2026 Cape Fear Blue Marlin Tournament — Final Recap: OUTNUMBERED Sweeps Top Boat With Two Blues and a White at the 53rd Annual
The 53rd Annual Cape Fear Blue Marlin Tournament wrapped on Saturday, May 30 with local team OUTNUMBERED claiming Top Boat honors after a two-day release card that no other crew in the 24-boat fleet could match. Fishing out of Seapath Yacht Club in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, the all-release blue marlin event also handed OUTNUMBERED the 1st Place Level One purse of $28,560.00, presented on stage Saturday night.
Cape Fear is one of the oldest blue marlin tournaments on the East Coast and runs as a catch-and-release format in the Billfish Series mold, scoring 400 points for a blue marlin release and 120 points for a white marlin or sailfish release. Lay days Wednesday and Thursday lined up a steady weather window for fishing on Friday and Saturday, and the fleet ran offshore from the Wrightsville Beach inlet to push baits in the Gulf Stream off Cape Fear.
Top Boat: OUTNUMBERED, 920 points
OUTNUMBERED finished with 920 points on two blue marlin and a white marlin release across the two fishing days. The performance was enough to also sweep Level Four and take second in the Saturday Daily. Capt. James Breen ran the boat and was named recipient of the Capt. Eddy Haneman Sportsmanship Award; angler Lauren Sumerville received the Lady Angler Award for the team.
Runner-up: REBELETTE, 800 points
The Morehead City-based REBELETTE pushed OUTNUMBERED to the last whistle on Saturday before settling for runner-up at 800 points on two blue marlin releases. REBELETTE took home the Level 2 Winner-Take-All payout and swept both Friday Daily honors after coming out of the gate hot on the opening fishing day.
Third place: GAUCHO, 640 points
Third went to GAUCHO with 640 points after a last-day Grand Slam — one blue, one white, and one sailfish — that vaulted the team onto the podium and earned Saturday Daily honors.
Meat-fish division
- Top Dolphin: TAILWALKER — 28.6 lb
- Top Wahoo: POSTAGE PAID — 30 lb
Looking ahead
Cape Fear has historically served as one of the first major tests of the North Carolina billfish season — a tune-up for the boats heading north to Big Rock and the rest of the NC summer circuit. With Big Rock now wrapped (Marlin Fever's 919.9-pounder took the $6.5M purse on June 14), the Atlantic fleet's attention turns to the next round of NC Billfish Series stops.
Final standings, individual awards, and meat-fish results above are official as released by the tournament. For the full leaderboard and the 2026 awards-party gallery, see capefearbluemarlin.com. Photos by Lost Wave Media via capefearbluemarlin.com.
