-INCORPORATED--

P.O. Box 264, Owen Sound, Ontario N4K 5P3

Affiliated with the OFAH-The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters Incorporated

"CONSERVATION IS OUR AIM" Volume 19 No. 5

THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING, REMEMBER THE DATE: THURSDAY MAY 6, 7:30 PM, AT THE CLUB HOUSE, LINCOLN PARK ROAD, IN DERBY TOWNSHIP.

The speaker for the May meeting is from Fletcher Sports on Highway 6 and Ledgerock road. Mr. Fletcher will speak on the care, maintenance and repair of trolling rods and reels. He will explain about parts availability for various reels and how to decide whether it is better to repair or replace that old favorite. Bring in your broken reels and rods and see just what it will take to get them working again.

NEW MEMBERS!!

Mike Hunter, Senior 

Bill Douglas, Family 

Neal Owen, Family 

Scott Grant, Adult 

Charlie Thibideau, Family 

Parker Briggs, Adult 

Mike Prevost, Adult 

Ron Colbourne, Adult 

Bill Colbourne, Adult 

Trevor MacDonald, Adult 

Larry MacDonald, Adult 

Steve Arnold, Adult 

Stewart Edwart, Adult 

James Craig, Adult 

Terry Graham, Adult 

Jason Harnden, Student

NOTES TO REMEMBER!! PLEASE BE SURE GATES ARE LOCKED AT ALL TIMES, CLOSE THEM WHEN YOU COME IN AND WHEN YOU LEAVE!

WORK NIGHTS!!

Work nights will be Every Wednesday Night. Work will start at 5:00 PM or as soon as you can get there. Remember , many hands make light work.

Gord Maher and Dave Arnold Property Committee Co-Chairpersons

Club Supplies

If you would like to purchase a club hat or any crest, see me at the General Meeting. Special: Wrist Watch with S.S.A. Logo on the face, $20.00 while supplies last.

Cliff Springer Club Supplies Chairperson

HELP NEEDED!!

Help is needed for tree planting on Sunday May 9th, 9:00 AM and Saturday May 15th, 8:00 AM. on the Walker property, located one concession west of Jackson, then south for approximately 1 ½ miles, on east side of road. Bring a shovel, pail and a lunch. The more the merrier.

Doug Murdoch

HANDGUN COMMITTEE

Handgun shooting will start May 2,1999, with the nice weather coming early we hope to have a good turn out and a long season.

SSA Handgunners can plan to shoot on Tue nights at 6:30 pm till dark starting May 4,1999 a range officer will be on duty and scores may be recorded for your yearly requirement.

Stewart Wallace will be giving a marksman course and you should contact him at 794 4423 for a time schedule to be arranged for June.

The SSA Handgun Safety Course will start on May 13,1999. To register please show up at the club at 7:00 pm or contact John Galbraith at 369 6276 if you are interested but unable to attend May 13th.

Applications for our ATT's have been sent to the CFO and we should be getting them back early May. Anyone that didn't have an FAC or Firearm license and has received it, contact John so that we can advise the CFO and obtain your ATT as quickly as possible.

Safe Shooting.

John Galbraith, Handgun Chairman

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

In our last newsletter we informed the membership about discussions regarding changes to the way our club operates as to remaining in good standing and payment of dues. Some suggestions have ranged from a discount to those who pay before time, a surcharge for late payment, an initiation fee for new members etc. At the March Directors' meeting an ad hoc committee comprised of Murray Smart and myself will be working on this issue. We have been working on this issue and brainstorming for a while. Our intention is to gain revenue for other sources rather than simply increasing membership fees across the board. As you probably know, our dues are very reasonably priced and do not come near to paying for general operations. We welcome input from the membership and will be making recommendations to the executive at the next director's meeting. How do you feel about having an initiation fee for first time adult members? Certainly, in many clubs with facilities like ours, an extra fee for first time members does occur. A concern about junior and student members has been expressed. The view was that the membership fees for our younger members was much too low and should more readily reflect club costs. How do you feel about the fees for juniors ($10.00) and students ($15.00)? We anticipate that a decision will be made by summer so that the membership can be informed with lots of lead time before the new millennium.

