Sports & outdoors
MidAtlantic Tournament
Dual-port mega billfish week—Canyon Club Resort Marina (Cape May) and Sunset Marina (Ocean City). $3,500 entry, fish 3 of 5 days, 11 Calcuttas, and 2025 payouts above $3.2 million.
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Dates and prices change—confirm with official sources before you book travel. Status uses US Eastern calendar dates for “today.”
Plan your trip
Tickets, parking, lodging pacing, tips, and official links for this event window.
FAQs
Practical visitor questions—kids, weather, parking, tickets, and local logistics.
About this event
The MidAtlantic (35th annual) is sportfishing’s dual-port “main event” for the Mid-Atlantic canyons: August 16–21, 2026, with home bases at Canyon Club Resort Marina in Cape May, New Jersey (signature venue since 1992) and Sunset Marina in Ocean City, Maryland. Boats designate an official inlet, sail from and return to that inlet, and weigh only at the matching host marina.
Sunday, August 16: late registration, Calcutta entries, and welcome cocktail party 1:00–4:30 p.m.; captains’ meeting 3:30 p.m. at each port. Available fish days Monday–Friday, August 17–21, 8:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Teams select three of those five days. Weigh-ins 5:00–9:00 p.m. at Canyon Club and Sunset on each available fish day. Friday evening: dockside dining, entertainment, and awards (7:30 p.m. listed). Future years published: August 15–20, 2027 and August 20–25, 2028.
Entry fee is $3,500 and covers dockside dining and hospitality. Cash purses come from optional Calcuttas—about 11 levels from roughly $1,000 to $35,000. Payouts go to heaviest white marlin, blue marlin, tuna, wahoo, and dolphin (top three) plus top three billfish-point boats at each port. Published qualifying mins: white marlin 69 inches and 65 pounds; blue marlin 102 inches and 400 pounds; tuna (bigeye, yellowfin, true albacore) 50 pounds; wahoo and dolphin 20 pounds. Points also reward releases.
All boats must fish within 125 miles of the Cape May Sea Buoy regardless of which inlet they sail from. Tournament Director Aaron Hoffman (609-884-0177) has noted 2026 registration pacing ahead of 2025 after Hurricane Erin disruptions; transient dockage at South Jersey Marina, Canyon Club, and Sunset fills early—book slips when you enter.
2025 scale: 114 boats, 768 white marlin caught with 761 released (third-highest totals in event history), more than $3.20 million paid to 19 winners including seven six-figure checks. Top published payouts included ~$863K for a 75 lb white marlin (Canyon Lady), ~$706K for an 804 lb blue (Reel Toy), and ~$330K for a 185 lb bigeye (Torta). Weather limited many boats to two or three fish days—format flexibility matters.
Ocean City visitors still feel Sunset Avenue congestion even if many boats fish from Cape May. Distinct from the one-day July Mid-Atlantic Cup. Pair with White Marlin Open, marinas, and lodging. Site: themidatlantic.com.
For angler format notes, target species, and related tournament weekends, open the fishing events & tournaments card.
Full fishing tournament card All fishing tournaments
Quick planning tips
- Pad marina and Route 50 minutes—tournament weeks compress West Ocean City and inlet corridors.
- Book lodging early; billfish and tuna weeks stack with summer beach demand.
- Confirm weigh-in windows and public viewing rules with the host marina before you promise kids a “scale night.”
Full plan guide Official tickets
Map (approximate)
Top FAQs
- Does OCEANCITY.MD sell entries for the MidAtlantic Tournament?
- No—register only through the official tournament or host marina channels linked on this page. We publish planning context, not entry desks.
- Will this tournament affect my recreational charter day?
- Often yes near host docks—weigh-in crowds, trailer traffic, and reserved slips can slow staging. Ask your captain, and keep a non-tournament backup window. See charter trip picker and marinas.
- How many days do teams fish?
- Boats fish any three of the five available fish days, Monday August 17 through Friday August 21, 2026 (8:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.).
Sources we used
OCEANCITY.MD does not operate these events. Organizer websites, OceanCity.com, the Town of Ocean City (OC Ocean), OC Visitor, and regional tourism calendars are starting points—verify every time-sensitive detail directly.
Related guide on this site: older editorial page (may overlap topics).
