quepos bill 2014
Hosted by Marina Pez Vela, the third annual Quepos Billfish Cup was a huge success. 299 sailfish and 2 blue marlin were released between the 11 participating boats making the average fish count per boat comparable to other record breaking tournaments this year in Costa Rica. Day One was impressive with 97 billfish released and getting better every day with 137 fish released day 2 then an incredible 166 released on the final day.
On day one Tranquilo took an early lead with 15 sailfish and 1 marlin and never looked back. Ninety six sailfish and that marlin were released this day. At the end of the day it was “Tranquilo” in the lead, followed by Front Row almost 600 points behind. Captained by Bubba Carter, Tijareta with the Johnson, Colley, Finney, Simms team aboard was almost 1000 points behind the leader. On the first day the new owners of the Pez Espada were not in the top three, but were making their own story with 7 year old son Caden Alexander having a unexpected great day releasing 4 sailfish and pulling in a 22 pound Dorado to put him in the lead for Junior Angler.
On day two the Coffer family and team aboard Tranquilo expanded their lead releasing 26 sailfish giving a commanding position over the fleet. Team Pez Espada _and the Alexander family started creeping up the leader board releasing 19 sailfish for the day putting them in second place. At the end of the day it was _Tranquilo with 4628 points and Pez Espada in second place with 2921 points at 1707 points behind Tranquilo. With Tranquilo comfortably in the lead the real story was brewing between Pez Espada, Tijareta and Frenzy all within 200 points of each other going into the final day.
Day three started off with a flurry of fish many caught by Captain Bubba Carter’s team on the Tijareta _who was determined to catch the _Tranquil_o. For a while it looked like they were going to do the impossible and catch up to the guy and gals on the _Tranquilo who had been almost 2000 point ahead. Meanwhile Pez Espada and Frenzy were battling it out exchanging the 3rd and 4th place back and forth at least 10 times in the last 2 two hours of fishing. 3rd place ended up in hands of “Pez Espada” after achieving a family triple with Mom Tracy releasing the first, followed by Dad Dustin, leaving the now clinched Junior Angler winner Caden to complete the task. It doesn’t get much better than that.
In the end it was Tranquilo winning first place with 6828 points, Tijareta in second place with 5525 points and Pez Espada taking third with 4821 points, less the 200 points ahead of Frenzy. Top Angler was won by Marcos Solano on the Frenzy. Top Female Angler was taken by Tracy Alexander on the Pez Espada. The Top Junior was won by little Caden Alexander on the “Pez Espada” after releasing 18 sailfish and landing a 22 pound Dorado. Largest weighed fish went to angler Anton Stalgory and Top Crew was won by Tranquilo after properly tagging the most billfish with tags provided to the event by The Billfish Foundation.
