Dave Anderson, Scott Haugen, Jeff Holmes, David Johnson, MD Johnson, Randy King, Rob Lyon, Sara Potter, Buzz Ramsey, Bob Rees, Dave Workman, Mark Yuasa
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ON THE COVER
Longtime Puget Sound salmon angler Karsten McIntosh shows off a nice coho he picked up a couple Septembers back. This month is prime time for these tasty salmon, and the inland sea also hosts several coho fishing derbies. (KARSTEN MCINTOSH)
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Mountain splendor. Exercise. Tasty quarry. Weapons choices. There’s a lot to like about the arrival of Northwest grouse season in late summer, and Jeff Holmes offers up tips for how to find ruffs, blues and spruces, as well as top spots in Washington, Idaho and Oregon!
89 USE HABITAT FEATURES TO HUNT FALL TURKEYS
While it can feel like hunting is more and more restricted, that is not the case whatsoever with turkeys. As our region’s wildlife managers continue to liberalize autumn opportunities, David Johnson details the habitats key to filling your tags as well as Oregon’s relatively new beardless turkey permit season.
101 A CAST-AND-BLAST OF A DIFFERENT KIND
Rock doves might not be the first bird you think of come fall, but combine a hunt for those living in the wild along basalt country streams with a float for steelhead and smallmouth, and you’ve got an interesting adventure! Rob Lyon lines out this alternate cast-and-blast.
119 FULL FISH BAGS, HOLDS AWAIT IN SEPTEMBER
“September marks the beginning of fall, when the true meaning of harvest comes home for many sport anglers in the region.” So writes Bob Rees of the eponymous The Guide’s Forecast as he highlights the month’s top Oregon fall Chinook, coho and albacore fisheries!
137 DEEP SOUTH COHO, Y’ALL
No, that’s not a banjo you hear playing, it’s the clickscream of reel drags as silvers return to Puget Sound’s southern end, Marine Area 13, thanks to a strong statetribal partnership. But that’s not the only place to catch coho this month. Mark Yuasa highlights hot spots from the bottom to the top of the inland sea, plus how-tos.
WORKMAN)
With their mule deer hunting going downhill in Central Oregon, Buzz and his nephew decided to try west of the Cascades last season. Buzz shares some valuable insights into hunting areas burned by wildfires in recent years.
COLUMNS 47 How to Find Blacktails in Wildfire Scars
55 BECOMING A BETTER HUNTER Breaking The Mold: Game Plan To Join Deer And Elk Hunting’s Top 10 Percent
There is no shortcut up the mountain to tagging out on bucks and bulls annually, but successful hunters do share certain traits. Dave A. lays out the mindsets and skills that will get you up those switchbacks faster.
61 OUTDOORS MD Muzzleloader Deer Prep: You Ready?
It’s not quite a medical bag, per se, but general-practitioner-of-all-things-outdoors
MD Johnson does have a backpack full of black powder buck success tricks. Check out his preseason prep plan and what he’s bringing along for fall’s seasons.
75 ON TARGET Go-time For Birds, Bunnies And Bucks
No doubt about it, Dave W. is BBB accredited – at least if we’re talking birds, bunnies and bucks, three of his all-time favorite pursuits. He serves up some of his Washington small game hot spots as well as tips for this month’s High Buck Hunt.
83 GUN DOG Pace Your Pup Early In Hunting Season
Excitement’s high this time of year among sportsmen and their hunting dogs, but season is long and you don’t want to let that enthusiasm get out of hand. Scott shares reminders that will keep you and your four-legged partner in sync and in the game for the long haul.
95 CHEF IN THE WILD You, Me And A Rattlesnake In The Dark
What they needed was the antidote to a bad case of nature-deficit disorder; what Chef Randy and his pa found in the Owyhees was the fodder for an unusual recipe.
128 FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG Finding My Footing In A New Way
Winchester Bay and the Umpqua River will be a lot quieter this fall than past ones because of a complete salmon closure due to issues with wild coho and Chinook returns. But rather than defeating her, Sara is drawing strength from a bummer year to fight harder for her river system.
(BUZZ RAMSEY)
THE BIG PIC: Ashes to Ashes ‒The Impending Death of Millions of Critical Riparian Trees
Invasive emerald ash borers will devastate the Willamette Valley’s “wetland supertree,” and that will impact coho, a growing fishery, as well as spring Chinook and steelhead.
DEPARTMENTS
19 THE EDITOR’S NOTE
On the new chair of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission
29 READER PHOTOS
Big Chinook, a big tiger musky, big catches and big smiles!
33 THE DISHONOR ROLL
North Idaho bull moose poacher sentenced; Waterfowl guide, business plead guilty to Lacey Act violation; Kudos; Jackass Of The Month
37 OUTDOOR CALENDAR
Upcoming fishing and hunting openers, events, deadlines, more
38 DERBY WATCH
Ongoing and upcoming fishing derbies
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(ANDY WALGAMOTT)
THE EDITOR’S NOTE
Has Washington fish and wildlife oversight finally righted itself with the unanimous election of Jim Anderson as chair of the commission? I’m optimistic.
A lifelong Evergreen State hunter, angler and outdoorsman, Anderson took the reins last month at the citizen panel that oversees the Department of Fish and Wildlife and hires and fires its director, and he puts the commission on a more even keel after several divisive years under former chair Barbara Baker, former Governor Jay Inslee’s appointees and Washington Wildlife First trying to hijack state critter conservation and management.
“I think we need to embrace the mandate in its entirety, all parts of it,” said Anderson during his stump speech to fellow members earlier this summer, “not cherry pick it one way or another to meet our values, but acknowledge that is the board guidance we’ve gotten through the legislature and confirm that as our modus operandi.”
Recent years have seen some commissioners and others play grammatical games so as to try and focus more on the “preserve” part of the mandate, but it also clearly states WDFW must “... protect, perpetuate, and manage the wildlife and food fish, game fish, and shellfish in state waters and offshore waters” and the commission in particular is required to “attempt to maximize the public recreational game fishing and hunting opportunities of all citizens.”
TRUE, THERE IS an elephant in the room with Anderson – his 25-year career with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, including 20 as its executive director (he retired in 2010). That gives some hunters and anglers pause. Having watched Anderson in action since his 2019 appointment, I haven’t had any of those worries. What I’ve seen is a man steeped in natural resource management – both in schooling at Wazzu and his 35-year professional life – who has stood up for consumptive and cultural use of fish and wildlife through the lens of their longterm conservation. It’s a big tent, conservation is, and it’s strongest with a wide base, as I’ve preached repeatedly in this space.
The commission story is far from over. Last month, Governor Bob Ferguson agreed to WDFW Director Kelly Susewind’s request to launch an investigation into the conduct of four members –including Baker and the narrowly elected new vice chair, John Lehmkuhl – following questionable activities uncovered by the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation’s public records requests. But in the meanwhile, I’m looking forward to Anderson’s leadership, will be closely watching what he does and says, and am hopeful for smoother sailing in the years ahead.
Congratulations, Chair Anderson, and good luck – as well as in Washington’s woods and on its waters. –Andy Walgamott
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Jim Anderson at the south end of the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington. (JIM ANDERSON)
Ashes To Ashes: The Impending Death Of Millions Critical Riparian
Oregon ash trees are doomed by the arrival and spread of invasive emerald ash borers (inset, top right), discovered in 2022 near Portland. The expected mass dieoff of the trees in the Willamette Valley, the core of their range, is likely to impact the productivity of the region’s burgeoning coho population, itself fueling one of the Northwest’s rare growing salmon fisheries (inset, bottom right), as well as federally listed spring Chinook and winter steelhead. (LEAVES, COHO: ANDY WALGAMOTT; BUG: USGS NATIVE BEE INVENTORY AND MONITORING LAB)
Ashes: Impending Millions Of Trees
Invasive emerald ash borers will devastate the Willamette Valley’s ‘wetland supertree,’ and that will impact coho, springers and steelhead, and a growing fishery.
By Andy Walgamott
We’ve got a back 40 full of Oregon ash trees. Nice big old tall ones my wife can barely wrap her arms all the way around; robust saplings waiting in the wings; a kajillion sproutlings.
They’ve all recently been handed a “death sentence,” as has nearly every other ash tree in the entire Willamette Valley (and the rest of the Northwest). That’s going to be bad news for the valley’s suddenly robust coho population – which has posted record returns the past two years, markedly expanding a salmon fishery that has consumed no small portion of my free time in recent Septembers and Octobers – as well as its spring Chinook and winter steelhead, two other favorite pastimes of mine.
