79th annual Golden North Salmon Derby gets drizzly start
- Ellie Ruel
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Yearly three-day fishing face-off gets underway Friday
By Ellie Ruel
Reporter
This is a developing story.
Things were off to a slow start at the Auke Nu weigh station early Friday morning, where Alysha Reeves was setting up the green derby house on the commercial fishing dock by the Auke Bay Ferry Terminal. As she arranged baseball caps advertising the Golden North Salmon Derby’s 79th anniversary, she noted the conditions might bring more boats into the Auke Nu station.
“It’s pretty windy out there,” Reeves said. “It’s going to bring people into our station.”
As of 4 p.m., Auke Nu had brought in six coho salmon and one king salmon. One of those was caught by Oliver Cole-Undurraga and held the title of first fish of the derby, weighing in at 14.1 pounds at 9:17 a.m.
Amalga Harbor is currently the busiest weigh station, with six kings and seven cohos. It also boasts the largest fish right now, a 31.2-pound king caught by Steven Beedle at 9:51 a.m.
“We're very excited. It could very well win the whole derby,” said Misty Chilton, who was running the dock. “Because there's a 31-pound king in the lead, people know that if they get something, anything under 31, they're not going to win it, but they could still place. So they're weighing their options, whether they want to run all the way in from where they're fishing and drop it off to be weighed. So we probably won't see any more major activity for a little while.”
The activity continued in waves after that enormously scaly opening bell. Bruce Williams brought in a 11.2-pound king at 11:42 a.m., briefly landing him in the fifth-place spot. He said the water was decent by Shelter Island, where he reeled in his catch.
“We were in neutral the whole time,” Williams said.
To the south, Douglas Island’s weigh station located at Mike Pusich Harbor got a slow start to the morning, but picked up steam as the day went on. By 4 p.m., the station had brought in five king salmon and one coho. The largest of those, caught by Michelle Duncan, weighed in at 19.4 pounds at 10:20 a.m. and holds the second-place slot on the unofficial leaderboard.
Jonathan Gunstrom was working a shift at the Douglas station. He said that while last year’s derby returns were low, he has hope for this year.
“This year it’s nice that they're actually putting up a fight. No fun reeling in a dead fish, so to speak,” Gunstrom said.
According to a July 30 fishing report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, king harvest has tapered off in most areas, with some catches reported near Lena Cove, near Doty Cove, the backside of Douglas, south and north Shelter Island, and around Lincoln Island. Coho season is just heating up, with catches by North Shelter Island, Lincoln Island, and around Point Retreat.
Each fish brought in for the derby will be sampled and genetically tested to determine its stock of origin, according to Daniel Teske, ADF&G area manager for Douglas. It’s a two-fold sampling system, combining laboratory results with questions about how and where a fish was caught at the docks. Kings with missing adipose fins will also be checked for small coated wire tags in their heads.
“You just get a sample from the fish, and then we turn it into our gene conservation lab, and then they have what's called genetic stock identification information,” Teske said. “We just get a good snapshot of what's happening within the sport fishery.”
Only 25 of the 684 registered anglers have turned in fish, and yields are expected to increase over the weekend. Live results are available here.
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
