iStockphoto / Kelly Dalling
The Blue Marlin World Cup is a unique event in the fishing world because it takes place simultaneously all across the planet with teams fishing in North Carolina, Barbados, Hawaii, Europe, etc.
The 2023 Blue Marlin World Cup was won by the team onboard ‘Apex’ fishing out of Hawaii. By boating and weighing an 834.5-pound blue marlin in Day 1 of the local Kona Throw Down, they beat out the other teams fishing the world cup and took home the grand prize.
For the World Cup, the entry fee is $5,000 and there’s an additional $8,000 Big Blue Challenge to up the ante even further. Fishing is done only on the 4th of July with boats allowed to put lines in the water at 8:30 am (local time) and lines come out at 4:30 pm local time.
Qualifying fish must be at least 500 pounds but a 500-pounder almost certainly wouldn’t win the competition. For example, in 2021 the Blue Marlin World Cup winning fish was a 1,053-pound grander caught and weighed in Cape Verdes.
Take a look at this year’s 834-pound fish caught by Apex which took home the grand prize (money). The prize pool is equal to 80% of the total entry fees.
UPDATE: The tournament director, Robert Navarro, informed me the winning fish was worth a whopping $1.24 MILLION this year!
Blue Marlin World Cup (5:30 EST) Apex weighed a Blue Marlin (834). pic.twitter.com/uHgeKuTvrf
— Billfish Report (@BillfishReport) July 4, 2023
Here is the 2nd place fish, caught by the Apex out of Bermuda. It tipped the scales at 714 pounds.
provided by Robert Navarro
Kona is one of the marlin fishing capitals of the world. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the winning fish was caught there.
However, this is a global fishing tournament so there’s really no way to predict where the winning fish will be caught each year which makes it uniquely fun.
The winning team in the 2022 Blue Marlin World Cup took home $628,000 for their 950-pound blue marlin caught in the Cape Verdes Islands.