Salmon derby
returns Saturday

By Jessica Edwards

The 31st annual Haines Sportsman’s Association King Salmon Derby kicks off at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 23, and event organizers are hoping participation will rebound after last year’s cancellation.

The five-day derby runs May 23-25 and continues May 30 and 31. Anyone interested in volunteering at Letnikof Dock should contact Ashley Sage at 766-3264. 

Tickets are available at Haines Quick Shop, Alaska Meat and Grocery, and on derby day at the official weigh station at Letnikof Dock. Entry fees are $12 for a single day or $35 for all five days.

Participants must also hold a current fishing license with a valid king salmon stamp.

           “We’re trying to get people out, or even just to buy a ticket,” said association president Kim Larson. “I’ve heard people are catching fish out there.”

The king salmon derby is the group’s largest fundraiser, and helps pay for three annual scholarships, rifle range maintenance, hunter safety courses and other events, said Larson.

The sportsman’s association last year cancelled the event after the state department of Fish and Game closed Chilkat Inlet to king salmon harvest due to forecasted low abundance.

Derby fishing is also legal in waters on the town side of Lynn Canal, but effort tends to concentrate in Chilkat Inlet, said Larson.

Larson said even without a derby last year, the sportsman’s association had eked together funds for two of three $500 scholarships the group gives each year and a junior high hunter safety course. She said the group was hoping to regain some ground with this year’s derby.

Prizes, donated by local businesses, will be awarded to the 15 heaviest king salmon submitted to the derby and to others chosen at random, said Larson. Local smokery Dejon Delights will purchase kings caught in the derby, with proceeds donated to the organization.

Larson said dock space at Letnikof may be tight this year, as floats at the dock’s south end damaged by ice floes this winter hadn’t been replaced. “People might have to re-launch their boats every day.”

Local Fish and Game biologist Richard Chapell said the Chilkat River king salmon run was projected to meet escapement goals, but said river conditions indicated the run might show up late.

The bulk of the king salmon run enters the Chilkat River from Chilkat Inlet in May and June.

A strong king run is also predicted this year at Skagway’s Pullen Creek, Chapell said, meaning fishing may be good in Lynn Canal east of the Chilkat Peninsula.

Creel survey technicians recorded several kings harvested two weeks ago in Chilkat Inlet and near the Small Boat Harbor, said Chapell, but over 250 hours of angler effort went unrewarded last week, when not a single king was reported landed.

Low water temperatures and a late onset of glacial melt meant kings might be returning later than average to upper Lynn Canal, Chapell said.

   In other fishing news, Chapell reported strong harvest for Dolly Varden in Lynn Canal and at Chilkoot Lake.