Cal Sports Nov 2018

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California

Sportsman Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

Volume 11 • Issue 2 PUBLISHER James R. Baker GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak EXECUTIVE EDITOR Andy Walgamott EDITOR Chris Cocoles CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Brittany Boddington LEAD WRITER Tim E. Hovey CONTRIBUTORS Mike Borel, Scott Haugen, Tiffany Haugen, Todd Kline, Bill Schaefer, Jim Williams, Beverly Valdez SALES MANAGER Katie Higgins ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mamie Griffin, Mike Smith, Paul Yarnold DESIGNERS Kayla Mehring, Jake Weipert PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker DIGITAL STRATEGIST Jon Hines ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Katie Aumann INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER Lois Sanborn ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@calsportsmanmag.com CORRESPONDENCE Email ccocoles@media-inc.com Twitter @CalSportsMan Facebook.com/californiasportsmanmagazine ON THE COVER Brant are a challenging bird to bag, and if you want to score one, Humboldt Bay along the Northern California coast is one of the best locations to get it done. (SCOTT HAUGEN) MEDIA INC PUBLISHING GROUP CALIFORNIA OFFICE 4517 District Blvd. • Bakersfield, CA 93313 (661) 381-7533 WASHINGTON OFFICE P.O. Box 24365 • Seattle, WA 98124-0365 14240 Interurban Ave. S., Suite 190 Tukwila, WA 98168 (206) 382-9220 • (800) 332-1736 • Fax (206) 382-9437 media@media-inc.com • www.media-inc.com

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CONTENTS

VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 2

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TRIUMPHANT RETURN Alyssa Hovey was frustrated, angry, even a bit melancholy after an unsuccessful pig hunt with her dad, lead writer Tim Hovey. But this is a family eager to take on whatever challenge the outdoors throws at them, so father and daughter returned to the same grassy, hilly area to redeem Alyssa’s missed chance, this time with the huntress using a new skill. (TIM E. HOVEY)

FEATURES 19

IN THE LAND OF THE BIG CAT Biologist Jim Williams fell in love with the outdoors as a surfer and offshore fisherman when he spent his teen and early college years in the San Diego area. But he’s become most passionate about studying one of the Western Hemisphere’s most storied predators, mountain lions. Williams is now based in Montana and has traveled all the way to South America to learn more about these wild cats, and he’s written a book about them. Check out an excerpt and our interview with this mountain lion savant.

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BRAVO FOR BRANT

Our Field to Fire columnist Scott Haugen has bagged plenty of brant in Alaska, but they are harder to come by in the Golden State. One spot where you can score one of these prized birds is on Humboldt Bay, a gem on the North Coast for waterfowl hunters.

Get the inside scoop on how to get your limit without traveling to the Last Frontier, then try out Tiffany Haugen’s recipe for tasty brant chorizo sausage!

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AFRICAN ADVENTURE

Brittany Boddington has hunted in Africa before, but our She Hunts columnist, her dad Craig and fiancé Brad headed to more off-the-beatenpath and rougher-around-the-edges Mozambique. They were in search of Cape buffalo, hidden in a swampy landscape with tenants that included crocodiles and snakes, and covered in skin-shredding sawgrass. Find out if Brad was able to harvest his first buffalo and help provide local villagers with plenty of meat.

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TARGET LOBSTER TRAPS FOR CALICO

Calico bass are prized targets for Southern California saltwater anglers, and this time of year you can find these colorful fish in more shallow offshore waters. One area to look for calico is around – but not right on top of – the many lobster traps set throughout the season. Bill Schaefer explains how to keep just enough distance from the traps and still be able to land big calico.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 56 69 73 111

Holiday Gift Guide How to make pup’s waterfowl hunting debut more comfortable Quail hunting prep work A set-up for scoring winter bass

DEPARTMENTS 15 37

The Editor’s Note Protecting Wild California: Help lead more bighorn sheep to water 39 Adventures of Todd Kline: U.S. Open at Lake Mead 43 Photo contest winners 45 Outdoor calendar 107 Rig of the Month

Read California Sportsman on your desktop or mobile device. Go to www.calsportsmanmag.com/digital California Sportsman is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Avenue South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Send address changes to California Sportsman, PO Box 24365, Seattle, WA 98124. Annual subscriptions are $29.95 (12 issues), 2-year subscription are $39.95 (24 issues). Send check or money order to Media Index Publishing Group, or call (206) 382-9220 with VISA or M/C. Back issues are available at Media Index Publishing Group offices at the cost of $5 plus shipping. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising.

All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2018 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A. 10 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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THEEDITOR’SNOTE

Several upland bird seasons, including wild turkey, open in California on Nov. 10, the same day as the modern gun deer opener in Arkansas, which the editor discovered was a big deal when he lived there. (HARRY MORSE/CDFW)

T

he almost six years (2003-2009) I spent in Fayetteville, Arkansas, during my sports reporter days usually were dominated – at least in the fall – by football.

On Fridays I was usually driving to far-flung towns like Siloam Springs, Huntsville, Alma, Ozark, Greenwood, Charleston, Harrison, Pea Ridge, among many others, to cover a game. What did they all have in common? I think each had a Sonic Drive-In (and often I stopped at least once for a burger, dog or shake, as they were that good), and they all supported their local high school teams on Friday nights.

Saturdays? I usually was part of our coverage team at University of Arkansas home football games and wrote a sidebar about some important trend or moment from that day’s game. As a major college program in the Southeastern Conference, Arkansas Razorbacks games are a statewide phenomenon and Reynolds Razorback Stadium’s 72,000-plus seats were more often than not filled.

So yeah, Arkansans adored their football and loved “Calling the Hogs” to honor the school’s Russian boar live mascot, Tusk. But in early November, that loyalty was often put to the test. When I first moved to Arkansas, my new coworkers swore to me that attendance at both high school and Razorback games would take a hit on the early November Saturday of the modern gun deer hunting opener. Having understood what a religion the sport was in those parts, I dismissed the notion as – pardon the pun – hogwash.

But I’ll be damned if on the Friday night before the season opener the next morning, more often than not fans attending the high school game would be dressed in camo and have plans to bolt to deer camp the moment the fourth-quarter clock struck zero. Even the next day, if the Razorbacks were playing at home and regardless of the home team’s record, a few thousand less seats would always be empty as the bucks beckoned.

Now, almost a decade later and editing a hunting and fishing magazine, I get it. Our stories this month focus on hunting big game (pigs), birds (waterfowl and quail) and even exotic species (African Cape buffalo). And I know that California sportsmen and -women are as dedicated to the sport as those football-obsessed Arkansans willing to stay away from the stadium to take advantage of their outdoor opportunities.

So this month as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving – with among other traditions, football – I know that hunters will be just as thankful for the chance to harvest their own turkey, duck or pheasant and maybe even make their holiday meal an organic celebration.

–Chris Cocoles calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

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MAJESTY OF THE MOUNTAIN LION

TALES OF A BIOLOGIST

NEW BOOK PAYS HOMAGE TO ICONIC AND LARGEST WILD CAT OF THE AMERICAS “My husband tells me you’re in sharks,” Ellen Brody declares to oceanographer Matt Hooper in the film Jaws. Let’s go ahead and say wildlife manager Jim Williams is in mountain lions and has studied and obsessed over these majestic predators in a career spanning multiple decades of research and two continents. And he hopes he and the next generation continue experiencing cougars in their natural settings.

“Big, wild cats worldwide are in trouble, threatened and endangered,” Williams writes in a new book about the phantom felines this former surfer from San Diego has grown to love and has vowed to preserve their legacy as one of the planet’s most remarkable species.

The following is excerpted from Path of the Puma: The Remarkable Resilience of the Mountain Lion (© 2018) by Jim Williams.

Published by and reprinted with permission from Patagonia Books.

–Chris Cocoles

Mountain lions are found throughout the West, including California, and they’re one of the Lower 48’s “most effective and efficient predators,” according to wildlife biologist and former San Diego resident Jim Williams, whose new book, Path of the Puma, is all about the species. (BOB WIESNER)

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TALES OF A BIOLOGIST

“In the process of natural selection, given a liberal allowance of time, it is the lion’s claw, the lion’s tooth and need, that has given the deer its beauty and speed and grace.” – Edward Abbey, The Journey Home

By Jim Williams

N

ot only did the Buckhorn Bar look like an authentic 1880s Western saloon, it often acted like one. One night during my first Christmas in town, the daughter of a well-known local rancher, home from college, was sitting at a nearby table with her friends.

Also in the bar were half a dozen loggers, tough thirsty men who’d been out

by Smith Creek all week cutting trees by hand. Before long, a wobbly logger began hitting on the rancher’s daughter.

That prompted her father’s workers to lay down their pool cues and drift over. I was about to advise the logger to move on when a ranch hand tapped him on the shoulder.

Three things happened, very quickly: the logger turned around; the rancher’s fist sent him reeling; and the bystanders immediately joined the fray. Amid the chaos, the logger got to his feet, jumped over the bar, and sprinted out the back door of the Buckhorn Bar to the Lazy B Hotel, three doors down Main Street.

The crowd followed.

When the sheriff’s deputy arrived, the logger was poised like a fencer in front of his second-story room, waving and revving his chainsaw every time a ranch hand advanced. Finally, the deputy herded everyone but the logger back to the Buckhorn, where we could all return to a more refined, less combustible drunkenness and frivolity.

Welcome to Augusta, Montana, “the last original cow town in the West” – at least according to the Augusta Chamber of Commerce. With my arrival in 1989, the population swelled to 251.

My job was to track big cats and to add

This young cougar unsuccessfully chased two mountain goats at the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness in Montana. Worldwide, only African lions, tigers and fellow North American species jaguars are bigger cats than Puma concolor. (JESSE VERNADO)

to mountain lion science, but most folk here were more interested in how to keep their cattle safe from the hungry carnivores.

Founded in 1844 – back when Montana was still a territory – and named after the first child born there, Augusta is located 15 miles off the Rocky Mountain Front on a vast and windy grassy plain. Look east, and you see an ocean of American prairie, where massive herds of bison thundered not so long ago.

