| KETCHIKAN DAILY NEWS ARTICLE REGARDING THE CRAIG/KLAWOCK KING SALMON DERBY |
| 7/22/2004 Lunkers lurk off POW By TOM MILLER Daily News Staff Writer The lunkers are lurking on the west coast. They're out there, not far from Craig, Klawock and Waterfall Resort on the other side of Prince of Wales Island. Two women and a man proved the point recently by catching progressively larger king salmon, ranging in weight from 65 to 79 pounds. Mylene Rostad of Ketchikan caught a 65.5-pound king (picture on derby page) June 13 and won a $2,000 prize for taking the largest fish in the May-June period in the three-period Craig-Klawock King Salmon Derby. "It was awesome," Rostad said of the fish she caught aboard friend Wally Kennedy's boat while vacationing with her husband. Rostad used whole herring with a hootchie to get the big one. "It took about 20 minutes to get in, and it was a fight," she said. "We left the dock at 3:30 a.m. and were back at 7:30," said Rostad. The 65-pounder wasn't Rostad's first prizewinner. "A couple years ago, I won the lady-with-the-biggest-fish award for catching a 40-pound king," she said. "The picture of that fish is nothing compared to this one." Rostad grew up in Kake where she sport fished for many years. She even fished commercially one year. But she never caught big kings until she fished out of Craig. "We don't catch kings that big in Kake," she said. In the photo Kennedy took of her standing next to her big one, she's smiling. *** But then … on July 10, Keith Webb topped Rostad. His 76-pound monster put him in contention to win the second $2,000 prize in the derby. That is, if his luck holds until the end of July. Webb is a U.S. Forest Service employee and pastor of the Coffman Cove Baptist Church. He used a 4-ounce green weight and cut-plug herring on an 8-foot leader to catch his big fish at Cape Ulitka near Noyes Island. Webb was mooching in 60 feet of water and caught the fish about 4 feet from the bottom, he said. Webb checked his depth using a line meter attached to his rod, he said. Webb and friend, charter skipper Sam Peters, left the dock at about 4:30 a.m. and returned less than four hours later. Webb fought the fish for about 40 minutes. Webb joked that he's "really a lousy fisherman," but admits being very lucky. He caught a 60-pound king in 2002 that placed fourth in the Craig-Klawock Derby and, as he told the Island News, figured that that was his catch of a lifetime. But his new fish, 16 pounds heavier, measured 51 inches long and 35 inches around. Webb said Peters, his fishing buddy, called this one the biggest king he'd ever seen. In the picture Peters took of Webb, his daughter Colleen and his 76-pound king salmon, the daughter is smiling and Webb is beaming. *** But then … six days later, on July 16, Gretchen Porter, 56, of Newport Beach, Calif., saw one and caught one just a little bigger - a 79.2-pound king - while fishing with Waterfall Resort guide Devin Rowe. Hers was 53 inches long, with a 36-inch girth. Porter and her husband, along with another couple from California, left the Waterfall dock at 6:30 a.m. Rowe drove about an hour out from the resort to a place known as "The Rockpile." Her fish struck at about 9 a.m. Porter said she didn't get excited until "it was finally in and it kind of hit how big it was." During the 30-minute fight, she said, all she could think of was the next reel, lift the rod again, let it down and reel in some more: "It felt like three hours." "Devin gave great instructions," Porter said. "He knew how big it was." The Porters have been fishing for a few days each year at Waterfall for 15 years, and with Rowe for 12. Like Webb, Porter was mooching off the bottom with a cut plug. The fish hit her line, then dived deep before surfacing about 75 yards out, she said. Then it headed for shore and a kelp bed. Rowe maneuvered the boat in an effort to keep the salmon from the kelp where it might have tangled and snapped the line, said Porter. The tactic worked and the fish stayed out of the kelp. Still, the king wasn't finished. "He did go way out and way down," Porter said. "We'd get him up to the boat and then he'd say, 'I think I'll go down again.'" Porter said she tired of the strain of reeling and finally told Rowe they needed to get the fish in. "When (the fish) went in the net, I couldn't see it because I had to stand back with the pole, but the people who saw it go in the net said it looked surreal." Once it was on the boat, Porter took a good look. "It was hooked real well in the mouth." With the news of Rostad's and Webb's big kings, Porter is hoping, but not assuming, that her fish will remain the largest caught this year at Waterfall, where prize money and a 12-day Princess Cruise stand to be won. However that turns out, though, in the picture she posed for, laying on the dock next to her fish and a tape measure, Porter is laughing out loud. E-mail: tommiller@ketchikandailynews.com |
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| Visit Prince of Wales Island and try your luck. You could be the next derby winner!! Remember Fish Forever Fish!! |