I was today days old when I learned a 68-year-old fishing tournament in Morehead City, North Carolina puts a $9 million-plus purse on the dock every June, broadcasts every weigh-in live on YouTube, and on Day 1 of fishing this week had a boat called “Marlin Fever” catch a 919.9-pound blue marlin — breaking a six-year-old tournament record and pocketing $871,250 on the spot, with potentially $6.2 million more on the line if no one tops it by Saturday.
What it is:
The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament is North Carolina’s biggest sportfishing competition — a week-long offshore billfish event running June 6–14, 2026, with fishing days Monday June 9 through Saturday June 14. This is the 68th year of the tournament. Boats fish four of the six fishing days. The total purse is over $9 million, built from entries and added-money pots — winning the overall blue-marlin category alone can be worth roughly $6.2 million.
The weigh-in show:
Every afternoon, boats run back to Big Rock Landing on the Morehead City waterfront with their catches and hoist them onto an official tournament scale. The whole thing is broadcast live every day from 3 PM to 7 PM ET on YouTube as “Big Rock TV” — at youtube.com/bigrockbluemarlin — and on the tournament Facebook page. The host walks the dock, interviews the captain and angler, and reads the official weight as the fish is lifted off the truck. For a tournament built around catching the biggest possible fish, the weigh-in is the show. The leaderboard updates in real time after each weigh.
What just happened (the catch):
On the morning of Tuesday, June 9, 2026 — Day 1 of fishing — the boat Marlin Fever hooked up around 11 AM and boated a blue marlin at approximately 12:50 PM. The fish was the first catch of the day and the first qualifying fish into the scale. When the official scale settled, it read 919.9 pounds — eclipsing the previous tournament record of 914 pounds set in 2019 by the boat Top Dog, and becoming the largest blue marlin ever weighed in the 68-year history of the Big Rock. The catch won the “Fabulous Fisherman” prize on the spot — $871,250 — awarded to the first qualifying fish over 500 pounds. If it survives the rest of the week as the heaviest qualifying blue marlin, it brings home approximately $6.2 million in total tournament prize money. The five-day window for another boat to top it stays open through Saturday June 14. As of this writing, Marlin Fever leads.
How to watch:
- Live weigh-in coverage daily 3:00–7:00 PM ET: youtube.com/bigrockbluemarlin (also on the tournament Facebook page)
- Tournament website + live leaderboard: thebigrock.com
It’s free. No login. You can leave it on a second screen this week while a fish that might bring home $6.2 million swings off a hook above the dock.