Reel News. The President s Pen by Julie Lane

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1 Reel News JULY/AUGUST 2015 The President s Pen by Julie Lane UPCOMING EVENTS September 12, 2015 Moonshine Madness, Osakis MN September 24th-26th Fall Trip, Head of the Lakes Resort December 2015 Annual Board of Directors Election January, 2016 TBD Board of Directors Meeting June 3rd, 2016 Annual Meeting Osakis, MN June 4th, th Annual Fishing Tournament Lake Osakis, Osakis, MN Mission Statement Provides opportunities for women and children to participate in the sport of fishing, improve their fishing skills and to fish for a variety of species. WAM provides opportunities for the friendly exchange of ideas and techniques To educate women and children about the sport of fishing and interacting with the natural environment To support charitable and non profit organizations dedicated to the environment and women and children s causes To promote full adherence of existing conservation, boating and fishing regulations. To promote responsible fishing practices 2015 Tournament: Once again our organization owes our Vice President, Kristen Merwin a huge thank you for all the hard work and time she put into the success of the 2015 tournament. There are countless hours of work and organization that go into an event such as this and Kristen does it with ease. A special thank you also to the board members that volunteered their time and efforts for this event and ever event that they plan each year. Our club can carry out our mission each year by giving away rods and reels because we raise the money at this tournament. We also must remember to patronize those wonderful sponsors that give to this event. Without their help, our tournament fees would be much higher. Woman Lake Lodge we thank you for your hospitality and help. You catered to our every need. Another year has come and gone but it was certainly a great one and another success in the belt of our club. Chuck Shaw Award: Women Anglers of Minnesota has created a new Chuck Shaw Award in honor of our fearless leader and confidant for so many years. This was the first time in 38 years that Chuck was unable to be at the tournament due to health reasons. He and his wife Diane were certainly missed. Starting in 2016, WAM will recognize any and all club members that volunteer time to teach women or children to fish. We will recognize these ladies at the annual meeting at tournament time. Chuck is and always was all about teaching the wonderful sport of angling. Many of our members teach and hold fishing events within their own communities. WAM and Chuck want to make sure they are recognized for this effort. Thanks Chuck and Diane for a great suggestion and idea. We can t wait to see how many wonderful members we see come forward next spring to be awarded for their efforts. Farewell: As many of you know this will be my last newsletter as President. I stepped down as President at the annual meeting at the tournament. Mary Walsh was voted in as President until the next elections. I have enjoyed being both Vice President and President very much and hold this club very near and dear to my heart. I have some life changing events happening in my life right now and need to focus on these. I am not going any place and plan to still be involved. I may even consider being on the board next year if needed. The club is in very good hands with this board and Mary has been a member forever. She is very capable of handling anything that may come up or need attention. I thank everyone for your support over the years. I have enjoyed serving Women Anglers of Minnesota.

The wind was blowing from the east and the kids kept coming to try and catch fish. There were 17 catch and release fish with ever category of species filled.

2 PAGE 2 Buffalo Days Children s Fishing Event by Deb Samuelson Buffalo Days was held on Saturday, June 20th. The morning began with picking up my neighbor Jan Persian who assisted on minnow races and Rae Lee Johnson and I working on the docks handing out rods and reels and baiting hooks. The wind was blowing from the east and the kids kept coming to try and catch fish. There were 17 catch and release fish with ever category of species filled. Each kid received a rod and reel with a cup as a prize. Emma S. was first place sunfish with two fish. One 7 inches and one 6 inches in length. Everyone had a great time and I was glad for the sun to shine as the day progressed. The rods and reels our club gives out for various organizations for children is a very successful one. The children are the main incentive to carry out the way to fish and love the great outdoors. Anyone doing children events, please send pictures and write a brief letter on the activity that occurred. You can send them to firewater338@aol.com Gold Sponsor 2015 Diamond Level Sponsor Moonshine Madness Event by Kristen Merwin Interested in spending a day with fellow WAM members making the day of children? Then this is the event for you! Women Anglers of Minnesota will have a both at the Moonshine Madness Festival in Osakis, Minnesota on Saturday, September 12th. This festival is all about interacting with the children of the community through rod and reel donations as well as advertising our club to the area. We will be in on Lake Osakis for the next two years and it is a great way to introduce WAM to the community as it has been 7 years since we have been there. If you are interested in joining us, please reach out to Kristen Merwin at kristen.merwin@sirva.com

3 PAGE 3 Introducing Mary Walsh Interim Club President Hi Everyone! My name is Mary Walsh. Many of you know me but I d like to give you a little information about myself. I joined WAM back in 1982 after meeting fun and energetic members at a fishing seminar in Mankato. I used to come to membership meetings with my kids in car seats back then! I served on the boar in the 1980 s. My family moved up to Northern, Minnesota in 1989 and I ve remained an active member since. I have five grown children and five grandchildren. My three daughters have been fishing the tournament with me for the past fifteen years. Tournament week is an exciting week that I look forward to ever year! It is fun to connect with my family and my WAM family. I am excited to fill in as you WAM President for the remainder of the year! While I enjoy serving on the board, I encourage others to think about this position before the election ballots are mailed in November. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to call or me. Same goes for fishing! I d love to go out in the boat with you all! Happy Fishing! Mary Walsh 2015 Diamond Level Sponsor Do You Want to Get Involved More in WAM? By Kristen Merwin We are seeking members to join the Board of Directors. We have many positions that you can fill and would welcome new blood to the board. Many of us have been on the board for years (some decades) and we would love to pass the torch to new people with new ideas! Please send an to president@womenanglersmn.co m with the board position you would be interested in running for, I promise you none of us would feel bad or think you are running because you don t think we are doing a good job, we want new ideas and new leaders to keep our club new and fresh. The Board Positions are: President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Trips Director Social Director Historian Newsletter Director Publicity Director Membership Director Fundraising Director Please think about running for a position this club is important to all of us and we want it to keep evolving. Ask any questions that you would like, but if you want to meet more people and become really engrained in our club serving on the board is one of the best ways to do so, I have met life long friends from my time as a board member!

