President s Message · 2019-05-13 · Erika Kaiser Secretary Newsletter May 2019 President’s Message Unfortunately, our President, Fred Bates, had to step away from the President

Courtenay

& District

Fish & Game

Protective

Association P.O. Box 3177

Courtenay, B.C.

V9N 5N4

Fred Bates

President

*

Gail Eggiman

Vice President

*

John Shepherd

Vice President

*

Elaine Blackburn

Treasurer

*

Erika Kaiser

Secretary

Newsletter May 2019

President’s Message

Unfortunately, our President, Fred Bates, had to step away from the President position for medical reasons. He directed me to carry on as Acting President until he is able to resume. We all wish him a speedy recovery. Until then, the Board will continue with the work of the Association and the members who volunteer their time to operate our great programs will keep up the good work.

Our 27th Annual Outdoor Show will take place on 1 and 2 June 2019. This has been a long standing community event that raises awareness of our Asso-ciation. Unfortunately, the tired blood who organized this event for several years has stepped back. A young member decided to take on the task but is overwhelmed and few came to assist on the organizing committee. Our repu-tation is on the line here to put on a good show and I urge all of our members to sign up for volunteer spots when the club email request goes out.

Welcome back to Dwayne and Sheri Serafini, our Campground Caretaker and wife. Sheri also volunteered to act as Kitchen Chair, so much appreciated.

Gail Eggiman

Trophy Report

Trophy Winners: Largest Spring &Largest Coho: Denise Robson and Bill Robson Catch & Release Cutthroat Trout: Tony Hryko Heaviest Cutthroat Trout: Jeff Marinus Largest Blacktail Rack: Matt Conelley Largest Blacktail 2 point: Ray Pussinen Big Game Bow: Dean Hodgson Big Game Rifle: Kirk Joyal

Award Winners: Bush O’Bear Conservation Award: Bill Bell Frank Gavin Photo Award: Linda Marinus Men’s Service Award: Terry O’Toole Ladies’ Service Award: Linda Marinus President’s Service Award: Gail Eggiman

Coming Soon to the Club's Website: Revised weigh-in slips and procedures, hope-fully to make it easier to enter you catch. New updated Trophy & Awards list and general information. I

would like to thank you all for your support. I think things went well for my first time and looking forward to this coming year.

So get out there and enjoy the great outdoors, fishing, hunting. camping or just taking a few pictures.

Farley Lock

Linda Marinus & Farley Lock

Cowboy Action Report

The Valley Regulators are going to be pushing a very big rock up a very steep hill over the next four months, but we’re just the passel of cowboys and cowgirls to git ‘er done!

We’ve got the May work party, the ‘Too Broke 2 Go 2 Mission’ match on the May long weekend, the Outdoor Show over the first weekend in June, the June work parties, the ‘Too Broke 2 Go 2 Heffley’ match on the July long weekend, the July work parties, the July Fun Match, Showdown in the Valley - the Valley Regulators big annual match - over the August long weekend, the August work parties, the Headquarters match - our Victoria friends’ big annual match - on August 23 - 25, the 2019 SASS Canadian Wild Bunch Championships, August 28 - 29 and the 2019 SASS Canadian National Cham-pionships, August 30 - Sept 2.

Our list of chores is longer than the tongue in a Mountie’s boot. We’re going to be hammering, sawing, bolting, welding & painting… digging, lifting, pulling, drilling & sweeping… polishing, gluing, weeding, glazing & patching… well, you get the idea. If we have time we’ll do a little stone masonry and we’ll build a railroad, we’ll stucco a building and finish a hotel, we’ll do what needs to be done because that’s who we are. We’re proud of Boomtown and the range we’ve built and we’re going to use it and tend to it.

We take part in all of these activities because they’re fun. We may be all stove in at the end of the day, our feet hurt, our knees creek, our backs ache and our hands are dirty and sore but nobody, and we mean NOBODY, has bigger smiles or a greater feeling of accomplishment than we do as we sit around our campfires and look back on our work.

We hope you folks have as happy a summer as we will. The Valley Regulators

Thumbs up this quarter goes to Farley Lock for stepping forward to take on the Trophies/Awards position and the Antler Measure this year. You would think that it would not be hard to get members to send in their weigh in slips for fish caught or successful hunts in order to win a trophy or prize! But Far-ley persevered and collected the info, organized the trophies, purchased priz-es, and organized the Awards Potluck in March. Dressed for the occasion in his best camo bib and tuck, he MC’d the presenta-tions with his usual humour which was enjoyed by all. And the prizes were fantastic!

