Big Blackfin Tuna Challenge returns to the Upper Keys in June

The Big Blackfin Tuna Challenge returned to the Upper Keys on June 26 and runs through June 29, giving crews a summer target built around blackfin tuna and a 20-pound qualifying minimum. RTUSA Challenges is hosting the event, fish are being weighed at JD Outdoor Adventures, and the tournament puts $10,000 in cash prizes on the line for the top three overall teams.

The format reaches beyond a straight tuna derby. Optional skill divisions for mahi, wahoo and kingfish let boats chase a mixed offshore spread while still keeping blackfin at the center of the scoreboard. The listed regular entry fee is $600 per boat, event activities are hosted in partnership with Golden Buffalo Sports Grill in Key Largo, and proceeds benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Tournament organizer Lenny Strobel is listed at 609-377-0529.

That structure says plenty about the Upper Keys bite right now. Blackfin tuna are still being treated as a serious summer tournament fish, and the 20-pound threshold sits well above Florida’s general recreational blackfin rule, which has no minimum size limit and allows 2 fish per person or 10 fish per vessel per day, whichever is greater. This is a trophy-style event, not a weigh-anything weekend.

The tournament also lands inside a broader management conversation. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission materials say blackfin tuna is a pelagic species found in both state and federal waters, that there is no stock assessment for the species, and that the fishery is predominantly recreational, with 92 to 95 percent of total harvest coming from recreational anglers in recent years. FWC says anglers and charter captains in southeast Florida and the Keys have voiced concern about perceived declines in abundance and average size, and the agency has held public workshops and hearings on possible species-specific regulations.

For crews heading out of the Upper Keys, the tournament’s utility is immediate. The Big Blackfin Tuna Challenge rewards boats that can find larger fish, adjust to mixed pelagic conditions, and still leave room for side-game opportunities on mahi, wahoo and kingfish. With the weigh station at JD Outdoor Adventures and the social center at Golden Buffalo Sports Grill in Key Largo, the event ties the current blackfin bite to the places where the Keys’ summer tournament scene still comes together.