Pres Challange - Carillo

[Squidnation]

PCCA DAY ONE UPDATE
Blue Marlin Dominate Action

Playa Carrillo, Costa Rica—As of 1PM Costa Rican time, several boats had released blue marlin to shake up the standings during Day One of the Presidential Challenge of Central America’s Costa Rica leg. Moving into first place is the Texas-based Sea Angel team with one blue marlin and two sailfish releases, good for 500 points (any species of marlin are worth 300 points while sails are worth 100). In second place is the Hattaboy team, based out of Los Suenos, Costa Rica, also with one marlin and a pair of sailfish and 500 points. In third is Silverado, a local team from Playa Carrillo, with three sails and 300 points.

Three hours remain in the fishing day today and with both the weather and the bite improving it seems that this year’s event is off to a running start. Stay tuned for updates from Costa Rica!



DAY ONE OF PCCA COSTA RICA NOW UNDERWAY
Fleet Confronted with High Winds, Challenging Conditions

Playa Carrillo, Costa Rica—The sport of billfishing is anything but predictable, and that parable once again proved true as the first day of fishing in the 14th annual Presidential Challenge of Central America’s Costa Rica leg got underway earlier today.

During the evening, strong winds began to howl through the stately Guanacaste hardwoods surrounding the anchorage at Playa Carrillo, an omen of what was to follow. By the time the fleet of 12 boats headed for open water, the seas had built considerably and the winds continued to push in from a recent passing frontal system.

However, this didn’t seem to deter the sailfish from biting. Just one hour into the tournament, there have been three releases so far: two for Gary Carter’s Silverado and one for the Sea Angel. Prior to the start of this year’s tournament, most of the local boats had difficulty in locating the fish, a factor most blamed on the unusually high water temperatures associated with an El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

The tournament will progress for the next three days, with the winning teams, anglers and boats receiving their prizes Sunday evening.

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The azure blue waters off Carrillo, Costa Rica are home to some of the best billfishing in the world. In addition to plenty of big Pacific sailfish, a surprisingly large number of blue, black and striped marlin call these waters home during the spring season.

The Presidential Challenge of Costa Rica, scheduled for March 4-7, 2010, coincides perfectly with the height of the billfishing season off central Costa Rica, offering anglers the ultimate in light-tackle angling in a tournament setting that’s highly competitive both on a team and individual angler basis.

This year’s event is once again hosted by the Villas Playa Samara, offering comfortable rooms situated just steps away from the beach and spacious freshwater pool complete with swim-up bar. The tournament entry fee includes nightly cocktail parties in addition to the awards dinner at the completion of the event. All proceeds from the tournament will go to The Billfish Foundation to support their conservation efforts in Costa Rica.

This year’s event kicks off March 4th with registration and a mandatory angler’s meeting with complimentary cocktails supplied by Bacardi. Fishing will commence on March 5th with drinks and dinner to follow at Casa Vela, the private home of tournament coordinator Joan Vernon. March 6th is the second day of the tournament with a Bacardi Bash immediately afterward, with March 7th being the third and final day of competition. There’s another Bacardi Bash with the awards dinner and presentation that evening.

[tolbard]

Thanks Bill Nice report. Hattaboy is that Ted Smith Boat ?

[Squidnation]

yes it is

[Swami]

Hey Bill, thanks for putting out what I'm putting down here from Costa Rica!

Here's a quick update from Day Two, about 12:30PM Tico time.

Boat/Team Standings:
Sea Angel: 800 pts
Big Oh: 800 pts
Hattaboy: 600 pts
Team USA/Gamefisher II: 600 pts

Angler Standings:
Gray Ingram (Big Oh): 500 pts
Austin Angel (Sea Angel): 400 pts
Steve Fanscy (Bushwacker): 300 pts
Russ Petranto (Hattaboy): 300 pts
Diego Garza Garcia: (Gamefisher II): 300 pts

For some strange reason it's been very windy here in the morning until about eleven o'clock, then it lays out and is real pretty for the rest of the day. Then around midnight or so the damn wind starts blowing again--it's been in this pattern for a couple days now and it's really got the fishing screwed up. Yesterday there were 29 billfish released, five of which were blue marlin. Today so far there have been only five sails and one blue so the afternoon bite has to come on strong.

Anyway, more after a bit. Internet comes and goes here but I'll post up results when I can.

