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Big fish galore highlight “Berkley Alaska Grand Slam Tournament”
Late May saw anglers from all over the country converge on Kingfisher Lodge in Sitka for the 7th annual “Berkley Alaska Grand Slam Tournament”
Competitors were awarded one point per pound for their largest individual daily catch of each species [one point per inch for rockfish], and received a bonus of 50 points for scoring a “Grand Slam” of all four species in a single day.
The event was filmed by award-winning videographer Danny Jackson, for broadcast on the “Ronnie Kovach’s Fishing Ventures” TV program on FOX Sports West. Kovach was the Master of Ceremonies, and this writer served as Tournament Director.
Great experiences
Top finisher was Jim Keyes of Sunnyvale, who was 137 points ahead of number two Harry Pelton of Grass Valley. Keyes related, “Luck was on my side, this was my first time to Sitka. On two of the days, it took the very last fish of the day to complete my Grand Slam. I loved the competitive spirit everyone displayed. The professionalism of the captains made all the difference.”
Mike Spring of Grass Valley finished 5th overall, and took first in the Rockfish Division. “Fishing was much better than I expected”, remarked Spring. “The boats and captains were great. Probably the most unusual occurrence was when I brought up a ‘hitchhiking’ lingcod that had attacked another ling of equal size!”
Dana Campbell of Grass Valley caught the largest halibut at 187 pounds, but could only manage a 6th place overall finish. “The big 187-pounder took about 30 minutes to land. It took some big runs at first, then about halfway up it saw the daylight and got really excited. It wasn’t my personal best, I got a 220-pounder a few years ago on a salmon rod.”
Big catches
The individual catches were impressive, with overall winner Keyes also taking the Halibut Division with 141, 97 and 108-pounders on the three successive days. Keyes won a return trip to Kingfisher Lodge, and took home an impressive array of tackle prizes.
Second-place winner in the Halibut Division was Mike Marihart of West Hills, who cranked up 127, 31 and 92-pounders. The largest individual halibut was the 187-pounder caught by Dana Campbell on day one, but his other two flatties only weighed 20 and 29 pounds.
Keyes was the model of consistency. He scored a “Grand Slam” all three days, and in addition to the 141-pound halibut, he topped his catches with a 32-pound lingcod, 18-pound king salmon and 23-inch rockfish.
Runners up
Just about everyone had the fishing trip of a lifetime. Mike Gaston and Dennis Jacobs of Chico, along with Andy Zuwalt of Durham and Larry Gaston of Oroville were only able to tally a “middle of the pack” finish in the tournament, but they caught some spectacular fish nonetheless.
Highlights of the group’s catches included not one but two matching 108-pound halibut for Jacobs, and a 97-pounder for Larry Gaston. A 45-pound lingcod topped the list for Mike Gaston.
Familiar techniques
I did exceptionally well by tipping all jigs with the new Berkley Gulp! 6-inch grubs. Supposedly a “secret” to be unveiled at the ICAST fishing tackle convention in July, the upcoming Gulp! saltwater-size grubs and 5-inch swimbaits will be serious tools for California sand bass, calico bass, halibut, rockfish, lingcod and even albacore anglers.
Salmon trolling off downriggers is virtually a carbon copy of the technique as practiced by California salmon chasers. A large Coyote Flasher followed by a standard 4 ½-inch hoochy tied on 50-pound test mono with tandem 6/0 hooks. Fluorocarbon is rarely used here.
A few salmon were also caught by mooching and jigging, and I fooled several nice grade kings on light jigging tackle with Williamson Benthos speed jigs re-rigged with traditional tail hooks.
The greatest quantity of halibut were hanging out at the 330-foot level off Cape Edgecumb. Most were fooled by salmon guts pinned on a 16/0 circle hook with 500-pound test parachute cord as leader material. Good numbers were also fooled by 8-inch Berkley Power Grubs or 8-inch Gulp! Squid on a 12-ounce leadhead.
Almost all of the halibut fishing is done with 80-pound test Big Game Braid on two-speed reels, mindful of the fact that several 300-pound flatties are caught here each season.
