Fat white king salmon earns Homer angler $53,000

The ice was gone. The sky was blue. The water was reasonably flat, with just a slight chop in most places.

And some 1,007 anglers had their lines in the water Saturday morning as the once-postponed Homer King Salmon Tournament finally got going.

By dusk, Homer angler Ron Johnson's white king salmon of 25.65 pounds had edged Gino Del Frate's big king by about half a pound to claim victory and $53,528 of the jackpot — counting both his prize money and earnings from side bets.

A week ago, ice in the harbor and Kachemak Bay prompted derby officials to postpone the derby and pray the weather would warm a bit. It did — at least enough to allow 299 boats and a dozen kayaks to launch. By the end of the day, they returned with 216 fish.

That was down a bit from 2016, when higher temperatures attracted 1,508 anglers and 448 boats.

But the jackpot was richer — a total payout of $122,531, including the side bets.

"Last year was extremely crowded," noted runner-up Del Frate, who works at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Palmer office and earned $22,160 for his big fish. "Everybody was trying to leave the harbor at the same time. But this year we never felt like we were getting overcrowded."

Still, the fishing was a little slow early on — that is, until it wasn't.

"We never had a bite or nothing until about 1 in the afternoon," said Johnson, 68, who on Tuesday afternoon was back out on Kachemak Bay, hunting salmon once again. "Then all of a sudden, we had a double. Welcome to the chaos."

One fish was on wife Sherry Johnson's line, the other on Ron's.

"The smaller one (Sherry's) fought quite a bit more than the big fish," Ron said. "One went out and the other went down, which was lucky for us to avoid tangles."

In less than 20 minutes, they had Ron's 25.65-pound derby winner and Sherry's 19.4-pound fish, good for 10th place, netted and in their boat, the Olyjohn.

Ron's champion was a white king, one of 27 caught during the derby — 25 percent of the total haul.

King salmon flesh ranges from reddish orange to pinkish red to marbled to white. Years ago, white or ivory kings were regarded as a less desirable fish, but that's flip-flopped today, with the more oily white kings often commanding a premium price in restaurants and markets. Anchorage's 10th and M Seafoods charges more than $32 a pound when white kings are available.

"I probably prefer the red," Ron Johnson said. "The whites are a little oilier, and some people love that."

White and red kings are the same species. The difference in flesh color comes from their genetically determined ability to metabolize pigments in their food. The pigments, called cartenoids, are found in their diet of shrimp, krill and crabs, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. White-fleshed kings don't have the genetic ability to break down their food and store the red-orange carotene in their muscles.

All white kings come from rivers and streams between the Fraser River in British Columbia north to the Chilkat River in Southeast. Many of those in Kachemak Bay are believed to spawn in British Columbia.

Fish and Game biologists estimate that only five percent of the king population possesses the recessive gene that produces white flesh. But there are some small rivers within the Fraser River watershed where nearly 100 percent of the king population is white-fleshed.

While some chefs contend white kings have superb melt-in-your-mouth flavor, studies show red and white kings have similar amounts of healthy lipids, moisture and omega-3 fatty acids.

Johnson is fine with red kings. Lucky for him, Sherry has some for him to munch on while he counts his winnings.

Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament

Top 20 finishers

1) Ron Johnson, 25.65 pounds; 2) Gino Del Frate, 25.10; 3) Gary Deiman, 24.30; 4) Bill Comer, 24.45; 5) Joe Martishev, 22.45; 6) Heath Harrington, 21.35; 7) Scott Gayer, 20.90; 8) Joe Martishev Jr., 20.25; 9) Donnie Maxon, 19.75; 10) Sherry Johnson, 19.40; 11) Adrian Isenhour, 19.40; 12) Gaylynn Mertz, 19.35; 13) Andy Mezrow, 19.25; 14) Timothy Colberg, 19.25; 15) David Wells, 19.05; 16) Georgei Matveev, 18.75; 17) Seth Nelson, 18.65; 18) Gordon Pitzman, 18.65; 19) Tom Bos, 18.55; 20) Dean Jackson, 18.15.

Top White King —1) Ron Johnson, 25.65 pounds; 2) Bill Comer, 24.25; 3) Joe Martishev, 22.45.

Top Youth Angler — Ryunosuke Tsukada, 16.55 pounds; 2) Sabina Braun, 15.30; 3) Gracie Miotke, 15.0.

Top Kayak Angler — 1) Jeremiah Erickson, 17.0 pounds; 2) Ryunosuke Tsukada, 16.55; 3) Rudy Tsukada, 15.55.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story had incorrect payouts for the top two finishers.