CONNESTEE FALLS FISHING CLUB
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2010 Fish Fry tickets going
on sale
Tickets for the July 19 Fish Fry, the Club's biggest event of the year, will be
on sale in the Clubhouse Lobby June 29 and 30 from 10 a.m. to noon and on July 1
at the Thursday Night Social from 5 to 7 p.m. The Ticket Sales Chair this year
is Bob Farrand.
Pete Pepinsky and Dave Collins, co-chairmen of the Fry, say
they again expect a sell-out.
Tickets are $10, the same price for several years now, and
include a catfish dinner with all the trimmings and an open bar for beer and
soft drinks.
The Fish Fry attracts 350 members and guests. It is held rain
or shine each July at Atagahi Park and features a raffle overflowing with prizes
in addition to the food and drink. Ticket prices have remained low over the
years because the entire event is put on by Club and Maintenance Department
volunteers.
Fish-A-Rama winners
The Club's annual Fish-A-Rama June 19 set records. We had no fewer than 54
children registered and they caught 92 fish!
"It was a super day," said Frank Wolf, who ran the event with his
wife, Marian. "Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger."
Most of the fish caught were bluegills, with a few small
largemouth bass also landed.
The winners:
Ages 1 - 6
Grace Meyers,
6, Most Fish (5)
Olivia
Lasarsky, 6, Biggest Fish (10 1/2")
Ages 7 - 9
Coleman
Allen, 8, Most (5)
Mason Rametta,
8, Biggest (11")
Ages 10 - 12
Mack
Westbrook, 10, Most (9)
Jordan
Torres, 11, Biggest (11 3/4")
Ages 13 up
Chris Powell,
15, Most (6)
Nikki Green,
15, Biggest (10")
The weather was fine and with all the kids' parents and
grandparents and aunts and uncles included, the total crowd grew to more than
150. Club volunteers prepared a lunch of catch-of-the-day and more than 140 hot
dogs.
The Fish-A-Rama is open to all residents and is free.
FISH-A-RAMA
Click on a picture for a larger view
Trout stocking
The Club held its third stocking of the year April 6, putting in 870 pounds of
rainbow trout and a few large German brown trout. The fish ran from 12 to 16
inches.
As part of the stocking, Club volunteers from its Fishery
Management Committee helped tag about 30 fish with orange tags as part of the
Trout Contest that is continuing throughout the year. As usual, the fish were
distributed among the four lakes proportionally, based on the size of each lake.
The cost of this most recent stocking was $2,000. That came
from the CFPOA's annual $5,000 appropriation for stocking. The remaining $3,000
was spent in the previous stocking March 10, when the Committee put in 1,500
pounds of rainbows in the lakes.
Then, too, the fish were 12 to 16 inches and were distributed
in percentages proportional to the size of the lakes.
The first 2010 stocking, also of rainbow trout, was conducted
in January. More than 1,000 pounds of fish were put into the lakes then.
That stocking was paid for by the Club, as a donation in its
Community Spirit program.
Neither of the first two trout stockings contained tagged
fish for the Trout Contest.
The Club oversees stocking for the Association each year as a
service to the community. In addition, in recent years, it has been donating
money of its own to increase the number of fish put in the lakes.
The Committee stocked some 3,000 bluegills in Lake Atagahi
last summer to boost the fishing fun for the numerous children the Club's
Outreach Program hosts there.
Virtually all of the outside groups the Outreach Program
hosts are brought to Lake Atagahi to fish. Most are made up of children, but
some are comprised of special needs adults.
The CFPOA Board of Directors provided the $5,000 for stocking
this year in its new 2010-11 budget. That was $500 less than it appropriated
last year.
Workman from Cantrell Creek Trout
Farm dumps a net full of rainbow trout into
Lake Atagahi during the April 6 stocking of the lakes. It was the third stocking
of the year.
May meeting's Fishing Contest winners
The winners at the Fishing Contest during the May Tube Steak Lunch meeting:
$50 Dining Certificate - Bill Roehrich, with two 11-inch bass.
$25 Dining Certificates - Fred Stark, with a 15-inch trout and Gillian Hillman
with a 12.5-inch trout.
2010 Trout Contest winners
Congratulations to recent winners
in our trout contest:
Mike Rothman, of Middle Connestee Tr., and Mike Sterinsky, of
Connestee Tr. Were both fishing with Power Bait on April 29 when they landed
tagged trout in different lakes. Mike Rothman caught a 23-inch rainbow in Lake
Ticoa and Mike Sterinsky, a 14-incher in Lake Wanteska.