Oregon ash is the dominant tree in the Willamette Valley’s bottoms. It’s been dubbed “wetland supertree” – which should also tell you all you need to know about our backyard and its rainyseason streams and swamp. With their unique tolerance for the valley’s thick clay soils and
moisture, ashes line waterways such as rivers, creeks and sloughs, and they tower over seasonally flooded areas, ponds and whatnot, helping to keep the water cool enough for young salmon and steelhead, trout and other species.
Their bane will be the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that’s wreaked havoc on Midwest ashes since turning up there around the turn of this century. Illinois and Michigan report mortality rates greater than 99 percent for trees attacked by the half-inch-long, metallic-green bug originally from eastern Asia. “At this point,” the U.S. Geological Survey has stated, “all ash trees in North America are threatened and [emerald ash borers] could ecologically eliminate them from North American forests.”
Here on the West Coast, emerald ash borers were first discovered in Oregon in Forest Grove west of Portland in 2022, but they may have been here longer than that. Last summer, a large infestation was found in the Pudding River and Butte Creek bottoms,
on the east side of the Willamette River between Portland and Salem, and given how much canopy loss there was, EABs may have actually landed there first. Observable dieback occurs several years after larvae begin chewing through a tree’s cambium layer, breaking the up and down transport of water and nutrients. Adult bugs leave a distinctive D-shaped exit hole (the “D” can face down, up or any direction) in the trunk when they emerge in late spring to feed on ash leaves, then mate and lay eggs in the nooks and crannies of other ashes.
Ultimately, 999 out of every 1,000 EABstricken ash trees will die, typically in four to five years, and here in the valley they’re likely to eventually be replaced by much shorter
plants with less shading and cooling power – Himalayan blackberries, reed canary grass, for starters. Essentially, one invasive species is paving the way for the further expansion of two others, and likely many more, to the further detriment of fish and other riparian species, some of which are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
And looking at the big picture, tiny EABs will eventually remake the Willamette Valley landscape on a scale not unlike far larger forces have in the past – the repeated Missoula Floods at the end of the last ice age that left deep, rich soils behind; eons of seasonal burning by local tribes that made the valley floor and foothills much more productive hunting and foraging grounds for them; and Oregon Trail pioneers’ plows beginning two centuries back, along with the towns, roads, dams, tackle shacks and more we’ve sown here since then.
I LEARNED ALL about emerald ash borers this past spring after I decided to hang a trap for them up in our backyard. I didn’t think we had any in our woods (which are at least 100 years old if not older), though in summer, some of the ashes do get kind of sketchy canopies, which can also be caused by drought, heat and other non-bug issues. But I wanted to help with monitoring efforts here in our new home.
To be honest, until moving from Pugetropolis to Oregon City, all I knew about ashes was that my grandmother loved the mountain ones, they of the redorange berries that were good for throwing handfuls of at my sisters, the neighbor kids and other satisfying targets. But as we’ve settled in here, we’ve dedicated the wild half of our property to native species like ash. The Portland-based Backyard Habitat Certification Program posted this
Local residents learn how to put up an emerald ash borer trap this past May during a class held at the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District in Beavercreek. After taking the parchment paper off the sticky purple trap at home and hanging the trap up in an ash tree, participants checked for EABs once a month. Unfortunately, in July a volunteer found one of the bugs at a site well outside previously known infestations. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
about Fraxinus latifolia: “The ash of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon ash is a wetland supertree. It stabilizes wetland soils and filters out pollutants. It provides food and habitat for all the usual suspects, bees and birds and small mammals, as well as aquatic insects, crustaceans, waterfowl and aquatic mammals. In addition, Oregon ash supports dozens of species of butterflies and moths. Easy to grow, strong and sturdy, and a magnet for wildlife, Oregon ash is the tree your soggy soil has been waiting for.”
My interest in ashes and sense of alarm only grew after I attended a late April presentation on how the coho population has grown spectacularly in the Pudding River, illustrative of the productivity of even small streams that flow primarily on the floor of the hot Willamette Valley. It also helped to explain in part how the Willamette River’s overall coho run, which
struggled to push more than 3,000 fish over the falls as recently as 10 years ago, has blossomed into one that saw 29,654 come back in 2023 and a staggering 53,423 in 2024. Most returned to lower-elevation streams in the north end of the valley.
“Interestingly, last year the bulk of the run stayed lower in the system (Molalla, Tualatin, Yamhill) and did not venture as far upstream as the previous year (and more like years prior). There weren’t as many fish observed in the McKenzie or Santiams,” noted Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Ben Walczak last month.
He added that while the Willamette Valley’s heavy private land ownership and general lack of spawning surveys make it hard to observe where the salmon do end up, anecdotal reports from farmers and others indicated coho weren’t showing a preference for the Cascade or Coast Range side of the valley and were instead running up streams left and right of the mainstem Willamette River after fall rains last year.
ODFW expects another “strong run” in 2025 – the first fish came over the falls July 29, exceptionally early – and I’ll be out there this month and next, two-polin’ it with my second-rod validation, plugs, spinners and 360s, and other setups.
ONE AREA THAT has seen semi-regular fish surveys is the aforementioned Pudding River – ground zero of Oregon’s largest EAB outbreak so far at 25 square miles as of last month. Rapid biological assessments conducted for the Pudding River Watershed Council have shown that coho are the most abundant salmonid in the squiggly little lowland system. In 2014, total estimated juvenile coho pool abundance was 19,303; in 2023, there were 44,806. A run reconstruction shows that those two year-classes were spawned the fall before by 182 and 422 adult fish, respectively. Breaking it down even further, Pudding River coho represented .8 percent and 2.35 percent of all the adult coho that swam past Willamette Falls in 2013 and 2022, according to the assessment.
On the flip side, steelhead counts in the Pudding system in 2023 were half that of 2014. While there has been concern about young coho outcompeting juvenile winter steelhead (and spring Chinook), the decline
This screenshot of a map from the Oregon EAB website shows where emerald ash borers have been confirmed (red dots) in the Willamette Valley and areas where Oregon ash trees are at very high risk (peach shading) from the insect. The southernmost infestation cluster is centered on the Pudding River and Butte Creek, the northern one around Forest Grove, where EABs were first found in Oregon in 2022, and the lone northeastern dot is this year’s confirmed finding near Redland. (OREGONEAB.COM)
here was “likely due to water temperature increases” in Butte Creek in recent years.
Still, despite too-warm water in Butte and especially in Silver Creek (of beautiful Silver Falls State Park fame) below Silverton Reservoir, the assessment found coho, steelhead, Chinook and cutthroat trout abundance was “substantially below what the streams could sustain, meaning there is a lot of opportunity for habitat improvement.”
The watershed council has a big list of projects to help fish productivity, including adding channel complexity, removing fish passage barriers and improving coldwater inputs, as well as a pie-in-the-sky goal of getting the city of Silverton to discharge cool water from deeper in its reservoir instead of the warm stuff straight off the top.
While all that work can still be done, the observed and looming massive loss of ashes along the Pudding River and its tributaries adds a new wrinkle – and urgency – to it.
BACK TO THAT sticky purple trap hanging up in our backyard. This past spring, the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District announced it was looking for volunteers to help monitor for EABs. I was among the two dozen or so who signed up and attended an orientation session one May Saturday morning. There, the district’s Drew Donahue shared a page out of the state’s Emerald Ash Borer Readiness and Response Plan for Oregon that classed the potential impact from the widespread loss of ash trees due to EABs on Willamette Valley coho, spring Chinook and winter steelhead as “high.”
Afterwards, Donahue set each of us up with a large, triangular trap, packets of EAB attractant that we needed to replace halfway through the summer, nitrile gloves for handling the scent packets, some rope and a weight to get the trap well up in an ash tree, and a bunch of paperwork on how to tell emerald ash borers from native lookalikes and other bugs. Then she turned us loose to monitor for the invaders.
The deal was to check the trap around midmonth each month through September and report back to the district whether we’d found anything or not. When I lowered my trap in June, there was nothing suspicious stuck to it, just various bugs and some leaves. By July, there was an even wider selection of insects and forest canopy litter. There was also a vaguely EAB-colored and -sized bug. I zoomed in with my phone, took a photo and attached the image to my monthly report with a note saying that it was probably just a click beetle but I was submitting it anyway because I’m not exactly an entomologist.
