Puget Sound Anglers – Gig Harbor & Tacoma

We had our April meeting and we had a ball. We had 2 new members and a guest at our function. Our membership drawing, brought to us by John Hagar at Southworth Marine, went unclaimed so next month it will be $260. Remember, you “MUST” to be present to win and be a member in good standing. Our derby committee has started to receive donations from various sponsors. These items will be used as prizes for our upcoming 20^th Annual Salmon Derby on August 8^th. Bill Herzog, renowned salmon/steelhead fisherman and author, spoke to us about fishing for Kokanee. Very fitting since we are about to have our annual Kokanee fishing outing on American Lake in May. Bill was very entertaining and most informative of his techniques, gear, time of day, and the overabundance of Rainbow Trout in American Lake.

Just a reminder that annual dues, still just $30, were due before the end of March so try to get your dues renewed ASAP. Next month, May, is our annual Spaghetti and Clam Dinner. Our own Andy Galkin, Vice President, has volunteered to cook for us. The cost is $5, which you can pay at the door. The doors will be open at 6:00 PM and grub will start shortly thereafter. The regular meeting will begin at 7:00 PM. Our annual Kokanee outing is going to be on American Lake on May 16^th, Dawn to 12:00 PM. There is a $5 entry fee and the largest Kokanee will take the pot. Last year we had over 40 participants.

May is the opening of Halibut and Shrimping seasons. Remember to check the restrictions in your particular area as they may have changed. Our May guest speaker will be Duane Englin, Co-host of Northwest Wild Country. He will talk about float and bait fishing for springers

Also, all fishing license and tags, Crab, Salmon, Steelhead and such, can be renewed at the WDFW website or at your local dealer. Please return your catch cards by the end of April.

Coming on June 9th will be the first of two garage sale days. The other will be October 13. Please remember that this is for fishing and/or boating items. June’s speaker will be Mark Gavin. He will talk about the Upper Columbia River fishery.

Our illustrious leader is overseas this week so I have undertaken the president’s letter task.

Good Fishing/Catching

Thom Names

Treasurer, PSA Gig Harbor

We had another fantastic meeting on March 10^th. The meeting was well attended, in fact our chapter is growing. We had 6 new members who joined our club this month. We look forward to meeting each of you and welcome your participation in our chapter. So if you have been reading through the various Puget Sound Angler Chapter messages month after month and still not attended a meeting, what are you waiting for? If you are interested in fishing and want to learn more, PSA has 15 chapters to select from. I dare say that some of the best fishermen and women I know of are actively involved in PSA. Come check us out if you are in the Tacoma or Gig Harbor area. While our primary focus is on salt water fishing, we also talk about river and lake opportunities as well. In fact, our April guest speaker will be Bill Herzog from Northwest Wild Country. He will be speaking on Kokanee fishing… just in time to get us all primed for our May 16th Kokanee outing on American Lake. Our May 12^th guest speaker is also a co-host from Northwest Wild Country, we are excited to welcome Duane Englin as our guest. He will be sharing information on “Float and Bait fishing for Springers.”   We also have Mark Gavin from Pro-Troll joining us at our June 9th meeting and he will be talking about “Upper Columbia River Sockeye and Kings Salmon opportunities.”  The forecast for Upper River Bright’s is predicted to the 3^rd highest return ever!  Now you have 3 great reasons to be a part of what’s happening at one of our upcoming meetings.

Back to our March meeting. We had a winner of our monthly membership drawing sponsored by Southworth Marine. Steve C. went home $150 happier. That’s 2 winners during the past 2 consecutive months. The monthly drawing for April will remain at $150. We presented Maryellen Ward with her largest fish award and cash prize. Congratulations Maryellen… Our guest speaker for the night was Todd Girtz of Todd’s Extreme Fishing (http://www.toddsextremefishing.com). What a talk! The slide deck had numerous pictures of trophy size Lingcod, halibut, and Salmon. You get the full meal deal when Todd speaks. I know he presented a little over an hour and we were all captivated by his presentation. It was off the hook! Thanks Todd! Todd is now chartering so if you are interested, checkout his website listed above. We held a special raffle for a bunch of Pro-Troll fishing products that were generously donated by Mark Gavin and we concluded our meeting with our regular raffle drawing.

We have a great chapter who loves to fish and learn about fishing. If you want to become a better fisherman, come check us out! Guests are always welcome. 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 (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 a fantastic February meeting. It was our annual Crab Dinner and Awards Ceremony. Meeting started at 6:00 PM to accommodate the dinner and we held the general meeting at its regular time of 7:00 PM.   A special thanks to Roger Chapman for organizing the dinner and a big thanks to everyone else who also helped out. It was a fun time and the crab was good.

During the general meeting we announced the recipients of our “2014 Largest Fish Awards” and the “Angler of the Year” for 2014. There were fewer submissions this year so we only gave out 2 awards. The club member that caught the Largest Halibut was Terry Olsen. His fish weighed 62lbs and was caught on May 24^th, 2014. Our Lady Reeler Award, for the largest fish caught by a Lady, went to Maryellen Ward for her fish that weighed 35.5lbs and was caught on June 17^th, 2014. Her fish was also a halibut. This is our 2^nd year for the Angler of the Year award, which goes to the club member who earns the most points by fishing in our various club outings and by volunteering. The 2014 award winner is Pete Pitman. Congratulations everyone! Each received a nice plaque and a $100 check. We had our monthly membership drawing that is sponsored by Southworth Marine and we had a winner of the $260. That means the pot starts back at $150 for the March meeting. Speaking of Southworth Marine, John Hager, who is the owner and a longtime member of our chapter, recently had some medical procedures performed. We wish him the best and a very speedy recovery.

