The first Saturday draws more boats. In 2024, 63 teams fished Marina Pez Vela's Dorado Derby and the heaviest fish was 35.00 pounds. One week later, 40 teams fished the Dorado Derby Dos and the winning dorado was 55.30 pounds. The same thing happened in 2023 and again in 2025. The second Saturday had the smaller field and the heavier winner.
Both derbies return this month. Dorado Derby 2026 fishes Saturday, November 14, and Dorado Derby Dos 2026 follows on November 21. Anyone in Quepos who watches the marina for the season's first big fish should circle the second date.
Three Novembers on the scoreboard
Since 2023, Marina Pez Vela has posted every derby's leaderboard on CatchStat. Set side by side, the six results look like this:
| Year | Derby date | Teams | Winning dorado | Dos date | Teams | Winning dorado |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Nov. 11 | 57 | 30.10 lb, La Guila | Nov. 18 | 46 | 51.72 lb, TRIP |
| 2024 | Nov. 9 | 63 | 35.00 lb, Reel Freedom | Nov. 16 | 40 | 55.30 lb, Miami Vice |
| 2025 | Nov. 15 | 53 | 49.16 lb, Southern Fly | Nov. 22 | 40 | 51.56 lb, Muñequita |
Every Dos winner has topped 51 pounds. Two of the three first-Saturday winners stayed in the 30s. The gap narrowed in 2025, when Southern Fly weighed a 49.16-pound fish in the opener, but the Dos still beat it a week later.
The fields don't explain the pattern. Each Dos had fewer teams than the derby before it, which means fewer lines in the water and fewer chances at a trophy fish. The heavier winners came anyway.
One fish decides the whole day
Look at the 2024 Dos leaderboard and the pattern gets more interesting. Miami Vice weighed 55.30 pounds. Second place, Scatterbrain, weighed 31.80, and third, Tag N' Stick, weighed 30.80. Below the top spot, that day's board looks a lot like the opener's. One fish set the record, and it came in more than 23 pounds ahead of anything else at the dock.
The rules allow exactly that. Marina Pez Vela's published rules give top honors to the team that weighs "the single heaviest Dorado," with cash and prizes paid to third place. Total weight across a team doesn't count toward the main title, and neither does a day of steady catches. Big fish are also scarce across the whole fleet. In the 2023 opener, 57 teams and 236 anglers weighed 79 dorado between them. In the 2024 Dos, 180 anglers weighed 76.
A single-fish format with that few fish at the scale makes the results lumpy. Three years of heavier Dos winners is a real pattern on the record. It also rests on a handful of individual fish, so it says nothing certain about how November 21 will turn out.
How the derby works
The rules are what turn one big fish into a win, and they explain how a day plays out on the water:
- Entry: $500 plus 13% IVA per team of up to six anglers. The boat charter costs extra, and charters can be booked through the tournament office.
- Range: boats must leave from Marina Pez Vela, and the fishing boundary sits 50 nautical miles from the marina.
- Gear: line is capped at 50-pound test, and non-offset circle hooks are required whenever natural bait is used.
- The scale: each team may weigh no more than four fish, and a fish must weigh at least 15 pounds to qualify. In a tie, the team that weighed first wins.
- Proof: any fish estimated at over 40 pounds must be on video at the leader, at the gaff and coming aboard, and winners may be asked to take a polygraph.
- Side awards: the heaviest dorado weighed by a junior boy angler, a junior girl angler and a lady angler each earn their own award. Junior anglers are 16 or under.
The four-fish cap and the 40-pound video rule both point to the same thing. The organizers expect a few fish to decide the event, and they want proof of those fish.
Why the dorado arrive in November
Both Saturdays fall inside a well-documented run. One Costa Rica sportfishing operator's fishing calendar describes October through December as peak dorado season. The run usually starts in late October or early November and lasts into mid or late December, and the calendar ties it to Marina Pez Vela's November tournament. Commercial landings follow the same calendar. A 2025 study in Frontiers in Marine Science looked at Costa Rican Pacific longline landings, with Quepos among the ports studied, and found mahi-mahi landings peaked from October through January.
That timing puts the Dos about a week deeper into the run, which is as far as the calendar goes. The season explains why both Saturdays find dorado. The heavier Dos winners are still a pattern on the scoreboard.
The species also has a national conservation floor. A March 2026 IATTC dorado workshop report says Costa Rica's dorado measure is an 80-centimeter minimum landing size, and it describes the country's sport and tourist rod-and-reel fleet as practicing catch-and-release.
Where some of the money goes
Every year one jackpot goes to the community. The $300 Charity Jackpot rewards the fish weighed closest to 22.22 pounds. The winning team keeps half, and the other half goes to that year's designated charity or charities. The beneficiary changes from year to year, and past scoreboards name causes close to home:
- Escuela Náutica Femenina, named on the 2023 Dos and 2024 Derby scoreboards.
- Cruz Roja, named on the 2025 Dos scoreboard.
- A Marine Conservation Charity Jackpot, used for the 2023 Derby, the 2024 Dos and the 2025 Derby.
Some team names also come back year after year. Tres Miguels finished second in the 2023 opener aboard Sky II and sixth in the 2024 Dos aboard Good Day. In 2025, fishing as Tres Miguel / Muñequita, they won the Dos with a 51.56-pound fish.
The two Saturdays, hour by hour
Both tournament days follow the same schedule on Marina Pez Vela's event pages:
- 5:30 a.m.: the registration desk opens for boat check-out.
- 7:00 a.m.: shotgun start, lines in.
- 3:30 p.m.: lines out.
- Around 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.: the weigh station is open at the marina, and every team must check in by 6:00.
- 7:30 p.m.: awards.
Final registration and the captains' meeting happen the evening before each derby, on Friday, November 13, and Friday, November 20. The captains' meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. The marina takes questions by WhatsApp at 2774-9006. The rules posted online are labeled unofficial, and the official rules are handed out at registration and at the captains' meeting.
If someone at your table brings back a fish, Runaway Grill at Marina Pez Vela says it will cook a customer's fresh catch however they like it. After the dorado weekends, the marina's next date is the Marlin Invitational 2026, with fishing on December 11 and 12 and awards on the evening of the 12th.
Our team at Bluezone Realty International spends the season close to the marina, and we know the dock calendar as well as we know the market. If you're curious how a home near Marina Pez Vela fits a life planned around these November Saturdays, schedule a private consultation.
