Big Rock Day 6: Marlin Fever holds 919.9-pound record as fleet hunts the final blue marlin
The 68th Annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament rolled into its final fishing day Saturday with Marlin Fever's 919.9-pound blue marlin — already the largest fish in the tournament's 69-year history — still parked at the top of the leaderboard and 255 of the 278 entered boats pushing through Beaufort Inlet for one last shot at unseating it.
Days 4 and 5 came and went without a qualifying blue marlin at the scale. Offshore wind cut Thursday's on-water count to 105 boats and Friday's to just 59, and the Top 5 heaviest-fish board went into Saturday morning frozen exactly where it sat at the end of Day 3: Marlin Fever (919.9 lb, angler Connor Daniel), Fender Bender (644.1), Free Ranger (597.4), Hit N Run (549.2), and Builder's Choice (530.0).
What's still in play
By mid-morning, Haphazard was reported hooked on a blue marlin — and tournament radio chatter put the fish at under 900 pounds. If it makes the scale, it could re-shuffle positions two through seven on the heaviest-fish board, but it cannot displace Marlin Fever's record. If the lead holds when Big Rock Landing's scale closes Saturday night, angler Connor Daniel and the Marlin Fever crew are projected to take home roughly $6.2 million out of the tournament's record $9,038,225 purse — the largest single payout in tournament history.
The Release Division is the day's tightest race
The most-watched chase Saturday is in the Free Fly Apparel Overall Level VIII Release Division, where the standings have tightened to a few hundred points. Wave Paver sits first with 1,725 points on four blue marlin and a white marlin release — but is not scheduled to fish Day 6, having already exhausted its four-of-six fishing days. That leaves second-place Marsh Madness (1,675), which is on the water, the cleanest opportunity to catch up; G Baby (1,600) rounds out the top three. In the Level IX Non-Sonar Release race, three boats are tied near the top with multiple blue marlin releases: Wasabi, The Hurricane, and Family Time.
Gamefish: dolphin, wahoo, tuna
In the gamefish categories, Doc Fees holds the dolphin division with a 66.1-pound mahi. The wahoo board is a one-pound fight: Magic Moment leads at 53.4 pounds, with Redemption a half-pound back at 52.6. Watertight still tops the tuna board with a 70.8-pound yellowfin from earlier in the week.
What's ahead
Lines came in at 9 a.m. ET, lines out at 3 p.m., and weigh-ins at Big Rock Landing run through 7 p.m. After that, every leaderboard number on this page is a final number. The awards brunch follows Sunday, June 14, at 11 a.m. at the Crystal Coast Civic Center, with payouts certified after results are reconciled. Our final recap publishes once those payouts post.
Same-day numbers are provisional based on live-leaderboard data and partner reporting. Final standings will reconcile after Day 6 weigh-ins close Saturday evening, and we will not silently overwrite these figures on the final recap.
Sources
- Big Rock Live Leaderboard — reeltime.app/tournaments/the-big-rock/2026
- Big Rock Tournament official live updates — tournament.thebigrock.com/big-rock-blue-marlin/2026/updates
- WCTI-12 — Big Rock heads into final day with Marlin Fever still on top, release races tightening (June 13, 2026) — wcti12.com
- WITN — BIG ROCK DAY 6: Last chance for anglers to catch a winning blue marlin (June 13, 2026) — witn.com
- Big Rock Tournament Schedule of Events — thebigrock.com/eventschedule-2
