The Alberni Valley Tyee Club has donated $1,000 to the Alberni Valley Enhancement Association to help with additions to the Jake Leyenaar Hatchery at McLean Mill National Historic Site.
The donation comes from proceeds from the 2019 ladder season, explained Tyee Club spokesperson Carolyn Jasken.
The AVEA will use the funds to install a dehumidification system to remove moisture from the hatchery, said Scott Kenny of the AVEA.
The school program at the hatchery was cancelled this year, but they still released 64,000 coho fry in the Kitsuksis Creek system as well as 10,000 in Rogers Creek, Kenny said.
The 2020 Tyee Club ladder season opened Saturday, June 6 and it didn’t take long for the fish to bite.
Tickets are available at Gone Fishin’ in Port Alberni (4985 Johnston Rd. at the corner of Johnston and Margaret Street); the ladder season runs until Sept. 13.
There is also a Junior Tyee Club ladder for the youngest generation of sportfishers in the Alberni Valley.
Some modifications have been made to the rules to mesh with COVID-19 measures, Jasken said. The year-end barbecue has already been cancelled, but they hope to have live award presentations.
The club is hoping to boost membership this year despite challenges that the coronavirus pandemic has caused. “We’re pretty much social distanced out there already,” Jasken said of sportfishing.
A bigger membership means the club will be able to make bigger donations toward salmon enhancement programs, she added.
That would be a benefit to the AVEA, which has received the same $11,250 in funding for the Leyenaar Hatchery for the past several years, Kenny said.
“We could do more with a bigger budget. We get by.”