ATLANTIC

DAY 3 RECAP — 2026 Montauk Canyon Challenge: One More's 169.4-lb Bigeye Vaults to the Overall Lead as the Tuna Boards Light Up

July 12, 2026

Atlantic

Science of Fishing Editorial

A spread of bigeye and yellowfin tuna laid out on the dock beneath the Montauk Canyon Challenge sponsor backdrop

The 2026 Montauk Canyon Challenge came alive over the weekend. Through Friday, July 11, the Captain's Choice event had logged just one score tournament-wide — a lone white marlin release. By Sunday, July 12, the tuna boards had blown wide open, and 17 catches now fill a leaderboard that read almost entirely "No Results" a day earlier.

Leading the charge is One More, which vaulted to the top of the marquee Heaviest Tuna board with a 169.4-pound bigeye — the heaviest fish weighed so far and the new overall pace-setter. One More also controls the big-money MCC Stringer category, its two bigeyes and a yellowfin totaling 375.8 pounds — the kind of number that carries the fattest checks in a tuna calcutta.

Heaviest Tuna — top of the board

1. One More — 169.4 lb
2. Slim Shady — 71.0 lb
3. Pescador — 68.0 lb
4. Emotional Rescue — 65.6 lb

The Montauk sportfishing boat Emotional Rescue idling back to the dock with its crew aboard at the Montauk Canyon Challenge — Emotional Rescue idles back toward the dock at Montauk — the boat sits fourth on the Heaviest Tuna board at 65.6 pounds. Photo: Montauk Canyon Challenge.

Pescador, the St. John, USVI Bayliss that drew first blood on Day 2, spent the weekend stacking category leads. The boat now tops the Heaviest 3 Yellowfin stringer at 199.4 pounds, the Heaviest Trifecta (yellowfin, longfin, mahi) at 75.4 pounds, the Heaviest Mahi Mahi at 7.4 pounds, and extended its Billfish Points lead to 200 points on a second release. Slim Shady holds the Heaviest Yellowfin board on its own with a 71.0-pound fish.

An angler hoists a yellowfin tuna in the cockpit of a sportfishing boat offshore during the Montauk Canyon Challenge — Yellowfin tuna are a core target at the Montauk Canyon Challenge, where the heavy-tuna calcuttas carry the biggest checks. Photo: Montauk Canyon Challenge.

Plenty of window left

Remember the format: the MCC is a Captain's Choice tournament, and boats can still pick their own weather window through Saturday, July 18, when Reel Fest and the awards dinner at Gosman's Dock close out the week. With 89 boats entered and a prize pool near $1.24 million, the heavy-tuna and stringer boards that just came to life have five more days to be overtaken.

Standings are cumulative and unofficial, drawn from the tournament's live Reel Time leaderboard (reeltime.app) as of Sunday, July 12. Results may shift as catches are reviewed; contact tournament organizers for official results.