Our guest speaker for the night was Eric Linde of Linde’s Sport Fishing (http://lindesportfishing.com). He gave a great talk Columbia River Springer fishing. Eric is a very good speaker and you really missed out if you missed him. We appreciate him taking time from his busy schedule… I know he had just finished speaking 5 times at the Portland Sportsman Show the previous weekend. Thanks Eric, the presentation was great!

Just so you can plan ahead, our speaker for March will be Todd Girtz. He will be talking about fishing our coastal waters. In April, we will have Bill Herzog coming to discuss Kokanee fishing. This is perfect timing for our May club outing, which will be Kokanee fishing on American Lake. For more specifics on upcoming speakers and club outings, checkout our website.

We have a great chapter who loves to fish and learn about fishing. If you want to become a better fisherman, come check us out! Guests are always welcome. 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 (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…

Happy New Year!  With the start of a new year I’m inclined to set some new year’s resolutions.  For example, I resolve to fish at all of our PSA club outings in 2015 (work schedule permitting).  I resolve to sit down with my fishing buddy and plan out our annual fishing calendar… too many missed opportunities when we don’t plan.  I also resolve to fish a new marine area or river.  Finally, I resolve to get someone new interested in fishing.  Have you set any resolutions for 2015?  If not why not take some time to think about some 2015 bucket list items and go out and do them!

Our January meeting was the first meeting with our newly elected board members and I look forward to working with each of them in 2015.  We look forward to a really fun and informative year.  John Hagar of Southworth Marine could not speak at our January meeting as originally announced so Pete Chadwick from Riverbend Jigs and Bait came and spoke at our meeting.  Pete is the owner or should I say former owner of Riverbend Jigs and Bait.  He introduced Cody Hayes as the new owner.  Both spoke on river fishing for Coho and Steelhead using twitching jigs and jigs under a float.  It was very informative session.  I actually got to try my hand twitching jigs with Pete and fishing buddy and caught my first Satsop River Steelhead on the Thursday following our meeting.  Twitching works and it’s a lot of fun…  Resolve to give it a try.  There were not a lot of member fishing reports for January.  It did sound like razor clamming was excellent.  We had 2 new members join our club, welcome Ted and John.  We did have our monthly membership drawing and unfortunately the name drawn was not present.  That means that our February meeting will be $260.  A big thanks to Sourthworth Marine for sponsoring our membership drawing.  We concluded our meeting with our regular raffle drawing.  Oh and before I forget, now is the time to renew your membership.  Cost is a $30.00 donation and covers your entire family.

On January 17^th we held our first club outing on Lake Washington and fished for Cutthroat Trout.  It was a fun outing and the weather wasn’t bad.  It was the typical northwest drizzle but not very cold.  There were 3 fish caught.  This is a great fishery and doesn’t seem to get much fishing pressure.  Not sure who caught the largest fish, this will be announced at our February 10^th general meeting.  Our next club specific outing will be on May 21st.  We will be fishing for Kokanee on American Lake.

Our February 10^th meeting is our annual Crab Dinner and Awards Ceremony.  We need everyone who wants to join us for the crab dinner to RSVP by no later than February 3^rd.  We will be announcing the winners of our annual largest fish awards and our anger of the year award.   The dinner will begin at 6:00 PM followed by our general meeting at 7:00 PM.  Our speaker for February will be Eric Linde.  This will be my first time hearing Eric.  I have heard that he is a fantastic speaker and am really looking forward to hearing him.  Our March 10^th Speaker will be Todd Girtz from Todd’s Extreme Fishing.  He will be talking to us about his new business and coastal fishing opportunities.  It should be another great meeting.

In 2014 we had 163 active members in the Gig Harbor Chapter.  Our goal is to raise our membership to 200 in 2015.  If you want to become a better fisherman, come check us out!  Guests are always welcome.  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 (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…

Merry Christmas!  We had a phenomenal turnout for our December Christmas Party on December 9th.  I’d estimate that we had at least 150 in attendance from ages 1 to 89.  Santa Clause was also in attendance and all of the children were eager to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  Christina S. was an 89-years young guest had never had her picture taken with Santa.  Santa was happy to accommodate!  As is our custom, all the children received a gift.  We had a special ladies raffle along with our regular membership raffle.  There were lots of great prizes won.  Everyone seemed to have a great time and there was plenty of good eats.  I’d like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who volunteered and assisted with the cooking of turkeys and hams, kitchen crew, setup and cleanup crew!  

It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone.  I hope everyone took advantage to get out and enjoy the many opportunities to fish and enjoy the great outdoors.  We are really fortunate to live where we do and have access to the fisheries we have!  Speaking of opportunities, the first meeting of the year will be on January 13^th.  We hope to see all of our members in attendance.  Our speaker for the January meeting will be John Hager of Southworth Marine.  John is a club member from our chapter and will be talking about boat winterization and proper maintenance.  I have heard John speak on several occasions and I always get good information on how to better care for my boat.  Our first club outing is on January 17^th.  We will be fishing Lake Washington for Cutthroat.  Specific details about this outing are posted on our website (https://www.gigharborpsa.org).  Our club will be working the Puget Sound Anglers booth at both the Puyallup Sportsman Show on January 24^th and the Seattle Boat Show on January 30^th.  If you want to find out more about the PSA Gig Harbor Chapter stop by the booth and we would be happy to answer any questions.  

In 2014 we had 163 active members in the Gig Harbor Chapter.  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 (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…