It was a night full of back pats, smiles and gifts as the annual Rod and Gun Club Awards wrapped up for 2010 at the Nakusp Legion last Saturday, Feb. 26.
Different folks were handed all kinds of prizes for catching the biggest kinds of fish or hunting the largest deer
Rod and Gun Club president Hoss Cann said it’s good to celebrate these kinds of achievements, but admits the club has been struggling with declining membership.
“Not a lot, but a little bit,” Cann said.
However, he did point out the awards show used to be a much bigger ordeal than the way they’re hosting it now.
“We used to have 250 people show up from all around, and we would have a big feast and awards and dance,” Cann said. “It all happened at the arena. It was great.”
But all good things must come to an end, and the awards banquet that used to be started suffering dwindling numbers around five or six years ago.
Hank Scown, a 30 plus year member of the club, confirmed what Cann said and reminisced about those times.
“There used to be only wild meat at those banquets,” he said. “All local stuff. Deer, fish, there was everything you could want. But then less and less people started showing and we started losing money.”
Scown said the club was getting into the hole for the last couple banquets and couldn’t afford to keep doing the major bashes.
And with less members joining, Scown and Cann saw it was only going to be more difficult to keep things going, especially if they don’t get the younger guys coming in.
“We’re really trying to push for that,” Cann said. “So we have some of the bigger prizes in the junior division. They’re really nice.”
The junior division of the club is for youth 17 and under. At 18-years-old, you’re eligible to go hunting.
Although Cann is trying hard to get more youth involved, there were a number of people who were younger at the awards show that night.
People such as Chris Evans.
Evans has been a member of the Nakusp Rod and Gun Club now for roughly five years.
He said he goes out for the sport of it, but also makes sure he keeps the meat from his hunting.
“There are the big trophy hunters, but the thing I go for is the meat from it,” he said.
Evans said he goes out during the deer hunting season, mainly with his father-in-law Terry Warren.
It’s something that gets him outside and exploring the back-country while he’s at it.
All in all, the night ended with plenty of awards being handed out, including a raffle for a $2,000 rifle, a Sako 85 in a .270 Winchester Short Mag (WSM).
The rifle was won by Eric Williams.
A full list of award winners are as follows:
Region 4 Moose – Chad Gustafson.
Mule Deer – Brad Dupuis.
Non-typical Mule Deer – Ray Hascarl.
White-tailed Deer – Paul Seaton.
Non-typical White-tail – John Miller.
Elk – Ray Hascarl.
Mountain Goat – Jesse Cann.
Archery Award – Moose – Didace Wilcott.
Alberta White-tail – Art Olson.
Junior Awards:
Mule Deer – Holly Hascarl.
Elk – Shawn Seaton.
White-tailed Deer – Jordan Reimer.
Fish Awards:
Rainbow Trout – Glen Olson – 12 pounds, one ounce.
Bull Trout – Julian Sapietis – 14 pounds, two ounces.
Bull Trout (Junior) – Lauren Sapietis – six pounds.
Kokanee (Junior) – Savannah Olson – three pounds, three ounces.
The Fred Pigott 2010 Memorial Award – Jordan Reimer.
The scoring committee for the awards were done by Paul Seaton, Reg Gustafson, Hoss Cann and Hank Scown.
