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FAIRBANKS — After being married for 23 years, Tom Lane has learned that sometimes you just do what your wife says.

So when Lisette Lane told her husband to buy a ticket for the Valdez Silver Salmon Derby last weekend before they went fishing in Valdez, he went ahead and shelled out the $10 for a derby ticket without a word.

“She said to buy a ticket, so I did,” Lane said. “After a while, you just learn to do stuff without saying anything.

“This is the first time she talked me into buying one,” he said. “I wouldn’t have had the ticket if it wasn’t her.”

The move paid off when Lane reeled in a 19.12-pound silver salmon on Sunday, which also happened to be the Lanes’ 23rd anniversary, to move into first place in the derby. If his fish holds up through the end of the derby on Aug. 30, Lane will win $10,000.

That would make for one heckuva anniversary present.

“We’ll keep our fingers crossed,” said Lane, a 55-year-old aviation safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration in Fairbanks.

The Lanes were fishing on their own boat, an 18-foot Hughes River Runner, when Tom hooked the new derby leader. Fishing the previous two days had been slow, but things picked up on Sunday, he said.

“Friday and Saturday we didn’t do well at all, but Sunday it picked up really good,” Tom Lane said. “People were picking up fish left and right.”

The Lanes had six fish on board when Tom Lane hooked up with their biggest catch of the day. He was fishing about 70 feet deep with a pink hootchie.

“I could tell he was a scrapper,” Lane said. “The first time I saw him jump I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m not going to cinch down this drag any more or we’re going to lose him.’”

His wife expertly scooped the fish out of the water and hefted it onto the boat.

“I had an excellent net man,” Lane said, crediting his wife.

At first, Lane thought the fish was in the 16-pound range. But when he weighed it on a hand-held digital scale he had on board, the scale put it at about 19 pounds. At that point, both Tom and Lisette decided it would probably be best to go get the fish weighed in officially instead of trying to catch their bag limits of six fish each.

“We just headed straight in,” Tom Lane said.

It was the first derby fish this year to crack the 19-pound barrier. Whether or not someone will bring in a 20-pounder before the derby ends on Aug. 30 remains to be seen. There have been 20-plus pound silvers caught this year but none by anyone that had a derby ticket, said weigh-in coordinator Bonnie Woods.

With more than a week to go in the derby, Woods is betting someone will bring in a bigger fish before it’s over.

“I think someone is going to hit a 20-pounder,” she said.

Fishing in Valdez Narrows has picked up considerably and fish have moved in closer than they were a week ago, Woods said. Anglers are having good success picking up silvers off Allison Point and in the small boat harbor from the city dock.

“We haven’t seen this many fish coming all the way into the harbor for a long time,” said Dave Cobb of the Valdez Fisheries Development Association. “There are harbor seals and sea otters in the harbor, and we haven’t seen that for years.”

If Lane’s fish does prove to be the biggest of the derby, the $10,000 prize will be reserved for the couple’s 25th anniversary, Tom Lane said.

“Our 25th anniversary is going to be a Hawaii trip, so most of it will go in the bank for that,” he said.

• • •

The winner in the Valdez Halibut Derby will be the smallest in five years if things don’t change before the end of the derby on Aug. 30.

Jan VanderVaart of Anchorage still holds the top spot in halibut derby with a 251.5-pound flatfish he caught on Aug. 3. It would be the smallest fish to win the halibut derby since 2003.

The past four years, the winning fish has surpassed 300 pounds. Last year’s winner was 340 pounds.

VanderVaart will win $10,000 if his fish holds up.

• • •

Dip-netters at Chitina are still catching fish, but the season is winding down.

Charter operator Mark Hem of Hem’s Charters said his last day of ferrying dip-netters to fishing spots will be Saturday. After that, dip-netters will have to fend for themselves.

As of Monday, dip netting was fair to good. Charter customers on Monday averaged about 15 fish per permit, Hem said.

The red salmon that are being caught are the biggest fish of the season, with some in the 14-pound range, and there are also some big silvers showing up in nets, Hem said.

Dip netting closes at midnight Sunday and will re-open at noon on Thursday, at which point it will remain open through Sept. 30.

• • •

Silver salmon fishing in the Mat-Su Valley is beginning to taper off, according to sport fish biologist Dave Rutz with the Department of Fish and Game in Palmer.

Anglers are having to sift through more fish to find fresh silvers and many have turned their attention to the start of moose hunting season on Tuesday.

Persistent anglers still can find fresh fish, though, Rutz said. The best bets are Jim Creek, south of Palmer, and the Little Susitna River. The Deshka River can be a late-season hot spot, too,.

There are still some silvers milling in Parks Highway streams, but they are mixed with chum and pink salmon.

The best silver fishing in the Valley may be on the Talkeetna River at Clear Creek.

• • •

While silver fishing is cooling off in the Valley, coho fishing on the Kenai Peninsula is still reported to be hot.

Silver fishing in the Kenai River has been good to excellent this week and coho fishing in the Kasilof River is also improving. Silver fishing should remain consistently good well into September.

Red salmon fishing in the Russian River closed for the season on Wednesday.

Anglers focusing on rainbow trout are having good success in the Kenai and Russian rivers as rainbows feast on eggs of spawning king and red salmon.

Derby Leaders

Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby

Jeff Pardi, San Rafael, Calif., 348.2 lbs., July 9

Seward Silver Salmon Derby

Renee Wellington, Palmer, 18.57 lbs., Aug. 11*

Valdez Halibut Derby

Jan VanderVaart, Anchorage, 251.5 lbs., Aug. 3

Valdez Silver Salmon Derby

Thomas Lane, Fairbanks, 19.12 lbs., Aug. 17

Whittier Halibut Derby

Kimet Westphal, Wasilla, 177.8 lbs., Aug. 3

* — Denotes derby is over.