Big halibut, no derby ticket </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 7:53 PM on Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Big halibut, no derby ticket

By Aaron Selbig
Staff Writer

After reeling in a whopper 310-pound halibut on the very first at sea fishing trip of his life, you might consider Farson, Wyo. angler Mike Wilson a very lucky man.

There was only one problem -- Wilson did not have a Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby ticket.

Ouch.

"I don't want to blame it on anybody but there really wasn't anybody trying to sell me one. My brother and I were kind of in the dark on the whole thing. It's no big deal, though. It was a lot of fun and that's what counts," said Wilson.

Photo by Vincent Cobler

Wyoming fisherman Mike Wilson, left, shows off the 310-pound halibut he caught Saturday with the help of Homer Ocean Charters' captain Tyler Stortz, right.

Wilson and his brother, Chris Wilson, a United States Air Force airman stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, were fishing aboard the Daze Off, a Homer Ocean Charters vessel skippered by Capt. Tyler Stortz, when the barn door flatfish took the bait.

"I was getting ready to reel my bait in and he took it. After that, I was just reeling it in for about 45 minutes. It sure felt big. My back was hurting and I was starting to get a little sore," said Wilson.

Wilson got the monster fish all the way to the boat by himself before his brother and Stortz shot it, gaffed it and hauled it aboard. The fish was too big to fit in the vessel's hold, though, so Stortz, who did not know Wilson didn't possess a derby ticket until about that point, tied the fish off to the side for the trip back to the harbor.

When Wilson and his boatmates finally got the fish to the Homer Ocean Charters office, it immediately drew a crowd.

"Half of Homer was down there taking pictures," said Wilson.

Although Wilson's fish wouldn't have been nearly big enough to knock off Tom Youngblood's overall derby leading 354.6-pounder, it would have been more than enough capture the lead for the month of July.

Wilson had no complaints about his halibut fishing adventure, however, and praised Stortz for leading him to his big fish.

Wilson had so much fun on his first trip to Alaska, in fact, he has decided to start looking for a job here in the oil and gas industry, a field in which he's employed back home in Wyoming.

"Why not? It's got everything I like - hunting, snowmobiling, four wheeling and of course, halibut fishing. It's all here," he said.

The derby, meanwhile, has a new July leader in Jeff Sydnor of Dry Ridge, Ky., who caught a 173.4-pound halibut on July 9 with Capt. Peter Karwowski of the Magic Waters Charters' vessel Sorceress.

Sydnor's fish barely squeaked ahead of the second place halibut, a 172.2-pounder caught July 1 by Curtis Jernigan of Millsap, Tex. Trevor Hanson of Fairbanks and Russ Nickell of Moses Lake, Wash., presently hold third and fourth places respectively.

The standings for the Lady Angler division were also shaken up on July 9 when Rhonda Reedy of Anchorage landed a 135.8-pounder aboard the Ocean Hunter, an Ocean Hunter Charters' boat skippered by Capt. Keith Kalke.

So far in July, there have been 12 released fish.

Aaron Selbig can be reached at aaron.selbig.@homernews.com.