PORT ANGELES — Second time was the charm for the Port Angeles Salmon Club’s 2013 Halibut Derby winner Sunday.
Robert Beauvais of Joyce won the derby in only his second try at a fishing derby by catching a 96-pound monster flattie.
The 49-year-old angler, who moved to the North Olympic Peninsula in 2004, caught the winning fish at 10:07 a.m. Sunday, not that he was looking at his watch at the time.
And like most hard-core fishermen, Beauvais wasn’t about to give up the location where he caught the huge fish.
“In the water,” was all he would say about the location. And he said it twice.
Beauvais had some soybean and herring rigged up for bait, and it took 20 minutes to reel the bottomfish up to the boat.
“He didn’t want to come in,” Beauvais said.
“He would take off on the run, headed to Neah Bay. Three times he did that.”
Beauvais won $5,000 for winning the derby, which he will share with the three other anglers on the boat, all old-time fishing buddies.
That includes Richard Logie of Renton, who caught the fourth-best fish at 86 pounds.
Logie didn’t do too bad financially, either, winning $1,200 for the fourth-place fish.
Logie caught his fish at the same secret location Beauvais reeled his in. Logie caught his at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The other two anglers on the winning boat weren’t so lucky, getting blanked the two days of the derby. Well, except for sharing the loot.
The four anglers earned their rewards, spending eight hours on the water Saturday and another six hours Sunday.
Beauvais beat out the runner-up by just 3 pounds as Josh Constant of Port Angeles caught the second biggest halibut, 93 pounds, to earn $2,500.
Constant caught his Saturday with the weigh-in at 1:44 p.m.
Third place went to Jesse Ahmann of Whitefish, Mont., who caught an 89-pound fish, also on Saturday.
Ahmann earned $1,500 in prize money.
Five of the eight top fish were caught on the first day of the derby.
The 13th annual derby gave out $20,000 to the top 30 halibut caught by ticket holders within the U.S. waters from Low Point to the base of Dungeness Spit.
There were 617 total entries for this year’s derby.
Last year’s winning halibut was a little bit bigger than this year’s.
The only two-time winner in the history of the derby, Jeff Reynolds, brought home the winning monster in 2012 at 112 pounds.
Reynolds was the only angler to catch a halibut that exceeded 100 pounds.
Other top-10 anglers for the 2013 event were Robert Shelton of Port Angeles, fifth place at 83 pounds for $1,100; Kenny Royer of Lacey, sixth place at 73 pounds for $1,000; Dale Clark of Shelton, seventh place at 67 pounds for $800; Don Sargent of Port Angeles, eighth place at 64 pounds for $700; Carla Murphy of Tacoma, ninth place at 60 pounds for $600; and Tim Allison of Port Angeles, 10th place at 55 pounds for $500.
See all top 30 anglers on Page B2 in Scoreboard in Tuesday’s editions.