I thought I would forward a letter from some of our club leadership, about the upcoming field meet in Arco, ID. This is a great meet with lots of game to be caught. Thanks Stephen


Howdy Folks,



Well it looks like we’ve about got everything planned for the state meet in Arco on Nov. 10 and 11th. There’ve been a couple of minor changes, but in the end, I think things will actually work out better. Please glance over the following information and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. And please bear with me if you’re waiting for an email reply. Our computer is still fighting with itself and my success rate on sending emails is not very high.



The meet plans are still pretty much the same. We’ll be gathering at the DK Motel in Arco on Friday night for informal bull sessions in whichever room has the best insurance policy. As for Saturday morning, the folks at the senior center forgot to tell me that they had a fund-raising event scheduled for that morning when I reserved the center. However, we’re in luck because their fundraiser is an all-you-can-eat sourdough pancake feed with homemade chokecherry syrup, coffee and juice for $4.00. The breakfast will be ready to go at 0700 hrs and there’s a large parking lot out front where we can gather after we eat. The proceeds from the event help them operate the senior center and assist with other senior programs throughout the year. So it helps a very worthy cause and gets us a top-notch breakfast that’s ready to go at 7:00AM with little or no time lost to ordering and food preparation. With any luck we should be fed and ready to hit the fields by 7:45 or so. If you happen to arrive late on Saturday morning, the breakfast will still be going until noon (I believe) and we’ll try to post a rough flight schedule and directions of some kind on the senior center door so you can find the group. We should have at least a couple of cell phones on so you can call and find out where the group is.



Since we won’t be able to use the senior center exclusively for our group on Saturday morning, they dropped $10.00 off the normal $45.00 charge, making it $35.00 each day. That includes the use of the kitchen and an assortment of tables and service utensils. That’s a heck of a deal so I encourage everyone to stop by the breakfast on Saturday and lend them some much-needed support for their programs and operating costs.



The flight plan on Saturday will depend on which birds we have and where we can fly them. Since we don’t know where we’ll be around noon, it doesn’t make much sense to plan a lunch and waste time returning to a specific location to eat. So Saturday’s lunch will be a B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bag) affair and everyone can fend for themselves. I’m sure offerings of brownies, cookies or chips would be cheerfully accepted if anyone would like to bring enough to share. But for the most part, we’ll just plan on each person taking care of their own lunch and eating whenever and wherever the mood strikes. Most of the flights on Saturday should be in the area fairly close to Arco with more extended trips to far-away lands reserved for Sunday when there is less need to be back in town at a specific time.



The Saturday night banquet will kick off at around 7:00 PM back at the senior center in Arco. For dinner there will be (barring catastrophic cooking failure) lasagna, tossed salad, potato rolls, Canadian cheddar cheese soup and bourbon peach cobbler. We’ll supply a variety of soft drinks and maybe some coffee if anyone cares for it. The senior center charter prohibits the consumption of alcohol on the property, so you’ll have to save the beer and wine for later. However, I will be sneaking a little beer into the soup and some whiskey into the cobbler so you won’t have to go completely cold turkey. Depending on the turnout, I anticipate the cost for the dinner to run between 5 and 10 dollars per person. Rather than tack on a separate charge for dinner, we’re just going to ask everyone to purchase at least 5 dollars more in raffle tickets than they normally would. For example, if you and your wife both eat dinner and would normally spend $20.00 on raffle tickets. Simply buy $30.00 worth of raffle tickets. The money all goes into the same pot and this way you get an extra 10 chances to win something in the raffle. It’s also much easier on the person selling the tickets and tying to keep track of the money.



Speaking of the raffle, we’ll be doing things just a bit different this year. We’ll divide the items into one table with a variety of things on it and another table with some of the higher end items separated out. We’ll put ticket cans in front of the separate items and on the assorted item table so you can choose where you want to place your tickets. The items with the separate ticket cans will be individual drawings for those specific items, while the items on the assortment table will be winner’s choice of all items on the table. Each ticket will have a buyer number on it so you don’t have to waste time and energy searching for individual ticket numbers. We should have some really cool stuff again this year so buy lots of tickets and bring a truck to carry home the loot.



Prior to the raffle, we’ll conduct a general business meeting and see if we can get an update on the sage grouse conference that’s taking place the previous weekend. We’ve purposely left the meeting schedule open, so let me know if you have anything you’d like to discuss or present to the group.



We’ll gather back at the senior center on Sunday morning (probably around 0730 hrs) for a light breakfast of juice, coffee, muffins and baked oatmeal. I assume the hunting parties will be more scattered on Sunday so please make your plans and arrangements on Saturday so you don’t get left behind when everyone heads out Sunday morning. Sunday would be a great day for folks to make extended trips out to the grouse areas. All we ask is that you let everyone know where you’re going on Saturday night so anyone that wants to participate can make the needed arrangements. Blindfolds will be provided to protect the location of super-top-secret grouse spots and GPS location devices will be strictly forbidden. The main thing is for everyone to coordinate the hunts as a group and enjoy each other’s company. And let’s try not to lose anyone in the desert this year, our membership’s small enough as it is.



Well, that’s the plan folks. With any luck, it should turn out well. Our primary goal is to renew old friendships and have some fun. The weather should be cool, the ducks fat and the bunnies big and bouncy so come on out and enjoy the best that our fine state has to offer. And don’t forget your camera.

Happy Huntin’

Dave