King salmon derby off to impressive start

MAT-SU -- The fish are bigger, the competition is more fierce and there are two $10,000 fish still waiting to be caught.

Just two weeks into this year's Mat-Su King Salmon Derby and already the largest fish caught would have beat last year's final winner. And it's ahead of this year's second-place leader by less than half an inch.

In the first week of this year's derby, Maynard Young caught a 54.2-pound king in Sheep Creek. In the second week, Duane Couch tied him with a 54.2-pounder pulled out of the Kashwitna. Couch's took the lead in length -- just 7/16ths of an inch.

If this wasn't enough to make the derby a little more interesting, the next four weeks promise to be even more fun, with more anglers, more prizes and more fish.

"Things are just starting to heat up," said Ed Brittingham, executive director of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce. Brittingham said the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is predicting a strong king salmon run in local streams, with the peak just around the corner.

The derby closes the same time Fish and Game shuts down king salmon fishing in the Parks Highway streams -- July 6.

This is the fourth year the chamber has organized the king salmon derby, and Brittingham said it has steadily grown each year. As of last week, the derby had already registered 75 more fish than last year at the same time. And with the help of more than a dozen local sponsors, there are also more prizes this year -- a total of $95,000 if all the prizes are won.

This year, for example, you don't even have to catch a monster to win. The derby has added raffle drawings for any entered king 10 pounds or bigger. Also new this year are two tagged fish, worth $10,000 each. No one but Fish and Game knows where, when or what size of fish have been tagged and released into derby waters, but as of earlier this week they still hadn't been caught.

"If you catch one of those … that's $10,000 in cash," Brittingham said. "I really hope those fish are caught."

With that kind of money on the line, Brittingham advises anglers to look closely at each fish they pull out of the water. The dorsal-fin tags are small, olive-green tubes, and could easily be missed. And they also could be on any size of fish, so look twice before you throw back that 12-pounder.

If you catch a tagged fish, leave the tag attached and bring the entire fish to an official derby weigh-in station -- 3 Rivers Fly & Tackle, Deshka Landing, willow Creek Resort, Mat-Su RV Park at Mile 90.8 Parks Hwy. or Talkeetna River Adventures.

In addition to tagged fish and raffles for all fish, there are numerous other ways anglers can bring home cash or prizes with their king. Like previous years, the derby is awarding weekly prizes for the largest fish caught by both adults and youth. The grand prize winner of the entire derby will take home a four-wheeler, second place will earn $1,000 cash and third will win a G. Loomis fly rod.

New this year is the so-called "Lucky 2-Digit" contests, in which the last two digits of a fish's weight go up against a computer-chosen number. A random drawing of all derby entries will be entered for one of these contests, and the angler could win two Arctic Cat snowmachine and Triton trailer to take the home on, for a total value of $20,000. The overall derby winner will also have a chance at matching up two digits, with a $35,000 GMC extended-cab 4-by-4 pickup truck up for grabs.

But in order to win any of these prizes, you've got to have a derby ticket in hand. Tickets are $20 for an adult for the entire derby, $5 adult one day, $5 youth entire derby and $50 for new adult pro-class ticket. The pro-class winner will take home 60 percent of all the pro-class ticket sales as well as other prizes.

Each year, anglers pull winners out of the water but end up taking home only salmon fillets because they didn't have a derby ticket.

"We've already had reports of 60-pound fish caught without derby tickets," Brittingham said.

More information about the contest, where to buy tickets, whose winning each week and what prizes are still up for grabs, visit the chamber's Web site at www.wasillachamber.org or watch for the full-page advertisements in the Frontiersman each week.