Rainier Bass Club closes the 2009 Season Cleaning up! 
By Mark Byrne

Project Aware International Clean up Day was September 19, 2009 and Rainier Bass Club (RBC) had a tournament scheduled for that date at Lake Goodwin just north of the Tulalip Indian Reservation. RBC member Mark Byrne and Washington BASS Federation Nation Conservation Director signed the club up to do some cleanup work after the tournament, picking up trash at the public boat ramp area.

Everyone was issued trash pickup bags supplied by Project Aware before the tournament blast off so they could pick up some before their turn to weigh-in. Well, there must have been some misunderstanding because almost everyone had trash in their bags before they arrived at the boat ramp for weigh-in! Everyone was talking and almost bragging about how they fished up a beer can or glass bottle off the lake bottom with their landing nets or the old sunglasses they found in three feet of water. After the boats were beached, and as the fish were being weighed, members were off looking for and picking up as much trash as they could find.

The weather was terrible with heavy rain and gusting wind all day but every RBC angler caught fish and had fish to weigh-in. When it was all said and done the weight of the trash collected was just a little less than the total weight of the bass caught. It was a great tournament year and what better way to close the tournament year than giving something back doing a needed cleanup project.

Oh yeah Brian Walters won the tournament with a nice limit of smallmouth bass and Robert Mann a first year member and tournament bass fisherman won the 2009 Angler of the Year!



For more information about Project Aware Foundation: www.projectaware.org.