Greetings to all members and I hope you’ve been able to spend some days on the water and are planning more for the fall. Some updates on what will be and what has been happening:
Oct. 4th Raffle draw – ticket sales have been slow, and the club needs more of its members to help sell them, buy them, or both. Please contact us at info@edmontontrout.ca if you’re able to help this raffle be a success.
Meetings: we’re planning to return to in-person meetings at Queen Mary Park Hall this fall but due to the unavailability of bookings in September our first meeting at the hall will be on Nov.15th. Todd Zimmerling, CEO of the Alberta Conservation Association, will be our guest speaker on the topic of ACA’s aeration program with particular reference to Spring Lake (more on that below). Speakers and topics for future meetings are being planned but if you have any suggestions or requests please let us know, again at info@edmontontrout.ca
News re Spring Lake:
As many of you know, there’s been concern expressed for many years to AEP Fisheries Management, to Spring Lake Village, and to the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) about the lack of opportunity for the public at large to access the fishery at Spring Lake. There’s some very limited foot access, but it’s very difficult to find a place along the shore to fish from and impossible to launch anything other than a small, light boat unless you own lakeshore property in the Village, pay to stay at the Resort, or are a member of ETFC. ACA finally decided to address the issue and asked for a meeting with Spring Lake Village Council. ACA explained to them that the funding for aeration that ACA receives does not allow it to meet all the requests from across the province to aerate local lakes; that, as that funding comes from the angling public via licence fees, it must prioritize locations that can be reasonably accessed by the angling public at large, and that, in its opinion, Spring Lake did not currently meet that benchmark. ACA asked the village to create a public access point and even offered to purchase a strip of land and construct a boat launch itself. However, the village council was reportedly unwilling to work with ACA to resolve the concern.
ACA then informed the mayor and council, with a copy to ETFC, that it was left with no option other than to reluctantly inform the village that the aeration equipment would be removed from Spring Lake in April ’23 to be used at a public fishery elsewhere unless there was improved public access to the Spring Lake fishery by that time. Our understanding is that the village council is reconsidering the issue but that no official response from the village has yet been received by ACA. Further, ETFC has yet to receive any response from the village to its January ’22 letter requesting that the village consider supporting the costs of aerating the lake.
There’s a good possibility that a way to provide for improved public access will be found in the next 8 months. ACA is still searching for possible solutions and has kept the ETFC executive fully informed of its discussions and actions. Todd Zimmerling will provide an update and answer questions at the Nov.15th meeting. We will also update all members as and when anything further occurs on this issue.
Meanwhile, you may have noticed that we have installed some signage at the property to clarify the parking area. Thanks to Campbell for his work. Reports are that the fishing has been slow during the heat of the last few weeks but there’s optimism that the backswimmers will start flying soon and that fishing will improve.
Deb Anderson,
President
ETFC Raffle
Draw Date: Oct 4, 2022
$5.00 / Ticket License # 592730 2000 tickets printed – Must be 18 to Purchase Ticket
Ticket Information – contact Ernest Kitt: 780-945-1668 or petpro@shaw.ca or Paul Lanteigne 780-217-1906 Paul@eecmotors.com
Prizes:
- 1st: Cut and Wrapped Pork Package with Freezer valued @ $650
- 2nd: Custom Made Sage GFL 9′ 6/7wt 2pc Fly Rod valued @ $500
- 3rd: Fly Box with 150 Handmade Flies valued @ $350.00
- 4th: Cabela’s Heavy Duty Cooler valued @ $275.00
- 5th: Pflueger 8′ 6″ 6/7wt Fly Rod valued @ $225