Rock Star Offshore Tournament kicks off in Quepos, Costa Rica

The Rock Star Offshore Tournament opens today, Jan 15, at Marina Pez Vela in Quepos, Costa Rica, and runs through Jan 18. The event brings offshore sportfishing boats into the same grounds where tuna, billfish and dorado turn up this time of year, creating a concentrated window for anglers chasing early-season tuna in the Eastern Pacific.

Marina Pez Vela has long been a tournament hub for Central America, and its tournament pages routinely list species categories such as sailfish, marlin and common offshore pelagics. While the marina’s wider tournament season has historically included dedicated tuna categories later in the year, Rock Star Offshore draws boats that commonly target tuna alongside billfish and dorado, so tuna anglers should find relevant competition and opportunity during this weekend of fishing.

For anglers planning trips now, the event matters for two reasons: the formal structure of a tournament gives you a schedule and a focal point for finding local guides and charters, and the concentration of visiting boats creates a live-source network for reading current conditions on the grounds. If tuna are present on the nearby banks and thermoclines, the tournament provides a straightforward way to pair up with a captain, test local tackle and bait approaches, and compare results at the end of the day.

Practical steps you can take: confirm registration and category details through the marina’s tournament page at marinapezvela.com/tournaments, coordinate with captains early in the week, and plan for mixed fishing since boats will be chasing billfish, dorado and pelagics as well as tuna. Boat crews and visiting anglers will use this weekend to scout grounds, refine chum and bait patterns, and establish contacts for later in the season when dedicated tuna events like the marina’s June tuna series arrive.

The Rock Star Offshore is less about a single trophy and more about access to local knowledge and the first real look at what the water is doing after the holidays. Our two cents? If tuna are on your radar, show up ready to work the bite, talk to the captains, and treat this tournament weekend as your most efficient recon mission of the early season.