Hutch Hutchison, of Gagama Court. caught 17-inch rainbow in
Lake Wanteska April 22 with a weighted wooly bugger lure on a sinking flyline.
The day before, Bunky Cross, of South Sequoyah Lane, was
trolling a green diving shad lure in the early evening on Lake Ticoa when he
hooked a recently tagged brown trout. The fish measured 17 inches and weighed a
pound.
Exactly one week before Bunky's catch, Bill Hudson, of Anv
Court, was fishing in Lake Atagahi when he, too, hooked one the newly tagged
fish. Bill caught it using Power Bait. It measured 21 inches and carried our
2010 orange colored tag.
Bob Clark, of Chagee Lane, was fishing for bass from his boat
in Lake Ticoa April 9 when he hooked a tagged rainbow. He was the first club
member to win in the contest, which offers a prize of a $50 gift certificate for
Clubhouse dining, since August 2009. Bob caught the fish, 13.5 inches, on a
purple Gary Yamamoto plastic worm.
In the contest, Club members are invited to try their luck
and skill in catching a trout with a small plastic tag through its dorsal fin.
Each year a different color tag has been attached to a select number of large
rainbows when the lakes are stocked. We stocked this year's contest fish, using
orange tags, less than a week before Bob caught his.
If you catch a trout with any color tag, you get a gift
certificate, but only one award per color per Club membership is allowed. Only
the tag is necessary to win. It must be turned in to Ray Tuers, 877 5572. The
fish may be released after the tag is removed, but its dimensions and details of
the catch must be reported. For catch-and-releasers, the tags, similar to those
used to price and size clothing in stores, may be cut and easily removed without
harming the fish
2010 Lunkers
Three Lunker Awards have been made
so far this year:
On May 3, Bunky Cross (see trout contest item above) caught
an 18-pound catfish in Lake Ticoa. Bunky was fishing off the dock at 8:30 p.m.,
using chicken liver for bait. It took him 15 minutes to land the fish on
8-pound-test line.
On April 2, 10-year-old Eric Doroski, who was visiting his
grandparents, Cal and Pat Brown, of West Moytoy Lane, landed a 26-inch catfish,
weighting 10 pounds, 5 ounces, in Lake Atagahi. He was fishing with his
grandfather, using Power Bait with white bread. near the dam. His brother Jason
helped net the fish.
Before that, on Jan. 19 Cork Snearly, of Tsisdu Court, caught
a 20 1/2-inch, 4-pound rainbow trout in Lake Wanteska. Cork was spincasting with
a cotton Cordell spot minnow just as the ice was breaking up and the fish seemed
eager to feed.
In the Lunker Contest, if anyone - Club member or not -
catches an eligible fish they must call Bill Roehrich. The fish must be caught
in a Connestee Lake and must meet these limits: bass 4 or more pounds, catfish
10 or more, bluegills 2 or more, yellow perch 1 or more and trout more than 20
inches long or 4 or more pounds. That program is administered by the Club's
Fishery Management Committee
Area lakes touted
Local fishing guides Dan Grapes and Dave Whisman told Club members about outside
lakes within a day-trip distance of Connestee at the Club meeting Feb. 18 and
said many are among the prettiest in Western North Carolina.
Speaking of Bear Creek Lake in next-door Jackson County, Dave
said, "It's just beautiful... some of the prettiest scenery you'll ever see."
Also the fishing in many of the lakes is exceptional. There
are the usual kinds of trout and bass in abundance, but also walleye, perch,
crappie and other species, they said.
The two presented a program hosted by Bill Roehrich, a member
of the Club's Program Committee. Bill, who has fished with both of the guides,
recommended such trips as good ways to hone fishing skills and learn about local
waters.
The Club's Vice President, Rick Hybil, who chairs the Program
Committee, compiled a list of the nearby lakes and major facts on each as a
handout at the meeting. It included information on Transylvania County's own
Cascade Lake and on Lake Lure in Rutherford County and Jackson County's Lake
Glenville, Wolf Creek Lake and Cedar Cliff Lake.
Club donating recycling center
The Club's Executive Committee has approved the donation of a
recycling station at Atagahi Park as part of the Club's Community Spirit
Program.
It will be located at the park's pavilion and have two
receptacles, one for aluminum cans and one for plastic bottles.
"It will help our recycling efforts substantially," said
Assistant General Manager Earl Jenkins. "It will make it easier for people to
recycle and provide an attractive and neat facility."
The Club is buying the double-receptacle unit from a
nationally known Wisconsin company that produces an array of products made from
recycled plastic containers. It is made of 97 per cent recycled materials. Some
1,600 milk jugs went into its construction and it cost nearly $900.
