THE HOOK. Coming Up: MARCH 2014 FROM THE PRESIDENTS COMPUTER

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1 GRAND STRAND SALTWATER ANGLERS ASSOCIATION THE HOOK Banning Lead Sinkers This article is not to scare you into thinking that lead sinkers used for fishing are banned or will be banned, but to simply inform what probably is coming in the future to the recreational fishing industry. Two things you might find surprising: First, lead fishing weights have a long history--the Egyptians used lead net sinkers 5,000-7,000 years ago. Second, perhaps the greatest danger posed by lead fishing tackle is neither to fish nor humans but to birds and waterfowl according to recent studies. Coming Up: FROM THE PRESIDENTS COMPUTER Lead in the water environment has been studied for some time dating all the way back to the late 1800 s and continued through the next century. This eventually prompted the Federal ban on the use of lead shot in hunting in It has only been in the last years that studies have been done concerning waterfowl deaths and the connection to lead in lead sinkers and jig heads in fishing tackle however. In New England lead poisoning from lead weights and jigs account for 50% of all loon adult deaths. In New Hampshire 64% of waterfowl deaths were blamed on lead ingestion. Same goes for Maine at 44%. The list goes on and on. This MARCH 2014 stems from the birds' habit of eating smaller sinkers (especially the "splitshot" type) to use as grit in their gizzards, where they pulverize hard-to-digest items such as seeds. As the sinkers are ground along with sand and rocks, the lead is released into their bodies in concentrated form, leading to debilitation and death. It's estimated that perhaps 2% of all waterfowl die per year as a result of ingesting lead shot and other lead objects. Many varieties of geese, ducks, and cranes as well as non-waterfowl such as the mourning dove and others have been studied and shown to have suffered from lead poisoning due to fishing sinkers as well. Cont on pg 3... SPONSORS Lakewood Camping Resort Don Perry Comfort Concepts Heating and Cooling Will Spillars Bonefish Grill 8703 N 17 Bypass Shane Wright Quality Pools and Quality Landscaping Bill Seay nd Avenue Pier Teak Collins INSIDE THIS ISSUE: CALENDAR AND AN- NOUNCEMENTTS 2 RECIPE OF THE MONTH 2 FISHING REPORT 3 CLUB PICS & SUCH 3 LEADERBOARD 4 EDITORS NOTE/ GAMES 5

2 PAGE 2 Club Officers President Chick McDaniels Vice President Kenny Moore Treasurer Anne Seay Secretary Jen Seay DID YOU KNOW: MONTHLY PLANNER March April 13th Club Meeting, covered dish, speaker men s kp *Club Auction 10th Club Meeting, covered dish, speaker women s kp 25th Captains Mtg 26th Flounder Tourney May THE HOOK 8th Club Meeting, speaker, covered dish, men s kp CLUB AUCTION! Come one, come all and bring your unwanted items to the meeting to auction off. We take any items they do not have to deal with fishing! If you have an amount you d like to get for it, we can do that! See you there! IF YOU HOOK JELL-O UP TO AN EEG MACHINE IT REGISTERS A REDING SIMILAR TO THAT OF AN ADULT BRAIN. Past President Dave Williams Members at Large Ed Skowysz Bill Cash Kevin Seay Editor Jen Seay Jseay@horrycounty schools.net Good and Welfare Tammy Sayre Darla Williams RECIPE OF THE MONTH: BANANA CAKE WITH PEANUT BUTTA ICING 1/2 cup butter, softened 1-1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 medium) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup 2% milk FROSTING: 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter 1/3 cup 2% milk 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 cups confectioners' sugar Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Transfer to a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Bake minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. For frosting, in a small bowl, beat peanut butter, milk and vanilla until blended; gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread over cake. Yield: servings.

3 Little River Cherry Grove Pier reports that there has been very little fishing with the weather, but before that a few whiting, silver perch and small croaker were being caught. Grand Strand (unchanged from Feb. 13) Inshore: Perry s Bait and Tackle in Murrell s Inlet reports that before the hard freeze trout and redfish were both feeding pretty well around the jetties and inside the Inlet. Both live bait and artificial shrimp were catching fish, but the cold weather seems to have slowed things down. Some sheepshead are also around at the jetties and a few juvenile flounder are still being caught inshore. Report taken from local guides, Sun News, fintalk.com and word of mouth Quote of the Month: If you would like to volunteer, or would like more info about volunteering, to work with a committee, please contact Chick or Jen. Where have lead sinkers been banned? Great Britain banned lead sinkers in In Canada, it is illegal to use lead sinkers and jigs in national parks. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering banning the use of lead sinkers and jigs on national wildlife refuges where loons and Trumpeter swans breed. Lead sinker use is banned in three national refuges and Yellowstone National Park in the United States. In 2000, New Hampshire was the first state to ban lead sinkers and jigs to protect common loons and other diving birds. As of 2007, the following other states have regulations regarding lead fishing tackle: Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. Many other states across the nation are also considering banning the sale or use of lead fishing products. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has banned the use of lead sinkers and jigs on National Wildlife Refuges. Most U.S. bans affect only the sale of new fishing sinkers, not the use of existing ones. In the last few decades, we have made significant progress in reducing lead releases to the environment by restricting uses in paint, gasoline, pesticides and other products, promoting battery recycling, and prohibiting the use of lead shot in waterfowl hunting. With your help we can take another step on getting lead out of the environment. Waterfowl, and other wildlife, and ourselves will be the better for it. What to do about it... Stop using tackle made from lead. As we have proven in the past, lead poisoning is preventable. Recently, terminal tackle manufacturers are experimenting with high density composite resins. These materials present a nontoxic alternative to lead sinkers at a lower monetary cost than alternative metallic sinkers. Buy Lead-Free Tackle. Patronize retailers that stock the best assortment of lead-free tackle. Ask retailers to stock lead-free replacements for all weighted tackle products. We are responsible for our environment. We need to protect ourselves as well as the wildlife around us. As you can see, the laws regarding lead in fishing tackle are slowly heading your way so do your part to help the environment first. Your President. CHICK If any information has changed or you would like to know more about what you can do in the club to get more involved please contact Jen Seay at or through at jseay@horrycountyschools.net. Barter Box For Sale Or Trade: FOR SALE: Rock-Ola 443 Juke Box For info please call Bill Pierson THIS MONTH IS THE AUCTION BRING ITEMS TO AUCTION OFF! Got items? jseay@horrycountyschools.net with the item, price and contact info. Pics would be great too! Thanks!

