Atlantic Division Championship Preview and Power Rankings

For the Atlantic Division regular season, this is it. The final stop. We will crown not only a tournament winner, but a division champion. For all seven clubs there is a lot to compete for: primarily money, and momentum for the 2027 season. 

But for the South Florida Sails and the New Jersey Sea Birds, this one decides who rules the Atlantic in 2026, and who has the upper hand in October’s Zane Grey Championship Playoffs. But they have to make it out of the sea buoy on Friday to officially clinch their berths. They can both catch zero fish and finish with last place points and advance. 

Just don’t scratch. Scratching will remove them from playoff contention altogether per league rules. 

In this tournament preview and power rankings, we’ll touch on what everyone is competing for, what to expect, and what is in store for the boats in Ocean City. 

But before that, let’s dive into some of the details:

Overnight vs. Back-and-Forth

The boats have the option to overnight for this SFC tournament. Many fished this week’s MidAtlantic, and the opportunity to stay overnight saves on fuel and additional mileage, with several clubs fishing for six straight days. 

The option to come back will play into consideration for any clubs that place in the MidAtlantic to attend the awards ceremony before heading back out for Saturday and Championship Sunday. 

When Are They Fishing?

Departure: Friday, August 21 at 3:00 AM ET
Lines In: 8:00 AM ET (Friday-Sunday)
Lines Out: 3:30 PM ET (Friday-Sunday)
Return: Boats must be within one nautical mile of the Ocean City, MD sea buoy by 9:00 PM ET on Sunday, and send verification to league officials.

Fun fishing is permitted overnight for swordfish, tunas etc. but all lines must be out and sonar off between the hours of 5:00 AM ET until lines In at 8:00 AM. 

The Boundary

The Atlantic Division Championship will use the same boundary as The MidAtlantic, with the range being 125 nautical miles from the Cape May, NJ sea buoy. The MidAtlantic uses that boundary since the tournament has two departure points: One being in Cape May, and the other is where our seven boats are docked in Ocean City, MD. 

Within that boundary are five canyons that we may see the boats head to. From north to south, those canyons are: Wilmington Canyon, Baltimore Canyon, Poor Man’s Canyon, Washington Canyon, and Norfolk Canyon

Power Rankings

Now the fun part. Who’s doing what this weekend?

New Jersey Sea Birds

I’ve got them winning the tournament, and the division title too. Why? They just fished the Beach Haven White Marlin Invitational, which is the oldest white marlin tournament in the country. That lies near the northernmost part of the boundary. 

In my opinion, I feel like that’s where Captain Blaine Birch may have an advantage: more prefishing time than the rest to know where *not* to go, which is just as important as knowing where to go. 

South Florida Sails

Something I have learned this year is to never count out Captain Mike King and the South Florida Sails. Slow day? They come back with a vengeance the rest of the tournament. Waters he hasn’t been around before? He knows how to get intel. Sharing water with a lot of boats in the area? He usually wins out, driving other boats to find their own water. 

A crew that never fished together before this year? They’re just getting more in tune with every event. I could have easily had them at number one. It’s a toss-up. 

South Carolina Outcast

In what will most likely be Captain Stuart Lackey’s SFC swan song, we’d love to see him go out with a bang. The Outcast have come on strong as of late, finishing second in the final minutes up in Cape Cod with a historic first-ever Blue Marlin double release to drop the Sea Birds into third place. That point differential is the difference in the Sea Birds coming into Championship Weekend with sole possession of the points lead and being second due to a tiebreaker. 

North Carolina Flare

Also surging late have been North Carolina Flare, with several hot starts, early leads and podium places giving way to other boats surging late. The most important factor that this team has turned around is that they are capitalizing on every fish they see. While it may be too late for Captain Brian Dressler and Flare AC to make the playoffs, they have certainly found enough momentum to fish their 2026 SFC season with a good pay day and potential momentum for 2027.

Lights Out Boston

One thing is certain: Lights Out didn’t suddenly forget how to fish. That boat will be full of talent once again this weekend, with Ray Rosher, Captain Rob Carmichael, mates Tucker Carmichael and Kyle Paparelli, talented female anglers Casey Carmichael and Jackie Hayes. After the season opening win in Key West, the 2025 Atlantic Division Champions have finished no higher than fourth place. 

Chalk it up to the natural balance of things, where when the pendulum swings so far in one direction, it swings equally as strong in the other direction. 

What does that mean? Are you high?

I may be running on a few hours of sleep since last week’s Texas Billfish Open due to Port Aransas rolling out the red carpet for us, but no. 

All I am trying to say is that when you have a historically dominant regular season like Lights Out had in their 2025 Division Championship year. Winning the final three tournaments of the season, including the last time we were in Ocean City. The records from up north with 47 white marlin in a single tournament. 

Things don’t go your way ALL the time, and for a stretch there, Lights Out had everybody’s number. They might just do it again this week to put everyone on notice in 2027.

East Coast Remix

This point has been beaten to death since the beginning of SFC’s Angling Club era of competition. 2025 preseason media day, at the Miami International Boat Show, we touched on a soft topic about Remix’s fish that got away in the 2024 White Marlin Open. 

It sort of happened again in 2025, then Captain JC Cleare pulled his hamstring in a 40-yard dash against mate Chandler Miles during their Lay Day Olympics. 

I don’t want to call it an Ocean City curse, but this place always has their number. While they won’t make it to Cabo this season, expect the biggest sigh of relief from this squad if they take the win. 

Then expect them to ride that momentum to win another burgundy jacket in the Quest For The Crest before the 2027 season gets started.

Rhode Island Breakers

I’ll be honest, I think I submitted my list to the graphics department too soon. Full transparency, I was getting ahead of myself so that the graphic would be ready to publish and sent in my picks before stepping on a plane to Port A. 

That was before the Rhode Island Breakers finished ahead of the New Jersey Sea Birds in their own state. They finished second overall in the Beach Haven White Marlin Invitational release category with seven releases. 

Captain Travis Rolan makes his SFC debut as the new skipper for “El Bendido” and that time in drydock also allowed the boat to have a new sonar put in place. 

Everything might be clicking now, and that’s dangerous for the rest of the field. 

See You Early Friday Morning

Expect the @SFCinsider Instagram story to be active in the middle of the night on Friday, as we will be there at the jetty to send off the field for the final time this Atlantic Division Season.