Look west, and a tremendous mountain rampart soars straight up from the grassy flats, a stretch of alpine peaks known as the Rocky Mountain Front.

Those summits are some of the wildest country left in America, part of the rugged Bob Marshall Wilderness. Locals know it simply as ‘The Bob,’ a million pristine acres comprising the fifth-largest protected wilderness in the Lower 48, home to wolves and wolverines, bears and big cats. Its peaks crash into the prairie the same abrupt way its predators crash into the cattle herds.

Ironically, The Bob takes its name from a city slicker: Bob Marshall, born in New York City in 1901. He was a plant scientist, writer and prodigious walker, who logged countless miles through the unmapped country around the South Fork of the Flathead River. He cofounded The Wilderness Society, and

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campaigned to preserve places where people could travel for weeks without crossing a road. One year after his death in 1939, just such a wilderness in Montana was created in his honor.

Augusta was where I lived: The Bob and the Front were my office. It was a dream assignment – tracking mountain lions for my graduate thesis under the direction of none other than Dr. Picton.

Author of the book Saga of the Sun and the definitive elk migration research in The Bob, Dr. Picton was one of Montana’s early wildlife biologists in this Sun River country. In fact, he was still known as Harold “Tall-in-the-Saddle” Picton by some of the locals.

Given his time in the field and depth of knowledge – and the fact that he’d trained many of the staff now working for the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department – in my world he held sway.

When the time came for me to choose a master’s thesis project, Dr. Picton told me that although big cats had been studied in Yellowstone National Park and some other Western states, there was little information about them in The Bob and Rocky Mountain Front. I was excited to fill in some of those gaps.

In technical terms, the Sun River drainage is inhabited by a unique species array made up of a large numbers of both resident and migratory ungu-

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TALES OF A BIOLOGIST

lates as well as large carnivores. In laymen terms, this country is a messy and migratory cycle of eat and be eaten.

The ungulates – “meat with feet” as the writer Doug Chadwick calls them – include elk, white-tailed and mule deer, moose, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats. The primary carnivores are black and grizzly bears, wolves, and mountain lions; there are also lynx, coyotes, red fox, wolverines, and badgers.

From a wildlife biologist’s point of view, this broad “array of species” interacting across such a vast area – nearly three million acres when you include adjacent parks and wilderness areas – is unique in North America. With the exception of the extinction of wooly mammoths and the extirpation of the buffalo (which are slowly being returned to parts of the ecosystem), the rugged Rocky Mountain Front has changed very little since the Pleistocene ice retreated 10,000 years ago. This

is old country, still intact, still wild.

My job here, with support from local biologists and state wildlife managers, was to spend a few years living among the mountain lions, tracking them to learn about their health, habits, and habitats. What did they eat, and when?

How often did they kill? What did they kill? What kind of habitat did they prefer, during what time of year?

It’s big country, a geologic jumble of sawtooth ridges and deep river valleys, and to answer those questions I would travel it on foot, top to bottom, end to end. Today’s wildlife biologists can gather more data more quickly, employing GIS and satellite technology to track animals remotely from the comfort of the office. But I got my schooling in the analog era, when the only way to gather information was to literally live with the lions. Less data, to be sure, but also a different sort of data. More intimate.

A satellite collar can transmit a location, tell you where a cat was and when. But unless you’re there, in the field, you miss

the relationships that make nature work – the weather and the wind and the topography and the light that can explain why a cat was in a particular place at a particular time. What I lost in sample size, I gained in context.

Every time I have climbed a peak in The Bob, there were no signs of humanity in any direction. The entire area can be circled in a car a 380-mile drive – but not a single road crosses it. This was not going to be easy. Complicating my job was the fact that Dr. Picton didn’t believe in providing detailed instructions. As he told me many times over the course of the project – and as I was to learn for myself – failing repeatedly was part of the process.

MOUNTAIN LIONS ARE THE most effective and efficient large predators in the Americas. Period.

They are nature’s perfect stalk-andambush killer. What is astounding is that we, as a 21st century urban society, have allowed them to recover, not just across the West, but also, perhaps, in the East,

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist oversees a captured cat. Williams says the future of lion populations in California will be determined in part by the animals’ ability to safely cross the heavily populated state’s busy roads. (HARRY MORSE/CDFW)

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TALES OF A BIOLOGIST

where individual cats – mostly young males, dispersing from home – are even now pioneering new-old territories.

It’s a dramatic and unlikely turnaround, against the odds, from the near-eradication of cats in this country. For decades, states paid bounties for dead mountain lions, and unrestricted hunting was encouraged in an attempt to exterminate the predator. These policies had a predictably devastating effect on lion populations; when Lewis and Clark and David Thompson traveled west, “panthers” roamed the entirety of the Lower 48, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America all the way to Patagonia.

But by the turn of the last century, the cats were virtually extinct east of the Mississippi – with the notable exception of the Florida panther, which survived only by retreating to the inhospitable swamps of the Everglades.

In the West, mountain lions found refuge in the wild, sweeping landscapes, but even there they were in trouble. My friend and mentor Maurice Hornocker, a pioneer in mountain lion and other wild

Athletic, graceful and regal, mountain lions are “nature’s perfect stalk-and-ambush killer,” Williams writes. This one leaps a fence in Patagonia; South America’s are larger and tanner than their North American cousins. (PABLO CERSO)

cat research, estimates that by the early 1960s there were only 6,500 mountain lions left in the United States. It’s a bestguess number, but we do know that between 1936 and 1961 a staggering 3,219 bounties were paid in Washington state.

Another 3,582 were paid in Oregon. And in California, 12,500 lions were killed between 1907 and 1972 for bounty or for sport. So depleted were cat numbers by mid-century that from 1932 to 1950, fewer than five mountain lions were taken each year in Montana.

Hornocker, setting out to study the great cats in the early 1960s, paid hunters $50 if they could tree a lion so that he could fit it with a radio collar for tracking.

He ultimately collared an impressive fourteen cats, but studying them was another matter; by winter’s end, hunters had killed all but four. In 1964, Hornocker moved his research deep into the Idaho wilderness, launching a ten-year study that was the genesis of the lion science to come. It provided seminal information about all things cat – feeding habits, habitat, social structure, relationships with deer and elk,

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predation on livestock – and it opened eyes. Mountain lion predation, it turns out, was not having any serious effect on deer and elk herds, and neither were the cats affecting livestock in any significant manner. Hornocker’s data, in many ways, cleared the way for the end of bounties and unrestricted hunting, which in turn led to modern lion management and the tremendous and unlikely comeback we are witnessing today.

Cats are now thriving in their strongholds out West. More impressive still, they are slowly but surely rewilding our continent on the backs of deer and darkness, moving across the Midwest and southern Canada, on their way to New England. They are tracking ancient river-bottom routes, following prey down the Missouri, the Milk, the Saskatchewan, the long east-west rivers that are pumping lions from the Rocky Mountain Front to the Black Hills and beyond.

Anywhere there is enough human tolerance and prey, the big cats are reclaiming old ground. Minnesota’s dairy country. Ohio’s corn country. The farm-

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lands of Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York.

All of this is potential home range for tomorrow’s cat communities. Wildlife managers have successfully built up tremendous herds of white-tailed deer across America, for the benefit of hunters, and that prey base is driving the remarkable recovery of lions. It’s astonishing, really, considering that we are in the age of extinction for large predators in the Americas – and given our long history of eliminating any animal that can harm us, or, more accurately, our livestock.

SO HOW IS THIS happening? Why the mountain lion? And why is the mountain lion the only large cat on planet Earth that is increasing both in numbers and distribution?

It’s not just the deer. It’s the way we think about the wild. A radical change swept North America during the 1970s, an environmental ethos driven by the science of ecology – the science of the connections between the parts, and not simply the parts themselves. Ecology taught us the intricate relationships at play in the natural world, the “web of life” that includes everything from bac-

teria and photosynthetic green plants to insects to deer and elk and wolves. Most important, for mountain lions, ecology established that our native large predators also play an important role in these natural systems. Every one of the parts is needed if the ecosystem is to function naturally. Predators aren’t villains. They are indispensable.

I was a young man when the Endangered Species Act passed into law in 1973, and I still remember the beautiful National Wildlife Federation posters featuring a black-footed ferret, a wolf, and, of course, a resting mountain lion. These were the very beginnings of nationwide tolerance for predators, and of a drive toward natural and intact ecological systems throughout North America. It was a time of people awakening to the role carnivores played in ecosystems.

At the same time – thanks to groundbreaking 1960s field research by Maurice Hornocker in the wilderness mountains of Idaho – we learned that the lions weren’t, in fact, eating us out of business. His studies proved absolutely that mountain lions are dependent on healthy deer and elk herds. Contrary

Between 1907 and 1972, 12,500 California mountain lions were killed either via bounty or sport hunting. But as a whole, North America’s population is healthy these days. “It’s a dramatic and unlikely turnaround, against the odds,” Williams writes, “from the near-eradication of cats in this country.” (DARIO PODES) 26 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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TALES OF A BIOLOGIST

BIG CAT CHAT

Author and biologist Jim Williams was fascinated with big cats ever since he watched the 1967 film Charlie the Lonesome Cougar. “There is no question that mountain lions are the most effective predator in the Americas,” he says. (JIM WILLIAMS)

E

ditor Chris Cocoles caught up with Path of the Puma author Jim Williams, who talked about his California roots and his love for the big cats he’s spent his career studying on multiple continents.

Chris Cocoles Congratulations on an awesome book, Jim. What was your inspiration for writing this?

Jim Williams I have always enjoyed sharing stories about wild things and wild places. I really wanted to tell some of the adventure stories about some truly magical animals and landscapes – the Crown of the Continent in Montana and Patagonia (Argentina and Chile). These special places are home to some amazing colorful species at both ends of the world. And I have always wanted to write a book. I love books!

CC You were born in Iowa but spent your teen years in San Diego. What was the California lifestyle like for you?

