Bisbee Tournament Update .......We're Back!

We have had a frustrating 24 hours as were experienced technical problems and could not post to our blog, but finally have this resolved (thanks Jorge).

Day two saw boats screaming out of the harbor again and it wasn't long before "Great Escape" the boat with the 800 lb marlin, that was disqualified from the night before was hooked up again. Before noon they were at the scale to hang a 430 lb blue marlin, "what a story" we thought "poetic justice, they have the prize snatched from them and then go on to win anyway"; it's been done before....years ago, before the scale closed at a certain time, a boat hooked up to  a giant marlin that it battled well into the wee hours of the morning. At 3.00 am the reel froze and they lost the fish. A dispirited team limped back into harbor with few people noticing except those keeping a radio vigil (no gps tracking systems back in those days). One of the anglers was so disappointed that he couldn't go back out, but the rest of the team were back on their boat with just a couple of hours sleep. Ten minutes before lines were out on the last day of the event, they radioed in a hook-up.....there was a lot of skepticism......people thought they were just trying to buy more fishing time, but it was true and they ended up with a 600 lb plus marlin and won the tournament......so we wishfully thought that there would be a repeat of this scenario from years before.....but it didn't happen.  Great Escape led throughout most of the day, until Dreamweaver,  a 32 ft Blackfin and who also happened to be in all the jackpots showed up with a 484 lb black marlin putting them in first for the day and giving them a payday of $411,655.00. 
The third day did not see as much action.....even though our ears pricked up when we heard that "Fisherman" had a fish....they are serious....they won the Los Cabos Billfish last week with a 713 lb fish, they won the IGFA Offshore this year and last year, and also made history in the Tuna Tournament last year with the second biggest yellowfin ever caught at 383 lbs - a few pounds shy of the all tackle world record.  Team Rehab had also been fighting a fish, which they already had on board and were on their way in to weigh.  This is the thing in tournaments, you need to decide to bring your fish in immediately or stay and not lose fishing time, as you have the chance of another fish. If you stay out the fish starts to lose weight; I have personally seen fish that lose up to 40 lbs, which can make a big difference in a payout....Rehab's fish was a 347 lb black marlin, which added to the fish they had from day one of 560 lbs, gave them a total of 907 points...NOT a 907 lb marlin as people assumed from the Catch Stat page, nevertheless putting them into first place overall. At this stage, Rehab's fish was weighed and nobody knew what team Fisherman had; they had been experiencing their own problems as on day two they lost an engine but continued to fish...on the way back in, the second engine went, so that going into day three, their team was together, but not on their own boat. It was impossible to use their 35 ft Cabo so they ended up on a 60 ft Viking, that was loaned to them. Two other boats reported fish as boated, along with Fisherman, which was the one everybody was waiting for.
A huge crowd started to congregate around the scale at the marina, with plenty of activity, beer sales and bikini clad young women to keep the fisherman and public hanging around. Finally team Fisherman showed up with their fish and we all held our breath as it was hoisted up....we could see it wasn't that big, but would it make the 300 lb minimum? The red numbers on the digital display flickered back and forth and then stopped at 290 lbs.....so a non-qualifier. The other two teams that had boated fish decided not to weigh them, meaning they were also underweight.  Team Rehab will be looking at a pretty big pay off as they will take all the monies in the pot from day three. 
Tonight is the awards ceremony and we will bring you details of the payouts as soon as we have them, top five places are below...but remember there are different categories so full prize money won't be know until tonight.

By they way angler Carl Riley of the 800 lb marlin is in the hospital suffering from chronic back pain and broken thumb.

