The Lights Out New England Angling Club put up incredible numbers of white marlin during the mid-July Oak Bluffs Bluewater Classic (OBBC) out of Martha’s Vineyard. With 47 releases over the two-day tournament, Lights Out took the win in the big boat division. What’s astounding is 39 of those fish came on the first day.
Aboard the 62-foot Viking Lights Out, Capt. Tyler Dufresne and team have owned the OBBC in recent years. The 2025 event was a threepeat for the Massachusetts-based team. It’s their third OBCC victory in a row, but they’ve never done it like this. No one has.
The play-by-play updates on the SFC website were downright frantic on Tuesday July 15.
An Incredible Marlin Run
With two white marlin releases so far that morning, Lights Out doubled up at 11 a.m. and then went on an incredible run as they trolled into the marlin motherlode. In a roughly three-hour period between 11 a.m. and 2:15 p.m., eight different anglers got the leader touch on 19 whites.
Angler Casey Carmichael’s back must be strong. She took the rod on 10 billfish throughout the day to set a new SFC record for lady anglers. At 6:42 p.m., when she scored another one, the SFC commentator quipped, “That’s a Larry Bird’s worth of white marlin for them today: 33.” Yes, most of the Lights Out crew is from Boston.
Even with a huge lead in points, Lights Out wasn’t done. They caught six more before they ran out of daylight. Then they took it easy on Day 2, with eight whites released—including a quad—in a day that was shortened to 3 p.m. for them by SFC rules.
