FHFC BEACON ARTICLE FOR FEBRUARY 2008  

           It was on a cold January evening five years ago that the Fairfield Harbour Fishing Club held its initial meeting in our Community Center to hear Colonel Richard (Rick) J. Dove, our first Neuse Riverkeeper, speak to us about the condition of the Neuse River and a little of its history. Now five years later on an equally cold January evening our present Riverkeeper and new Fairfield Harbour neighbor, Larry Baldwin made an excellent presentation concerning the present condition of our river and what we can do to steadily improve its health. Larry talked in depth about the two major issues affecting our water quality: Hog farms and the amount of water shed development in our area. At the end of his presentation, he was awarded a $100 check made out to the Riverkeeper Foundation to support his overall efforts. It was interesting to note that at our initial meeting in 2004 we had only twelve or so members and our official count going into this meeting was 138 as per our Membership Chairman, Mike Krissel. We had five new members join our group during the evening.

          Dan Thallman and Bob Bruggeworth reported that the initial planning for our “Spouse Night”, which will be held at Crabby Jack’s restaurant on Monday night, March 10, is well underway. This evening will replace our March meeting night and future notices concerning this gala event will be posted to our website as more planning is completed. Full details will be spelled out at our February 6^th  meeting. Seventeen members signed up to assist in the preparations for our 2^nd Annual BBBS National Take a Kid Fishing day outing to be held on Saturday June 14^th. Our speaker for the February meeting will be Donald Willis Jr. ( Custom Marine Fabrication ) who is our good friend and one of our sponsors for the BBBS event. Don will show us some of the effective knots anglers use and specifically instruct us on several ways to tie a leader and line together without using a swivel.

           Remember to visit our website at //pages.suddenlink.net/fhfc/ for all that’s going on and to print out the membership update form when you repay your dues for 2008. Also use this form if any of your original info has changed ie. e-mail address, boat info. etc. Keith Maguire won the 50-50 raffle at the end of the meeting.

                                                                  Bob Bruggeworth

The years will bring their Anodyne,   But I shall never quite forget
The fish that I had counted mine   And lost before they reached the net.          

                                   Colin Ellis “ The Devout Angler”