Puget Sound Anglers – Gig Harbor & Tacoma

August was derby time for our Club! We hosted our 20^th Annual Salmon Derby on August 8^th. To prepare for the event, we held our general meeting a week earlier than normal. Hopefully nobody forgot and showed up a week too late.  Fishing reports remain strong for ocean fishing and there are reports of fish being caught locally. It’s all about putting in the time. Our monthly membership drawing was up to $260 and we had a winner! Thanks to Southworth Marine for sponsoring this activity. That means that next month the pot starts back at $150.00. Our speaker for the meeting was Captain John Keizer of SaltPatrol. He gave another phenomenal talk on derby fishing tactics and how to set some of the basic settings for Lowrance units. John always does an excellent job presenting. Thanks John for speaking and sharing your wealth of knowledge!

As mentioned above, August 8th^h was our 20^th Annual Salmon Derby and we are part of the Northwest Salmon Derby Series. We target Marine Fishing Areas 11 and 13. Not sure of the exact number of anglers we had until we collect the ticket sales info, but there were 61 fish weighed in between 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM on derby day. Below is a listing of the derby winners by category:

Youth Boys         Name                                  Weight                                Prize

1st                         Colton Pringle                   8.85                                     $100

2nd                       Tanner Riley                       8.77                                     $75

3rd                        Ashton Herdman               6.51                                     $50

4th                        Ryan Carr                           2.99                                     $25

Adult Division    Name                                  Weight                                Prize

1st                         Douglas Dixon II                21.39                                   $3,500

2nd                       Bill Thackeray                    19.97                                   $2000 + $2000 for Mercury Motor

3rd                        Tom Sullivan                      18.61                                   $1,000

Ladies Division   Name                                  Weight                                Prize

1st                         Rebekka Holt                     14.42                                   $250

Team Division    Name                                  Weight                                Prize

1st                         Ashton Herdman

& Erin Brinkerhoff            18.69                                   Oak Bay Marine Trip for 2

I’d also like to express my sincere thanks to our derby sponsors who donated all of the cash and prizes, and to all our volunteers who worked many hours to prepare and host this event. Checkout our website for a full listing of our sponsors (https://www.gigharborpsa.org). The next time you visit one of their establishments, tell them thanks for supporting our club! A special thanks Gene Anderson and the crew at Pt. Defiance. They really do a great job hosting our BBQ and Awards Ceremony and it is always a pleasure to work with them. Lastly, thanks to everyone who purchased a derby ticket to help support our club. Hopefully you had a good time! We are looking forward to seeing all of you next year.

Our September 8^th meeting will feature Duane Englin, co-host of Northwest Wild Country Radio Program. He will be speaking on “Bank Fishing for Fall Chinook.” This is a meeting you will not want to miss. For the October 13^th meeting we will have John Hagar from Southworth Marine speaking about winterizing your boat and other maintenance related issues. This is a timely topic and I always learn something new from John’s presentations. 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!

Some might refer to this time of year as the “dog days of summer.” If your hobby or passion is fishing, then I would say this is prime time as we patiently await the return of the Kings, Silvers and Pinks. Things might be off to a little slower than desired start in Marine Areas 11 and 13, but there are plenty of other fishing opportunities throughout our region. The coastal fishing seems to be the current hot ticket as reported by many of our club members that are fishing Westport and Neah Bay. I’m always amazed each month as we pass the microphone to hear the variety of fishing reports by our chapter members and guests.

We had another great meeting on July 14^th. Our guest speaker was Terry Wiest (Steelhead University). He gave a phenomenal presentation on fishing for Pinks. It is estimated that there will be about 6.5 million pinks returning to our area during the next couple of months. I always love to hear Terry speak and he always does a fantastic job. Thanks Terry! If you are interested in finding out more about fishing for Pinks, checkout Steelhead University (http://steelheaduniversity.com/) and navigate to the “How to Articles” section on the website. There is a good article by Terry on this subject.

On Saturday July 18^th, we helped with a Cast for Kids event, which was held on the Thea Foss Waterway. This is a great volunteer opportunity to take a special needs kid fishing. This event is always one of the highlight activities for our club and if you talk to those who participate, there is a great deal of satisfaction by being able to give back to our community. If you get a chance, get involved, you will be blessed for your efforts. Thank you to everyone who volunteered and participated. Our club is fortunate to be able to participate and we look forward to next year.

