HISTORY MADE! 2025 Pescadora’s released 1,741 billfish in 2 days!!

QUEPOS, Costa Rica (February 23, 2025) – Breaking last year’s World Record by over 1,000 billfish the female anglers participating in the Pescadora Billfish Championship released 1,741 Billfish in two days of competition!  260 anglers fishing on 56 teams now hold the world record for the most billfish caught by women in the world! 

Presented by Hook Optics and hosted by the prestigious Marina Pez Vela, this year marks the 7th year of competition. In year one, only 12% of the billfish released in the Pescadora were by IGFA release, this year that number was 45%! An extraordinary statistic showing the growth in skill, knowledge and confidence in these amazing women. The Awards Celebration hosted almost 1,000 people for a sit-down dinner which included a tournament video produced by Out Your Front Door productions, the epic awards presentation and lots of “high 5’s” and dancing to follow.

Costa Rica’s very own Josabeth Abarca took home the prestigious 2025 IGFA Female Angler of the Year award with 24 sailfish releases.  Junior Angler Elizabeth Arn was presented with this year’s Female Angler of the Year award in the Hook and Hand division with 27 releases. Both taking home the coveted large pink sailfish trophy provided by Gray Trophy Fish Mounts.

The last hour of the tournament was one for the books with the 1st place team changing more than 5 times in the last 30 minutes. It came down to a triple IGFA sailfish release by Team Pura Vida to secure their 1st place win with 6,450 points, 2nd place was awarded to Team Kelly Dawn with 6300 points, 3rd place was awarded to Team Sea Duction with 6,220 points and 4th place trophy going to Team Poco Ocho with 6,080 points.  A huge congratulations to all of these women for all of their hard work!!

In the Meat Fish Division, Adriana Finkelstein, boated a 54.1lb Dorado for Team Miss Behavin, giving them the honor of being the Dorado Grand Champions.  Fishing on Stress Reeliever 1, anglers Connie Balusek (73.1lb tuna) Kimberly Kuykendall (64lb tuna) and Karen Hall (37.3 tuna) sealed their teams win as this year’s Tuna Grand Champions with a total of 223.5 combined points!

We would like to give a HUGE thank you to Marina Pez Vela, Anglers, Observers, Guests and Marketing Partners for their support in helping us Crown the World’s Best Female anglers! We are looking forward to seeing everyone again on February 19-21, 2026 for the 8th annual Women’s World Championship of fishing.