A few days later, Donahue got back to me to confirm my bug was indeed not an ash borer. But soon after, she emailed to say that an EAB had been caught in a fellow volunteer’s trap hung near Redland, between Oregon City and Estacada and 20-plus miles from the other two major infestations in the greater Portland area.
IT WAS DISHEARTENING, depressing news, and it had my wife Amy and I fast-tracking
A presenter at the Pudding River Watershed Council’s meeting in late April shares a slide showing the 281 percent increase in coho numbers observed in the system’s Abiqua Creek between 2014 and 2023. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
our plans to begin treating a few of our ashes against EABs. Inoculating them with the insecticide emamectin benzoate via trunk injection in spring is considered to be the most effective treatment, but it’s also a spendy antidote and it has to be repeated every two to three years in perpetuity, which makes it ineffective at the scale needed to save the Willamette Valley’s ashes. It can also only be applied by somebody with a pesticide handler’s license.
There are other insecticide options, including a trunk spray and what’s known as a soil drench, both of which you can do by yourself, but their big drawback is the moderate to high impact on nontarget species. The bugs and worms and whatnot are important to the woods too.
On a wider scale, the only hope is to slow the spread of EABs. Tools include selectively girdling and treating ash trees with insecticides so as to create an inviting albeit deadly trap for the bugs; releasing parasitoid wasps from eastern Asia as biocontrol agents; and continuing to raise public awareness about EABs and the dangers of moving ash wood around, which has been banned in a four-county quarantine area.
Officials are also collecting Oregon ash seeds in hopes of finding that 1-in1,000 tree immune to EABs and eventually restocking the region with its seeds. While there’s no perfect clay-tolerant replacement tree match for riparian zones, piper willow, white alder, ponderosa pine, even longlived, but slow-growing Oregon white oaks can handle different portions of the super wet to seasonally dry soil moisture spectrum that Oregon ashes occupy. (This is not to say
that the valley’s streams are solely forested with ashes. Cottonwoods line many waters where soils are coarser and/or better drained thanks to robust fluvial processes.)
In the end, Amy and I will have to play god and choose which of our ashes to treat. The estimate we just received is $1,000 to inject four of them next April, $850 for three. Frankly, that’s a ton of money, so we may only be able to afford one or two. (Over the fence, our neighbor and I mulled getting our applicator’s licenses and treating trees as a side gig.) Wherever we land, we’ll be strategic to help out our long-lived oaks. Amy does love her trees and I long ago concluded the bumper sticker is true: Habitat is the key. Ultimately, the only beneficiaries in all of this are going to be insecticide applicators, woodpeckers and tree service companies, like the one our neighbor’s son operates and whom I’m sure we’ll be calling in the future.
TO BE CLEAR,
no coho swim in our backyard creeks, which rise after midfall’s rains return and eventually fade back into the muck come midspring’s beginning of the dry season. At times, it certainly feels like there’s enough water to support spawning salmon and their fry, but downstream, the runoff flows through several culverts before dumping over Canemah Bluff and becoming one with an old Missoula Flood landslide deposit.
And to a degree, coho and EABs share a certain kinship. These salmon are technically invasive in the middle and upper Willamette Valley. Before the installation of the locks and fish ladders around Willamette Falls, it’s believed that
only spring Chinook, winter steelhead and lamprey were able to get any further upriver than Oregon City. Water conditions in summer and autumn are just too low for coho, fall Chinook and summer steelhead to leap the barrier. But I guess it’s also theoretically possible that flooding from fall atmospheric rivers in past millennia occasionally overlapped coho runs to nearby streams and some of those fish could have strayed over the falls. Regardless, through much of the latter 20th century, ODFW released millions of coho from hatcheries above the falls, and while those programs ended in the 1990s, some fish were also spawning in the wild or began to do so. The 2009 return of 25,298 adult coho and 2010’s 20,021 opened eyes to the possibilities. Then came a sharp downturn, a twoyear bump into the high teens and then another crash. But since 2020, no run has come in less than 11,000 adults, and the five-year average is 25,500.
Last year’s record run appeared to have been boosted by “good production” on the spawning grounds and in Willamette Valley rearing streams and which “lined up with good ocean survival,” ODFW’s Beth Quillian told me. It’s unclear how much larger the Willamette coho run might become, but as Walczak, the agency biologist, told me in 2023, “there’s thousands of miles of stream
habitat that have different levels of access and suitability.”
The proof is in, er, the Pudding. That watershed assessment found zero young coho in Rock Creek, the river’s lowest major trib, in 2023, or Silver, that overwarm creek. But located between them, Butte Creek, where the biggest EAB infestation is, 2,418 coho were counted in 2014, while 3,360 were in 2023. And in neighboring Abiqua Creek, there were an estimated 39,070 two years ago, nearly four times as many as in 2014, a rise that “represents a piece of the success story of coho in the Willamette Basin,” the watershed council stated.
Indeed, the overall rise of the coho run is a wonder to celebrate in a region where salmon narratives usually run the opposite way. Around the Northwest, there are only a few places where returns are growing. Baker sockeye, which set a record of around 90,000 this year. Okanogan/Wenatchee sockeye, which hit a new high mark of three-quarters of a million back to the Columbia last year. Snake fall Chinook, which grew from just 337 at Lower Granite Dam in 1981 to 60,687 in 2014. Those runs have been helped in large part by people, but Willamette coho are basically adaptive self-starters.
YET THE TRAJECTORY of their moonshot is going to be intercepted by EABs in the coming years. I asked Walczak if ODFW had any sense for how significant the outbreak will be for the fish, how concerned the agency is and whether there will be time for coho to adapt or for habitat work to be
done to get ahead of the problem.
“Those are all good questions. We have not/are not directly studying impacts that EABs could have on coho. Generally, when riparian areas are negatively impacted, fish are negatively impacted,” he said.
These bugs are just the latest of many headaches fish, wildlife and managers face, one so new they’ve hardly had a chance to reach for an aspirin. But it is not good news for growing coho populations in streams on the valley floor, like Butte, Abiqua and the Pudding, which contribute a portion of the new harvest. It begs the question, how high would the run and catch go if EABs hadn’t come? What other benefits would accrue?
Dominic Maze, the man who by chance discovered the first EABs at his kids’ grade school and who is a biologist with Portland’s Environmental Services Bureau, delivered what now feels like a eulogy earlier this year to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“When we lose that Oregon ash, we lose that shade, we lose that habitat, and that shade is critical for keeping water cool,” Maze told reporter Cassandra Profiitta. “And who likes cold water? All of our salmon species that pass through the city of Portland or rear their young here.”
He termed the arrival of EABs a “death sentence” for Willamette Valley ash trees.
Sometimes, even superheroes die, and in the coming decades, a surging coho run as well as their cousins in the salmonid world will face a future without one of their greatest protectors because of a ravenous tiny little green bug. NS
Coho anglers troll off the mouth of the Tualatin River on the Willamette last year. During 2024’s record run, 2,802 of the salmon were kept on the mainstem above the falls, a figure representing about 5 percent of adult passage. They’re far from an easy bite, but trolling plugs, spinners and 360s, and other offerings, or casting spinners, plugs and other lures by tribs is what many do. The two-rod validation is also again in effect above the falls everywhere coho are retainable. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
Following his dad Jerry down the rabbit hole that is tiger musky fishing, Austin Han grins over a nice one he caught in midsummer at Curlew Lake. Putting in a lot of time on the water this and past years has taught them that there’s a certain way to figure-eight a bait to get a fish to T-bone the lure instead of just nipping at the tail, and that moon position appears to matter. It also told Jerry that they needed to “work an extra day to afford musky lures .” (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
A trip to Northcentral Washington had its ups and downs for Jo Jewett. She wasn’t happy to hear that sockeye had closed, but did like the idea that summer Chinook, which had opened after all, were bigger, reports her dad, Brandon. “Her eyes were pretty wide when this fish started ripping line off her reel! She was a little concerned that the fish wasn’t bright and shiny, but when she saw the meat, she said, ‘That’ll eat.’” (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
“The ocean was angry – and so were the fish,” writes Mike Campion about this monster hatchery Chinook his sister Ronnett Campion Rachinski landed in late July. They were fishing in the San Juan Islands just after a tsunami warning went out when this monster “freight-trained off the back of the boat.” After quite a fight, “into the net it went,” Campion recalls. “My little sister? She’s the one who got it there. She. Freakin’. Rocks.”
(KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Father’s Day at their favorite Western Washington reservoir turned out to be a fabulous one for Bob Searl, Cade Cameron and Mike Franklin. They were soaking Power Eggs for landlocked coho. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Back in his old stomping grounds! Dave
now lives far from the ocean, but in late June he had a chance to fish out of Westport and bring some marine nutrients all the way back to North Idaho for his family to enjoy.
Barry Dubnow went on a multi-species tear in early summer, putting Vancouver Island Chinook and halibut in the boat, then heading into the North Cascades for sockeye with Hannah Pennebaker, all while on guided trips. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Anderson
(DAVE ANDERSON)
Randy Fox tied into his first Marine Area 5 Chinook after he tied on a Stacking Bodies trolling fly. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Recently, we accepted the award from the Hewes family for being the 2024 Top Sales Dealer — an honor we don’t take lightly. I’m thankful for the support from Hewescraft and especially our sales, parts, and service teams at Tom-n-Jerry’s. Great job, team!!!
— Kelly Hawley, President.
Tom-N-Jerry’s
The LeeLock magnum Skeg #LMS-04 is made for Minnkota Instinct motors. It will drastically improve the steering performance and straight line travel of your bow-mounted motor. Not only does this Skeg improve your motor’s performance, it also makes it much more efficient. Your batteries will run longer on a charge. A LeeLock Skeg is a vital part of your trolling motor system. This oversized skeg is made of 5052 aluminum. The size is 8 3/4 inches high by 10 inches wide and it’s 3/16 inches thick. It comes with clear PVC coated stainless steel hose clamps.
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North Idaho Bull Moose Poacher Sentenced
ANorth Idaho man who became stuck in the snow after poaching a bull moose last fall was convicted of felony unlawful killing, possession and wastage and sentenced in midsummer.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials credited two hunters who became suspicious of Raymond A. Black’s story after they picked him up in the mountains eastnortheast of Coeur d’Alene last November. They took down his license plate number
and submitted their tip via the Citizens Against Poaching hotline (800-632-5999).
According to IDFG, Black shot the bull while it stood in the middle of a Forest Service road but without possessing one of the agency’s once-in-a-lifetime tags for it. When Black tried to load the moose into his rig, he got stuck in the snow, then went for help. After catching a ride back to his vehicle and getting it unstuck, he fled the scene, leaving the moose to waste.
By Andy Walgamott
Using the license plate info from the hunters, conservation officers served a search warrant on Black’s residence and seized his rifle. In July, Black was sentenced to pay just under $12,000 in restitution, fines, meat processing fees and court costs, and received three years of supervised probation and a lifetime hunting and trapping ban in Idaho and all other US states except Hawaii via the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact.
JACKASS OF THE MONTH
Ahhh, the hazards of being an influencer. Constant demand to create content.
The US Attorney’s Office. Those two collided in late July for Matt Jennings, 35, of Georgia when he was sentenced to never ever hunt and fish in Kansas again after pleading guilty to two counts of illegal take of whitetail deer that were also featured on his hunting show, The Game.
He killed one buck in November 2022 in a part of Kansas where his tag was not valid, then drove the deer to Oklahoma “where he fraudulently registered the kill in Oklahoma using an Oklahoma electronic tag.”
Then a week later, he killed a second Kansas whitetail, this time in the correct area for his tag, but in violation of state rules that prohibit the taking of more than one buck per year.
Using both kills for show content, Jennings “appears to be patting himself on the back while simultaneously giving a big middle finger to the rule books,” wrote Ryan Wilby of The Venatic, an outdoor newsletter.
Wilby also reported that at least two of Jennings’ sponsors dropped him immediately after sentencing.
In the wake of that, Jennings’ social media pages were peppered with salty comments. In response to his Facebook post, “The light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5,” someone commented, “When you run out of tags in one state, just take your deer to another and tag it there ... Poacher 1:1.”
Added another, “You mean the spotlight shines in the darkness ...”
The investigation included work by five different state fish and wildlife agencies, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Secret Service.
Jennings was also sentenced to pay
$15,000 in restitution to Kansas’s wildlife department, fined $10,000 and forfeited the bucks’ antlers.
In addition, he was prohibited from hunting or being around anybody hunting in a host of whitetail-rich Midwestern and Great Plains states for five years – a hit to someone whose YouTube motif is to “travel the US in search for that trophy buck of a lifetime.”
Other states be warned.
Hunting show host Matt Jennings made some regrettably worded social media posts in the leadup to his late July sentencing in federal court for wildlife crimes. (META)
Waterfowl Guide, Business Plead Guilty To Lacey Act Violation
ASouthwest Washington man and his guide service pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act in federal court in midsummer.
According to a US Department of Justice press release, Branden Trager of Brush Prairie and Mayhem Services LLC admitted violating the Migratory Bird Treaty act during a hunting trip in January 2023 in Western Washington and then transporting birds taken during the hunt in violation of the Lacey Act.
Trager also acknowledged that he had brought hunters into British Columbia and guided waterfowl hunts in pursuit of harlequin ducks there in late 2022, despite being unable to operate as a hunting guide under Canadian laws, according to the feds.
Harlequin ducks were closed to hunting in Washington during the 202223 waterfowl season, but open for two a day in BC. Harlequins are a particularly noteworthy, colorful and rare sea duck prized by some hunters.
Per a federal court agreement signed by Trager, his lawyer and federal prosecutors, the parties agreed to recommend to a US District Court judge that Trager be fined $100,000 as part of his sentence. The fine would be put into the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, which is also known as the Lacey Act Reward Fund.
The agreement also calls for federal court to require Trager “make a written public statement detailing the Defendant’s contrition for his offense conduct and emphasizing the importance of hunting, guiding, and wildlife regulations” and post them on his AdventuresWithMayhemOutfitters.com website, Adventures with Mayhem Outfitters Facebook page and CalicoCaptain Instagram account, as well as publish a public statement in a national or regional hunting or guiding magazine.
Trager is listed as the president of The Fallen Outdoors, “an all-volunteer 501(c) (3) organization that connects veterans to
each other in the great outdoors.”
Court papers indicate Trager has no criminal history that would add points under federal sentencing guidelines. Sentencing is scheduled for October 16.
The Department of Justice says the investigation was led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement,
British Columbia Conservation Officer Service and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. It was prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Ryan Connors and Trial Attorney Sarah Brown of DOJ’s Environmental Crimes Section with help from the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
KUDOS
We like to highlight the game wardens and county prosecutors who take down poachers in this space, but this issue we’re tipping our cap to someone else in the fish and wildlife justice world.
Meet Boyd Perry, the Oregon State Police’s 2024 Fish and Wildlife Division Partner of the Year.
“For many years, Boyd Perry has volunteered his time to process big game and game fish seized by OSP during various hunting and fishing seasons. Primarily working with animals from Baker County, Perry has also assisted troopers from Malheur and Union Counties when needed. Each year, he processes numerous seized animals, including up to 20 elk in a single season, saving OSP substantial butchering costs,” troopers wrote.
To do so, they said that Perry has turned his garage into a veritable “professional processing facility, equipped with walk-in coolers, stainless steel tables, a meat saw, and a meat grinder provided by ODFW.”
Troopers said that Perry also works with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to “distribute the meat to local charities and individuals in need within Baker County, ensuring it benefits the community.”
Even at 80-plus years of age, Perry is going strong, fielding calls night and day and butchering multiple big game animals a week during the peak of fall’s hunting seasons.
“His contributions have made a lasting impact on OSP’s operations and the Baker County community,” troopers added. Thank you, sir!
