Black & Green tournament Cabo

[MarkS]

Even though the billfish are not as plentiful as we would like there was a number of great scores for day one. Here are the standings at the end of day one;

The teams in association with the B31 board are on top of the leader board! My team (Mara's Team) and John Cranston's team (Reel Cowboys) are currently 1 & 2 respectively. Cranston is on the 32 Blackfin "Dreamweaver and we are on the 31 Bertram "Redrum!"

Other B31 notable Renegade Mike stands middle of the pack.
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Day 1standings,

Mara's Team 358

Reel Cowboys 298

Fish On 244.5

Beer Thirty 215

Baja Brachos 196

Renegades 177

Dropping A Line 169

Texas Tuna Tacos 168

Caboholics Too 167

Caboholics 140

Fat Farmers 140

N 2 Deep 125

Still very much up for grabs, one good day with a billfish or two on the right lure will be the difference maker. 2 Striped marlin and one sailfish are the only pointy fish so far. Dorado are plentiful and Tuna are next in line for fish talley. Nothing outstandingly large yet but we shall see on day two!

Also best to those in the way of the storm on the east coast!!!

[MarkS]

Well it ended as it started with Mara's team taking the top prize with 611 points. We only managed the one sailfish but filled our Tuna and all but one Dorado to maintain a narrow lead against John Cranston and the Reel Cowboys at 600!

Renegade Mike moved up a few spots to finish in 5th with 499. It was tough slugging out there with only 4 billfish being caught by all 12 boats. Mara's mom managed to likely put us over the top as she caught the sail to raise her personal total of 6 billfish lifetime. Something I am sure she never dreamed she would do until she met my sorry ass.

I don't have a final on the money we raised for the kids of Cabo yet but as I snuck out the door midway through the banquet last night (due to some bad burrito) the auction was going full swing and it looked like we were doing well.

This whole thing pales by comparison to the shit storm on the east coast and sure hope everyone is OK and nobody's boats got trashed!

All the best.

[MarkS]

Just to set the record straight Reel Cowboys consisted of 2 of the B31 members Danny McKinney and his bride were aboard along with John and his wife.

Cudos need to be given there as well! I'm a such a forgetful schmuck sometimes!!

[JohnCranston]

Mark,
Hey buddy. We had a blast...probably the most fun Black and Green tourney that we fished so far...been eating yft all week...came back with 135 lbs of fillets.
Take a look at http://www.2coolfishing.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; when you get a chance...go to the blue water message board...there's alot of hard core anglers on there that might jump at fishing the tourney in Cabo next year.
See ya,
John.

[MarkS]

Repost from my girl in charge of da money and where we put it.
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The auction/donations in Oct. brought in over 8,700.00! Mucho thanks to fingsister who brought in over $1.500.00 of that total. She rocked the house this year. Also, made 250 goody bags for the kids. Trapper along with so many of you that brought down suitcases full of fun stuff provided goodies for at least 100 kids.

Thanks to atilla for hauling a bag down for me.

Thanks to maui1010...who brought down a suitcase full of clothes for a family and helped a particular family dealing with medical issues for their son. They were just amazing.

A few things we were able to do this year because of all your support--

* 3 Food Drives. We gave out over 200 bags of food and countless bags of dog food.

* Cement,wood and paint to help 2 families and 1 colony food bank fix their roofs and floor

* 2 beds for 2 families. The last family we helped with bed/roof has 2 disabled children and were effected by the flooding in Sept./Oct.

* Groceries for countless families that we took shopping during the year.

* Clothes, shoes, educational tools, toys, backpacks

* Therapy for 3 months helping a child that is learning to walk.

* Lots of food/collars/leashes for dogs out in the colonies. I feel so bad for so many of them. We do what we can. I am thrilled that the Humane Society will be coming to help us with education at the next food drive.

* Diapers/wipes/shampoo for families. We gave these items to one lady that her 35 year old daughter is dying of cancer. She is being taken care of at home. The family with the 2 disabled children go through a lot of these items so we loaded them up.

* 50-60 Valentine goody bags

* 1,000.00 to Ray Thomas Foundation for breakfasts at Mara's Place. Let me tell you Mara's Place is Special!!

* 1,000.00 to Humane Society and will continue helping where we can this next year.

* And much more that I am sure I forgot. I need to look back in some of my journals from this year.

You have all been over and beyond supportive and Dennis and I really appreciate it. We will continue, God willing, as long as we can to help the families in Cabo.

[MarkS]

The folks we donate to knew of my daughters illness and passing and as an honor decided to name the first of the elementary school kitchens after her. We attended the dedication while we were in Cabo. It was both an honor and struggle to maintain composure. Lots of very little smiling faces as we handed out candy, some small toys school supplies and hair clips of Mara's to the little girls. This little kitchen will serve 200 kids one good meal per day.