Derek Floyd of Stanwood landed a 28-pound salmon to take home the top prize at Roche Harbor Resort’s annual Salmon Classic Invitational.
Floyd hooked the prize-winning fish, a 28.10 pound Chinook, on Saturday, Feb. 5, Day 2 of the two-day tournament. He netted $10,000 by hooking the biggest fish and edged out Bellingham’s Richard Sakuma, who earned $5,000 with a 22.04 pounder, good enough for second place.
David Arnold of Bellingham finished in third place, with a 20.16 pound salmon, and collected $3,000 in prize winnings.
A total of 337 anglers took part in this year’s Roche Harbor Salmon Classic Invitational, now in its eighth year. They were divided among 38 boats and together brought in 68 fish to the tournament scales.
The event’s youngest participant is 9-year-old Jager Boyd of Monroe, Wash.
In addition to capturing the Invite’s top prize, Floyd, along with his wife, Julie, and teammates Scott and Shannon Bumstead, collected a $2,000 prize for finishing ahead of the pack in the “Best Boat Total Weight” category, and shattered the old record for that category by catching a collective 108.04 pounds of salmon over the two-day derby.