Puget Sound Anglers – Gig Harbor & Tacoma

June is when we held our first semi-annual garage sale for the year.  The doors opened at 5:00 PM and there was about a dozen club members that brought stuff in to sell.  If you missed out, the next garage sale be held on October 14th.  We held our general meeting at 7:00 PM.  Our membership continues to grow as we added another new member and had several renewals.  This was another well attended meeting.  We have been having great attendance in 2014.  With the recent openers in Marine Area 11 for salmon, Marine Area 13 for crabbing, and ocean fishing opening early, there were plenty of opportunities to get out on the water.  With some of the early season fishing reports from our members, it sounded like fishing was a little “hit and miss.”  It has also been challenging for crabbers to get their limits.  From some of the feedback given, crabbing deep was the way to go.  We had our monthly membership drawing and the name drawn was not in attendance. That means the pot grows to $370.00 for July.  As always, a special thanks to John Hager at Southworth Marine Services for continuing to sponsor our monthly membership drawing.  The club outing for May was our annual Kokanee outing on American Lake.  There were a decent number of fish caught this year.  The largest fish was caught by Donald Auman and he owns bragging rights until next year.  Our originally scheduled speakers were unable to attend our meeting due to a last minute work conflict, so club member Frank Bidwell batted DH and gave a great presentation on Area 13 fishing tactics.  Frank did a great job and shared some of the secrets to his success.  You missed out if you missed his presentation.  Thanks Frank for filling in on short notice.   We concluded our meeting with our raffle prize drawings. 

For our July 8^th general meeting, Bruce Warren of Fishing for Fun Guide Service will be speaking about Buoy 10 opportunities and tactics.  Our August meeting has a revised meeting date.  Because of our 19^th Annual Salmon Derby, we will hold our August General Meeting prior to the derby.  Therefore, our August general meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 5^th.  Our speaker for August is club member Captain John Keizer (of Salt Patrol).  When it comes down to speakers, it doesn’t get much better!  You definitely will be missing out if you are not at the July or August meeting.

It’s Derby time!  Lots of great derbies coming up.  Of course, we think we have one of the best around and part of the Northwest Salmon Derby Series!  Our club will hold its 19^th Annual Salmon Derby on August 9^th.  Michael Brazeau is this year’s derby chairman and he and his team of helpers are doing a fantastic job of getting things ready for this year’s event.  Last I heard, they have collected more than $20,000 in cash and merchandise for prizes.  Largest fish will net the winner $3000 plus you have many other opportunities to increase your winnings if you happen to have a Mercury Motor, drive a Ford or Toyota vehicle.  We have a lot a sponsors that have generously donated to our derby, too many to mention in this update, so please check out our Facebook Page or Website (https://gigharborpsa.org).  I did want to recognize and publically thank our key sponsors for 2014 – Ace Line Hauler, Alaska Charters and Adventures, Blade-Tech, Cabela’s, Defiance Boats Group, Lowrance, Oak Bay Marine Group, Rough & Ready, The OfficeZone,  Alaskan Sourdough Lodge, Salt Patrol, Southworth Marine Service, Titus-Will (Ford, Toyota, and Scion in Tacoma @38^th St.) and Van Wormer Resorts.  When you do business with any of these sponsors, be sure to thank them for supporting our club!

Adult derby tickets cost $30.00 and Youth 14 and under are free (everyone in the boat must have a ticket).  Tickets are available at Ace Hardware (Judson and Pt. Fosdick), Auburn Sports and Marine, Narrows Bait and Tackle, Outdoor Emporium, Pt. Defiance Boat House, Sportco, Sportsman’s Warehouse (Puyallup and Federal Way), or online at our website (https://gigharborpsa.org).  There is also an Adult and Youth 17 and under team event.  The team event will win a trip for 2 to the Canadian Princess Resort in Canada.  One last thing about our derby.  We are one of the few derbies around where the price of your ticket gets you a free hot dog, chips and a drink at our BBQ and Awards Ceremony.  In addition, we give away a lot of raffle prizes.  Last year, everyone who attended our Awards Ceremony walked away with a raffle prize and this year’s top raffle prize is and HDS Lowrance Fish Finder.  You don’t need to fish to win, you just need a ticket and be present during the drawings. 