By the time you read this newsletter, nonrenewal letters will have been sent to those from whom we have not received 1999 dues in April. We attempt to politely remind nonrenewed members that we require their 1999 dues in order to keep them in good standing. Please remember to put your 1999 windshield sticker on your vehicle before using club facilities. We are asking all members to check when you are on the property. Only 1999 members should be using ranges etc. Nonmembers are only permitted on the property under the direct supervision of a member.

If you have any thought on these issues, please call me, John Ford at 372-0410 or email me

jford@bmts.com

p s Two important issues which have nothing at all to do with membership have been resolved recently. First, the O F A H directors recently voted to oppose the use of snares for nuisance coyotes in Southern Ontario but have agreed to work with the Agricultural Community to find alternate solutions. Secondly, the O F A H has decided to take the Ontario Government to court to get the Spring Bear Hunt reinstated and more importantly to try to get the right to hunt made a written right rather than a privilege as it presently exists. We anticipate that a court hearing will occur on April 22/99.

John Ford Chairperson Membership Committee

WILDLIFE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The OFAH has launched a very important court proceeding. Along with the outright challenge to the Spring Bear hunt ban, the Federation will attempt to establish that Hunting and Fishing are part of our heritage and are therefore RIGHTS, not just privileges. This has tremendous, long term implications, considering the various "Anti" groups in both the Governmental and private sectors, that are out to deprive us of our highly valued, much loved sports. The process will be long and very expensive. It will likely go all the way to the Supreme Court. So the OFAH deserves all the support we can muster. 

Our efforts to expand the early goose season have been heard by the Canadian Wildlife service (CWS). We requested that the early season be extended by a week and that the second season start at the same time as regular Waterfowl season (Sept 25) instead of October 15. We further suggested that these extra days could be compensated for by eliminating the utterly ridiculous January and February seasons.

The problem is that the CWS feels that the endangered James Bay Canada Goose population is vulnerable in Grey and Bruce, in late September and early October. Most local hunters feel that we would shoot mostly locally bred Giant Canadas during this period and that the kill of "Northern" Geese would be quite insignificant. We certainly feel that this requested extension, would give us a lot more hunting, without harm to any particular goose population. Now proving this to the CWS, is another thing. We are working towards a reasonable method of getting some data, to show one way or the other. OFAH Director, Dr. Dave Ankney is being most helpful, by supplying expert information and by dealing directly with his contacts in the CWS and MNR. One thing for sure, we have been told that the 1999 seasons are set and that we can't expect any changes this year. So, we keep trying and see what happens.

Indian commercial fishing has certainly caused a great deal of concern with its expansion of activity into the Meaford area. The one and only non-Indian commercial fisherman lost his Whitefish/Lake Trout quota because the Indians had taken all of the allowable catch, and most significantly to us, the East Grey Anglers and Hunters canceled their Spring Lake Trout Derby because of the Indian catch and this is going to affect all of us for some time to come. Quota Management Area 5 - 8, i.e. roughly from Thornbury to Wiarton, has had a big hit. Some people took all the allowable catch of Lake Trout and Whitefish and now there won't be any for the rest of us. Hardly what could be termed "Fair Sharing". At any rate, we petitioned the OFAH to write the Minister, asking him to make resources available to expedite a solution to this problem, and they agreed.

The Grey Bruce Conservation Coalition will have met with Lake Huron MNR staff for an update on the situation by the time you get this newsletter. We hope that we will have some up-to-date information for you at our May 6th General Meeting.

In closing, remember that Doug Murdoch needs HELP to plant a couple thousand trees and shrubs on the Walker property on May 9th and May 16th. We'll see you there.

Blake Smith, Chairperson Wildlife Advisory Committee

SHOTGUN SPORTS

Please note the following cancellation/reschedules of two dates on your Season Shooting Schedule For Sporting Clays:

Sunday May 30th 1:00 PM CANCELED

Sunday May 24th 1:00 PM NEW DATE FOR SPORTING CLAYS

Tuesday June 22nd 5:00 PM CANCELED

Sunday June 20th 1:00 PM NEW DATE FOR SPORTING CLAYS

Also note that June 12th is our 100 Bird Shoot and the Club Beef Bar-B-Que. We will only be able to shoot squads (16 persons) that day. Register Early The First 16 get to shoot. Call Bill Beamish at 794 3317 to register.

Watch for our New "Driven Pheasant Station", shortly to appear on the course in May.

