Ron Walker of Sweet Home was the winner of the third annual Green Peter Kokanee Derby Saturday.
All of the approximately 80 competitors and five junior anglers caught fish and some came away with 25-fish limits of kokanee.
Walker and his son Scott, of Portland, finished with five fish weighing 5.06 pounds to take home the $400 first prize.
Walker said he ended up catching 42 fish.
“It took me quite a while to decide which five I would weigh in,” he said. “I told the boys I though we had big enough fish to take home a check but I didn’t know if we had enough to win. I was pleasantly surprised.”
Second prize went to Larry and Debbie Tudor of Albany, whose five largest fish weighed in at 4.90 pounds.
Tournament director Greg Graham of Gold Hill told the crowd that weights were “extremely close.”
The difference between the winning catch and 10th place was a quarter of a pound.
The large chinook prize went to Damon Streubel and Chris Carter of Albany, who netted at 1.15-pounder.
They were the only other Linn County residents in the top 10, placing eighth with 4.84 pounds.
“It was a great day,” said Gary Miralles of Redding, one of the sponsors and also a competitor in the event. He runs Shasta Tackle, a leading manufacturer of kokanee spoons and lures, which have caught four record kokanee and brown trout in Oregon and Washington over the last year.
“I caught 32 fish,” Miralles said. “Anytime you get 25 or 30 fish, you can’t beat that.”
Walker said fishing at Green Peter has been “really good lately. There are a lot of fish being caught by a lot of boats out today,”
he reported Tuesday morning from the lake.