That’s Fishin’ – July 2022
Welcome to the July edition of That’s Fishin! There is never a dull moment here in the Fishing World at the Marina Pez Vela, it has been a great Fishing year so far with everything from world class tournaments and pro anglers visiting us to locals and visiting families taking their kids fishing for the first time. Magic happens constantly when spending time out on the water and it’s the reason we love what we do and keeps us coming back for more.
OFFSHORE FISHING
July offers opportunities for almost all of the primary Offshore fish that we catch here. This time of year has traditionally been known as ‘meatfish season’ with good catches of Tuna, Dorado, Wahoo, Grouper and Snapper all possible right now. Different tactics need to be deployed for each species, we catch the larger Tuna out deep alongside megapods of Spinner or Spotted Dolphins, just seeing these huge dolphin schools can be a life changing experience in itself! For the Dorado we look for Debris lines where branches, tree trunks and the like gather offshore after being washed out of the rivers during the heavier periods of rain. Dorado love to hang out along these debris lines and the great thing is very often it happens only 6-12 miles Offshore. May-August typically provides the best Wahoo fishing of the year close to Quepos and to target these you need to head to the Offshore Reef pinnacles. Deep diving lures such as Rapala X-Raps, Nomad DTX’s work great, as do Skirted Bait type set ups and never forgetting the trusty old cedar plug! For the Grouper and Snapper fishing, this primarily takes place by bottom fishing in 200-400 feet of water using squid, livebaits or jigging is a popular method also. In addition to the meatfish, there will be Sailfish and Marlin out there too, the Sail fishing was fairly slow during May/early June but things change very quickly here and I would expect there to be some good Sail fishing coming soon in addition to some great Marlin fishing that we usually get in July on day trips. There is literally sometime for everyone at this time of year.
RED HOT BLUE MARLIN FISHING
The next couple of months will provide some of the best Blue Marlin fishing on the planet from right here on our doorstep at the Marina Pez Vela. Trips take place from 2-5 nights on large Sportfishing yachts with the primary fishing grounds 60-120 miles Offshore at the FADS & SEAMOUNTS. This is a serious BUCKETLIST trip for anyone that would love a chance at catching a Blue Marlin. When the bite is on, the numbers of Marlin that get released on these trips would make your eyes water, with boats frequently catching double digit Marlin in a day’s fishing. We have some world class charter operations in the Marina waiting to take you on this Marlin fishing trip of a lifetime, be sure to check out the boats HOG WILD, CARIBSEA, SPORTSMAN, THE HOOKER, PELAGIC & PACIFIC FLY who all run these trips, just contact me for more info or to set up a trip.
INSHORE FISHING
The seasonal rains are upon us and this can make getting livebait a challenge on some of our Inshore charters, however, when we can get good livebait there are some fantastic fish to be caught at this time of year. Only today as I write this (June 6th), 13 year old Jackson Ladenheim from North Carolina caught a simply stunning TROPHY ROOSTERFISH aboard my boat GOOD DAY which measured 50 inches, weighed around 35lbs & gave him the fight of his life for 30 minutes! It was such an epic fish for this young guy and the cool thing was he got to tag the fish to support the research efforts of MARINA PEZ VELA & our partners GRAY FISHTAG RESEARCH. What a Fisherman’s tale he has to tell for many years to come and hopefully someone else catches this fish in the future so that we can learn where it has travelled from the tag data.
July will continue to present these opportunities with some very large Roosterfish showing every year, with some huge monsters in the 50-80lb range regularly caught. Cubera Snapper, Corvina, Tripletail, Jacks, Mackerel and more will all be possible plus a bonus Snook if fishing at our local rivermouths. Some of our Inshore Rockstar Charterboats that you should check out include GOOD DAY, CHLOE FRIJOLE, IDRA 2, MARLIN B, SKY 2, MIRSE AZUL, ROCKSTAR & THE CROCODILE. Half day trips are a great & affordable way to get the family on the water.
2022 DORADO DERBY!
Just 4 months remain until our first tournament of next season, the 2022 Dorado Derby. This event has been so successful the past few years that we now hold it twice with the Dorado Derby on November 12th and Dorado Derby Dos on November 19th. Most charter boats get booked up for this tournament so if you would like to get involved be sure to get your boat booked early. It is a low cost, family friendly & most importantly FUN tournament with a simple format of catch the heaviest fish. You don’t need to be a billfish expert to compete in this one and in fact many of the competing teams in previous years had little to zero tournament fishing experience. We would love to see you at the Marina for one of the funnest events on the calendar and just drop me a line or drop by and see Alcides or Marbely at the iFish office at Marina Pez Vela for more info.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
All the major dates for next seasons tournaments have now been released, put these dates in your diary and see the full schedule at
marinapezvela.com/tournaments.
November 12, 2022 Dorado Derby
November 19, 2022 Dorado Derby Dos
January 13-14, 2023 Pelagic Rockstar
February 4, 2023 Roosterfish Rodeo
February 17-18, 2023 Pescadora Billfish Championship (Ladies Only)
March 4, 2023 Sailfish Slam
April 15, 2023 Marina Pez Vela Open
April 16-21, 2023 Offshore World Championships