This year's Valdez Silver Salmon Derby won't go down as an advertisement for the town's dozen or so sport fishing charters. The top three fish were all landed from shore.
That includes hometown champion Jacob Marquardt, 32, who snagged his 17.52-pound winner casting from the rocks in the town's marina on Thursday. Fish snagged are legal entrants in the Valdez derby.
"I guess it's kind of an equalizing factor for people who can't afford a charter," said Laurie Prax, a Valdez derby official who said she's been involved with the tournament for 20 years. "People typically don't catch that many from shore. In fact, I don't ever recall a top fish being caught from shore.
"Earlier in the season, you have to go far out to get them. It's kind of weird."
Turns out Thursday was the day for fat fish in Valdez Arm. Runner-up John Neitzeke of Grand Rapids, Michigan, pulled in his second-place fish the same day, fishing from Allison Point on the other side of Valdez Arm. It weighed 17.26 pounds.
Marquardt's fish earned the Valdez angler $15,000, one of the biggest cash prizes for salmon derbies in Alaska. Neitzke took home $5,000 for second place.
The winning angler put in a week's worth of effort before his treble hook latched onto the biggest Valdez coho of the summer in about 20 feet of water at 6 p.m.
"It looked like a king when it came up," said Marquardt, a U.S. Coast Guardsman who recently moved to Valdez from Wisconsin. "It's a long fish, really long, close to 36 inches."
Dawn Osmonson-Sturm reeled in her third-place fish at Allison Point, a 17.18-pound fish she caught Aug. 30 to earn $2,000.
This is the third time in the last four years that an angler from Valdez, population 4,000, has won the derby. Amanda Towne was the 2014 winner and Michael Freerksen topped the field in 2013.
While the Valdez Silver Salmon Derby winners were all caught the final days of the tournament, that was not the case for the sister Valdez Halibut Derby. David Jamison of Fairbanks caught his 253-pound halibut May 29, waiting more than two months to lock down his $15,000 first-place prize. Kim Steiger of Westchester, Pennsylvania reeled in her 211-pound halibut July 5 and Jeff Leaverton of Madisonville, Louisiana, caught his third-place 174-pounder June 16 to take third place.