Farley volunteers at other events whenever he can whether it is a construction work party, conservation, or Banquet Fundraiser. He’s also signed up to be a Fishing Forev-er volunteer in June. Definitely a Deserving Member for the Association!

Deserving

Members

Corner By Gail Eggiman

Publicity

Online Renewal

Haven’t renewed yet? Well, if you were a paid up member in 2018, you can still renew this year, but remember! Next

year you need to renew BEFORE January 1, 2020 if you don’t want to go through the ‘New Members’ process!

You can renew from Mexico or Maui ... Germany or Tasmania ... all you need is an internet connection and you’re all set!

Questions? Ask away! [email protected] or [email protected]

We’re here to help, but remember that we’re volunteers, so not quite at your complete beck and-call .

Sometimes we actually go on holidays or relax at the club, but we will get back to you

ASAP.

See you at the club!

Conservation Update

We are busy working on plans for the new hatchery proposed for the Association. As you know, part of the negotiations for the sale of the land includes a water supply from the new deep water intake for a new hatchery. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to gain access to a dependable cold water supply. We plan to use the hatchery not only to support our Trent River Coho enhancement pro-gram, which has raised 50,000 Coho fry per year since we started in 1979, but also to help Puntledge Hatchery raise another 50,000 Coho smolts per year to support an in river fishery. Puntledge sus-pended their Coho smolt program several years ago when they suffered a complete loss of a brood cycle because of hot water in the river.

The final design has been completed, a list of supplies has been developed and initial pricing hasbeen completed. The design includes a surge tank and an aeration tower. In the future we will look at power recovery from the pressure in the water supply. The design includes 8 smaller tanks (5 or 6 foot diameter) in the building for the egg to fry rearing and 10 larger tanks (8 or 10 foot diame-ter) tanks in a fenced yard for grow out and holding the Puntledge Hatchery Coho for the summer.

The hatchery building will include a display area for education of our own members, school pro-grams and the general public regarding fish life cycles. NIC is starting a hatchery tech program and may also be able to use this facility. The building will be stick framed which will allow us to do much of the construction ourselves.We are looking at locating the hatchery close to the logging road, above the boat launch parking lot, where the new raw water pipeline will run

We can start soliciting donations for the hatchery now that a Hatchery Reserve Fund has been creat-ed. As part of the fund raising initiative we need a hatchery display or mock up to help people visu-alise the hatchery. We have started brainstorming some funding source including, Hancock Timber, TimberWest/Mosaic, Pacific Salmon Foundation, Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (BC Hydro) for help building the hatchery. The Aquaculture industry and DFO will be asked for surplus equipment. We have already received a major contribution to our hatchery program with the design and drawings of our hatchery by John Holder and John Holder Junior of JLH Consulting Inc., a world class hatchery design team. If you have any other fund raising ideas please let us know.

When completed the hatchery will be a show piece for our Association and its conservation pro-gramming.It will be a couple of years before the hatchery starts production since the new water in-take won't be ready until 2021. All the companies bidding on the new deep water intake have indi-cated that they would like to work with us to help build this hatchery.

We have also completed the second year of a Kokanee study in Comox Lake with funding from the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program of BC Hydro. The first year study showed that the lake spawning sites may be susceptible to exposure during the winter resulting in freezing the eggs in the

beach when the lake is drawn down. The new report confirms that the densest spawning activity is at the site in Stockand Bay but it also found the Kokanee spawn in deeper water (as deep as 30 me-tres) and also found a population of Kokanee using Willmar Lake for spawning. More work is (continued on page 7)

Volunteers Needed for Outdoor Show

Volunteers are needed on June 1st and 2nd for a multitude of tasks, from setup to tear down, ticket sales to parking, haywagon to bouncey castle. Contact Char at [email protected].

Shotgun Report

The Shotgun Program just completed a very busy March with 6 major events carried out: Saturday, March 2 was our monthly Sporting Clays shoot with 40 shooters in the morning and

36 in the afternoon The annual VISL Dave Burkard memorial trap tournament held on March 16 attracted 24 par-

ticipants from around the Island On March 17, our first ever “Tooney Shoot” of reclaimed targets brought in $184 to the Youth

program (92 rounds of 25 were shot) ISA Singles & Doubles tournament on March 24 attracted 25 skeet shooters Slegg Lumber hosted a corporate shoot and BBQ lunch for 20 of their clients Last, but not least, our Club Championships were held Sunday, March 31 with 27 people tak-

ing part. Results are listed below. Congratulations to all our winners!