"We think it's a good use of our Community Spirit funds,"
said Club President Steve Seelinger. "Not only are we helping the environment
through its construction and its use, but it will last for many years." The
company says its products last far longer than wooden units, and roughly three
times as long as concrete.
The Executive Committee approved the purchase at its Jan. 5
meeting.
Ray
Tuers, who arranged for the donation, said at the Club's January meeting that
the unit should be delivered in time to place it in the park this
spring.
Most years the Club makes a substantial donation to the
Connestee Falls community, usually in the form of such improvements to the
public areas around the four lakes.
In the past the Club has contributed park benches, a picnic
shelter, a handicapped-accessible fishing dock, a park staircase and a flagpole.
The park benches it set out nearly 10 years ago were also made of recycled milk
jugs and are so far untouched by the weather.
Last year the Club made no Community Spirit donation so it
increased its budget appropriation to $1,000 for the program in 2010.
2009 Awards made
Seven active members were cited for their service to the Club at the Sept. 11
Awards Banquet held in the Cherokee Room at the Overlook Clubhouse.
Former Treasurer Gillian Hillman, who has long been active in
our Outreach Program, the Fish Fry and other activities, was given the Gerry
Foth Exceptional Service Award for dedication to the Club over an extended
period of time.
Rick Hybil, who has been running the Outreach Program in
addition to his other activities in the Club and was recently elected vice
president, won the Sportsman of the Year Award. It is presented to a member who
promotes the sport of fishing by example and education, has displayed creativity
by presenting new ideas, demonstrated leadership and active participation in the
Club's fishing activities and programs and who has displayed an active interest
in maintaining and improving our Connestee waters.
Distinguished Service Awards for outstanding and varied
contributions to the Club during the past year went to the husband-and-wife team
of Rob and Mary Sisserson, who ran the successful Fish Fry Raffle for the past
two years, and to Ralph Filson and Bob Chord, who co-chaired the Fishery
Management Committee for two years.
The Hall of Fame Award, presented to a member who has made
substantial and lasting contributions to the Club in each year of membership for
a minimum of 10 years, went to Jerry Bailey. Jerry, who used to run the Outreach
Program, also won the Largest Bass of the Year Award for an 8 1/2-pound fish he
caught in March in Lake Atagahi.
Nearly 100 members and guests attended the Banquet. This
year's awards ceremony was accompanied by a slide presentation of photos taken
by Club member Ron Hargreaves.
Water Safety program
The Club's committee on water safety has suggested a number
of watercraft safety tips.
It is part of the group's campaign to heighten safety
concerns on our lakes. Chairman Mike Milts said "We're also looking into having water safety demonstrations
performed during well-attended affairs at the lakes and looking into safety
equipment that might be made easily and reasonably available," he said.
The committee members working with Mike were Jerry Bailey, Bob
Hankins, Rick Hybil, Bill Layton, Rick Subosits and Ken Thompson. Mike said if
any Club members have suggestions for areas to pursue they should contact him at
seahawk4sail@yahoo.com.
The Executive Committee decided to establish the Water Safety
Committee in 2008 to pursue activities aimed at educating Club members and
other residents about safety on our lakes. During its February meeting in 2009 it
approved the Committee's first tips sheet and a series of Friday Flyer notices
based upon it.
President Steve Seelinger said he wanted the Club to become
proactive on marine safety to avoid mishaps. He told the Executive Committee at
its November meeting there have been several incidents that have come close to
tragedy over the years, particularly involving boaters.
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Everyone's fish
The
fish in the lakes belong to all and the Club's Executive Committee says it is
concerned over reports that some lakeside property owners have harassed
fishermen who cast close to their docks.
"Some folks have become possessive about the fish that gather
around their docks, particularly when they feed the fish," said President Steve Seelinger, who himself feeds fish off his Lake Atagahi dock. "We all appreciate
the feeding of the fish," he added, "but that doesn't make the fish your own."
He said the subject came up at the Committee's November
meeting. "We understand from time to time there have been incidents when dock
owners attempt to chase fishermen away from their property," said Steve. "They
have no right to do that. The fish in the lakes belong to everyone, and that
includes fish right up under docks along the shores."
Steve has written to the CFPOA Board of Directors asking it
to place an occasional notice in the Friday Flyer reminding residents that it is
not only unneighborly to confront fishermen for casting near docks, it is also
against state regulations. North Carolina wildlife laws apply to our lakes, said
Steve, and they prohibit such harassment.
