The 8th Annual Kenai Silver Salmon Derby is over, and we have our winners! In the adult contest, Kevin Dell brought home the $5,000 grand prize with a 10.83 lb silver, which was the closest to the final magic weight. In the kid’s contest, Carter Romero hauled in $1,000.
When asked what he would do with his freshly won riches, Carter said, “I honestly do not know. Maybe I’ll open a savings account or something.”
What about the big $5,000 prize? “I’m going to keep fishing until it’s gone,” said Kevin Dell.
This Derby uses a different method than most others in hopes of reducing catch-and-release injuries that harm the silver salmon population. It utilizes the Magic Weight, where the winner is determined not by how heavy the fish is, but rather who can get the closest to the randomized weight of the day.
“It’s a gamble,” said Dell. “You never know, so you want to keep every fish. There’s no throwing small ones back for sure.”
This year, there were concerns about whether the Derby would be held at all after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued an emergency order that limited the bag limit for Coho salmon on the Kenai Peninsula and around the state. However, the Kenai Chamber of Commerce, the City of Kenai, and ADF&G all agreed that the river could still be fished responsibly if the Derby were to continue.
“We did our due diligence to make sure that we were still going to be able to have the Derby as well,” said Kenai Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Samantha Springer.
Fish and Game Coordinator Matt Miller said that the department has been receiving reports of anglers having success catching Silvers. He said they want people to enjoy the resource, and he believes that the Derby can be executed responsibly. “We don’t really see a need at this point to do further restrictions, and [we] encourage folks to get out there and enjoy the resource.”
“We’ve been trying to find that balance throughout this season of protecting the Coho resource and taking restrictions where we needed,” Miller added, “and if it looked like we still had some opportunity we could provide for folks and anglers, then we were letting them do that, and that’s the case in Kenai and Kasilof.”