FINAL RECAP — 2026 Blue Marlin Grand Championship: A Work of Art's 641-Pound Blue Takes the Title and the Gulf Coast Triple Crown
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — The Greatest Show in Sportfishing closed its 2026 run the way only The Wharf can: fire cannons roaring over Marlin Circle, a giant blue marlin on the gantry, and a hometown crew soaked in champagne beneath it. A Work of Art, the sportfisher owned by Wharf developer Art Favre and run by captain Jason Buck, won the 2026 Blue Marlin Grand Championship with a 641.2-pound, 115-inch blue marlin caught by angler Brandon Favre — a Saturday-night statement fish that no boat in the 75-team fleet could answer. The victory is A Work of Art's third Blue Marlin Grand Championship title, adding to its 2012 and 2023 crowns, and it came with a second trophy attached: the season-long Gulf Coast Triple Crown, presented at Sunday morning's awards breakfast at the Orange Beach Event Center.
How the title was won
The weighed-marlin race built all week toward Saturday's closing 5-to-8 p.m. session. Gunnslinger struck first, putting a 447.6-pound blue on the board during Friday's weigh-in behind angler Jacob Goodroe — the fish that led our Day 1 recap. Saturday changed everything. C'mon Man and angler J Mike Riley raised the bar to 509.0 pounds, and then A Work of Art idled into Marlin Circle with the fish that ended the argument. When the scale settled at 641.2, the margin was more than 130 pounds — under BMGC's heaviest-single-blue format, the tournament was over on the spot.
Final Weighed Blue Marlin standings
- A Work of Art — 641.2 lb (115 in), angler Brandon Favre
- C'mon Man — 509.0 lb (111 in), angler J Mike Riley
- Gunnslinger — 447.6 lb (112.5 in), angler Jacob Goodroe
- Fat Chick — 371.8 lb (111 in), angler William Gaston
It Just Takes Time wins the release war
While the scale delivered the drama, the Catch & Release division delivered the grind. It Just Takes Time — the Orange Beach team that won this division at June's Bay Point Billfish Open — topped the board wire-to-wire, finishing with 3,555 points. The chase was closer than it ever looked: A Work of Art piled up 3,507 release points, falling just 48 short of a clean sweep of the tournament's two marquee divisions. Brittney Marie and Born2Run deadlocked at 2,505 for third, with Reel Fire (2,103) and Metal Masher (2,004) close behind.
Gamefish and angler honors
On the gamefish side, Rising Sons angler Jaselyn Berthelot took Heaviest Tuna with a 124.0-pound yellowfin — and added a 32.6-pound wahoo to her week for good measure. Easy Trigger's Asher Abrams won Heaviest Wahoo at 41.8 pounds, and CE's Annie Cooper claimed Heaviest Dolphin at 31.2 pounds.
The individual boards told their own stories. Dana Foster of Born2Run was Top Male Angler with 2,505 release points. Kate Dorland of Reel Fire took Top Lady Angler honors with 1,953 points, and 14-year-old-division standout George Pratt of It Just Takes Time won Top Junior Angler with 2,103 points — a family affair, with Leah Pratt finishing second on the lady board for the same team.
A fleet that never stopped catching
The 2026 edition drew roughly 75 teams and 470 anglers to The Wharf, and the fleet turned the Gulf into a numbers factory: 136 fish on the official catch counter, including 66 blue marlin, 35 white marlin, 17 sailfish, 10 wahoo, five yellowfin tuna and three dolphin. The overwhelming majority of those billfish were released, feeding a Catch & Release board that stayed hot from Thursday's 11 a.m. shotgun start out of Perdido Pass to Saturday's final bell.
The Triple Crown comes home to Orange Beach
The Blue Marlin Grand Championship is the finale of the Gulf Coast Triple Crown, the three-event series that runs through the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic and the Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic before closing at The Wharf. A Work of Art's championship week — the 641.2 title fish stacked on top of a runner-up release finish — sealed the 2026 GCTC crown, confirmed by the series' official standings. Sunday's awards breakfast, with the Triple Crown presentation by Grander Marine, closed the book on a Gulf billfish season that saved its biggest fish for the last scale of the year.
Final standings via the tournament's official CatchStat live leaderboard (bmgc.catchstat.com); champion and schedule confirmed via bluemarlingrandchampionship.com; Triple Crown result via the Gulf Coast Triple Crown official site. Leaderboard figures are unofficial until certified by tournament organizers. Hero photo: Blue Marlin Grand Championship (official website).
