Jocassee Trout Club Meeting Minutes

 

Thursday, June 14^th

 

7pm – 9pm FATZ Café in Easley

 

ANNUAL MEETING

 

Officer Election Results:

 

President – Jimmy Williams

Vice President – Sam Jones

Treasurer – Scott Bullions

Secretary – Matt McCreery

 

Board of Directors:

 

Three new Board of Directors were elected per the JTC by-laws.  The three new BOD’s are:

 

Ed Few

Ken Sloan

Jim Mayer

 

The remaining BOD members are:

 

Bryan Lee

Jim Rudy

Zan Maddox

 

 

The JTC also established a council of members to begin working with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. 

 

            Ken Sloan

            Jimmy Williams

            Bill Reid

            Ed Few

 

The mission of the council will be to establish regular correspondence with the SCDNR.  Through this effort, JTC hopes to establish cooperative objectives with DNR that will increase the quality and quantity of trout in Lake Jocassee.  The club will then work with DNR, through the council, to achieve the objectives.  This will allow the club to set goals and measure our success towards them.

 

During an open forum discussion, the following brainstorming ideas were brought up.  I have captured all of these as they were brought up so we have a record of them.  Moving forward, these ideas can be evaluated as they pertain to our club’s goals.

 

1. Start a Trout Tagging Program
2. Add a picture of a trout that has been clipped at the hatchery prior to stocking.  SCDNR would like to see catch rate information for trout that have a fin clipped (i.e # caught, where caught, when, size..etc).
3. Work with SCDNR to manage the locations where trout are stocked in the Lake.
4. Work with SCDNR to understand their budget and constraints that it causes relative to stocking and managing the Lake Jocassee fishery
5. Would it be viable to have seasons for Trout Fishing at Lake Jocassee (i.e. Closed season for 2 weeks during the stocking of trout)
6. Work with North Carolina Department of Natural Resources to petition a 15inch size limit on the NC portions of the Lake.
7. Can the out of state license fee’s be raised?
8. What is the status of the cold water fishery stamp?  Most states utilize this (both Georgia and NC).
9. Include more fellowship activities for the Trout Club this year (i.e. Cook-outs, Social Events, Fishing Tips/Information Exchanges…etc).  This needs to be managed so that everyone has visibility (phone calls, emails, newsletter…etc)
10. Update the JTC Website with more information
    1. Fishing Tips/Techniques
    2. Lake Map
    3. Regular fishing reports
    4. Activities that the club is working on
    5. Place a link to the DNR board
    6. Place one year meeting schedule on the board
11. Rotate the club meetings to various locations (i.e. Easley, Greenville, Spartanburg…etc)
12. Have meetings during fishing season at the Lake
13. Host an annual Jocassee Trout Club fishing tournament
14. Continue with JTC Lake Cleanups
    1. One before Memorial Day
    2. One after Labor Day
15. Place a box at Lake Jocassee for Fishing Logs

 

Jimmy William has requested that all JTC members send him an email with a list of questions and suggestions they have for SCDNR.  This will be used by our newly formed DNR Council to begin planning for meetings with the department of natural resources.  In addition, please send any project ideas that you have for JTC to Jimmy.

 

If you haven’t paid your dues for 2007 please send a check to Scott Bullions.

 

Kind Regards,

Matt McCreery