JW Growing up surfing on longboards made by the legendary Skip Frye, saltwater fishing from those same surfboards and free diving the reefs around Pacific Beach in San Diego changed my life. When I finally donned a mask and peeked beneath the waves that my friends and I enjoyed so much I was amazed at the diversity of life underwater. I knew then I wanted a marine biology degree and I ended up at San Diego State University. The smell and taste of the ocean on the morning breeze from an old beach cruiser bike, the sweet scent of orange trees in bloom and the bright red colors of hibiscus flowers will forever be etched in my mind. The Pacific Ocean was my wild place and I will always love California for that.

CC In the book you write about paddling out on your board in the Pacific to fish for sea bass and rockfish. What kind of memories do you have of those days?

JW There is no better-tasting fish than freshly caught marine fish. We used to use our teeth to clench the soft part of the rod

while we paddled with our arms out to the local kelp beds near Tourmaline Surfing Park (La Jolla). We would use a weedless rubber Scampi lures to jig in and around the towering stands of brown-colored kelp. The brightly colored rockfish and sea bass tasted the best.

My surfing buddies and I also enjoyed using Hawaiian slings to spear halibut and corbina. They all were quite tasty as well, especially cooked in tinfoil over an open fire on the beach. I never had much money, so these fish were always quite a treat.

Angling brings all of us closer to nature and inspires us to protect clean water.

CC Where did your fascination for mountain lions begin?

JW My parents took me to the movie theater to watch Charlie the Lonesome Cougar (1967) when I was a child. I knew immediately that I wanted to learn more about this big brown cat that lived in some pretty wild mountains. After completing my first marine biology degree I wanted a change, so I hung an old shark jaw on my rearview mirror and loaded everything else I owned into an old red Jeep Scrambler and drove out west. I ended up at Montana State University in Bozeman and jumped on the opportunity to study mountain lions for a graduate degree. I have never looked back.

CC You’ve done a lot of your work about mountain lions in Montana, but do you have

28 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

some perspective about the cats’ population in California and what the future might hold for the species in the Golden State?

JW Unfortunately, we as humans are the most influential force on the planet. Right or wrong, it’s up to us if we decide that we want to share our landscape with large carnivores that can potentially eat our pets, livestock or even pose a safety risk to humans. For mountain lions, these types of conflicts are not the norm as long as we still have big wild spaces with plenty of native prey species. In California that typically means deer.

I think that maintaining genetically connected populations of big cats with places that they can safely cross your busy highways and interstate freeways is perhaps your most difficult challenge. The good news is that building crossing underpasses or overpasses works. We have them in places throughout Montana. The bad news is that they are often quite expensive to build. How much is having the mountain lion on our wild landscapes worth? For me there is no question. It’s our responsibility as a society to conserve these amazing animals and the wild places they live.

CC I used to live in Thousand Oaks in Southern California and there is a plan in place to (someday) create the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing over the Ventura Freeway (U.S. 101) in Agoura Hills. It looks like a fascinating though complicated idea, so how

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TALES OF A BIOLOGIST

A young Jim Williams handles a tranquilized mountain lion in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness. After leaving his beloved surfing spots off San Diego, Williams found his niche studying big cats in Big Sky country. (JIM WILLIAMS)

much can that and similar projects offer indigenous California critters a lifeline with so much human intervention in their way?

JW Crossings under highways – if designed correctly – will benefit many native species. Some (conservationists) like tunnels versus large underpass structures - depending on species behavior. They are expensive, but they are worth it.

CC You penned a great chapter about suburban populations sharing space with predators such as mountain lions. I grew up in San Mateo County in the Bay Area, where there have been many sightings and even attacks in suburban communities. How difficult is it for lions to coexist with human beings with so many people around in the Bay Area and Southern California?

JW There is no question that mountain lions are the most effective predator in the Americas. They can also pose a safety risk to us humans at times. Human-lion conflicts are actually quite rare, but when they happen it’s of course tragic for both family and friends. (Editor’s note: Two people were killed by cougars in Washington and Oregon this year, the first fatal attacks in either state in nearly a century and in the historical record, respectively.)

It’s entirely appropriate if we have to remove an individual problem mountain lion to maintain tolerance for the entire population. It’s all about the entire population and healthy habitats versus the individual problem cat. If there is enough wild space with deer there will be lions in California; it’s as simple as that. When we break up wild spaces and build neighborhoods next to or in deer habitat we are going to need to learn how to live with mountain lions. It will always be a challenge.

I think that information and education for all residents in the urban wildland interface is your best hope. I have found throughout my career that most people truly care about all wildlife but they need good information to minimize their impact on wildlife populations. Bottom line: support your local land trusts. Your best hope is to work with willing landowners to secure conservation easements or outright acquisitions to permanently protect the wild places you have left. Time is not on your side in California.

30 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

CC Some of my favorite sections of the book are your research on pumas in South America’s Patagonia (parts of Argentina and Chile). How much of an adventure has that been for you in such a rugged but beautiful corner of the world?

JW I had heard about the landscapes; I had heard about the good food and wine; I had heard about the wildlife. But in the end I fell in love with the people of Patagonia. They are a passionate bunch that are very proud of their unique part of the world. The biologists I worked with are doing so much with so little. I also thought that Montana was big and wild until I first traveled to Patagonia. The mountains are immense, the ice caps of the Andes are spectacular and the windy steppe in Argentina is endless. On top of that the wild animals represent this crazy mix of pink flamingos flying by glaciated peaks, wild camels, ostrich-like rheas, penguins, chinchilla-like viscachas, and more. For a Montana wildlife biologist, Patagonia represents an inspiring array of bizarre species just begging to be studied more.

CC Is there something that I would be shocked to know about mountain lions that I probably should know?

JW Yes. They in a sense limit their own numbers behaviorally. The resident adult densities on the landscape are quite similar from the southern tip of South America to Montana. You hear many rumors about too many cats, but their populations can be quite consistent if we tolerate them on the landscape. A cat is a cat is a cat.

CC And for you, an expert on these remarkable big cats, is there something that you don’t know about mountain lion behavior that you’re trying to figure out still?

JW Of course, especially in Central and South America, where they have been studied less. Interactions with other species is still fascinating. With new technologies we will always have new windows into their secretive lives. I love that.

In the end, however, I think we will always need to work with local communities and provide accurate information and assistance with conflicts – both urban and rural – to make sure wildlife conservation is durable. CS calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

31

to the popular opinion at local coffee shops, the cats were not reducing the big-game hunter’s prized quarry.

Instead, they were part of a system evolved to keep herds strong.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this science, as many of the cat hunters who once participated in mountain lion bounty systems began to realize that lions were more valuable alive – that they could enjoy their trained hounds while pursuing and photographing the big cats all winter long, if the carnivores were not eliminated.

Those hound handlers carried heavy political clout in the rural western states.

More than science and data, state wildlife commissions at the time listened to the hound handlers.

Before long, hound handlers began showing up side by side with university-trained wildlife biologists, demanding that mountain lions be made protected game animals, not bountied predators – and by the early 1970s that’s exactly what happened. State wildlife agencies eliminated bounties, and shifted 180 degrees to conservation and management.

The ripples spread through wild nature almost immediately. With new rules came a ban on the poison-laced baits that had been used to kill cats, but that also killed any other critters unlucky enough to sniff them out. One side effect was that wolverines, bobcats, martens, badgers, and countless other species were suddenly “protected” under the new rules for lion conservation. It was a foundation on which whole ecosystems could be rebuilt, and it helped drive the wild that would be necessary for mountain lion expansion nationwide. We made room for the lion, tolerated the lion, and wild nature did the rest, filling in the gaps with a complicated dance of predators and prey. And through it all, America barely noticed.

People died of domestic dog bites, bee stings, drownings and falls, and auto accidents. The rare encounter with a wild animal remains a statistical fluke.

Humans are not part of the big cats’ “prey image,” and as long as we have strong deer numbers the lions mostly 32 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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leave our pets and livestock alone. The cats, in essence, were invisible.

We live as fairly peaceful neighbors because we cannot see them. If we knew they were there, we might have second thoughts, but mountain lions make their living in the shadows, at dawn and dusk, and often can be quite nocturnal. We see only what they leave behind—telltale tracks and deer bones, a scatter of whitetail fur, prints in fresh snow.

The big cats have evolved for secrecy, to protect themselves and their kills from other predators – from bears, and especially from wolves – and also to enable their ambush hunting style. Not only do the lions move in darkness, and in heavy cover, but they do so on softly padded paws that are covered in thick hair to soundproof their approach. Even the claws retract to quiet each step.

They’ve evolved to be almost scentless, a protection against wolves that, in today’s world, allows them to slip silently though neighborhood woodlots without triggering the alarm of barking dogs.

They’re largely solitary, the better to go unnoticed, and they certainly don’t announce their presence by baying at the moon. In other words, they really are the ghosts of the Rockies. The adaptations that allowed them to survive and hunt in a world of wolves, deer, and elk are proving to be the key to their expansion in a world of dogs and humans.

I WAS SENT TO Augusta to study mountain lions, but over my career what I’ve learned about the big cats has taught me as much about Homo sapiens as it has about Puma concolor. We fear the threat we can see.

Tigers and African lions are far more visible, and we’ve nearly wiped them out. But we don’t see the mountain lion.

What does that say about us, that the only big cat in the world that is expanding is the one we can’t see? CS Editor’s note: For more information, check out pathofthepuma.com and order the book at patagonia.com/shop/books or on other sites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

34 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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36 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

PROTECTING

WILD CALIFORNIA

BIGHORN GROUP HOPES WATER PROJECT DOUBLES SHEEP HERD

By Beverly Valdez

The California Wild Sheep Foundation has worked to increase drinking water sources for bighorns, as well as other species, to increase their numbers and provide more tags. (TIM

S

ince the inception of California Wild Sheep Foundation, there has been a dedication over the years to improving habitat, specifically by providing water for bighorns.

It’s no surprise then that over $300,000 has been spent by CA WSF in the last six years on constructing “drinkers” – water development installations – on the mountains for sheep and other wildlife.

But that’s not enough, as Mike Borel, vice president of operations, shared in 2016.

Water is the number one issue limiting our wild sheep populations and our sheep hunting tags. The two go hand in hand as the Department of Fish and Wildlife – as is the case in all states – determines the sustainable harvest/tags available based on the total population.

