Homer Alaska - News

Winning the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby takes a good boat captain, a good angler, a lot of muscle, a little luck and, oh yeah, a $10 derby ticket.

Jamie Olvera had all that last Saturday when she brought in an 87-inch, 277.6-pound halibut off Capt. Ben Martin's F/V Fringe Benefit to take the lead in the derby. If she holds on to her lead, Olvera will be only the third woman to win the derby and the first winner from Fairbanks.

Olvera, 25, hauled in her halibut while fishing with her husband John near East Amatuli Island in the Barren Islands. It was her first halibut fishing trip and the second fish she caught that day.

"I had no idea what to expect. I was, OK, I'll go out, I'll try this," she said of fishing.

After she caught a 30-pound halibut, Olvera said to Martin, "I can't imagine a 200-pound halibut. This was rough."

An hour later she hooked an even bigger halibut while fishing for lingcod.

"You're supposed to jig. I was too lazy to jig," Olvera said. "I just let it go all the way to the bottom. I thought I was stuck on the bottom on a snag."

Martin said he looked over at Olvera's fishing rod and noticed that even though the boat kept moving, her reel wasn't spooling out line and her rod was bent.

"I said, 'I think that's a fish.' And it was," Martin said.

Then the hard work began — not that Olvera isn't used to hard work. Specialist Olvera serves with the Alaska National Guard 297th Military Police Company out of Wasilla and did a tour in Iraq from 2004-2005.

It took 45 minutes to bring the halibut up, Olvera said.

"I'm so sore right now. It's ridiculous," she said on Monday. "I just wanted it to be over with. They said, 'Oh, come on. You're almost halfway.'"

The Fringe Benefit drifted 1.5 miles before Olvera brought the halibut to the surface. Martin said the fish didn't struggle too much.

"Honestly, the fish didn't fight very hard. It just lay there the whole time," he said.

"Ben kept saying, 'Jamie, this is a huge fish. This is a derby contender.' I was saying, 'Don't say that — you're jinxing me," Olvera said.

Two halibut over 300 pounds have been caught this summer that could have been derby leaders, except the fishermen didn't get tickets. The latest was a 91-inch halibut caught by John Tucholski of Seven hills, Ohio, on Aug. 24, also in the Barren Islands, off the F/V Last Laugh with Capt. Ken Haina of Poi Boy Fishing and Wilderness Lodge. Haina said he told Tucholski the night before they'd be going to an area likely to have trophy halibut and he recommended Tucholski buy a derby ticket.

"I think my final words to him were 'It's only 10 dollars,'" Haina said.

Tucholski said he would get a ticket. When they hauled up the big fish, Haina said he asked him if he had a ticket, and Tucholski said, "I forgot. I just plain forgot."

Back at the harbor, Tucholski didn't weigh his fish, but Haina said one halibut weight chart showed a 91-inch halibut is estimated to weigh 420 pounds. In his experience, Haina said those charts are off about 50 pounds or more. He estimated Tucholski's fish weighed 330 to 350 pounds. Tucholski took home 300 pounds in filets.

After Olvera caught her derby contender, Martin's client fished a little bit longer to get their limits. Martin told the fishermen he thought Olvera had a winner. They got back three hours after landing it.

"It was a good thing we did. It was only by four pounds we beat the current leader," Martin said. "It was pretty close."

Mark Hilts of Grand Rapids, Minn., was the former derby leader, with a 273.2 pound halibut caught July 13 while fishing with Capt. Pete Karwowski with Magic Waters Charters on the F/V Sorceress.

The Olveras have a son, Julius, 4, and took home a freezer full of halibut, rockfish and silver salmon. Martin said a biologist friend measured the ear bone, or otolith, of Olvera's halibut and estimated it was 20 years old. The friend told him that based on the condition of the egg sack, the female halibut was past its prime breeding years.

At 22, Martin is one of the youngest charter captains in Homer's fleet. The son of Gerry and Sean Martin, who started North Country Charters in 1979, Ben Martin worked as a deckhand for eight seasons and has been a captain for four seasons. He said it's not uncommon to catch halibut while drifting over ocean bottom pinnacles for lingcod — or the reverse. On the same trip one client caught a lingcod on a J-hook baited with herring for halibut.

Some captains can sell tickets on the boats if they're sold before 8:30 a.m. and in advance of fishing.

"Every morning I ask who's got derby tickets," Martin said. "I tell them little stories about people not having derby tickets or not catching tagged fish."

The Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby runs until Sept. 30. Between 13,000 and 18,000 tickets are sold annually, with $2.50 of each ticket going to the jackpot. The largest jackpot was $48,675 in 2002.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.