Catch of a lifetime

Jeff Benson

Up until last week, Newport Beach resident Gretchen Porter admitted

she was never much of a fisherman.

But the 5-foot-3, 117-pound woman became the talk of Ketchikan,

Alaska’s Waterfall Resort at 9 a.m. on July 16, when she reeled in a

king salmon nearly as long as long as she is tall.

Her 79.2-pound, 53-inch king, or chinook salmon, dwarfs her

previous best of 35 pounds and is possibly a record catch for

Alaska’s southeastern coastline, she said. No one at the Alaska

Department of Fish and Game could verify it because the area is

ill-defined. Alaskan king salmon average 20 to 40 pounds.

“He was very strong and very heavy,” she said. “I fought it for

about half an hour. It was really exciting, and everyone was in awe

of the fish. After it was all over, I was just shaking. It was the

catch of a lifetime.”

The sizable salmon was named Waterfall’s “King of the Day,” and it

still leads all other entries in Waterfall’s $100,000 “King of Kings”

tournament. Porter’s in great shape in the season-long contest, as

her fish just shattered an 18-year-old record for the largest king

salmon at the resort, Waterfall spokesman Chuck Baird said.

Porter said her fish could soon be named “King of the Week” and

“King of the Month” as well.

Coppell, Texas, native Jeff Means is in second place, with a

67.9-pound haul on June 20 at the resort. Until Porter’s catch, Means

nabbed the largest king salmon the tournament had seen since 2001.

If Porter wins Waterfall’s tournament, she and her husband will

receive a 12-day Princess cruise. She’ll also be entered in drawings

for a 2004 Ford F-150 truck and a free return trip to the resort.

Porter said the fish made several passes after getting hooked

before it swam away from the boat and dove to the bottom. Her guide,

Devin Rowe, who had baited her hook with herring, told her to remain

patient and let the fish tire itself out. After 30 minutes of

following the fish from the depths to the surface and back, Porter

brought the exhausted salmon up to the boat by herself.

“My husband said that when [the salmon]was coming into the net, it

looked like a surreal picture,” she said. “My friends, Tom and Julie

Reilly, were just going nuts. I think two of them brought him in.”

Keeping with Waterfall tradition, a buzzing Rowe later passed

around several bottles of alcohol for the other guides and leapt off

his boat into the frigid water.

“At the end of the day, everyone stands on the dock and takes

shots of Crown Royal and smokes cigars,” Porter said. “It’s a big

deal, especially for the guide himself. I couldn’t have done it

without his help. It’s neat because it’s his honor.”

The Porters have fished for king salmon, silver salmon and halibut

at Waterfall for the past 15 years. Their largest previous catch

there was husband Roger Porter’s 65.7-pound king salmon, which earned

him induction into an exclusive “60-pound King” club, Baird said. The

Reillys accompanied the Porters on the trip and had previous catches

of more than 50 and 60 pounds, respectively.

Last week’s catch, on the other hand, was so big that Waterfall

didn’t have a mount large enough to hold it. Porter said she and her

husband had to have one specially made in Washington. A model of the

fish will likely go on display at the resort, she said.