May 2008

Beyond The Waters Edge…

By Bruce A. Kitowski

I still can’t get over last months speaker.  I constantly have his theories and beliefs play back in my mind.  This would be the new Senior Editor for Esox Angler Magazine Rob Kimm.  Rob gave a wonderful seminar on release tactics and strategies.  If I were a betting man I would bet that there were a few ideas that you never thought of.  He has always been straight forward with no BS, and will tell you the way it is.  I would like to thank him for a unique job well done, and you are always welcome to speak. 

On April 19^th Ken Schmitt, Marc Jefferson, Ken Smith, and myself made a trip to Buffalo to the Sunrise Assisted Living Home to do a seminar on Muskies and Muskie Fishing in Minnesota.  With the idea of keeping things simple we arrived at 8:30 A.M.   Ken Smith MC’ed the project, Ken Schmitt spoke on rods and reels, Marc Jefferson spoke on release tactics and I spoke on what else, the lures we use.  The folks were so interested, and  attentative it went off without a hitch.  There was even an older gentleman there that I spoke with that was a member in 1988-89.  The coolest thing was all the stories they had about their own experiences on the water.  After we were done everyone came up to see all our stuff and get a hands on perspective.  I would also like to thank these guys for taking the time out of their busy schedules to make a few people enjoy the morning talking fishing.  (Three days later I got an e-mail from the director that said the residents were still talking about the programs to the nurses and their families; makes one feel kind of warm inside)

April 26^th was supposed to be the Lake Cleanup activities.  Well as you know Mother Nature truly does have a sense of humor.  I spoke to Jim Lillienthal on that Thurs. and he stated the ice would not be off yet.  Plan B:  We now will be cleaning just the landings on Alexander and Shamineau.  Well back on the phone Fri. night to Jim only to find out the amount of ice and snow they had already received would only have been dangerous to make the trip ( hard to see garbage with inches of snow on the ground).  Plan C: Now we will have to wait till we get the chance to get up there and clean.  The job will get done as it has been in the past by our members as they make their trips to the lakes.  This year it seems that Mother Nature has been such a B_ _ _ H!!  Well nothing we can do but move on, and on we will go.  May 3^rd is our Annual Big/Brothers - Big/Sisters outing.  We are all going to have a BLAST.  On the same day Sportsmans Warehouse will be holding festivities at their store.  Ken Smith will be there with his boat sponsoring and answering questions on behalf of our club.  Mike Ruff will also have a booth there after the kids outing on Lake George.

Talk about being busy during April and May, we just don’t seem to slow down.  Thanks to all who have done so much to make sure this organization stays on top.  Till next month,  See You Out There!!!

May Monthly Meeting:  Guest speaker ~ Mike McCullen

June Monthly Meeting:  Boat show at Sportsman's Warehouse

July Monthly Meeting:  Guest speaker ~ Michael Paulson of Rock River Custom Lures

Topic:  topwater and night fishing in the fall

September Monthly Meeting:  Guest speaker ~ Keith Terlinden, Pro Edge Custom Rods

November Monthly Meeting:  Guest speaker ~ Eric Altena, Area Fisheries Supervisor

December Monthly Meeting:  Election of officers, pass a Christmas lure wrapped, lure swap, member round table discussion on the happenings of the past year, free drink tickets and snack trays

January Monthly Meeting:  Guest speaker ~ Greg Thomas

TREASURER”S REPORT

By Jim Romanowsky

This has been an interesting month. Thanks to all who worked at the Angler’s Dinner. We’ll have to wait until we get the bill from the American Legion, and tally the results of the tip boards, added to what we made from ticket sales, donations, and silent auctions, before we can report what we actually made. Hope we’ll be able to make good use of the money in the coming year.

I got an e-mail from a friend , showing a five dollar bill, with “good for one gallon of gas” printed on it. Not much an overstatement, is it? As it gets more expensive to travel, I think we need to keep up the pressure to get lakes and rivers near St. Cloud stocked with muskies. The stretch of the Mississippi between the Sartell dam and the 10^th Street dam in St. Cloud could be a great fishery if enough muskies were stocked in there, so that on a given day, the odds of catching, or at least seeing a few were good. Think of how nice it would be to trailer your boat for five minutes, instead of an hour or more, to get in a few hours of muskie fishing. As far as getting lakes stocked goes, I wonder if we need to emphasize the opportunity a stocking program represents, rather than constantly being on the defensive, trying to convince people of what it’s not. Maybe more people would get on board if we promoted the environmental benefits of saving gas, having a club that helps out with lake and landing clean-ups, and having anglers interested in buying tackle, and renting cabins.

By the time this is printed, we will have had our Kids’ Fishing Day again at Lake George. This is always a special event. What better way to usher in the new fishing season than to share it with another generation.

I just returned from a trip to Indiana, to visit my dad and sister. It was really special to once again catch some bluegills and a channel catfish with my dad, who taught me to fish so many years ago. That’s the great thing about an activity like fishing, that you can take part in throughout your life, and always keep learning as you go.

