The 27th Annual Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament was held this past weekend and it set multiple records.
Brad Anderson, Executive Director for the Homer Chamber of Commerce spoke to KSRM, “We had an all time number of fishermen in it, 1,562. We had all time record number of boats 455. It was a very, very successful event. For the first time, we had our youngest winner ever, a 10-year-old fisherman named Andrew Marley was the grand prize winner. Right now, if everything settles correctly, which it looks like it is, between his fish and then the side tourneys which was placed by his dad for the full boat, a combination of that will have total winnings of $87,027 for them.”
10-year-old Andrew also won prize packages for the top Youth Angler and for the Largest White King Salmon. His winning king salmon came in at 25.62 lbs. The early estimates are showing that the total cash prizes that will be handed out from this tournament will be $238,306. In addition to the numerous cash prizes, thousands of dollars in fishing tackle and other prizes were awarded throughout the day to the tournament anglers from random drawings.
Anderson said it was a successful tournament this year, “We did have to move it to later, about a month later into April because of some COVID concerns. We wanted more of the vaccine process to get through our community and state to make it safer for everyone to come out and we also wanted a better weather day so less chance we’d have to cancel things last minute. That combination just really led to people feeling safer coming out and being out in the waters, enjoying the outdoors again, and the weather was absolutely perfect!”
Anderson says there’s no time to rest since the Homer Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for the Homer Halibut Tournament on June 4th and 5th, “This actually will be our first time doing this halibut tournament. For over 30 years, we’ve done the Jackpot Halibut Derby which has been a summer long program where you buy a ticket and, if you get a big fish, the ticket is good for a daily fishing opportunity. This will be a two-day fishing tournament. It’s going to happen for those two days, June 4th and 5th. This will be our first year in this format, it will set records because it’s the first one, but we do anticipate getting a really good response to that. People like the tournament concept. We will be holding it in the same event area, which is very spacious, easy for people to drive up and have their fish weighed. That process will also be very smooth.”
More information on the Homer Halibut Tournament can be found here.
