A Unique, Ladies-Only Billfish Tournament Takes Female Angling to A New Level

Quepos, Costa Rica has always attracted some of the top billfish aficionados in the world due to its central location along that country’s Pacific coast. It’s a short run to the fish and they usually cooperate, on generally calm seas. Pioneers of Quepos billfishing include Capt. Harry Gray, who became both a world-renowned expert at catching both sailfish and marlin on fly rods, and a tireless promoter of what Quepos had to offer in general.

The town’s proximity to the Manuel Antonio National Park has provided an ever-growing stream of tourists from around the world to admire the incredible scenery and the abundance of wildlife found there. But if you’re like me, monkeys are cool, but billfish are cooler, so it all comes down to the fishing a destination offers in my book. Fortunately, Quepos has plenty of both monkeys and billfish.

A Game Changing Marina

Along most of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, marinas were in short supply in the early days, so boats sat moored offshore at night and passengers either had to descend rusty, shaky stairs or ladders to board, or take small boats out through the surf to go fishing. Fortunately, that has changed for the better. Quepos now boasts one the finest marina facilities in all of Costa Rica, the world-class Marina Pez Vela.

The relatively new marina has attracted major sport-fishing operations from other parts of Costa Rica, from the United States and from around the world. This, in turn, has had the usual effect on the gathering fishermen that inevitably began populating the docks: Let’s have a tournament! Three major events now call Marina Pez Vela home: The Pelagic Rockstar tournament, the Offshore World Championship, and the Pescadora.

“Pescadora” is Spanish for “fisherwoman,” a female angler, and back in 2018, Quepos resident Samantha Mumford came up with the awesome idea of a ladies-only event to promote women in fishing. She assembled a team of volunteers, and in early 2019, the first Pescadora billfish tournament took place. I should note that Sam, as she’s widely known, is no stranger to offshore fishing since her husband is the internationally renowned captain, John Mumford.

Women Love Fishing

“Over the past seven years, the Pescadora has provided an inspiring platform to witness the growth of women in the fishing industry, not only in terms of their competitive spirit but also their camaraderie and skill,” Sam said. “The primary goal has been to foster an environment where both novice and experienced anglers can learn from each other, in an event that is not only enjoyable and elegant but also highly competitive and demanding.”

My wife Poppy got invited to fish this year’s Pescadora in January aboard Game Time, a beautiful new 75-foot Ricky Scarborough sportfish captained by our son, Ben. He and his new bride, Tara, (they got married three days before the tournament!) had put together the team and I got invited along to be the team photographer.

We shoved off early for a practice day along with the rest of the 56 boats in the tournament fleet and most of us headed south toward where the bite had been hot on previous days. We ran for almost an hour and could see the remote Isla del Cano. We saw several sailfish finning lazily on the surface, a sure sign that at least a few were close by.

Getting Organized

The three mates aboard quickly deployed the spread, with dredge teasers running sub-surface on both side of the wake and two daisy chains sliding along on the surface. Our cockpit team consisted of Max Parmelee, Game Time’s full-time mate, Bo Jenyns, an Australian pro I’ve had the pleasure of fishing with many times, and Johan Pete, a Costa Rican friend of Ben’s who works on a Bayliss called Parranda in Cape Verde but had agreed to ride along and help. A cockpit full of talent. We pulled a spread of four naked ballyhoo hook baits rigged with chin weights on circle hooks, all of which swam perfectly.

The day started off slow, but the sailfish bites began to come by mid-morning, one at a time. Ben would turn the boat toward whatever side of the boat hooked up in the hopes of attracting doubles or triples. The idea is to keep the first fish hooked and let it run out far in the hopes of hooking other fish that might be swimming with it, but multiple bites came slow that first day. The biggest thing we accomplished that day, however, was getting the ladies organized as a team and working out the choreography that always goes into getting a group of strangers to work together efficiently.

The entire crew wore Eartec wireless headsets to minimize the inevitable shouting that occurs every time a fish rises to a bait, and to foster more efficient communication. That takes some getting used to, because at first everyone talks into their mikes at the same time, creating a floating version of the Tower of Babel. But they quickly learned that by flipping the mike up to the vertical position, it turns off, thereby enabling Ben, the mates and whoever was hooked up to communicate directly and easily, as the system was designed to do.

Game Time

Tournament day one came the following morning, and the excitement level had risen to a whole new level. We headed back to the same general area but this time the fleet seemed much more spread out as the captains searched for the largest concentration of fish. The good news was that the rain and wind of the previous day gave way to what most of us think of as ideal Pacific Ocean fishing conditions, flat calm, sunny and hot! Almost instantly, the VHF radio came alive after the lines-in call at 8 am, as boats began raising, hooking, and releasing fish, and calling in the releases.

The next few hours were a blur of fish raised, baited and either hooked or lost. We had our fair share of the dreaded San Cocho, where an angler drops back to a fish but never comes tight, and reels in only a ballyhoo head. San Cocho! But with each missed shot, you could see the ladies of the team double-down on their resolve to get it right the next time, a vital component of any team’s success.

That’s something many long-time professional captains agree upon, namely that women sometimes make better anglers than men, at least when they’re starting out. It has nothing to with physical strength or determination, but it comes down to one key difference: Women tend to listen when a captain or mate instructs them on the right way to do things and they follow the instructions, while men often don’t! We men think we already know it all and don’t like to be told how to do things, so we keep doing it wrong. You know it’s true guys.

