# How to fish a tournament in Costa Rica as a visitor > You don't need your own boat: most Marina Pez Vela tournaments in Quepos accept visiting teams on chartered boats, and the Offshore World Championship has allowed charters since 2026. Pick an event that fits, book a licensed tournament crew months ahead, get every angler an INCOPESCA licence, and learn the release-video and hook-your-own rules before the first day. Source: https://sportfishing-costarica.com/how-to-fish-a-costa-rica-tournament/ Last checked: 2026-11-15 Own boat needed: No, most Quepos events accept chartered boats Los Sueños Triple Crown: for boats with a slip at Los Sueños Offshore World Championship: qualifiers and invited teams, own or chartered boat Licence: INCOPESCA sport fishing licence for every angler, bought online Charter paperwork: vessel licence, navigability certificate and crew licences Book: tournament weeks January to April fill months ahead Easy entry points: one-day events, Pescadora, the Flamingo Rodeo, the Battle of the Bay ## The short answer You can fish a Costa Rican billfish tournament without owning a boat. Most of the events at [Marina Pez Vela](/marina-pez-vela-a-luxurious-getaway/) in Quepos accept visiting teams on chartered boats, and since 2026 even the Offshore World Championship lets teams bring a private or chartered boat instead of drawing one at random. What you need is the right event, a licensed tournament crew booked well ahead, an INCOPESCA licence for every angler, and a clear idea of the rules before the first lines go in. Our [Costa Rica fishing tournaments guide](/costa-rica-fishing-tournaments/) lists every yearly event with dates and past winners, and [Los Sueños and Pez Vela tournaments explained](/los-suenos-pez-vela-tournaments-explained/) breaks down the formats and scoring. This page is the practical side: how a visiting angler gets from "that looks fun" to a scorecard handed in at 7 pm. ## Choose the right event Not every tournament is open to every team. Here's how the main ones work for a visitor: | Event | When | Can a visiting team charter? | Good for | |---|---|---|---| | One-day events at Pez Vela (Dorado Derby, Rooster Rodeo, Sailfish Slam, Tuna Thunder) | November to June | Yes, ask local crews | A first taste | | Pelagic Rockstar Offshore | Mid-January | Usually; ask Quepos tournament crews | The biggest field, sonar and non-sonar divisions | | Pescadora Billfish Championship | February | Yes, the organiser points teams to a charter partner | Women's teams, all levels | | IGFA Open | March | Usually; ask Quepos tournament crews | Anglers who want strict IGFA rules | | Bisbee's Costa Rica Offshore | April | Yes; boats from Los Sueños can fish too | A 3-day event with gamefish | | Offshore World Championship | April | Yes, since 2026 | Teams that win a qualifier or are invited | | Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown | January to early April | Only on a boat with a Los Sueños slip | Serious billfish teams | | Presidential Flamingo Fishing Rodeo | Late July or early August | Ask Flamingo crews | A Guanacaste summer trip | | Battle of the Bay | May | Ask the Golfo Dulce lodges | Billfish plus roosterfish | If it's your first tournament, start small. A one-day event at Pez Vela, Pescadora, or one of the regional events in Guanacaste or the Golfo Dulce lets you learn the routine without a 3-day commitment. The Pelagic Rockstar, with more than 100 boats, is exciting but busy. ![A row of heavy trolling rods standing in the rod holders of a sportfishing boat heading out over calm blue water at dawn](/static/img/htour-ai-rods-at-dawn-800.webp) ## Chartering a boat for a tournament ### Find a crew that fishes tournaments Ask early, and ask specifically about tournaments: many charter crews fish them every season, but not every boat takes outside teams for them. Some places to start, all checked as operating in November 2026: **Top Notch Fishing Costa Rica (Quepos).** A 45-foot Viking at Marina Pez Vela. Its site lists the whole 2026 to 2027 Pez Vela calendar and invites teams to ask about chartering it for a tournament. [topnotchfishingcr.com](https://topnotchfishingcr.com) **Pez Loco Sportfishing (Quepos).** Docked at Pez Vela, with a 60-foot Viking as its flagship and a smaller express and center console. It promotes its boat for the one-day Dorado Derby. [pezloco.com](https://pezloco.com) **Quepos Fishing (Quepos).** Three boats at Pez Vela, from 28 to 38 feet; one of its captains has placed in local and international tournaments. See our [Quepos Fishing listing](/quepos-fishing-charter/). **Jaco Tour Sportfishing (Jacó and Los Sueños).** A large fleet leaving from Los Sueños and Playa Herradura, including custom sportfishers with tournament crews. See our [Jaco Tour Sportfishing listing](/jaco-tours/). **Fishing Charters Costa Rica (Los Sueños, Jacó and Quepos).