Allen, Sheldon, and Dan here at the office had told me a lot of stories about the great fishing in Baja California, yet I'd never thought about taking a trip south of the border. That is until late this summer when Allen came over to my desk and told me that him and I along with his mom Winnie would be traveling down to the San Jose del Cabo to take part in a saltwater fishing tournament on the Sea of Cortez presented by Neptune Adventures, the Posada Real Hotel, and the Fish Sniffer.

At that point I was intrigued, but not really excited since the trip wasn't slated to take place until November. As time passed and Fish Sniffer supporters quickly filled up the 80 available spots in the tournament, I began to get more excited and started doing a little research about the region where we'd be traveling.

San Jose del Cabo is located along the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula on the Sea of Cortez less than 20 mile north of Cabo San Lucas. The first European to explore the area was Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortez in 1535. Cortez thought that the sheltered waters between what is now San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas would offer Spanish galleons a perfect resting place as they traveled between Acapulco and Manila.

By 1578 the English pirate Thomas Cavendish had arrived on the scene to prey on treasure-laden Spanish ships, kicking off a buccaneer era that would persist for the next 250 years.

The waters offshore of San Jose are a mixture of nutrient-rich Central American currents that combine to create one of the greatest game fishing regions of the world. More than 800 species of fish and marine life including massive grey whales and rare giant sea turtles call the Sea of Cortez home.

This diversity of life and the abundance of hard fighting gamefish drew some of the twentieth century's greatest anglers and notable adventures to the area including Ernest Hemingway, Zane Grey, John Wayne, John Ford and Ted Williams. The resulting publicity earned the region the title of the billfish capital of the world. And why not? The area around the Baja Peninsula boasts trophy class striped marlin, blue marlin, black marlin and sailfish.

Today the area plays host to Bisbee's Black and Blue Jackpot Billfish Tournament in October. Bisbee's is a big money event that draws avid anglers, professional skippers, and jet setters from around the globe all dreaming of the large cash prizes and prestige that is at stake.

After much anticipation, Allen, Winnie, and I flew out of Sacramento at 8:30 am on November 9 aboard a Mexicana Airlines jet. We touched down at Los Cabos International Airport around midday. After passing through customs. We boarded a large bus for the 20 minute ride to the Posada Real Hotel in San Jose.

The terrain between the airport and the resort was classic desert country, well populated with scrub and impressive cacti. In the distance high knife ridged mountains studded with palms, pines, oaks, and huge cactus trees further added to the areas rugged appearance.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by Ozzie Castro, owner of Neptune Adventures. He helped us check in and told us about the tournament orientation that would take place that evening at 6 o'clock.

The Posada Real is a charming hotel that blends perfectly with the rugged Baja landscape. The hotel boasts 140 rooms, 8 suites, a full service restaurant, a lobby bar and a pool side taco bar complete with a swim up counter. The facility is built around a traditional Mexican style cactus garden that is located a stone's throw from the beach.

After the evening orientation, Allen, Winnie, and I headed for the restaurant and had the first of many delicious meals we enjoyed during our stay. Since we were scheduled to depart the hotel for our first fishing trip the next day at 6 o'clock in the morning, we made an early evening of it and headed to our air conditioned rooms.

I was about as excited as I've ever been prior to a day's fishing and I had a tough time sleeping. Finally at 4:00 am I gave up and made a pot of coffee to drink, while watched the news until it was time to meet up with Allen and Winnie.

When we arrived in the lobby, box lunches consisting of burritos, hard boiled eggs, fruit, cookies, soda, and bottled water were waited for us. We quickly board vans for the short ride to the area where the pangas and cruisers departed for the fishing grounds.

Before we knew it we were in a large wooden row boat headed for our cruiser as the sun rose above the Sea of Cortez. Once on the cruiser we introduced ourselves to our skipper, Lalo and his deck hand. Lalo made a short run to a bait panga and we fill the cruisers live well with a scoop of live sardinas.

Leaving the bait panga in our wake, the deckhand rigged up several surface lures and we began trolling. After about an hour without results, we approached several pangas and cruisers that were fishing with live bait. We pulled in the trolling gear and the deckhand rigged up some rods for fly lining the live sardinas.