Top 5 Teams

Rehab — John Stonecipher — 560 & 347 lb. black marlin

Reelaxe — Jose Almanza — 599 lb. black marlin

C-Bandit — Buzz Colton — 549 lb. black marlin
Dream Weaver — John Boratto — 484 lb. black marlin
KW's Karma — Ron Pascoe — 431 lb. black marlin

PHOTO SHOW LAST NIGHTS CROWD AT THE SCALE FOR TOURNAMENT FINAL

Drama On First Day of Bisbee

The 30th year of the Bisbee Black & Blue Jackpot Tournament got underway Wedenesday with 103 teams lining up off of Land's End for the traditional shotgun start, full of expectation and hope, especially as a lot of big fish have been taken lately.  It was early afternoon when the first qualifying fish was back at the scale, a 371 lb blue for lady angler Andrea Fletcher followed by a  431 lb black marlin caught by Ron Pasco, aboard Karma, who went into the lead, not to last though, as other boats started to show up with  fish. Not long after the 5.00 pm lines out signal, Reelaxe showed up with a very nice 599 lb black marlin putting them into first place, however not many people had noticed that  "Great Escape" a 48 ft Cabo,  which charters through Pisces had hooked up a little afer 3.00 pm, was still working away at a large fish.The group aboard came from  Houston and it was their first foray into the Bisbee Tournament.  They  had hooked a stiped marlin a little after 1.00 pm which got off pretty quickly but  trolled on towards Gordo Banks. About two miles south of the Gordo they were dragging lures, including one favorite of deckhand Manuel, which he had brought from Los Barriles the day before, when a giant marlin came up behind the boat and snatched the lure..being trolled from a 130 Penn International rigged with 100 lb line. Angler Carl Riley was in the chair and set to work on taming the large blue. The fish never jumped and after about a hour they realized it was dead. Now the work began for angler Carl who had to pump up the deadweight of a very large marlin, completely unassisted. The clock ticked on and still the exhausted Carl forced his screaming muscles to keep going...finally after five hours they had the fish at the boat and the ordeal began of trying to get it on board. I spoke to the crew on the phone and was told "it's a really big fish"
ok...how big "700-800 lb" was the answer I got  from crewman Ricardo Agundez...so  now it was a question of if they could make it back in time, before the  9.00 pm deadline. They were off of San Jose, the wind had come up a bit and they had a full load aboard of anglers, crew and now after much effort, a large fish.  The boat began racing back to Cabo in the evening darkness, over a 1000 people eagerly awaited at the marina, and Wayne Bisbee was on the dock with his stopwatch....we willed them to go faster and imagined that we would see their lights at any second, but it was not to be...the 9.00 pm deadline came and the fish was automatically disqualifed. The boat came into view at nine minutes after nine to everybody's dismay....well except the team that was now in first place....and all could see that this was easily the largest fish of the day.
After photos and jostling by the crowed the fish was finally hung up, where it registered an amazing 800 lbs. What a  heartbreak for anglers and crew...this fish would have netted them $433,635 for day one and more for what would have been in all likelyhood the largest fish of the tournament. Angler Carl Riley was exhuasted & glassy eyed. He told me "I'm not in that good of shape, I should have worked out; I just want a massage and to got to bed" this team's attitude was incredible, all things considered, "we're here to have fun" they said...the crew were very disappointed but there is always tomorrow.

Today's standings ended up as follows:
1st Reelaxe with a 599 lb black.
2nd Rehab with a 560 lb black
3rd  C-Bandit with a 549 lb black.
4th  Karma with a 431 lb black
5th Super Natural with a 431 lb blue
6th Tiger Spirit with a 427 lb black
7th Caliente with a 397 lb blue
8th Fisheman with a 351 black

Photos show the 800 lb fish that was not allowed for getting back nine minutes late....diasppointed is not the word.

The Tuna Keep Coming........

The good news is that the big yellowfin tuna keep showing up and with the Tuna Tournament around the corner this bodes well for a great tournament. "Rebecca" did well on tuna yesterday for Paul Koch, a long time Pisces friend and client, who was fishing with Mike and Kevin Page, Nerenda Persand and Jody Akins from West Palm Beach, Florida. They fished 20 miles out from the 150 degree spot and got these two huge tuna as well as a dorado....not only that they tried there hand at a couple of billfish too, catching and releasing a striped marlin and a sailfish. The tuna took green and yellow lures, the other fish caught took like caballito.