** A booking service with boats at both marinas, useful for comparing options. See our [Fishing Charters Costa Rica listing](/fishing-charters-costa-rica/). The OWC's own rules suggest booking charters through Marina Pez Vela, and the marina's office can point you to crews with open dates. For the Triple Crown, you'd need to charter a boat that keeps a slip at [Los Sueños](/los-suenos-marina-and-resort/). ### Make sure the boat is legal This matters more than it sounds. The OWC rules spell out what a boat chartered for pay must have: an INCOPESCA licence for commercial tourist fishing, a current certificate of navigability, and INCOPESCA licences for the captain and crew. Costa Rican law also restricts what foreign-flagged boats may do. The tournament doesn't check any of this for you: if the boat isn't legal, it's the team's problem. A well-established local crew will have all of it, and our [fishing rules guide](/costa-rica-fishing-rules/) explains why the angler's own licence is separate from the boat's. ### Questions to ask before you book - Has the boat fished this event before, and with which captain? - Is it a sonar or non-sonar boat? At most big Quepos events, that decides your division and the points per fish. - Who registers the team, and who handles the entry, any optional jackpots and the licences? - How many anglers can fish each day? (Up to 5 at the OWC and at Los Sueños.) - Does the crew have release cameras, and who films and submits the videos? - Can we fish a practice day together before the tournament? - How do the crew's customs on tips and any winnings work? Agree on it in writing beforehand, so nobody is guessing at the awards dinner. ![A wooden dock reaching out into calm water at sunrise, with a small white fishing boat far off on the bay](/static/img/htour-ai-dock-sunrise-800.webp) ## Entering Each organiser runs its own sign-up. Most Quepos events, including Pescadora, Bisbee's and the OWC, register teams through CatchStat, the scoring service that also takes the release videos. The Pelagic Rockstar registers through Pelagic's tournament site, and the Los Sueños Triple Crown uses a team entry form on its own site. A few details catch teams out: - **The roster.** At Bisbee's, everyone on the entry form counts as an angler, captain and deckhands included. Anglers can be added or removed by email before each day's fishing starts, but not after. - **The OWC.** Entry is for champions of official qualifying events (at least one angler from the original winning team must fish) and teams the committee invites. Applying doesn't guarantee a place. The base entry covers 4 anglers, more can be added, and up to 5 fish each day, rotating as you like. - **Check-in.** It's in person, the day before fishing. The 2027 OWC registration is 11 April, 10 am to 3 pm, with a compulsory briefing at 5 pm. Bisbee's checks in teams on 6 April from 3 pm, and Los Sueños on the Wednesday of each leg. - **A team contact.** Bisbee's asks every team for one person with a working mobile or Costa Rican phone number for the week. ## Licences for everyone Every angler needs their own INCOPESCA sport fishing licence, tournament or not. INCOPESCA's approvals for tournaments make the licence a condition for every participant, and the organisers repeat it: Pescadora links straight to the licence page, and Bisbee's says everyone aboard needs one. Bisbee's planned to sell licences at registration, but warns that isn't guaranteed. Buy them online before you fly, using INCOPESCA's English form, and make sure each name matches its passport. Many charter crews will buy them for you if you send passport details a few days ahead. The licence comes for 8 days, a month or a year. Children can fish too: a 2016 decree removed the age limit that had kept under-16s out of tournaments. Our step-by-step [Costa Rica fishing licence guide](/costa-rica-fishing-licence-how-to/) walks through the form. ## The rules you'll fish under Each event publishes its own rules, and you'll get the final printed version at registration. The OWC's are a good model of what to expect at the stricter events: - **Hook your own fish.** Under IGFA rules, the angler hooks, fights and brings the fish to the leader alone, and nobody else touches the rod. Some events, such as Pescadora, also have a hook-and-hand category where the crew can hook the fish for you. - **Circle hooks with bait.** Bait must be rigged on non-offset circle hooks, which Costa Rican law requires anyway. J-hooks are only for artificial lures with no bait. - **No live bait at the OWC.** Dead bait and lures only, and the Los Sueños Triple Crown is the same. You can't buy bait from another boat during fishing hours or catch bait before the start. - **The crew can't pitch the bait for you.** Mates may tease a fish up with hookless teasers, but the angler drops back the hooked bait. If you've never done it, practise first: our guide to [the bait and switch](/fly-fishing-sailfish-bait-and-switch/) and the [techniques guide](/costa-rica-fishing-techniques/) explain how it works. - **Every release on video.** One unbroken clip showing the species, the leader at the rod tip, the time and the day's catch card, then the fish swimming free. - **Every release by radio.