A Work of Art Becomes First Three-Time Champion of Blue Marlin Grand Championship

Team A Work of Art claimed the top prize at last weekend’s Blue Marlin Grand Championship at The Wharf in Orange Beach, becoming the first three-time champion in the history of the tournament, billed as “The Greatest Show in Sportfishing.” The 14th annual event also produced the largest prize purse ever awarded at a Gulf-based fishing tournament, totaling $2,115,343, with a record 75 teams entering the competition.

Brandon Farve reeled in the winning 641.2-pound blue marlin for Captain Jason Buck and the A Work of Art crew out of Orange Beach. The team also placed second in the Catch and Release category, releasing seven blue marlin in addition to their winning catch, and took home the top prize in the Weighed Blue Marlin category, a tournament-record $785,556. Few crews in modern Gulf tournament history have stacked a weekend the way A Work of Art did, pairing the event’s biggest single fish with a steady release performance across two days of fishing.

A Work of Art is now the only team to win the tournament title multiple times, having previously claimed titles in 2012 and 2023. Three titles across three different eras of the event, spanning more than a decade, has set a benchmark that future competitors will be measured against. The team’s consistency reflects the depth of experience in its crew and the strength of the Orange Beach fleet, which has long been regarded as one of the finest bluewater sportfishing ports on the Gulf Coast.

C’Mon Man, out of Orange Beach, placed second with a 509-pound catch worth $383,436, while Gunnslinger of Destin, Florida, took third with a 447.6-pound blue marlin. The podium gave Baldwin County anglers the top two spots and kept the hardware close to home for the host community, which turns out in force each summer for the tournament’s weigh-ins and waterfront festivities at The Wharf.

Catch and Release and the Junior Angler

In the Catch and Release category, It Just Takes Time claimed first place after releasing five blue marlin, six sailfish and one white marlin. George Pratt of the It Just Takes Time crew earned the tournament’s Junior Angler award, adding a personal honor to the team’s division title. A Work of Art placed second in the category, with Brittney Marie of Destin finishing third after five blue marlin releases.

Catch and release divisions have become a central part of billfish tournaments across the Gulf, reflecting a conservation ethic that has reshaped the sport over the past generation. Teams earn points for fish photographed and released rather than brought to the dock, allowing the species to keep fighting another day while still giving anglers a competitive outlet. The category rewards endurance and skill, since a single day of fishing can involve hookups that last hours.

The presence of sailfish and white marlin alongside blue marlin in the release results is a reminder of the variety the Gulf offers in mid-summer. While blue marlin draw the headlines and the six-figure checks, the mixed-bag release format lets teams accumulate points across species when the blues are not biting.

Tuna, Dolphin and Wahoo Divisions

In the Tuna Division, Rising Sons took first place with a 124-pound yellowfin tuna, followed by Lady D at 105 pounds and Presley Jane II at 94 pounds. Yellowfin tuna fishing in the deep water beyond the shelf has long been a staple of Gulf offshore tournaments, and the spread of weights across the top three shows how competitive the division was this year.

CE won the Dolphin Division behind Annie Cooper’s 31.2-pound catch, with Miss Remy second at 27.8 pounds and Relentless Pursuit third at 24.4 pounds. Dolphin, known to many anglers as mahi-mahi, are among the most popular offshore targets for Gulf crews in the summer months, striking trolled baits aggressively and providing both table fare and fast action for the whole crew.

In the Wahoo Division, Easy Trigger took first with 41.8 pounds, followed by Now or Never at 37.8 pounds and Miss Remy at 36.8 pounds. Wahoo are prized for their blistering speed and their firm, white fillets, and a wahoo over 40 pounds is a noteworthy catch anywhere in the Gulf. Miss Remy’s second-place finish in dolphin and third in wahoo made it one of the weekend’s most consistent boats outside the marlin divisions.

