Tidelines Winter 2018

in the calmest of waters and the odds for a problem multiply as the weather takes a turn for the worse. So watch the weather, get your safety gear ready, inform your crew of how to use it, then goes out there and catch that fish of a lifetime. Our Executive Director Dave Smith and Office Manager Amy Eid take care of all the day-to-day operations of MSSA. They work hard every day to find advertisers, tournament sponsors, and ways to increase membership along with the everyday activities of running the organization. I’d like to thank them once again for all their hard work towards making MSSA great. As I've said many times in the past chapters are the lifeblood of our organization. All the chapters have their own special things they do –favorite guest speakers, special events fishing interests, etc. That’ what makes the MSSA so great. The main organization remains committed to help the chapters in any way possible. As stated earlier 2017 wasn’t a good year financially for MSSA so the MSSA Board of Directors voted to not pay chapter membership rebates. However starting in late 2017 a policy was put in place that chapters get the first year dues of any new member who signs up at a chapter meeting. Here’s your chance to sign up your non-MSSA fishing buddies and your chapter will get to keep their entire $25 membership fee for their first year. It’s a great way to boost membership, meet new fishing buddies,, and boost chapter Financial funds all at the same time The biggest asset MSSA has is its volunteers. Volunteers are found in all levels of the organization and make everything possible. It would simply be impossible to run an organization as large as MSSA without volunteers. I’d like to ask each and every member to take the time to thank an MSSA volunteer. Whether it’s one of your chapter officers, a tournament weighmaster, or a guy selling tickets at your next chapter meeting raffle each and every one of them deserve our thanks. The next time you disagree with someone rather than criticizing them why not thank them for their efforts and offer to help instead. You'll make everybody's job easier. More fun and certainly make that volunteers job just a little easier.

MSSA continues to monitor the Maryland State General Assembly, DNR, and other state and federal agencies to protect the rights and traditions of recreational fishing. To effectively do this we need your help, the rank-and-file MSSA member. The quickest and most effective way we have to solicit your help is to Voter Voice. It’s a great tool we use to get the word out quick to our members. It’s free and easy to sign up. Just go to our website www.MSSA.net and click on the link to sign up. When we aren’t using this for legislative issues we use it to contact our members on a bi-weekly basis. We publish Tidelines four times per year but send out e-mail updates up around 30 times per year. Stay a better informed MSSA member by simply signing up for alerts. The oyster shell dredging issue at Man O War Shoals is far from over even though the Maryland Department of Environment has tentatively approved a permit to dredge there. MSSA has been aggressively fighting this issue for almost 25 years now. We might have lost this recent battle but trust me we're not giving up we certainly are not going to quit until we win this war. The MDE are saying they're going to dredge this thing hoping, I say again hoping, to cause minimal damage. We hope doesn't this damage doesn’t occur. It took millions of years to develop and no doubt wilt take just a long to redevelop it if it’s destroyed by this dredging. The oyster recovery program has been one failure after another so why risk this great fishing area? This is just another example of poor management. Artificial substrate has proven to be much more effective in growing young oysters so why not use that instead. I look forward to meeting more of you in 2018. Together we can keep MSSA strong. I’d like to thank everyone who spends countless hours every single week to keep MSSA that way. Until next time, see you on the Bay.

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