“Today’s numbers are well below what is possible,” Borel said.

There are currently an estimated 4,800 desert bighorn in California, with 103 drinkers in place that support an average of 45 sheep per drinker.

“We want to add another 90 drinkers, in ideally placed locations. Ninety new drinkers (in an improved style) would support an additional 6,750 desert bighorns,” Borel said. “That will more than double our total numbers in the state and put us on a level with the state that currently has the most bighorn sheep, Nevada.”

There is a price tag, and it’s a big one.

NEW TECHNOLOGY New, more efficient and natural in appearance, the Raincatcher Wildlife Water System costs $23,015 per unit, requiring a total of almost $2 million to add the new water stations. In addition,

GLENNER/CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE)

488 man-hours are required to site and install each RWWS. “Our sister/partner organization, Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, has an eager and experienced group of volunteers for these installations, but the funding must come from us, the caretakers of bighorn sheep,” Borel said “The need is certainly big, but the impact will be huge.”

This effort will require raising $250,000 per year, which doubles CA WSF’s current fundraising totals.

“We plan to pursue all options for funding – donations, matching grants, a gofundme.com (page) and more,” Borel said.

Since this past summer, funding for what’s known as Give a Lamb a Drink has been going full force and we expect we will soon be funded for the 2019 installations. What a difference the huge increase in water for bighorn sheep and

other desert denizens will make! This is all because of the organization’s members, other conservationists and the hunting community.

BENEFITING MORE THAN BIGHORNS The primary species to benefit are California’s iconic bighorn, but any animal within range of the water systems will too. This includes golden eagles, desert tortoise, mule deer, squirrels, quail, desert hare (jackrabbit), coyote, and other denizens of the desert. CS Editor’s note: For more information and if you would like to help, donate online at cawsf.org or gofundme.com/galad.

A donation, no matter how big or how small, will help the California Wild Sheep Foundation more than double the number of desert bighorn sheep in the state.

calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

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NEVADA

W

e’re not ashamed to admit it: Todd Kline has the kind of life we wish we could experience. Kline’s a former professional surfer, a successful co-angler on the FLW Tour and a Southern California bass guide, plus he gets to travel the world as a commentator for the World Surf League’s telecasts. Todd has agreed to give us a peek at what he’s up to each month. For more on Todd or to book a guided fishing trip with him, check out toddklinefishing.com, and you can follow him on Instagram at @toddokrine. –The Editor

s e r u t n e v d A

c.

m

Last month I participated in the U.S. Open at Lake Mead, but fishing on day one was canceled due to high winds. Here, 224 boats stage as the sun rises over the mountains of Nevada. (TODD KLINE) calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

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The wind was still blowing on day two but calmed by the third and final day. Here, my bass boat squeezes through one of Mead’s narrows early in the morning. (TODD KLINE)

It’s pretty awesome when you can view bighorn sheep from the water. (TODD KLINE) 40 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

Here’s another odd but beautiful sight: A rare rainbow above the reservoir on the lower Colorado River. (TODD KLINE)

Not the result I wanted this year at the U.S. Open.

I lost a few key fish that hurt me and finished 65th out of 224 anglers with 16.12 pounds. (TODD KLINE)

calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

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CAM

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TO BOOK YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE CONTACT US: HUCKLEBERRY LODGE 1171 BIG PINE WAY FORKS, WA 98331 1-360-477-1675 WWW.HUCKLEBERRYFORKS.COM Chris Clearman is the winner of our monthly Yo-Zuri Photo Contest. The pic he sent of himself and a very nice coastal fall Chinook wins him gear from the company that makes some of the world’s best fishing lures and lines!

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44 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

OUTDOOR CALENDAR NOVEMBER 3

Scaup season opens in most state zones 3 Falconry sage grouse

season opens 9 Last day of Ambush at the Lake derby, Convict Lake; monocounty.org 9 Golden Gate Salmon Association fundraising dinner, Sonoma; goldengatesalmon.org 10 Fall wild turkey season opens 10 Statewide pheasant

season opens 10 Stanislaus River Salmon Festival opens, Knights Ferry; facebook.com/SRSFest

10 10

11

14

Second dove season opens La Panza anterless elk season opens Fort Liggett anterless elk season opens Anterless elk season opens in Northeastern California

DECEMBER 1 1 9

Bighorn sheep hunting season begins in most zones Balance of State Zone crow hunting season opens Fall wild turkey season ends

Note: For a complete list of bass fishing tournaments, go to dfg.ca.gov/FishingContests/default.aspx.

For more details on hunting zones and regulations, check out wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting.

15

Bighorn sheep season opener in Zone 5 (San Gorgonio Mountains) 15-23 Southern region bandtail pigeon hunting season 22 Second Northeastern Zone scaup season opens 23 Statewide pheasant season ends 24 Second archery-only pheasant season opens 31 Last day 2018 hunting and fishing licenses are valid

Statewide pheasant hunting season begins on Nov. 10. (CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE)

calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

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DESTINATION ALASKA

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MAN GEAR ALASKA Let us help you be the person who gives the perfect gift. Our chest holsters wear in a comfortable position, allowing free range of movement, clear of other outdoor gear. In extreme elements there is no need for oiling after being soaked. It’s the perfect balance between flexibility and ruggedness. Handcrafted in over 32 models and in three color options.

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MCOMIE’S CUSTOM LURES This holiday season give your fisherman the fishing lures that catch more fish! McOmie’s Custom Lures brings new and exciting design patterns with innovative vibrant color combinations to fishermen. Our goal in making lures is for you to have a successful and memorable fishing experience.

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RAPTORAZOR Raptorazor’s innovative design offers a faster and cleaner way to process game. The hook design on the Big Game Skinner cuts clean and fast, saving you time in the field. The T-grip handle offers complete control and eliminates hand fatigue.

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ACE LINE HAULER Add a new weapon to your shrimp/crab-catching arsenal or give one as a special gift to the fisherman in your life. The Maxtorque by Ace Line Hauler is the best pot puller that you will ever use. Mounts to Scotty or Cannon downrigger mounts. Save your strength. WWW.ACELINEHAULER.COM ARM CHAPS Arm Chaps leather protective sleeves prevent nearly any hand or arm injury in nearly any situation! Super comfortable to wear, Arm Chaps stay out of your way, allow total finger dexterity, adjustable air flow, and are easily worn with gloves if needed. Perfect for preventing “bruising” or protecting “thin skin.” It’s “common sense” once you understand it! You’ll appreciate its many benefits and hundreds of uses!

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MACKS LURE The Pee Wee Wiggle Hoochie has an unbelievable look and action. Fitted with a crank-style Wiggle Hoochie Bill and a UV body, this kokanee, trout and salmon lure is an irresistible presentation. The Wiggle Hoochie Bill is also sold separately in high UV and chartreuse UV at your local bait and tackle shop and online. WWW.MACKSLURE.COM

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DILLON PRECISION Dillon’s SL 900 Shotshell Loader features automatic indexing; automatic powder and priming systems; an adjustable, case-activated shot dispenser; and its loading dies are factory adjusted to load AA hulls.

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ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK RANCH Make those Christmas dreams come true with the perfect gift – an all-inclusive three-day trophy elk hunt on our private ranch in southeast Idaho near Jackson, Wyoming, and Yellowstone National Park. Nonhunting guests stay free! Hunts are 100 percent guaranteed and don’t require out-of-state license or tags. WWW.ROCKYMOUNTAINELKRANCH.COM

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Holiday Gift Guide THRESHER BOATS The Thresher 22 is built to accommodate the offshore/inshore and inland fisherman. The Thresher 22 comes loaded with standard features to get you on the water and on the fish without breaking the bank! WWW.THRESHERBOATS.COM EXQUISITE KNIVES From hunters to combat knives to kitchen knives, we at Exquisite Knives can fulfill all of your needs with the finest custom knives on the planet. Proprietor Dave Ellis is California’s first ABS mastersmith and knows not only what makes a great knife but also has extensive knowledge of heat-treating and finishing of most edged tools. WWW.EXQUISITEKNIVES.COM

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LEELOCK The Leelock Magnum Skeg drastically improves steering performance and straight-line travel of electric trolling motors.

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Your batteries will run longer on a charge. The Leelock Magnum Skeg can be a vital part of your trolling-motor system.

This oversized skeg is made of anodized 5052 aluminum. It is 9 inches high by 10 inches wide by 3/16 inch thick. It comes with PVC-coated stainless-steel hose clamps. The anodizing keeps the aluminum from corroding in fresh- and saltwater. The Leelock Magnum Skeg is available for most 12, 24, or 36 volt Minn Kota and MotorGuide motors.

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CMP STEEL TARGETS Introducing the Reactive Vitals Series of AR500 Steel Targets.

These targets feature distinctive animal shapes with a reactive flapper in the vitals location.

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The AR500 steel targets are rated for pistol at 15 yards or rifle at 100 yards minimum. WWW.CUSTOMMETALPROD.COM IOSSO Iosso’s Bore Cleaning System removes all fouling.

Clean your bore in 15 minutes or less with the Iosso Bore Cleaner, Premium No Scratch Brushes and Triple Action Oil to remove carbon burn, copper, lead, and plastic wad. Chemically safe, no odor (great for the allergy prone), non-corrosive. USDA Certified Biobased. Buy all three for under $20. Great stocking stuffer! WWW.IOSSO.COM

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58 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

GIBSON DUCK BLIND COVERS Why don’t ducks fly directly over you? They can see you from above! Stay completely hidden with Gibson Duck Blind Covers.

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GHOST SCREAM HOT SAUCE The perfect gift or stocking stuffer for that lover of spice and flavor! Ghost Scream offers four products and a gift pack to heat up any recipe. Try the original Hot Sauce, Chili Garlic Paste, Chili Garlic Jam or Vindaloo Curry Hot Sauce. Twenty-five percent off with code: SPORTSMAG1825. WWW.GHOSTSCREAM.COM BUCK-TRUCK The Buck-Truck pack is the only convertible pack and game cart combination product. We are committed to innovation in game retrieval solutions for your hunts and offer the best game retrieval short of owning a horse. WWW.BUCK-TRUCK.COM

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NORCAL

FROM FIELD ...

