Bisbee's Black & Blue Marlin Tournament runs October 19–24, 2026, in Cabo San Lucas — one of the richest big-game fishing tournaments on the planet. It's not a La Paz event, and this isn't a pitch that it is. But if you're heading to Baja Sur for it, or supporting a team without fishing yourself, La Paz's own sportfishing grounds are a real, honest option about two hours up the peninsula.
What Bisbee's Black & Blue Actually Is
Bisbee's own tournament page confirms the 2026 dates as October 19–24, with registration and the captains' meeting at the start of the window, three fishing days in the middle (October 21–23), and the awards celebration closing things out. It's held in Cabo San Lucas, not La Paz — worth saying plainly, since the two towns get mixed up by people unfamiliar with Baja Sur's geography.
The tournament is built around a weigh-station leaderboard format for teams targeting blue and black marlin, and it's genuinely one of the largest purses in sportfishing — Bisbee's lists the 2026 prize purse at $11.5 million or more. That scale is exactly why it's earned the nickname "the Super Bowl of Sportfishing."
The distance, for anyone planning both
La Paz to Cabo San Lucas is roughly 159 km (99 miles), about a 2 to 2.5 hour drive. Close enough to combine a trip, far enough that it's a real drive — not a quick side trip you squeeze in on a whim.
What La Paz Actually Offers, Honestly
We want to be direct about this: The Hook's Fishing tour is not a way into Bisbee's, and we're not suggesting it is. Bisbee's is a registered team tournament with its own boats, its own entry fees, and its own competitive format based in Cabo. What we run out of La Paz is a separate, recreational sportfishing trip — a panga, a local captain, and a day on real fishing grounds.
That said, the season lines up well. La Paz's fishing calendar has dorado peaking April through November — meaning Bisbee's October window falls right inside the best stretch of dorado season, alongside the striped marlin, roosterfish, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, and yellowtail that make up the rest of the year-round mix out of Ensenada de Muertos.
"If you're in Baja Sur for tournament week and want a real day of fishing that isn't the tournament, this is what La Paz has — not a substitute, a different thing entirely."
A Note on Marlin, Specifically
Bisbee's targets blue and black marlin specifically. The Hook's grounds around Isla Cerralvo are known for striped marlin — a different, smaller species, and one of the real targets on both our standard Fishing tour and our one-date Swim With Marlin expedition to Magdalena Bay's sardine run. We're not claiming the same fish or the same scale as Bisbee's — just a genuinely different, smaller-scale marlin experience that happens to run the same season.
In Baja Sur for Bisbee's Week?
La Paz Has Its Own Day on the Water.
Striped marlin, dorado, roosterfish and more from Ensenada de Muertos — about 2 hours from Cabo. A real fishing trip, not a tournament entry.
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