The Latest Catch

The World’s Richest Fishing Tournament has to Adapt and Overcome what Mother Nature has thrown at Bisbee organizers and its world-class participants.

Before getting into the very interesting news below, the Bisbee’s Offshore Tournament group wishes all the fishermen and communities of Southern Baja the very best as they recover from the terrible hurricane these past few days. Their thoughts, hopes, and prayers are for everyone affected!

2022 is in the rearview mirror and the 43rd Annual Bisbee’s Annual extravaganza is less than 24 hours away. As usual, the Bisbee Team was led by one of the most enthusiastic families hosting sportfishing tournaments on the planet. They have outdone themselves for this one.

Shortly after dinner Wayne Bisbee along with Trish and Clicerio Mercado assisted in the handing out of the Checks and trophies. After he took care of a few odds and ends including the “Early Bird drawing”. There were a total of 11 checks handed out in the following order. You can find the actual breakdowns for each award below the checks.

The radio remained remarkably quiet as those Teams searched for the right fish earning them the right to be on the Awards Stage on Saturday night.

The chatter on secret channels was all about the sea temps, which were in the high 80s. Many Teams elected to focus on the Gamefish Categories and Jackpots (Dorado and Yellowfin Tuna), while others chose to tackle Billfish in both Catch and Release Categories.  In the Release Category, all Billfish, including Striped Marlin, Sailfish, Spearfish, and larger Black and Blue Marlin required a minimum weight of 300 pounds. 

Bottom-line what Wayne dubbed the worst start ever evolved into one of the best single days in recent memory.

With a steady stream of all the species in the contest. Later after lines out at dinner Wayne, and Axel Valdez, the voice of “Radio Control” acknowledged it had been a memorable day at the scale.

Wayne was excited to welcome the 98 teams competing for approximately $1.8 million (U.S.).

At the Awards banquet held on the A.P.I. Cruise Ship Pier in Cabo San Lucas Saturday Night. Wayne Bisbee announced that for the second time in Black and Blues forty-two-year history. There would be three checks handed out exceeding ONE MILLION DOLLARS totaling $7,387,925 of the $11,651,300 the largest amount prize money ever offered in a Sportfishing Tournament!

The past three days of Bisbee’s Black & Blue Tournament fishing were challenging experiences for the 218 Teams! Putting it into perspective, according to CatchStat, there were a total of 70 billfish reported, including 4 blacks, 60 blues, and 6 stripes. Remarkedly only 3 qualifiers were brought to the scale, and sixty-six were released. Only one non-qualifier arrived at the scale! It was a remarkable statement of all the Team members’ judgment about the size of their fish when there were such huge sums of money on the line.