By BILL KARR
WON Staff Writer

LOS BARRILES-The annual Lynn Rose East Cape Classic was held Oct. 11-15 out of the Van Wormer resorts in Los Barriles, and while it was one of those times that fish weren't swarming in front of the dock, there were some great fishing success stories, and the folks of Los Barriles ended up with a new school bus, the medical clinic got even more assistance and hurricane victims are receiving aid from the tournament results. The best fishing was for marlin right in front of La Ribera, a short, 35-minute cruise, and a huge school of bullet bonita held the marlin there day after day. One boat scored 5 the first day and 3 the second day, with a goose egg the third, but almost every boat that worked the area at least had a hookup. The next best fishing was down at Punta Gorda, 47 miles south, and the boats that made that long trip all came back with tuna flags weighing down the outriggers. It was consistent action the entire time of the tournament, had been going on for weeks, and was still going on at press time. Los Frailes, a much closer ride, also produced some early morning tuna and dorado. An unfortunate thing for boats searching for the shark buoys outside of Punta Pescadero and even up at Cerralvo is that they weren't there. The storm apparently re-located them to points unknown, but even so some nice dorado were found under floating debris-but they were scattered and nobody loaded up on them. According to Seawatch.Org, there are currently more than 200 longliner pangas out of Guaymas working the north Sea of Cortez, each of them with 600 to 700 baited hooks at all times, catching as many as 5,000 to 10,000 dorado from the Baja every day. Maybe that's why the dorado fishing is poor for this time of year. Even so, anglers had a great time at the East Coast Classic, and a special treat was in store for the 200 anglers who signed in the first day-that evening there was a, get this, Italian buffet for all! Dane Maestri of Palmdale volunteered to cook the meal, and he spent the entire day putting together a classic Italian menu that drew rave reviews from everyone. The goodie bags everyone received had a great color t-shirt of the Classic, an East Cape Classic hat, provided by Jeff Puthoff of Northern California and much more. A total of 180 anglers participated, filling 58 boats, and this reporter fished aboard the 26-foot panga Teaser with Capt. Lino. Considered a "panga", this boat has a tuna tower and is powered by a Cummins Diesel inboard and rides like a cruiser. We fished two days aboard the Teaser and caught one dorado and two pargo, although we hookups on 2 marlin and a sailfish, and baited up a huge frothing of big carbilla and pargo one morning that we couldn't get to bite the heavy string. The best fishing we found was the last morning when Shelley Larson and I went out in our own 20-foot Wellcraft, Baja Sueno with Capt. Hugo and trolled live caballito right off the beach in front of Palmas de Cortez and Playa del Sol. We caught three roosters to 15 pounds in less than 45 minutes! They were everywhere, and we lost a much bigger one, too. John Armstrong aboard the Mahi-tini caught the big tuna of 60 pounds, one of four big ones between 40 and 60 and a "couple of smaller ones," while fishing with Dave Ryan of Glendora and Cindy Allen of Phoenix. "We caught a striper, too, and a dorado. We had a great time," said Armstrong. Joe Pohorsky of Las Vegas, who seems to win something every year, caught a 43-pound dorado for biggest dodo on Thursday, but the biggest overall was a 46 pounder caught by John Caldera. First place in the 2006 East Cape Classic was taken by the boat Oso Negro with David Clement of Palos Verdes, Dennis Dowden of L.A. and Mike Ricigliano of Anaheim scoring a total of 2,150 points, followed by the crazy-man team long-time participants Karl Barbour, Gregory Juskaitis and Stephen Shearer with 2,000 points. They're the ones who scored 5 marlin one day and 3 the next, and for each fish, they celebrated by jumping over the side of the boat. Sometimes they were even sober when they did it. The skipper of their boat, the Rosa, just shook his head each time, muttering about "tiburones"..sharks. Third place was taken by the Suzy-T with Achim Lind, Kenneth Shimamoto and David White with 1,300 points. All told, it was another hugely successful event, with enough prize money for the participants to feel it was worthwhile, and at the same time with most of the money going right back to the folks of Los Barriles, similar to the La Paz Classic held earlier in the year where the money went to the old folks home. Meals and accommodations were excellent as usual, and the Van Wormers, Bob and Cha Cha, Bobby, Chucky and Eddie, were again the perfect hosts. "We broke $30,000, a record and the top year ever!", enthused Lynn Rose, of Lynn Rose Tours, who began the classics over a decade ago, "and we are getting a new school bus for the high school kids, giving some more money to the medical clinc and the rest for hurricane relief for the folks in Los Barriles. For more information on the East Cape Classic or the La Paz Classic coming up June 6-10, call Lynn Rose Tours at 1 (800) 525-9527 or check out their website at lynnrosetours.com.

(Click pictures to see larger images) CHA CHA VAN WORMER, the Matriarch of the VanWormer clan, is hands on and active with the resort, and during the East Cape Classic she served food to the 200 attendees, along with her help. WON PHOTO BY BILL KARR THE FIRST PLACE TEAM with 2,150 points was aboard the Oso Negro and consisted of David Clement of Palos Verdes, Dennis Dowden of L.A. and Mike Ricigliano of Anaheim scoring a total of 2,150 points. The gentleman to the right is the boat skipper. WON PHOTO BY BILL KARR THE ROSA was the boat that came in second, and hosted the "crazy guys", Karl Barbour of Dana Point, Steven Shearer of Rancho Santa Margarita and the towering, pink-flowered-shorts-wearing guy Gregory Juskaitis of San Clement, with their 2,000 points, made up of eight catch-and-release marlin. WON PHOTO BY BILL KARR THE BIGGEST DORADO on Thursday was caught by Joe Pohorsky of Las Vegas, who seems to win something every year, a 43-pound fish that stretched out until it looked 6 feet long. The overall big dodo was 46 pounds. Lynn Rose was congratulating him when we took the photo. WON PHOTO BY BILL KARR