Debriefing on the Horsefly Salmon Festival on the Labour Day weekend was the main topic of discussion at the Horsefly River Roundtable meeting Sept. 20.
Considering there weren’t many salmon in the river there was a good turn-out for the festival with approximately 650 folk attending, slightly more on Saturday despite the inclement weather.
There was a great turnout of young folk who were kept busy with fishy art at Maureen Chappell’s booth, the Gyotaku table with Maureen LeBourdais and Brandi Ranger, and the invertebrate aquarium with Sue Hemphill.
It was suggested to bring back the “watershed game” next year, that was such a success two years ago.
One of our expensive salmon banners was stolen. Witnesses reported it was stolen by a kid on a dirt bike.
A vendor policy was discussed to address issues such as a time frame for registrations; community groups, and locals versus out of town vendors. A policy will be developed.
A release form for photos taken will also be drawn up to be used next year.
Trail Repairs: It was decided that once the trail has been repaired, and motor bike prevention aids installed, we would stick to the packed gravel for the trail, because it was fine the last time we did it.
If you are a taxpayer or parent of these biker types, be aware that at the end of the day the roundtable will have invested $40,000 repairing bike damage to the trail.
We are all volunteers, and this is pretty shabby treatment.
The Lake Keepers course was discussed and we are working towards having it in Horsefly next spring.
I managed to get down and try the fly fishing location for wheelchair bound folk.
We knew it would be touchy, and it was.
Next year we will get permission from DFO to put spawning gravel on another angle to the top of the riffle, and lay the belting in a southwesterly direction. The log is also a bit much to get a fish around if a person got lucky.
It has great potential, and I truly enjoyed practicing my fly casting skills, which are quite meager.