Okay, it looks like we're going to have this year's big raffle coming up the 1st of February or so.

This is going to be a way bigger event this time around thanks to the help of a number of people.

Hre's our game plan at this point, we'll have more details as prizes & such fall into place.

$5 a ticket again

50% of the net proceeds will go the the worthy cause / charity of choice of the 1st place winner.

2nd place winner gets to disperse 30% of the proceeds.

3rd place winner gets to give 20% away.

1st place winner will get: a trip for two with me , a new Loomis rod & Shimano reel to fish with on your trip & beyond, a night of lodging here in Forks as well as your breakfast & lunch (courtesy of the Forks Coffee Shop )

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Mike Chamberlin & the gang at Ted\'s Sports Center as well as Kent / Bryan / Scott & everyone else at Three Rivers Marine for their help in contacting a number of NW tackle reps to obtain donations and for their respective shop donations as well.

As it stands, some of the goodies we'll have for prizes will be: a TH custom rod ; a variety pack of jigs from Northwest Angler ; another variety pack of jigs from Dave Hawken at Aerojig ; a whole mess of Puffballs ; Kaufmann\'s Fly Shop has donated a book on some nice warm fishing for us (we can all dream!); Dave Vedder has provided a signed copy of his book, Float Fishing For Steelhead ; Geroge Cook, rep for Action Optics has a nice set of polarized fishing glasses for us; it also looks like we should have some 100 packs of Gamakatsu hooks, some 100 packs of both Cheaters and Corkies from the folks at Beau-Mac and Yakima Bait, a C&R net from Frabill; and our pal Chef Pete Orel will provide a fancy dinner for two at the Amici Bistro in Mukilteo.

Canyon Man and Downriggin' may have some more goodies for us too (come on fellas )!

We're also likely to have a Shimano rod / reel combo and for the person who buys the most tickets ... another Loomis Rod!

If anyone in the tackle / retail industry has some product you can donate, we'd sure appreciate it!

We'll be making up a big section for the raffle with links to all those who've donated.

Even if you have / work for someone that isn't neccessarily fishing-related, we'd welcome some donations as well. Chef Pete's donation is a good example of what might be winner for us!

Some recommendations from Bob on some worthy causes this time around:

The Wild Steelhead Coalition

The Olympic Peninsula Guides' assocation Broodstock Fund (Snider Creek Hatchery), perhaps we'd get the kick start funding for an operation on the Calawah or Bogey.

The Quillayute Valley Scholorship Auction Fund ... providing college funds for Forks-area seniors headed off to college.

Wild Salmon center ... a group working on purchasing property along important drainages & such along the Hoh River to preserve habitat for salmon & steelhead. They teaming with the Western Rivers Conservency in what they call the "Hoh River Project".

Or,??????? Just some ideas, feel free to post some more suggestions!

If you have any questions or can donate some goodies for us, please email me at RLBALL@OLYPEN.COM or you can post here too

Should be a fun one again!

Question: Are tickets only avalible through the board/net or are they also able to be baught at other places? I'm just wondering cause I'd like to know somewhat my chances of winning something!

P.S. You can book me right away Bob!

There's no way Parker buys more tickets than me this time!!!

I got robbed on that last drawing. This time, it *will* be different!

Ya know Sky-Guy, if we *combined* our resources...and split the winnings 50/50.....

Heh, our TWO tickets should do the trick, huh?



Here's what the winning ticket will look like, again.

so is this the infamous "piscatorial lottery" , if i remember right...that was my idea...so thats worth, what...25 free entries

Bob,
I am no computer savy enough to get an email to you, but I have a question.

I use to be in the tackle business, if you were into bottom fishing in the 1980's by chance you may have used Sebastes Jigs, which were developed by myself (Doug Wilson) and Fred Vander Werff.

Anyway, we long ago sold the business which I understand is no longer active due to the death of the gentleman that bougtht the business from Fred a couple years after I sold my share.

All the production molds that were in use by Sebastes at the time of the sale went to that buyer, but the molds we no longer used, some bullet head and flat head models were not part of the sale.

So, I am sitting here with some precision cast molds in the 11/16th and I think 3/4 ounce molds that with skill can produce 250 jigs an hour ,( they are single cavity molds) whidh are just taking up space in my basement along with a couple of boxes of 10/0 nickel-camdmium hooks, 250 to the box, that are basically collecting dust. They are well used, but in good conditiion.

I'd happily donate them and pay the shipping by ground to get them to you if they would be an assett in your fund raiser.

Please let me know,

Sebastes AKA Doug Wilson
dm56@aol.com

How does Juan purchase a ticket?

Hey Doug ... I think they'd make a nice additon to the prize list!

Any donations can be sent to us at 312 Steelhead Ave. Forks, WA 98331.

Simply send off the item, who we should give credit to, hyperlink info if applicable, and perhaps an approximate value of your donation so I can sort properly

I should say that I got the box from Action Optics while we were gone, and we got TWO pairs of glasses, so we'll likley add a pair to our grand prize as well!

Thanks to Canyon Man for hitting up his dad ... we'll have two pairs of Bolle Polarized Glasses as well!

Remember, donations don't have to be fishing gear-only ... if you have or work for a biz that offers a product or service that might have wide appeal, they would be welcome too!

We'll likely be doing our regular paypal method of payment (credit cards work great) and we'll have a addy to mail off SMALL amounts of cash or checks to for mail-in entries.

With the looks of things, I'll be having some more time off here and I'll try to start getting things together for the raffle. Hopefully we'll start accepting ticket payment in the next week or two!

when i can start buying chances and i heard that one of the twins i give money to passed away is this true larry

Larry ... We're in the final stages pf planning for it and we should hopefully have things up and running shortly

We've got a big load of some cool Husky clothing I got for it today, hats, sweatshirts, turtleneck, windshirts, etc that we get to add to the mix as well! Thanks to our "anonymous" donor for all these ... gosh I might have to buy some tix myself now

On a sadder note, you did hear true Larry ... Jill did pass away not too long ago. The town and family are certainly saddened by her loss but still hopeful that Jess will battle through this. Her leukemia was diagnosed before it got as advanced due to the testing she underwent after her twin sis was already showing symptoms. We'll certainly keep her and her family in our thoughts and prayers!

When wil tickets go on sale?

I'm hoping to hopefully have them going by the end of the three day week-end (I marked two for off days, so I could maybe get caught up on chores).