Lingcod were almost everywhere, particularly in the waters off the Cape Edgecumb reef in 90 to 130 feet of water. The top producer was a 7-ounce green/chrome Crippled Herring jig tipped with a glow-color 6-inch Gulp! grub. Getting jigs down quickly on 50-pound test Spiderwire Stealth superbraid line allowed the lings to be fished on relatively light baitcasting tackle.
Conservation side
The state of Alaska has created “length-weight” tables which give the average weight of lingcod and Pacific halibut. For all lingcod and halibut caught during the tournament, the official weigh slip indicated the length of the fish only. The angler was then credited with the weight shown on the tables for that size fish.
Lingcod season had not yet opened during the tournament period, but this part of Alaska restricts anglers to only one lingcod annually, which must be within the 30 to 35-inch “slot limit”. All lingcod were released for the tournament, but successful release is easy with gentle handling due to the lings’ lack of a swim bladder.
Anglers were not required to release their big halibut, but it is generally acknowledged that the best food quality is derived from halibut under 100 pounds. Tournament anglers had the option of releasing their largest [and highest scoring] fish, and could still keep the two-fish daily limit for transportation back to the lower 48.
Historically, a high percentage of oversize halibut have been released by tournament competitors, including a 349-pounder in 2001.
Home base
As always, the staff at Kingfisher Lodge performed flawlessly. Personable owner Seth Bone, along with lodge manager David Russell and fleet manager Robert Suarez kept things running smoothly. The food, accommodations and the Kingfisher Charters fleet of expert skippers were nothing less than 5-Star. All the fish were beautifully filleted, flash frozen and packed in insulated boxes for transport home.
Sponsors included Berkley, Fenwick, Abu-Garcia, Albackore, Costa Del Mar, Magellan, Luhr Jensen, Williamson Lures, Owner Hooks, Flambeau, Pelagic clothing and Kingfisher Lodge. Top finisher Keyes won a return trip to Kingfisher Lodge, while the other winners won great prizes like Fenwick rods, Abu-Garcia reels, Berkley line, Magellan GPS units, Costa Del Mar sunglasses, Pelagic hats and gloves, and Albackore tackle backpacks.
Tournament stats
Tournament statistics included 60 “Grand Slams”, with 5 anglers managing to achieve that goal all three days. Some 35 halibut over 75 pounds were landed, including 16 over 100 pounds. A total of 24 lingcod over 40 pounds were hooked, including 3 over 50 pounds.
The largest halibut went 187 pounds, the largest lingcod 54 pounds, the heaviest king salmon was 30 pounds, and a 33-inch yelloweye rockfish exceeding 22 pounds was tops in that category.
The captain’s prize was taken by Captain Scott Miller of the Kingfisher Charters boat Gracie K. Out of a possible 12, Miller’s anglers scored a total of 8 Grand Slams.
For more information on next years’ 2008 Berkley Alaska Grand Slam Tournament, contact Kingfisher Lodge at 800-727-6136.
OVERALL WINNERS
1. Jim Keyes- 684 points
2. Harry Pelton - 547
3. Mounif Haffor- 491
4. Geoff McKinley- 468
5. Mike Spring- 466
6. Dana Campbell- 464
7. Mike Marihart- 445
8. Terry Pelton- 445
9. Dave Greenlees- 442
10. Mike Swann- 442
11. Jeff Hasbrouck- 419
12. Gary Nilges- 403
13. John Hermann- 387
14. John Hickman- 377
15. Bruce Westfall- 367
16. Tom DeMaranville- 367
17. Wayne Chamberlain- 361
18. Dave Pahl- 360
19. Bernice Beckwith- 349
20. Larry Gaston- 345
21. Kyle Teel- 341
22. Jason Ysais- 336
23. John Ferris- 333
24. Albert Sormillion- 322
25. Jay Erckenbrach- 319
HALIBUT DIVISION
Jim Keyes- 346 points
Mike Marihart- 250
SALMON DIVISION
Mounif Haffor- 61 points
Dana Campbell- 60
LINGCOD DIVISION
Mounif Haffor- 106 points
Lori Erckenbrach- 104
ROCKFISH DIVISION
Mike Spring- 76 points
Mounif Haffour- 74
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