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Dear SAWT members, family’s
and sponsors.
What a year it has been for
the SAWT, and I believe that we have again elevated the Southern Alberta Walleye
Trail to another level. This was mainly due to great volunteers, sponsors and
our trail members. It’s more than a one person operation and I want to thank
everyone for making us a success. Kelly Flaig has done a great job on keeping
our members informed on the Go Walleye site message board and it’s being noted
that many of our members are visiting the site, Thank you.
Where to start, well first
off all I’d like to thank Collin Maier my fishing partner who made it to all
the tournaments between juggling work and family commitments, he was always
there. Collin, Dave Quinlan and Kelly Flaig are always the first to arrive on
the scene and the last to leave the tournaments making sure that all of our
sponsors banners and result boards were displayed and taken down accordingly.
These guys also helped with the campground cleanup, ensuring it was left in the
same condition as it was when we arrived. Collin, Ed Hexter and Kelly always
stopped by my house and filled up their trucks with sponsors prizes and
everything else that had to make to our tournaments. This was no small feat and
a very big thank you for that. A special thanks to Marion, Barb, Cathy, Bonnie
and Regan who donated so much of there time with the raffle tickets and so many
other jobs that they did to make our events an even bigger success.
We were very late this year
in getting our CFE licenses mainly due to the fact that this was a newly
implemented requirement. This past 2007 fishing season was looking a bit suspect
at first due to time constraints regarding the new CFE licensing however we put
it all together and things worked out pretty well for the SAWT.
Not enough can be said about
our sponsors we had this past year which made our trail a huge success on such
short notice. The continuing commitment from these people is greatly appreciated
by everyone.
A BIG
THANK YOU goes out to our biggest sponsor Greg Beauchamp of Alberta Marine
in Nanton who helped make it happen. Greg
Beauchamp from Alberta Marine and
LUND CANADA again supplied our year
end top prize to the Team of the Year. That prize consisted of a 14 ft Lund
boat, with a 25 hp Four Stroke Mercury engine and EZ Loader trailer valued at
over $10 000, which was won by a very deserving pair of anglers, Mike Lowe and
Jeff Davidson. Congratulations guys. Alberta Marine in Nanton also hosts one of
our greatest events at Travers reservoir now affectionately named The Alberta
Marine Walleye Classic. Greg Beauchamp also donated $5000.00 dollars cash to the
SAWT as well and he had several of his staff man the weigh boats, cook meals,
and so much more. These efforts along with the meat donated by Ben Bell(Ben’s
Meats) meant no one went hungry at the Travers Tournament. A big thank you to
Patrick Cox of Lund Canada who provided us with 10 Lund jackets throughout our
season and all the Lund promotional magazines, boat stickers, Lund hats,
merchandise and so much more. These sponsors as well as many others make these
events a huge success.
There are so many sponsors
that we can’t thank them enough for coming through on such sort notice. These
include:
Mark Skagen of Cajun Motors
donated the Quad
Mike Melham sr. and Mike Jr.
of the Lawnshop donated the Husqvarna chain saw won by Geoff Sanders
Harvey French from A&E
Racing in Brooks who continually supports the SAWT
donated the Motor Guide bow mount won by Mike Marshall
Fintech donated the 36 Volt
Vantage won by Tom Koizumi
Mark at Mark’s Marine in
Medicine Hat donated the Kipor generator
Roger Simpson of Simpson’s
Plumbing and Heating donated a continuous hot water heater and a complete
central vacuum system won by Marion and Barb two of our best volunteers
A big thank you to Cliff
Ratinski who won the quad and donated it back to the SAWT and then raffled it
off donating the eighteen hundred dollars to the SAWT….WOW!
