It’s been slow at the salmon derby weigh-in station, but cohos may change that.

As of Monday afternoon, less than a dozen kings and coho had been lifted up and weighed in the adult division, with just one coho in the 14-and-under youth division.

But that one coho was part of a successful day of fishing around 8-Mile for the Ostrander family on Saturday, Aug. 10. In addition to Brooke’s 5.9-pound coho in the youth division, parents Julia and Corey pulled in 7.6-pound and 6.3-pound cohos, respectively.

The coho and king salmon derby — with separate prizes for each — closes on Sunday, Aug. 17.

Far fewer people have been fishing, said Tracey Martin, executive director of the chamber of commerce, which sponsors the annual derby.

Ticket sales to fish in the derby totaled more than 100 as of Monday, she said, a sharp drop from 300 to 600 in past years.

Martin hopes people are waiting for coho runs to come in stronger and will go out fishing this week, bringing in more entries.

The derby traditionally has focused on kings only, but a separate competition for cohos was added this year to generate more participation by anglers going after the more plentiful cohos.

There were 27 fish entered in last year’s king salmon derby and just 15 in 2023.

The salmon derby ends at 9 p.m. Aug. 17. The weigh-in station is at Java Junkie by the City Dock. The $35 derby tickets are available at Java Junkie, the chamber office in the Nolan Center, TK’s Mini Mart, the Bay Company, Sentry Hardware and Marine, Cooper’s Corner Alaska, Ottesen’s, Buness Bros. and Angerman’s.

The ticket also entitles participants to compete in the halibut derby, which opens Thursday, Aug. 14, and closes at the same time as the salmon derby on Sunday.

Thinking big, Martin said that if anyone catches a halibut longer than 50 inches, the chamber will need to set up a scale in the harbor — that big of a catch would be too tall for the scale setup at Java Junkie.

Anyone with a fish that big should call Martin at 907-305-0685.

Wrangell hasn’t had a halibut derby in more than 20 years. A donation from Petro Marine is helping to cover the halibut derby prize, Martin said. The largest fish will win $500.

As of Monday afternoon, the king salmon derby leaderboard showed Corey Ostrander still holding down first place with his 29.7-pound catch on July 19, followed by Lloyd Ward at 21.4 pounds, Jason Fade at 18 pounds and David Powell with the most recent entry at 13.8 pounds on Sunday.

There have been no entries in the youth division for kings.

As of Monday, the leaders in the coho derby were David Mork with a 9.1-pound catch, Julia Ostrander at 7.6 pounds, Corey Ostrander at 6.3 pounds, and Max Dalton at 6 pounds.

Cash prizes for the largest kings are $1,000, $750 and $500, with the same for cohos.