For May we held our Annual Spaghetti and Clam Dinner followed by our general meeting. I was not able to attend due to a conflicting business trip, but from the reports I received, everyone who attended had a great time. A great big thanks to Jim Chaffey for harvesting and donating the clams. I’d also like to thank the volunteers who came early and stayed late to help cook and cleanup for the dinner. Thank you!
We had several guests and some additional new members attend our meeting. Our club keeps on growing, which is fantastic. A special thanks to Michael Brazeau, our VP and Derby Chairman, for running the meeting in my absence. It’s great practice for next year Michael. It sounds like a lot more of our club members are getting out and enjoying the fishing opportunities that the month of May offers. There were a variety of fishing reports for Lings, Shrimp and Halibut. I know that I was able to get out get my shrimp limits a couple times in Area 11 prior to my business trip. In anticipation of our May 17th Kokanee outing, Tony Dobson presented at the fish-talk-table. Tony is one of our active military members and has recently returned from deployment. Welcome back Tony and thanks for staffing the table. We drew Jim Chaffey’s name for the monthly membership drawing, which is sponsored by Sourthworth Marine. Jim unfortunately was not present so there was no winner this month. That means the pot grows to $260 for June. Our guest speaker for our meeting was Pat Neal, Olympic Peninsula Guide and Author of the “WildLife” books. Pat has a great sense of humor and can tell a fish story like no other. He also had a nice slide show presentation that showed the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula area. He had great fish pictures and heartfelt comments on the on the conservation of the Olympic Peninsula fisheries. Thank you Pat for speaking at our meeting. To learn more about Pat Neal or book a trip, checkout his website at http://patnealwildlife.net. We concluded our meeting with our raffle prize drawings.
The club outing on May 17th was our annual Kokanee outing on American Lake. Hopefully there were a lot of fish caught. Top prize for the biggest fish is a new Kokanee rod and reel. Our outing for June 21st is our Past President’s Derby. For more info, see the events section on our website (https://gigharborpsa.org/event-calendar).
For our June 10th meeting, we will be holding a club-only garage sale. The garage sale will begin at 5:00 PM. For the general meeting, Mike Perusse and Kiley Brehm from Shimano/GLoomis/Power-Pro will be our featured guest speakers. The June general meeting starts at 7:00 PM, but come a bit early for the garage sale or and grab a hot dog and a drink. For our July 8th general meeting, Bruce Warren of Fishing for Fun Guide Service will be speaking about Buoy 10 opportunities and tactics. I also want to make sure that everyone is planning for our August meeting. August 9th is our 19th Annual Salmon Derby. We will hold the board meeting and regular meeting on the first Tuesday of August, which is August 4th. We have traditionally done this so that we have our meeting prior to the derby. The board meeting will begin at 6:00 PM and the general meeting will be held at 7:00 PM. Our speaker for August is club member Captain John Keizer (of Salt Patrol). He always has a great presentation on catching derby fish. You will not want to miss any of these meetings.
Please check out our website or Facebook page for the latest updates regarding meetings and our club activities. We meet the second Tuesday of every month at the Tacoma Outboard Association (646 N Wilton Road, Tacoma, WA). Guests are always welcome. Better yet, come and join our club and be part of a great group of fishing enthusiasts who love to fish. Wear your lifejacket, be safe on the water, and good luck fishing!