30th Annual Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament Awards $169,780 In Cash Prizes

HOMER, March – The Homer Chamber of Commerce and the Winter King Salmon Tournament Committee announced that the 30th Annual Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament held on Saturday, Mar. 23, handed out an estimated $169,780 in prize money along with merchandise prizes worth over $25,000.

“This is our 30th anniversary of the tournament, so we added a few extra things. Bay Welding created a new trophy for this year that would be our forever trophy here [at the Chamber]with all of our tournament anglers’ champions’ names on it. So, we introduced that this week. We had Blackwater Railroad band and a local favorite, Silas Jones, who joined us in our beer garden event stage. [It was] probably the largest crowd that we’ve ever had at the tournament,” said Homer Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Brad Anderson.

This year’s tournament had 1,059 anglers and 302 boats that participated in the tournament. The top-place angler was Chris Keithley, with a fish weighing 25.96 pounds. The unofficial results show that he will earn $72,291.50 in cash prizes, including the team’s Side Tournament winnings. Chris’s fish was also a white king, so he received an additional merchandise prize bucket. Since Keithley was the team’s captain, he also received the John Hillstrand Award, which included another prize bucket. In total, his prize buckets were worth $1,718 in merchandise prizes.

This year’s Youth Prize winner was 11-year-old Oslo Teigen with an 11.98 pound King.

Here is a summary of the winning anglers:

ANGLER                    WEIGHT        EARNINGS   SIDE TOURNEYS

1^st: Chris Keighley      25.96               $30,182           $45,110

2^nd: Bruce Graham    25.56               $15,885           $3,477

3^rd: Luke Graham      23.74               $12,708

4^th: Eric Fan                21.26               $11,120           $1,089

5^th: Josh Burns           19.44               $9,531

6^th: Mike Maxon         17.64               $7,943

7^th: James Weimer     16.44               $6,354

8^th: Skylar Scheid       16.42               $4,766

9^th: Arthur York          16.28               $3,177

10^th: Jason Heintz       16.08               $1,589

The Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament is the premier fishing tournament in Alaska and likely the biggest on the West Coast. The new tournament area by the Homer Deep Water Dock is the perfect setting to showcase Homer Harbor and the beautiful ocean waters of Kachemak Bay. Sea Tow Southcentral Alaska provided the official tournament boat, keeping an eye on the anglers to ensure they were operating safely and adhering to tournament rules.

Many local businesses and over 50 volunteers helped make this monumental event happen. A very special thanks to Co-Presenting Sponsors Ulmer’s Drug and Hardware and Honda Marine. The Weigh-In Sponsor was the UPS Store, plus Event Sponsors Homer Port & Harbor, NOMAR, Alaska Peninsula Plumbing & Mechanical, Cosmic Cannabis Company, Coal Point Seafoods, Collins Excavating, Dibble Creek Rock, Moore & Moore Services, Captain’s Coffee, L&R Rental, Alaskan Brewing Company RNDC Distributing, Grace Ridge Brewing, Smokey Bay Air, Horizon Satellite, Global Credit Union, Driftwood Inn, First National Bank, Doyon, Farwest General Contracting, Cabela’s/Bass Pro Shops, Story Real Estate, and Homer Bed & Breakfast Association.

For a complete summary of the tournament results, please visit Homerwinterking.com or the Homer Chamber of Commerce website at HomerAlaska.org.

Trophy Shot: Misty Kincaid Photography

All Others: Christopher Kincaid Photography