No Sancocho 2024
And just like that, our epic 10th No Sancocho Sailfish Shootout has come and gone…And what a wake it left behind!
With 1,141 sailfish raised, 983 bites, and 653 sailfish released, plus an incredible 26 marlin raises, 23 marlin bites, and 20 marlin releases we’d say our TENTH annual No Sancocho was a smashing success!
First and foremost, a BIG CONGRATS to our team aboard the Pica Más with Capt. Nicho, who took home First Place! The Pica Más started Day 1 with a resounding 35 Sailfish releases and 2 Marlin releases, giving them a nice headstart! On Day 2, they had another 35 Sailfish releases plus 3 more Marlin releases! Finally, on Day 3, they cemented their top spot with 17 more Sailfish releases and another Marlin. Landing them with 87 total Sailfish releases and 6 Marlins released—WOW!
Second Place was awarded to our team aboard the Finest Kind with Capt. Benji! Team Finest Kind actually had the most overall sailfish released, with 32 sailfish releases on the first day, 35 their second day, and 24 sails released the last day, for a grand total of 91 sailfish total. However, their total of only 3 marlins released is what landed them in their second-place spot! Not bad at all!
Our Third Place was awarded to our team on the Makaira with Capt. Jeffrey! Our third place Team Makaira had a great tournament with a grand total of 131 sailfish raises, 114 bites and overall 81 sailfish released! Team Makaira also saw a grand total of 3 marlin overall as well.
Top Lady Angler was Nancy Llacuna with 470pts aboard the Poco Loco with Capt. Jono! The largest dorado was 54″—a whopping 13″ bigger than last years’!—snagged by John Clipp, a lodge newcomer, on our third place boat Makaira! Last but not least, our No Sancocho QUEEN this year was also Nancy Llacuna aboard the Poco Loco with 18 sailfish Sancocho’s plus 2 marlin Sancocho’s!
With 657 Sailfish and 20 Marlin Sancochos, and a few Zing Pows—more than 6 times the numbers we saw last year!—allowed us to raise $7,070…but with additional donations from our amazing No Sancocho anglers, we have a grand total of $13,810!! That’s more than double last years’ total! With these Sancocho’s and donations, we can put even more money towards our local school here in Puerto San Jose. To see where your donations are going, be sure to check out our video below!
RESULTS:
1st—Pica Más 1170pts
2nd—Finest Kind 1060pts
3rd—Makaira 960pts
4th—Release 910pts (2:55PM)
5th—Poco Loco 910pts (2:59PM)
6th—Rum Line 860pts
7th—Tranquility 840pts (2:15PM)
8th—Chilero 840pts (2:42PM)
No Sancocho Queen—Nancy Llacuna, 18 Sailfish + 2 Marlin Sancochos, Poco Loco
Top Lady Angler—Nancy Llacuna (470 pts), Poco Loco
Biggest Mahi—54″ John Clipp, Makaira
For even more No Sancocho 2024 results, click HERE !
As always, the biggest of big THANK YOU‘s to our outstanding sponsors who help in making all of this possible! Muchas Gracias to: Yeti, AFTCO, Cummins, Casa del Jade, The Billfish Foundation, & Costa Sunglasses!
All in all, quite a successful tournament this year. We look forward to having you back for our lucky number 11th No Sancocho Sailfish Shootout next year: November 6th-8th, 2025!
IWFA CVL Takeover
As we mentioned in our last Newsletter, Casa Vieja Lodge loves hosting corporate events—especially when they’re fishing tournaments!
Seeing as how women in fishing are near and dear to us, we were very happy to welcome the IWFA to the lodge for their 49th annual tournament this year!
The IWFA, or the International Women’s Fishing Association, is a worldwide organization made up of, founded by, and for female anglers! Established in 1955 in Palm Beach, FL, these ladies have been raising sails, marlin and anything else you can catch on a hook for almost fifty years!
This year, we welcomed 28 lady anglers to the lodge, including our very own lodge Jefa, Kristen Salazar, for 3 days of nonstop fishing, in teams of 4 aboard 7 of our fleet!
Day one was a practice day and we saw some great numbers 165 sailfish raises, 142 bites, and 84 releases, plus 1 blue and 3 striped marlin releases! We also saw a solo angler Grand Slam by Meredith Ballay who released a sailfish, striped marlin, and blue marlin! Another angler caught her first sailfish on FLY, as well as four others caught their first Pacific Sailfish!
