Olson caught the 341.8-pound halibut on Aug. 1 while fishing with Capt. Tony Arsenault of Falcon Charters. He then waited to see if his big fish would hold onto the lead.
“Two months is a lot of time to wait for that,” Olson said from home on Monday. “I was just lucky.”
Olson’s luck actually started the day before, when a friend felt ill and gave up his spot on the boat. It continued when another friend, Larry Hobson, bought him a derby ticket, just in case.
Olson said he wasn’t planning on fishing that day, but he knew it was going to be a good day as soon the boat stopped some two hours from the Homer Spit.
“We put our baits on the bottom and started catching right away,” he said in August.
Most of the fish caught were in the 35-40 pound range, he said. But then the big one hit.
“I knew right away it was big, but I was surprised how heavy it weighed,” Olson said.
After a 30-minute fight, Arsenault gaffed the lunker and shot it with a 410-shotgun a couple times to subdue it. Four friends then helped haul the fish onboard.
The boat limited out quickly, Olson said, and they made it back to the harbor by about noon.
Olson’s fish beat the former leader — caught by Eagle River’s David Brand on June 16 — by more than 45 pounds and marked the second time in three years that Capt. Arsenault has put anglers on the winning fish.
“I hope he can make it. It’ll be nice to see him again,” Olson said. “I’m already looking forward to next year. He knows what he’s doing and he’s very pleasant to be around.”
Arsenault steered Nevada’s Don Hanks to a 352.6-pound fish in 2004. Hanks took home a record $51,298 for his catch.
The largest fish ever caught in the derby was a 376-pounder in 1996 by Jerry Meinders from Minnesota.
Olson’s check of $43,500 is the fifth largest in history, but Olson said he hasn’t decided how to spend it yet.
“I’ve been kicking around a few ideas, maybe getting a four-wheeler,” he said. But his friends like Hobson could see some of the winnings as well, he said.
Arsenault will take home the captain’s prize of approximately $4,000, and Ryan Szymoniak, an employee of the Sport Shed who sold Olson the winning ticket, will receive $1,000.
Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homernews.com.
Olson said he looks forward to Friday’s awards ceremony at the Homer Chamber of Commerce, especially to thank Arsenault.
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