2015 OHMC Division Day & Spring Outing
The Ohio Huskie Muskie Club hosted our 2015 annual Division Day and Spring Outing from Friday, June 5th through Sunday June 7th, at Alum Creek Reservoir. Festivities kicked off on Thursday with a boat axle replacement for Past President Fred Lederer. His weekend would get better! On Friday Morning, Members of the Outdoor Writers of Ohio, The Ohio Division of Wildlife, and the OHMC, all met at the Boat ramp for a day of Muskie fishing. Soon, an error on my part by having brought the wrong supply tote, created an opportunity for the strength of our Board of Trustees to be displayed. Everyone came together to get a list of needed items, and Trustee Stephanie Neville stepped up to get us re-stocked in time for lunch. As I have indicated in the past, our club is truly blessed to have such a great group of trustees. Thank you all.
With the glitches behind us, we hit the water and the nets started getting wet immediately. We had four guests boat their very first muskie, including one tagged fish from the emigration study. During Division Day, we had 11 OHMC members serve as guides for 9 Division of Wildlife personnel and 3 writers. There were a total of 9 fish caught by 9 different guests. After the fishing concluded, we all enjoyed a grilled lunch and a mutual Thank you from each group. Our winner this year was Dan Kovalaske, the Castaila Fish Hatchery Coordinator. Dan caught his first muskie, which was a 42” fish, while being guided by club member Phil Cummings. Congratulations gentlemen!
The weather for all three days was just dandy as we enjoyed our first rain-free Spring Outing in many years. The air temperatures ranged from 55 to 80 degrees with a mix of clouds to sunny skies. Our Spring Outing event was conducted simultaneously with a Muskies Inc. Chapter 41 event and both groups enjoyed the atmosphere of cooperation. With a medical emergency by a club member on the water, many persons came together and got him transported to the hospital where he was treated and released the same day. Thanks to everyone that helped, it’s nice to know that our membership will drop everything to help a friend in need.
Our clubs had a joint shore lunch together which was catered by a local Boy Scout troop and they did a fantastic job! We had burgers, brats, corn, cookies, brownies, and many other tasty treats. Later, in the evening, we had our steak fry and once again, Jerry Rice did a fantastic job cooking all of our steaks. We enjoyed 16 oz ribeyes and some of the best coleslaw I have had in a long time (Thanks Holly)! Tim smith cooked us fresh corn-on-the-cob and some members that traveled from more than 4 hours away, took time to bring us side dishes. Thank you to everyone that contributed to a wonderful meal. We conducted our traditional raffle prize drawings afterwards and our winners were as follows: Seth Ferrel won the Rod and Reel, Rick Simpson won the Lure Board, and Doug Miller won the 50/50.
We had 45 persons sign up and had 22 fish of 30” or greater turned in. We also had many sub-30” fish caught and at least 3 of those fish were successfully scanned with PIT tag readers. When the results were in, they showed that Fred Lederer had put on a clinic. He boated 4 fish to take 1st place. Lou Spezio won 2nd place and the big fish side pot. Congratulations to our winners, they will receive their trophies at our annual awards banquet next March.
All fish caught are as follows: Fred Lederer (32.50”, 34.25”, 34.50”, 36.00”)(33.25 Points); Lou Spezio (41.00”, 43.00”)(32.00 Points); Elmer Heyob (38.75”, 40.00”)(26.75 Points); Anna Land (30.00”, 33.50”, 38.00”)(23.50 Points); Bronson Gundlach (35.00”,38.00”)(21.00 Points); John Ringenbach (39.00”)(13.00 Points); Rick Simpson (31.50”, 32.00”)(11.50 Points); Cliff Honeycutt (35”)(9.00 Points); Jack Moga (34.75”)(8.75 Points); Holly Neville (34.00”)(8.00 Points); Tom Watson (34.00”)(8.00 Points); Jeff Ziol (32.00”)(6.00 Points); William Neville (31.00”)(5.00 Points)
Thank you to everyone that came and I hope to see you all next month at Piedmont.
