.png)
Salmon derby sees quiet ending to 80th run
- Ellie Ruel
- 21 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Unofficial leaderboard remains unchanged since Friday
By Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
The final day of the 80th Golden North Salmon Derby drew to a somewhat quieter close on Sunday night, with no major upsets to the top three leaderboard fish.
Unofficial results online show a 26.2-pound king salmon caught by Patrick Dryer in first place, followed by his son Oliver’s 19.5-pound king in second and Ivan Odenheimer’s 18.4-pound king in third.
At the Douglas weigh station, dock chair Jonathon Gunstrom said this derby was one of their quietest years, filling two totes with salmon by Sunday night. Derby officials and representatives from KINY and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game had shifted to a meditative music session to entertain themselves.
“It's been pretty brutal,” Gunstrom said. “No fish are biting, no one's catching anything. Even our regulars that do well are struggling to catch anything.”
He said many anglers had abandoned the fishing area to the south of Douglas and headed north towards Amalga instead.
Half an hour before the derby officially ended, the Auke Nu weigh station transitioned to a drive-through style of fish collection. Officials hauled boats alongside the dock and helped offload coolers of scholarship and derby salmon, and five totes were filled, totaling about 15 for the entire derby.
Hallie Mertle pulled in close to 6 p.m., with 24 scholarship fish and one derby fish in tow. She said she had been out at a cabin all weekend.
“The first day we got 10, yesterday, we got, like, five or six,” she said. “At the end, we got, like, five, from the last 30 minutes, and then we made it here right on time.”
The Amalga weigh station brought in 1.5 totes of fish on Sunday, the same amount as Saturday.
Rob Smith said he’s been fishing the derby since he moved to Juneau in 1985, barring 2024.
“I live for this weekend,” Smith said. “I don't own a slip, and I don't want to pull my boat every night, so I had to beg, borrow and plead to get a slip to tie my boat up for the derby.”
He said his 14.1-pound coho made him optimistic about his odds.
“I feel pretty good, 'cause there's only an hour to go and it's the largest coho here,” he said.
Smith noted the weather was a plus, since it didn’t rain over the three-day derby.
“You could see it coming over, but we never got wet all three days out there,” he said. “So that makes for a good journey.”
The official awards ceremony is scheduled 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Moose Lodge.
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
