ATLANTIC

DAY 5 RECAP — 2026 Montauk Canyon Challenge: A 210-lb Bigeye Tops the Board as the Fleet More Than Doubles the Catch Count to 170

July 14, 2026

Atlantic

Science of Fishing Editorial

The sportfishing boat Emotional Rescue idles back toward the dock at the 2026 Montauk Canyon Challenge

The 2026 Montauk Canyon Challenge had its biggest day of the week. A leaderboard that held 62 catches when Monday closed has swelled to 170 — more than doubling overnight as the Captain's Choice fleet poured into the canyons and filled the scales back at Star Island Yacht Club.

The headline is a new heaviest fish. The Sonar division's top tuna is now a 210-pound bigeye — the single heaviest fish of the tournament, eclipsing the 172.4-pounder that led the board a day earlier. (The live board had not yet resolved that boat's name as of Tuesday evening.) In the No-Sonar division, Three G's moved to the front with a 179.8-pound bigeye, while Click Bait tops the Outboard division at 157 pounds.

Heaviest Tuna — division leaders

Sonar: 210.0-lb bigeye
No-Sonar: Three G's — 179.8 lb
Outboard: Click Bait — 157.0 lb

A sportfishing convertible backs into the weigh station at the 2026 Montauk Canyon Challenge as crew wait on the dock — The Montauk Canyon Challenge weigh station stayed busy as the fleet more than doubled the catch count to 170 on the tournament's biggest day. Photo: Montauk Canyon Challenge.

Freedom is fast becoming the boat of the tournament. It seized the big-money MCC Stringer — two bigeyes and a yellowfin totaling 435.8 pounds — overtaking One More's 375.8-pound stack, and also leads the Heaviest Albacore board (47.8 lb) and the Heaviest Trifecta (135.6 lb), plus the No-Sonar three-yellowfin stringer at 230 pounds. On the single-fish yellowfin boards, Alexa Ann owns the Sonar categories with a 103.6-pound yellowfin and a 218.8-pound three-fish stringer, while Out There! holds the heaviest Outboard stringer at 286.8 pounds.

The volume, as it has been all week, is yellowfin. Yellowfin tuna accounted for 124 of the 170 catches logged tournament-wide, with 26 bigeye, eight mahi, three tilefish, two wahoo and one each of bluefin, swordfish and albacore rounding out the scales. JC's Mate leads the bluefin board at 74.2 pounds, Sexy Fish the swordfish at 59.6, Click Bait the mahi (28.6) and wahoo (17.2), and Finisterra the tilefish at 6.2. The release board also came to life: with two more blue marlin let go, the tournament now shows three blue marlin and one white marlin released.

A Montauk Canyon Challenge trucker cap resting on the varnished covering board of a sportfishing boat — The Montauk Canyon Challenge runs on a Captain's Choice format across the July 10–18 window. Photo: Montauk Canyon Challenge.

Plenty of window left

The MCC remains a Captain's Choice event: its 89 boats can still pick their weather window through Saturday, July 18, when Reel Fest and the awards dinner at Gosman's Dock close out the week. With a prize pool near $1.24 million and the marquee tuna boards tightening by the pound, the boats chasing Freedom and the 210-pound bigeye have four days left to answer.

Standings are cumulative and unofficial, drawn from the tournament's live Reel Time leaderboard (reeltime.app) as of Tuesday, July 14. Results may shift as catches are reviewed; contact tournament organizers for official results.