Sapphire blue is the traditional color honoring a 45th wedding anniversary. For this year’s 45th annual Bisbee’s Black & Blue Marlin Tournament, presented by HDI Marine, the appropriate colors are dollar green and peso gold. As the awards celebration concluded Saturday night in downtown Cabo San Lucas, three teams—Magic Touch, Rising Sons/Magnifico and Another Line are celebrating their wins and million-dollar-plus payouts for their catches. The total purse this year was $7,452,775.
Magic Touch earned top honors with a 459-pound blue landed on the last day of fishing, backed by a 344-pound blue from Day Two. The combined team from Texas and Florida is taking home $2,440,850 for those fish, including first and fourth places and multiple daily jackpot prizes. Led by Capt. Kim Manning, the team includes anglers Ken Eberle, Ronald Weisfeld, Harry Esterley, Kieler Gentry and Tony Johnson, with mates Justin Drummond and Richard Ramsdell. Magic Touch, a 54 Bertram, is based in Cabo.
Coming in second place, although with a slight edge in money due to optional entries was Rising Sons/Magnifico, with Capt. Drake Sawyer running the 60 Spencer. Angler Jaselyn Berthelot, Toby Berthelot, Justin Delassus, Darwin Elision, Garrett Fraizer and Joseph Nixt were the team members. Robert Tyson manned the cockpit. The team won $2,588,675 for its second-place 457-pound blue marlin.
Capt. Ivan Gomez guided the Another Line team to its third-place fish, a 389-pound blue, good for a $1,742,400 payout. The team members included Ruben Gonzalez, Ryan Rodenburg, Ric Rodenburg, Victor Garcia, Arturo Ramirez, Richard Mena, Charlie Carter, Diego Gomez and Eduardo Jose Luis Pereyra Villaburo.
There were two daily release divisions, $2,000 and $3,000, for released smaller blue and black marlin. The three top teams include El Suertudo (Capt. Greg Distefano/80 Weaver), Meshuga Fish (Capt. Jeffrey “Tigger” Stolarz/Viking 68C) and Buojie (Capt. Zach Lewis/82 Viking). Each team earned $226,950 for their efforts.
A total of 177 teams fished in this year’s Black & Blue. The fleet caught 10 black marlin and 113 blue marlin during the three days of fishing.
“This is an awesome way to celebrate our 45th anniversary, with three teams winning well over a million dollars each,” said Tournament Director Wayne Bisbee. “I wish our dad, Bob Bisbee, were still here to see it. But his legacy continues to live on. I’d like to congratulate our winners and thank all our teams for fishing with us again this season, our wonderful sponsors and our great staff for pulling it off. Enjoy the break and I look forward to welcoming many of you next April at our inaugural Bisbee’s Costa Rica Offshore at the Marina Pez Vela. It will be a total-release kick-butt tournament with all the Bisbee’s flare and fun you’ve come to know and expect. Hasta luego!”
