Ocean City women’s tuna tournament wraps with tight leaderboard, strong turnout
Seventy-two boats crowded the Ocean City dock, and a 73-pound winning tuna showed the early-June bite was already worth the run offshore.
A 72-boat field and a 73-pound winning tuna sent a clear signal to Ocean City crews: the early-June offshore bite was already serious enough to stack a leaderboard and keep teams chasing every advantage. With more than $156,000 in prize money on the line, the 2026 Tuna & Tiaras had the look of a real tuna event, not a novelty, and the close weights at the top backed that up.
The ladies-only tournament held its second and final day June 13 after running June 11-12 in Ocean City. In the heaviest tuna category, See Legs took first at 73 pounds, with Finatic close behind at 68.5 pounds and Game Over third at 66.5 pounds. That spread points to a solid fishery, but not the kind of giant-fish stampede that lets anyone relax at the scale.
The heaviest stringer category told the same story. Finatic and Spring Mix II tied for first at 112 pounds, Game On followed at 111.5 pounds and Godzilla came in at 109.5 pounds. In the small-boat division, Reel Chaos won heaviest tuna at 50.5 pounds and Tide Runner led heaviest stringer at 91 pounds. For anglers reading the dockside math, the message was simple: multiple boats stayed in range, and multiple approaches still had a shot at cashing.
Tuna & Tiaras, now in its sixth annual edition, was founded in 2021 and bills itself as the world’s only tuna tournament exclusively for women. The event is owned and operated by women, and tournament director Pam Taylor said the goal goes beyond trophies. She wants participants to leave with the feeling of “I remember that” and the confidence to head offshore again on their own. The tournament also backed Women Supporting Women, a Delmarva breast cancer support organization, giving the event a local charity tie that mattered well beyond the dock.
The entry page for the tournament listed a $600-per-boat registration for up to six anglers, with calcuttas and side bets built around heaviest single tuna, tuna stringer, heaviest mahi, daily heaviest tuna and small-boat categories. That structure fit the results: a tight leaderboard, several classes in play and enough fish on the board to keep the competition live from start to finish.
Compared with 2025, when 63 all-lady teams competed for more than $143,000, the 2026 field grew again and the purse climbed with it. The numbers made the June wrap feel like a benchmark for Ocean City, the kind of offshore start that tells tuna crews the season is already in full swing.
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