Good luck on the fishing opener. 

We’re proud to announce our 2008 Fall Get Together September 11th, to September 14th

Back by request, it will be held at Cass Lake, with Cass Lake Lodge being our host.

Cass Lake Lodge  218-335-6658

Accommodations on your own.

I spoke to the resort owners for camping and cabin prices. They are as follows:

Tent Camping                                     $25.00 per night

Camping with full hook ups               $36.00 per night

Cabins                                                 $35.00 per night per person

Boat Slips in the Harbor                     $7.50 per night

Camp sites are in limited supply so reservations should be made early, as these will be rented on a first come basis.  Also if you want a boat slip be sure to reserve one at the time of making the other reservations.  When making reservations tell the owners you are with the Muskies Inc group, so the can keep our members together as much as possible. We will start a sign-up sheet at our Boat Show meeting in June at Sportsman’s Warehouse.

Partners:  People should find their own fishing and camping partners.  This should make planning easier as who is or isn’t bringing boats etc.  We will try and pair up people without partners.

Misc.:  Last year we charged a fee/ head and provided an evening meal and gave away attendance prizes. We will do this again also.  This is a great area to fish. There are options such as Little Wolf and Big Lake if the wind gets to out of hand for Cass, or for folks with smaller boats.

Come join us for a great fishing weekend.

If you have any questions, feel free to get a hold of me.

Dave Mendel

Outing Chairman

Muskies Inc. Board Meeting

Ken Schmitt, Vice President

I attended the International Board meeting on April 5^th in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  It was a very nice trip, had my lovely bride Norine with me and made several stops on the way.  The first stop was in Park Falls, WI, home of St Croix Rods.  We were treated to a private tour of the rod manufacturing plant.  It was great being able to see them take raw graphite, cut and form it into rods and then follow the rod through the building process to completion.  Stop number two was the highlight of the trip for me.  We stopped at the famous Lambeau field were I had my picture taken in front of one of the gates with my Vikings jersey on.

The main board meeting consisted of the normal committee reports, passing of the gavel from David Cates to our new president, Dan Narsete, and voting on the four motions presented.  Here is a summary of the motions and voting.  First was the acceptance of the newest chapter, #57 NW Tiger Pac from the state of Washington.  Second was removing the first year probation for chapter #44 Title Town (Green Bay).  Third and main motion was the passing of the structural reorganization of Muskies Inc.  The fourth motion passed was to set aside $2000 a year from the general fund to use towards the next symposium to be held in the year 2016.

Highlights of the reorganization structure consist of the following.  The chapters will be put into four regional groups of which three voting members would attend the International Board meeting.  Muskies Inc. would hire an Executive Director and secretary to handle all day-to-day operations.  The executive committee will now consist of nine voting members. The board meetings will be dropped from two to one each year.

With this reorganization I foresee many good things coming in the future.

Fish Dinner Fund Raiser

Ken Schmitt, Fish Dinner Chair

I want to send a big thank you out to all of you who helped put on another great fund raiser.  Without all the help from these great volunteers (we can always use more) we would never be able to make these fund raisers a success!  We had a great turn out again serving over 300 people (we fried over 320 pounds of fish).

It was a very trying day for me, caught up at work and not being able to get there until late that afternoon, but the set-up crew did a wonderful job making sure everything got done and was ready in time.  So a special thank you goes out to the following set up crew: Bruce Kitowski, Mike Ruff, Dave Mendel, Denny Koviela, Royce Nies, Eric Kohn, Ken Smith, Marc Jefferson, Bob Kmitch, Scott Peters, Charlie Meyers, Travis Nelson and of course Gene Bzdock. As always Ken Smith did a fantastic job being our MC and entertaining everyone.

We are waiting for some of the invoices to come in and will be holding a wrap-up meeting so we know how we did when it is done and over - will update you next month.

From the Secretaries Desk

By Ken Smith

Well, my old computer finally bit the dust. Do go looking for the Easter Bunny at NORAD like you do Santa. The site is nothing but a virus and it shut my old machine down.

So to catch you up on the month lure drawings, the member name called for March was Kelly Caspers and April was Jason W. Keeton. Neither was at the meeting so the drawing in May will be for three lures.

May guest speaker will be Mike McCullen from Fudally Tackle Company. A must see seminar if you can make it.

So by now the big Anglers Dinner is done, Big Brothers Big Sisters outing has been completed, so what’s next? Walleye opener anybody? Or are wee all going to be Crappie fishing yet? Wonder when the ice will be off the lakes.

April 26^th was the scheduled lake cleanup. I don’t think the ice was off yet so they were just going to hit up the accesses. But, that was the day of the big snow fall. Wonder if they made it up there. I was at a Webelos Training north of Merrifield. We got about 8” that day. Some toughed it out and pitched their tents. I slept in the back of my truck, but all in all, we had a great time.

So, here’s to a warmer spring, lots of crappies and getting the yard work done before the Muskie opener.

See ya on the lake when the ice goes out, Smitty.