1957 Ketchikan King Salmon Derby Winner Leave a reply

I just came across this ancient newspaper clipping contained within an old book given to me by a friend. There were sure a lot of giant king salmon caught back then without the aid of graphite, Dartanium drag systems, and positive-ion control downrigger technology. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era!

August 1957
Contenders in Sitka's future king salmon derbies are going to need both luck and skill to beat the 1956 winner, Mrs. Connie See of Mount Edgecombe, shown here with her 73 pound 6 ounce prize-winner. Mrs. See, who weighs only ninety eight pounds herself, hooked the huge king an hour and a half before the end of the second derby day, fought it for more than an hour, and barely got it to the judges stand before the final gun. The next largest entry, by Carl Nelson, was a 48 pound king. Besides a sixteen-foot cabin cruiser offered as a prize in the derby, Mrs. See also recieved a bonus from Senator Robert Ellis of Ketchikan. Senator Ellis, president of Ellis Airlines, one of the promotors of Ketchikan's king salmon derby and an enthusiastic sportsman, had offered his personal check for one hundred dollars to anyone who might catch a larger king in the Sitka derby than any caught in the Ketchikan derby. A seventy-nine-pounder was caught in Ketchikan's seasonal derby, but none in the two-day derbies beat Mrs. See's king.