A Group of Bermuda anglers will join teams from 31 countries in sixth annual Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship Tournament in Los Cabos, Mexico ? site of May 15-21 World Championship.

Eleven local fishermen are among a record 70 teams from the 31 countries who are registered to compete tournament. They'll be fishing the waters around the tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula for marlin and other big game fish.

Back to try to recapture the Rolex/IGFA Championship title they won in 2003 will be Bermudians Danny Fox and Bobby Rego. In 2003 they caught and released a tournament record 15 striped marlin to win the championship over 41 other teams from 22 countries.

Other locals who will be competing will be Peter Mitchell on the Tropic Star Challenge tournament team that won in Pinas Bay, Panama. His wife Cindy will also be competing as a team member of the winning International Women's Fishing Association's Annual Billfish tournament held in Cabo San Lucas.

The trio of Richard King. Keith Winter and Richard Ricca are team mates representing the ILTT Bermuda championship win.

And members of the World Cup Blue Marlin Tournament team will be representing Bermuda as well. They include Andrew Dias, Andrew Fabias, Martin Estis and Richard Pereech.

So far teams will be coming from Angola, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Kingdom of Tonga, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, the United States, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands.

The United States is represented by 22 teams of anglers from over 22 states.

It's believed the Rolex/IGFA OCT event has attracted the largest number of international teams on six continents ever to compete in a single fishing tournament.

The prestigious four-day world championship in Cabo San Lucas, will have many of the world's best blue water anglers who have won at least one of 110 IGFA qualifying events held in 35 countries worldwide during 2004.

According to Lynda Wilson, the Rolex/IGFA offshore tournament coordinator, the abundance of billfish caught and released is an important factor in the increasing number of teams competing annually. "Last year a total of 299 billfish were released among 66 teams," she said. "In 2003, 250 billfish were released among 42 teams. Those are some excellent release figures and the anglers remember and get excited about the great fishing there in Cabo."

The teams will draw for different boats each day from the local guided Cabo fleet. They will be fishing for three species of marlin (blue, black and striped) and swordfish for 300 points each along with sailfish and spearfish for 100 point values each. The catches will be scored and released alive at the boat in accordance with the IGFA tournament rules. The team releasing the most billfish over the four days will receive bonus points. The teams will also receive points (per pound) for tuna, wahoo and dorado up to two fish of each species per day above the minimum size limit of 25 lbs. Local charities receive the donations of all fish weighed at the Cabo docks. Once again Momoi fishing line will be used by all of the anglers.

The team with the most points at the end of the four days of competition will receive Rolex timepieces and trophies. Eighteen other prizes will be presented including ones to the three top male and female anglers, top three captains and top three places for the heaviest tuna, wahoo and dorado.

The tournament headquarters is the Hotel Finisterra.

The offshore championship is one of two world-class series fishing events that include the fifth annual Rolex/IGFA Inshore Championship Tournament to be held July 10-13, in the Florida Keys. In that tournament some 40 anglers representing 55 qualifying tournaments on four continents will be competing in light-tackle and fly-fishing competition for bonefish, tarpon, permit, redfish and snook in Islamorada, located in the middle of the Florida Keys.