President's Message

July 2009

by

Mike Howes

A new fiscal year is upon us. The club elections are over.  I will remain President for one more year. I am looking forward to another fun and exciting year. I would like to “Thank” the outgoing Board members Ron English, Karl Wolff, and Bill Carnazzo for their contributions last year and for their continued involvement in the club.  I welcome three new Board members: Dennis Baker, Taylor Yates and Mel Odemar. The new Board will have its first meeting on July 16th.  We will be discussing the FY 2009-2010 budget. All members are welcome to attend board meetings.

Looking back over last year, the Granite Bay Flycasters was a very active club.  Just glancing at the website and a few of my notes, we did the following activities: 

·        Education:  we completed 36 sessions dealing with educating our members in the various aspects of the art of fly fishing. 

·        Member activities: 11 fly tying jams, Annual Dinner, Annual Picnic, Sagehen Entomology, Swap Meet/Chili Cookoff and 12 general meetings, including six with visiting speakers.

·        Outreach programs: Casting for Recovery, Downstream Fly Fishing Day, Classroom Aquarium Egg Program. 

·       Conservation: 2008 Spawning Survey, Rubicon clean up, Bear River restoration, and Caples Lake rescue.  We will be donating $6,600 to various conservation efforts for our local watersheds, advocating for many state and federal conservation issues, and funding a student fellowship grant of $2,000.

WOW! What a club! If you were unable to help out last year, please plan on doing so this year.

We had a great turn out for the Annual Picnic.  Mike Powers, Dan Lovesee, Dave Thompson, Don Van Sant and Tony Hamamoto did their usual great job.  The competition was fierce, but we all managed to survive.  The barbeque by Tony and Don was excellent.  An extra “Thanks” to Tony for donating the Tri Tip. I am looking forward to next year’s picnic.

Karl Wolff has volunteered to take on the position of Fishmaster.  If you want to lead or have an idea for a fishout, please contact Karl at Karl.wolff@sbcglobal.net. We are always looking for new lakes and streams to fish.

Jim Holmes will be helping out Ron Hayashi on getting speakers for our general meeting programs.  We have set every other meeting for an outside speaker.  The other meetings will be two membership meetings and the Christmas pot luck.  That gives us three more meetings to come up with something entertaining. Do you have a presentation you would like to do?  It could be an outing or an educational program.  Contact Ron or Jim, anadromy@surewest.net or jwholmesjr@aol.com respectfully. 

Mike Howes

President

Granite Bay Flycasters

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