DREAMS DO COME TRUE

The 2021 Bisbee’s Black & Blue certainly was a memorable one. The 198 teams were fishing for a record-breaking purse of more than $9 million, but just prior to the start of the tournament, Hurricane Pamela came within 100 miles of

Cabo San Lucas before veering off toward the Mexican mainland. The storm reshuffled the deck for the offshore conditions, scattering the fish and making them harder to find.

I had set up at the registration and spoke to a friendly gentleman named Andres Pineda, then signed him up for a Hilton’s subscription and wished him luck, but I didn’t get the name of his boat. He just recently contacted me to thank me for my help and told me that it was his team, Braniff, who had won the tournament. Wow!

Pineda said he and his captain looked at our charts when he got back to the boat and picked a spot based on what the dynamic conditions were showing. That’s where they ended up catching a 489-pound marlin. It was a really nice fish, especially when caught during such a prestigious tournament. He usually fishes with his team out of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

His other usual team members decided not to make the trip to Cabo, so Pineda elected to bring his mother, father, brother and cousin to fish as a team. Little did they know what was to transpire over the next few days. Defying all odds—and with only two qualifying fish brought to the scales during the entire three days of the tournament—Pineda and his family team took top honors, along with a check for $1,134,350. It’s a great family story that we usually only dream about happening, but in this case, sometimes dreams really do come true.