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Lots of awards given out at Rimbey Fish and Game Banquet

It’s been three years since the Rimbey Fish and Game Association held their banquet and awards night. On March 11, people gathered at the Peter Lougheed Community Centre for a good time and to celebrate the winning members in the categories of hunting and fishing. Awards were collected for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
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The Rimbey Fish and Game Banquet was held March 11 at the Peter Lougheed Community Centre. (Photo by Leah Bousfield/Rimbey Review)

It’s been three years since the Rimbey Fish and Game Association held their banquet and awards night. On March 11, people gathered at the Peter Lougheed Community Centre for a good time and to celebrate the winning members in the categories of hunting and fishing. Awards were collected for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Brad Janzen, one of the members of the association, said this was his first year attending the banquet and awards night.

“I enjoyed it. I had a great time. The food was great and it was a well planned and scheduled event,” he said.

This year, the banquet heard from a couple of guest speakers including Blaine Calkins and Jason Nixon.

Janzen said one of the biggest points of the event is the fundraiser. The money raised will go towards the running of the Open Creek Dam, youth programs and the new lodge the association is working on.

“We did a live auction and there was a silent auction and all kinds of good prizes there or things to be bought,” he said, adding that they had multiple door prizes, with lots of opportunities to win with 50/50 and games to win prizes on.

In December the association usually holds an antler scoring day at Forshee Hall, where members bring in their gain from that year to get it scored.

“That all goes into the contest of largest animals per species and then the prizes are divvied out during the banquet.”

Janzen happened to be the winner in the black bear rifle category in 2020, and the antelope rifle, cougar rifle and moose rifle categories in 2021.

Some of the other winners included Randy Pletz in the typical whitetail rifle category in both 2020 and 2022, along with being the winner in the typical mule deer rifle category and elk rifle category in 2021. Some of the interclub award winners in 2022 were Tyler Pletz in the non typical whitetail rifle, Rob Orange in the non typical mule deer rifle and Rick Hansen in the black bear black powder category.

One of the big winners in the fishing categories in all three years was Daniel Roy, who won in the cutthroat trout on fly category in 2020 and 2022, along with winning walleye category in 2021 and the lake whitefish category in both 2021 and 2022. More winners in the different categories will be posted online through Facebook and their website at rimbeyfishandgame.com.

The Rimbey Fish and Game Club first started in 1958 with a mission of creating or preserving land for fish and wildlife.

It was in 1961 that the club began working on the Open Creek Dam, which was established in 1962 for the community of Rimbey and area to have a place to enjoy the nature around them. It is still going strong today.

They later became part of the Alberta Fish And Game Association and started conservation efforts and education efforts through the club.

“The latest thing we have is the lodge. We bought some land just south of Rimbey at the old golf course, so we’ll have our own building,” said Rick Moon, vice-president of the association.

The lodge is expected to be completed this fall.

“It will also be (used) for rent. We’d also like to do some archery shoots and really increase our efforts into education of conservation and utilization of fish and wildlife,” said Moon.

Currently, the association has just over 100 members, which saw a drop due to the pandemic, but it usually fluctuates between 150 to 300.

What didn’t see a drop in numbers was the attendance at the Open Creek Dam.

“That was one thing COVID was good for is a lot of people went camping because they couldn’t fly anywhere, so that facility did benefit from COVID. We had record numbers of people showing up to camp.”

Monthly meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month at the Rimbey Canalta Hotel.