Sunshine, whales, great BBQ, bonfires and winter Chinook Salmon weighing in the mid-high teens. What more could a group of fisherpeeps want? Big prize money, a bunch of money raised for charity and a fun laid-back island vibe? Yeah, the 2015 King Fisher Galiano Island Salmon Classic fishing derby at Montague Harbour Marina on Galiano Island had all that stuff too!
Fishers from around the Salish Sea converged on the newly renovated Montague Harbour Marina for the 2015 King Fisher Galiano Island Salmon Classic fishing derby.
This past weekend 90 fishers on 50 boats boats fished for Chinook Salmon (AKA Springs AKA Kings) as part of the friendly charity fundraising derby for the Pacific Salmon Foundation hosted by Ryan McQuillan and Kris Krüg of King Fisher Apparel (who brought up the derby rear with the 2nd smallest fish recorded). Despite fishers having to hide out from strong winds on the water, it was near-perfect weather for the celebrations held at the newly renovated Montague Harbour Marina which has been brought back to life by brothers Dan and Mike Byzyna over the past year.
Dirty hands, happy heart. One of the fishers weighs in her catch.
The winners of the 2015 King Fisher Galiano Island Salmon Classic are:
1st place – Mark S – 17.4 lbs
2nd place – Greg Ettles – 16.6 lbs
3rd place – Cole Morton 16.1 lbs
Mark S, the grand prize winner of the derby, took home $2000 while 2nd & 3rd place took home $500 & $250 respectively. The derby also made a $2,750 donation to the PSF for salmon conservation projects around the Salish Sea.
Epic BBQ + piratey music around the campfire was the perfect way to wrap up the derby.
Friday night & Saturday night both featured yummy BBQ’s by chef and new Galiano Island resident Graham Barber who has recently left the hustle and bustle of Vancouver restaurant industry behind in favor of starting his own Gulf Islands based catering and personal chef business on Galiano Island. Special shout-outs to Cory Matheson from the PSF also being on the organizing committee and doing a lot of work to make this event such a success especially MC’ing the raffles and draws at the Awards BBQ.
Susanne Laughlin showed up at 5am at the docks to make sure everyone had coffee.
Additional love and thanks to Lorelei Allen for instigating Live Music with piratey flair, Henny Schnare for taking great photos and Captain Thomas Schnare for passing out his ‘World Famous Smoked Tuna (TM)’ and a BIG HUGE GROUP HUG AND THANK YOU to all our sponsors: Scoops, Flotsam & Jetsam, Your Pinata, Galiano Trading Company, Jen Krebbs, Jack Grushcow, The Galiano Rod & Gun Club, The Galiano Lions, Dan & Mike at the Marina and the whole community of friends and supporters who lent their time and resources to make this happen.
Salish Sea killers whales were on hand to act as Grand Marshalls for the 2015 King Fisher Galiano Island Salmon Classic.
For information on the 2015 Fall Fishing Derby or the 2016 King Fisher Galiano Island Salmon Classic follow King Fisher Apparel on Facebook or signup for the newsletter.
For more photos from the fishing derby check out KK on Flickr or Henny Schnare’s photographs can be seen at www.henny.ca.
If you’d like to fish, cook, sing, judge, photograph, cleanup, volunteer or help in any other way at future events pls drop me a line! 🙂
We welcome everyone back to Galiano Island for an ‘in-the-works’ Fall Fishing Derby 2015 and for next years 2016 King Fisher Galiano Island Salmon Classic.
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