WEYBURN – The Weyburn Wildlife Federation held their Fred Garner Memorial Banquet and Trophy Night on Saturday at McKenna Hall, presenting awards for the top game and fish for 2021.
The evening, the first time in two years it’s been held, was also a fundraiser banquet with live and silent auctions and raffles held throughout the evening, with around 220 people in attendance.
The recipient of the Fred Garner Memorial Award, for the outstanding member of the year, was Joe Stefaniuk.
The Fred Garner Award is given to the member of the WWF who has been the most valuable person for the club in the past year. This award was named after Fred Garner because Fred best exemplified what all members are trying to achieve.
Stefaniuk has been a member of the Weyburn Wildlife Federation for many years, and is an avid fisherman, hunter and conservationist. His winter hobbies include building birdhouses for wrens, and purple martins but mostly for tree swallows and bluebirds.
In the spring he puts them up on fence lines or on wildlife lands. Joe comes to all the WWF meetings, work parties and never missed a day of tree planting. He never expects to be repaid for expenses incurred while building birdhouses or whatever members are working on. Over the past year or more Joe has also pledged to cover the cost of several projects for the wildlife federation.
“We value Joe as a friend to us and to the Fish Wildlife Resource in all his actions,” said president Larry Olfert, who gave the details of the award via zoom as he was sick and couldn’t attend the banquet in person.
The awards for the best fish taken in 2021 were as follows.
The award for Northern pike went to Troy Kincaid, for a fish that weighed in at 21 pounds two ounces.
For walleye, Jeff Chinski won for an eight-pound seven-ounce fish, and for perch, Shane Knoll won with a fish that came in at one pound 12 ounces.
The junior prizes went to Corbin Knoll, for his perch, one pound four ounces; Ashton Schenk for pike, 15 lbs. three ounces; and Eden Tochor, for a walleye, seven lbs. two ounces.
For game birds, the award for pheasant went to Brent Olfert, 34 bars, and for a goose went to Kevin Paslawski, 13 lbs. six ounces.
For whitetail deer, the following awards were presented: typical buck, Dean Schenk, 157 1/8; non-typical buck, Brent Olfert, 203 0/8 (Henry Kelsey award); buck taken by archery, Brent Olfert, 203 0/8 (Henry Kelsey award); and the Larry Jacobson Memorial Award for junior whitetail buck went to Everett Murray, 108 0/8.
For mule deer, the following awards were presented: typical buck, Cindy Paslawski, 1757/8 (Henry Kelsey award); non-typical buck, Darryl Mutrie, 200 0/8 (Henry Kelsey award); buck taken by archery, Darryl Mutrie, 200 0/8 (Henry Kelsey award); Junior mule deer buck, Larry Jacobson Memorial Award, went to Everett Murray, 84 6/8.
The award for antelope went to Ryan Simons, 77 0/8 (Henry Kelsey award).
The award for moose went to Mathew Anderson, 145 6/8.
For black bear, Kevin Paslawski was awarded for a bear taken by a rifle, 18 14/16, and Chris Dunne was awarded for a bear taken by archery, 21 11/16. This won a Henry Kelsey award and was the biggest bear taken in the province.
The Grand Slam Awards were presented, with the overall winner being Matthew Anderson for a bull moose, mule deer buck and whitetail buck.
Three members won grand slam awards: Evelyn Paslawski, for a moose, mule deer buck and whitetail doe; Kevon Paslawski, for a whitetail buck, mule deer buck and black bear; and Cindy Paslawski, for a mule deer buck, whitetail buck and cow elk.
The best big game animal taken by a woman was by Cindy Paslawski for a mule deer buck (velvet), 175 7/8 (Henry Kelsey award).
The best overall big game animal taken by a muzzleloader, the Doug Lanz Memorial Award, went to Jake Sonnenberg, antelope, 75 6/8 (Henry Kelsey award).