4 Leaderboard 2014 We are currently looking for someone to take over the Leaderboard committee. It includes: keeping up with the Leaderboard and bringing it to meetings, letting the newsletter editor know of all new catches, and making sure that the fish and fisherperson make it on the leaderboard! Until we fill this position, please send all catches, photos, weight, length, date caught and witness to Jen Seay at or give the info to Jen at the meeting. Make sure you hand her a note! Do not tell her in passing, her memory is not that good! :) Thanks, and we look forward to seeing all your awesome catches out there, once we get out from this layer of ice! Congrats to our Angler of the Year: Dave Williams, and all our Leaderboard Winners, pictured above, from left to right: Tammy Sayre, Anne Seay, Bill Cash, Kevin Seay, Darla Williams, Dave Williams, Bill Sayre, and Ed Skowysz

5 GRAND STRAND SALTWATER ANGLERS ASSOCIATION PO BOX 15663, Surfside Beach, SC G RANDSTRAND SAL TWATERANGLE RS. ORG FISH ON!!! #specialedit Despite our wacky weather and tourist trap location and traffic issues and whatever else we might gripe about from time to time South Carolina is so awesome! Great weather most of the time, pretty beaches, access to some great fishing we are really blessed! While researching items for the newsletter I stumbled upon this website that lists fun facts about all 50 states and just saying I refreshed my memory on some things I had forgotten about and found out some super cool things about my state that I didn't know! For example, did you know that South Carolina is the nation's leading peach producer and shipper east of the Mississippi River? Take that Georgia! Or, Before being known as the Palmetto State, South Carolina was known as, and had emblazoned on their license plates, the Iodine State. For more: the walls of the American fort on Sullivan Island, in Charleston Harbor, were made of spongy Palmetto logs. This was helpful in protecting the fort because the British cannonballs bounced off the logs. The Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame features champion thoroughbred Flounder Tournament 2014 INFO AND HOW YOU CAN HELP! The Flounder Tournament is the clubs biggest event of the year. The money we raise during the event goes to our Reef Fund Projects and to our Scholarship Fund for CCU Over 200 Anglers participate in our Tournament, and it is one of the largest events out of MI all year You can help by getting on the committee to help raise funds Any restaurant you visit, store you patron, friends you have that may have a business ask them if they d like to be a sponsor! They get advertising to a very large group of people, and get to take part in the saving and rebuilding of our reefs win/ win! Places can be a monetary sponsor or item sponsor, there s a way for everyone to get involved! We also need help procuring items for the Captains Meeting and the day of the Tournament, so if you re not planning on fishing the tournament get with Bill Cash and he ll get you plugged in somewhere to help! Many hands make light work! and steeplechase horses trained in Aiken. The Black River Swamp Preserve is located near Andrews. This slow-moving river is characterized by high concentrations of organic carbon, which accounts for the tea-colored water and gives rise to the diverse habitats in its widespread floodplain. Chapin is known as the Capital of Lake Murray. Sumter has the largest Gingko farm in the world. Stretching 60 miles from Little River to Georgetown, South Carolina's Grand Strand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. Every few years, Irmo has a sighting of some kind of water monster that inhabits Lake Murray. The monster first 'surfaced' in 1973 when residents of Irmo and Ballentine saw a cousin of the Loch Ness Monster. It was described in The Independent News in 1980 as "a cross between a snake and something prehistoric.. The first boll weevil found in South Carolina is on display at the Pendleton District Agricultural Museum. At the Riverbanks Zoological Park in Columbia more than 2000 animals Thrive in natural habitats with no bars or cages. The Isle of Palms was originally named Hunting Island and then Long Island, it's thought to be at least 25,000 years old, and was first inhabited by the indigenous Seewee Indians. Sweetgrass basket making has been a part of the Mount Pleasant community for more than 300 years. Basket making is a traditional art form that has been passed on from generation to generation. Bomb Island on Lake Murray each spring and summer is the home of a very unusual event. Each year thousands of Purple Martins return to this island to roost for the summer. The island has been declared a bird sanctuary and it is quite a sight to watch these birds return to Bomb Island each day around sunset. And not surprisingly, our state dance is the shag! So get on out there, go fish in our beautiful waters, go shagging, eat a peach and relax in our wonderful, unique state that is 2nd to none in fun! MONTHLY FYI: The salamander was given the honor of official state amphibian.