[Swami]

Playa Carrillo, Costa Rica—In a second day marked by blustery winds and unusually rough sea conditions in the morning followed by a rapid clearing of the conditions by noon, the Big Oh team led by owner Gray Ingram and captained by Ronnie Fields showed why they are considered a dominant force in sportfishing.
Fresh off a victory in the second leg of the Los Suenos Signature Series, as well as being named Top Team of the series, the Big Oh came to Carrillo hoping to continue their winning ways.
In a slow day of fishing, they managed to convert the majority of their bites to releases, tallying an additional two sailfish for Ingram as well as two more for Ben Horning, adding a total of 400 very valuable points to their side of the leaderboard. They lead the ICT Team Division scores with 1100 points, while Ingram leads the Costa Del Mar Angler Division with 600 points.
The Day One leaders aboard the Sea Angel continue to hang tough though; the team finished up the second day of fishing in third place overall at 900 points. The Hattaboy moved into second place based on a last-minute marlin release, adding to their scores and finishing the second day of the tournament at 1000 points.
In the angler scoring, Diego Lopez and Arturo Lopez took over second and third places respectively, each falling just short of the mark set by Gray Ingram.
Despite the slower-than-usual fishing, the competitors remain in high spirits, due in no small part to the afternoon Bacardi Bash parties that commemorate the end of each fishing day of the Presidential Challenge.
Tomorrow marks the third and final day of competition, with the awards celebration set for tomorrow evening at the tournament’s host resort, the beautiful beachside Villas Playa Samara.
For more information on the Presidential Challenge of Central America, please visit www.preschallenge.com.

[Squidnation]

Playa Carrillo, Costa Rica—In a second day marked by blustery winds and unusually rough sea conditions in the morning followed by a rapid clearing of the conditions by noon, the Big Oh team led by owner Gray Ingram and captained by Ronnie Fields showed why they are considered a dominant force in sportfishing.
Fresh off a victory in the second leg of the Los Suenos Signature Series, as well as being named Top Team of the series, the Big Oh came to Carrillo hoping to continue their winning ways.
In a slow day of fishing, they managed to convert the majority of their bites to releases, tallying an additional two sailfish for Ingram as well as two more for Ben Horning, adding a total of 400 very valuable points to their side of the leaderboard. They lead the ICT Team Division scores with 1100 points, while Ingram leads the Costa Del Mar Angler Division with 600 points.
The Day One leaders aboard the Sea Angel continue to hang tough though; the team finished up the second day of fishing in third place overall at 900 points. The Hattaboy moved into second place based on a last-minute marlin release, adding to their scores and finishing the second day of the tournament at 1000 points.
In the angler scoring, Diego Lopez and Arturo Lopez took over second and third places respectively, each falling just short of the mark set by Gray Ingram.
Despite the slower-than-usual fishing, the competitors remain in high spirits, due in no small part to the afternoon Bacardi Bash parties that commemorate the end of each fishing day of the Presidential Challenge.
Tomorrow marks the third and final day of competition, with the awards celebration set for tomorrow evening at the tournament’s host resort, the beautiful beachside Villas Playa Samara.
For more information on the Presidential Challenge of Central America, please visit www.preschallenge.com.

Thanks for the update Sam. Good Luck to all the boats. Go Big Oh and Hattaboy. Two great crews!

[Swami]

Here ya go Bill. Slow fishing up here but what can you do but give it a shot every day, right? Peencha wind is still blowing every night too...

Playa Carrillo, Costa Rica—Day Three of the 2010 Presidential Challenge of Central America’s Costa Rica leg started off much like the previous two: windy. However, at least the wind shifted direction somewhat, making for a not too unpleasant ride out in the morning. Following the daily pattern, things slacked off by around eleven and everyone was able to enjoy the rest of the day’s fishing in relative comfort.
Day Three’s action belonged to the Hattaboy, a beautiful Hatteras Yacht based out of Los Suenos Marina, owned by Ted Smith and captained by Chris Garner. With anglers Gerard Eliseo, Russ Petranto and Arturo Lopez Nuna in the cockpit, the team performed admirably throughout the event but really put on a show today with one marlin and four sails released. They topped the standings at 1700 points. Eliseo was the tournament’s Top Angler with 700 points. ,
Coming in a very close second was the Big Oh, always a constant threat. Owner Gray Ingram and anglers Barry Daniels and Ben Horning collectively produced 1300 points in the tournament. Ingram also placed third in the angler division standings with 600 points.
Nailing down a solid third place finish was the Sea Angel, captained by BC Angel. Anglers Austin Angel, Greg Voell and Arturo Moreno piled up 1300 points as well but fell just short of the Big Oh team based on time. Austin Angel was second in the angler standings with 700 points.
The Costa Rican Tourism Board, ICT, will host the awards dinner this evening at the tournament’s host resort, Villas Playa Samara.
The entire staff of the PCCA would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for your participation and dedication to helping billfish conservation. This evening, a check in the amount of $5000 will be presented to Ellen Peel, president of The Billfish Foundation, to be used for the TBF conservation program in Costa Rica.
For more information on the Presidential Challenge, please visit www.preschallenge.com. We hope to see each of you next year!