Northwoods Muskies Inc. Chapter 61 Holiday Newsletter
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our members and friends. We hope this finds you in good health and spirits! Here’s the latest news from Chapter 61, Northwoods Muskies Inc.
Christmas Banquet
After feedback from our first Christmas Banquet we decided to move our date back a little this year to avoid conflicts with your busy holiday schedules. We will again be meeting at the Whitetail Inn in St. Germain and our keynote speaker will be Musky Hunter managing editor Steve Heiting. Please visit our website www.northwoodsmuskies.com for details. Mark your calendar now and make plans to bring a group to this fun event. The fun starts at 6:00 PM.
Chapter Fish Contest
As we wrap up the year I think it’s safe to say that the annual contest is just about finalized. Here are some of the stats as reported by chapter secretary John Bennett. Our big fish of the year was a giant 54” caught by Pete Olson. Mens Division leader is John Bennett with 13 fish reported for a total of 157 points. Michael Biever was hot on his tail also with 13 fish and a total of 141 points. Women’s Division was topped by Carole Janik reporting 3 fish with 45 points. Men’s Master division is no surprise with Pete Olson’s 18 fish and 177 points. Congratulations to everyone who reported their fish catches.
Fish Stocking News
As you know, one of the major goals of the Northwoods Chapter is to help improve the fishery in our area. This has not been as easy as we had hoped and a lot of “behind the scenes” work has been going on in order to put together a comprehensive plan toward this goal. Our stocking committee director Dean Zaumseil has been diligently active in making contacts with all the right people on the state side of things to address the status of the northwoods musky fishery. In September the board and stocking committee were able to get together for an informal discussion with state DNR officials to express our concerns and ask for assistance to help direct the future of our musky waters. This was a very positive step and plans are in place to further these discussions and develop a plan of action. We are very pleased to report that this fall the DNR chose to stock 1 musky per acre into Lake Minocqua. The lake had not received any musky stocking in the previous 10 years. While we do not claim credit for this “change of policy” we believe that our discussion was at least taken into consideration when the decision was made to address the low numbers in the lake system. We are actively keeping a dialogue going with the state and hope that we will soon have more concrete steps and direction to report.
Membership Concerns
We have had some question from members concerning the status of their membership. If you have been a member for over a year (or past your renewal period for multi-year members) and have NOT received a renewal notice from the Muskies Inc. national office please contact Pete Stoltman. We will look into this and make sure things are corrected as needed. Pete can be best contacted by email at pjsdrum@gmail.com or by phone at (715) 614-4142.
2015 Schedule and Events
After our first full year in operation the board has been working on ways to improve our schedule of membership activities. We are currently working on tweaking the schedule and member events to make this chapter work most effectively for its members. More details will be available at the Christmas banquet and on the website and Facebook page as they become available. As always, members comments and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged.
