Mid-Season Review: Is Lights Out Boston Copying Its Own Playbook from Last Year?
Lights Out Boston backs in at Walker’s Cay, the second Atlantic Division tournament for 2026.
As Lights Out Boston is halfway through the regular season for the 2026 Sport Fishing Championship League, it’s interesting to consider what the team has done so far, and what could be in store for the rest of the season. As it stands now, the team is in the middle of the pack in the Atlantic Division, in third place overall out of seven teams. It’s not a bad spot to find yourself: Within striking distance of the top tier, but able to still go out there without everyone gunning for you—or worse, tracking your every move. After all, you can’t sneak up on anyone if you’re in the spotlight.
This May Sound Familiar
The real fans of Lights Out Boston will remember what happened last year, and it’s hard to beat the results. The team won the division after stringing together three tournament victories to close out the season, securing a spot in the 2025 Zane Grey Championship Playoff in Cabo San Lucas.
Last year’s achievement is all the more amazing when we consider that that the club was sitting squarely in the middle of the pack—fourth place out of seven teams—at the halfway point of the six-tournament regular season for the Atlantic Division.
“Any team out there can hit a hot streak at any time,” says Capt. Rob Carmichael, owner of the Viking 62 Lights Out with his wife Jackie Hayes. “Of course, we hope it’s us, but we work to make our own luck and keep the score as close as we can.”
Considering only the top two teams in each division continue into the post season event in Cabo, this may seem disheartening to fans this year: Can lightning strike twice? After all, the top four teams in the division are separated by only 700 points, with Lights Out Boston 400 points behind the top-ranked New Jersey Sea Birds and 200 points behind the South Florida Sails. The East Coast Remix Angling Club is just 300 points behind in fourth place.
Capt. Rob Carmichael takes care of media duties for the team.
How Did Lights Out Boston Get to this Point?
To recap, Lights Out Boston started strong in 2026 by doing the work in the off-season. Remember (how could we forget?) the team shipped the Viking 62 Lights Out to the 2025 Zane Grey Championship Playoff in Cabo San Lucas last year. The team fished its own boat with the same team it had all season, the only team of the four contenders to take the show on the road like that—the other clubs chartered local boats. It was a hard-fought championship, with Lights Out Boston taking fourth place as the Texas Lone Stars also defeated the New Jersey Sea Birds and the Third Coast Renegades to take the trophy.
After the championship, Lights Out Boston stuck around Cabo and fished extensively in Magdalena Bay, honing the cockpit program to make it more efficient and dialing everything in. Speed is everything in this league, particularly when the bite gets hot. The bottom line: Time spent releasing a fish is time lost in hooking the next one. The team moved the boat down the coast, fishing the remainder of the offseason in Quepos, Costa Rica, out of Marina Pez Vela, by all accounts a great place to practice dealing with multiple billfish hookups at once, and it’s a world-class marina.
While the team was there, they installed a new set of Gemlux carbon-fiber Gulf Stream Outriggers on Lights Out. The strength of the carbon fiber means the outriggers don’t need spreaders and guy wires to achieve the stiffness they need to hold up to the rigors of offshore fishing. The installation was smooth and the team was able to get in some meaningful practice with the new setup.
“There was no ‘break-in’ needed with these ’riggers,” Carmichael says. “They just work really well as intended. And we saw plenty of action, so we know they work!”
Mate Matteo Scena rigs a fresh bait for a kite rig.
Florida Bound: Lights Out Boston Heads Stateside for the Season Opener
Lights Out Boston then brought the boat through the Panama Canal and back through the Caribbean to get to Florida in time for the Key West Classic. Right before the tournament, the SFC released its first list of power rankings for the season, and the league had pegged Lights Out Boston at the third spot as the season got underway.
That’s a pretty good position, considering the steering system on Lights Out had packed it in while the team was prefishing the tournament in Key West. Still, there are no guarantees of good results. It’s called fishing, not catching, and anything could happen.
At the Key West Classic, the entire league was ready to roll: All boats from both divisions lined up on the docks for the season opener. The Catch Pro-Am exhibition event, a showcase for the league with star athletes and entertainers, was held the previous day. But the fun of that show gave way to the thrill of real competition. According to Capt. Rob Carmichael, angler Ray Rosher brought them some good luck, driving the boat without the benefit of the steering system.
