Magic Weight Drawn And Prizes Awarded To Winners Of Kenai Silver Salmon Derby

Author: Anthony Moore |

The 6th Annual Kenai Silver Salmon Derby wrapped up on Sunday. On Monday, the winners and the magic weight was chosen for the overall tournament. The magic weight was 5.36 pounds. The adult winner was Ronald Duval, who had a fish that weighed in at 5.32 pounds, who walks away with $5,000. The youth winner was Abigail Craig whose fish weighed in at 5.36 pounds, who walks away with $1,000. Two wheels were spun, one for the pound and a second wheel spun twice for the tenth and the hundredth pound.

 

(left to right) Brett Perry, Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center Executive Director, Paul Ostrander, Kenai City Manager, Brian Gabriel, Kenai City Mayor

 

City Manager Paul Ostrander told KSRM how this year’s derby went:

We don’t have the exact numbers of participants this year, but I will tell you, it appears that participant numbers were up and certainly the number of fish that were caught was far better than what we had seen in past years. Last year was the most participants that we’d ever had. I’m confident this year we’ll exceed that and, again, the fishing was really good this year. A lot of folks getting their limits most days.”

 

Image courtesy of Nathaniel Craig

Ostrander added:

The funds are split 50/50. 50% of the funds go towards to the winner to the winning prizes and 50% goes to the Kenai Community Foundation. The Kenai Community Foundation is holding the money and it’s intended to be used for a habitat project that will benefit the Kenai River. After this year and the success, we had this year, I think we’ve accumulated enough money now to have a pretty significant project that’s going to help the habitat along the Kenai River. That could be anything from the main stem of the Kenai River or it could be a tributary of the Kenai as well. Every year we start from scratch. We don’t use any of the money for this. The City of Kenai doesn’t get any money from this. Some of the costs we offset with the money but almost 100% of it goes to both prizes and the Kenai Community Foundation.”

 

(left to right) Dr. Kathleen Rice, Ronald Duval (winner), Mayor Gabriel, Ostrander

 

The Kenai Silver Salmon Derby is a family-friendly fishing tournament where anyone can win prizes. It awards prizes using a magic weight that is randomly drawn at the end of each derby day. Since any fish over four pounds is eligible to win, anglers of all skill levels have a chance to earn prizes.  

 

Additionally, Nathaniel Craig, the father, submitted a written statement to KSRM Radio regarding his daughter’s win saying:

“This year’s annual event was a very special one for our family, lots of great memories made over our fishing adventures this past week. Since moving to Soldotna in 2015 our family has participated in this annual event except for 2020. We have been blessed to win this event several times over the last few years; Lily won in 2017, Joseph won in 2021 and Abigail, the youngest and her first time entering this event won this year in 2022. Her mother Jill Craig and I are proud of her willingness to wake up at 3:00 AM, brave the cold-wet weather to snuggle-up with her puppy Bucee under sleeping bags and watch the stars in the early mornings.

Our family had a great attitude and put in lots of time/effort to catch these amazing salmon this year. We would like to give a special thanks to Justin Cooley and his family for sharing their time and knowledge to help us improve our technique at fishing on the Kenai River, they have inspired us. Special thanks to the community of fishermen cheering on the kids while we rolled down the river to land each fish, I love that we have this end of season fishery with such camaraderie with our neighbors; we absolutely love living here.

Throughout this season’s event, our four children submitted twenty-nine fish during the event most caught on plugs, and several caught back-bouncing eggs from a special homemade recipe. One highlight that occurred this year was on the last day in which Joseph had a seal try to steal his salmon after hooking up, after a good tug of war, the seal conceded and released the salmon. Much to our surprise, we were able to still land the salmon with only a small bite mark on its tail! This event marks the end of our season for fishing and it’s a great opportunity to spend time with each other, have lots of laughs, and eat plenty of boat snacks.

Abigail will be putting this money in her savings after a quick visit to the toy aisle for Gabby Cat figurines and Pokémon Cards from AK Crazy Collector store in Soldotna. Thank you again to Mayor Brian Gabriel, Mr. Ostrander, Mr. Perry, Dr. Rice, and community sponsors; we greatly appreciate your time and support for this very special event.”

Image courtesy of Nathaniel Craig

Author: Anthony Moore

News Director - [email protected]
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