(OSP)
OUTDOOR CALENDAR
SEPTEMBER
1 OR ruffed and blue grouse and mourning dove openers; Western OR and select NE OR units fall turkey openers; Western OR quail opener; WA cougar, fall turkey, mourning dove and bow deer openers
1-30 OR Central Coast ocean any-coho season dates (or 35,000-fish quota met)
6 WA bow elk opener; CAST For Kids fishing event on Lake Washington, Renton – info: castforkids.org
6-7 OR youth upland bird hunt at Fern Ridge Wildlife Area; WA Goose Areas 4 and 5 September Canada goose season dates
6-10 OR Southwest, High Desert and Blue Mountain, and Mid-Columbia Zones September Canada goose season dates
6-14 WA Goose Areas 1, 2 and 3 September Canada goose season dates
6-20 OR Northwest Permit Zone September Canada goose season dates
7 Buoy 10 season switches to hatchery coho only (Chinook retention closed); CAST For Kids fishing event on Hagg Lake – info above
7-30 Salmon fishing closure dates on Lower Columbia between west Puget Island and Warrior Rock-Bachelor Island lines
8 Fee pheasant hunting opener at Fern Ridge Wildlife Area
10 Nehalem, Tillamook and Nestucca wild coho openers (see regs)
11-14 Portland Fall RV & Van Show, Portland Expo Center – info: otshows.com
13 Siletz, Yaquina, Alsea, Siuslaw, Coos and Coquille wild coho openers (see regs); WDFW National Hunting and Fishing Day event (free, registration required), East Wenatchee – info: wdfw.wa.gov/events; WDFW youth pheasant mentor hunts (free, registration required), Sunnyside, Ellensburg, Vancouver – info above
13-14 OR youth upland bird hunt at Ladd Marsh and White River Wildlife Areas, and Central OR and John Day locations; ODFW Upland Hunting Workshop ($50, for adults; register by September 10), EE Wilson Wildlife Area – info: myodfw .com/workshops-and-events; WA youth upland bird hunt dates
15 WA forest grouse opener
15-19 WA 65-plus and disabled hunter pheasant hunting week
15-23 OR and WA bandtail pigeon season dates
15-25 High Buck Hunt season dates in select WA Cascades and Olympics wilderness areas and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
18-30 Salmon fishing closure dates on Columbia from Warrior Rock-Bachelor Island line to WA-OR border east of McNary Dam
20 OR youth upland bird hunting day at Irrigon Wildlife Area; Western WA general pheasant and quail opener; Western WA youth waterfowl hunting day
20-21 OR youth upland bird hunt at Denman, Klamath and Sauvie Wildlife Areas
22 Fee pheasant hunting opener at Denman and Sauvie Wildlife Areas
27 54th Annual National Hunting & Fishing Day – info: nhfday.org; Eastern WA youth waterfowl hunting day
27-28 OR youth upland bird hunt at Coquille and EE Wilson Wildlife Areas
29 Fee pheasant hunting opener at EE Wilson Wildlife Area
30 Last scheduled day of 2025 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program season – info: pikeminnow.org
1 Siltcoos, Tahkenitch and Tenmile Lakes coho opener; OR razor clam opener on Clatsop County beaches north of Tillamook Head
2-5 Tacoma Fall RV Show, Tacoma Dome – info above
4 Western OR deer and most Eastern OR controlled deer openers; WA muzzleloader elk opener; Eastern WA quail and partridge openers
10 ID deer and elk rifle openers in many units
11 OR pheasant and partridge openers; Eastern OR quail opener; OR Zones 1 and 2 early duck season opener; OR Zone 2 scaup and snipe opener; WA general rifle deer season opener
ONGOING & UPCOMING EVENTS
Now through end of salmon, lingcod and other fishing seasons: Westport Charterboat Association Derbies; charterwestport.com/fishing.html
Now through October 1 (or when waters cool off): 4th Annual Coquille River Smallmouth Bass Derby; coquilleriverstepassoc.org
Now through October 31: WDFW 2025 Trout Derby, select lakes across Washington; wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/contests/trout-derby
September 6: Edmonds Coho Derby, Marine Areas 8-10; edmondscohoderby.com
September 6-7: 25th Coos Basin Salmon Derby; facebook.com/profile .php?id=100063510016235
September 6-13: Nootka Sound Tuna Showdown, Pacific off Vancouver Island; nootkamarineadventures.com
September 13: 41st Annual SMW Local 66 Coho Salmon Derby, inner Puget Sound and local rivers; smw66.org
September 13: Salmon for Soldiers Day of Honor, North Puget Sound; salmonforsoldiers.org
September 13-14: 3rd Annual Whidbey Island Coho Derby; whidbeypsa.com
September 15-October 31: Boat Basin Salmon Derby, Westport; westportgrayland-chamber.org
September 20: Kingston Coho Fishing Derby, Areas 9 and 10; kingstoncohoderby.com
September 20-21: Everett Coho Derby, Areas 8-10 and open nearby rivers; everettcohoderby.com
Since 1903, Odell Lake Lodge & Resort has been a cornerstone of Oregon’s outdoor adventure. Nestled in the heart of the Cascade Mountains, this historic lodge blends rustic charm with modern comforts, offering the perfect getaway for families, couples, and adventurers alike.
With 14 cozy cabins and a full-service restaurant, guests can relax in comfort after a day of excitement. In the summer, the sparkling waters of Odell Lake invite you to cast a line on a guided fishing outing, explore hiking trails, or camp beneath the stars. When winter arrives, the lodge transforms into a winter wonderland, with cozy fireside evenings, breathtaking alpine scenery and world-class snow-
mobiling, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
This winter, Odell Lake Lodge & Resort is thrilled to announce a brand-new addition: a year-round sauna, designed for deep relaxation and paired perfectly with invigorating winter plunges in the pristine lake. It’s the ultimate way to rejuvenate after a day of adventure.
Whether you seek adrenaline, tranquility, or a bit of both, Odell Lake Lodge & Resort delivers an unforgettable experience—season after season. A terrific location for retreats, team building, weddings and family reunions.
Come see why they’ve been Oregon’s premier year-round destination for over a century. Your mountain escape awaits!
Visit Oregon’s Year-Round Escape in the Cascade Mountains!
An excellent venue for retreats, team-building activities, weddings, and family reunions, Odell Lake Lodge & Resort offers cozy cabins, delicious food, boat and slip rentals, and endless adventure. It’s the perfect place to gather, connect, and create lasting memories in a stunning natural setting. Enjoy fishing, hiking, and camping in the summer, or snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and fireside relaxation in the winter.
Experience over a century of mountain magic—any season, every reason.
s any seasoned hunter or fisherman knows, if you want to bag game, you need the right tools for the job. But selecting that perfect rifle or that rod-andreel combo is only one piece of the puzzle. Once you gear up, head afield and get that trophy of your dreams, how will you serve up your quarry? What tools will you need?
Alaska Butcher Equipment & Supply
has your answer. The small, family-owned, Anchorage-based business has been in operation since 1989, and ships throughout Alaska and to the contiguous 48 states.
“The owners, Butch and Barb Hawley, started the business doing trade shows selling the ‘Original FoodSaver,’” explains the company’s Alicson Parrish. “Now we have become the ‘hunting and fish processing
headquarters.’ We sell everything from knives, spices for sausage-making, to vac packers, saws and meat grinders.”
If you’re new to stuffing your own sausage or grinding your own meat – or you just want a few tips – ABES has you covered. Their friendly and knowledgeable staff will walk you through how to use their products and demonstrate their equipment.
“We take the time to make sure our customers have the knowledge to go home and do it themselves with confidence,” says Parrish. “Most people don’t know they can make their own sausages at home. We have everything from the casings, pre-packed sausage seasoning kits to high temp cheese. And free instruction worksheets.”
And if you don’t want to fully commit to buying one of their products, but you want to rent one for a few days to package your catch or grind up your game, ABES has you covered there too. Visit their website to see daily rates and product availability.
As we head into fall and big game hunting seasons, make sure you have the right tools for the job at hand. See alaskabutcherequip.com for more information.
Big Sky Fishing Charters, led by Captain Chris Mischke, offers guided fishing trips year round in both Flathead Valley and Fort Peck, Montana, including open water and ice fishing. Targeting lake trout, northern pike, and more, trips include expert guides, quality gear, and scenic views of Montana, with options for all skill levels.
Telephone: 206-382-9220. 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. 9. Full names and complete addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor: Publisher: James Baker, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. Editor: Andy Walgamott, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. Managing editor: None. 10. Owner: James Baker, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities. If none, check box: none. 12. Tax status: Has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication title: Northtwest Sportsman. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 2025. 15. Extent and nature of circulation: a.Total number of copies: 50000. b. Paid circulation (by mail and outside the mail). (1) Mailed ouside-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 1768. (2) Mailed in-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 0. (3) Paid distribution outside the mails including sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid distribution outside USPS: 29800 (4) Paid distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS (e.g. first-class mail): 2087. c. Total paid distribution: 33655. d. Free or nominal rate distribution (by mail and outside the mail). (1) Free or nominal rate outside-county copies included on PS Form 3360: 1943. (2) Free or nominal rate in-county copies included on PS Form 3541: 0. (3) Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other classes through the USPS (e.g. first-class mail): 572. (4) Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail (carriers or other means): 2009. e. Total free or nominal rate distribution: 4439. f. Total distribution: 38094. g. Copies not distributed: 11906. h. Total: 50000. i. Percent paid: 88.35% 17. Publication of statement of ownership: If the publication is a general publication, publication of this statement is required. Will be printed in the September issue of this publication. 18. Signature and title of editor, publisher, business manager, or owner: John Rusnak, General Manager. Date: Aug. 21, 2025. I verify all the information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or sanctions (including civil penalties).
