The Kahuna's First Place team of Capt. Jay DeBeaubien, James Donegan, Scott Scholes, Mike Miles, and Scott Bennett accepts a $48,840 check for winning this year's release format Eighth Annual Marina el Cid Billfish Classic in Mazatlan, Mexico, last week. Second from right is Geronimo Cevallos of Mazatlan's Marina el Cid, who organized the tournament along with Harvey Hunnicut of the International Game Fish Tournament Association.

CASH PAYOUTS AWARDED FOR BILLFISH RELEASED

By Gene Kira, Nov. 25, 2002, as published in Western Outdoor News:

The notion of the catch-and-release cash fishing tournament got another boost last week when one of the original promoters of the idea, Julio Berdegué's El Cid Resort in Mazatlan, Mexico, successfully hosted its Eighth Annual Marina el Cid Billfish Classic fishing tournament.

This year, 33 Mazatlan sportfishing boats competed for cash payouts in a modified release format that awarded points for billfish released. Points were also awarded for billfish over 250 pounds, tuna, and wahoo weighed-in, but that proved to be a minor aspect of the trend-setting event that this year saw 170 sailfish and 12 blue marlin released, and only 3 blues, 14 dorado, and 12 tuna kept, over 3 fishing days.

That works out to some pretty decent action, a fleet average of about 1.7 sailfish released per boat-day, plus the blue marlin, tuna, and dorado. Not bad at all, and it's an indication of the quality winter fishing available along mainland Mexico's Pacific coast, when most of Baja is going through the low-water-temp blahs.

The winners of this year's Mazatlan tournament were: First Place, Kahuna, 1,420 points; Second Place, Reel & Deal, 1,387 points; and Third Place, After Midnight, 1,200 points. The Crazy Horse won the Miscellaneous Gamefish Division with a 73-pound yellowfin tuna.

With a basic entry fee of $4,000 and daily jackpots ranging up to $1,250, the Marina el Cid Billfish Classic pays out some pretty serious money for a release format event ($48,840 for the Kahuna, for example, as compared to $33,930 for the Royal Flush in the release division of this year's Bisbee's Tournament). Moreover, this is an established, eight-year-old event backed by the marina and resources of the lavish El Cid, Mexico's largest private resort, and by the personal attention of its owner, Don Julio Berdegué, a respected conservationist of national stature.

As such, this substantial and well-organized El Cid release tournament stands as an inspiration and role model for the struggling, but increasing number of release events we're seeing now, such as the cluster of highly praise-worthy Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo events: the Paul Phillips' Fintastic Total Tag & Release Tournament, Stan Lushinsky's Ixtapa Zihuatanejo Total Tag & Release Tournament, and the ground-breaking release division of next year's locally-organized, inaugural International Deepsea Tournament.

Credible catch-and-release or tag-and-release tournaments are complicated to organize and control properly, especially if significant money is involved. For the El Cid tournament, cameras and trained observers are used to ensure that the rules are followed correctly.

These events are all the more remarkable and praiseworthy because they are located in the heart of what has in the past been some of the most egregious killing of sailfish in the name of "sport" fishing.

This year's Mazatlan Marina el Cid Billfish Classic was sponsored by Penn Reels, Cabo Yachts, Drambuie, South Coast Sport Fishing, and Marina el Cid, and its official organizers are Marina el Cid, represented by Geronimo Cevallos, and the International Game Fish Tournament Association, represented by Harvey Hunnicut.

The tournament--as well as the three Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo tournaments mentioned above--is a qualifying event for the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship, slated in 2003 at Cabo San Lucas.

Why should we care so much about the future of catch-and-release fishing events such as these?

As an integral part of the global trend toward critically needed conservation, each day we apply ever more stringent criteria toward our relationship to all living things.

The sport fishing and tourism industries must survive and prosper in order to fulfill their roles as the most effective public lobbying force for marine conservation and education--especially in Mexico, where they can sometimes seem like lonely voices crying out in the wilderness. Tournaments such as Marina el Cid Billfish Classic show an enlightened approach that may prove critical in the years ahead, both for the future of sport fishing itself, and for the future of the sea life on which it depends. It's that simple.

(As reported by Gene Kira, Mexico Reports Editor of Western Outdoor News. Related Mazatlan articles and reports may be found at Mexfish.com's main Mazatlan information page. See weekly fishing news, photos, and reports from the major sportfishing vacation areas of Mexico including the Mazatlan area in "Mexico Fishing News.")