College freshman will take home top derby prize

Kelley Krumm was in Wrangell for only the second time when the downrigger on his great uncle's boat began to dance.

About 4 p.m. Saturday, Krumm, of Anaconda, Montana, along with great-uncle Dave Svendsen and father Tom Krumm were deep into the second straight day of fishing. They'd seen fish in the mid-to-low 20s from the landing craft Tideline, constructed in Svendsen's shop. It was the last weekend for the Salmon Derby. They were in Southeast Cove and had herring and a flasher on the line.

"I had just dropped the downrigger down, and I turned around and my pole started bouncin'," the younger Krumm said. "I was like 'Oh, I got a bite.' Pulled it out and it felt pretty big, and it just kept takin' the line, takin' the line. I reeled it up and it kind of showed itself, and I was like 'Huh, it's a pretty big fish.' It took off again, and I brought it back and it actually boiled so you could actually see it."

"Holy cow," he recalled saying. "This is a big fish."

The scale on Svendsen's boat measured the fish at 43 pounds, but the group resisted the temptation to run

immediately back into town with their prize, Svendsen said. On shore, the big fish tipped the scale at 42.8 pounds.

"We actually fished for another hour," he said. "Possibly there was another fish there."

Kelley Krumm's catch earned him first prize in the Wrangell Salmon Derby and the accompanying $6,500 prize for the largest weekly catch and the first-place overall catch. He hasn't decided what to do with the money yet, though he may need it soon, as he plans to attend Montana State University in the fall.

The younger Krumm is an enthusiastic fisherman in Montana, though the trout he fly-fishes for there and the occasional trips for salmon in Idaho pale in comparison to the King he hauled out of Zimovia Straight Saturday.

The win is the third high-place linked to Svendsen and the Tideline in as many years. Svendsen won the tournament outright in 2012 with a 46.5-pound fish, and another angler fishing off of the Tideline placed third the same year.

Asked if the recent wins were talent or luck, Svendsen replied, "It's a lot of hard work, and being in the right place at the right time."

Krumm's fish falls below the average derby winning weight of 51.8 pounds, according to Wrangell Chamber of Commerce derby data collected since 1953. When Kelley Krumm collects his prize at the Derby Awards Ceremony – set for 6:30 p.m. this evening in the Nolan Center – it will be for the fourth-smallest first-place fish the first derby held in 1953. There's enough of a weight

difference (31.4 pounds) between Krumm's fish and Doris Iverson's record-holding 74.4-pound leviathan landed in 1955, to comprise a decent-sized King Salmon. The smallest tournament-winner was

tallied in 2008 when Jan Herron won with a king weighing only 41.2 pounds.

Nevertheless, the thrill was singular, Svensden said.

"When you get a King on the line, the adrenaline gets pumping," he said.