How To Find Blacktails In Wildfire Scars
BUZZ RAMSEY
Perhaps like you, I find myself hunting the same areas and camping in the same spots each and every year, which has sometimes turned into decades. And why not? There are advantages for those who know the terrain well and where the deer, especially bucks, tend to linger. After all, deer are in some ways like fish, mice and many other animals in that they frequent the same places year after year.
This is all good as long as you’re enjoying hunting success. But if the consistent harvest you enjoyed for years suddenly (or over time) subsides, it might be time to consider a change.
Deer abundance is based on habitat and the amount of feed, water and cover from human intrusion it contains. Habitats, as related to where deer can or won’t be found, can and do change. These changes can be abrupt, like when a big clearcut complete with the spraying of herbicides dries up the fresh browse deer depend on; the forest canopy closes, eliminating food sources; a wildfire reduces the forest to ashes; a disease outbreak alters the ecosystem; your access to private land is suddenly denied; or a tough winter results in a big dieoff.
Of course, deer populations can also be influenced by an excessive number of car collisions, the amount taken illegally by poachers and how many and what kinds of predators also occupy the landscape.
AFTER HUNTING THE same Eastern Oregon ranch for over 40 years and witnessing a steady decline in mule deer numbers there, mostly due to habitat and harvest issues, my younger son, nephew and I decided to make a change in 2020. We’ve skipped
Author Buzz Ramsey bagged this blacktail last season in a part of Western Oregon burned by wildfire in 2020. Fires can produce good deer hunting in the years afterwards as long as they didn’t burn too hot and sterilize the soil. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
On an early scouting trip, Jeff Ramsey (here) and uncle Buzz Ramsey found this area where the new growth deer love to eat looked especially appealing.
around since that time by obtaining some of the easier-to-draw Eastern Oregon mule deer tags. And while we’ve enjoyed some success, it’s not like all three of us are tagging out on bucks each and every year.
All Eastern Oregon mule deer hunts and many of the best hunting areas in Washington and Idaho fall under the draw system. This is where (as you might know) you can apply for one of a limited number of controlled tags/ special permits to hunt a productive unit. Getting lucky and drawing a tag might take only a few years or also decades.
It’s also true that over-the-counter tags are also available for general season hunters, though those may not allow you to hunt where you might otherwise want to go. When it comes to Oregon’s over-the-counter rifle tags, it’s the hunt units located west of the Cascade Range for blacktail deer that are up for grabs. You just have to be willing to hunt the wetter, mostly forested west side of the state.
Having chased mule deer for most
of my life, my nephew Jeff Ramsey and I decided to build up our preference points for Oregon’s Eastside and buy an over-thecounter tag for blacktail deer last season. In case you haven’t looked lately, there are 20 hunt units spanning Western Oregon, where this year’s rifle deer season runs October 4-November 7. There’s also a twoday extension November 8-9 for youth hunters 12 to 17 years old who haven’t tagged out.
And while Jeff cringed at the thought of hunting the thick, sometimes rainy forests of Western Oregon, I explained to him that there are more than a few old clearcuts where we might find success. In addition, there are large areas where wildfires have opened things up and, in some cases, now offer a mosaic of burnt and standing forest where deer might enjoy browsing the new growth and the security of bedding in unburnt woods.
Having onX Maps on our home computers and cell phones made finding places to scout easy, as in addition to
showing land ownership and hunt unit boundaries, OnX offers a hunt layer that shows active and historic wildfires.
OUR INITIAL STRATEGY and scouting trips were to check out areas that had burnt in the last three to five years, including in the Labor Day 2020 blazes that covered 1.2 million acres, primarily on the western slopes of the Cascades. In addition, we decided we wanted to hunt Westside units that butt up against the Eastside draw-only areas. Who knows, we thought, the two of us might find an area where the terrain was similar to hunting the far more open Eastside we were used to.
Spoiler alert: We didn’t find anything like that. After scouting several different burns where we looked for deer sign (mostly consisting of fresh tracks and droppings), along with water sources and fresh browse, we ended up hunting an area that had been mostly leveled by wildfire in 2020.
The place we hunted consisted of a mosaic of private and public ground. Much of the private forest land was open to hunting (we checked). We planned to hunt the last 10 days of the season when the fire bans had lifted and when buck deer might be seeking hot does. We found that much of the private forest land had been salvage logged – it was littered with stumps – and sprayed with herbicides in places, while the burnt timber on the Bureau of Land Management parcels was left standing, with new growth sometimes stretching head high.
It seemed easy to identify the areas with better forage due to the bright-greencolored browse as compared to canyons mostly lacking decent feed. After surveying the area we were particularly intrigued by one steep canyon where the best looking browse butted up against standing timber that was black from the fire but contained some serious bedding cover.
WE PARKED AND hiked the gravel road and trails while stopping to glass into the canyon. It wasn’t long before I spotted a couple does in the brush below me. While doing so I heard a buck grunt. In addition, I saw deer cross an open area deep in the canyon, but couldn’t tell what they were, as
(BUZZ RAMSEY)
COLUMN
All the private timberlands the Ramseys hunted was salvage logged after wildfire singed the area in 2020. In contrast, dead trees were typically left standing if they’d been growing on federal or state lands. Standing timber can still provide cover for deer after they’ve browsed in regrowth. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
they disappeared before I could get the glass on them.
It seemed the deer were moving through this timbered section of the canyon to perhaps bed on a ridge further up the far side. We circled around hoping to spot them, as there was a road we could follow. There, I was able to shoot a buck at roughly 100 yards as he traversed to high ground parallel to a ridge.
The next morning found us parked before daylight where an area salvage logged met standing timber. Jeff took a stand as legal shooting light approached while I sat in the rig out of the brisk morning wind sweeping across the ridgetop. The bark from his .300 WSM startled me, as although I was confident there were more bucks in the area, I didn’t expect Jeff to spot one so quickly.
“WILDFIRES CAN BE good or bad for big game depending on the elevation where they occur, the intensity of the fire, how patchy the fire is and the time of year they happen,” Don Whittaker, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife ungulate species coordinator, told me. “When it comes to wildfires, it’s really a mixed bag of good and bad for game.”
“Lower-elevation fires are generally bad for big game, while wildfires occurring on high-elevation forests can (in some areas) be really good for deer due to the opening up of the forest canopy, which allows sunlight to hit the forest floor and spur plant growth. In addition, the nitrogen released from ash provides nutrients that support the growth of browse, which can offer benefits, depending on the amount of moisture the area receives, for two to five years after a wildfire,” he explained.
“Depending on the type of trees and moisture levels, new forest growth can, in some instances, grow so fast and thick that in just seven to 10 years they totally block the browse deer depend on for survival,” Whittaker added. “In addition, super-hot fires can sterilize the dirt, which means the browse will take longer, sometimes much longer, to materialize.”
“Historically,” he continued, “fires were mostly a good thing for big game, but forest fires these days can
be much larger and hotter than in past decades. Small fires or fires that burn in a mosaic pattern can be good, as they are generally not as hot and open things up, which stimulates plant growth.”
Another ODFW wildlife biologist I interviewed for this article was Chris Yee. He explained that right after a wildfire you mostly have the same or fewer deer on the landscape. And while deer numbers can grow given new and more abundant browse, it takes at least three years for deer numbers to increase. Does can respond by birthing twin fawns in response to having more abundant and nutritious forage.
Interestingly, blacktails tend to stay within their established home range even after an adjacent burn produces more abundant forage, based on radio collar data, according to Yee. This behavior shows how critical it is to manage blacktails on a large or landscape scale to produce a population response.
Some areas hit by large wildfires, like 2022’s Cedar Creek Fire within the Willamette National Forest near Waldo Lake, have burned repeatedly over the years. Areas around Waldo Lake have burned so severely that much of the soil is now hydrophobic, which means water tends to run off instead of soaking in. Reduced water-holding capacity severely retards plant growth and, thus, deer forage production. This area hasn’t yet recovered from past fires and no one I talked to could tell me how long it might take. The area is also at a higher elevation, which often requires more time to recover because of the reduced growing season.
YOU SHOULD KNOW that given plenty of early fall rain, areas not totally scorched and sterilized by wildfire can produce grass, forbes and shrub regrowth the same year fires occur.