Bill Beamish, Chairperson Shotgun Sports Committee

FISH ADVISORY COMMITTEE

SSA FISHERIES REPORT

The Sydenham River water temperature, as I write this fisheries

report on April 13, is 8 degrees C. With these more favourable

water temperatures I'm sure our hatchery manager, Coy Currie,

will be organizing stocking crews to release our 50,000 year

plus rainbows and our 15,000 year plus skamania.

Two volunteer SSA crews per day have been operating the Mill Dam

fishway since March 31st. The rainbow trout run has been good,

and within three days the SSA were able to collect their 125,000

eggs for the SSA hatchery. The fishway trap has contained

anywhere from one or two spawners up to a high of seventy six in

a half day sample. The SSA volunteer crews are also sampling all

fish passing through the fishway, taking length, weight, fin

clips, lamprey marks, sex, type, and condition of each fish.

These findings will be passed on to the MNR at a later date.

If you have looked into the SSA hatchery grounds, you will have

noticed several large tanks laying outside of the buildings.

These were recently purchases from the old Aqua Fish Farms, and

will shortly be included into some internal hatchery changes

that the FAC will be making to improve both volunteer working

conditions, and fish rearing processes.

Although it's to early for the instream work related to our CFIP

projects, some of the adjacent work on the land, such as tree

planting, and fencing projects have begun. John Bittorf has

already started a fencing project on the Coulter property, and

as you know, many hands make lighter work. If you can find some

time to assist, please give him a call at 371-1109.

The SSA junior program and the FAC will be jointly running the

SSA display at the Owen Sound Home Expo & Outdoor Recreation

Show, April 17-18 at the Harry Lumley Bay Shore Arena. The FAC

will again be running the "Free Willy Skamania" program. If you

don't know what this is about, drop down to the show and check

it out.

Another important Club event is quickly approaching. Pitch-In

this year is on May 8th.. The SSA fisheries committee and SSA's

wildlife committee will be working together to coordinate

this annual and vary publicized event. Once again we'll be

looking for a lot of SSA members to help us out. Please call

Gord Maher at 372-2503 or myself at 376-2369 if you can help us

on Sat. May 8th. from 9:00 a.m. to 12;00 noon, the time for this

years Pitch-In.

Fred Geberdt, Chairperson Fish Advisory Committee

YOUTH ACTIVITIES PROGRAM

The Home Expo was a great success. We made a lot of bird houses and toadhouses. YAP members cut down trees by the house at the front, we took them to the brush piles. We also stocked fish on a Wednesday and Thursday in April. We took the fish down to Harrison Park. We stocked Skamanian and Rainbow trout. A small group planted trees at Junipers.

Upcoming Dates

Pitch-in-Day--May 8

Camp out-- June 25,26,27 ALL SHOOTING RANGES ARE CLOSED!

Kids Fishing Day- -July 24 at Lake Charles boats and captains needed

Jesse Henrich

Youth Activities Program

ARCHERY COMMITTEE

Our first shoot of the year, the Turkey Shoot, was held on April 25th. 47 archers enjoyed the good weather and declared the day a success, despite the number of turkey targets they had to try and shoot.

Winners from SSA were:

Bruce David 2nd Traditional Men

Bowhunter Limited:

Jeff Kirkwood 2nd, Ric Vanstone 3rd

Cub Barebow, Beth Brown 2nd

Mens Barebow: Carl Nuttall 1st, Steve Brown 2nd.

Our next shoot is our Traditional Weekend May 15 and 16.

Bill Thompson, Chairperson Archery Committee

SELL, SWAP, ACQUIRE!!!!

Items for Sale or Trade

Ithica 12 ga. Over and Under, 26" barrels, IC/M, good sporting clays/grouse gun. ($375)

Remington 700 BDL calibre 17 Remington with brass, bullets, dies, funnel, cleaning rod

Leupold base and rings, Redfield LoPro Widefied 3X9X40 scope ($550)

High Standard Supermatic Trophy Model 102, super shooter ($275)

Lee Pro 1000 progressive reloader ($80)

Call Peter Robson 935 2086

Cap for full sized Ford truck

Call Gord Brown 376 0462

If anybody wishes to sell, swap or acquire items please send me a note or e-mail me at wils@bmts.com. I'll put them in the newsletter as space permits.

© 2001, Sydenham Sportsmen's Association
Box 264, Stn. Main, Owen Sound, Ont., N4K 5P3
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