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The Blue Marlin Grand Championship has billed itself as “The Greatest Show in Sportfishing,” and the 2026 edition delivered a performance worthy of the name—complete with a record fleet, a record purse, strong billfish action and a historic champion beneath the lights of Marlin Circle.
A Blue Marlin Grand Championship-record 75 teams gathered at The Wharf Marina in Orange Beach, Alabama, to compete for $2,115,343, the largest prize-money total ever awarded by a Gulf-based tournament. Offshore, the fleet caught 118 billfish—66 blue marlin, 35 white marlin and 17 sailfish—while the nightly weigh-ins, Sponsor Village and surrounding restaurants and balconies filled with spectators ashore.
By the final night, A Work of Art stood at the center of the celebration.
Angler Brandon Favre brought the tournament-winning blue marlin to the scales, where it weighed 641.2 pounds. The fish carried the Orange Beach team to the top of the weighed-blue-marlin division and helped produce a combined payout of $785,556—the largest winner’s check in Blue Marlin Grand Championship history.
The catch carried meaning beyond its place on the leaderboard. Favre landed the fish on the same calendar date that he caught his first blue marlin seven years earlier aboard his grandfather’s boat. This time, three generations of the Favre family shared the victory.
“He has fished with us a lot, but this is the first time he’s been with us for a tournament win. It’s a priceless memory for me, to have my son Scott and his son be a part of this amazing experience here at The Wharf,” boat owner Art Favre said. “He is now the third generation of our family fishing with us, and his generation is the future of our sport.”
The victory also placed A Work of Art alone in the tournament record book. After previous wins in 2012 and 2023, the team became the first three-time champion in BMGC history; no other program has won the event more than once.
Capt. Jason Buck and crew did far more than weigh the winning fish. A Work of Art also released seven blue marlin to finish second in the catch-and-release division. Altogether, the team accounted for eight of the tournament’s 66 blue marlin catches.
“It’s been an incredible tournament season,” Buck said. “We were pretty confident we had the right one shortly after we hooked it. Our crew did a great job, Brandon did a great job in the chair, and we were able to get the fish boat-side in a short amount of time to get a good confirmation measurement, because you can’t afford to make a mistake in a tournament like this.”
The combined weighed-fish and release performance also clinched A Work of Art’s second Gulf Coast Triple Crown Championship in three years. For Buck, it marked his fifth Triple Crown title as a captain, adding another major achievement to one of the Gulf tournament circuit’s most accomplished résumés.
Four blue marlin were weighed during the tournament, and the race behind A Work of Art produced its own drama. C’Mon Man, also based in Orange Beach, finished second with a 509-pound blue marlin and earned $383,436. Destin, Florida-based Gunnslinger placed third with a 447.6-pound fish.
The catch-and-release division remained remarkably close. Capt. Myles Colley and It Just Takes Time released five blue marlin, six sailfish and one white marlin to total 3,555 points, edging A Work of Art’s 3,507 points for the division victory. The Orange Beach team earned $264,735, while junior angler George Pratt also claimed the tournament’s Top Junior Angler award. Brittany Marie, from Destin, finished third with five blue marlin releases and 2,505 points.
The gamefish divisions added more quality catches to the weigh-in stage. Rising Sons won the tuna division with a 124-pound yellowfin. In the dolphin division, Annie Cooper of Point Clear delivered the winning fish aboard CE, weighing a 31.2-pound dolphin, while Easy Trigger topped the wahoo category with a 41.8-pound fish.
While the competition offshore carried record stakes, the BMGC again remained accessible to the community ashore. Free admission, Sponsor Village and the tournament’s theatrical weigh-ins brought families and fishing fans close to the action, turning The Wharf into a multi-night celebration of Gulf Coast sportfishing. The event also continued its support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with tournament teams, sponsors and supporters having helped raise more than $250,000 for the organization.
With 75 boats, a Gulf tournament-record purse of more than $2.1 million, 118 billfish caught and a first-ever three-time champion, the 2026 Blue Marlin Grand Championship reset several benchmarks at once. For A Work of Art, it was a victory built on a 641.2-pound blue marlin, seven additional releases, three generations of family and a record $785,556 payday—an ending tailor-made for “The Greatest Show in Sportfishing.”
