The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce is making plans for the community’s 66th king salmon derby to open June 15.
It’s not exactly the 66th annual, since the derby was canceled 2018-2020 due to weak runs, but after that three-year wait the 66th derby could finally happen.
The chamber is planning for a shorter derby this year, ending June 30, to make way for the community’s Fourth of July celebration and to ease into the event, which in the past ran an entire month, said Kimberly Cooper, of the chamber.
“More details are on the way,” she said last Friday, adding that the chamber board would meet soon to start planning those details.
The winner in Wrangell’s last king salmon derby, in 2017, was a 64.1 pounder, setting a high — large — bar for this year’s contestants. The winning entry was caught by Gary Smart, of Sequim, Washington, who was visiting friends in town. It was the largest derby catch in 43 years, the Sentinel reported at the close of the event.
During the years without a king derby, Wrangell continued with halibut and coho derbies.
The 2020 king salmon harvest in Southeast of 215,000 fish was below the 10-year and long-term averages and was the fifth-lowest harvest over the past 58 years, the Department of Fish and Game reported in March.
The chamber is looking forward to a strong enough run this year to go ahead with bringing back the derby.
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