Club Championship results:

High Overall Champion – Kelly Lance

Men’s Skeet Champion – Lorne Wygard

Men’s Trap Champion – Kelly Lance

Men’s 5-stand Champion – Kelly Lance

Ladies Skeet Champion – Jenna Leggett

LadiesTrap Champion – Jenna Leggett

Ladies 5-stand Champion – Lisa Cunningham

Upcoming events This year, CF&G has been selected to host both the NSSA BC Skeet Association Championships and the NSSA Canadian Open Skeet Championships in the month of June. These are major events with skeet shooters from across Canada expected to attend. The BCSA 5-gun Championship takes place June 7 to 9 followed by the Canadian Open on June 28 to 30. Other events include:

Saturday, May 4 – monthly Sporting Clays event Saturday & Sunday, May 25, 26 – Roger MacNeil Memorial Skeet shoot Saturday, June 1 – monthly Sporting Clays event Sunday, June 23 – Glacier View Doubles skeet tournament Saturday, July 6 – monthly Sporting Clays event

(continued on next page)

Conservation (continued from page 5)

needed to quantify these other spawning areas and whether their food chain can support an increased Kokanee population. The question we are trying to answer is why Comox Lake is so much less productive when compared to other Sockeye/Kokanee lakes on Vancouver Island. Kokanee are the main food item for the large Cutthroat Trout which Comox Lake is famous for. Wayne White

Shotgun (continued from previous page)

Major Capital Project Completed Ahead of the major competitions, our most important capital improvement project of the year has just wrapped up. The Barrier Free Access sidewalk project for Fields 1 and 4 was completed in mid April with the assistance of CF&G member Ron Payne and his Alpine Concrete crew along with concrete supplier Hyland Precast.

Superintendant Lorne Wygard inspects the concrete work on Field 4

CF&G volunteers carried out the layout and sub-grade preparation with Alpine doing the forming, pouring and finishing. Mike Graham

Practical Shooting Sports Report

We aquired a set of new steel targets for the range use.

We are planning a Meetup / friendly match in the coming weeks / month(s).

Courtenay & District Fish & Game

Protective Association

Executive 2018-2019

President: Fred Bates 250-334-6673 Vice President Gail Eggiman 250-339-4707 Vice President John Shepherd 250-941-7225 Treasurer Elaine Blackburn 250-338-7253 Secretary Erika Kaiser 604-833-3647

Chris Sutton Archery Gord Parnham Bar Randy Berkeley BCWF Rep John Barnhardt Black Powder Tim Schmitz Boat Launch/Campground Wayne White Conservation/Watershed Debbie Guthrie Cowboy Action Gail Eggiman Fundraiser Banquet Rick McClure Gun Shows Sherri Serafini Kitchen

Ron Gieck Membership Max Rein Newsletter Char Antonenko Outdoor Show Patrick Schillemat Practical Shooting Sports Greg Lafortune Property Terry O’Toole Ranges Mike Graham Trap & Skeet

Farley Lock Trophy Linda Marinus Website/IT

TBA CORE TBA Fishing Programs TBA Raffle TBA Social

Visit our website www.courtenayfishandgame.org

Email at [email protected]

DIRECTORS 2018-2019

Willi Wagner 250-334-3080 Tony Hryko 250-338-0165 Andrew Rice 250-334-8907 Barry Stieben 250-331-1100 Rick Gaiga 250-703-3674 Terry Kerton 250-336-2613 Norm Gillis 780-901-4056 Randy Berkeley 250-202-3811

250-338-3815 250-338-7935 250-202-3811 250-792-1881 250-897-3313 250-338-6964 778-420-0021 250-339-4707 250-703-0223 250-218-3568 250-334-1569 250-465-9125 250-927-4646 705-927-5554 250-338-7676 250-334-0899 250-338-1345 250-334-4126 250-338-2544 - - - -

COMMITTEE/PROGRAM CHAIRS

Club Caretaker: Brian Lawrence 250-338-9122

Monday to Friday, 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.

Jessie Kobelka - Admin/Office Office: 250-338-0850

Monday to Wednesday, 9 A.M. to 4 P.M.

Shotgun Facility 250-338-0632

Campground Caretaker

250-338-5159

2019 Memberships are available.

Membership is from Jan to Dec. Memberships are now to be done online. That includes new memberships or renewals. Rejoins are no longer available. If you were a member in past years, but were not a member in 2018, you will now be considered a new member.

New members must be vetted by Membership Committee and approved by members at General Meetings. Please check out the information on https://courtenayfishandgame.org/membership and follow directions.

If you have difficulty or questions, please call the office at 250-338-0850 between Monday and Wednesday 9am to 4pm.

All members in the future will be required to renew their membership before 31 Dec of each year.