Baja California Sur, Mexico - The 11th annual Bisbee's East Cape Offshore Tournament wrapped up Saturday night with a festive awards ceremony on the beach overlooking the Sea of Cortez. With three new tournament records set and more than $300,000 in prize money awarded among the 56-boat field, the event was a resounding success. The first leg of the Bisbee's Baja Series was presented by Cabo Riviera and hosted by the Hotel Buena Vista Resort.
"What a great week," said Tournament Director Wayne Bisbee afterwards. "We had perfect weather and some quality fish come to the scales. I can't think of a better way to kick off our second decade at East Cape."
Thomas Lansing, of Phoenix, Arizona, was the biggest winner overall. Fishing aboard Dream Weaver, Lansing boated a 581-pound black marlin on Wednesday and followed that up by scaling a dorado weighing 52.3 pounds on Friday. Lansing pocketed $93,646 for his efforts. His marlin was also the largest known black on record in the event.
The father/son team of Vic and J.V. Lattimore also scored big in the marlin category. J.V. landed the week's second largest marlin, a blue weighing 441 pounds, while Vic added a 377-pound blue. The 441 was another new East Cape Offshore tourney record. With their Day 3 daily jackpot, plus the second and third fish in the marlin division, Team Cowboy VII took home $74,393 in cash prizes.
Randy Hinton, fishing aboard Incognito, set the new tournament dorado record when he brought his 55.8-pound bull to the scales. Hinton's fish beat the previous mark by one pound, which coincidentally was set by Team Cowboy VII in 2008. Hinton won $9,408 for taking the dorado division.
Alan Martin took top honors in the tuna division by whipping a 151.8-pound yellowfin. Martin was fishing on Mi Sueno when he made his catch. He also pocketed $9,408 for the top tuna division prize.
Don Whittier swept all three daily tuna jackpots. Fishing on his 23 Parker center console Zhao, one of the smaller boats in the fleet, Whittier boated yellowfins weighing 128.0, 106.7 and 120.4 pounds, respectively, to earn $31,875 in prize money. Togo Hazard on the Dottie B II and Alonso Aspe Franco on Condor were the other daily winners in the dorado dailies. Hazard's fish weighed 50.8 pounds while Aspe's tipped the scales at 45.8 pounds. Both anglers won $10,625 for their jackpot prizes. Aspe is also a past Bisbee's million dollar winner.
In the Release Division, Team Don Valerio was first, followed by Sea Fevers and Cabo Magic. Release points were earned for successful catches of striped marlin, sailfish and spearfish. Blue and black marlin weighing less than the 300-pound minimum also earned release points.
"Muy bueno! Very good! That sums up the 11th annual East Cape Offshore Tournament," Bisbee said. "Next stop on our Baja Series is the Los Cabos Offshore Tournament in October. If we have anything close to the action and excitement this event generated, we're in for another fun ride."