The Fishin Hole who has for
many years always sponsored the SAWT with year end prizes (Lowrance GPS’s) and
gift bags through out our tournament season
A special thank to Dwight
Fritzler and his wife Bonnie of Wholesale Sports in Lethbridge along with
Normark (Rapala) who donated over $2000.00 in merchandise in Rapala rods and
reels to the SAWT
A big thank you to Len Zenith
of the Corona Hotel and Maple Avenue Liquor store for a $1000.00 donation
John McBain at the Royal
Hotel who donated jackets, shirts, and many other prizes
The Dayzoff Pub in Medicine
Hat for their shirts, hats and hoodies
Gary Mattson from Sammy’s
welding donated the leather jackets and Carla from Sammy’s Bar and Grill for
all the hoodies
Brian Eberts donated $1000.00 cash and did some volunteer work for us
Bob Hawkins at Lethbridge
Marine who every year supports us with gift certificates thoughout our season
Mike Marshall who always
arrives at our tournaments with lots of great prizes to give away
CP Rail for the jackets,
sweaters and shirts
Tom Koizumi for the Culling
system and a cash donation
Ben Bell who’s cash
donation of a $100.00 at each of our tournaments given out on a team draw for
those of us that did not fair well in the tournament
Jeff Bronsch from Go Walleye
(www.gowalleye.com) who looks after our SAWT site keeping us all informed
A very special thanks to
Kelly Flaig and Dave Quinlan who help keep all of our stats updated for the year
and are continuously helping with all of the behind the scenes work
Glynn Yuhas at RE/MAX for
donating winners and cool under pressure plaques
Joey’s Only in Medicine Hat
for sponsoring the big fish plaques
Jason Pecht at Summit
Liability Solutions donated $500.00 for the big fish replica
Darrell at Rad Casuals
clothing in Medicine Hat for his donations of year end jackets and getting all
shirts, hats and jackets together for us
Reno Fleck Sr. who helped at
Milk River Ridge on the measuring of our fish
Mark Holzwarth who every year
donates hundreds of dollars in clothing merchandize to the SAWT
Always on short notice Kevin
and the folks from Alberta Marine who came to help at our tournaments doing the
weigh boats sponsored by Greg Beauchamp of Alberta Marine cannot be thanked
enough. These are very reliable volunteers that always show up to help me out on
such short notice. Thank you.
As you can see it’s not one
person that makes the SAWT such a great fishing trail, it’s great people,
friends, sponsors and families that go out of there way to bring it all together
and make us what we are. I cannot thank you all enough for making it that much
easier for me. Should anyone find
sponsors or wanting to make donations, it is always greatly appreciated and will
be acknowledged.
A
BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL!!!!!
NEW
BUSINESS/2008
We finished off a very
successful 2007 season on a positive note however it is important in any
organization to try to improve or change things and after inquiring with some of
our members we came up with some new proposals. Please keep in mind that these
proposals are subject to us getting our 2008 CFE licenses.
New proposals for 2008
include the following:
Changes
on dates for tournaments for the 2008 season include:
Milk
River Ridge
May 10 and 11
Chin
Reservoir
May 31 and June 1
Travers
Reservoir June 14 and 15
Forty
Mile Reservoir July
5 and 6
Entry’s
Maximum 75 boats
Cost
$340.00 per team
Membership
fee $10.00 per member/year
In
2008 we would like to implement a day money system. Yes, your entry fee is
higher, however your chances of winning money is significantly increased.
First
day payout stating at $1000.00 per day for first and 10th spot at
$300.00
Second
day payout for day money is the same as the first day’s pay out.
Total
tournament overall payout will start at 1st
$5000.00, 2nd $2500.00, 3rd $1500.00, 4th
$900.00. 5th 800.00 down to paying 10th $300.00.
PRIZE
MONEY PAYOUT IS BASED ON A FULL 75 TEAM FIELD.
There
is no more free entry’s to be won in the 2008 season.
There
will be a free supper for all members Saturday night.
Winners
will receive jackets.
There
will be an early bird draw for early entry (yet to be determined)
These
are proposals so we will be asking for feedback on all of this as soon as
possible so can continue planning for the new year.
Thank
you all again very much!
President
and Tournament coordinator
Connor
Mulligan
22
Morris Court SE
Medicine
Hat Alberta
T1A
7P5
E-mail
cdmulligan@shaw.ca
Phone
# 403-526-4574
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