PORT ANGELES — The freezer Phil Flanders and his crew brought for the Port Angeles Salmon Club’s halibut derby will head south filled with flatties.
Flanders landed a 143-pound monster halibut that was weighed in with 20 minutes remaining in the derby to take the $5,000 top prize at the 15th annual fishing contest.
“The landlady got a great big kick when we came up with a freezer,” said Flanders, who rents a house for the weekend for the derby.
Flanders, an Oregon native who retired to the community of Ocean View on Hawaii’s big island, spends his summers in the Pacific Northwest.
He’s had a long-standing Memorial Day weekend fishing tradition with his son Stratos, and longtime family friends Sean and David Jefferson, and said he’s fished in every Port Angeles halibut derby but one since 2006.
Sean Jefferson ended up ninth with a 60.9-pound halibut, and Stratos Flanders, who finished as runner-up in the derby in 2007 and 2009, ended up 11th with a 58.8-pound entry.
The group said David Jefferson finished a pound off the leaderboard with a 41-pounder.
Flanders and his fishing partners will need the freezer after landing a combined total of more than 300 pounds of halibut.
Flanders himself has made the top-30 leaderboard five times. His highest previous finish was 11th.
This year’s winning halibut came from spot most anglers may never have heard of.
“We call it the Sizzler because the water sizzles because of the tides,” Stratos Flanders said.
“I think its pretty much straight out to the north [of Ediz Hook].
The crew was drift fishing aboard the Harvester, a good name considering how well the group did in the derby.
Flanders hooked into the beast around 11 a.m. but the group didn’t come in because the other three on board had all caught their entries on Saturday and hadn’t brought any in Sunday.
“We didn’t come in. We waited because we wanted to get these guys on a fish,” Phil Flanders said.
Phil Flanders’ winning fish ended up being the only one the group caught Sunday.
The group was fishing relatively deep.
“We were about 300 feet,” Phil Flanders said.
“I think he bit on a herring, a spreader bar with a herring. It gets fish on it. It’s what we use down in Oregon and it works really well up here as well.”
Flanders didn’t think he had much of anything on his line, besides the bottom of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
“At first I thought I had snagged up on the bottom,” Phil Flanders said.
“When it first shook his head, I knew we were in for it.
“It took a long time to bring it. We had to back the boat into it to try and keep it under the boat so we could bring it straight up rather than drag it with the current.
“It was backbreaking.”
The Jeffersons each had to sink gaffs into the fish to bring it up over the side.
Phil Flanders said the group plans to pool their winnings.
“We will split it amongst ourselves like we do every year,” he said.
“It pays for expenses, too. We come and rent a place and stay the weekend.
There’s no doubt what will be on the grill for dinner Sunday.
“It’s halibut tonight, no doubt,” Phil Flanders said.
Port Angeles’ Josh Constant picked up his second second-place finish and a $2,500 prize for his 107.9-pounder caught Saturday in Freshwater Bay.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
