The organization behind some of the world’s most well-known and high-paying offshore fishing tournaments is expanding into Costa Rica. Bisbee’s Offshore, now in its 45th year, announced the expansion Wednesday, along with a new catch-and-release format, to debut April 2026.
The family-run organization, which is headquartered in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, says the Central American country is the perfect place to develop a new tourney because of the sheer number of billfish swimming off its coastline and the passion Costa Ricans have for fishing and conservation.
“These waters produce the kind of fish dreams are made of,” Tournament Director Wayne Bisbee said in this week’s announcement.
The organization says the new location “promises unprecedented action” for marlin and sailfish, along with trophy yellowfin tuna and some of the world’s biggest dorado. The all-release format for billfish is a first for Bisbee’s. This aligns with Costa Rican law, which requires all billfish to be released alive and prohibits sportfishermen from even lifting a marlin, sailfish, or swordfish out of the water. Tuna, dorado, and other game fish will still be legally harvested and weighed at the Costa Rica tournament next April, while all billfish will be released, logged, and scored according to a points system.
“The fish are here, the infrastructure is world-class, and the community is hungry for this level of competition,” Bisbee added. “When you combine Costa Rica’s incredible billfish numbers with our all-release format, we’re talking about potential world record territory for tournament action.”
Wayne’s son, Blake Bisbee, is the Director of Operations for Bisbee’s Offshore, which was founded by Blake’s grandfather, Bob Bisbee, more than 40 years ago. Bob was an avid billfisherman, and a marina and tackle shop owner based in Southern California. He launched the first Bisbee’s Black and Blue in Cabo San Lucas in 1980 as a way to market his businesses. What started as a 10-boat, $10,0000 event has grown into one of the most prestigious — and arguably the richest — fishing tournaments in the world.
“To quote Sports Illustrated, they’ve called us ‘The Super Bowl of Sportfishing,’” Blake says. “Aside from professional boxing, we’ve given out some of the largest payments [in sports] … Over 44 years, we’ve given out about $200 million [in prize money.]”
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Bisbee’s Offshore has added two other events to its calendar over the years. The East Cape tournament, based in Los Barriles, is the first event of the year, and it kicks off July 29. Then there’s the Los Cabos tournament, which is held in Cabo San Lucas every October, the week before the world-famous Black and Blue — the capstone tournament that paid a whopping $4.4 million to the winning team in 2023.
The events in Mexico are all harvest tournaments, meaning the biggest billfish are killed and weighed back at the dock. Blake says those rules won’t change — at least for the time being. But he also says they’re excited to see how the release format works in Costa Rica, as many anglers and tournament organizers are moving more toward catch-and-release.
“Conservation is a big thing with the younger, and even the older, generations,” he explains. “This is going to lay the groundwork for us, so if we do move toward that all-release format in the future, we can still have the richest tournament with multi-million-dollar payouts for the winners.”
New technology is also helping streamline the logistics of a fully catch-and-release event. Bisbee’s says it will rely on the CatchStat platform that has been used in other fishing tournaments for real-time scoring and tournament tracking.
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As for the new frontier on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, Blake says his family has been eyeing the world-class billfish destination for years. He finally got to experience the place with his dad Wayne in February.
“We went out on a boat for a day, and the fishing was wild,” Blake says. “Just insane. That’s the best way I can put it. It was insane the amount of fish we were hitting, especially sailfish.”
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