Awards Handed Out To Kenai Silver Salmon Derby Winners

Author: Anthony Moore |

Awards were handed out last week at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center to the winners of the Kenai Silver Salmon Derby. The final weight to win the grand prize was 4.82 lbs. 26-year-old Angela Covey, in her first year in the derby, walked away with $5,000 for her fish’s weight coming in closest to that mystery weight. Joseph Craig was the winner for the youth category. He walked away with $1,000.

 

City Manager Paul Ostrander said:

This was the 5th annual Kenai silver salmon Derby. It was the most successful that we had to date. We had almost 200 participants this year. Fortunately, the fishing was a little better this year than it has been in the previous four years. Typically, when you have a salmon derby, or any type of fish derby, you are always looking for the biggest fish, but when we developed this five years ago, we felt it was really important because of the silvers in our river and how susceptible to mortality when you catch and release that we changed the format of it completely. Every daily winner and the overall winner is based on a magic weight that we’ve established each of those days. You may be able to catch a four-pound fish and you might be able to win the whole thing. As a matter of fact, this year, the magic weight for the overall winner was 4.82 pounds. Both of the winners that you see here today didn’t necessarily catch a big fish, but they still went away with a big prize. I’m really excited about this year and excited for growth in the coming years. The reason we’re able to provide these significant prizes to these winners is because of the sponsors that we were able to get this year.”

 

(left to right) Mayor Brian Gabriel, Angela Covey & Cameron Hunt

 

Craig, who won in the youth category, fished for a total of 12 hours, and caught only one fish. That fish being the winner. He told KSRM what he thinks of the fishing derby:

I think it’s a very interesting way because most tournaments have it being the biggest fish and with it having the lottery, like you said, it’s just, it could be anybody. It could be the smallest fish. It could be the biggest fish. Or just like the in-between. It’s just luck.”

 

(left to right) Cameron Hunt, Joseph Craig, and Mayor Brian Gabriel

 

Ostrander previously told  KSRM that half of the proceeds for the derby go to habitat projects to improve and protect the Kenai River. Half of the proceeds go to prizes and the rest of them go to habitat projects on the river. He says that they haven’t been able to conduct one yet because he’s waiting for all the years for that money to accumulate. Ostrander is aiming for the first project to happen next summer.

Author: Anthony Moore

News Director - [email protected]
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