Tag: Bob Pease

Explorer WINS 2017 Ship of Fools Tournament!

It’s a great feeling to announce that the Explorer finished in first place at the 2017 Ship of Fools Tournament.

The fish were scarce and soft biting on the first day of the tournament. Craig scored the first and only Sailfish of the day on the Explorer around 8:30am, and the rest of the day was spent listening to the reports coming in over the radio.

At the end of the first day one boat had scored a Sailfish and a Striped Marlin (400 points total), another boat had two Sailfish (200 points total), and five boats all reported a single Sailfish (100 points)

On the second day Captain Fico hatched a brilliant scheme to propel the Explorer to the top of the leader board.

The whole tournament was fishing a blue water break 16 miles offshore, but Captain Fico felt that the fish were closer in.

The Explorer was the last boat out of the bay and as the 300hp boats disappeared over the horizon, Fico pulled back the throttle on his 75hp at the 12 mile mark.

The spread was out for less than an hour when the first Sailfish came calling, and Craig put the heat on him during a quick 10 minute fight.

After the lead boat reported a Sailfish release bringing them to 500 points, Harris ‘El Matador’ Savin put the Super panga in a first place tie with a feisty Striped Marlin release around 915am.

An hour later, the biggest fish of the tournament challenged Craig to a fight.

This Blue Marlin is easily 450lbs. and put every ounce of his strength into a fight that lasted over an hour.

With the lead in hand Harris added another Sailfish at 1pm and Matt put another 100 points on the board with a release at 2pm.

The ascension of the Explorer on the final day is indicative of the crew’s rise to greatness. Last year Captain Fico took the helm of the Super Panga after proving himself on the 23-foot Adventurer.

Captain Fico – 2014

During that same time Mate Elias was security guard / panga boat driver / substitute mate serving the other FishingNosara boats.

Mate Elias – 2015

It is a great feeling to see this dynamic duo sitting on the top of the hill in Garza’s most prestigious tournament.

Wanderer:

The flagship welcomed back Bob Pease and his crew of hard-fighting Georgia anglers with the hope of duplicating their success from the Dreamstater Tournament last December.

His team scored a nice Sailfish during their prefishing day, however the ocean was not as cooperative on the tournaments days with three total Sailfish releases.

Captain William got a MASSIVE Marlin on the line late in the first day of fishing, but it put up a worthy fight and managed to shake the hook and escape.

Harvester:

Captain Alex welcomed multiple-time FishingNosara Hall of Famer Hubble Keller to make a run at the hardware and they also caught lots of great fish, just on the wrong day.

They nabbed TWO Double Sailfish releases on their pre-fishing day plus a nice Dorado for the dinner table.

The Harvester scored a Sailfish on the first day of the tournament, putting her in a 5-way tie for 3rd place.

Hopeful for a big run on Day 2, Captain Alex got a Sailfish in the early morning and another around noon.

The late bite yielded a third Sailfish for the day, leaving the Harvester just off the medal stand with a 4th place finish.

Discoverer:

The Discoverer had trouble finding the billfish, however clients Pat and Don Vincent did win the Day 1 Calcutta with this monstrous Dorado:

Even better was that Pat chose to donate the winnings to the Garza School and also gave the filets to our team dinner on Friday night…class act!

In the end this is really what tournament fishing is all about: Great folks from all over the map coming together and making new friends.

Captain Fico and Mate Elias deserve all the credit for the catches, which were posted by anglers Craig Sutton, Matt Jorn, and Harris ‘El Matador’ Savin.

This is the culmination of years of effort and setbacks; our first time participating in this event was 2012 and despite many attempts our best finish was third place.

The growth of FishingNosara from a single boat in 2009 to where we are today (5 boats, 100 trips a month) has been a blessed effort costing much blood, sweat, and tears.

Next month we will begin issuing invitations for the Dreamstarter Tournament scheduled for December, and of course we will be back in force for the 2018 Ship of Fools Tournament next April.

