The 71st Wrangell fishing derby is underway after opening on Sunday. Almost $6,000 in cash prizes await the winners with the largest king and coho salmon and largest halibut and the catches closest to a secret weight over the three-month derby which ends Sept. 7.

Derby tickets, at $35 each, are available at the chamber of commerce office in the Nolan Center, and at Sentry Hardware and the Stikine Inn, with more locations coming, Lora Lee Mason, executive director of the chamber, said Sunday.

The weigh-in station on weekdays will be at Peninsula Seafoods, at the Marine Service Center, she said. Call the chamber at 907-305-0685 as you’re coming back from fishing to arrange an evening weigh-in.

There will be a $1,000 cash prize each for the largest king, coho and halibut reeled in during the derby.

And $300 cash prizes will be awarded in each of four specially designated weekends for the catch that lands closest to a “hidden weight”: $300 each for a king salmon and halibut June 20-21 (Father’s Day weekend); $300 each for a king, coho and halibut on July 5; $300 each for a coho and halibut Aug. 8-9 (Bearfest weekend); and $300 for a coho and halibut on Sept. 5-7 (Labor Day weekend).

Mason explained that an electronic random weight generator will determine the prize-winning hidden weight for each of the four weekends.

There will not be separate categories this year for adults and children, she said.

An addition to prizes this year is the chance to win two round-trip tickets anywhere Alaska Airlines flies in North America. Everyone who buys a ticket in the derby will be entered in the travel raffle.