** Call it in to Tournament Control with your team and angler numbers and the species. - **Stay inside the boundary.** At the Quepos events that's 50 nautical miles from the marina, and GPS tracks must be kept. ![Five rigged ballyhoo laid in a neat row on crushed ice in an open white cooler on a boat deck](/static/img/htour-ai-ballyhoo-ice-800.webp) Billfish are always released in the water, and Costa Rican rules ban lifting them aboard for photos. Learn how a good release looks in our guide to [releasing a billfish properly](/how-to-release-a-billfish/); in a tournament, the camera is watching. ## A tournament day The rhythm is similar at every big event, with the times changing a little: | | Los Sueños Triple Crown | OWC (Quepos) | Bisbee's (Quepos) | |---|---|---|---| | Leave the dock | From 6:00 am, once the observer is aboard | Not before 6:00 am on day 1 | Shotgun start | | Lines in | 8:00 am | 7:30 am | 6:30 am | | Lines out | 4:00 pm | 3:30 pm | 4:00 pm | | Paperwork due | 7:00 pm, signed scorecard | 7:00 pm, videos and signed affidavit | 7:30 pm, videos and scorecard | Expect an early start and a long day, with the radio busy from lines-in. Back at the dock, there's the weigh station for tuna and dorado, the video submission, and then the evening event, which is half the fun. Don't plan anything else for tournament week. ::: triptych "Tournament week: early starts, released sailfish and tuna for the scales" ![A small white sportfishing boat far off on calm blue water in golden early light](/static/img/htour-ai-boat-far-off-800.webp) ![A sailfish swimming away into clear blue water just under the surface after release](/static/img/htour-ai-sailfish-release-800.webp) ![A yellowfin tuna with long yellow fins lying on crushed ice in a white cooler](/static/img/htour-ai-tuna-cooler-800.webp) ::: ## Planning the trip around it **Book early.** Tournament weeks from January to April fill the best boats, the marina slips and the hotels months ahead. If you want a particular crew for the Rockstar or the OWC, ask during the previous summer. **Getting there.** Herradura is about 2 hours by road from San José, and Quepos about 3. SANSA flies small planes from San José to Quepos, which saves the drive. Our [planning guide](/planning-a-costa-rica-fishing-trip/) covers flights, transfers and where to stay. **Gear.** A tournament crew supplies the tackle, and the Triple Crown limits it to 50-pound class or lighter. If you want your own rods or a favourite reel, read [bringing your own tackle into Costa Rica](/bringing-fishing-tackle-into-costa-rica/) first. **Fish a day before.** A non-tournament day with the same crew lets you practise drop-backs, the release routine and the camera work. It's the best preparation there is. **Think about the season.** The Central Pacific events sit in the sailfish peak, December to April, as our [Central Pacific sailfish season guide](/central-pacific-sailfish-season/) explains. Guanacaste's [Presidential Flamingo Fishing Rodeo](/costa-rica-fishing-tournaments/) falls in that coast's own sailfish months in mid-summer, and crews such as [Bushwacker Sportfishing](/bushwacker-sportfishing/), whose boat won it as Casa Marlin/Bushwacker in 2021, fish out of Flamingo. ![The palm-lined entrance walkway and plaza at Marina Pez Vela in Quepos under a clear blue sky](/static/img/htour-pez-vela-plaza-800.webp "Photo: [Marina Pez Vela, Quepos](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quepos_Marina_(2).jpg) by Hanay, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons") For the whole calendar, past winners and the smaller regional events, go back to our [Costa Rica fishing tournaments guide](/costa-rica-fishing-tournaments/). ## Frequently asked questions ### Can a tourist enter a fishing tournament in Costa Rica? Yes. Most Marina Pez Vela events in Quepos accept visiting teams on chartered boats. The Los Sueños Triple Crown is for boats with a slip at Los Sueños, and the Offshore World Championship is for qualifiers and invited teams. ### Do I need my own boat? No. Charter a local tournament crew. Make sure the boat holds an INCOPESCA tourist fishing licence and a certificate of navigability, and that the captain and crew have their own licences. ### Do I need a fishing licence for a tournament? Yes. Every angler needs an INCOPESCA sport fishing licence, bought online for 8 days, a month or a year. Some events plan to sell them at registration, but don't count on it. ### Can children fish Costa Rican tournaments? Yes. A 2016 decree removed the rule that had kept under-16s out of recreational fishing and tournaments, and several events give a top junior angler award. ### What happens to the fish? Sailfish and marlin are released at the boat and proved on video. Tuna and dorado above the minimum weight can be kept and weighed at the dock for the gamefish divisions. ### How far ahead should I book a tournament charter? As early as you can. For the January to April events on the Central Pacific, many teams book their boat the summer before.