Brian Kelley has been a busy man as of late.
The country music singer has been making headlines for his moves in the music world (more on that in a bit), but what fans might not know is that he’s one heck of a competitive fisherman. Kelley is a part of the Sport Fishing Championship, and co-owns a team called the Gulf Coast Cowboys.
This past weekend, Kelley and his team won the Gulfport Mississippi open.
The one half of Florida Georgia Line has told SFC that he’s really fallen in love with being out on the water, and that the unknown and the competition keeps him motivated to be the best fisherman he can be:
“Being out fishing is living out a part of who I am. The Gulf is such a huge body of water and to me it’s so mysterious, to a lot of us it still is so that’s why we still go. We love the hunt and we love the catch even more.”
Kelley and team co-owner and angler, Dino McDowell, call themselves the “Marlin Brothers.” The Gulf Coast Cowboys also consist of Captain Blake Bridges, and General Manager Jordon Benefield and Dalton Benefield in the cockpit. They’ve come together to form one very strong team in the Sport Fishing Championship, and as Brian Kelley says himself, it’s a team effort:
“I’m trying to line up some tour (dates) and fishing, but that’s why I signed up: because I want to be on the boat, I want to be fishing even if it’s cheering on Jordon reeling in the big one. It takes everybody from the captains to the mates, the whole team. The whole aura of the boat has to be right to get the win.”
All about that aura.
The country music singer has had plenty of great days as an artist, but he’s very partial to the days he’s already spent reeling in sport fish:
“Some of my best days have been out on a boat catching marlin and sailfish. When that line goes off and you know you’ve got one. Like Capt. Blake (Bridges) says, ‘When you see them dancing and you get the show, that’s when you win.’ That’s what it’s all about right there.”
That’s exactly what it was about this past weekend, when during the second stop of the 2026 SFC Gulf Division season, Brian Kelley and the Gulf Coast Cowboys finished with a staggering six Blue Marlin and one White Marlin. It marked the team’s first SFC win of the year, and you can check out some of the action in the video below:
And as I mentioned earlier, that’s not the only thing that Brian Kelley has been busy with.
He and Tyler Hubbard reunited and brought Florida Georgia Line back during this year’s edition of CMA Fest. In case you needed a reminder, the duo split and went separate ways back in 2022. They apparently had some differences pulling them apart, but they were able to let bygones be bygones in 2026, and officially got back together (and signed an agent and manager) earlier this month:
So now, it looks like Brian Kelley will have to figure out how to juggle his music career and his competitive fishing career. Sounds like a pretty fun way to make a living, eh?