What this means is that while you can discover areas burnt by wildfire while navigating OnX mapping, pre- and earlyseason scouting is all important in zeroing in on areas where the forage is abundant, which will likely up your odds of success.
Take the Holiday Farm Fire that burned 173,000 acres of the upper McKenzie River
COLUMN
In advance of their hunt and on the drive over, Jeff Ramsey told his uncle that since they were hunting the west side of Oregon, he was going to harvest the first legal blacktail buck he saw. It turned out to be a spike – and it provided meat in the freezer. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
watershed in 2020, for example. This fire moved so fast and burned so severely that some areas have seen almost no renewed browse growth. On the other hand, some areas where the fire was less intense have recovered and are producing deer. What’s unfortunate is that historically this area had some of the highest densities of blacktails in Lane County.
As I wrote this column in late July, there were 30 large fires burning, not to mention 1,800 small wildfires that had been contained by firefighters in the Pacific Northwest so far this year. The total combined burned acreage at the time stood at 127,000 acres. Roughly 85 percent of these were attributed to human or unknown causes.
One of those blazes, the Burdoin Fire, had been headed toward our Eastern Washington residence and had us nervous. Burning 9 miles from our home, we were under a level 1 evacuation notice. As the wind picked up, we hoped firefighters would gain the upper hand, which they did in the end. Hopefully the area burnt by the fire will make for some good hunting in future years as new and more abundant forage takes hold. Jeff’s and my experience in Western Oregon last season suggests it just may. NS
Editor’s note: Buzz Ramsey is regarded as a sportfishing authority (as related to trout, steelhead and salmon), outdoor writer and proficient lure and fishing rod designer. Buzz built a successful 45-year career promoting gear related to Northwest and Great Lakes fisheries during his tenure with Luhr Jensen, Pure Fishing and Yakima Bait. Now retired, he writes for Northwest Sportsman and The Guide’s Forecast.
Breaking The Mold: Game Plan To Join The Top 10 Percent
BECOMING A BETTER HUNTER
By Dave Anderson
Every fall, many rifle hunters head into the woods as the general big game season begins. Most invest time and effort, but when the last day
of the hunt arrives, many return home empty-handed, with unpunched tags in their pockets. Then there’s the other group – the 10 percent. These hunters consistently tag out year after year without drawing a special permit.
If you are curious about what sets these hunters apart, I can tell you: It’s not always luck. Their success comes from preparation, mental attitude
and a willingness to go the extra mile that most hunters simply aren’t willing to do. However, anyone can move into that toptier category of hunters if they are willing to put in the work. In this article, I will discuss different strategies to enhance your hunting skills in order to help move you into the 10 percent.
SHIFT YOUR MINDSET
Approach your general season rifle hunt as if it were a coveted limited-entry tag. This means:
Preparation: Start your research months in advance;
Planning: Develop a flexible hunt plan with various strategies;
Commitment: Stay focused and hunt
There is no shortcut up the mountain to tagging out on big game annually; it all comes down to how mentally and physically invested you are in the hunt. (DAVE ANDERSON)
Trail cameras have become a huge part of the game for deer and elk hunters, a chance to scout remotely 24/7/365 and observe big game behavior, how many predators are in the area, and more. But good old fieldcraft, glassing and observational skills can never be replicated. (DAVE ANDERSON)
hard every day you are in the field.
Your hunt plan should include multiple options. Having various strategies is highly important, as your plan A, B and even C may be compromised by a truck at a trailhead or someone camping back in an area you are trying to access. Instead of getting frustrated, move on to the next spot.
Committing to hunting hard every day is key. Pack a lunch, snacks and extra water. Pack a filter if you don’t want to carry the extra weight of excess water. I’ve found one extremely handy and worth the additional burden. My motto has always been get to your spot in the dark and come out in the dark.
Successful hunters don’t just hope for a chance encounter. They know where to find animals and are prepared to adapt. Unlike some hunters who give up after a few days of minimal success, top-tier hunters remain engaged until the very last light of the season, understanding that persistence often leads to success.
PRESEASON PREPARATION
Many rifle hunters only practice before the season starts, but the top 10 percent take
a different approach:
Shooting practice: They shoot yearround, practicing in various positions and conditions to mimic real-life hunting scenarios. They practice in wind, in cold and even after a brisk uphill hike to simulate real-world hunting situations;
Physical conditioning: Staying in shape gives them better opportunities at accessing more remote areas. In addition, being in great physical shape helps these hunters pack out their harvested wild game. A good fitness level is a significant advantage when it comes to hunting;
E-scouting: They utilize tools like onX or Google Earth to identify areas where animals may bed and feed. And by mapping multiple access points, they are able to adapt to changing hunt conditions.
SCOUTING
The best rifle hunters invest a considerable amount of time scouting before the season: Summer glassing: They observe animal habits, noting where they feed and rest while considering wind and light conditions; Trail cameras: They use cameras to monitor movement patterns and catch changes
in activity due to hunting pressure;
Sign reading: Recognizing fresh signs from animals helps develop a more precise understanding of their movements. Get trail cameras in the area you are looking to hunt months in advance. I start placing cameras in the woods and mountains as soon as I can – indeed, earlier and earlier each year. I hung my first group of cameras on trees in May. The earlier the better, as trail cameras are an effective way to gauge how many animals are frequenting an area well ahead of the season. It also allows you to find animals to potentially target during the season.
Cameras can also provide intel on how many predators are in an area, which can affect your hunt as well. For example, one particular drainage that I hunt had five wolves frequenting the area and ridgeline fairly consistently. You could see how skittish and jumpy the elk were on camera in that same area. This is knowledge that is super helpful to have when approaching the season.
EXPLORE AND HUNT WHERE OTHERS DON’T By midmorning on opening day, popular spots become crowded. The top 10 per-
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cent stand out by seeking:
Overlooked areas: They venture into rugged, steep or brushy places that many hunters pass by. Sometimes the best spot is less than a mile from the trailhead – if you are willing to go straight up or down;
Midday activity: While others rest, toptier hunters actively hunt shady bedding areas, work ridgelines and glass secondary feeding spots;
Light in, heavy out: They are willing to hike in light and come out with a full pack of meat on their back.
ADAPT TO CONDITIONS
Successful hunters adjust their strategies based on:
Weather: Chilly weather may drive animals lower, prompting the 10 percent to follow suit, while warmer conditions will find them glassing shaded areas;
Wind: They change their approach to minimize scent interference with bed-
ding areas;
Pressure: They take advantage of other hunters’ movements, predicting where animals might flee to and being prepared to intercept them.
MASTERING YOUR RIFLE
Many hunters limit themselves to shots within 200 yards due to lack of practice. The 10 percent, however, are capable of making clean, ethical shots at longer ranges because they have practiced. They understand their rifle’s trajectory, have solid rest systems and can adapt quickly for range and wind. There is no such thing as a bench in the field.
SEALING THE DEAL
Getting close is only part of the challenge – sealing the deal is where many average rifle hunters fail. Successful hunters know how to finish thanks to these mindsets: Patience: They wait for a clear shot in-
stead of rushing;
Confidence: Their practice enables them to make clean shots under pressure; Ethics: They avoid taking risky shots, trusting that a better opportunity will present itself.
Apply for cow hunts, doe hunts and extra hunts to get in time on game and know how to seal the deal when it counts. If you are anything like me, I am just as excited to knock down a cow elk as I am a bull.
To recap, here are my concluding thoughts: The rifle hunters who consistently tag out during every general season aren’t merely lucky – they are disciplined. They plan, prepare, adapt and hunt harder and smarter than the rest.
This fall, I challenge you to implement just one new strategy from this list. Build on it each and every year afterwards, and soon, you too can join the ranks of the 10 percent who successfully notch their tags every hunting season. NS
Becoming a better hunter isn’t just about killing huge bucks and bulls. Antlerless and second tags serve as opportunities to sharpen your abilities while also providing meat for the freezer. (DAVE ANDERSON)
Muzzleloader Deer Prep: You Ready?
