DAY 2 RECAP — 2026 South Jersey Yacht Sales Offshore Showdown: Canyon Lady's Seven White Marlin Releases Command the Final-Day Board
The fleet ran out of Canyon Club Resort Marina one last time on Saturday for Day 2 — the final fishing day — of the 2026 South Jersey Yacht Sales Offshore Showdown, and when the boats came back to the Cape May scales, Canyon Lady had turned a week of white marlin releases into a commanding lead. The 65-foot Scarborough closed the tournament's last day out front with 761 points on the official Reel Time board — nearly 300 clear of the fleet — with awards set to follow Saturday evening at the Grand Hotel of Cape May.
Canyon Lady's releases run away with the overall board
This tournament's overall points live on the billfish-release column, where each white marlin release is worth 100 points — and no one released like Canyon Lady. The crew stacked seven white marlin releases for 700 points to bury the field on the aggregate board, building on the three whites they logged on Day 1. On a scoreboard weighted toward releases, that release haul left the tuna specialists chasing.
Behind Canyon Lady, Runnin' Down a Dream (a 64-foot Viking) held second at 471 points, and the final day reshuffled the chase pack beneath them: Beast surged up the standings on the strength of its tuna weight to sit third around 408, with TLC and Judge bunched right behind near the 400 mark. The figures are the unofficial final-day board; official placings will be confirmed at the awards ceremony.
Knife owns the tuna category; Beast lands the biggest fish
The smallest boat in the fleet again did the heavy lifting on the tuna side. Knife, a 40-foot Cabo, paced the Tuna Points category through the event, and Steve Morrison of the Knife crew topped the overall male angler standings with 157 points. Because the overall board rewards billfish releases so heavily, Knife's yellowfin haul that won the tuna category sat well down the release-weighted aggregate — a quirk of a scoreboard built for a canyon full of white marlin.
The single heaviest fish of the tournament belonged to Beast, the 80-foot Merritt: Tommy Belansen put a 108-pound yellowfin on the scale to take Heaviest Tuna, and that weight is what vaulted Beast into the overall top three by the close of the final day.
Dolphin on the board, blue marlin and wahoo left blank
Elsewhere in the category races, Keira Boyd aboard Craftmanship took Heaviest Dolphin with a 23-pound mahi, and Asha Chakrabarti of Good Chemistry led the overall female angler standings. Two boards, however, stayed empty for the whole tournament: no qualifying blue marlin and no wahoo were scored, leaving those categories blank when the fishing ended.
Across the two fishing days, 14 boats and 45 anglers put 36 scoring catches on the Reel Time board — a release-driven Showdown that came down to who worked the white marlin bite hardest.
Awards tonight; official results to follow
Saturday's run closes the fishing at the 2026 Offshore Showdown, with the awards ceremony this evening at the Grand Hotel of Cape May. All leaderboard figures above are from the tournament's Reel Time live scoring and remain unofficial until finalized by South Jersey Tournaments. We'll follow with a final recap once the official category winners and awards are confirmed.
Leaderboard and catch data via the tournament's official Reel Time live scoring (reeltime.app); results unofficial until finalized by South Jersey Tournaments. Photos are from the 2026 Offshore Showdown at Canyon Club Resort Marina (South Jersey Tournaments); day-of final-day and awards imagery will be added as the organizer releases it.
