No-kill fishing pioneer, Frank (Bud) Powell received the first lifetime achievement award from The Anglers of the Au Sable early this year in late winter.
Powell, who lived on the river, started fly fishing in 1929, and kept a daily fishing journal. He began to release all his trout in 1938. His journal reveals that he and his sons have released more than 30,000 trout, twelve inches and over, from 1938 to 1994.
The following resolution of the Anglers' board was signed by Rusty Gates:
WHEREAS, The Anglers of the Au Sable is a six hundred member group of fly fishermen in more than half the United States and several foreign countries, and
WHEREAS, the Anglers of the Au Sable was formed during the struggle for more progressive regulations to improve the fishing for trout in the Au Sable, and
WHEREAS, The Anglers of the Au Sable have broadened their scope to the protection from threats of any kind to the watershed, and have become one of Michigan's most effective river conservation organizations, and
WHEREAS, Frank A. "Bud" Powell first fly-fished the Au Sable in 1929, and from 1938 on practiced a philosophy of catch and release, well before others even considered such a conservation-oriented idea, and
WHEREAS, Frank A. "Bud" Powell documented in written records that he and his sons have caught and released over 30,000 trout twelve inches or larger over this period, and
WHEREAS, Frank A. "Bud" Powell has documented and released more fish over twenty inches than most people could imagine catching in a lifetime,
THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Anglers of the Au Sable commend Frank A. "Bud" Powell with a lifetime achievement award for his foresight and dedication in over five decades of fishing the Au Sable by practicing a stewardship for fellow anglers to follow.
Bud was very pleased with this award.
He died in Florida in early spring. RWOL
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