Chad Aldridge received a phone call on Friday night at about 9 p.m., the soonest Homer Halibut Derby organizer Paula Frisinger could possibly get the news to him.
He had won the champ&rsquo;s pot in the annual halibut derby contest, $28,260. 
Since Aldridge caught his 350.8 pound halibut earlier in the summer on June 19,  he had some serious waiting to contend with before finding out if his fish proved the largest. 
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to get my hopes up. I kept telling myself someone would beat me. A 339-pounder caught was pretty close. It would have been a tight contest,&rdquo; Aldridge said. 
That halibut was caught on Sept. 25 by Chriss Ryherd of Soldotna.