Some sharp-eyed tactics helped mate Kyle Paparelli pitch a bait to a tailing sail from the foredeck. He then walked it down the rail, past one of those new outriggers to the cockpit. Here’s where the Gemlux setup paid real dividends, because Kyle’s stroll down the rail could have been a trip into the drink with a feisty sailfish—and the tournament—on the line. Without outrigger spreaders to dodge, there’s less chance of getting hung up on the way by. That catch ultimately proved to be a difference-maker in the tournament.
Angler Ray Rosher joins Capt. Rob Carmichael and Angler Alex Plick on the flybridge at Walker’s.
Walkin’ the Walk at Walker’s Cay
The second tournament of the season brought a real battle to the waters of the Bahamas, where teams tried to crack the code to score big with blue marlin at 450 points per release. Sailfish and white marlin were also in the mix, but the scoring system heavily favors the Man In The Blue Suit. The South Florida Sails took the top spot with 2,925 points with the New Jersey Sea Birds in second with 1,450 points. The East Coast Remix and Lights Out Boston both notched a couple of blue marlin each over the three days of fishing, scoring 900 points apiece. The result: Lights Out Boston took fourth place due to the order the releases took place, by league rule.
That score meant that Lights Out Boston retained first place in the Atlantic Division as the fleet headed for the mainland.
Mate Kyle Paparelli rigs in the cockpit in preparation for the 2026 Carrier Cup.
Carrying the Lead into the SFC Carrier Cup
The celebration of America’s 250th got its unofficial kickoff with the SFC Carrier Cup at the end of May, and the tournament celebrated in the shadow of the retired USS Yorktown in Patriot’s Point, South Carolina. Tournament rules were modified before the start to accommodate the enormous distances they would need to cover, so angling times were 8:30 to 3:30 each day. The bite was slow starting out as conditions were rough and all teams were dealing with large quantities of gulfweed on the surface hanging up their trolling spreads. The New Jersey Sea Birds strung together a three blue marlin releases over two days of fishing to climb to the top of the leaderboard, outscoring the South Florida Sails in the number-two slot by 1,200 points. Lights Out Boston trailed in fourth place with six sailfish releases totaling 450 points. And those scores became the final results when SFC Tournament Officials called off Day Three of the tournament, due to rough conditions and a small craft warning.
“Never know what’s coming next,” Carmichael says. “That’s why we want to bring in every release efficiently. Points on the board now will beat points tomorrow every time.”
The race is on to make the SFC post-season.
What’s In Store for Lights Out Boston for the Rest of the Season?
While Lights Out Boston is in a similar position to last year at this stage in the season, several factors are at play this year that will undoubtedly have an impact on how the rest of the season turns out.
Home Field Advantage, Part One Next tournament is the Cape Cod Invitational to be held July 17 – 19, and it’s safe to say that no other team is as familiar with these waters as Lights Out Boston. One need look no further than last year’s result to understand the potential here: Lights Out Boston ran away with it with 47 white marlin releases, with more than 20 percent of the fish (ten total) brought to boatside by angler Casey Carmichael. The competition is fierce, and a rising billfish tide will raise all boats.
Home Field Advantage, Part Two Following the Homecoming Game, the league pivots to Newport, Rhode Island, for the Rhode Island Offshore Invitational in the stomping ground of league newcomer the Rhode Island Breakers. New England fishing fans know, it’s basically going to be the same bite as the previous tournament, and anything can happen.
Weather or Not As with any offshore fishing tournament, a stoppage due to weather conditions is always a possibility, and it’s worth noting that cutting a day of fishing out of tournament means every fish counts that much more. Careful releases, pulled hooks, and even malfunctioning video equipment could all tip the scale and turn a win into a question mark when the amount of fishing time is in play.
Check out the conditions at the 2026 Carrier Cup, rough seas and Gulfweed.
Make Or Break
Three tournaments remain. The field is still wide open—it’s still anyone’s game. And with 10,500 total points available for the three first place wins and 9,000 total points for three second-place finishes, anything can happen.
“The points reward for a win is substantial in the standings, especially when we consider the strong finishes other teams have also had,” says Drew Dolben, owner of the Lights Out Boston Angling Club. “Not squandering opportunities and keeping within striking distance down to the wire—that’s how you succeed in this league.”
As each event passes leading to the Midatlantic to end the regular season, each team in the Atlantic Division can position themselves to win. And we can’t wait to see what happens.