Hola mis amigos.  Well, this is it!  Next month will be our 1st tournament put on as a company:  Fishing 4 Freedom.  We worked hard over the past 6 months to promote and gain traction for this fund raising cause.  Our biggest push to date will take place on Sept 2, 2009 at GIO’s Restaurant & Bistro in La Mesa CA.  Tickets are still available for the dinner and we are just about full for the actual tournament being held at the Gran Sueno Resort, Sept 11-14, 2009.

Well, onto the report from this month:  August marks the month of the Annual ‘Torneo Deportiva Internacional,’ hosted by the Abaroa Family, which took place on Sat the 15th.  This year was their 9th annual.  For my 1st time, I actually drove from San Diego to La Paz for the tournament. The drive took about 14 hours, was absolutely beautiful, and we saw all kinds of things!

August began just like last month ended; we continued to have an outstanding variety, as well as pretty cooperative weather.  Oddly enough, that strange Yellowtail bite stayed for another couple days into the beginning of August.  Dorados in the 20-40lb class were the most consistent fish to the North of La Paz.  The fishing to the South had more of a variety, including Tuna and Wahoo towards Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas.  Dorados were big biters in the south spots as well.

In preparations for the tournament, we had a successful CPR on a nice Blue Marlin, just off the Northern point of Cerralvo Island.  Douglas Nordgren, an Army Veteran from AZ, did a fantastic job in the chair and became, yet another honored veteran for Fishing 4 Freedom.

Roughly 100 vessels of various sizes took off on Sat morning for the start of the tournament.  We bee-lined it staright to the area just North of Cerralvo in search of dorado and marlin.  Our hook-ups were infrequent and not exciting; sometimes you’re just not on the fish!  We worked our way back towards the marina with a tan and nice buzz.  We were back in time for most of the weigh-ins. 

Honestly, about 2 min before Alejandro Abaroa closed the scales, a small 26′ vessel came flying, bow up and stern sunk deep in the harbor water.  I could see a bill sticking out from the port side; this fish was too big to have in the boat!  As the crowd rushed to the pier, the boat’s waves started to swamp the docks; this boat was displacing an abnormal amount of water.  To everyone’s instant satisfaction, tied to the stern, on the swim step, was a monster of a Black Marlin! 645lbs to be exact.  This was the obvious winner, pulling in over $10,000 USD and actually setting the tournament record.  What a fish, looks like a submarine!

For more information on the tournament, do’nt hesitate to call.  Talk to you soon.

**An important announcement**

Because the H1-N1 hype, raised many commitment issues amongst travelers, I was forced to move our Annual Fishing 4 Freedom program to a later date.  As I like to believe, everything happens for a reason, and Fishing 4 Freedom will now be held on September 11, 2009- a much more significant date.  This event is open to the public, please call for rates and event details. www.Fishing4Freedom.com We have an online ‘Support Store’ store available as well.

We are booking up quickly, so get on the horn and reserve your dates.  I look forward to having you aboard.  Please have look at the ‘NEWS’ section on our www.Fishing4Freedom.com website.  I had to include this photo from late June again.  On the left is William ‘Spanky’ Gibson, lost his left leg in the Iraq conflict; on the right is Vito Bialla, was a tank commander in Vietnam, until he was wounded.  Both are true Patriots, and excellent representatives of Fishing 4 Freedom.