4 PAGE Annual Member Meeting Notes by Emily Schnick The Annual Membership Meeting was held on Friday, June 5th at Northern Lights Casino. The following items were discussed: WAM will be creating a new award in honor of Chuck Shaw. The award will be presented each year to those members who are active in teaching the sport of angling to women and children. The members proposed and passed a change in the annual tournament start time. The new start time for the 2016 tournament will be 6:30 a.m. with a finish time of 3:00 p.m. WAM will have donated 300 rods and reels in 2015 Julie Lane stepped down as President, Mary Walsh was voted in as interim President Fall Trip Head of the Lakes Resort by Evonne Vaplon & Jean Beisner If you haven t signed up, there is still plenty of room and we would love to have you join us. Just give us your name and your deposit and you are in! Members only for this one please. Deadline is September 8th so don t delay if you would like to go. The date of the trip is September 25th-27th on Lake Osakis. We will be having a guest speaker, Scott Merwin from Lake Osakis Guide Service to teach us how and where to catch the fish on the lake. The walleye fishing on Lake Osakis is typically very good and Scott will be helping us get on some big fish. You won t want to miss this opportunity to learn about our tournament lake for the next two years! Please send deposits to: Evonne Vaplon 220 6th Avenue West West Fargo, ND If you would like to put your deposit on your credit card you can call Evonne at Cost of the Trip is $45 pp per night, total $90 for the weekend! Tournament Thank You s By Kristen Merwin Every year I try to remember all of the people that make tournament week happen, and I am sure every year I forget people, not because of what was contributed isn t appreciated but more because I turned 40 this year and seem to forget a lot of things! I won t list names here for fear I may leave someone out, but you know who you are and what you do for this club. Without you WAM does not go on. From the bottom of my heart, I thank everyone who volunteers their time to make this an amazing experience happen every year and I encourage our other members and especially our new members to get involved, you will make friendships like I have that will last a lifetime. I have found the kindest most caring people through WAM. Run for a board position this year! Interested? President@womenanglersmn.com if you would consider running for one of our board positions this year!

5 PAGE Fishing Tournament Winners SID 38th Annual Women Anglers of Minnesota Fishing Tournament Winners Congratulations to the 2015 Tournament Winners! It was a trying day that brought wind and rain, but our members toughed it out and brought in some great fish. The elusive Walleye again won the tournament this year. Bethany Stepanek brought in this beauty to win the Grand Prize of $2,000! 2015 Diamond Level WAM Slam Winner Kristen Merwin Sponsor

6 PAGE Fishing Tournament Winners (cont.) Bass Category 1st: Michelle Rittenour 2nd: Deb Campbell 3rd: Carlie Carow SIDEBAR TI- TLE Crappie Category 1st: Deb Campbell 2nd: Julie Lane 3rd: Julie Stace Multi-Species 1st: Deb Campbell 2nd: Julie Stace 3rd: Mary Walsh

7 PAGE Fishing Tournament Winners (cont.) Northern Category 1st: Sherry Pearson 2nd: Julie Lane 3rd: Julie Stace SIDEBAR TI- Sunfish Category 1st: Stefanie Walsh 2nd: Mary Walsh 3rd: Kristen Merwin Walleye Category 1st: Dawn Erie 2nd: Kristen Merwin 3rd: Jean Beisner

8 PAGE Fishing Tournament Winners (cont.) Perch Category 1st: Karen Calvin 2nd: Trisha Neilson 3rd: Janey Erickson SIDEBAR TI- TLE New Members Fishing Their First WAM Tournament!

9 PAGE Fishing Tournament Photo s SIDEBAR TITLE

10 WOMEN ANGLERS OF MINNESOTA 6630 Meadowlark Lane Maple Grove, Minnesota and 2017 Tournament Lake Announced By Kristen Merwin We are excited to announce that we will be on Lake Osakis for the 2016 and 2017 annual tournament. Lake Osakis is an amazing fishery that holds a strong population of walleye, northern, bass and huge crappies and sunfish! Our headquarters will be out of Head of the Lakes Resort. The cabins there are full for tournament week, but the offer RV sites and tent camping which makes accommodations for tournament time extremely affordable. We are currently working with the resorts on the lake to provide accommodations and allow for a Saturday night stay as the resorts on the lake usually turnover on Saturdays for their new guests coming Saturday afternoon. We almost have our completed list of participating resorts and will provide that information in the year-end newsletter as well as post on Facebook. There will be plenty of accommodations for everyone so do not worry there are several resorts on this lake! Osakis is located about 11 miles east of Alexandria, MN and is about a 2 hour drive from the Twin Cities. Looking forward to another great tournament in Osakis start making your plans now you won t want to miss it. Tournament is June 4th with the membership/tournament meeting on June 3rd.

Reel News July. The President s Pen

Reel News July. The President s Pen Reel News July 2018 Upcoming Events Jul. 28: Kayaking the Big Fork River Aug. 4: Family Fun Day Aug.11: Dinner Cruise on Lake Minnetonka Aug. 25: North Region Kick-Off Meeting Sept. 15: Annual Fundraiser