Derby News - Week 10, 7/24-7/30

Local Woman Knocked Off Leaderboard Only to Return

Some large fish hit the leader board in the Silver Salmon Derby Friday. On Thursday Connie Ballow, a local angler from Valdez, was leading the silver salmon derby with a 12.22 pound silver. Throughout the day anglers brought their big silvers to the weigh-in, trying to win the $500 Big Prize Friday award for catching the largest fish on July 29th. According to weigh-in coordinator Bonnie Woods, more than 30 anglers weighed in fish on Friday and Ballow was knocked out of her leading position and completely off the board. Never one to give someone else the last word, Ballow cruised into the harbor with a 13.71 pound fish at 8:45pm to take back the lead in the Silver Salmon Derby and win the Big Prize Friday cash prize. There will be one more Big Prize Friday, the last Friday of the Silver Derby September 2nd.

The first week in the Silver Salmon Derby has been very active with lots of anglers coming to weigh fish. Currently the halibut derby and silver derby are running, but Woods said people have been bringing in trophy size lingcod and yellow eye rockfish to qualify for a trophy certificate. Lingcod have to be 55 pounds for a trophy and yellow eye have to be 18 pounds.

Charter boat captains are heading a bit past Jacks Bay to pick up a lot of silvers in a short amount of time, Pat Olson, a local fish cutter at the docks, said that he’s heard several silvers have been caught off the City Dock in town and they’re catching them at Allison Point.

In Week 10 of the Valdez Halibut Derby Annette Gutierrez continues to hold onto 1st place with the 335.7 pound halibut she reeled in early July aboard the Reelentless. James Pohlman remains in 2nd place with a 214.8 pounder he reeled in aboard the Dan Orion, and Brad Yates is tightly holding onto 3rd place with a 193.4 pound halibut.

More information on the Silver Salmon Derby, as well as pictures of the weekly halibut winner and past winners of the silver salmon and halibut derby, can be found on this website.

The Women’s Silver Salmon Derby is slated for Saturday, August 13th.