December 11, 2016 – Dreamstarter Tournament Recap

FishingNosara participated in the 5th Annual Dreamstarter Billfish Invitational from December 7-10. This tournament is run by Mr. Brian Neal and our friends at Wanderlust Reality, and was a wonderful experience for all involved.

This is our first time entering this tournament, and it is with great pride that we announce that we brought home the hardware!

From the tournament website: “Dreamstarter Billfish Invitational Tournament would like to congratulate the Wanderer and Discoverer for finishing tied for 1st place in our tournament. Both boats fish under the flagship of FishingNosara and both teams agreed to stick with a tie. Congratulations to both teams!”

FishingNosara Hall of Famer Bob Pease joined Captain William on the Wanderer and scored two Sailfish and a Marlin over the two days of tournament fishing:

Meanwhile, the Discoverer welcomed Hall of Famer Eric Dixon and they also nabbed a Marlin backed-up with two Sailfish:

Ship of Fools Tournament Recap – April 10, 2016

The FishingNosara team competed in the 2016 Ship of Fools Tournament on April 9-10 and we are stoked to announce that once again Captain William and Bob Pease put the Wanderer in the money:

More importantly, all four FishingNosara boats were in the running for a top spot throughout the weekend.

The tournament began early in the morning on April 8 as Garza Bay was buzzing with excitement.

Captain Fico on the upstart Explorer was leading the team after the first day with seven Sailfish releases report by Roger Bowgen and his group.

Captain William and the mighty Wanderer snagged six Sailfish plus a last-minute Dorado; meat fish serve up a potentially tie-breaking 25 points and would this one would turn out to be essential.

Captain Alex and Hubble Keller on the mega panga Harvester were slotted right behind with six Sailfish released and caught a nice Dorado:

They actually released three more Sails, however the camera with those pictures got accidentally sent to Davy Jones’ Locker.

Matt, Craig, and Paula from the US Office rounded out the team’s results with four Sailfish released on the Discoverer.

On the second day was a big decision: head North to try to catch the tail end of the swarm of fish that was yielding double-digit releases a week prior, or cut South and try to anticipate the next school.

The Discoverer and Explorer went North, and that decision proved to not be the right one as only four fish were caught between the two boats.

We took advantage of every bite, but there just weren’t enough fish to stay at the top of the scoreboard.

The Harvester and Wanderer went South and they hit paydirt with multiple Sailfish and Marlin releases…Marlin are worth triple the points of a Sailfish in this tournament.

Captain Alex kept his momentum up from a productive first day and captured several more Sailfish releases.

 

Captain William scored the big fish of the day with Bob Pease’s epic 2 hour fight ending in a MASSIVE Blue Marlin release.

The Wanderer made up for the time lost fighting the big fish by closing the day with a Double Sailfish release.

This flurry of billfish action late on the second day propelled the Wanderer into the money for the third time in four years.

On Sunday was the legendary Ship of Fool’s Fiesta at Pacifico Azul in Garza:

Great food, great music, and great times were had by all the teams and all of the Garza community came out to celebrate.

On top of the scoreboard this year was the Old Squaw:

Followed up by the High Roller:

The Largest Tuna prize went to Siempre Algo:

As always the events were run masterfully by the Tournament Staff including Marlin Bill, Angie, and the Judges.

We look forward to competing in the 2017 Ship of Fools Tournament and once again seeing FishingNosara boats challenging for the top spot.

The FishingNosara Tournament Series continues this December as we are entering all four boats into the Dreamstarter Tournament:

If you have what it takes, get your best anglers together and reserve your spot in this event.

May 1, 2015

Intermittent rains means that the Rio Nosara is flowing strong and the Fuppernos (Friends of the River) are all over the big Snook.

Fresh off his great performance at the 2015 Ship of Fools Tournament, Bob Pease scored this sweet Snook on the morning tide:

Javier has stayed busy with a catches of Snook and Permit on the late-afternoon bite.

This Snook is on the larger side of what the Fuppernos have come to expect from the Rio Nosara.

