CABO'S ROLEX/IGFA FISHING TOURNAMENT
SEES AN AMAZING 517 BILLFISH RELEASED

May 13-19, 2005, Tracy Ehrenberg, Pisces Fleet, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Fishing Report:

What a great week of fishing we've just had at Cabo San Lucas, with the most successful Rolex/IGFA World Offshore Championship ever. This may be one of the most productive marlin tournaments ever to have taken place anywhere. The four day championship resulted in a tally of 517 billfish, 503 striped marlin and 14 sailfish, all released. Seventy teams with participants from 31 countries battled it out during four days aboard local Cabo San Lucas charter fishing boats. This happens to be our favorite tournament, firstly because it's a release event; secondly it's great to experience such an international atmosphere and to get to meet so many different people from varying cultures; thirdly, this is about the fairest format you can get. The teams do not get to pick which boats they fish on and they change vessels each day; circle hooks, which have proven to harm fish less than the regular "J" type hooks, must be used, as well as authorized 30 lb test line and IGFA rules are strictly followed, with judges examining tackle at the end of each day, measuring leader length and making sure that all is in order. Anglers cannot allow anyone to touch their rod once a fish has been hooked. They also have to cast their own bait and hook the fish themselves. The event as usual went off without a hitch and was superbly organized; a nice touch was the presentation of flags from the different countries. Prizes are awarded for teams as well as individual anglers. Points are awarded for each billfish released and tuna, dorado and wahoo may be weighed in.

First place team was "The Mayor's Cup" with 5242 points, just 42 points ahead of the 2nd place team, with a 42 lb tuna, that added to the billfish points gave them the advantage. The anglers of this team consisted of Ray Rosher a charter boat captain from Miami, who before this contest had never fished for striped marlin, his pregnant wife Charmain and Scott Segal and Tom Schramm, both from Illinois.

The second place team, "The Rolex IGFA Offshore Champions, 2003", with Bobby Rego and Danny Fox (from Bermuda) led up until the last day and ended up with 5200 points, just being pipped at the post.

Third place went to The Presidential Sailfish Tournament, with it's team from Islamorada, Florida with 4832 points.

The first place team anglers each received a Rolex watch along with bronze sculptures from Bodo Muche. The top angler was something else; he is just twelve years old, (he will be 13 on May 26th), standing no more than 5 feet tall, he was fortunate to release eleven marlin, representing the Miami Beach Rod and Reel Club Tournament. This young angler is mature beyond his years and a first class fisherman. Martini Arostegui, from Coral Gables, Florida, was here with dad Martin, who is originally from Cuba but of Spanish descent. Martini has been fishing since he was four year old, encouraged and taught by dad, who holds over one hundred IGFA records himself. Martini seems to attract fish and is very knowledgeable. They removed hooks from their lures, to use them as teasers and used various kinds of baits, including live mackerel and dead ballyhoo. Martini also prefers to use spinning tackle, as he can achieve a longer cast. He recently caught his first sailfish on fly in Costa Rica. On the day after the tournament he went out on a panga and set junior angler world records for sierra and jack crevalle. By the way he was the top junior angler in the world last year with an impressive 21 IGFA records. When Martini's dad was asked why they pursue the sport so intensely, he replied, "We love fishing. I was introduced to it by my father and it was a great way of spending time together and bonding. I in turn want to do the same with my son, it's a great way to pass time together and to create a strong, father-son relationship, which is so important in life". We need to keep our eyes on this young man as we are certain to hear a lot about him in the upcoming years.

During the tournament our top boats were "Valerie" and "Ni Modo", both had a day each when they released seven striped marlin and Jobe, on the "Ni Modo" ended up overall third in the boat standings.

In other news Pisces anglers caught a total of 142 billfish this week, consisting of 132 striped marlin, all but two released and 10 sailfish all released. The marlin brought in were larger than average at around 180 pounds. Our overall catch success rate for all species combined was 87 percent with 73 percent catching billfish.

Not a great deal happening at Cabo San Lucas on fishing for smaller game, though we did see an increase on both dorado and tuna. We had a total of 34 dorado this week, which works out to 18% of boats hooking up. The catches were usually just one or two fish. One boat landed a dozen just off of the Westin on May 19th, but this was the one exception of the week. Some of the fish are of a nice size; "Ruthless" had a nice 48 lb fish for Jeff Nordberg on May 13th.

Yellowfin tuna catches were slower, with just 7% of boats finding fish usually of "football" size, with the odd fish getting up to 50 lbs.

Inshore fishing at Cabo San Lucas produced some nice roosters; Suzy Evans from San Francisco, caught a beautiful 60 lb fish, close to the Old Lighthouse.

Just a few wahoo were caught and size were not big at 25 to 55 lbs. Inshore there were good numbers of jack crevalle, though few went over 20 lbs, as well as skipjacks and some sierra. We also had one small Mako shark.

All the marlin were on the Cortez side, between Chileno and Destiladeres, with the area between Punta Gorda and Destiladeres producing most catches. Pangas fished on the Pacific between Land's End and the Old Lighthouse.

Cabo San Lucas vacation area weather was super windy on the Pacific, very few boats braved their way even a few miles. The Cortez side was calmer and skies were clear and sunny all week. The average water temperature was 70 degrees. The best lure was live bait, which became scarce as the week progressed, dead ballyhoo worked, as did a few lures.