138-pound halibut catch gives 6-year-old derby lead

HOMER — There’s always a reason to buy a derby ticket. It’s that hope against all hope that fortune will grace the end of your line, much the same reason we even go fishing in the first place.

For 6-year-old Tegan Humphrey, that hope paid dividends, albeit not in the form she was wishing for.

The Humphrey family of five moved to Palmer two and a half years ago. They had never been fishing in the ocean and decided to head to Homer last weekend to try their luck. They enlisted the help of Big Bear Charters and captain Rob Hyslip and made sure they all had derby tickets before they left the dock.

“He said he would be nice to us and took us to a spot that was only 200 feet deep first,” said 9-year-old Natalie.

With no action there, they bombed a hole only 100 feet deep with their herring and squid bait.

Again, no luck.

Hyslip then turned the boat out to sea, heading for a spot more than 300 feet deep and 50 to 60 miles offshore.

Tegan and Natalie are still arguing about who hooked into a fish first, but when Tegan’s rod doubled over, the whole boat knew it was something big.

“I was hoping it was a mermaid,” Tegan said with complete sincerity. “It was really heavy.”

Her father, Charles, quickly took over the task of lifting the barn door. When they got the fish to the weigh station, it tipped the scales at 138.8 pounds, almost exactly 3.5 times Tegan’s 40 pounds.

Tegan’s fish is now atop the leader board for the lady’s division. She stands to win $500 if it’s still there at the end of the month.

Asked if they are going to fish again this year, mom Courtney said their freezer is completely full. With the other nine fish they caught that day, the family took home more than 100 pounds of halibut.

The soon-to-be first grader at Wasilla Lake Christian School also got a science lesson out of the experience.

“They cut it’s stomach open looking for gold like that story in the Bible,” Tegan said. “There was no gold, but there was another fish he’d eaten!”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or (907) 352-2252.