When fishermen come to Brookings they come for a number of things; great fish, a great riverbar and on Labor Day weekend, a great derby.

With the piercing shriek of a canned air horn the Slam’n Salmon Ocean Derby ended it’s ninth annual fishing contest and crowned its own Leroy Blodgett, Brookings businessman, king of salmon.

When Blodgett brought his 36.3 pound Chinook in at 8:26 a.m. Sunday, he could be sure of only one thing; that it was the biggest fish of the derby, so far. The problem with bringing a big fish in early though, is that there’s a lot of day left for someone else to bring in a bigger one.

What has happened to respect? What has happened to the good ol’ days when athletes recognized fans as their bread and butter? What happened to the grand times when fans recognized athletes as people getting paid to play a game and provide entertainment?

It’s gone. Disintegrated. Vanished. Thrown out with the bath water.

I watched with complete disgust the behavior displayed by Nyjer Morgan last week in a professional baseball game. And yet, strangely, I wasn’t shocked.

Morgan plays center field for the Washington Nationals and in a game against the Florida Marlins he charged the mound after a pitch was thrown behind him by Chris Volstad.

A local trio of triathletes recently competed in the team portion of the Umpqua Ultimate Olympic Triathlon in Sutherlin Saturday.

Ron Griswold, Greg Duncan and Roy Wessbecher swam, ran and rode their way to a 2:08:00 finish in a race that traverses the Cooper Creek Reservoir and valley that surrounds Sutherlin.

Wessbecher swam a mile in 25 minutes, Griswold pedalled a 25-mile course in 61 minutes and Duncan ran 6-miles in 42 minutes.

Leroy Blodgett, a Brookings businessman and co-creator of the Slam'n Salmon Ocean Derby, garnered top honors in his first year of fishing the derby  with a 36.3 pound Chinook salmon caught Sunday. "I caught the fish at about 27 feet," Blodgett said. 

Full coverage of the Slam'n Salmon Ocean Derby can be found in Wednesday's edition of the Curry Coastal Pilot.

Minnesota resident Dennis Soto and two friends caught their limits of rockfish, plus this nice lingcod, while fishing out of the Port of Brookings Harbor on Thursday. The Pilot/Larry Ellis

Look for chlorophyll breaks to find salmon

First I would like to extend a hardy welcome to all the people who are participating in this year’s Slam’n Salmon Derby. On Thursday everyone was all smiles at the Port of Brookings Harbor fillet station.

There were folks entered in the derby who were filleting rockfish and lingcod. They were sort of pre-fishing in a way, kind of getting the feel of how the salmon fishing has been and where a person might start their salmon quest on the weekend.

2010 Big Game Preview

A mild winter around the state has generally boded well for Oregon big game herds, and the brief spring stormy weather pattern wasn’t enough to have much of a negative effect. Still, hunters will generally confront the same situation they have for the past number of years — struggling mule deer numbers and mostly stable or better elk populations. One very positive development is some improvement in black-tailed deer numbers, especially toward the coast. Most other big game species are doing fairly well, with some lows and highs depending on the region and specific situation. What follows are comments and insights from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists on prevailing big-game trends in their districts.

Head Coach Joe Morin talks to the offense as they huddle around during a timeout in the Bruins 44-34 victory over the Cougars of Illinois Valley. The Pilot/Charles Kocher

A salvo of 14 unanswered points in the opening minutes of the game by the Cougars could have led to disaster for the Bruins but they didn’t let it faze them.

The Bruins booted the initial kickoff out-of-bounds resulting in the Cougars starting at their own 35-yard line and scoring on the subsequent play.

Do you ever have times when you just can’t get started on what needs to be done? I do.

The project is laid out before me and yet I keep finding other, smaller, projects that keep me from my intended goal.

It always bugged my buddy Mike when he came to help out with a project. I’d start working on a project and shortly be distracted by something else. Or, I would find some miniscule thing that had to be done before the main project could start.

Once I get started though, the fur starts flying and I like to finish before I put things away. Of course, that often leads to projects that last until 3, 4 and even 5 o’clock in the morning.

Little things. The difference between one step and two, making sure weight is properly distributed, making sure the head is in the armpit as a tackle is made.

All of these are little things,  but like the teeth on a gear they all have to be in place and running smooth before they can mesh.

When asked what steps he will take to achieve the ultimate goal of a state football title, Head Coach Joe Morin listed the little things. And it wasn’t just one or two, it was a long list.

“We want to develop a program,” Morin said. “We are breaking habits that have formed and creating a program that includes everyone from the middle school on up.”

Gold Beach resident Fred Anderson and a friend put the wood to limits of hefty rockfish and this nice lingcod caught out of the Port of Brookings last week. The Pilot/Larry Ellis

Last week the Port of Brookings Harbor fillet station was once again abuzz with electric fillet knifes as anglers cleaned and filleted a plethora of seafood delights.

Rockfish and lingcod made up the majority of their catches. The rockfish were a good grade of fish and the anglers reported catching them on a variety of lures such as shrimp flies, twin-tail plastics, grubs, leadfish, and bait.

Lingcod bellies are bulging and getting fatter by the week as they are getting more filled with milt and roe. The lings were caught on the same lures folks were using for rockfish. Big herring used on a mooching leader in combination with a banana sinker also produced a good portion of the lings.