Changing Perceptions

Sam Mumford would like to change many of the ways in which female anglers are perceived. “We aim to challenge the stereotypes and narrow perceptions often portrayed by social media regarding what a female angler looks like,” she said. “Times are changing, and female anglers now represent the fastest-growing demographic in the sports industry. In the United States alone, women make up 44 percent of all anglers, which equates to over 21 million participants. Additionally, 47 percent of first-time fishing participants are women, and 50 percent of children who fish do so alongside their mothers.”

The Pescadora, like many offshore tournaments these days, allows the practice of “hook-and-hand,” in which a mate can hook the fish and then hand the rod to the angler to fight it. The idea is to get novice anglers used to fighting fish and handling the gear before working on mastering the drop-back. Fish caught 100 percent by International Game Fish Association (IGFA) rules get more points (120 to 100 points for hook-and-hand on sailfish) and most tournament organizers agree that allowing it invites much greater levels of participation.

Improving Stats

“In 2019, only 12 percent of all billfish released in our event were caught according to strict IGFA standards,” Mumford said. “That figure has impressively risen to 45 percent this year. This remarkable progress highlights the evolution of women’s involvement in the sport.” As day one progressed, our team improved, and the missed fish and San Cochos grew less frequent as confidence grew. At lines out, they had released 17 sailfish, a great day in anyone’s book. A few boats had caught and released blue marlin, but we never raised one.

The second morning dawned bright and clear, and we headed out a little earlier to look around some more. Our 17 sails caught on day one, while fun, left us firmly in the middle of the pack since a few of the top boats had releases in the high 20s, with a few blue marlin thrown in, but we were undeterred. Every new day signals a renewed chance at redemption, and that’s one of the cool things about competitive fishing. There’s always a chance.

A Blue in the Spread

The radio really came alive on day two and we saw a lot of fish as well. The cockpit of a boat becomes a busy and often confusing place when the bite comes hot and heavy, but our team of consummate pros kept things cool, and we began tallying sailfish releases again. And this time, we had a few more multiples than the day before. But then shortly after midday, Ben shouted out, “Blue marlin!” A huge boil erupted near a sailfish bait as a blue engulfed a ballyhoo on sailfish tackle and headed away from the boat in a big hurry.

Tara strapped into a belt and harness and went to work on the marlin. After a series of frantic runs, crashing across the surface, the fish sounded and went deep, causing concern among the crew. There had been no chance to toss out the heavier tackle specifically rigged to bait a marlin as the fish was hooked on light tackle, 30-pound main line with a light, 60-pound fluorocarbon leader. Every minute it stayed deep increased the chances of it chafing through the light leader.

But the circle hook had done its job and Tara applied consistent pressure, pumping and winding and regaining line. After about 15 more minutes, the double line suddenly appeared, then Max had the leader in hand. “Release!” shouted the observer, to the cheers from the elated crew. “Marlin release for Tara on Game Time, IGFA,” went out the radio call.

Down to the Wire

At the end, we had 32 sailfish releases and the one blue marlin. But even though we weren’t in the hunt, the finale was exciting. In the last 30 minutes of the competition, the lead changed more than five times. At the very end, team Pura Vida, led by my old friend Capt. Rudy Arguedas, scored a triple release on sailfish, all IGFA, to nail down first place with 6,450 points.

Overall, the 56 teams and 260 female anglers caught and released 1,741 billfish in two days of fishing, including 989 fish on day one. This is considered a world record for women in such a time frame. Costa Rica’s own Josabeth Abarca won the prestigious 2025 IGFA Female Angler of the Year award, and junior angler Elizabeth Arn took home the Female Angler of the Year Award in the hook-and-hand division with 27 releases. Both received a large, pink sailfish trophy from Gray Trophy Fish Mounts. We capped it all off with a sit-down dinner for almost 1,000 people and an impressive awards ceremony. Samantha Mumford knows how to throw a party.

“It’s an honor to grow my relationship with such an incredible group of female anglers that represent the community, and I am proud to be called a ‘Pescadora’ along with them,” she said. “We look forward to seeing everyone next year on February 19th-21st, 2026.”

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Marina Pez Vela

Since opening in 2011, Marina Pez Vela has rapidly become one of the most popular destinations for traveling sportfishing boats on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The marina has a full-service boatyard onsite and has 195 slips with a controlled depth of 14 feet for boats up to 200 feet, plus it’s the only marina in Central America providing 100 percent polished fuel. It also offers numerous shops including a tackle store, five restaurants, a deli, and a gelato store.

“With 50 new wet slips and 40 new two- and three-bedroom villas all coming online before year’s end, this is quite an exciting time for our project,” said Jeff Duchesneau, General Manager of Marina Pez Vela. “These new pieces, along with our industry leading Yacht Yard, our 100 percent polished fuel dispensers, and our constantly improving charter fleet, are the perfect complement for our 15 public and private yearly fishing tournaments that we are now putting on throughout the calendar year. We are proud to lead the Costa Rica Marina industry into a new golden age for the good of our community, and the country as a whole.”

Learn more at marinapezvela.com.

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