The tuna were 180 and 200 lbs.  Shown in photo #1 is the whole group and in photo #2 Captain Jose Ramon Alucano, proudly posing with a fish on the back of his boat, with a fish that weighs a lot more than he does!

Biggest Tuna of the Year Caught at Punta Gorda

This massive 335 lb yellow fin tuna was caught by local panga fisherman out of La Playita. They caught this bruiser October 15th on 80 lb test, with a dead sardine at the Outer Gordo. It took one and a half hours to get into the panga (that must have been a feat of itself)...the fish was tail-wrapped and drowned and to be muscled up by the guys led by local Sergio Carillo.

The photo says it all....thanks Robin..

Amazing Marlin Footage from Panama.....be Careful!

This footage is quite scary and a reminder that everybody on the boat has to be aware of what is going on....this video shows a black marlin in Panama and well the rest you have to watch.
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/untamed-and-uncut-marlin-impales-face/pct0lnf?q=Animal%20Planet%20fish&rel=msn&from=en-us_msnhp&form=msnhed&gt1=42007

PISCES FISH REPORT

October 8th to 14th, 2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 94%

BILLFISH: Well the first week of tournament season is over and boats did very well overall, but first let’s talk about regular fishing. Most boats caught fish; in fact very few drew a blank this week. Our billfish catch rate was sixty-one percent with a lot of boats catching smaller game (which dominated) this week. To start out the week we had great fishing for “Adriana” on the 8^th with a sailfish, striped marlin, dorado and 80 lb tuna for a group from Kirkland, Wa. This same day “Andrea” released a blue marlin at the 95 spot for Cenk & Chris Durukal, from Vienna, Austria.  Zach & Betty Baldwin from Palisade, Colorado were kept busy on October 10^th, aboard “Rebecca” catching & releasing four striped marlin and boating three dorado, just five miles off of Gaspareño. This same day, “Valerie” went  a bit further up the coast to Golden Gate and had a great day, catching two striped marlin, six dorado and a wahoo…..my kind of day, for Terry & Greg Schmaedeke & friends from Duluth, Mn.  Taking a lead from this fishing, “Shambala” headed four miles off of Gaspareño on October 11^th & kept anglers Todd & Diane Sanger, Scott & Judi Rund, from Oklahoma City, really busy catching and releasing a blue marlin, two striped marlin, eight dorado and three wahoo….now that’s an enviable catch.  Next day out 28 ft “No Big Deal” showed Oscar Estrada & Matt Kalans, from Ewing, New Jersey, what it’s all about…..releasing five striped marlin and boated four dorado up by Todos Santos. “Andrea” fished a little bit closer at Pescadero and released three striped marlin and boated a 55 lb wahoo and three dorado for Sean Murray & Tomi Segric from the Bronx, N.Y. October 13^th, was not unlucky for a Canadian group fishing “Rebecca”…they ended up with a large blue marlin released, close to 400 lbs plus a sailfish and 1 dorado, next to Todos Santos. “Ruthless” did very well at the close of the week for Dan Smith, Jim, Cody & Eddie Anzaline from New York; they released both a striped marlin & a sailfish & boated two wahoo and four dorado, on the Pacific. Pisces anglers caught a total of 63 billfish this week, consisting of 51 striped marlin, 9 sailfish & 3 blue marlin..All but four fish were released. Well we told you that there were BIG fish here in Cabo and in the weeks leading up to tournament season we have reported large fish, such as the 780 lb'er caught aboard "Shambala" a few weeks ago....so we are into our first major marlin tournament of the season and the proof is in the pudding so to speak. Yesterday, Wednesday dawned with perfect big marlin weather....seas a deep blue mostly calm and a light chill in the early morning. Thirty seven boats lined up off of the arch to await the shotgun start of the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, now in its twelfth year. The night before at the anglers meeting I had bumped into the guys from "Fisherman" the hot boat and team of the moment, a group of local guys from San Jose del Cabo and told tournament director Dan Jacbos, "these are the guys to watch; they are serious" and guess who pulled in with the biggest fish of the day....well yes, hate to say I was right, but it was team "Fisherman" with an incredible 713 lb black marlin for angler Daniel Fisher-Guerreo, which took him, believe it or not, just 32 minutes to boat. It was crazy, but "Sneak Attack" had also hooked a very large blue about 15 minutes after "Fisherman" had theirs on board and at this stage nobody knew the weight...so the "Sneak Attack" guys were probably thinking they had it made....it was a really big fish, the kind that wins tournaments...it took angler Shawn Gutterson and team 77 minutes to subdue the fish and get it into the boat. They took off for the scale was the fish registered 629 lbs; they also released a striped marlin.  I do not remember two such large fish coming in on the same day in a tournament.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado was again the number one catch in Cabo with seventy three percent of boats catching between one and twelve fish, weight at 15 to 25 lbs.  Total dorado count for Pisces was 232. Tuna catches were at sixteen percent but we did see some very big fish, like a 260 lb’er for Ken Eberle and 200 lb fish aboard “Falcon” for Bryan Peterson from Huntington Beach, Ca. Wahoo catches were good with nineteen percent of boats catching one to three wahoo, weight around 30 to 40 lbs and occasionally up to 50 lbs.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, seas mostly calm, with whitecaps on the Pacific last couple of days, when the wind picked up.