EUREKA! BAY HUNT YIELDS RARE BRANT A PAIR OF GRAY BELLIES, AS WELL AS LIMITS OF CRABS REAFFIRM HUMBOLDT'S RICHES

Hunters sit in wait behind a blind, hoping for a flock of black brant to drop into the decoys in Humboldt Bay, a fantastic destination for waterfowl hunters. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

By Scott Haugen

A

“

h, there we go; this flock should swing right around,” stated a confident John Corbett. I strained to even see the birds, staring at the horizon line until, finally, a tiny string of black appeared.

The flock of undulating black brant were nearly 2 miles away and heading up the Northern California coastline.

“Those birds, way out there – they’re going to make it here, to us?”

I quizzed Corbett.

“Yep!” he replied.

More than 10 minutes passed when finally the flock turned into Humboldt Bay, where our decoys

awaited. The flock still had to travel another 500 yards, bank right and come another 300 yards before even being able to see our spread.

To say I was skeptical is an understatement; then again, I was hunting with one of the most knowledgeable waterfowl hunters I’ve been afield with. Corbett is a longtime guide and part of the awesome staff at Pacific Outfitters (844-926-6566; pacificoutfitters.com).

Sure enough, the flock eventually turned exactly where Corbett said they would, and then started banking into the decoys. But just as the brant were about to drop the landing gear, they pulled up and headed to the low-

er end of the lagoon. They went out to the middle, where other brant had started gathering to feed on eelgrass.

“Don’t worry; there’ll be more,” said Corbett, sensing my questioning demeanor but reassuring me. I wasn’t doubting him, never would.

And now I got to see the birds follow the exact flight path Corbett said they would, so I felt even more confident.

A couple more flocks worked the coastline, but turned and went into the upper bay, opposite of where we were set up. Then a flock banked our way. The instant they saw the decoys they turned, dropped in elevation, cupped their wings and started in.

I could have shot the first time

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NORCAL

... TO FIRE

THREE CHEERS FOR CHORIZO WITH WATERFOWL

What is ground waterfowl missing to make it even more awesome? Some spicy chorizo sausage meat, which our Tiffany Haugen likes stuffing into mushrooms. (TIFFANY HAUGEN)

By Tiffany Haugen

W

hen you feel like you’ve run out of ways to cook up your bounty of waterfowl, look to the meat grinder. While when cooked whole brants are one of the best eating waterfowl on the planet, they are also delectable when ground and cooked.

Homemade sausage is one way to make waterfowl meat shine, no matter the species. Decide for yourself if you want to make it 100 percent waterfowl or if you want to neutralize the flavors a bit by adding ground beef, pork, or turkey.

Actually, store-bought chorizo can be crumbled into ground waterfowl, but starting from scratch will intensify every bite that goes into your mouth. Being such a flavorful sausage, brant chorizo can enhance the taste of many things. Not only is this sausage delicious in stuffed mushrooms, it goes great in a hash, quiche or quesadilla. It also freezes well for longterm storage, either raw or cooked.

2 pounds ground brant breasts 1 pound ground pork ¼ cup vinegar 2 tablespoons chili powder 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 tablespoon granulated garlic 1 to 3 tablespoons hot pepper sauce

2 teaspoons cumin 2 teaspoons oregano 2 teaspoons coriander 2 teaspoons smoked paprika 2 teaspoons black pepper 2 to 3 teaspoons red pepper flakes 1 teaspoon celery salt 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon salt 16 to 20 medium-sized mushrooms ½ cup panko or plain breadcrumbs 2 tablespoons melted butter ¼ cup grated cheddar and/or Jack cheese Chopped chives for garnish if desired Mix duck and pork until thoroughly combined. Add seasonings and refrigerate eight to 12 hours. Prepare mushrooms for stuffing by brushing with a vegetable brush and removing stems. Finely chop stems and gently mix with meat mixture, if desired. Place mushrooms topside down on a baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix breadcrumbs with melted butter. Stuff mushrooms full with meat mixture. Sprinkle buttered breadcrumbs and grated cheese evenly over mushrooms.

Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven or grill for 30 minutes or until sausage reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

62 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

Note that brant chorizo can also be shaped into patties and cooked over medium-high heat, three to four minutes per side, depending on thickness.

And to make pepperoni-style sticks instead, run brant chorizo through a jerky gun using the pepperoni attachment.

Smoke in a smoker at 180 degrees for five to seven hours or until internal temperature registers 160 degrees.

Editor’s note: For 150-plus more recipes and signed copies of Tiffany Haugen's popular Cooking Game Birds book, send a check for $20 (free S&H) to Haugen Enterprises, P.O. Box 275, Walterville, OR 97489 or order online at scotthaugen.com. Follow Tiffany on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and watch for her on the online series Cook With Cabela’s and The Sporting Chef TV show.

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NORCAL Guide John Corbett of Pacific Outfitters in Eureka does it all. He hunts birds and big game and gets customers on fish and shellfish. Here, he’s all smiles over a pair of Dungeness crabs pulled from a pot.

(SCOTT HAUGEN)

the flock of over 30 geese circled overhead, but I wanted the moment to last. Again the flock circled, and again I passed. I wanted them to work the wind and drop their feet in the decoys before pulling the trigger.

The last time around was going to be it, as the flock was low and the trailing birds were committed.

Then, for no apparent reason, the lead birds flared, just out of range. Fortunately the last two brant in the flock were past the point of return. I shouldered the 12-gauge and cut loose. The No. 2 Browning BXDs did the job and reaffirmed why this is one of my favorite waterfowl loads of all time.

THE SHOTS CAME AGAINST a rising sun, so I had no idea if I was shooting at mature or juvenile birds. A week prior I had been in Cold Bay, Alaska, the black brant hunting capital of the U.S., and I took a possession limit of birds, including multiple brant with bands.

I was hoping to bag a banded brant

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NORCAL on this hunt, thinking how special it would be to get one that had been banded in Cold Bay. But when I approached the downed brant, my search for a leg band instantly stopped. One of the birds was laying on its back, belly up. And what a belly it was. As light gray as a slab of slate, the lower breast was separated from the upper chest by a crisp, dark line.

It was indeed a black brant, but what aficionados call a gray belly brant.

Gray-bellied brant look similar

to Atlantic brant but are born in the Canadian high Arctic. In fall they migrate down the Pacific Coast. Most of the 8,000-bird population winters in southwestern British Columbia and Washington’s Skagit County, north of Seattle.

I immediately knew what I had, and that it truly was the bird of a lifetime. Then I picked up the other brant, and it too was a gray belly. Just like that, my two-bird brant limit was secured, and what a limit it was.

The morning couldn’t get any better, Corbett and I thought. We were staring at the two brant as he tried to recount if he’d ever seen a gray belly taken in Humboldt Bay in his more than 40 years of hunting them. He hadn’t, though he’d heard of it happening.

We decided then and there to skin both birds to have them mounted and save the meat for eating. Many hunters rank brant as the best eating waterfowl in the world due to their eelgrass diet. I agree, but we still had food waiting for us.

“OH, WE HAVE TO go check our crab pots,” Corbett reminded me as we loaded the last of the brant decoys into his boat. Before our hunt began we’d dropped four pots in the bay.

Now we had our limits of fresh, full Dungeness in the first two.

It was a fitting end to a perfect day, a vivid reminder of how this slice of California is one of the most game-rich on the West Coast. It also reminded me of how much I love hunting and fishing with Corbett and all the folks of Pacific Outfitters. CS Editor’s note: For signed copies of Scott and Tiffany Haugen’s popular Cooking Game Birds book, visit scotthaugen.com.

Scott Haugen is the host of Netflix’s The Hunt. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

WHERE TO STAY IN HUMBOLDT

Author Scott Haugen with two highly prized black brant, the gray belly variety, taken while hunting with Pacific Outfitters in Humboldt Bay. (SCOTT HAUGEN) 66 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

For this waterfowl hunt I stayed at the Red Lion Hotel (707-445-0844) in Eureka. It’s pet friendly and offers great seasonal rates. They are within walking distance of many good restaurants, plus the staff is friendly and helpful.

The hotel is located a few minutes’ walk from places to run your dog, and it’s a few minutes’ drive to the ocean shores. There’s a lot to do here, including bird watching, touring the redwoods and taking in the culture of nearby coastal towns. SH

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68 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

HUNTING

PUP’S FIRST DUCK SEASON

By Scott Haugen

T

hough waterfowl season has been underway for a few weeks, November marks the start of the best hunting. Cold days, rainy weather and migrating ducks and geese all mean the hunting is only going to get better as the season goes on.

If this is the first season of waterfowl hunting with your pup, make certain you’re doing all you can to ensure the dog’s safety and comfort.

WHEN HUNTING WATERFOWL from a blind, having a platform for the dog to stand on is important. A platform allows the dog to stand out of the water, and stay dry. Allowing a dog to stand in the water all day can be very cold and unhealthy, especially if there are any open wounds or cuts on its feet.

There are dog stands that attach to trees, folding dog stands that can stand in shallow water, and stands with covers on them and which act as a blind for your dog. It’s a good idea to do some work with your pup before the hunt so it knows its place and the purpose that the stand, or blind, serves.

If hunting on dry ground, dog blinds are a good idea. If it’s a permanent ground blind you’re hunting from, you can build a box frame for the dog and line it with straw or a mat, to keep the dog warm. Be sure that whatever you put in the blind for the dog to sit or lay on allows water to drain off. You don’t want the dog coming in soaking wet on every retrieve and have to lie down in water.

A DOG VEST is also essential for keep-

A dog stand is a must when hunting in standing water to keep the dog comfortable, warm and healthy. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

ing a dog warm on cold days. I like neoprene, as it insulates and adds lift, making it easier for the dog to swim long distances and retrieve bigger birds. A vest with a handle on the

back is nice in case you have to lift the dog into a boat, blind, or help it up a muddy bank.