A Record Weekend for the Gulf

Update: Tournament officials also confirmed Captain Jason Buck notched his fifth career Gulf Coast Triple Crown Championship, adding another layer of history to the weekend. The Triple Crown links marlin tournaments across the Gulf Coast into a season-long series, and a fifth title cements Buck’s standing among the most accomplished captains in the region.

The record purse and the record field underscore how far the tournament has come since its early years. Part of the draw is the venue: The Wharf, with its marina, amphitheater and entertainment district, allows the event to blend competition with a festival atmosphere, and the Saturday and Sunday weigh-ins draw crowds that treat each fish hauled across the scale as a spectator event. Part of it is the money, which attracts professional crews from Destin, Panama City, Pensacola, and ports across Louisiana and Texas.

The economics of a tournament this size ripple through Orange Beach each summer. Charter boats, marinas, fuel docks, tackle shops, hotels and restaurants all see the influx of teams and their families during the event week. For a community whose identity is tied to the water, the championship is both a business driver and a source of local pride, particularly when home teams like A Work of Art and C’Mon Man finish at the top of the leaderboard.

With a 641.2-pound marlin, seven more blues released, a record check and a fifth Triple Crown for its captain, the 14th annual Blue Marlin Grand Championship will be remembered as the weekend the tournament’s history books were rewritten — by an Orange Beach crew that keeps finding a way to win.

How the Weigh-In Works and Why It Matters

The weighed blue marlin category remains the centerpiece of the event, and the rules that govern it are strict. Teams must return to the marina within the tournament’s fishing window, and fish are verified on the scale before crowds at The Wharf. A marlin in the 600-pound class is an exceptional animal anywhere in the Gulf, and the 641.2-pound fish that Farve brought in set the standard the rest of the fleet spent the weekend chasing.

The prize structure splits the record purse across divisions and entry levels, which is how a single weekend can distribute more than $2.1 million among 75 boats. Calcutta-style side entries and category-level payouts mean a boat that misses the overall title can still leave with a substantial check, as C’Mon Man’s $383,436 second-place haul shows. For crews that spend tens of thousands of dollars on fuel, bait, tackle and entry fees each summer, the payout spread is what keeps the competitive field deep from top to bottom.

The Orange Beach Fleet’s Home-Water Advantage

Local knowledge matters in a tournament like this. Orange Beach sits within reasonable running distance of the deep water where blue marlin concentrate in July, and crews like A Work of Art spend their entire summer learning how the fish move with the loops, temperature breaks and rip lines that form offshore. When the tournament weekend arrives, home teams have usually logged dozens of days on those same waters, while visiting boats arrive with reports, charts and hope.

The results this year reflected that advantage, with Orange Beach teams claiming the overall title and second place overall. But the leaderboard also showed the regional reach of the event, with Destin boats finishing third in weighed marlin and third in catch and release. The Gulf’s marlin community is tightly connected — crews fish against each other all summer across multiple events, and the same captains and mates move between boats and ports from season to season.

What Comes Next for the Record Book

The 14th annual edition leaves the tournament with a high bar for future years: a record purse, a record field, a record single-category payout and the first three-time champion. Organizers will look to build on the momentum, and competing crews will spend the off-season studying what A Work of Art did — covering both the scale and the release category in the same weekend, a dual strategy that requires a crew to make hard decisions about which hooked fish to keep and which to let go.

For the anglers, the answers will come next summer, when the fleet returns to The Wharf for another edition of the self-styled Greatest Show in Sportfishing. For Orange Beach, the record weekend reinforced what locals already believed: that their stretch of the Gulf Coast, from Perdido Pass to the deep water beyond, is one of the premier big-game fishing venues in the world, and that its home teams are more than capable of proving it on the biggest stage the region has to offer.

Until then, the number everyone will be chasing is 641.2 — the weight of the fish that made A Work of Art a champion for the third time, and the standard bearer for everything that followed in the largest payout Gulf fishing has ever seen.