The Homer Chamber of Commerce and the Winter King Salmon Tournament Committee announced that the 28th Annual Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament held on Sunday, April 10 handed out the second largest amount of cash prizes in the tournament’s history. The final amount totaled $218,189. Even with the tournament being postponed for one day due to forecasted weather conditions, there were 1,366 registered anglers and 408 boats that participated in the tournament.
Brad Anderson with the Homer Chamber of Commerce told KSRM:
“It was just a great day. Sunny day, beautiful setting at the end of Freight Dock Road at the back side of the Homer Harbor. The backdrop of Kachemak Bay are right behind you. A sunny day like that, there’s just nothing better. We had an incredible time. A huge turnout of people coming out there. There were 408 boats that were in this tournament. That parade of boats coming back in was quite a sight to see. For the second year, the Marley family, the older brother of last year’s winner, Weston Marley was the winner this year and he was the top prize with a 27.38-pound fish. Congratulations to that family who’s been fishing those waters for many, many years. They have handed down a great tradition to their kids.”
The top place angler was 15-year-old Weston Marley with a fish weighing 27.38 pounds. His younger brother Andrew was the tournament champion last year. Unofficial results are currently showing that he will earn $84,619 in total cash prizes including the team’s Side Tournament winnings. This year’s Youth Prize winner was 12-year-old Braydan Niebuhr with a 10.46-pound King.
Anderson spoke on the one-day postponement of the tournament to Sunday due to the weather:
“You know, the weather certainly presented us some challenges. We had to shift the start of the tournament one day to Sunday. Anytime you make a change, people set their travel plans accordingly, but for safety-wise, we really needed to do that because the seas were a little bit too rough and the temps were very cold so that would have been some freezing mist conditions to come out of the harbor, which really wouldn’t make it safe. Our attendance was a little bit lower than we would have been and saw the trends going, but more importantly, we wanted to make sure it was a safe and fun time for all of our anglers. That date we chose and moved to on Sunday just created a spectacular day for everybody.”
Click here for a complete list of official results.
