This weekend was the grand finale for the 9th Annual KC/Tri-Cities Prep Salmon Derby. At the bottom of this post is the press release for the results.
We had a great time in my boat. I brought my daughter Caitlin on Saturday along with a blind friend and two other really good friends from the Knights of Columbus. The water was high so we started out flatlining mag warts in some shallow eddies (20' deep). After about a half hour we hit back-to-back small salmon for Andy and Tom:
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After another fifteen minutes Caitlin's rod buckled over and she fought a hawg-- potential derby winner-- for about half an hour. She had it under the boat a couple of times but then it took off on a last run and straightened out a duolock snap and lost her favorite pink mag wart. She was a trooper, though... nary a tear, and she of course grabbed another pink mag wart once I tied on a heavier snap. Another half hour and she hooked up again, this time with a 34.84 pounder, smaller than the "big one that got away" but still good for 3rd place overall and 1st place in the youth division:
We ended up hitting seven chinook on Saturday, but no other big fish.
Sunday dawned beautiful... here is the scene looking downstream at B Reactor as the sun came up:
The fishing was a little slower, though. My son Trevor and another daughter, Kelcey, came along this time, and each of them caught fish (two for Trevor and one for Kelcey) but we only ended up with four small fish. Here is Trevor's first of the day, helped by his great-uncle:
All four of our fish Sunday, and three of the fish Saturday, were on bait-wrapped Kwiks in 40' of water.
Derby results:
Over 160 anglers enjoyed some great weather while salmon fishing this past weekend during the 9th Annual KC/Tri-Cities Prep Salmon Derby, which was held in Richland, Washington October 2-3, 2004. The charity event raises funds for Tri-Cities Prep, the Catholic high school in Pasco, WA. The participants competed for thousands of dollars worth of cash and merchandise while catching 123 fall Chinook salmon.
Rod Noah of Chatteroy landed both the first prize and second prize winning fish, weighing 36.80 and 36.72 pounds. Richland youth Caitlin McBride, 12, caught a 34.84 pound salmon that won third prize overall and first prize for the youth. Fourth prize went to Brian Bourghs of Walla Walla at 32.64 pounds. Youth entrant Katelyn Osterholm of Deer Park netted fifth place overall and second place in the youth division with a 29.60 pounder. The sixth prize winner, 29.14 pounds, was caught by Bruce Morgan of Deer Park. The Tournament Prize went to Lee Campbell of Burbank for a two-day total of 85.30 pounds. Youth entrant Matt Gottsch of Kennewick won the randomly selected “Mystery Fish” prize as well as both the fifth and sixth prizes in the youth category. The remaining youth prizes went to Ian Lewis of Richland, third place, 24.68 pounds; Jimmy Laposi of Kennewick, fourth place, 24.08 pounds; Gunnar Weese of Kennewick, seventh place, 19.36 pounds; and Adam Lewis, Richland, 17.28 pounds.
Planning is already starting for next year's derby, scheduled for October 1-2, 2005.