Big fish, no ticket: North Pole woman reels in largest halibut thus far, but with no derby ticket
With a ticket, she’d be leading the derby with chance to win $10K
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A 158-pound halibut became the star of the Valdez Halibut Derby over the weekend.
Measuring 74 inches from mouth to tail, the fish was the largest caught during the “Halibut Hullabaloo,” which had a $1,000 cash prize. The overall winner of the halibut derby wins $10,000.
There was only one issue — the woman who caught it didn’t have a ticket!
Lorna Illingworth did not realize how big the prize halibut was when she hooked it. Her husband, Chris, says that they used a new electric reel to bring the fish in.
“We did not know how big it was until we got it up to the boat where we could see it coming up to the surface,” he said. “All you can see is this big open mouth of the fish coming up.”
Illingworth said they did not buy a ticket because they had never caught a derby-winning fish.
“I knew immediately that this is a much bigger fish than anything that I caught before,” he said.
“She just didn’t think she was going to catch a big halibut,” said Laurie Prax, owner and manager of KVAK Radio.
Prax was able to speak with Lorna after her catch.
“And then lo and behold, she and her husband caught 158-pounder,” Prax said.
The Halibut Hullabaloo ran June 6-15. By the end of it, the largest ticketed fish weighed in at 140 pounds, nearly 20 pounds lighter than the Illingworths’.
The Valdez Halibut Derby runs from May 24 to Aug. 31 and has a grand prize of $10,000 in cash, meaning an especially large fish can net the owner upwards of $11,000 for the whole season. Derby tickets cost $10 for a day, and $50 for the whole season.
The largest halibut ever caught at the derby was in 2017 and weighed a whopping 374 pounds.
Despite not winning the cash prize, the Illingworths did not walk away empty-handed.
“We have a five cubic-foot freezer that is completely full of halibut right now from that fish,” Chris said. “I actually brought some to give to some of my coworkers today at work and we’ll be eating it all winter.”
Chris says the family plans to continue fishing in Valdez in the future — this time with a season pass.
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