TOWN OF EL PASO – The Eau Galle-Rush River Sportsman’s Club held its 50^th Annual Trout Fishing Contest on Saturday, May 2 at the Ellsworth Rod & Gun Club. It was not the opener, as the Wisconsin DNR decided to open trout season on April 4. Even though the opener was a month early, we had a beautiful day.

I think of the days when we were in the shed in El Paso and now, we have our event at the Rod & Gun Club. What a big difference. We want to thank the Ellsworth Rod & Gun Club for the use of their facility and for their auction donation. We want to thank ALL the business places who stuck with our club for 50 years and your donations to our events. And we thank you for supporting us on our flyers. It has all been very much appreciated.

Thank you to each member who donated to the auction and sold all the tickets and thank you to all of you who bought them. A big thank you to David Kiefer and Andrew Kiefer, and thank you Sue and Steve Boyer for doing the all-day food: the awesome chicken and all their time in doing this. Thank you to all who helped in any way. Sue said, “That was the best help ever.”

Thank you to Andrew Kiefer, Maria and all those who donated to the drawings we had for the children. This was the second year for this drawing, and it was bigger than last year.

On a sad note, we lost our very dear friend and auctioneer Jack Hines. We were very fortunate that his son, Jeff, took over and did an outstanding job. Jeff had a young man (Lane Duden) who also did an awesome job. Thank you Jeff and Lane.

Trout winners

Adult plaque: Wade Sotona, Spring Valley

Heaviest combined weight: Logan Sotona, Spring Valley ($200)

Youth plaque: Dawson Sotona, age 7, Spring Valley

Raffle winners

Leonard Place, Oshkosh, $300

Linda Bahr, Spring Valle, $150

Hailey Walz, Fridley, Minn., $50

Trout ticket drawing

Logan Sotona, Spring Valley, $100

Logan Sotona, Spring Valley, $75

Kamden Lucente, age 11, Ellsworth, $50