Whidbey Island’s annual silver salmon derby continues this year with a new host.

Instead of being organized by the Puget Sound Anglers, which lost its Whidbey Island chapter last year, Sebo’s Do-It Center will run the show as the event’s major sponsor with help from the Holmes Harbor Rod and Gun Club and South Whidbey Sons of the American Legion.

“It’s just a new face on an old derby,” said Bob Crouch, the fishing expert at Sebo’s.

He added that he expects this to be the event’s biggest year yet.

Organizers say the 2014 coho derby offers more cash prizes for winners and better raffle gifts. Crouch listed Lamiglas fishing rods, a commercial crab pot and other high-quality gear to be raffled off at the Sept. 13 event.

Ken Urstad is one of the organizers with a perspective from the past Puget Sound Anglers group. He is also helping out with this year’s derby, which he said will offer more for participants than in the past decade.

“With Sebo’s taking it over, we’re going to make it a little more special,” Urstad said.

One of the highlights of the Sebo’s derby is the promotion of local manufacturers of fishing gear. Chris Brooks, a Freeland resident, fashions his own lures and sells them at Sebo’s.

Crouch talked Port Angeles-based Wicked Lures owner James Beasley, a relative newcomer to the sport fishing industry, into joining the derby this year. Beasley, for his part, is ecstatic to show off his product and bring some sponsored anglers for a shot at hooking into the winning fish.

“I’m just happy to be there,” Beasley said in a phone interview.

“I’ve fished over there and caught plenty of coho.”

He said he’ll use his coho troller on a downrigger without a flasher, a lure he tested for five years before introducing it to retailers. Sebo’s is one of the first stores his product found shelf space, and Crouch was thrilled to get Beasley and the Port Angeles-based Wicked Lures team on board for the derby — the first the manufacturer has taken part. Salmon derbies, despite seeing smaller fish now than in decades past — in Beasley’s recollection — remain vital for small towns with strong fishing histories.

“It’s about bringing community together and supporting local businesses and having fun,” Beasley said.

Last year, 68 fish were weighed during the derby. Coho — another name for silver salmon — fishing could be down, depending on the weather. Warmer water is keeping the salmon closer to the coast and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but once rain starts falling and the rivers rise, the salmon should swarm through Admiralty Inlet and near Whidbey Island.

Recent checks of Puget Sound area boat ramps show small yields with only 14 reported in the Whidbey Island area by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In past years, even smaller coho have been enough to win the top prize.

“I’ve seen derbies where a 7, 8, 9-pound fish will win it,” Crouch recalled.

The competition is open to marine areas 8-1, 8-2 and 9 — all of the water encompassing Central Whidbey and South Whidbey from Admiralty Inlet to Possession Point on the west side and from Camano Island to Mukilteo on the east side.

The five largest fish will win cash prizes, with the heaviest salmon garnering $500 and a trophy. Every angler in the competition can turn in their ticket for the raffle where prizes like rods and crab pots and lures will be given away.

Even if catches are down, Crouch joked that the derby “only needs five” to fill out the cash prizes at weigh in from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.