LOCATION: Most charters are fishing the Pacific from the Old Lighthouse to Golden Gate, 95 spot, Punta Gorda.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP:  85 F

BEST LURES: Live bait, blue/white, red/black, orange, purple, petrolero plus others.

Based on the catches of Pisces By Tracy Ehrenberg

Bisbees Offshore Results

The two day pre-cursor to the Black & Blue Tournament took place this week-end and results were as follows:

59 Boats

$248,120.00 Cash Awards

50 billfish released: 14 blue & 28 striped marlin, 8 sailfish

Top Marlin

Incognito— Barnes Cooper— 540 lb. blue marlin ($19,328.40)

Bad Company— Anthony Hsieh— 490 lb. black marlin ($6,690.60)

Bandit— Rich Hamilton— 470 lb. black marlin ($3,717.00)

Top Dorado

No Qualifying Dorado were Weighed

Top Yellowfin Tuna

Missing Lenk— Aaron Riggins— 161.8 lbs. ($19,824.00)

Top Release Teams

Tenacious— 700 points/2 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin (on time)

Ez-Duz-It— 700 points/2 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin (on time)

Bull Rider— 700 points/2 blue marlin, 1 sailfish

Day 1 Jackpot Winners

Marlin: Bad Company— $76,330.00 (490.0 lbs. / Anthony Hsieh)

Tuna: Muchacho Alegre— $22,950.00 (155.0 lbs. / Jesus Franco)

Day 2 Jackpot Winners

Marlin: Bandit— $76,330.00 (470.0 lbs. / Rich Hamilton)

Tuna: Missing Lenk— $22,950.00 (161.8 lbs. / Aaron Riggins)

Final Standings Los Cabos Billfish Tournament

Last night saw the conclusion of the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament and the awards dinner and prize giving ceremony.  As we suspected the day one catches stood firm throughout the tournament producing the following results:

1st Place "Fisherman": not only  for their first day 713 lb black marlin but another 466 lb black marlin on day three -making their status as leaders undeniable and creating a new tournament record for most points earned.
Total winnings $204,764.00
2nd Place "Sneak Attack" for the largest blue marlin at 629 lbs on day one.
Total winnings $101,025.00
3rd Place went to "Rum Running" for first time marlin angler Jason Prudent for a 465 lb blue marlin.
Total winnings $18,500.00

