CABO SAN LUCAS, October 24, 2026 — One blue marlin reached the qualifying overall leaderboard. For Contango, it became a fish worth more than $5.6 million on CatchStat’s closing payout display. For our crew aboard Team SIMRAD, this year’s Bisbee’s Black & Blue will be remembered for a very different reason: five hours fighting a huge blue marlin, one unforgettable jump beside the boat, and a broken leader.
Those two stories capture the distance between triumph and heartbreak in a tournament I personally consider the Super Bowl of big-game fishing.
Contango’s opening-day fish holds the top spot
CatchStat’s completed three-day records list CONTANGO’S SPARTAN’S REVENGE, team No. 26, in first place on the Overall Top Teams leaderboard with Kevin Miranda’s 491-pound blue marlin, caught October 21. It is the only fish appearing on that qualifying overall leaderboard.
The catch record lists a hookup at 1:34:58 p.m. and the fish boated at 3:37:22 p.m., a recorded fight of 2 hours, 2 minutes and 24 seconds. CatchStat does not specify a timezone in those fields; the boated timestamp should not be read as a separately verified weigh-in time. Our Day 1 Contango report includes Dani Portillo’s original photographs from the boat and weigh station.
By the October 24 review, the CatchStat payout page listed $5,629,300 USD for Contango. That is the combined allocation displayed for the team across the categories below, including the captain category—not a separately established payment to one angler.
Important: CatchStat still labels these figures Unofficial Team Payouts. They are the amounts displayed after the three fishing days, not independent confirmation of committee-approved or paid awards.
| Contango category | Displayed allocation (USD) |
|---|---|
| Overall Top Teams | $393,750 |
| Overall Top Captains | $43,750 |
| $500 Daily Jackpot | $181,050 |
| $1,000 Daily Jackpot | $359,550 |
| $2,000 Daily Jackpot | $637,500 |
| $3,000 Daily Jackpot | $902,700 |
| $5,000 Daily Jackpot | $1,351,500 |
| $10,000 Daily Jackpot | $1,759,500 |
| Combined displayed total | $5,629,300 |
The tournament-wide payout display totals $7,464,250; that is not Contango’s award. The page also displays a $1.2 million $20,000 Daily Jackpot pool without a recipient identified in the retrieved listing. We have not assigned that money to Contango or inferred its disposition.
A tournament short on qualifying weighed marlin
The tournament statistics list 175 teams and 1,292 anglers, with 38 recorded catches: 35 blue marlin, two black marlin and one striped marlin. The full October 21–23 catch log contains four boated fish and 34 releases; those two totals are counted from the individual log entries.
Four blue marlin were recorded as boated with weights: Magnifico - Boujee Marlin’s 263-pound fish, caught by Garrett Frazier on October 21; Contango’s 491-pound fish that same day; Legion of Hook’s 277-pound fish, caught by Santiago Madariaga on October 22; and Bmor / TX Smoke’s 252-pound fish, caught by Craig Cunningham on October 23. Only Contango appears on the qualifying overall leaderboard. The catch log itself does not give the other fish’s disqualification reasons.
These records show why the opening-day 491-pounder remained so consequential. They do not mean the fleet encountered only four marlin: most recorded catches were releases, and a lost fish is a different outcome again.
Our Day 1: Team SIMRAD, No. 168
I was fishing with Team SIMRAD, No. 168. On the first day we hooked a huge blue marlin while trolling at about 7–8 knots, with a rigged blue runner and trolling lures in the spread. That is how we were fishing; I am not identifying which bait or lure the marlin struck.
For about five hours, we fought that fish. Alejandro, Tomek and I took turns. It was a long fight, but eventually it seemed we were gaining control. The marlin began coming up toward the boat, and after all that time we felt we might finally be getting close.
Then it jumped out of the water near us.
We all shouted at the same time. It was a beautiful, huge blue marlin, suddenly right there beside the boat—the fish we had spent five hours trying to bring within reach.
And then the 200-pound-test leader broke.
After five hours of effort, it was over. We had been so close to bringing the fish to the boat, and suddenly there would be no weigh station, no number on the board, and no way to know what it might have weighed.
It was a horrible feeling. In the moment, it felt as though a chance at the tournament had slipped away with that fish. But the honest distinction matters: we never weighed it. We cannot say it would have qualified, beaten Contango’s marlin or won any particular jackpot.
What the record can—and cannot—tell us
The SIMRAD team listing identifies No. 168 aboard Pamela. It lists Arturo Chacon, Alejandro De Santos, Felipe Mayo, Thomas Milkowski and Julio Cesar Sarabia as anglers, with Felipe Mayo also listed as captain. CatchStat records no catches for the team. That means no catches are entered in its catch log; it does not disprove a hookup or the lost-fish experience described here.
My recollection above is firsthand reporting, separate from CatchStat’s scoring. I know the third angler in our rotation as Tomek; I have not yet confirmed his full name and am not assuming which roster name he corresponds to. Alejandro’s surname is rendered here as De Santos, as listed by CatchStat, pending my final spelling check.
Why we come back
For Contango, the 2026 Black & Blue’s closing board tells a remarkable story: one 491-pound blue marlin and more than $5.6 million in displayed allocations. For our team, the memory is a fish beside the boat and a leader that did not hold.
The winning weight can be recorded. Our fish’s weight cannot. But I will remember the five hours, that jump, and all of us shouting together long after this year’s board is put away. That is the heartbreak—and the pull—of what I call the Super Bowl of big-game fishing.
Follow the magazine’s Black & Blue 2026 coverage page and payout snapshot archive for dated reporting. Earlier Day 1 snapshots remain historical records, not substitutes for the closing display.
Editorial note and sources
This article combines CatchStat records reviewed October 24, 2026, after the October 21–23 fishing days, with Arturo Chacón’s firsthand Day 1 account. CatchStat states its content may not reflect official tournament standings and directs readers to the tournament committee for official results. No committee certification or payment confirmation was established for this article. SIMRAD’s lost marlin has no measured weight, confirmed qualification or calculated payout. The cover photograph shows Contango’s 491-pound blue marlin aboard the boat, not SIMRAD’s lost fish, and is credited to Dani Portillo, Cabo Sportfishing Magazine. Arturo Chacón, the magazine’s founder and owner, competed in this tournament with Team SIMRAD.
