FINAL RECAP — Bay Point Billfish Open: It Just Takes Time Takes Catch-and-Release Crown as Briar Patch Lands 582.5-lb Blue Marlin

This is the final recap from the 2026 Bay Point Billfish Open, fished June 25-27 out of Bay Point Marina in Panama City Beach, Florida. The 86-boat fleet competed for a $1.8 million purse, with Orange Beach-based It Just Takes Time claiming the catch-and-release crown and Destin-based Briar Patch landing the only blue marlin weighed all week, a 582.5-pound fish, to take the heaviest billfish title.

It Just Takes Time Claims the Catch-and-Release Crown

Catch-and-release honors at Bay Point went to It Just Takes Time, an Orange Beach-based team that finished the three-day event at the top of the release leaderboard. The crew left Panama City Beach with a payout of approximately $210,285 in catch-and-release prize money, per tournament director Bert Merritt's awards-night totals.

The release bite was the story of the week across the 86-boat fleet. Roughly 190 fish were caught and released over the three competition days, a new Bay Point Billfish Open tournament record. Top Lady Angler honors went to Leah Pratt and Top Junior Angler honors went to George Pratt, with the Pratt family fishing the event together. Team owner Nick Pratt told WJHG his children "take care of the angling now, reeling in all the fish" and called it "a great time watching them have a passion."

Briar Patch Lands the 582.5-Pound Heaviest Blue Marlin

The signature fish of the tournament came late Saturday afternoon, when the Destin-based Briar Patch ran in with the only blue marlin to make weight all week. Junior angler Brantley Adams fought the roughly 116-inch fish for four-and-a-half hours before the crew brought it to the dock at Bay Point Marina, where a strong crowd had gathered for the weigh-in.

The blue tipped the official scales at 582.5 pounds, enough to claim the heaviest billfish division and a payout of approximately $559,770 for the Briar Patch crew. Captain Corey Hurst of Briar Patch took home the Tommy Browning Captains Award. "It took me four and a half hours. It was a hard fight," Adams told WJHG at the scale, noting it was the first kill fish of his angling career. "Thanks to the crew and everybody helping me out. It means a lot."

The Briar Patch blue stood alone in the heaviest-billfish category — no other blue marlin was weighed across the three days of competition, with the rest of the fleet focused on release scoring.

Tournament director Bert Merritt framed the draw to WJHG: "People love a blue marlin. People come from everywhere for a blue marlin," noting that the tournament has grown each year since its return to the Bay Point calendar.

Day-by-Day: What Happened on the Water

The 2026 Bay Point Billfish Open ran a traditional three-day format from Thursday, June 25 through Saturday, June 27 out of Bay Point Marina. The local public-facing scoring portal sat dark for much of the competition, with intermediate standings only consolidated and confirmed when teams returned to the scale for awards night — which is why our daily recap coverage waited for the trade-press wrap-up to land before being published in consolidated form here.

• Day 1 (Thursday, June 25): The fleet of 86 boats fished the Gulf with light winds and workable seas. Release reports trickled in via radio across the fleet, with the local scoring portal offline; teams reported active billfish bites along the deeper edges of the shelf.
• Day 2 (Friday, June 26): Conditions held and the release leaderboard kept building. Several Sport Fishing Championship Gulf Division teams — Third Coast Renegades, Mississippi Blues and Gulf Coast Cowboys among them — ran solid release numbers. The boards stayed quiet at the scales as teams stacked points for the final day.
• Day 3 (Saturday, June 27): The decisive afternoon. Briar Patch crossed the bridge with the 582.5-pound blue marlin late in the session, the only blue to make weight all week. In the meat-fish divisions, Bay Point local Set a Course angler David Pearson weighed a 199.2-pound tuna that briefly set a new Open record for heaviest tuna; Christian Theis on C'mon Man later broke that mark with a 236.5-pound fish at the same scale. Awards night consolidated the release leaderboard with It Just Takes Time on top.

SFC Gulf Division Standings: Bay Point Points and Season Overview

For Sport Fishing Championship (SFC) scoring, Bay Point was the third Gulf Division event of the 2026 season and the only Florida-coast leg of the Gulf schedule before the August/September stretch run. SFC placement points awarded at Bay Point reshaped the Gulf Division cumulative leaderboard.

Bay Point Billfish Open — SFC Gulf Division Final Results

1. Third Coast Renegades Angling Club — 2,025 points
2. Mississippi Blues Angling Club — 1,900 points
3. Gulf Coast Cowboys Angling Club — 1,350 points
4. Texas Lone Stars Angling Club — 1,050 points
5. West Florida Black Flags Angling Club — 375 points
6. Louisiana Canyons Angling Club — 325 points

SFC Gulf Division Cumulative Standings (3 of 6 Tournaments Complete)

1. Third Coast Renegades Angling Club — 9,800 points
2. Gulf Coast Cowboys Angling Club — 8,700 points
3. Mississippi Blues Angling Club — 8,400 points
4. Texas Lone Stars Angling Club — 8,200 points
5. Louisiana Canyons Angling Club — 7,400 points
6. West Florida Black Flags Angling Club — 7,000 points

Third Coast Renegades hold a 1,100-point cushion at the top of the Gulf Division with three regular-season tournaments remaining on the SFC calendar: the Texas Billfish Open (August 14-16), Hurricane Hole Louisiana Open (August 28-30) and MBGFC Labor Day Invitational (September 4-6). The top two clubs in each division advance to the Zane Grey Championship Playoffs October 17-18.

Sources

• WJHG — "2026 Baypoint Billfish Tournament wraps up with $1.8 million purse" (Hayden Smith, June 29, 2026).
• WJHG — "Destin based crew 'Briar Patch' brings in the heaviest blue marlin" (Hayden Smith, June 27, 2026).
• Sport Fishing Championship — 2026 Standings & Live Scoring.
• Sport Fishing Championship — Bay Point Billfish Open event page.
• @baypointbillfishopen — awards-night thanks-to-all-teams post (Instagram, June 30, 2026).