The oldest fishing tournament in the Florida Keys turns 67 this year, and the numbers that used to define it, the five-night bar circuit, the 180-angler fields of 1959, don't run the show anymore. What keeps the Marathon International Bonefish Tournament alive in 2026 is a $200 line item that has almost nothing to do with catching a fish. It buys two banquet tickets, a T-shirt, and the right to stand up in front of a room and hand somebody a trophy.
That detail matters more than it sounds like it should, and it explains something about how a small-town tradition survives nearly seven decades after the tourist dollars it was built to chase moved on to bigger events elsewhere in the Keys.
From a Five-Night Circuit to a Long Weekend
When the tournament started in 1959, it was designed as an economic engine, not a fishing showcase. Butch Hewlett, whose ties to the event trace back to when he fished it as a junior angler, remembers it as a five-day affair held every June with a different bar or restaurant hosting each night. The point was never really the leaderboard.
"It was designed to bring people to the Keys and spend money in the motels and the restaurants," Butch said.
Back then, the field ran roughly 180 anglers deep. That kind of crowd needed five separate nights and five separate venues to spread the spending around town. The tournament has since shrunk to a single long weekend anchored at one place, Marathon Grill and Ale, where registration opens Thursday at 5 p.m. The field is smaller than it was in Butch's junior years, but the nightly gatherings still pull 50 to 60 people through the door, a mix of captains, spouses, and local supporters who show up whether they're holding a rod or not.
Why September, Not June
The tournament didn't just get shorter. It moved. Organizers shifted the dates from summer into late September specifically to stop competing with peak tarpon season, which pulls the same pool of local guides and serious anglers in a different direction. That's a scheduling decision built around who actually shows up, not around tourism marketing calendars, and it says something about who this event is for now.
Here's the shape of that change, side by side:
| Early Years (1959 era) | 67th Annual (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | Five days | Four days, Sept. 24-27 |
| Venue pattern | Different bar or restaurant each night | Single anchor venue, Marathon Grill and Ale |
| Scheduling | Held every June | Moved to late September to avoid tarpon season conflicts |
| Field size | Around 180 anglers | Smaller field, though nightly crowds still run 50-60 |
| Stated purpose | Drive visitor spending into motels and restaurants | Keep a release-fishing and conservation tradition running |
The event that once existed to fill motel rooms now exists mostly to fill one room, four nights in a row, with people who already live here.
The $200 Trick That Keeps the Room Full
This is where the tournament's real innovation shows up, and it isn't in the water. It's in how organizer Barbara Hewlett solved the problem of a shrinking angler field: she built a way for non-anglers to buy their way into the event as hosts.
For $200, a local business or an individual sponsors a trophy. That gets them two banquet tickets, a T-shirt, and something no other fishing tournament sponsorship typically offers, the chance to personally hand the trophy to the winner they sponsored. General donations of $100 or more are also welcome, with checks payable to MIBT.
"It's a lot of fun," Barbara said of the arrangement.
That $200 isn't really a sponsorship fee. It's an entry ticket into a role. It converts someone who has never held a fly rod into a person with a seat at the banquet and a job to do when the awards start. Barbara has also made a habit of commissioning trophy art from Keys craftspeople rather than ordering something off a catalog. This year's trophies include copper work from an artist based in Islamorada.
"I'm always trying to spotlight local artists," Barbara said.
Put those two mechanisms together, the trophy sponsorship and the local-artist commissions, and you get a tournament that has quietly restructured itself around community participation instead of angler headcount. It no longer needs 180 competitors to feel full. It needs 50 or 60 people who have a reason to be in the room.
Barbara and Butch
Barbara arrived in Marathon around 2000 and started as an angler before working her way into the organizer's chair she now occupies. Butch's history with the event goes back further, to fishing it as a junior when the tournament still drew its 180-person fields. Between the two of them, they cover both eras of this event, the one built to move tourist money through town and the one built to keep a nearly 70-year-old tradition from quietly disappearing.
That kind of continuity is rare in a place where the visitor economy tends to reinvent itself every few seasons. It's part of what gives Marathon's calendar its texture, alongside long-running community fixtures like Marathon Community Theatre and the boating culture that shapes so much of daily life here, from weekend runs out to nearby reefs and sandbars to the everyday rhythm of beaches and boats that residents build their weeks around.
If You Want In on Number 67
The 67th Annual Marathon International Bonefish Tournament runs Thursday, September 24 through Sunday, September 27, 2026. Here's what to know if you want to be part of it, whether or not you own a rod:
- Registration opens Thursday, Sept. 24 at 5 p.m. at Marathon Grill and Ale.
- Nightly cocktail gatherings at the same venue typically draw 50 to 60 people, captains, spouses, and supporters included.
- Trophy sponsorships are $200 and include two banquet tickets, a T-shirt, and the chance to present your sponsored award.
- General donations of $100 or more are welcome, with checks payable to MIBT and mailed to PO Box 500914, Marathon, FL 33050.
- For entries, sponsorships, or artist inquiries, contact Barbara Hewlett at 305-304-8682.
- Tournament updates run through Facebook under "Marathon Int'l Bonefish/Marathon Tarpon Tournaments."
You don't need a boat slip or a casting record to walk into Marathon Grill and Ale on a Thursday night in late September and be part of something that started before interstate highways reached the Keys. The oldest fishing tournament in the Florida Keys survived by figuring out that its real product was never the fish. It was always the room.
Details like this, the kind that only show up if you're paying attention to what's actually happening on Overseas Highway this week, are part of what it means to live in Marathon rather than just visit it. If you're weighing what it would take to call this stretch of the Middle Keys home, or you're already here and thinking about what's next for your property, Barefoot in the Keys is happy to talk through it. Schedule a free consultation whenever you're ready.
