Winner of Great Northern Fishing Classic trades truck for cash

The winner of the grand prize of the Great Northern Fishing Classic was in town over the weekend to return his shiny yellow truck and pick up a cheque for 100,000 dollars. John Karsten of Houston was the midway winner in August, with a coho that weighed 18.50 pounds which was good enough to take away the 2006 Dodge Dakota as things turned out his fish remained at the top of the list as the tournament closed at mid month September.

So with a significant winfall in the offing, Karsten returned the truck, took the cheque and brought the much discussed fishing derby to an end for this year.

On Monday, the Daily News provided a complete rundown on the last few days of the tournament including a quote from the winning fisherman, who said “We came to town, and decided before we left that we would enter the derby.”

Not quite the “we came for the fishing” kind of thing that the promoters of the tournament might have wished for in the way of a sound bite. Indeed if you parse Mr. Karsten’s thoughts, it seems to appear that he and the family was coming to town anyways and the derby was just something they sort of stumbled across. Not exactly the vision of “they’ll come from all over when they hear of this” that was the rasion d’etre of the tournament.

While the numbers have yet to be crunched, the organizers have determined the derby to have been successful in getting the word out, Bruce Wishart the derby organizer expects to have a more detailed review of the impact of the derby within a month, something that a lot of people will be interested in, judging by the controversy over the six weeks that the derby ran.

In a page four editorial (obviously composed before the announcement of the Sonia purchase and subsequent placing of the story on the front page) Earle Gale pondered the possibilities for next year. In the editorial, he states that he had thought it out over the summer and couldn’t come up with a better idea than the fishing derby, throwing the project of coming up with alternatives back over to his readers.

One thing is certain, if a fish derby is on the radar again for next year, then Letter to the Editor writers and local stakeholders of the fishery are on notice, you have 10 months to prepare your submissions. Mr. Gale would be wise to put in an order for extra ink and newsprint for the summer months of 2007.

We will be keeping an eye on the letters page for the next little while, as we’re sure that there will be some instant feedback on the derby just completed and more than a few suggestions to follow up on.

HOUSTON MAN THRILLED TO LAND $100,000 PRIZE
John Karsten’s fish ends up being big enough to reel him in the top prize.
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Monday, September 18, 2006
Pages One and Five

John Karsten still probably hasn’t had much sleep this weekend.

But once he does, it will be nothing but good dreams for the Houston man who took the top prize at the coho fishing derby that wrapped up with a party in Mariner’s Park this weekend.

His catch – a coho that was 18.56 pounds – had originally been enough to win a 2006 Dakota at the derby’s halfway stage, but he quickly made the decision to swap the truck for the top cash prize of $100,000 when no bigger fish was caught.

At the awards ceremony on Saturday, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond asked Karsten what he might do with all that money.

“I don’t know, but my kids do,” said Karsten.

”We came to town, and decided before we left that we would enter the derby. To get top prize is just phenomenal. It’s excellent fishing here,”

Karsten said that leading up to Saturday, it was difficult to sleep, wondering if his 18:56 catch would be enough to get the top prize.

With Karsten accepting the huge cheque, that meant the truck went to Prince Rupert’s Marie-Anne Malfaire, who had a coho of 15.82 pounds.

But the most emotional moment from Saturday belonged to Rupert’s Robyn Massecar, who caught the largest coho by an under-18 and won $5,000. She couldn’t hold back the tears as she stepped forward to accept her prize. She said that she planned to use the money towards her education.

The prize for the largest coho caught by a female angler went to Dorothy Briere of Terrace (16.50 pounds).

Rupert’s Ken Franzen and Prince George’s Tanya Keehn shared the mystery weight prize of $5,000.

Bruce Wishart, executive director of Tourism Prince Rupert, said that by all accounts, it appears as though the fishing derby was successful.

“It is going to take us some time on the numbers, and the impact on tourism,” he said. “But I think it shows we were successful in getting the word out.”

The derby ran from Aug 1 to Sept. 15, and was created as a method for the North Coast to attempt to recover from the tourism dollars that were lost following the sinking of the Queen of the North in March.

Wishart believes it could be at least a month before he knows the full impact of hosting the fishing derby, but considering the number of out-of-town entries and prize winners, he’s confident the result will be a positive one.

“Very few (of the entrants) were local … lots of people came here from far away like, Texas, new York and the Northwest Territories,” he said.

IS IT TOO SOON TO MENTION NEXT SUMMER?
The coho salmon derby that ended on Friday was controversial from ‘day one’ but weeks after its start and many weeks after the original plan was born, it’s still hard to come up with a better idea.
Editorial
Prince Rupert Daily News
Monday, September 18, 2008
Page Four

Throughout the duration of the event, the Daily News has received a steady flow of ‘letters to the editor” full of good solid reasons for opposing the derby.

Some people were concerned about the likely impact on the fish stocks and the obvious harm the derby might do to local commercial fishermen.

Others were anxious about the fact that the derby seemed only to benefit some local businesses and not others and questioned whether something could be done to attract people to town that would support all local businesses.

Other critics pointed to the fact that the province provided the money that was used to stage the fishing derby for the benefit of all Highway 16 communities. It was supposed to help fill the void left behind by the loss of all the tourist traffic that would not be coming to the region following the loss of the Queen of the North.

They said with apparent justification that towns such as Hazleton and Smithers would not benefit from Prince Rupert’s fishing derby.

Most of the criticism seemed to make good sense to me and I idly turned my attention to trying to come up with a better idea.

We’re now in the middle of September, the tourist season is pretty much over, I’m still thinking – and I’m still drawing a blank.

While the coho derby was clearly not perfect, I have to admit that I can’t think of a better idea – and I’ve had plenty of time to think.

Maybe as a community we should all start thinking now about what we might do next summer, just in case the lengthy quest to find a replacement vessel for the Queen of the North is not over by then.

Earle Gale
Editor