The Isla San Marcos Yellowtail Tournament

Over the weekend of 5/19, we participated in the Isla San Marcos Yellowtail Tournament. San Marcos is a mining community of 700 people about 6 miles off the mainland. The tournament is organized each year by Mike to raise money for the Youth Athletics Club on the island. It's quite a popular event for the locals, who enjoy fresh yellowtail fish tacos (wood fired fryer!) at the end of day.

(this first pic is from Mike's website)

The overall cooling trend continued and the tourney was slow with 40 contestants and only about 30 fish - we were part of the donaters with no fish and only one seagull. We thought for sure we’d pull off a miracle in the last hour with big fish busting bait all around us (they really do look like little submarines shooting around just barely breaking the surface) but Steve managed only the bird. The birds are so thick trying to get at the bait that I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often. Luckily it was a small gull and it let me pull the hook from its foot without even a flap. Regardless, it was cool to see the island, the people, and the church. As part of our entry fee we each received a meal ticket, and those fish tacos are twice as good as they look!