Repeat Winner in 71st Annual Boxing Day Vedder River Steelhead Derby
247 eager steelhead fishers had ideal fishing condition for the 71st Boxing Day Steelhead Derby organized by the Chilliwack Fish & Game Protective Association under the direction of derby chairman and club president Mel Dureen.
The cool weather the last couple of days had the water color of the Chilliwack Vedder River was just perfect for winter steelhead fishing, steelhead green. The 247 entries were down from last year's 333 but the catch was up by 4 fish as 11 hatchery steelhead were brought to the weigh scales by the 2 PM derby deadline.
It was a repeat derby winner who took home the coveted Ferguson Furnell perpetual trophy and a Bradley Smoker as Richard Sheremeto of Chilliwack captured the Kingfish award for 2014 with a 12.144 hen steelhead that was .275 pounds ahead of second place finisher William Reeke’s 11.869 steelhead, also a doe.
Sheremeto also won top prize in 2010 with a 14.90 fish and has now landed 4 steelhead in 15 times of entering the derby, defiantly a king fisher. Sheremeto who had his fish on the scales at 12.55 said while the fish was being weighted. “I had come up to the club house about 15 or 20 minutes before to see how many fish were hanging on the board and then headed back out and landed this fish.” Although Sheremeto had been out on the water very early in the morning I guess it shows the early bird does not always get the worm (winner). The winning steelhead fell for a roe presentation.
Ian Wagner was an early bird winner as he entered a 11.22 fish at 7:45 AM, 45 minutes ahead of the next fish. Wagner was awarded first fish to the scales prize.
Ryan Hutchinson who took 3rd place entered the last fish a 11.781 pounder beating the 2pm deadline by only 3 minutes.
Christopher Barnes landed the smallest steelhead with a 7.48 steelhead.
Peter Hendricks won the hidden weight, with his steelhead weighing 8.889 pounds.
Other winners included Brad Langley: 10.629, Robert Ulm: 10.23, Cody Sojta: 8.437, Philip Lochrie: 8.283, and Clayton Jones: 8.217.
Derby Chairman Mel Dureen said he and his committee were once again pleased with the derby and all the local merchants who kindly donated prizes and made the derby once again possible. “The derby is one of the major fundraisers of the year and all funds raised go to help fund fish and wildlife habitat conservation projects” Dureen added.
Fish Tails:
The derby was first held in 1938 with Carl Wilson being the winner but was not held for a few years due to poor steelhead returns.
All 11 steelhead caught this year were does.
The largest Kingfish was caught in 1970 by the late Walt Engle, a 21.30 pound fish.
The smallest winner was a smallest 9.13 pounds, caught by Wilfred Clark in 1942.
The average winning fish in the 70 previous derbies was, 14.37 pounds.
A fair amount of wild fish were reported taken today which have to be released as only hatchery steelhead can be retained. These are hatchery steelhead that are raised in the Chilliwack River Hatchery each year before they are released as smolts each spring.
Stay tuned for pictures
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Topic: 2014 Chilliwack River Boxing Day Steelhead Fishing Derby (Read 24685 times)