GIG HARBOR PUGET SOUND ANGLERS PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE February 2023
Our next scheduled meeting will be on Wednesday, 8 February 2023 at Tower Lanes located at 6323 6th Ave., Tacoma, telephone 253-564-8853. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM but feel free to come early and swap fish stories or grab something to eat from the grill.
With mixed emotions this is my final President’s Message as PSA Gig Harbor has a new slate of officers with Art Tachell taking over as President for 2023. Vice-President is Pat Leahy, Ron Hunt is remaining as Treasurer (thanks again Ron) and Scott Douglas as Secretary. We all owe them our gratitude for stepping up to fill the required officer positions.
We did not have a December membership drawing as sponsored by John Hagar’s Southworth Marine of Port Orchard due to that month’s general meeting having been replaced by the Christmas party. This month Dave Morgan’s name was drawn but he was not present to win. Next month’s drawing will be worth $370. Again, our thanks to John Hagar and Southworth Marine for their continued support!
The speaker for our 11 January meeting was Christina Iverson, WDFW’s Puget Sound Salmon Manager. Her presentation focused on how our salmon seasons are set and how limiting factors such as in-season wild fish encounters are monitored. It was very interesting as well as somewhat frustrating as to how complex is the process. My thanks to her and her two accompanying WDFW personnel for stepping into the lion’s den.
For February we hope to have Mr. Wayne Harmond of NW Salmon Research speak on the 2022 salmon acclimation pen project at Pt. Defiance and what is being planned for 2023. The Pt. Defiance effort is one that PSA Gig Harbor has been an instrumental partner with over 100K Chinook acclimated and released with negligible mortality. Hopefully the fact that the fish released in 2022 were all affixed with coded wire tags will allow for future assessment of how well these fish survived versus those exposed to river and estuary mortality.
Finally, my thanks for a great 2022 and my best to the new slate of officers!!!