EAST CAPE CLASSIC FISHING TOURNAMENT REPORT

Oct. 21, 2005, Frank Springer, East Cape Classic Fishing Tournament, East Cape, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

At the East Cape Classic, from the fisherman's prospective, the water off Los Barriles was "out the door." What a great time to be in Baja. Tuna filled and refilled the truck sent down to the docks from Chris Moyers' East Cape Smoke House. Literally scores of 50 to 70 pound class yellowfin were unloaded each day. The porker of the week was yarded in by Max Klein of LA. The 220 pound cow was more than double the weight of the 17 year old fisherman. Although dorado were almost nonexistent, the "picos" were there in force. Cruisers were rolling in with 5, 6, 7 marlin, and sailfish release flags on most boats--plus the few dorado flags--add in the 3 to 6 tuna flags each, and the docks looked like the staging area for Brazilian Mardigras floats. Almost a simple punctuation mark to the week were the thousands of 35 to 50 pound great calamari, which have staged a mile off Palmas De Cortez resort, and were being caught for--BAIT. Smart catch-and-release fishermen were ending their day with a couple hard pulls on these giant squid to top out their ice chests of tuna fillets. Both fishermen and fish showed up to benefit the children and towns people of Los Barriles.

It was a beautiful and fitting place to spread Marilyn Karr's ashes with the dolphins she loved to fish over. They showed up over the thousands of tuna. Immediately after setting her free, I hooked into a yellowfin, and Billy hooked onto a pez vella. Such a gift!