April General Meeting: 
The April general meeting is today, April 21st, at Sheridan Park Community Center in Bremerton. Doors open at 6:30 pm, meeting starts at 7:00 pm. No food tonight.

2026 Elections:
Welcome Jim Nelson and Ryan Stock to the Poggie Board!

Salmon in the Classroom:
Thank you to all of the volunteers who made this year’s Salmon in the Classroom program a success. The schools have taken field trips to release their salmon and we are excited to expand the program once again next year.

The South Kitsap School District shared a nice video of the students releasing their salmon which is available on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1HeaMMny6r/

2026 Kid’s Fishing Party:

The 2026 Kid’s Fishing Party is this Saturday April 25th, 2026, see flyer below. There is plenty to do, so please join at a general meeting to get involved.

Some important dates are:

• 4/23 at 9:00am: Trout arrive at hatchery, Poggies disperse trout in ponds and setup shade structures
• 4/25 at 9:00am: Kid’s Fishing Party starts
• 4/26 at 9:00am: Poggies remove trout and clean up at the hatchery

On Saturday 4/25 if you would like to volunteer at the Kid’s Fishing Party, feel free from to come down and float around. However, we are especially in need of volunteers for the following roles:

• Parking attendants
• Registration booth
• Rods and bait
• Weigh-in station (helping Nick Fox)
• Fish cleaning station

2026 Winter Blackmouth Derby:
We had beautiful weather and good fishing for our Winter Blackmouth derby out of Port of Brownsville.

A total of five fish were weighed in and congratulations to Nick Fox for reeling in the winner at 7.90lbs.

Most of the action was in the Jeff Head area with spoons and red label herring trolled behind flashers producing most of the bites.

Thank you to Poggie Randy Fox for running the derby!

Stay tuned for our summer salmon derby, which is open to the public!

Hatchery Volunteering:
The tribes require a background check in order to volunteer and this year there will be a new process for all volunteers, regardless of background checks completed in previous years. The tribe has given us the process for registering as a volunteer and completing the background check. If you’d like to learn more and get involved please talk to Lou Rodriguez at a meeting.

Kitsap Water Festival:
Kitsap Water Festival is on Tuesday, May 12th, at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. We typically host a booth playing the salmon lifecycle game as well as having a small aquarium holding salmon. We will need 4-6 volunteers to attend Kitsap Water Festival. If you’d like to get involved, please sign up at a meeting and you can learn more here: https://www.kitsap.gov/pw/pages/edwaterfest.aspx

Camp Easter Seals:
We are extremely grateful to Hank Altenburg for his work over many years with the Camp Easter Seals trips. As Hank hands off our Camp Easter Seals program Poggie Howard Kauffman has stepped in to continue our effort towards the program. If you would like to get involved, please learn more at a meeting.

We are planning six trips at Camp Easter Seals on: 7/3 7/18 8/1 8/5 8/15 and 8/29
During the month of June we will need volunteers to help prepare and launch the boat at Camp Easter Seals. Since the boat flooring is in need of repair, we are requesting anyone in the club with access to a deck sander that we can borrow to please call Griffin at 425-281-0771.

We will need 3-4 Poggie volunteers per trip, typically meeting at Camp Easter Seals at 8am and staying until around 1pm. If you would like to volunteer, please sign up at a meeting.

2026 Summer Salmon Derby:
We are in the early phases of planning for our summer salmon derby, likely to be held in mid-to-late July depending on the fishing season.

In addition to looking for additional Poggies to help plan the derby, we are asking all Poggies to consider any local businesses who would be willing to donate to the prize pool. We can prepare donation request documents and throw a wide net for donations. Ticket sales from the summer salmon derby support our programs like Salmon in the Classroom, Conservation Camp Scholarships, Kid’s Fishing Party and more.

Poggie Merch:
Since Poggie jackets are custom ordered, please contact kitsappoggieclub@gmail.com if you are interested in getting a Poggie Jacket.

Donations:
Thank you to the Jarstad family for their generous donation.

Board Met:
April 15th 7PM at Art Bruner Residence. Next board meeting is May 13th, 2026.

Dues: 
Please make sure you are caught up on your 2026 annual dues. Dues serve the community through camp scholarships, salmon in the classroom, Kid’s fishing party, etc. You can pay on the web at https://kitsappoggieclub.com/about/membership-application/, you can pay by mail at the address below, you can pay at a meeting.

Kitsap Poggie Club
C/O Louie Morton
PO Box 561
Silverdale, Wa. 98383-9998

Don’t forget to invite your friends and family to our events and recruit them to join!

Club needs:

• Kitsap Water Festival volunteers
• Kid’s Fishing Party volunteers
• Camp Easter Seals volunteers and deck sander rental
• Donations for summer picnic auction (contact John Stacy)

Upcoming events:

• 4/23: Trout arrival day for Kid’s Fishing Party
• 4/25: 2026 Kid’s Fishing Party
• 4/26: Kid’s Fishing Party clean up day
• 5/12: Kitsap Water Festival
• 8/8: Summer Picnic