That’s Fishin’ – May/June 2024

June 25, 2024

OFFSHORE FISHING

It has been a truly outstanding Offshore fishing season so far with some of the best Sail fishing we have experienced in recent years. The water temperatures remained consistently high this year due to the El-Nino phase and was regularly in the 86-88f range but we encountered some epic Sail fishing when water temps dipped to 84-85f at various stages during the past couple of months.

Most of the Offshore charter fleet have posted regular double digit Sailfish days this season, our best day aboard GOOD DAY was 16 Sailfish during March but many other days we released between 5-14 Sailfish with most of the charter fleet posting similarly excellent catch reports. We found it a much better dry season (Dec-Apr) in terms of the fishing overall compared to 2023 and the Los Suenos Triple Crown tournament shared that it was their best tournament results in terms of number of Sailfish released since 2016, which is just fantastic to hear.

The Tuna reform of 2023 which pushed foreign Tuna purse seine boats out to 80 miles (previously 45 miles), seems to be working wonders and it has been one of the best Tuna fishing years we can recall. I have seen consistently more Tuna schools and Spinner Dolphin megapods Offshore this year (typically 20-30 miles) than I have in any other year since moving to Quepos in 2015. Huge thanks to FECOP for their help in pushing this initiative forward to help better protect our Industry & Ocean.

March & April produced some Bumper sized Yellow Fin Tuna in excess of 100lbs and many smaller Tuna in the 10-30lb range also highlighting the sign of a healthy fishery. The Dorado bite has been fairly slow due to the warm ocean temps but as April progressed the quality of the fish was incredible with some solid 40-50lb Bull Dorado making an appearance.

May and June should see steady numbers of Sailfish, Dorado, Tuna and Wahoo with more Marlin than we have seen in recent months as seasonal rains bring the water temps down. We are now entering peak time for our Offshore Marlin FAD Fishing with the best Blue Marlin fishing on the planet taking place 60-100+ miles Offshore during multi day live a board trips.

MARINA PEZ VELA OPEN

The Marina Pez Vela Open took place on 13th April where 27 boats battled it out to see who would be crowed champions. 86 Sailfish and 3 Blue Marlin were released during the 1 day event and teams brought 6 Dorado and 4 Tuna back to the scales to be weighed for the heaviest fish prizes. Huge congrats to Capt. Rudy & team PURA VIDA for taking the win with an impressive 14 Sailfish, huge congrats guys with TEAM CALIENTE taking second place and TEAM FREZNY in third.

Results – MPV Open 2024

PURA VIDA – 14 Sailfish
CALIENTE – 6 Sailfish & 1 Blue Marlin
FRENZY – 5 Sailfish & 1 Dorado

Top Small Boat MUY CALIENTE – 1 Blue Marlin, 2 Sailfish, 1 Dorado
Top Lady Angler Aileen Gonzalez (Pura Vida)
Top Junior Angler Patrick Tomlinson (Sweet Dreams)
Heaviest Dorado Tony Bagliore (Sabe Nada) 54lb
Heaviest Tuna Mary Dembosky (Spanish Fly) 92lbs

INSHORE FISHING

It has been a fantastic dry season in terms of our Inshore fishing and some excellent variety has been caught these past few months. The Roosterfish fishing as always has been world class with lots of fish this season in the 15-30lb range. The next few months from May to August typically produces some of the largest Roosterfish of the year in the Quepos area. A true GRANDE Roosterfish is considered 40lbs but each year there are Roosterfish in the 50-90lb range caught also. A Bonito livebait is the number 1 bait to catch a large Rooster but Lookdowns, Blue Runners, Goggle Eyes, Sardines and Topwater Lures can all account for large fish also. The Snook fishing this year has been exceptional, no new world record Snook have been recorded in Quepos so far this year but the chance of large fish still remains in the coming months fishing the rivermouths.

March and April provided some excellent Corvina (Seabass) fishing with fish falling to slow pitch jigs and sardine live baits fished hard on the bottom with lots of fish in the 10-25lb range.

There has been some excellent Snapper variety this year with lots of Cubera, Pacific Red Snapper & Yellow Tail Snapper all being caught regularly by the fleet Inshore aswell as a few Rock Snpper also.

The Mullet Snapper bite has been good at the Offshore reefs and should continue through May and June. The next few months starts the peak time for our deep drop bottom fishing in 200-400’ depth, where Silky Snapper, Snowy Grouper, Tilefish and Congrio can be targeted.
Our Inshore trips are suitable for all the family and are an excellent way to introduce children to ocean fishing. We have a host of great Inshore boats available for charter here at Marina Pez Vela, such as Good Day, Asi O Mas, Fly Catcher, The Bite, Cocodrillo, Idra 2, Sky 2, Mucho Fisho, Mirse Azul, Cayla, Long Zipper, Osmark Fishing, Chloe Frijole & Isabella. All of these boats provide excellent Inshore charters & will do their best to put you on the fish.

TOURNAMENT DATES

What a tournament season it has been so far kicking off last November with a record-breaking number of boats and prize money in the Dorado Derby. Then we had another record setter with 90+ boats for the Pelagic Rockstar in January and great events for the Roosterfish Rodeo and Pescadora Ladies Only in February. March was time for the Sailfish Slam before April made way for the Marina Pez Vela Open and Offshore World Championships. Huge thanks and congrats to the tournament team for all their hard work so far but we are not done yet and the next event is the Summer Slam taking place on July 6th. All are welcome and we would love to see you there!

The dates are now set for the 2025 tournament calendar so mark your diaries and check out our full Marina Pez Vela tournament event schedule at marinapezvela.com/tournaments/

July 6 Summer Shootout 2024
November 9 Dorado Derby 1
November 16 Dorado Derby 2
January 9-12 Pelagic Rockstar
February 1 Roosterfish Rodeo
February 20-22 Pescadora Billfish Championship (Ladies Only)
March 8 Sailfish Slam
April 5 Marina Pez Vela Open
June 28 Summer Shootout 2025