DAY 2 RECAP — 2026 Blue Marlin Grand Championship: A Work of Art's 641-Pound Blue Wins the Title and Seals the Triple Crown
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — It ended the way The Wharf does everything during Blue Marlin week: in a wall of flame and a shower of champagne. On Saturday night, the final weigh-in day of the 2026 Blue Marlin Grand Championship, A Work of Art — the sportfisher owned by Wharf developer Art Favre — brought a 641.2-pound, 115-inch blue marlin to the scale to claim the tournament's marquee Weighed Blue Marlin title. Angler Brandon Favre got the fish to the boat, and when the digital board over Marlin Circle locked in 641.2, the title was decided. The win gives A Work of Art its third Blue Marlin Grand Championship crown — after 2012 and 2023 — cementing its place as the only multi-time champion in event history.
The final weigh-in
When A Work of Art's crew backed into The Wharf's Marlin Circle during the closing 5-to-8 p.m. weigh-in, the 641.2-pounder settled everything. Under BMGC's format the single heaviest blue marlin wins it all, and once the scale locked in the number no other boat could touch it: the margin over the next-heaviest fish — C'mon Man's 509.0-pound blue, weighed by angler J Mike Riley earlier Saturday — was more than 130 pounds. Gunnslinger's 447.6-pounder, which had led the board since Day 1 (see our Day 1 recap), finished third, with Fat Chick's 371.8 rounding out the weighed board. Owner Art Favre and captain Jason Buck shared an embrace on the stage before the champagne and fire cannons cut loose over Marlin Circle.
The release race
It Just Takes Time set the pace on the release side from the opening bell and never let go, taking the Catch & Release title with 3,555 points. It was closer than the scoreboard suggests: A Work of Art stacked 3,507 release points of its own — a 48-point gap — while Brittney Marie and Born2Run deadlocked at 2,505 behind them. The C&R board ran red-hot all week as most of the fleet's billfish went back over the transom.
A Work of Art seals the Gulf Coast Triple Crown
The night's biggest fish also decided the season-long Gulf Coast Triple Crown, the three-event series that closes with the Blue Marlin Grand Championship. A Work of Art's sweep at The Wharf — the winning 641.2 blue plus a runner-up Catch & Release finish — sealed the 2026 GCTC crown for the Orange Beach team, with the official presentation set for Sunday morning's awards breakfast at the Orange Beach Event Center.
A record-busy fleet
The finale of the Gulf Coast Triple Crown drew roughly 75 teams and 470 anglers, and by the close of the event the official catch counter had swelled to 136 fish — headlined by 66 blue marlin and 35 white marlin, along with 17 sailfish, 10 wahoo, five yellowfin tuna and three dolphin. Most of those billfish were caught, released and scored on the Catch & Release board.
Winner, winning weight and Triple Crown result confirmed via the tournament's official CatchStat leaderboard (bmgc.catchstat.com), bluemarlingrandchampionship.com and the Gulf Coast Triple Crown official site. Leaderboard figures are unofficial until certified by tournament organizers. Photo: Blue Marlin Grand Championship (official Facebook).
Correction (July 22, 2026): An earlier version of this recap misstated the winning fish's weight and length, the winning angler, and the Catch & Release and Gulf Coast Triple Crown results. It has been corrected against the tournament's official CatchStat leaderboard and the Gulf Coast Triple Crown's official site.
