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East Cape Classic!Another outstanding success, this year's Classic generated more than $30,000 to benefit the underprivileged children of Los Barilles......More. The dates for next year's fun-filled fishing event are Oct 10-14, 2006. Learn more about the Classic here.
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NEW! - 2006 La Paz Classic Set! Click here for details!)
La Paz Classic A Big Success!
Roosters, pargo go wild
Fundraising Baja tourney
helps out old folks home
BY BILL KARR
WON Staff Writer
LA PAZ, BCS-Now is transition time in the Sea of Cortez around La Paz, and while that generally means good quantities of some species, it also means slim pickings for other species, especially as anglers wait for the pelagic species like dorado, marlin and sailfish to move in.
During a trip there May 11-15 fishing with David Jones' Fishermen's Fleet, a group of 30 anglers with Lynn Rose Tours La Paz Classic ended up catching yellowtail, cabrilla, pargo, amberjack, roosterfish, dorado and a marlin-but only a few species were "wide open."
Our trip to La Paz was for a special reason: It was the inaugural of the Lynn Rose Tours La Paz Classic, a fundraiser for the Asilo de Ancianos in conjunction with David Jones' Fishermen's Fleet, and I had missed the first day of fishing from a severe case of food poisoning that lasted 12 hours almost exactly.
We were staying at La Concha Beach Resort just east of La Paz, and Marilyn and I had rented a car and driven up from Los Cabos airport, since the flight schedule into La Paz from Sacramento is a mess. The roads were in great shape, bridges were all repaired, and there was no sign whatsoever of leftover damage from Hurricane Marty that had hit La Paz dead-on.
The next and final day of fishing for everyone was right at our doorstep out of La Concha, and the super pangas picked us up at first light. We headed out for the bait boats, but by the time the last four boats got there they caballito's that we needed for yellowtail were gone, so we just ended up with sardines. Our skipper was Pancho, and we were in Panchito. After trying to jig up some caballito, we gave up and headed for the rocks on Espirtu Santo Island while most of the other boats headed to the north end for yellowtail. |
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In over 40 years of fishing the Baja, I was in for a little lesson-another first timer for me. We rigged our outfits with a single No. 1 hook, and Pancho brought the boat right in close to the rocks-and I mean close. Then, we cast our live sardines to shore, and by shore, I mean the first rocks protruding from the water right at the shoreline.
Pancho said the cabrilla and pargo live in the caves in the rocks, and sure enough, as soon as baits hit a hole between the rocks a pargo would come screaming out, grab the 'dine and head straight back to the cave it came out of. Before long we learned that you had to set the hook immediately and bulldog the fish away from the cave, but even so it was only about a 50-percent success rate-the rest of the time we retrieved frayed line. Even so, we ended up with 13 pargo to about 8 pounds, two cabrilla, a seabass, two barracuda from lines on the offside of the boat, and at least as many broken off. Want a great, great boat skipper and boat? As Fishermen's Fleet for Pancho!
We were plenty pleased with a great mix of beautiful fillets, and found we had caught the most fish, but not the biggest by any means. Mike Ricigliano caught a 58.3-pound amberjack that day for big fish prize, and a number of boats caught yellowtail and one boat caught a single dorado.
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Winners for the three days of the Classic were Marv Karsten with a 35.9 lb. yellowtail on May 12, Terry Krauss with a 41.8 lb. dorado for May 13 and Mike Ricigliano with his 58.3 lb.amberjack for May 14.
The pangeros all filleted the fish, packaged them, and had them frozen at David Jones place, ready for transport home.
Stan Wright and Bob Clarke
just having fun in La Paz!
 Terry Krauss, Seal Beach, CA
displays his award for landing the largest dorado.
Lynn Rose had a big night planned for the final evening's banquet, complete with huge buffet dinner, prizes for the winners, an auction and a raffle, but before that even began we were serenaded by a Mariachi band, and left standing in awe afterwards by a troupe of Mexican folklorico dancers who performed many native dances.
The 30 anglers who attended this first event opened their hearts and their wallets to raise funds for the old folks home, Ancilo de Ancianos, and Rose said afterwards that a total of $8508 was raised for the facility--$1,000 of it donated straight out by John Macallister of Dorado Industries in Rolling Hills Estates, and another $1,000 by my wife and I in memory of her mother, who recently passed away.
"We really want to thank the Corona guys, and especially Rodolfo Polanco, Director of Corona, for their continued support of the East Cape Classic, and now this one," Rose said. As usual, the Corona girls were in attendance during festivities and the weigh-in. |
For more information on next year's La Paz Classic or the upcoming East Cape Classic, or to learn how you can help the 45 "viejos" at the Ancilo de Ancianos in La Paz, call Lynn Rose Tours direct at 1 (800) 525-9527. For more information on fishing out of La Paz and La Arenas with Fishermen's Fleet, call 011-5261-2122-1313 or call Lynn Rose Tours.
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