Release Division ended up as follows:
1st Place "Game On" earning them $9250.00
2nd Place "Hang Em High" giving them $5550.00
3rd Place "Alure"  who because of the different jackpots in , for releasing two blue marlin and a stripe ended up with $8897.00

In the smaller game divisions there was quite a bit of action:
1st day tuna prize went to "Retriever" for a 123 lb fish earning them $4247.00
2nd day tuna prize went to "Santi" the smallest boat in the tournament (22 ft panga) for a 209 lb fish giving them $4347.00
 3rd day tuna went to "Blue Marlin" for a 125 lb fish, plus day 1 release jackpot giving them $9545.00

Wahoo Division:
1st & 3rd went to "High Risk" for a 52.1 & 41 lb fish respectively, giving them $8695.00
2nd went to "Chupacabra" for a 50.90 fishi earning them $4247.00

Dorado Divsion:
Only one qualifying dorado was weighing in at 41.7 lbs for "Bullrider" giving them $13,043.00 (all three days).
The hook up rate was very good in this tournament at 79%.

The Bisbee Offshore is currently underway, a warm-up for the main event that starts on Wednesday.
"Bad Company" is the current leader with a 490 lb fish on day one, followed by "Shambala" with a 307 lb'er.

Thank you letter from Glenn & Diane Schneck and friends

Dear Pisces,


On behalf of Glenn and Diane Schneck and Michael and Melissa Segreaves (Orlando, FL) we wanted to thank the entire Pisces team for the excellent time we had on our recent fishing charter. Your customer service and professionalism throught the experience was incredible - From the greeting we received outside of your establishment on the pier, to the staff on the fishing boat, to the feast we enjoyed at the restaurant next door it was an amazing experience. Being cruise passengers, we were only in port for a short while, aboard "Ruthless" with Captain Leon Camach and Beto, they accommodated our schedule and allowed us to catch 10 Dorado - what fun it was reeling those in!


We are hoping to come back to Cabo and see you again in the future! Attached are a few pictures.



Regards,

The Schneck's and Segreaves

Record Double Large Fish First Day of Los Cabos Billfish Tournament

Well we told you that there were BIG fish here in Cabo and in the week's leading up to tournament season we have reported large fish, such as the 780 lb'er caught aboard "Shambala" a few weeks ago....so we are into our first major marlin tournament of the season and the proof is in the pudding so to speak. Yesterday, Wednesday dawned with perfect big marlin weather....seas a deep blue mostly calm, and a light chill in the early morning. Thirty seven boats lined up off of the arch to await the shotgun start of the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament, now in its twelth year. The night before at the anglers meeting I had bumped into the guys from "Fisherman" the hot boat and team of the moment, a group of local guys from San Jose del Cabo and told tournament director Dan Jacbos, "these are the guys to watch; they are serious" and guess who pulled in with the biggest fish of the day....well yes, hate to say I was right, but it was team "Fisherman" with an incredible 713 lb black marlin for angler Daniel Fisher-Guerreo, which took him, believe it or not, just 32 minutes to boat. It was crazy, but "Sneak Attack" had also hooked a very large blue about 15 minutes after "Fisherman" had theirs on board and at this stage  nobody knew the weight...so the "Sneak Attack" guys  were probably thinking they had it made....it was a really big fish, the kind that wins tournaments...it took angler Shawn Gutterson and team 77 minutes to subdue the fish and get it into the boat. They took off for the scale were the fish registered 629 lbs, they also relesed a striped marlin.  I do not remember two such large fish coming in on the same day in a touranment....but let's wait and see how the monies pan out, as there are many optional daily jackpots and the largest fish doesn't always get the largest prize it depends on what optional jackpots they entered. So we are now onto day two of this three day event and anglers have a daunting task before them to try and top either of these fish, but there are release divisions as well as dorado, tuna and wahoo. Total tally so far for the tournament is:
1 black marlin
7 blue marlin
30 striped marlin
2 sailfish
3 tuna and 2 wahoo
Photos show top two fish from day one.....wow!