WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS TUNA FISHING
TOURNAMENT IS HELD AT CABO SAN LUCAS

Oct. 29-Nov. 5, 2004, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas Western Outdoor News tuna tournament, Baja California Sur, Mexico Report:

The huge fishing event that took place this week in Cabo San Lucas, was the Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament, but in the days leading up to the competition, there were plenty of anglers in town trying their hand at marlin fishing.

However, pickings were slim, with just twenty-two percent of Cabo San Lucas sportfishing charters managing to find and hook up to marlin or sailfish. "Rebecca" was our hot boat, with two late season blue marlin catches this week; the first on the small side at 220 lbs, caught November 1st, 22 miles south of Cabo, the other was a little over 300 lbs, released by William Blair from Longview, Texas on November 3rd.

David & Lynn Larsen, scored on "Karina" too on November 1st, with two Cabo San Lucas striped marlin and two dorado at the Golden Gate.

Monah Hanson from Temecula California, participated in the Tuna Tournament, aboard "Andrea" and though she didn't get any fish that put her in the money, she did have fun on November 5th, releasing a striped marlin and landing 3 wahoo, 4 dorado and 7 tuna.

Most of the fishing catches were on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas. Bait was scarce at the beginning of the week, but by Wednesday the Cabo San Lucas bait pangas were producing mackerel and sardines.

Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was a very nice ninety-three percent, but the bulk of this number was made up of dorado.

The Cabo San Lucas Western Outdoor News Tuna Tournament, as far as we know, is the largest of it's kind, with the biggest purse anywhere in the world. One hundred and seventy-nine teams participated, with anglers mostly from the U.S.A and Mexico. This W.O.N. tournament is a Cabo San Lucas favorite as the organizers do a great job of involving locals, chartering their boats and by making it fun. The way the rules are laid out, means the pressure is off and anglers just have to get a big fish to the dock, to be taken on a rod and reel, the crew can hook it for them they can pass the rods to their teammates when they get tired and being a two day event, it is within the reach of most people. This tournament ended up being the largest held in Cabo San Lucas, beating the number of Bisbee entries by 8 boats. To be honest not a whole load of tuna were caught this year, but everybody had fun and if they weren't catching tuna you can be sure they were catching dorado, some marlin and sails and a few wahoo too.

In this event moneys won are split depending on how many jackpots the team entered on a daily basis, so the key to this event is entering all the jackpots, this way you don't have to get the biggest fish to win big money.

Here are the results:

1st, Aficionado; 206 lb tuna; Bennett Salaway; total winnings, $130,440.00

2nd, Ni Modo; 139 lb tuna; Jeff Johnson's team; Total Winnings, $125,400.00

3rd, Bad Market; 129 lb tuna; Tom Pianko; total winnings, $ 3,500.00

Other vessels that won money were as follows:

No Mas; 77.6 lb tuna; $3,000 jackpot on day one; total winnings, $52,800.

Shameless; 92.4 lb tuna; all the jackpots on day two, giving them the most money of the tournament, $241,500.

The top fish in Cabo San Lucas this past week, was again dorado, with a whopping 88 percent of charters averaging six fish per outing, with weights between 15 to 40 pounds. Pisces anglers caught a total of 467 Cabo San Lucas dorado this week, though I should add, a lot of these fish were thrown back. People just didn't want to haul so much home.

John Mealey, from Portland Oregon fishing with son John, and Jamie Goodman had a total of 34 dorado between them (including releases) on November 1st and 3rd aboard "Andrea" and were the most productive of our anglers this week on this species.

Cabo San Lucas yellowfin tuna catches were unfortunately on the slow side with 16 percent of boats catching fish of football size and occasionally larger. During the tournament, Cabo San Lucas fishing charter boats ranged as far as 50 miles away on both the Pacific and Cortez side. The winning fish in the tournament were almost all caught at the Finger Bank and on live skipjacks.

Cabo San Lucas wahoo catches were on the slow side and of average weight at 25 to 40 pounds, though Dr. Peyton did have a 70 pounder early in the week aboard "Ni Modo".

LOCATION: Mostly Pacific from Land's End to Golden Gate, Punta Gorda, Cabrillo Mt, directly south of Cabo 20-35 miles.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: November is probably the most perfect weather of the year, clear sunny skies, crisp mornings and cooler evenings, seas were mostly calm.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 80 F

BEST LURES: Live mackerel, sardines, cedar plugs, green/yellow, blue/silver.