Alaska Fishing

Don't cast. Dip your hand in the water, and put your fingers to your lips.

Salty?

You're halfway home.

With the notable exception of the Russian River red salmon fishery, anglers are best advised to sample saltwater locales this holiday weekend.

King salmon fishing has been shut down by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on an array of Southcentral waterways.

Rainbow trout and other lake fish are headed for cool, deep holes after our sustained sunny weather.

But on the salty side, anglers have more encouraging prospects.

Silver salmon are returning to Pony Cove in Resurrection Bay. The personal use dipnet fishery for red salmon at the mouth of the Kasilof River began slowly but should rapidly improve.

And halibut -- ah, halibut. Salmon runs come and go. Fish bite and then disappear. But halibut, seemingly, are forever. Many anglers in Homer, Seward, Deep Creek and Whittier are returning to the docks with two-fish limits. And the monster flatfish are starting to show, as they typically do by July.

In Homer, Thomas Youngblood seized control of the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby on Friday with his 354.6-pound bemoth, which is six pounds heavier than last year's victor.

In Seward, the month-long Seward Halibut Tournament ended with two 240-plus-pound fish atop the leaderboard.

Mallory Wimsett reeled up a 244-pounder Tuesday, and Bill Gleavy caught an even bigger one, 257 pounds, less than two weeks earlier.

But perhaps the real winner in Seward didn't even have a rod in his hands.

Steve Zernia, owner of ProFish-N-Sea Charters, put clients in the top two tournament sports. His boats produced the biggest fish on 11 of the tournament's 30 days -- halibut averaging 150 pounds.

Neither feat is likely to harm his reputation on the Seward docks.

All together, about two dozen charters participated in the tournament.

Gleavy, of Dedham, Mass., landed his winner June 19, earning him $10,000.

Wimsett, of Pittsburg, Kan., landed her lunker on the final day of the month-long tournament that ended Tuesday. She took home $5,000 -- as well as seven 50-pound boxes of filets of the halibut and rockfish she and her family landed.

"That pole hadn't gotten any bites all day," she said Wednesday. "I'm not very strong at all, and I was pretty worn out after I got it to the boat the first time."

Clearly, hers was a big fish. One of the deck hands proclaimed it a possible derby winner.

That led to even more excitement, which didn't help matters. A shot fired to dispatch the monster missed.

"So the fish got pissed and swam away again, ripping a whole lot of line out," said Wimsett, 19, a student at Pittsburg State University in Kansas.

But after more than 30 minutes of pumping, Wimsett got the fish, which proved too big for the fish box, close enough to be hauled in.

Now she's got the glory, she's got the memories and she's got the meat. The only question is what to do with her $5,000 prize.

"My dad is trying to convince me to go look for cars," she said, "but I'm a pretty thrifty person, and I think I'm gonna save it."

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.

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