Local lands marlin worth more than $200,000 
in Cabo San Lucas

The Bakersfield Californian
Californian staff report

Monday November 12, 2001,

When Bakersfield's Rob McCarthy, 44, entered his first fishing tournament a few weeks ago in Cabo San Lucas, he mostly was looking for a good time with his buddies on his boat.

Imagine his surprise when a 396-pound blue marlin munched on the end of his line, and McCarthy managed to reel it in, landing him a fourth-place finish at the 2001 Bisbee's Black and Blue Marlin Tournament.

McCarthy and his crew collected $212,940 for their catch.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he said. "I was just going for fun. I mean, lots of middle-aged men my age like to go fishing with their friends. But winning that money ... that's a big plus!"

More than 150 teams entered the tournament off the southern tip of Baja California in Mexico. First place and $684,265 in prize money went to Texas angler Scott Monroe and his captain, Jay Bush, of Pomona. Monroe reeled in a 518-pound black marlin.

On the first day of competition, McCarthy and his crew -- aboard a 47-foot CABO yacht named Lightspeed -- caught some 8-pound skipjack tunas on the Gordo Bank to use as bait.

Then they fished for three hours before McCarthy saw a tug on his line. At that same instant, his brother, Will McCarthy, saw that there was a bite on his line. Will climbed into the "fight chair" first and spent 35 minutes battling his fish while Rob just hung onto his line and waited for his chance to reel his mammoth fish in.

When they were finally able to measure Will's catch, they realized it was undersized and released it. Then Rob took his place in the chair, where he fought for an hour to reel in his sailfish.

"I've caught lots of marlin but not nearly that size," said McCarthy, who owns Lightspeed Technologies and Lightspeed Systems in Bakersfield. "You've really got to know what you're doing, but then there's also a lot of luck involved. There's 155 different teams down there trying to catch fish, and out of those teams, only five won money. So it's real good to win."

McCarthy said a couple of his crew members took their share of the money and promptly plunked down enough cash to purchase new digs in Cabo San Lucas. He said one of his deckhands was able to afford a substantial down payment on a house, and Captain Danny Alvarez bought a new house outright.

So what did McCarthy do with his earnings?

"I bought my wife a new kitchen, which is about the smartest thing I've ever done," he said, laughing. "We refurbished this kitchen, got a new refrigerator, a new stove ... that way, next time I want to go fishing, I can just go, 'Hey, remember that?'"...