 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 (except in August) 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!

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 17^th 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 21^st is our Past President’s Derby.  For more info, see the events section on our website (https://gigharborpsa.org/event-calendar).

For our June 10^th 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 8^th 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 19^th Annual Salmon Derby.  We will hold the board meeting and regular meeting on the first Tuesday of August, which is August 4^th.  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!

May flyer

We had another well attended meeting in April.  I lost count at about 80+ members.  We also had another new member join the club and a few visitors from neighboring PSA clubs!  Welcome everyone!  It is great to see both the new and the old faces as we all continue to learn and talk about our favorite pastime…fishing!  If you’ve been on the fence about attending a meeting, stop waiting and come check us out.  We have a fantastic PSA Chapter.

Just to change things up a bit, we started off our meeting with fishing reports.  Fishing opportunities are heating up as we had a lot more fishing reports from our members this month.  The board members gave their monthly updates and we also heard from Larry Bucklin and Art Tachell about government affairs and North of Falcon activities.  We held our monthly membership drawing and we had a winner.  The winner and member in good standing was Ed Chandler.  For those of you who don’t know Ed, he is one of original founding chapter members, member # 4.  Thank you John Hager, owner of Southworth Marine, for sponsoring our monthly membership drawing.   Our speaker for April was Pete Chadwick from River Bend Jigs and Baits.    If you have fished the rivers, then you know that River Bend Jigs makes top-of-the line salmon and steelhead jigs.  What you may not know is they also have a complete line of baits as well.  Pete gave a phenomenal presentation on how to brine herring with their River Bend Bait Brine.  I’ve always used the traditional brine solution with rock salt, powdered milk and Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing… The River Bend Bait Brine is amazing and it greatly simplifies the entire process.  I’m sold!  Besides firming up the herring like nothing I’ve ever seen, you are able to re-use the solution multiple times by storing it in the freezer to prevent bacteria growth and it allows you to keep your brined herring for months in the refrigerator without spoiling.  This solution combined with Pro-Cure Bad Azz Bait Dye’s looks like a winning combination.  Check out http://www.riverbendjigs.com for detailed info.  Thank you Pete for speaking at our club meeting.  We concluded our meeting with our raffle prize drawings. 

The club outing for April was the All PSA Derby in Port Townsend.  The Sno-King Chapter did a fantastic job sponsoring this derby.  Thanks for your hospitality!  Our club had 5 participants, next year we hope to see a lot more representing our chapter.  This was a really fun event and great time to meet and greet fellow PSA chapter members.  The fishing was pretty good as well.  I think there were about 62 fish caught during the derby.  Our next club outing will be May 17^th.  It is our annual Kokanee outing on American Lake.  For additional details checkout the events section on our website (https://gigharborpsa.org/event-calendar). I’d like to make one correction.  The Cast for Kids event will be held on July 19^th and not July 26^th as originally advertised last month. 

Our next meeting is on May 13^th and will include our Annual Spaghetti Dinner (and possibly Clams and Oysters).  The dinner will begin at 6:00 PM and cost $5.00 at the door.  Our guest speaker will be Pat Neal, fishing guide and renowned author.   Pat has a humorous way of taking about fishing…this is a meeting you will not want to miss.  If you cannot attend the dinner portion of the meeting, the regular meeting will begin at approximately 7:00 PM. 

For our June 10^th meeting, we will be holding a club-only garage sale.  So start cleaning out your garages, sheds and boats for that stuff that is just taking up space and needs a new home.  All items should be related to fishing or boating.  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.  Please plan now to join us.  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. 

 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!