It’s Derby Time! We have 3 opportunities to fish our local Salmon Derbies. South King County PSA will be held on August 1^st, Gig Harbor PSA will be held on August 8^th and South Sound PSA will be held on August 15^th. For our Gig Harbor Chapter, this will be our 20^th Annual Salmon Derby. This will be our biggest and best derby to date. We have increased our top cash prizes this year to $3500 – First Place, $2000 – Second Place and $1000 Third Place. Places 4^th – 20^th get their choice of the remaining prizes. We also give away cash prizes for a Youth Division, Largest fish caught by a lady and our mystery fish prize. We always have a large selection of merchandise given away as raffle prizes. The grand prize raffle drawing is a new Lowrance HDS Fish Finder. You don’t need to fish our derby to win a great prize but you must be present. During the past few years, most people who attend the BBQ and Awards ceremony take home a prize. In addition, you get a free hot dog, chips and drink with your purchase of a derby ticket. To find out more about our derby or to purchase tickets, checkout our website at https://www.gigharborpsa.org. To get everyone ready for derby fishing, come hear Captain John Keizer speak on Derby Winning Fishing Tactics. John always gives a great presentation and is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable speakers around. Our next meeting will be held on August 4^th. We traditionally move our August Meeting to the first Tuesday of the month so that it precedes our Derby on August 8^th.

Our September speaker will be Duane Englin (NW Wildcountry) and October speaker is John Hagar (Southwest Marine Service). You will not want to miss either 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…

During our June meeting, we held our first garage sale of the year. We will hold another one in October. There was lots of good stuff to be had. I know I ended up with a new G. Loomis rod and some Hotshot lures at a great price. Did you know that in US, 4.2 Million in revenue is generated by garage sales weekly? It again proves the saying that “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” The general meeting began at its normal time of 7:00. For those of you who have never attended one of our meetings, we hold the business portion of our chapter meeting from 7:00 to about 7:45. During this time we will have the reading of the minutes by our secretary, the financial report by our treasure, various updates by our VP, 2015 Derby update by our Derby Chairman followed by the president’s report. Also during this time our membership coordinator introduces any new members and guests and our activities director reviews our upcoming club outings. We held our monthly membership drawing for $150 and the winner was Andrew B. A double-congratulations to Andrew for winning the cash prize donated by Southworth Marine and for his upcoming marriage later this month. We also had a government’s affair report from Larry Bucklin and a final North of Falcon wrap-up report from Art Tachell. We conclude our business portion of the meeting with our fishing report, which is one of my favorite things about our meeting. It sounds like fishing opportunities are heating up just like the fantastic weather we have been having at the beginning of June.   We always have a variety reports… this time from Westport to Langara Island and various places in-between. This past meeting included reports on salmon, kokanee, halibut, bottom fish and crabbing… by the way, crabbing in area 13 has been decent but you have to be at least 150’ deep. After a brief break, we begin the last half of our meeting about 8:00 PM with our featured guest speaker and conclude with our monthly raffle drawing. Meetings are usually done by 9:00 PM and the bonus now is that it is still light outside.

Our guest speaker during our June meeting was Mark Gavin from Pro-Troll and Brad’s Lures. He gave a very detailed presentation on fishing opportunities for Columbia River Up-River-Bright’s and also about some Sockeye opportunities. Great job Mark, we appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to share your knowledge and expertise with us. There were several techniques and tips that several of are going to try and see if they will help us catch more fish.  Now that you know what a typical meeting is like, what are you waiting for to come join us? What’s not to like when the subject is mostly about fishing? Guests are always welcome.

We have more fantastic speakers lined up for the next 3 months. Our July 14^th. Speaker will be Terry Wiest (Steelhead University) and he will be taking about fishing for Pinks. In my opinion, he gives one of the very best presentations on this subject. You will definitely learn to put more fish in the boat. At our August 4^th Meeting (note the date change due to our August 8^th Derby) Captain John Keizer will be speaking on Derby Winning Tactics and our September 8^th Speaker will be Duane Englin of NW Wild Country. A great lineup of speakers for our summer!

Calling all members with boats, we have a Cast for Kids event on July 18^th and we need at least 20 boats. Please sign-up at our next meeting to be a volunteer. As for other activities, we will hold our 20^th Annual Salmon Derby on August 8^th. Top prize is $3500 this year. Tickets are available online and will be in local stores by the time you read this. 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…