That’s Fishin’ – February 2024
2024 PELAGIC ROCKSTAR TOURNAMENT!
WHAT A WEEKEND it was here at the Marina Pez Vela for the 8th annual PELAGIC ROCKSTAR tournament. 91 boats battled it out over the weekend of January 12-13 to see who would be crowned this year’s ROCKSTARS & be in with a chance of winning some of the US$1.4m prize money that was up for grabs. The 7am shotgun start as 91 boats set off from outside the Marina Pez Vela each morning was a sight to behold and got Anglers & Crews fired up & ready to win. Team GAME PLAN got off to a flyer on day 1 making a clean sweep of all of the day 1 Billfish Jackpots in the Sonar division with 16 Sailfish. Team SEA FLY caught 14 Sailfish to top the non-Sonar division leaderboard, closely followed by Double Nickle who also finished the day with 14 Sailfish. Capt. Franklin of the Big Eye II brought in the largest Tuna of the day to scoop the Day 1 Tuna Jackpot and Team Chasin A brought in a 31lb Dorado to scoop a whopping $70,000 for the largest Dorado on day 1. Day 2’s meat-fish Jackpots were scooped by Team La Otra Vida with the largest Tuna of the tournament a stunning 133lb Tuna, huge congrats guys for a great fish! Team Anticipation scooped the $70,000 Dorado daily purse with a 32lb fish, even though the guys on Caribsea caught a 40lb Dorado that day, they had unfortunately not entered into the Dorado Jackpot so missed out on some serious $$. A shout out to Kelly Dawn for their day 2, daily Billfish win, with 11 Sailfish in the non-sonar division while Team Fish Tank/Galati had a stellar day releasing 25 Sailfish on day 2 to move into overall 1st place and be crowned the ROCKSTAR CHAMPIONS for the second consecutive year. Well done guys, what a performance! A total of 1081 Sailfish and 17 Marlin were released over the 2 days while 58 Dorado and 16 Tuna were brought to the scales.
RESULTS
Billfish Division
Fish Tank/Galati 40 Sailfish
UNO MAS 28 Sailfish & 1 Marlin
Mama Seata 24 Sailfish & 2 Marlin
My Three Sons 29 Sailfish
Team Restless 29 Sailfish
Team Juben 29 Sailfish
Dorado Division
Good Day/Salty Canucks 46lbs
Tenacious 42lbs
Munequita 41lbs
Tuna Division
La Otra Vida 133lbs
Big Eye II/Pura Vida Pirates 99lbs
Wine Time 84lbs
Top Junior Angler
Jonah Smith aboard Southern Pride
Top Lady Angler
Kristina Warshauer aboard Vaquero
OFFSHORE FISHING
January provided some world class offshore fishing here in Quepos. Double digit Sailfish days were common with many boats in the fleet having banner Sailfish days and releasing 10-20 Sailfish a day which is just fantastic fishing by anyone’s standards. There has been some good Blue Marlin fishing over the past month but they seem to come and go, the warm water temperatures we are seeing right now are likely not helping the Marlin fishing. The Dorado fishing this season has been nothing short of epic with lots of Dorado in the 15-25lb class showing with some larger Bull Dorados mixed in also. Tuna fishing has been fantastic with regular schools of spinner dolphins and yellow fin tuna making an appearance 25-40 miles offshore. A few surprise Wahoo have been appearing including a 90lb monster Wahoo weighed during tournament weekend. The excellent Sail fishing should continue through February and it would be excellent to see greater numbers of Marlin but we will have to wait and see how that plays out.
INSHORE FISHING
The coastal/inshore fishing along the beaches, islands and rivermouths close to Quepos did not disappoint during January. We experienced the best Snook fishing of the season so far and lots of Snook were caught in the 10-30lb class. Red Snappers have been plentiful along the beaches/rivermouths as well as Jacks, Mackerel and the prized Roosterfish. Small to mid-sized schooling Roosterfish can be targeted along the beach, however, for the chance of a larger Roosterfish head out to the rocks and deeper water, like John Edwards from California did in mid-January aboard GOOD DAY where he caught 2 stunning Roosterfish to scratch off his Bucketlist.
If you would like to have a try at our Inshore fishing yourself, there are some great Inshore boats available for charter, check out Good Day, Asi O Mas, Fly Catcher, The Bite, Cocodrillo, Idra 2, Sky 2, Mucho Fisho, Mirse Azul, Chloe Frijole & Isabella. All of these boats provide Inshore charters out of Marina Pez Vela here in Quepos and are the perfect option for half day or full day inshore/coastal fishing charters.
TOURNAMENT DATES
Our tournament season is in full swing with two events happening in February, the Roosterfish Rodeo and the Ladies Pescadora tournament. We would love to have you with us for any of this year’s events, just drop me a line if you would like to join the fun, you can view the full event schedule at marinapezvela.com/tournaments.
February 3 Roosterfish Rodeo
February 15-17 Pescadora Billfish Championship (Ladies Only)
March 9 Sailfish Slam
April 13 Marina Pez Vela Open
April 14-19 Offshore World Championships
July 6 Summer Shootout
Tight Lines, see you out there!
Benn Gilmour
Jackpot Sport Fishing, Marina Pez Vela, Quepos
Cell: 8458 4997
[email protected]
jackpotsportfishing.com