The second day grand total was 203 sailfish raises, 178 bites and 97 sail releases! We also had 1 blue and 5 striped marlin releases!
And the second day of the tournament saw a whopping 218 total sailfish raises, 192 bites and 126 sailfish releases, with 1 blue marlin and 4 striped marlin releases!
All in all it was an incredible couple of days and friendships with some astounding women. Our Jefa, Kristen Salazar, won her first IWFA Tournament with 17 sailfish and 1 striped marlin in two days of fishing!
What a wonderful weekend with incredible numbers for the Lodge! We saw some firsts, some personal bests and most importantly: strong camaraderie between fellow lady anglers. If you or someone you know would like to know more about this incredible group of women, click HERE for more info.
And if you’re interested in hosting your own fishing tournament or just a corporate retreat at Casa Vieja Lodge, we make it seamless, click HERE and you’re on your way to being the best boss ever!
Check this out!
Watch this epic video of a marlin skewering the back of the Release! Like, share with friends, and follow Casa Vieja Lodge on YouTube for more!
November Fishing Report
We are officially back in the swing of things!
What a November! With two big fishing tournaments back to back at the lodge, competition pushed anglers to some of our craziest daily totals we’ve seen yet!
Overall this month we saw 2,573 sailfish raises, 2,218 sailfish bites, and 1,461 sailfish releases! As for marlin, we saw 114 raises, 85 bites, and 55 releases! We saw as many as 35 sailfish (a couple times!) and 3 striped marlin releases just in a single day, and several grand slams for multiple of our fleet this month!!
We’re really rounding home on this historic fishing year, and we’re dying for you to be a part of it with us! We’ve already lapped the total fishing numbers we saw last year, and are seeing just how far we can push these digits before 2025!
If you’d like to see these incredible numbers for yourself, check out the cool Fishing Counter we’ve installed on our homepage! There you’ll see our total Billfishing Release numbers for 2024, plus these past five years!
With time running out to get in on these historic fishing numbers, call us ASAP to see what openings we have left! Round out the year strong with us at Casa Vieja Lodge!
Below are our fishing highlights (combination of conventional & fly):
- November 1st-19th, Chilero (38′ Warren O’Neal) with Capt. Nico Melendrez had 368 raises, 325 bites, 187 sailfish releases, plus 23 marlin raise, 19 marlin bites, 14 marlin releases, 2 tuna & 9 mahi-mahi!
- November 1st-19th, the Makaira (37′ Rybovich) with Capt. Jeffrey Garcia, had 249 raises, 214 bites, 147 sailfish releases plus 15 marlins raised, and 10 marlin bites, and 6 marlin release & 8 tuna.
- November 1st-19th,Pica Más (48′ Whiticar)with Capt. Nicho Alvarenga, had 393 raises, 345 bites & 223 sailfish releases, 21 marlin raises, 19 marlin bites 12 marlin released, plus 9 tuna!
- November 1st-19th,Poco Loco (44′ Nickerson) with Capt. Jono, had 338 raises, 269 bites, 192 sailfish releases, 16 marlins raised, and 8 marlin bites, and 3 marlin releases, plus 11 mahi-mahi!
- November 1st-19th,Release (37′ Merritt) with Capt. Sammy Baires, had 335 raises, 300 bites, 210 sailfish releases, 8 marlins raised, and 7 marlin bites, and 5 marlin releases, plus 7 mahi-mahi!
- November 1st-19th, Rum Line (40′ Gamefisherman) with Capt. Terry Brennan, had 351 raises, 304 bites, 196 sailfish releases plus 16 marlin raised, 12 marlin bites, 7 marlin released, plus 1 tuna & 8 mahi-mahi!
- November 2nd-3rd,Afinity (39′ Billy Knowles) with Capt. Franz Hoffman, had 15 raises, 13 bites & 10 sailfish releases!
- November 3rd-19th,Finest Kind (40′ Whiticar)with Capt. Benji Bairez, had 376 raises, 316 bites, 217 sailfish releases, 13 marlins raised, and 8 marlin bites, and 7 marlin release, plus 4 tuna & 2 mahi-mahi!
