{"id":74066,"date":"2021-08-14T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:48:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:48:04","slug":"derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Derby days: Heavy rains and heavy fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Returns were slow at midday Saturday at the Mike Pusich Douglas Harbor weigh station for the 75th annual Golden North Salmon Derby, but volunteers there were pleased to announce a 26-pound king salmon turned in earlier was currently leading the competition.<\/p>\n

Friday had been slow, said Jessie Jensen, who’s volunteered with the derby since 2004, but started to pick up more after 4 p.m. Juneau saw heavy rains Friday, and there weren’t many people out, she said.<\/p>\n

“We had three-fourths of a tote (container),” Jensen said, “which isn’t great.”<\/p>\n

[Salmon derby celebrates 75 years with new ways to win<\/a>]<\/p>\n

By the end of the day Friday the Douglas weigh station had 55 scholarship fish, 5 coho salmon and 12 king salmon. Speaking to Empire at noon Saturday, Jensen said the largest fish so far was the 26-pounder, turned in by David Hillary, and second and third place were held by Jesse Walker with an 18.3-pound king and Monica Walker with a 15.2-pound king salmon.<\/p>\n

The derby is allowing participants to compete as teams for the first time this year, and Jensen said two teams, “Itchy Bob” and “Matt Damon,” had dropped off fish.<\/p>\n

Despite the slow pace of the derby, the atmosphere at the Douglas harbor was upbeat, and local restaurants dropped off free food for volunteers.<\/p>\n

Jensen did say that someone had tried to turn in a fish weighing only 1.9 pounds in an attempt to claim the $100 prize for the first fish caught.<\/p>\n

“He was mean, he gave us a bunch of lip,” Jensen said.<\/p>\n

Weigh stations in the Amalga, Auke Bay and Douglas harbors close at 6 p.m. every day and Sunday is the last day of the derby.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rainy start, but Saturday sees more action. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":838,"featured_media":74067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1083,1077],"tags":[104,75,389,40],"class_list":["post-74066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-outdoors-recreation","category-top-news","tag-fishing","tag-local-news","tag-local-sports","tag-salmon"],"yoast_head":"\nDerby days: Heavy rains and heavy fish - Juneau Empire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Derby days: Heavy rains and heavy fish - Juneau Empire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rainy start, but Saturday sees more action.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Juneau Empire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-14T09:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-25T00:48:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/08\/26155583_web1_copy_P1-Derby-JUE-210814_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Segall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Segall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/\",\"name\":\"Derby days: Heavy rains and heavy fish - Juneau Empire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/08\/26155583_web1_copy_P1-Derby-JUE-210814_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-14T09:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-25T00:48:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/700d915f3d6ccfbc6c974fda45f24441\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2021\/08\/14\/derby-days-heavy-rains-and-heavy-fish\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/08\/26155583_web1_copy_P1-Derby-JUE-210814_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/08\/26155583_web1_copy_P1-Derby-JUE-210814_1.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1365,\"caption\":\"Shona Osterhout holds up a 26-pound king salmon turned into the Mike Pusich Douglas Harbor weigh station for the 75th annual Golden North Salmon Derby on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. 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