The Williams Lake Sportsmen’s Association annual wild game banquet and awards fundraiser on Feb. 4 returned with a bang.
The first year in the Sacred Heart Hall for the banquet saw a successful event underway Saturday night, one which had been sold out of all 220 tickets for two weeks.
The fundraiser has grown substantially over the years, with Lee Jackman, president of the Williams Lake Archery Club remembering when he first attended one of the banquets in the Williams Lake Sportsmen’s Association clubhouse back in 2001.
Crystal Baba of Crystal Custom Catering prepared the dinner, her fourth year catering the highly anticipated dinner complete with donated wild game from local hunters.
The menu began with a table of appetizers of smoked fish, wild game sausages, assorted cheeses, bear and beaver Mexican stacks, elk pizza rolls, blackberry and juniper-glazed cougar chunks, and veggies and dip. The main courses included bacon-wrapped bison roast, garlic-studded moose roast, turkey, curried deer, braised deer in rosemary and red wine espagnole, smoked salmon and seafood penne and teriyaki salmon.
The wild game comes from a variety of sources, and this year’s generous donors were acknowledged for sharing their harvest. Brent and Logan Gilles, Levi Turcotte, Rick Hodgson, Lee Jackman, Paul Dunphy, Steve Carpenter, Keith Iverson, Doug Mercer, Lloyd Como and Roxanne Bambrick, Linda and Ryan Grove, Roger Rauchensteiner, Tallon Rolston, Jim Feely and Tommy Rennie all contributed some of the meat for the meal.
The event includes a live auction, silent auction and awards for trophy animals.
Though many categories of awards were not able to be given out, as members have to submit their animals to scorers for recording, there were still some winners of the many trophies up for grabs.
Bryan Povelofskie took first place for Lake Trout - Char with a 12 pound, 10 ounce fish, and Gloria Cruz was second with a 10 pound, five ounce fish. Povelofskie also took first place for Trout - Catch and release with a seven pound, two ounce fish.
Lee Jackman won the Spring salmon category, with a 16 pound, two ounce fish. Eric Johansen caught the biggest fish from Biff’s Pond, with a three pound, eight ounce fish.
Kyle Williston won the trophy for the largest Mule Deer with a score of 165 3/8 inches. Lorne Baron was second with a score of 90 1/8 inches.
Lee Jackman won for Mule Deer - Typical Archery, with a score of 97 inches. Michelle Iverson won Mule Deer - Typical - Ladies with a score of 128 1/8 inches. Al Campsall won for a number of categories, Whitetail - Typical with a score of 73 2/8 inches, Black Bear with a score of 18 5/8 inches, and Open Big Game Aggregate with a black bear score of 18 5/8 inches scoring 93 per cent.
Keith Iverson won the Bison trophy with a score of 102 2/8 inches.Lee Jackman also took the top spot for Aggregate Archery with a Mule Deer score of 97 inches, scoring 67 per cent.
Lloyd Como won Sportsman of the Year and Kane Fraser won the Danika Bush Memorial Perseverance Award.
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