Local fisherman Angel Ruiz Leal scored the biggest Snook of the month, easily weighing over 30lbs.

It’s not all fishing for the Fuppernos…part of being a “Friend of the River” is to take care of her. This month they organized a clean up of the nearby Ostinal River

Awesome work this month for the Fuppernos!

2015 Ship of Fools Tournament

The Ship of Fools Tournament is the annual throw-down between the local boats based out of our home port of Garza, CR.

Twelve boats entered the hotly contested tournament this year and the fish cooperated with a record number of release over the two day affair.

FishingNosara was represented by returning Three-time Hall of Famer Bob Pease and his hard-fishin’ crew from Northeast Georgia.

These guys are sharp anglers and more importantly brought a fun attitude to the competition.

April 16, 2015 – Pre-Fishing

The boys hit town just in time to get a day of pre-fishing in to get reacclimated to the fishery.

They tried to ask this Sailfish where the rest of his friends hang out.

They made it back to shore just in time to catch the Captain’s Meeting at Marlin Bill’s.

April 17, 2015 – Day 1

The Wanderer was fueled, iced, and primed for battle when Bob and the boys came aboard at 6:15am.

Late night rains swept through the area on the night of the 16th, and Captain William knows that this pushes the nutrient-rich blue water offshore. The Master Captain slammed down the throttles and wasted no time getting to the fishing grounds.

First Mate Alex was on his “A” game as the FishingNosara flagship scored 11 Sailfish releases on the first day, bringing the Wanderer‘s total to 1100 points.

April 18, 2015 – Day 2

The pressure to perform was on as the final day of the tournament found the Wanderer in a dead heat for First Place with the Mojito.

Right behind the leaders were Garza stalwarts Sportsman and High Roller.

The blue beauty kept lighting the lamp with five releases in the morning, starting bright and early at 7:45am.

The afternoon brought more good action as the Wanderer pushed the total to 20 Sailfish released.

Bob and the boys were all smiles back on the beach.

Once the scores were tabulated and the photographs verified, the results of the 2015 Ship of Fools Tournament were posted:

Mojito first place. 21 Sailfish

Wanderer second place. 20 Sailfish

High Roller third place.11 Sailfish

 

Sportsman fourth place. 14  Sailfish

 

April 19, 2015 – Fiesta

This year’s tournament was the best in recent memory with a dozen paid entrants making the trip.

Playa Garza was lit up for the Sunday night fiesta featuring food, live music, and the awards ceremony.

Great work by the mighty Wanderer to bring home the hardware, and special thanks to the ladies of Fish N Chicks to put on this excellent tournament.

We’ll be back for the 2016 Ship of Fools Tournament!

April 25, 2014

Bob Pease finished off another great week of hall-of-fame caliber fishing with Captain William and First Mate Alex on the Wanderer.

 

This high-flyer was a real challenge for any angler, but Bob’s billfishing skills are honed after this week of crazy action.

 

The action was consistent throughout the trip as the boys notched four more Sailfish releases.

 

Bob will be back in June and we are stoked to see what kind of fishing action will be in store from this Georgia boy!

 

April 24, 2014

Bob Pease finished off Day 3 with another nice Sailfish release, plus added a MASSIVE Dorado to his scorecard.

This deck sweeper is at least 60lbs., maybe more. Nice to see that Bob won’t have to eat chicken tonight; 15+ fish this week and now he finally has a filet!

In the afternoon First Mate Alex put out the billfish spread and attracted another hungry Sailfish.

Great work all around to keep the good times rollin’ on the Wanderer!

April 23, 2014

Now there’s no way to follow-up a great day like Bob Pease had on the 22nd, but these Georgia boys stayed on the bite to the tune of four Sailfish releases.

Overcast skies and intermittent waves seas would challenge most boats, but Captain William has seen it all and the mighty Wanderer wasn’t about to back down from tough conditions.

These releases bring Bob’s personal billfish total with us up to 30 fish. Excellent work Mr. Pease!