Make sure the vest fits your dog’s body type and size. My dogs are big

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HUNTING

A durable dog vest with a flexible, sturdy chest plate protects your dog in a range of conditions, including busting through the ice, like this. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

in the shoulders, small in the hindquarters, and I found a Browning neoprene vest fits them best.

Be sure to run your dog with the vest on before the hunt. Make sure it fits right and, if needed, trim places where it’s rubbing, usually behind the shoulders and between the legs and chest. If hunting amid cattails, rushes and thick reeds, having a dog vest with a sturdy yet flexible chest plate is great for helping break through these messes, and it guards them from getting cut. A chest plate also helps protect dogs when busting through ice.

IF YOUR DOG’S like mine, they are so excited on the morning of the hunt that they won’t eat before leaving home. So I take their breakfast with me. For this, I use Browning’s Portable Dog Dish. I like to remove one of the dishes – it’s attached to the case

by Velcro on the bottom – fill the other dish with food, then zip it closed for compact carrying. I’ll take one of these for each dog, as I often hunt with two. This is better than feeding them by hand or dumping the food on a dirty surface.

If hunting on dry ground, where dogs don’t have access to water, take

Taking food for your dog is a good idea. Here, food is in one bowl of a Browning Portable Dog Dish, water in the other. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

drinking water for them. Make sure your dog drinks, no matter how cold it is outside. Dogs lose a lot of moisture just by breathing, and expend a lot of energy running and swimming.

Just like you, dogs must stay hydrated when afield. If they won’t drink, make them. Take a squirt-style water bottle, grab the corner of the dog’s lip, pull it away from the corner or the jaw, insert the bottle and squeeze water into the pocket. They have to drink it.

If hunting in fields or areas of tall grass and weeds, it’s a good idea to take a fine-toothed comb along too.

You don’t want to get seeds or burrs matted into the wet hide, especially under the dog vest, so combing or even cutting them out is a good move. This can be done when there’s a lull in the action.

As winter along with the ducks descend on us, make sure your dog is comfortable and safe. With the best days of the season still ahead, you want your dog in top physical condition so it can perform to the best of its ability. CS Editor’s note: To watch Scott Haugen’s series of short puppy training videos, visit scotthaugen.com.

70 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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HUNTING

Bird hunters in California have no shortage of species to chase this fall, but few opportunities are more conducive to success in the Golden State as ubiquitous quail. (TIM E. HOVEY)

NO-FAIL QUAIL: SCOUTING KEY HERE’S HOW TO PREPARE FOR AND HAVE A SUCCESSFUL TOPKNOT HUNT

By Tim E. Hovey

A

s we move through the hunting season, my free-time calendar starts to fill up. The cottontail and dove opener now behind us, I start to make plans for the quail

opener in early fall.

Hands down, my favorite upland game bird to chase is the quail. I’ve been lucky enough to chase mountain quail in the steep hills of Northern California, Gambel’s quail in the

brushlands of the Imperial Valley and California quail just about everywhere they occur.

Last year, I did a solo overnighter in some prime quail habitat. After a few successful scouting trips before

calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

73

H H

HUNTING

Author Tim Hovey has a pretty keen eye for what constitutes good quail habitat. “I feel like if I can get boots on the ground in a potential hunting spot, I can decide pretty quickly if I’ll hunt it or not,” he writes. (TIM E. HOVEY)

the season, it didn’t take me long to realize where I needed to be on the morning of the opener.

On opening day, I was hiking a dry drainage towards my chosen area 30 minutes before sunup. Slowly walking the hills by myself, I located a huge covey of quail that eventually produced a limit for me.

Over a mile from the truck, I sat on a small ridge with an incredible view of the surrounding area. I pulled my 10

birds out of my pack and admired their plumpness and beauty. There on that hill, I felt tired but happy and asked myself one simple question: Why did I absolutely love chasing quail?

Holding a few of the tasty birds in my hand, the answer seemed fairly

74 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

obvious: I hunt them because they taste good. But I knew there was so much more to my interest in quail hunting than just how they taste.

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HUNTING

A limit of quail means some delicious table fare for Hovey (far right) and his friends.(TIM E. HOVEY)

think I enjoy the preparation for a hunt as much as I do the actual hunt.

I’ll pour over maps and satellite images on Google Earth and essentially

pick apart the terrain.

I like to locate a parking spot, map out my approach and locate a hunting area. To me, this preparation not only

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benefits my hunt when I actually get in the field, but I seriously enjoy it.

Once I’ve locked in an area, I move to prepping the gear. I decide on a shotgun, take it apart and meticulously clean it. I also grab a back-up shotgun, just in case. I’m very particular, bordering on obsessive, when it comes to my firearms. Once they’re cleaned and prepped for a hunt, no one but me gets to touch them.

I pack my game bird vest, more shells than six hunters need for chasing quail and a cooler full of ice and waters. My gearbox also contains paper towels, a game cleaning kit, spare socks, at least one flashlight, a first aid kit, cameras, snacks, a small tool kit, plastic bags for trash. If I feel I’ll even remotely need an item, it gets loaded into the gearbox.

Like most hunters, my hunting clothes are set out in advance the evening before the hunt. However, my hunting pants already contain what I will need for a day in the field. For the

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HUNTING last 15 years, each pocket has had the exact same thing in it. The right hip pocket contains Chapstick and the right thigh pocket contains my hunting license. My left hip pocket will contain three extra shells and my left thigh pocket contains TP. My hunting belt is already looped through the pants and ready to go. I’ll place my socks in my hiking boots. Often, I am so prepared and anxious for the hunt, the alarm is set for a short 10 minutes before I need to leave.

SCOUTING I often wonder how many of my hunts have benefited from my love

QUAIL SEASON DATES

Most all-quail hunts in California are ongoing through November and beyond: Zone Q1 (Alpine, Butte, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, and those portions of Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Tuolumne, Tulare and Yuba Counties lying east of the western boundary of the national forests): now-Jan. 27 Zone Q2 (Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties): now-Jan. 27 Zone Q3 (Balance of the state – all species – hunting zone, including the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central California coast and Southern California): now-Jan. 27 Falconry quail hunting also continues through Feb. 28. CS

of prescouting an area. I feel that it is crucial to get out on the land you plan to hunt and see what’s happening. I feel like if I can get boots on the ground in a potential hunting spot, I

Hovey (right) plans to hunt in some less popular areas this year, the idea being that he’ll trade quantity of birds for a quality hunt he can enjoy with family and friends. (TIM E. HOVEY)

78 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

can decide pretty quickly if I’ll hunt it or not.

For quail, I like to arrive in the area just like I’m hunting it. I’ll arrive before the sun rises and listen.

HUNTING As the sun peeks over the horizon, quail, still in their roosts, will begin to sound off with their characteristic calls as the day starts.

It’s been my experience that quail will use the same area and, at times, the same tree for their evening roosts.

If I can pinpoint a handful of roosting areas, I know the area will hold birds during the day.

The literature is split on how often quail need to visit water during

the day. I’ve noticed that coveys head for water almost as soon as they leave the roost. They then head out to feed and survive the day. Around midafternoon they will visit a water source a second time to hydrate for the evening.

If the area has a water source nearby, that’s a major plus for me to consider hunting it. Combining the quality habitat with the presence of quail prints and scat will push that

area to the top of my hunting list.

CHEAP HUNTS I’m not a trophy hunter; I hunt for meat and I hunt because I enjoy it. All my hunts, whether they’re big game or small, involve nothing more than tag, license fees and a little driving. I consider myself a frugal hunter. Having already accumulated the gear, I rely on my tenacity and game abundance for my success.

COOKING A PERFECT QUAIL When I was in my teens, I killed a couple of quail during a solo camping trip. Unfamiliar with how to cook them, I roasted the birds over a campfire and admittedly overcooked them. The meat was tough and stringy, but it had a mild flavor. As I picked the bones clean, I realized that I really wanted to investigate other ways of cooking wild quail.

Since then, I have refined my cooking techniques and have come to thoroughly enjoy bringing quail from the wild to the table. Quail meat is light in color and has a very slight, unique flavor. I have cooked them a variety of ways and I have never been disappointed.

My favorite way is to sauté the breast meat and the drumsticks after they marinate overnight in garlic seasoning. I then pan-fry these in garlic butter and serve. In my family, wild quail never lasts long on the plate. It is one of our favorite game meats to eat.

On a few occasions, and when I have the time, I also like to cook the entire bird. After cleaning and thoroughly washing the meat, I’ll treat the pint-size birds just like a turkey. I fill the body cavity with a mild stuffing and bake slowly with a low heat. Basting the birds often gives the outside a golden brown color and the meat remains juicy and flavorful. This dish has become another Hovey family favorite. TH

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Quail hunting is the epitome of an economic hunt. With some hiking boots, a box or two of shells and half a tank of gas, I can enjoy a relaxing hunt. In locations where birds are abundant, I can usually scrap out a limit if I hunt smart. However, in reality I’m just hoping to bag a few tasty birds for the dinner table. And in my opinion, the best-tasting game bird out there is the quail.

I couldn’t reliably tell you how many rabbit or predator hunts I’ve been on that instantly turned into quail hunts when we stumbled onto groups of birds. Quail and rabbit will often occupy the same types of habitat. I’ve often added a few quail to the bag when chasing bunnies. This is the reason that during the quail season, we always have a shotgun and some appropriately sized shells in the truck no matter what we’re hunting, just in case.

PREDICTING THE HUNT Building off the success of last year, I contemplated heading back to the same area I hunted in 2017. However, with the excessive crowds, I decided this year I’ll trade quantity for quality. I’ll be hunting an area this season that may not hold as many birds but will definitely receive less hunting pressure. I probably won’t see as many birds, but I know I can casually hike the area on my own or with close friends.

Quail will always hold a special place in my hunting heart. If you know how to swing a shotgun, they are relatively easy to drop. Early in the season, they’ll hold tight to cover and explode in noisy, startling flushes. They are chubby birds, usually lifting off no more than a few feet and flying in a straight line.

