Kudos for Izumi Outdoors and Normark’s Cannon

The folks at Izumi Outdoors Inc., along with Normark Canada’s retired head honcho, Roger Cannon, were honoured this morning at the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show during the annual general meeting of the Canadian Sportfishing Industry Association.

Bob and Wayne Izumi and their crew at Izumi Outdoors, along with Cannon, were this year’s recipients of the CSIA’s Chairman’s Awards for their contributions to the Canadian angling scene. Cannon, who spent 33 years putting Rapalas into the nation’s tackleboxes, is a champion of sportfishing in Canada and continues to serve on the CSIA board.

Izumi Outdoors, meanwhile, produces TV’s Real Fishing Show starring angling icon Bob Izumi, as well as Real Fishing magazine. The company is also the driving force behind the Fish For Ever Foundation, which raises funds for fisheries conservation projects in Ontario, and the popular Kids, Cops & Canadian Tire Fishing Days, a grassroots program designed to get children interested in fishing. Congratulations, folks! Well deserved.

Also during this morning’s AGM, Shimano Canada executive Phil Morlock brought CSIA members up to speed on the controversial plans in the U.S. to potentially ban  sportfishing in so-called Marine Protected Areas—giant swathes of ocean and inland waters—under the guise of conservation. Morlock wrote about the issue in the Fishing 2010 edition of Outdoor Canada; he was also interviewed about it on ESPN (click here for that story).

Finally at this morning’s meeting, the slate of directors for the next year was formally approved. Set to serve one more year in their current two-year terms are:

• Kim Rhodes (President), Lucky Strike Baitworks, Manufacturer
• Tom Brooke (Chair), Shimano Canada, Manufacturer
• Steve Dorey (Vice-President), Maurice Sporting Goods, Distributor
• Ray Sriubiskis (Sect/Treasurer), Cnd National Sportsmen’s Shows, Media
• Roger Cannon, Normark Inc Manufacturer
• Cam Thomson, Pure Fishing Canada Ltd., Manufacturer
• Shawn Glowka, KTL Canada Ltd Distributor
• Nelson Murakami, Natural Sports, Retailer
• Jim Estabrooks, Fishing World, Retailer
• Mark Harrison, Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., Retailer
• David Johnson, The Fishin’ Hole, Retailer
• Jim Gourlay, Eastern Woods & Waters, Media
• Mark Stiffel, Brecks International Inc., Manufacturer
• Brent McCallum, Redl Sports, Distributor
• Salim Sachedina, Canadian-Sportfishing, Media
• Steve Sherman, Shimano Canada, Manufacturer