There were fish breaking all around us and I couldn't wait to get a line in the water. After baiting our hooks the deck hand tossed out the lines, handed us each a rod, and started chumming with live sardinas.

It only took a couple minutes for Allen to hook up on a husky 10 pound yellowfin and then I nailed one of my own about the same size. Next it was Winnie's turn and she had her hands full battling a fish that was a little bigger than the ones Allen and I had caught.

For the next couple hours we had steady action. The second fish I hooked was extremely strong and had no problem pulling the 30 pound test off my reel. I battled the tuna for at least 20 minutes, thinking it had to be in the 50 to 60 pound class. When I finally got the battler aboard, it weighed 25 pounds. I couldn't believe the power and endurance the fish had!

A while after I landed my big fish, a breeze came up and the tuna action slowed down. We had seven tuna in the box, so we decided to resume trolling. A few minutes later we were underway with 5 lures in the water, three trailing off the stern and two off the outriggers. For a guy that does most of his trolling for trout between 2 and 5 miles per hour, trolling for billfish, dorado, and wahoo is quite an experience, since you are traveling between 9 and 12 miles per hour.

The skipper had been zig zagging along the better part of 90 minutes when Allen yelled that a bait got hit. I looked up and was astounded to see the head of a husky billfish come out of the water behind the outrigger bait on our starboard side.

As quickly as the fish appeared, it slid back below the surface. The skipper took us into a hard turn and maneuvered the boat back into our wake to troll through the area again. As soon as the boat straightened out, the fish was after the same bait for a third time, hitting it without getting hooked.

Well, I guess it's three strikes and you're out because we never raised the fish again. I asked the deckhand what kind of fish it was he replied, "blue marlin... blue marlin." How big I asked and he said, "75 kilos... maybe more." In other words, the marlin could have weighed in between 150 and 200 pounds.

Even though we didn't hook the fish, just seeing it was really exciting! When we returned to the hotel with our filleted tuna in hand, we found out that the other anglers had caught quite a few tuna as well as some dorado, wahoo, and a handful of billfish.

The next day was one of the most relaxing I've had in a long time. We spent the day hanging out around the pool sampling the hotel's outstanding cuisine. The highlight of the day came when Allen and I had the restaurant staff slice about 2 pounds of fresh yellowfin fillets into sashimi. I've been eating various kinds of sushi since my teen years, but the fish I had at the poolside taco bar that day was by far the best I've ever had. What a special treat!

Allen and I decided to take out a panga for our second day of fishing. A panga is an open 20 foot boat that makes for an intimate and exciting day on the saltwater. When we arrived at the beach, we met our skipper for the day. His name was Gabriel and it was clear that he was very knowledgeable. On our first day of fishing we headed up to the north. This day Gabriel headed to the south toward Cabo San Lucas.

Gabriel could speak English pretty well and related that he had been having great luck on tuna and that he had been hooking some wahoo as well off a place he called the Red Point.

After meeting up with a bait panga and getting a scoop of sardinas we trolled our way south for about 7 miles before Gabriel told us to reel in so we could try drifting for tuna. There were only two other pangas around us at the tuna grounds and it was clear they were into fish.

After Gabriel got our live bait rods rigged, he started pitch out live bait and immediately boils erupted behind the boat. The action was fast and furious. We were into a mixed school of bonito, skipjack, and yellowfin in the 8 to 12 pound class. While the fish were smaller than those on the first day, the bites were a lot more frequent.

One of the most exciting points of the morning occurred when a large sea lion attempted to take Allen's yellowfin aside of the boat. Gabriel reached down and punched the sea lion, driving it off before it could get the fish off the hook. It didn't take long for Allen and I to put 8 yellowfin and a half dozen bonito in the fish box. A short while later a stiff breeze came up. Since the trolling had been slow, we decided to call it a day and run for the beach.

Competitors during the tournament landed an impressive array of gamefish including tuna, dorado, roosterfish, wahoo, marlin, and sailfish. The team of Lisa Wold and Evett Morgan took the top spot with 350 points winning a week long stay for two at the Posada Real Hotel.

Eugene and Wendy Louis took second place with 200 points, while Mike Borges and Bob McDonald rounded out the top three with 170 points. The winners and participants took home a variety of fishing tackle provided by Trilene, Abu Garcia, and the Pure Fishing Company.