Homer Halibut Tournament debut canceled once again

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The first-ever Homer Halibut Tournament has been canceled this year.

The event’s committee rescheduled it once but eventually decided to cancel it due to scheduling issues with local fishing charters, according to an email from Brad Anderson, executive director of the Homer Chamber of Commerce.

“It conflicted too much with the hunting season and our fishing charters were shutting down after Labor Day so the available participants for a successful tournament were not available,” Anderson said.

The two-day fishing competition had been originally set for June 4-5, but it was then moved to the last weekend of September.

“For a number of reasons, that date was not generating enough interest including the fact that most of our fishing charter businesses were already quickly getting booked out for the season and not able to support it,” Anderson said. “We decided to shift it to September 24-25 to allow for the summer season to quiet down so more people could participate.”

However, the solution did not pan out forcing the committee to cancel the event entirely for 2021, pushing it back for the second year in a row.

The event was originally set to have its first year in 2020 after the chamber board decided to get rid of the summer-long Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby for a two-day fishing tournament.

The event’s committee is now working on plans for 2022 and will soon make an announcement, Anderson said.