Puget Sound Anglers – Gig Harbor & Tacoma

Happy Holidays!

I find myself writing my last President’s Message from the confines of a hotel room in Taiwan.  This will serve as my last official act as the President of the Gig Harbor Chapter.  As I reflect back on the past couple years I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences and I am truly grateful for the opportunity.  I learned a lot and met a lot of great people along the way.  I would like to thank the various board members and all those who have volunteered their time, both in official and unofficial capacity.  I also want to thank the many guest speakers that have given so freely of their time and talents.  When I look back over the past 2 years, our guest speaker list reads like a “Who’s Who” of Northwest fishing.  We have had fantastic opportunities to hear from some of the very best!

December was a busy month for our club.  We started the month off with our annual Dick Smythe Derby on December 5^th.  There were about 18 club members who participated.  While it did rain, the winds held off until later in the afternoon so fishing weather was actually very good in area 11.  Unfortunately there were no blackmouth keepers caught, just a few shakers.  Most everyone who participated met at the Tides Tavern for lunch afterwards.  On December 8^th, we held our annual Christmas Party.  It was well attended, we had close to 120 members with their families present.  This year we held our Christmas Party at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in North Tacoma.  We appreciate them opening their doors to us.  It was a great facility to host our event with plenty of space and a great kitchen.  As is our custom, all the children received a gift from Santa.  We had a special ladies raffle along with our biggest regular membership raffle of the year.  There were a lot of great prizes won.  Everyone seemed to have a great time and there was plenty of good food.  I’d like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who volunteered and assisted with the cooking of turkeys and hams, the kitchen crew, and all those who helped setup and cleanup!

I now officially pass the baton to Bill Bregnman, our newly elected president, and to the newly elected board members to lead our club in 2016.   I’m sure they will do a great job.  Our next club meeting will be on January 12^th.  We hope to see all of our members in attendance.  Our speaker will be Todd Girtz.  Todd is one of the best fishermen around and always gives a phenomenal presentation.  Our first club outing is on January 16^th.  We will be fishing Lake Washington for Cutthroat.  Specific details about this outing are posted on our website (https://www.gigharborpsa.org).  Now’s a great time to renew your membership or become a new member.  Membership is a $30 donation and covers your family.  You can do this at one of our upcoming meetings or sign-up/renew online at our website.

Checkout our website or Facebook page for the latest updates regarding our meetings and our club activities.  We meet the second Tuesday of every month at the Tacoma Outboard Association (646 N Wilton Road, Tacoma, WA).   Wear your lifejacket, be safe on the water, and good luck fishing…

I sincerely hope everyone had a fantastic Thanks Giving!  We certainly have a lot to be thankful for… Our November meeting was held on the 10^th.  Turnout was decent considering that a good number of our club members were attending the annual Mexico trip to Van Wormer’s resort.  With that said, those who were in attendance had a great meeting.  We held our monthly membership drawing, Sponsored by Southworth Marine, and there was no winner.  That means the January drawing will be $260 (there will be no drawing at our Christmas party in December).  We didn’t have many fishing reports this month so hopefully the members who were in Mexico picked up the slack.  It did sound like deep water crabbing in area 13 was doing okay and the squid in areas 11 and 13 seem to be plentiful.  Our speaker for the night was Larry Phillips from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.  Larry covered a lot of topics that spanned lakes, rivers and our local saltwater fisheries.  A lot of good information was provided and as you can expect some of the topics had lively discussions.  Besides being a wealth of knowledge, Larry is also an avid fisherman.  Thanks Larry for sharing with our club.  Our meeting concluded with our regular raffle drawing.

We have one final outdoor activity for 2015.  On December 5^th we will hold our Annual Dick Smythe Memorial Derby, which is open to club members.  We will be fishing area 11 from dawn until noon with noon being the official weigh-in time at The Tides Tavern Dock.   Biggest fish gets $100.00 and also buys the first round of beverages at The Tides Tavern.  Speaking of club membership, now is the time to renew your membership for 2015.  Cost is a $30.00 donation and covers your family.  In 2015 we had 149 active members in our Gig Harbor Chapter.  Now’s a great time to renew your membership or become a new member.  If you want to learn more about PSA, come checkout our club.  We have great speakers each month and we have a variety of club activities throughout the year.

