Day 1 At The 2026 Tuna & Tiaras Tournament

By Scott Lenox

Posted on June 12th, 2026

Today was Day 1 of the 6th Annual Tuna & Tiara’s ladies only tuna tournament and it was a good day of fishing. 72 boats are competing this weekend for a chance at over $156,000 in prize money and today some nice fish hit the leaderboard. Here’s who’s in the lead after the first day of fishing.

Heaviest Fish

1st Place SEE LEGS 73 Lbs

2nd Place Game On 66.5 Lbs

3rd Place Godzilla 63.5 Lbs

Heaviest Stringer

1st Place Game On 111.5 Lbs

2nd Place Godzilla 109.5

3rd Place Loose Goose 93.5

Thanks to Bill from Squidnation for the pics!

Away from the tournament, Captain Nick Sampson of the WOP had a great day in the bluefin tuna grounds going 8 for 8 on bites and putting a three fish limit in the boat.

Kevin McNelis fished with his dad Kevin and their buddy Andrew Timko for their first ocean flounder trip of the season and were rewarded with a boat limit of fish up to 22″.

Captain Monty Hawkins was a mate down today, but he and the rest of his crew still put the folks on some good fishing with some healthy sea bass.

Ahhh, the retired life. What a wonderful thing to sleep until 7:30..

Only mate Donny isn’t retired. Cell phones do make a great alarm clock.

If charged.

A man short but underway a half hour early, on clearing the inlet we found pleasant sea conditions. Stayed that way too while fishing. Derned if there wasn’t a bit of summer southerly slop headed home though.

After paddling a right good way offshore, Lin & Jean sent a terracotta unit and a reef pyramid into the deep.

We pressed on.

Of many stops, only one was a clunker. My screens lively, lots of throwbacks, some very fine keepers; anglers saw good action through most of the trip.

Oh, and the red hake (aka ‘ling’ or ‘ling cod’ in this area – despite same name for vastly different fish in other regions!) yesterday’s ling fried up wonderfully. Might try to target them a trip.

Cheers,

Monty