Seldovia’s 5th Annual Human Powered Fishing Derby Hosted 30 Boats & Great Weather
by Tim Dillon
This past weekend saw the 5th annual Human Powered Fishing Derby in
Seldovia. The weather and the seas were the best we have seen in five years.
Beautiful clear skies, stunning sunrises and sunsets and seas as flat as plate
glass allowed long hours of paddling and rowing throughout both Seldovia
and Kachemak bays. Day breezes, though bothersome on Saturday
afternoon, were for the most part a non-factor.
Prior to the weekend there was much speculation on how the lowest tides of
the year, minus 5.7, would affect the fishing. In the end the big tides seemed
to bring in the largest number of king salmon in the history of the derby. A
number of kings were boated in the mouth of Seldovia Bay, and a couple of
nice fish were lost. The learning curve for five-year veterans of the derby is
evening out and a host of five-year participants fine-tuned the art of boating
lively fish; no small task for one person in a small craft.
We added a third day, Friday, to the event so that fishers could get farther
down the coast. All winter long I was anticipating a large camp of anglers
down at 4th of July creek for a Friday night of fishing, but as the event and
the big tides came closer, I played down the idea. At the last-minute, four of
us set up camp on the 4th of July beach and were treated to some of the
calmest seas one can expect for mooring boats on that steep beach. A
fantastic sunrise Saturday morning made for memorable fishing just on the
edge of the large kelp bed in front of the beach. Next year I’m hoping to
continue this tradition and try to entice more to camp.
Everyone who officially weighed in a salmon, halibut, gray cod or black
bass got their name in the hat for the grand prize drawing; this year a 17’
EasyRider kayak. If they had participated in past years their name was also
entered for every year they participated.
Grand Prize Winner: Amelia Dillon
Largest king salmon: Tim Dillon 22 lbs
Largest halibut: Toby Seville
Largest gray cod: Chris Pollack
Largest black bass: Craig Barnard
Thank you to everyone and every business that helped make this possible.
Major donations were received from Joe & Heather Miller of the Linwood
Bar & Grill, David & Judy Longworth, Mary & Timothy Pedlow of Perry’s
Café and Dillon & Dillon LLC.
The first year of the derby did not see a boat given away as a grand prize,
however the subsequent four years each saw a boat taken away by a lucky
angler:
2013 Amelia Dillon
2012 Kirby Corwin
2011 Ryan Geagel
2010 Mia Heavener (Heather Miller’s sister)
Category: Uncategorized
Seldovia Time