If you pay attention to where the covey has landed, you can usually keep adding birds to your bag. Listening to their calls and watching them flush from cover is as exciting as upland game bird hunting can get. CS

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SWAMP BULLS OF MOZAMBIQUE AN AFRICAN HUNT FOR CAPE BUFFALO PROVIDES THRILLS

By Brittany Boddington

W

hen people ask me what my favorite animal to hunt is I usually respond with, “Cape buffalo.” When they ask where I like to hunt them I always reply, “In the swamps of Mozambique.”

Cape buffalo can be hunted all over Southern Africa, but the hunt with Zambeze Delta Safaris (zambezedeltasafaris.com) in the swamps of Coutada 11 – one of several wildlife game management units of Mozambique – is truly unique. I wanted to show my fiancé Brad this area, so we joined my dad Craig Boddington on his yearly trip there.

I’ve hunted buffalo in Zimbabwe in years’ past and the experience is

very different. You start early in the morning, drive around looking for fresh tracks, and then set out on foot to follow the tracks until you catch up to the buffalo or the buffalo takes off.

This tracking process can take as little as a few hours but more often days upon days while walking many long miles in the African heat.

The real magic of this type of hunt is watching the trackers work. They can take a look at a track and know what size buffalo made it, its gender, and the animal’s approximate age.

They can also determine almost exactly when the track was made and at what speed the buffalo was moving. And they’re able to take a scoop of fresh dung with their fingers and

determine how long it has been on the ground. It is a skill I have yet to master but it is fascinating to watch.

Brad hunted a buffalo last year in the Caprivi area of Namibia, where hunting is done in a similar style as in Zimbabwe, but the buffalo have not had as much pressure as the herds in Zimbabwe. There are possibilities to hunt by spot and stalk for buffalo as well. In Zimbabwe, if you have seen the buffalo, then the buffalo has seen you and will likely flee.

A UNIQUE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE Namibia is incredible. It is safe, beautiful and as uncorrupt as Africa gets.

The police are friendly and the national language is English, which makes

African Cape buffalo can be thrilling species to hunt. Mozambique, a country less touristy than some of its neighbors, provided author Brittany Boddington, her fiancé and dad quite the setting in their quest to score a bull. (BRITTANY BODDINGTON) calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

87

The hunters found a durable mode of transport in a Swedish-build Bandvagn 206, an all-terrain vehicle that worked well in this swampy corner of southeast Africa. (BRITTANY BODDINGTON)

it a perfect first safari destination.

Mozambique is different. The country was torn apart by civil war for 15 years from 1977-1992, leaving the locals a bit skittish about outsiders. The national language is Portuguese and it can be a bit difficult to find English

speakers. In short, Mozambique is what I refer to as the “real Africa.” It is as close to the wild Africa I picture in my head from the old safari tales I read in many classic novels.

Mark Haldane runs Zambeze Delta Safaris and I wouldn’t hunt here

88 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

with anyone else. From the moment you touch down in Beira, a port on the Indian Ocean and Mozambique’s fourth largest city, there is someone there from Mark’s company to help you navigate the complex visa process.

Jamie is Mark’s fixer and he has been helping hunters get through customs and process gun permits for many years. When things go wrong in the airport a promise of meat made in Portuguese can usually smooth things out. After customs you hop on a little charter plane and head to camp. The flight is about 45 minutes, depending on weather, and the scenery is fabulous.

HUNTING IN THE SWAMP The actual buffalo hunt happens in the swamps and our guide this time was Julian. The area is only accessible by amphibious vehicle. Mark has managed to bring in two BVs, or Bandvagn 206s. These vehicles were developed by Hagglunds for the Swedish Army. It is an all-terrain, articulated and two-piece vehicle that works amazingly well in the swamps.

It was designed to carry up to 17 people, but it also works great for a group of five and a couple buffalo.

We set out early in the morning

because it takes a few hours for the BV to get into the buffalo areas. The BV is high off the ground, making it perfect for spotting herds of buffalo far off in the distance. The swamplands are flat for as far as the eye can see. Water lies everywhere and tall papyrus fields with what we lovingly called sawgrass stand wherever it covers or is near the surface. The sawgrass easily cuts through skin, so gloves and long sleeves and pants are a must.

THE CHASE Once a buffalo herd is spotted the hunt begins on foot. This sounds easier than it is since walking in the swamps usually means wet, muddy muck and the very real possibility of bumping into crocodiles, leeches and snakes. There is very little cover unless you are in the swampy water, so kneepads are invaluable.

We spotted a herd of buffalo and got out of the BVs. We started to slowly sneak in with our heads down be-

low the level of the tall papyrus ahead.

After getting to the bed of papyrus, to my surprise the swampy area we had to cross was mostly dry. It got a little muddy and Brad got a foot stuck in the muck, but fortunately we didn’t have to swim for it this time.

We crossed the muddy section and got to the edge of the sawgrass. This was our last bit of cover between us and a herd of around 40 buffalo. It was a small herd for the area, which was lucky because the fewer eyes the better when it comes to sneaking in.

Half of the buffalo were laying down and the other half were eating and milling about. My dad and one of the trackers stayed behind for the final approach. Julian and Brad got their kneepads on; mine are built into my Sitka pants so I was ahead of the game.

We started the long crawl, which was a snail’s pace for hundreds of yards.

We would stop when the buffalo looked our way and start again when they started to eat. It seemed like forever that we hung there on the bro-

Besides how wet and sloppy the ground was, the hunters also had to deal with the threat of crocodiles, leeches and snakes. (BRITTANY BODDINGTON) 90 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

Success for Brad Jennenga (center), flanked by two Boddingtons, Brittany and her dad Craig. None of the meat from this Cape buffalo went to waste. (BRITTANY BODDINGTON)

ken and cracked, dry swamp ground.

We were using a couple little patches of grass as cover but that was about to run out, so Brad and Julian continued forward while I stayed back with the other tracker. We stayed as flat to the ground as possible, while Brad and Julian did the Army crawl forward in what looked like slow motion.

BULL IN SIGHT When they hit the very last piece of straw grass a big buffalo bull stood up. Julian took no time to get to his knees and put up the shooting sticks.

Brad got on the sticks from a kneeling position and took his shot. The buffalo was hit hard but it refused to give up, and in turn the herd swirled around and he got mixed into the

black running animals.

A second later he reappeared, lagging behind the group with a very obviously broken front shoulder. Brad shot him again and we approached with caution as the buffalo was on its side. When we got close it seemed that the buffalo was down for good, but then it threw its head around and startled me.

Fortunately we all know that it’s the dead ones that will kill you, so we proceeded with extreme caution as we approached and were able to finish the buffalo with no issues. Brad was elated. The bull was huge; Julian estimated the outside spread of the horns to be around 42 inches.

My dad caught up shortly after the last shot was fired and we began

92 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

the process of breaking down the buffalo meat. In Africa every part of an animal gets used. The local villagers get a share of the meat as well in an agreement to end poaching. We got all the meat packed into the BV and watched as the vultures picked the ribcage clean right before our eyes. It is amazing to see those birds go to work.

Mozambique is a truly unique place to hunt buffalo. If you are looking for a real old Africa experience, I highly recommend it. CS Editor’s note: Los Angeles native Brittany Boddington is a Phoenix-based hunter, journalist and adventurer. For more, check out brittanyboddington.com and facebook.com/brittanyboddington.

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HUNTING

AN UNSUCCESSFUL PIG HUNT LEFT HER IN TEARS – BUT ONLY MADE HER TRY HARDER THE NEXT TIME

By Tim E. Hovey

I

sat at the top of the hill, out of breath and frustrated. I had run to the top of the grassy mound hoping to see my daughter.

Two hours earlier we had encountered 20 pigs as they crossed the old two-track in front of us as we slowly traveled the ranch. The thick spring grasses covering the property made

tracking the fleeing pigs easy. Despite the clear trail, I wasn’t confident we would ever find them. My daughter Alyssa thought differently.

Hiking almost 2 miles over the rolling terrain, we spotted several of the larger pigs moving through a bedding area. I placed Alyssa on a high point, played the wind and moved down towards the bed. I was hoping to kick the pigs out of their resting

spot towards a waiting Alyssa.

The pigs had predictably scattered from the bed once I made my presence known, but their escape was anything but predictable. Several raced downhill and well out of sight on my daughter. A pair of boars came my way and in seconds were gone. Two large pigs headed into Alyssa’s firing lane and she instantly began shooting.

I carefully watched the trio of shots

Alyssa Hovey has become an accomplished hunter, but while frustrated at missing a pig on one hunt, she got back on her feet and tried a new approach the second time. (TIM E. HOVEY)

calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman 95

HUNTING

Author Tim Hovey used Google Earth to figure out an easier way to get to this isolated bedding area so his daughter could make another attempt at harvesting a feral swine here. (TIM E. HOVEY)

96 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

and thought she might have connected with one. Once they crested the hill, I watched Alyssa – rifle slung crosswise on her back like I taught her – running towards the departing pigs. Within seconds she disappeared over the hill as well.

On the hill, Alyssa was nowhere in sight. The hunter in me knew she was tracking the pigs we had just kicked out their bed; the father in me was a little concerned.

After almost 10 minutes of searching, I spotted Alyssa walking back dejected along the ridge. As she got closer, I noticed she was crying, something she seldom does. She fell into my waiting hug, sobbing. She was upset that we had put in such a tremendous effort in tracking and finding the pigs, and she had missed.

The 2-mile hike back to the truck was somber and quiet.

A few weeks later we were determined and rested. Alyssa and I were

HUNTING

The ranch the Hoveys hunted has plenty of pigs, giving Alyssa (below) a solid opportunity to redeem herself. (TIM E. HOVEY, BOTH)

back on the trail of wild pigs. Driving some familiar roads, she suggested that we hike back into the pig bed we had hunted last time.

Both of my daughters, Alyssa and Jessica, have inherited my stubbornness and they hate to fail. As they have matured into young adults, I’ve watched that hard-headedness serve them well in many aspects of their lives. Neither of them would ever give up. I knew why Alyssa wanted to head back to the pig bed. She wanted a chance at redemption.

