Subscribe to Marlin magazine and get a year of highly collectible, keepsake editions – plus access to the digital edition and archives. Sign up for the free Marlin email newsletter.
Tournament fishing is rarely a straight line.
It is a mix of missed opportunities and unexpected bites, long hours watching an empty spread and a few frantic seconds that can change everything. Over three days at the 2026 Bermuda Big Game Classic, the fleet experienced nearly every high and low the sport can offer.
Through it all, consistency proved to be the difference.
Builder’s Choice, Bree and Viking 82 did not rely on one dominant afternoon or a last-minute flurry to climb the leaderboard. Each team steadily added fish over the three fishing days, capitalizing when opportunities appeared and remaining within striking distance when the bite slowed.
In the end, Builder’s Choice, the 64-foot Jarrett Bay led by Capt. Brent Gaskill, emerged as tournament champion with seven blue marlin releases and 3,500 points.
It was a fitting victory for the defending Bermuda Triple Crown champions, who again demonstrated why they have become one of the Atlantic’s most reliable teams. Builder’s Choice opened with three blue marlin releases and 1,500 points, then continued adding to its total one fish at a time.
Bree, helmed by Capt. Kyle Liane, followed a similar formula. The 88-foot Merritt remained close to the leaders throughout the tournament and finished second with five blue marlin and one white marlin release.
Capt. Sean Dooley and the team aboard Viking 82 were equally steady. The team began with two blue marlin and one white marlin release for 1,100 points, then continued building its score over the final two days. Viking 82 finished third with 2,600 points.
The three podium teams reached the top in much the same way: staying productive when opportunities appeared and limiting the damage when they did not. In a sport governed by variables well beyond any crew’s control, consistency separated the leaders.
The 44-boat fleet competed for a total purse of $1,407,525, adding significant stakes to every release, hookup and decision made offshore. While the release race developed gradually, the weighed-fish competition followed a much different path.
For two full days, nothing came to the scales.
The Bermuda Big Game Classic carries a 500-pound minimum for blue marlin, forcing crews to make a consequential decision before boating a fish. A qualifying marlin earns one point per pound, while an undersized fish brings a 500-point penalty, plus an additional two-point deduction for every pound below the minimum.
That risk left Barr’s Park quiet through the opening two evenings.
Each afternoon, anticipation followed the fleet back toward Hamilton. Reports and rumors circulated around the docks, but the weigh station remained empty. Entering the final day, it appeared possible the tournament could end without a qualifying blue marlin reaching the scales.
Then the roller coaster took another turn.
One boat after another reported a fish coming home, transforming a quiet weighed-fish contest into the tournament’s most dramatic storyline. Personally, it meant making four separate trips from the Hamilton Princess to Barr’s Park as the calls continued coming in.
Each arrival brought another growing crowd, another boat entering Hamilton Harbour and another wave of speculation about what would appear when the transom doors opened.
Bobojo delivered the largest blue marlin of the tournament, weighing a 621-pound fish to claim the top position in the weighed-blue division. Reel Priority, a 47-foot Viking led by Capt. Kris Cameron, added another major final-day moment when angler Joshua Crockwell and the team brought a 570-pound blue marlin to the scales.
Every qualifying weighed fish arrived on the final day.
The scene at Barr’s Park captured what makes the Bermuda Big Game Classic so compelling. For two days, the scales offered little more than possibility. On the final afternoon, they became the center of the tournament.
Yet while the weigh-ins produced the biggest crowds and loudest celebrations, the overall result had been built much more methodically offshore.
Builder’s Choice did not win with one enormous fish or a single extraordinary day. Gaskill and his team won by remaining productive from beginning to end. Bree and Viking 82 stayed near the top for the same reason.
In a tournament filled with momentum swings, uncertainty and final-day drama, the teams that kept catching fish were the ones still standing when the ride finally stopped.
The fleet now turns its attention to the third and final leg of the 2026 Bermuda Triple Crown, the Sea Horse Anglers Club Billfish Tournament.
With the accumulated results of all three events determining the Bermuda Triple Crown champion, every release will carry even greater weight. After the highs, lows and frantic final-day action of the Bermuda Big Game Classic, only one tournament remains.
After two dramatic legs, the final chapter of the 2026 Bermuda Triple Crown is ready to be written.
