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.
Can you picture a world without tournaments in our sport? Whether you love them or hate them, there’s no denying that tournaments form the beating heart of big-game fishing. They provide the platform where elite crews, and weekend warriors alike, test themselves against the ocean and one another; where dockside friendships are forged; where millions of dollars are won, and generously raised; where research is advanced; and where the spectacle of our sport is shared the outside world. At their best, these events fuse fierce competition with the tight-knit bonds of community.
As The Marlin Group expands its role as the chronicler—and champion—of bluewater sport-fishing, we are excited to announce the launch of the new Marlin Tournament of the Year Award, the latest honor to be added to The Marlin Group’s growing awards program. Beginning this year, the honor will become part of the inaugural Marlin Awards Ceremony, which you hopefully just read about on the previous page. Moving forward, the winner will be revealed each December inside the Marlin Best of Big Game annual issue alongside a growing slate of recognitions that celebrate the people, places, images, ideas, and competitions shaping the sport on a global scale.
Similar to the Marlin Person of the Year award, the winner of the Marlin Tournament of the Year is selected by the editorial staff of The Marlin Group, following a year-long evaluation of events across the global tournament circuit. The award is presented to the competition that most convincingly reflects the highest ideals of big-game fishing: record breaking numbers and performances, meaningful contributions to conservation and research, genuine community impact, and moments of angling skill and sportsmanship that define the character of our sport. In some cases, a single extraordinary achievement may set a tournament apart; in others, it is the cumulative effect of excellence, integrity, and atmosphere over the course of an entire season. Either way, the distinction is reserved for the event that best captured the spirit of bluewater competition in the year gone by.
And the Winner Is…
For its inaugural selection, Marlin names The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament as the 2025 Marlin Tournament of the Year.
By no means a stranger to the limelight, the iconic Morehead City, North Carolina, event has long stood among the sport’s crown jewels—yet the 2025 season’s combination of competition, philanthropy, sportsmanship, and overall drama made it a fitting standard-bearer for the award’s debut.
In 2025, The Big Rock featured a massive fleet competing for more than $6 million in prize money, with 272 teams and a remarkable 420 billfish released, including 238 blue marlin. Drama unfolded until the final hours, when Big Trouble weighed a 517-pounder to claim more than $2.2 million, reinforcing Big Rock’s reputation as a place where fortunes—and legends—are made.
From powerhouse custom sport-fishers armed with cutting-edge sonar to amateur programs, junior anglers, lady divisions, and outboard entries, the tournament remains one of the rare arenas where nearly every corner of the sport converges. That diversity, paired with a festival-like dockside atmosphere and one of the most electric weigh-stations anywhere, has helped make Big Rock both aspirational and welcoming—a Super Bowl-scale event that somehow still feels personal.
And then there were the moments that don’t show up in payout summaries. The tournament team forced to abandon ship following a fire, only to be rescued by fellow fishermen. A potentially winning marlin disqualified due to a shark bite, leading to a last-minute win. These are what will make the Big Rock 2025 talked about for years.
But perhaps most impressively, is that the tournament’s impact stretches far beyond the leaderboard and its participants. Since its humble beginnings in 1957, Big Rock has evolved into one of – if not the single largest nonprofit fishing tournaments in the world, distributing more than $14 million to date to community causes with a focus on education, healthcare, conservation, and local improvement. Today, that charitable mission is carried forward through The Big Rock Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Big Rock, Keli Wagner Lady Angler, and Big Rock Kids tournaments. In 2025 alone, the Foundation generated $2 million in charitable contributions, a new yearly record for the tournament.
Looking Ahead
And while Marlin Tournament of the Year will not always belong to the sport’s biggest juggernauts—there is plenty of quiet magic unfolding at smaller events that elevate big-game fishing in their own ways—this inaugural selection demanded a benchmark. After surveying the 2025 season, that standard belonged, unmistakably, to The Big Rock.
I look forward to celebrating the team behind this remarkable event at the end of March at our Annual Awards Ceremony, alongside the rest of the big-game community, as we toast a tournament that exemplifies what this sport is all about.
