By Capt. Dave Lear
October 18, 2011, Cabo San Lucas, BCS:
For many anglers and crews, the Los Cabos Offshore tournament serves as a precursor to the main event--the Bisbee’s Black & Blue, the richest billfishing tournament in the world. Yet, even in an off-year the LCO offers plenty of action, lots of fun and more money given away than many other longer-running events. Such was the case this year as the 10th annual edition drew to a close Sunday evening.
“I have some bad news and some really good news,” Tournament Director Wayne Bisbee told the crowd assembled on Medano Beach at the awards banquet hosted by Baja Cantina. “The bad news is we’ll have a short list of trophies to give out tonight since we didn’t have any qualifying marlin. The good news is all those really big fish are still swimming out there, just in time for the Black & Blue.” No marlin exceeding the 300-pound minimum were brought to the scales, so the jackpot money will be refunded to the participating teams.
The game fish division certainly made up for the lack of marlin, however. Angler Lance Fudickar of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and his team aboard Wild Hooker, took home $42,792.50 in prize money after boating the largest yellowfin, a 204-pounder. Michael Reiner, who hails from Cabo San Lucas, waited until the final afternoon to bring in the only qualifying dorado. That 37-pound fish earned the Angelina team a nice $56,605 payday for its efforts.
Go Deeper earned third-place honors in the release division based on time. The crew successfully released four sailfish and one striped marlin during the two days of fishing. Go Deeper also pocketed $13,812.50 after boating a 187-pound tuna and taking the daily tuna jackpot for Day 2.
Another local ringer, Picante 45, came in second place in the release competition by tallying one blue marlin, two stripers and one sailfish. Picante 45 was skippered by Capt. Jesus Daniel Carrera Ocampo and had an all-Canada team of anglers from British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Overall, 13 different nations were represented by the participating anglers.
The Canadians definitely brought their game faces for this event. Another team from Alberta scored the top release title by capturing two blues and one striper aboard El Budster. In all 50 billfish were released by the 346 anglers fishing this year’s LCO. The totals included 13 blue marlin, 21 stripers and 17 sailfish. Surprisingly, no black marlin were released among the 69-boat fleet. The overall billfish release ratio was 94.3 percent.
“Thank you all for participating and thanks to our wonderful sponsors who make all this possible,” Bisbee said just before the fireworks erupted out over the bay. “We hope you enjoyed yourselves here in Cabo and we also hope you’ll stick around as we kick off the Black & Blue this next week. Buenos noche and salut!”
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