Because of bad weather, the 28th annual Homer Winter King Derby was moved from Saturday, April 9th, to Sunday, April 10th. Based on the overall catch rate, it appears the salmon didn’t get the memo about the change.
The fishing wasn’t awful, but it was slow for the majority of anglers. For six hours, 1366 anglers in 408 boats, fished the icy waters of Kachemak Bay trying to find the largest king salmon swimming there. At the end of the day, 103 king salmon were caught and registered. That works out to a success rate of 7.5%.
I spoke to a friend of mine who has fished in this tournament for years and he thinks there were several factors for the low catch rate. The first was the timing of the tournament. The derby is usually held in March and he said the bite is historically better in March than April. Another factor was the weather. Things were pretty nasty leading up to the tournament. Rough seas, cold temps, and freezing mist made conditions difficult in hours before the start of the derby. The final factor, and perhaps the real reason, the overall king salmon abundance is low.
That being said, a good time was had by all.
The great story of the derby was that it was won by 15 year old, Weston Marley. His 27.38 pound king salmon earned him $84,619. The previous year, his 10 year old brother Andrew, caught the largest king salmon and brought home $87,027. Anybody can get lucky and win the derby once. But, the same boat and family winning it two years in a row, they’re clearly on to something.
I know who’s boat I’d follow in 2023.
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