On December 8^th, we will hold our Annual Christmas Party.  Please note that we are changing the location of the party due to the septic issues at the TOA.  The new venue will be at Emmanuel Lutheran Church (1315 N, Stevens, Tacoma).   Dinner will be served at 6:00 PM.  This is a family event.  If you have children that will be attending, we ask that you RSVP to 253-255-8168.  We need the age and gender of your kids so Santa knows what age appropriate gift to deliver.  For the potluck, we ask that you bring the following items:

Last Name Begins With:
A – I = Side Dish

J – R = Salad

S – Z = Desert

Checkout our website or Facebook page for the latest updates regarding our meetings and our club activities.  We meet the second Tuesday of every month at the Tacoma Outboard Association (646 N Wilton Road, Tacoma, WA).   We have one of the best fishing clubs around!  Stop waiting and come check us out.  Guests are always welcome.  Wear your lifejacket, be safe on the water, and good luck fishing… Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We were able to hold our October meeting as planned despite the rental facility at TOA not having running water.  Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.  We will actively monitor this situation for the November meeting.  Our current understanding is that they will be bringing in portable bathrooms and we plan to meet as scheduled.

We held our last club-only garage sale for the year.  For those of you who like to plan ahead, the next one will be in June 2016.  We had a full plate of activities for our October meeting.  We held our annual board elections and the following positions have been voted on and approved:

President Elect – Bill Brengman

Vice President Elect – Bob Watts

Secretary Elect – Frank Aumen

Treasurer Elect – Thom Names

Congratulations and thank you for serving our club in 2016.  We did have a winner of our monthly membership drawing that is sponsored by Southworth Marine.  And the winner was… Ken Pfeifle.  Our guest speaker for the meeting was John Hagar from Southworth Marine.  He spoke on winterizing your boat properly and also discussed general good practices for trailer maintenance and the potential issues of using Ethanol gas in our marine engines. I have personally stopped using Ethanol in both my boat and my truck for the past year.  My boat motor has never run better and hopefully my motor will not suffer any of the ill effects of Ethanol that I had previously used.

Our November speaker will be Larry Phillips from WDFD.  Larry will discussing our Area 11 and 13 fisheries.  It should be another lively discussion.  In December we will hold our annual Christmas Potluck and there will be no guest speaker.   To find out more about any of the things I have been discussing about our chapter, please visit our website at https://www.gigharborpsa.org.  We meet the second Tuesday of every month (except in August) at the Tacoma Outboard Association (646 N Wilton Road, Tacoma, WA).   Wear your lifejacket, be safe on the water, and good luck fishing…

We had our meeting, as usual, on the 2nd Tuesday of September.  We have 1 new member and we had no winner for our monthly membership drawing which is sponsored by Southworth Marine. We have the final tally and there were 347 participants in our 20^th annual Salmon Derby. The big winner was Doug Dixon II, one of our club members. Congratulations!   Crab season is now closed so turn in your summer catch cards, online or by mail.

Elections for board positions are upon us once again this year and we need to replace our President, Vice President, and Secretary. This year’s Treasurer, Thom Names, was re-nominated for a second term and had agreed to stay on. We are also in need of a Membership Chairman, Raffle Guy and Activities Director.  Jeff Stockman has said he will remain as the beverage guy. This is your opportunity to get involved in your club!  Anyone wishing to volunteer can reach out to one of the current officers for more details.  Remember, there are some perks that come with each office so get ‘em while you can. Our regularly scheduled speaker was unable to attend so Mark Abetz, one of our club members, took the podium instead.  He gave a talk on “Crossing the Bar,”   Mark is well versed in this topic and proceeded to scare the pants off most of us. Todd Girtz was kind enough to help elaborate. Both were very entertaining and quite helpful as well as adding a good measure of caution.

Our next meeting is on October 13^th.  This will also be the last club-only garage sale of the year. Doors will open at 5:30. As usual there will be hotdogs, chips and beverages. The speaker for our October meeting will be John Hagar from Southworth marine.  John always does a nice job talking about boat and trailer maintenance.  Very timely for those who like to winterize your boat.

Our November 10th meeting will feature Larry Phillips from the WDFW.  This should be a very lively discussion and we learn about the Salmon fisheries for areas 11 and 13.  Our final meeting for the year will be on December 8^th.  This will be our annual Christmas Potluck as we conclude another fantastic year.  Our last outing for the year will also be in December, our Dick Smythe Blackmouth Derby.  Check out our website for the exact date of this derby.  Please check out our website or Facebook page for the latest updates regarding our sponsors, meetings and our club activities.  We meet the second Tuesday of every month (except in August) at the Tacoma Outboard Association (646 N Wilton Road, Tacoma, WA).   We have one of the best fishing clubs around!  Stop waiting and come check us out.  Guests are always welcome.  Wear your lifejacket, be safe on the water, and good luck fishing!

Subbing for our working leader…

Thom Names Treasurer