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ALDEZ, Alaska – Cash prizes of $10,000 will be awarded to the person catching the largest Silver Salmon and the person catching the largest halibut in the Valdez Fish Derbies. Looking back through previous winners, the size of both the halibut and silver salmon on top of the leader board for 2024 are small. With two weeks left in the derbies, there’s a good chance the derby winner will be caught in the final days. Last year, Paul Casey of Shelbyville, Tennessee caught his derby winning 316.8-pound halibut on August 20th and took home the $10,000 prize. In 2023, LaVonne Baysinger won the $10,000 Valdez Silver Salmon Derby top prize with a 14.54-pound silver she caught August 4th but the 2nd and 3rd place winners were caught August 20th and 21st. Cord Basnaw of Ione, Washington won 2nd place in 2023 with a 12.54-pound silver salmon and Craig Hennager of Delta Junction won the 3rd place prize with a 12.44-pound silver salmon.
Joel Stephens of Ardmore, Oklahoma reeled in a 13.02-pound silver salmon August 2nd and said, “I don’t give myself a real strong chance of winning for the season, but it’s always possible”. “I’m just so happy to be on the board and be able to get my picture with my name right there in 1st place”, Stephens said. Natalie Cevasco of Fairbanks reeled in a 205.0-pound halibut August 8th and was very happy to end up on the leader board because they weren’t even going to fish for halibut the day, she caught the big one. “We were going to try to fish for silvers, but the weather was bad, and we anchored up close to shore out of the bad seas and had a nice fresh squid on there, and it just happened” Cevasco said.
In the final weeks of the derbies, there will be 1st and 2nd place daily winners in the Valdez Silver Salmon Derby and weekly 1st and 2nd place winners in the Halibut Derby. The final Big Prize Friday will be held August 30th with the angler catching the largest silver salmon on that day winning $500 cash in addition to the daily prizes.
When it comes to catching silver salmon and king salmon, there has been one constant and that is depth. The fish are running very deep this season according to anglers winning daily prizes in the derby. With the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reducing the daily bag and possession limit for Coho to a bag limit of three and a possession limit of six Coho salmon effective Monday August 19th, it might be a bit more difficult to catch the leaders in the Silver Salmon Derby. ADF&G reports King salmon fishing in the Sound has been fair to good with anglers having better success inside Prince William Sound near Glacier Island. Anglers are also having fair success finding silver near Glacier Island and some are being picked up near Crafton and Naked Islands and near Pigot Point. There have been a few reports of coho salmon being caught at Allison Point.