It was a night to celebrate hunters and fishers at the Humboldt Wildlife Federation Fish Fry Banquet on March 17.
Members, friends, and family enjoyed a fresh fish supper at the clubs biggest fundraiser.
This was also the night for awards as the best of the club were rewarded for their yearly hunting and fishing efforts in both youth and adult, and male and female categories.
Two hunters from the Humboldt club took home two of the top awards and also made Henry Kelsey level kills this past year with Colin Pratt taking home the Humboldt Wildlife Federation Archery Award and Larry
Hinz being awarded the Fay Folden Memorial Award for his hunting efforts.
Pratt has always enjoyed archery so to be in the record book for his bow take down of a Henry Kelsey level bear is pretty cool.
Pratt, who took home local awards for his bear and a mule deer also attended the Saskatchewan Bowhunters Association Banquet on March 18 where he picked up the Saskatchewan and North American Bow Hunter of the Year award.
Hinz got his record breaking elk back in November and did not realize the enormity of his kill until friends started to stop by and have a look.
Hinz has been hunting since he was 15-years-old and has always been looking for a large animal.
“I was very fortunate to be drawn for an elk and then to run across something like this was something else.”
Reg Danyluik took home the Rod Earis Memorial Master Angler Award but was away fishing for the weekend. Danyluik’s daughter Jade was on hand to accept the award.
The banquet itself had a lot of support with around 65 to 70 raffle prizes donated and 12 silent auction prizes.
Ducks Unlimited was a big contributor, says Humboldt Wildlife Federation President, Matt Schidlowsky, donating some larger prizes for the banquet.
The club has been working closely with Darcy and Shirley Leonew, says Schidlowsky, and says they have raised a lot of money for the club with those donated prize packs alone.
Money raised from the evening is going towards the extensive renovations the club is currently partaking at their shooting range outside of Humboldt.
It was quite a large undertaking, says Schidlowsky.
“We turned our old 200 yard range, which was flooded out, to a legal, certified, licensed range, which has a capability now of 150 yards rifle range and has a .22 range and a hand gun range.”
Many members and friends of the club stepped up to provide materials for the renovations as well as man hours in rebuilding the range, says Schidlowsky.
“A lot of it is friends of members have contributed machinery, time, and labour and helped us to achieve the goals we’re trying to accomplish in our area.”
Ducks Unlimited also made a large contribution to the range with a donation of grass seed for the new range.
The level of lake surrounding the range had been a problem for the last 10 years, says Schidlowsky, and with the help from local landowners and executives, they spent numerous hours working to get the water table down.
“We all worked together and we’re now at a level that is actually sustainable and we can actually use the gun range again in a safe and responsible way.”
The club is also raising money for the National Archery in School Program which is a program already introduced to some local schools.
The Humboldt club has already delivered the program kit to Humboldt Public School.
“It’ll give our local area a chance to participate in the competitions that most of the smaller centres are already participating in,” says Schidlowsky.
Pratt has enjoyed archery since he was a teen and says it takes a lot of patience and practice.
Having the archery program in the schools will be a great opportunity for archery to continue.
