Once a year, the sleepy fishing village of East Cape, Mexico, comes alive with participants from across the planet vying for a top spot in the popular Bisbee’s East Cape Offshore Tournament. Located about 50 miles from Cabo San Lucas on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, East Cape offers outstanding marlin fishing in the Sea of Cortez.
This year’s tournament would fall to a past winner, Andrew Hughes, and his team on Mi Corazon. Hughes had won previously in 2006 and placed second in the 2009 tournament, so he used that knowledge to put his team in position for another big win this year.
Knowing that big marlin prefer large live baits, he chose to slow-troll a skipjack about 5 miles off a well-known landmark: the lighthouse at Punta Arena. After an hour’s fight, they had their 437-pound black marlin in the boat. As the largest marlin of the tournament, the fish netted his team a total of $258,683 in prize money.
Several other teams also had a great tournament at East Cape, with Retriever winning top release team and others taking home big checks in the dorado (mahimahi) and tuna categories. In all, over $500,000 in prize money was distributed in this year’s event.
