the weight division is 300 pounds. Teams entered in the optional $2,000 and $3,000 daily release jackpots score points for successful releases.
In typical Bisbee’s fashion, the first day of competition also featured a healthy dose of high-seas drama. Linda Gale, a new 82 Viking Flybridge run by Capt. Nicholas Froelich, reported a hookup before the mandatory 5 pm lines out. Boats are allowed to continue the fight afterwards but must pass the Cabo Harbor jetty by 9 pm, when the scales close. Around 8:30, the team reported that Darius Kirschner had boated the black marlin and was racing back to the scales, hoping to meet the deadline for the fish to count.
Unfortunately for Linda Gale, even powerful MTU diesel engines can only turn so many RPMs. The team missed the deadline. A courtesy weigh afterwards recorded a blue at 302 pounds. In sport-fishing, sometimes luck counts. And other times it doesn’t. Tomorrow is another opportunity for redemption.
Photos courtesy of Sebastian Harris
