Tag: Jennifer Humprey

Harvester WINS Ship of Fools Tournament!

For the fifteenth straight year the Ship of Fools Tournament attracted Costa Rica’s top anglers to Playa Garza; for the second time in three years the FishingNosara team took home the hardware.

Captain Alex Moreno on the 32-foot mega panga Harvester topped the leaderboard with 1700 points (11 Sailfish releases, one Black Marlin release, and one Blue Marlin release) during the two day event.

“Alex is the dude,” exclaimed Captain Patrick Humphrey of Ft. Lauderdale. “He has the best eyes I’ve ever seen and fishes as aggressively as we do in South Florida.”

Captain Humphrey runs trips for Lady Pamela II Sportfishing in Hollywood, FL. He was joined by wife Jennifer, daughter Amelia, and angling legend Patrick Irwin.

The Ship of Fools Tournament is one of the last true billfish release tournaments in Costa Rica. Each scoring fish must be billed and photographed by hand (no snatch-leader releases) which increases the difficultly tremendously.

On the first day of the tournament, eleven boats set out from Playa Garza and set up shop twelve miles offshore in 2100 feet of water.

Captain Alex was first boat to the spot and put three Sailfish releases on the board in the opening hours of the first day. As the rest of the field lagged behind, the mega panga hooked up a Blue Marlin for a two hour fight.

After the photograph and safe release a second Marlin entered the spread, this time a big bad Black. Captain Patrick belted up for the battle of a lifetime, conquering the fish in two-plus hour fight that saw eight leader grabs before the successful release.

“I had a trip planned for Hawaii in the winter to cross Black Marlin off my list,” said Patrick, smiling. “I guess that’s off”

Their total of 1000 points is a single day record for the event, and lost in the shuffle is that they scored the ultra-difficult Billfish Grand Slam.

The second day was just like the first, with the Harvester scoring early and often. They snagged seven more Sailfish release including one at 3:59pm, one minute before lines-out.

The Harvester’s haul is an all-time best for this tournament, eclipsing the winning score of 1200 posted two years ago by FishingNosara teammate the Explorer.

For Captain Alex it is the culmination of perseverance through years of adversity in this event. In 2011 as mate on the Wanderer he recorded 14 Sailfish releases during prefishing only to get zero during the actual event. In 2016 he had the thing won until the camera with all the proof-photos fell overboard late on the second day.

“I’m incredibly proud of what Captain Alex has done with the Harvester,” beamed Craig Sutton, founder of FishingNosara and architect of the mega panga design. “He pushed himself and his boat to the edge during months before this event.” (ed. note: The Harvester ran 47 trips in February and March)

“He has honed his instincts and advanced his craft,” Sutton continued. “Captain Alex has paid the price to reach to top of the mountain.

The FishingNosara team looks forwarded to challenging the Harvester in the 2020 Ship of Fools Tournament next April and to competing with Alex in the 1st Annual FishingNosara Invitational in early August 2019.

If you and your best anglers are ready to compete, the FishingNosara US office can be reached at 9045912161 USA or FishingNosara.com

Harvester Highlights:

 

Wanderer Highlights:

Explorer Highlights:

August 15, 2018

Team Humprey finished up their week in Nosara with a breathtaking NINE Sailfish release day on the Harvester on August 15.

The mega panga was a busy place; how could it not be with more than one Sailfish release per hour?

Clearly the action hit a peak for this group of South Florida anglers.

Of course all nine fish were released safely with no problems.

In addition to the Sailfish releases, the crew also scored a icebox full of nice Dorados.

“I had an amazing experience with this company when I was in Costa Rica. They surpassed my expectations and helped make the already incredible experience a time I will never forget. My fondest memories will be the time spent on the Harvester with Captain Alex and first mate Wilson.”

“My group who joined me on this journey all work for a fishing charter company (Lady Pamela 2 Fishing Charters) in South Florida. We are avid fishermen who work on the water catching fish, everyday. It’s not only a passion, but a career. That being said, we all felt Captain Alex was by far one of the best we have ever seen. He has eyes like a hawk. He is quicker than a rattle snake. He is patient, eager and willing to teach the knowledge he has learned fishing the Pacific Ocean for almost his whole life to us fellow fishermen of Florida.”

“We fished three days out of our week stay. We decided to upgrade to a full eight hours for our last trip. That day we caught and released nine gorgeous sail fish. We caught everything from 75lb tuna to 15lb dorados out of our three trips, but the last day was by far an incredible experience. Our mate, Wilson, was extremely polite, helpful, and quick at getting the spread back out. I really can’t say enough about these gentlemen and how wonderful they are.”

“Our host, Craig, was very friendly an met us for our complementary breakfast just about every morning. (Breakfast was great by the way) he joined in on conversations with everyone staying at the little jungle town he created in Nosara. He was a great host an has built a phenomenal company.”

“We also did a horse back ride with Eduardo in the breath taking atmosphere that was surrounded by mountains, monkeys, waterfalls, flowers, incredible trees… (I could keep going) an we enjoyed every second of it! He matched all our personalities with each horse! They were well trained and taken care of. Eduardo was so sweet!! He told us all kinds of interesting facts about the jungle and the surrounding river. We rode up to his mothers house, where we were greeted with star fruit water, cold mountain water, and mouth watering sliced fruit. He showed us his gorgeous property and kept the interesting info about his culture an land going the whole time.”

“We then rode off again to several different waterfalls where we got to get wet with the horses and take awesome pictures. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We then traveled back to his mamas house, where we had hands down the best meal we ate our entire trip. Fresh green salad with the best avacado you’ll ever eat. Chicken that was clearly prepared that morning, home made potato chips, rice and beans… uh I want more just thinking about it. Then the coffee!!! Oh the coffee! Beans from their tree, freshly ground, that was just heavenly. They were warm hearted, kind, humble people whom I will never forget.”

“If you are looking to stay at a beautiful location, do some incredible big game fishing, and explore the wonders of the jungle on horseback.. you will have a life changing experience if you book a vacation trip with Fishing Nosara. You won’t want to leave!!!”

Brittany Marie‎
Fort Lauderdale, FL
August 21, 2018

August 13, 2018

Patrick and Jennifer Humphrey’s group joined Captain Alex for a full day on the Harvester, and these CCA FL anglers got all they could handle as the Sailfish came in swift and strong.

There were multiple hookups throughout the trip and lots of good fights.

Excellent work by the mega panga.

August 11, 2018

Patrick and Jennifer Humphrey and their group (Donald Gibbs, Dominic Miller, Brittany Marie) knocked the Yellowfin Tunas out of the park on August 11 with three monster catches.

The ladies got in on the action as well.

These monsters weighed in at 75lbs., 31lbs. and 25lbs.

Big smiles and big fish for this group of Florida-based anglers.