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No ticket, no $10,000 for another derby angler

HOMER: In 17 years, the event hasn't rewarded big-money fish.

By MIKE CAMPBELL
mcampbell@adn.com

Published: July 17th, 2008
Last Modified: July 17th, 2008 at 12:24 AM

For the second time in three weeks, a halibut wearing a $10,000 tag was landed on a charter out of Homer on Tuesday. And for the second time, the angler who caught it hadn't purchased a ticket that would have allowed him to claim the prize.

"What are the chances of that happening?" asked Paula Frisinger with the Homer Chamber of Commerce. "We've had more tagged fish this year than we've had in a good long while. It just blows my mind away, after all the stuff we put out about buying derby tickets."

Last month, Steve Merson of Fort Atkinson, Wis., reeled up a 20-pounder with a similar $10,000 tag, but said he didn't realize he needed a $10 derby ticket to win. In the 17 years that Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby officials have been tagging fish, no angler with a derby ticket has ever caught a $10,000 fish.

Before this year's edition got under way, officials attached $10,000 tags to six halibut; four are still swimming. More than 30 fish with $1,000 tags are out there, too.

The latest unfortunate angler, who declined to give derby officials his name or any information about where he caught the fish, told them he had trouble locating an open vendor, according to Frisinger. But she said the derby office opens at 5:30 a.m. daily and other locations selling tickets open earlier. Derby tickets can also be purchased a day in advance at a variety of locations.

Merson, the first unfortunate angler, caught his tagged fish June 27 aboard a Rainbow Tours boat ironically called the Jackpot. A deckhand gaffed it and wrestled it aboard. That's when the tag was spotted.

Merson told Frisinger that the captain of the Jackpot, Art Morris, asked him if he had purchased a derby ticket.

"What derby?" Merson asked Morris.

Homer's tagged flatfish can roam far after they're tagged.

Cal Blood of the International Pacific Halibut Commission told Frisinger that two fish with Homer Jackpot tags were caught off the coast of Oregon this past spring. One halibut was from the 2003 derby; the other was from 2006.

And at the end of May, an elderly man fishing in Cook Inlet caught a $10,000 tagged halibut from the 2007 derby. Frisinger said it was probably a good thing he caught the halibut a year too late.

"He probably would've had a heart attack," she joked.

Reach Mike Campbell at 257-4329 or mcampbell@adn.com. Daily News reporter Kevin Klott contributed to this story.