AFTER WHAT HAPPENED DURING the last hunt, I had found a far easier way to get to the isolated bed through Google Earth. When we were there weeks earlier, I could tell that the bed was recently and frequently used. With the time between visits, I felt like it was a 98 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

probably good place to start our hunt.

I parked about a mile from the bed and we got our gear ready. It wasn’t quite 10 a.m. and I could tell it was going to be a hot day. I loaded some waters in my pack, grabbed my rifle and we headed out. To illustrate her determination, Alyssa led the way.

Knowing exactly where we were going this time, we cautiously approached upwind of the bed. The thick brush patch sat in the middle of a heavily grazed slope, and was roughly round in shape and about 50 feet in diameter. Trails ran through its center and the entire brushy bed was surrounded by a dirt path, providing evidence of frequent use.

We quietly hiked down to the same lookout area where Alyssa had sat a few weeks earlier. I waited as she got set up and we both checked

HUNTING

All’s well that ends well – in this case, redemption for a father-daughter hunting team and a bunch of meat for the freezer. (TIM E. HOVEY)

the wind. Conditions were perfect for a run through the bed.

I took a few minutes to glass the area to check for anything obvious.

The bed looked quiet. I told Alyssa that I was going to work through it the same way I had done last time, hoping to push animals her way. She didn’t answer me; she just nodded.

I slowly worked my way to the top of the brush patch and started search-

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HUNTING ing the soft dirt around the bed. While the area was loaded with pig tracks, the tracks were old. I kept moving.

Making my way down the backside of the bed, I looked across to make sure Alyssa was ready. She had her .30-06 up on her sticks and mounted solidly to her shoulder. She was facing towards her safe shooting lane, but she was looking towards the pig bed. I gave her a wave and she returned the gesture. I smiled knowing that if pigs were close, she’d make the most of her second chance.

ALYSSA HAS ALWAYS BEEN a pretty good shot. From the time she was 7 years old, she has honed her rifle shooting skills and shoots better than most of my regular hunting buddies. However, over the last few years having watched me take several animals on the run, she started asking me about the specifics of what I call instinct shooting.

I explained lead and distance to

her, plus how a rifle shooter needs to take all that into consideration when connecting with a moving target. I also told her that when things get Western, she needs to dump the sticks and shoot offhand to move with the running target.

Now that I was within a safe shooting lane, I loaded my .30-30, engaged the safety and held it at the ready. I continued down the backside of the brush, looking and listening. Near the bottom, I cut a single set of fresh tracks headed into the bed and I could feel my heart start to race. These tracks were so fresh that as I got closer, a musky smell wafted right into my face.

That’s a pig smell, I thought.

I took two steps and saw very fresh scat in the center of a trail where I had seen the tracks. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the still brush shake slightly – 10 feet further into the bed.

I froze. The brush stopped moving.

And then things exploded.

The single boar raced out of its bed and directly towards Alyssa’s shooting lane.

“Pig!” I yelled and took two steps back to get a bead on the escaping animal. Alyssa and I had already decided that it didn’t matter who dropped the pig, so long as we took home fresh meat for the freezer.

Alyssa’s first shot was in the dirt right under the pig. I shouldered the lever gun, put the crosshairs between his ears and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the pig in the hip, but did absolutely nothing to slow him down.

Less than half a second later, Alyssa’s second shot hit the pig low, right behind the shoulder. A second shot from me before he disappeared over the hill was a clean miss.

I looked up to where my daughter was. She had been shooting offhand following the pig with the rifle as it crested the hill. She looked over at me. I told her that we had hit the pig

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and she should get on the trail. She cross-slung her rifle and headed out towards the last sighting.

I followed the pig’s tracks to the where I had first hit it. I found a spot of blood, but I knew it wasn’t a lethal hit. Six feet later I found a large splash of blood, with smears leading down his escape path. Alyssa’s shot was lethal and through the heart. As I stood up, a very enthusiastic “Woo-hoo!” came floating over the meadow.

I walked over to the same hill where I had stood three weeks earlier and hugged my upset daughter. At the bottom of the shallow canyon sat Alyssa next to a dead pig.

We celebrated our success and took a bunch of photos. We dragged the boar into the shade and started field dressing the 140-pound pig.

During the butchering, I showed Alyssa her heart shot she had taken on the running animal. She smiled and told me that both her shots were taken off hand. As soon as she had fired the second one, she knew it was a hit.

I HAVE FOUND THAT exposing kids to the outdoors will yield many teachable moments. Alyssa’s frustration during the previous trip sparked her determination on the second trip. Her suggestion on returning to the same pig bed where she had experienced failure told me she wanted a chance to right that wrong. And her willingness to try a new shooting technique was clearly the difference between us loading meat into the cooler and going home empty handed.

Lessons learned in the outdoors are easily applied to everyday life, and I know my daughters learned to deal with frustration, determination and perseverance in the hills while hunting. They have both dealt with failure while hunting and have overcome adversity in very memorable ways.

I feel like those lessons learned molded their character and bolstered their self esteem. The lesson for this day was redemption. Alyssa passed hers with flying colors. CS 104 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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106 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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If the toenail clippers are too heavy, downsize to a fingernail clipper. Most clippers come nickel plated, but Dr. Scholls makes some that are gold colored. – CS

calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

107

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SOCAL

BUBBA UP FOR BASS USE THIS BIG RIG FOR WINTER LARGEMOUTH

By Bill Schaefer

I

n the winter bass slow down and so do their feeding habits. They like to get the most for their effort.

Crawdads are a staple for largemouth from now all the way into the spawn next spring, so let me tell you about a rig that works well this time of year. It’s the Bubba, a beefier version of the Carolina rig, and it comes in many different forms.

IT’S ALL ABOUT MOVEMENT Most bass prey species swim or scoot along the bottom and this rigs allows your bait to emulate them better and more naturally. Since the weight is away from the bait, the lure floats along or looks to be swimming or scooting along the bottom. You can change the action simply by adjusting your retrieve. Twitch your rod tip to make the bait swim like a shad or scoot like a crawdad.

The Bubba rig is a heavy-duty version of the Carolina rig. Usually, the mainline is run through a sinker of 1 to 3 ounces and tied to a swivel. After that a long leader of about 3 feet is tied on. Then the hook is tied on and a plastic creature or crawdad bait of some kind is added to the hook.

The Bubba rig is thrown out in open water, where bass are locked on deep bottom structure through the winter. That can include old riverbeds, contours, gravel bottom, light brush or whatever else is down there.

MAKE ADJUSTMENTS This rig is usually fished on casting gear, depending on the weight you are throwing. The leader’s length can be adjusted as well to help with going

Bass get a little sluggish in winter, but savvy bass anglers turn to the Bubba rig – designed to scoot along the bottom – to catch fish. (BILL SCHAEFER)

calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

111

through structure. I tend to go with an 18- to 24-inch leader most of the time, but I will shorten it up in heavier cover.

Even with a shorter leader, the bait still has a more natural presentation and look to it. Sinkers should not only be adjusted to the depth you are fishing, but also the structure. Too heavy of a weight is hard to drag through rock or heavy brush, for example.

WATCH THE BOTTOM The larger weight of the Bubba stirs up the bottom, attracting the bass to the lure. Snags can be common, but they’re not too bad since you are throwing this rig where the structure is minimal. Cast beyond the structure and it can usually be slowly pulled through it. The long leader lets the bait float along, attracting bites.

A fish will feel like pressure or a weight has been added on the line.

Don’t hesitate. It’s a fish. Set the hook and it’s on! CS

A 1- to 3-ounce sinker, 3-foot leader and bait that resembles a shad or crawdad make for an ideal Bubba rig. (BILL SCHAEFER)

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www.tohatsu.com 114 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

SOCAL

WANT CALICO? FOLLOW THE LOBSTERMEN

WHILE BEING CAREFUL NOT TO GET TOO CLOSE, FISHING NEAR TRAPS A GREAT WAY TO SCORE

By Bill Schaefer

F

all and winter calico fishing doesn’t always mean fishing deep water, especially with the warmer waters off Southern California this year.

Although many fish do move deeper in the winter months as water cools, there are plenty of calicos still in the shallows to have fun with. In the kelp beds off the Southland coast, fishing around lobster traps can produce some great fishing for calico. Lobster season opened on September 29 and runs through March 20, 2019.

The lobster traps are replenished with bait almost daily by their owners and attract the entire food chain as the free food leaches out of them.

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE There are some things to remember,

Author Bill Schaefer with a hefty Southland calico.

Fishing for bass around bait-filled lobster traps is an effective game plan. (BILL SCHAEFER) calsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2018 California Sportsman

115

though, when fishing around the kelp and traps. There is no reason for you to get too close to the traps.

You don’t want to ruin your day by wrapping a lobster line around your motor’s lower unit. Nor should you wreck the lobster fisherman’s livelihood by cutting that line off and being responsible for losing his expensive trap. You shouldn’t even have to throw your lure near the trap, but if you do get caught on one never pull it up; just break it off.

The bait that is in the traps attracts small baitfish. Usually the calicos sit in the kelp or rock closest to the trap and dart out to feed when small fish venture too close to them. If you can position yourself to throw your baits so that on the retrieve they pass through the alley between the trap and the kelp, it can produce some really fast-paced action.

GEAR CHECK When fishing the kelp, I like to use a strong Daiwa Proteus trigger stick.

Pair that with Daiwa’s Lexa reel filled with 50-pound-test Daiwa J8 braid and a Maxima 30-pound Ultragreen mono leader.

Since you are fishing around obstructions, once you have hooked a fish you want a rod and line that can pull it away from the rock or out of the kelp.

As for lures, I usually use a swimbait from one of the many companies that make them: MC Swimbaits, Big Hammer, Western Plastics or LK Lures are just a few favorites. My colors of choice are olive brown and golden brown.

Sometimes the bass don’t want the swimbaits and a grub may produce better action. Experimenting with body styles and colors is one of the fun parts of fishing.

So next time you venture out to the kelp and the fishing is a little slow, try by one of the chum buckets that are out there. Again, remember to respect the lobstermen, and have fun fishing around the traps. CS

116 California Sportsman NOVEMBER 2018 | calsportsmanmag.com

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