I’m not normally a back ’n forth kind of guy. Singular of purpose, am I. Routine. But I’ll have to admit that since returning to Washington state residency in 2015, I’ve bought both muzzleloader and modern rifle deer tags. This year, after spending the past three seasons in the company of my late Uncle Neal’s Marlin 336-C .30-30, I’ve gone back to the Connecticut Valley
OUTDOORS MD
By MD Johnson
Arms Accura V2 in .50 caliber. Oh, yeah. And I drew a muzzleloader antlerless tag for a neighboring game management unit, which so happens to be just across the hard road from the house. Scouting, thus, has been relatively easy, consisting of, at least to this point, looking out the front door at the apple trees. But more on that in a tick. I know a lot of you folks reading this have already hit the field in search of both berries and bears. Too, many of you have been crouched in the shade at the edge of a dove field, or sweating inside a layout blind
waiting for that first flight of early Canada geese. Archers? You’ve been out there, as well. Perhaps your 2025 buck already dwells in your freezer; if so, congratulations. If not, there’s still most of this month, depending on your unit.
But we muzzleloader deer folks? In Washington, it’s an end-of-the-month opener, the 27th to be precise, while in Oregon, it’s either early October’s any legal weapon season or mid- and late fall’s muzzleloader permit hunts. Still time, yes, but it’s coming quick. Are you ready?
If you want to notch your tag with black powder bucks like this one Jeff Benson bagged in 2021’s season, now is the time to get ready for season. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
COLUMN
What I’m about to tell you might at first seem redundant. Overstated in every outdoor publication and on every dotcom on Al Gore’s Internet; however, it’s my thought that these elements – regardless of whether you’re hunting blacktails or black ducks, elk or eiders – never, ever go out of style. In fact, I’m thinking it’s nigh impossible to overstate the importance of these steps as they apply to getting yourself ready for any opener. That said, let’s take a look.
PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
Some folks – and to be honest, most of the time I see it as being diehard elk hunters, especially archers – truly believe in dedicated physical conditioning as a lead-in to big game season. And trust me, as a board-certified Outdoors MD, it makes sense on several levels, not only in preparation for hunting season, but for their overall physical health and wellbeing. Me? I’m not a go-to-the-gym guy, nor am I a workout-routine kind of person (I wrote myself a doctor’s note). I do stay active, e.g. wildland firefighting, volunteer firefighting, cutting/splitting/hauling firewood, more firewood, mowing (not riding), walking/scouting, and bucking hay for the neighbors (ugh!). I also have an annual physical and bloodwork done, as there’s a history of diabetes on Mom’s side of the family tree.
What I’m saying here is this: If you realistically and honestly consider yourself physically ready for the rigors of hunting season, then perhaps you are. If you’re in doubt, then set the Chees-E-Poofs and RC Cola aside and do something to get your heart rate up. The biggest part is to 1) be honest with yourself as to your health, and 2) understand and abide by your limitations, whether that be strength, endurance, gung-ho level or, plain and simple, ability. I’m 61 now. The hills are higher. The valleys deeper. The slopes steeper. I’m not too proud to call two of my 18-year-old high school students or my 25-year-old timberfalling neighbor and say, “Hey! Come and help get this deer out of the bushes.”
SCOUTING
In much the same way I’m not a gym guy, I’m also not a wireless-trail-camera-real-time-
Author MD Johnson gets all giggly going through hunting gear, whether that be for birds or big game, but it also is an opportunity to make sure he has everything he needs, it’s in working order and is packed where he needs it. (MUZZLELOADERS: JOHN GIAMMATTEO; GEAR: JULIE JOHNSON)
send-it-to-my-phone-while-I’m-sitting-onthe-couch sort either. For one, I have an iPhone 6s, which does little but allow me to text, albeit slowly, and occasionally make a call, if, that is, I stand on my right leg and hold my mouth just right.
I do my scouting, which I do do because it’s important, the old-school way; I lace up my boots, grab my mushroom basket and knife, strap on a .45 ACP, and sally forth into the high weeds where the deer live. Yes, if you take your deer hunting very (very) seriously, I understand multiple trail cameras, onX digital assistance, crystal balls, rolling chicken bones, and late nights spent staring at shadowy images and asking yourself, “Does his G2 on the left look a little shorter than the right?” I’m good with that, for if it makes you a happy deer hunter, that’s what matters.
But yes, scouting is important. Having a plan is important. Having several plans is even more important, especially for those hunting public ground, as plan A can go sideways. Now is the time – early September – to take those walks. Hang a stand, if that’s an option. Set up and brush in a pop-up blind; again, if such a strategy is available. Be discreet. Disturb as little as possible as you go about gathering your firsthand information. Scout via glass or from afar, if the situation presents itself. Set as your objective to change little, if anything, in the way of the routine – the wild routine, not necessarily your own – as you go about your reconnaissance.
MUZZLELOADER AND RELATED GEAR
Back in the day, that being my formative hunting years during the 1970s, my father was insistent I stop switching back and forth between this shotgun and that one, all of which I shot poorly, and “quit foolin’ around, pick a gun, and stick with it until you shoot it well.” As he often was, the Old Man was right about that one.
I mention this as today, Pop’s words ring true in terms of the firearms I take into the field, including my muzzleloader. For the past several seasons, I’ve carried a firstgeneration, per se, CVA Accura V2 in .50 caliber. Nothing fancy; no bells nor whistles. Plain Jane. I like this particular make/ model so much, I have three – one with a traditional, albeit synthetic stock; another
identical, save for a thumbhole stock; and a third mounted with a Konus 3-9x40mm I use for bears or on those years I decided to go modern for deer.
Into the V2, I drop two 50-grain IMR (Hodgdon) White Hot pellets followed by a 300-grain PowerBelt Aerolite bullet, the charge then ignited courtesy of a Winchester Triple 7 No. 209 primer. Range time has revealed this to be the best recipe for all three of my V2s in terms of accuracy, ease of loading/reloading and convenient end-of-the-day cleanup.
But range time; that’s the key here. By now (early September), you should have spent the hours behind the stock. It’s like I tell turkey hunters when they
ask about patterning. The secret, I tell them, is to know, without question, what your shotgun (in this instance your muzzleloading rifle) is going to do each and every time you pull the trigger. Every time. So, assuming you cleaned your MZL thoroughly at the close of last season, you’ve swabbed out the barrel, snapped a primer or two, loaded, breathed deeply, fired, swabbed clean, reloaded … until you’re 100 percent convinced that if there’s an accuracy issue on opening day, it’s not the rifle that is the culprit.
And lest we forget the muzzleloader accessories; few, yet necessary. These include two four-charge speedloaders, one hanging around my neck and the
While muzzleloader is one of Washington’s earliest general season hunts, it’s also one of the last of the year too, so if you miss out on September and early October, there’s always late November and December when there may be tracking snow on the ground. (JULIE JOHNSON)
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other in my pack; an old-school 35mm film canister with No. 209 primers; and a basic field cleaning/tool kit, also in my pack, containing a breakdown bore rod, thimble, patches, lubed patches, nipple pick, breech plug wrench, one-use “lube tubes,” Q-Tips, tiny flat and Phillips screwdrivers, multitool – essentially anything I need to break the V2 down, fix what needs fixed, and put it back together again without cussing and heading back to the truck.
INSIDE THE PACK
Over the last 20 years or so, I’ve come to find myself very intrigued with the things hunters carry with them into the field. Some, as you might suspect, are commonplace; others, like 21st century technology, are often unique to the individual or specific pursuit. Food items in particular I find interesting, as there seems to be no middle ground when it comes to in-the-field nutrition. It’s either Little Debbie’s and candy corn or tongue twistingly hard-to-pronounce protein-based energy bars guaranteed to
keep you trekking over hill and dale with all the energy of a spastic 16-year-old. Ah, I remember those days. I think …
So what do I pack into the field during muzzleloader deer season? The list looks something like this:
• Nexgen Outfitters Pack
• Rubber finger cots (muzzleloader muzzle covers); speedloaders with 300-grain PowerBelt AeroLites/100 grains of White Hots; 209 primer;
• Jersey gloves; neck gaiters; toboggan hat; snipers mittens; Hot Hands chemical handwarmers;
• Toilet paper; roll of electrical tape; medical kit. NS
ASK THE M.D.
Admittedly, the MD in MD Johnson’s name doesn’t exactly stand for “medical doctor,” but as you’ve seen in these pages over the years, he’s a pretty thoughtful guy on a wide range of topics.
So we’re offering you a chance to pick MD’s brain on anything from crabbing to crappie fishing, muzzleloader hunting to duck decoying, and more. Got a question for him? Hit me at awalgamott@ media-inc.com and I’ll get him on it for a future issue. –The Editor
The number one rule for early-season grouse hunters this usually parched time of year? Birds will be close to water, like this blue perched in an alder, itself indicative of groundwater.
“From the banks of forested rivers to spring-fed mud puddles, any reliable water will draw birds,”
To The House Of Grouse!
Pacific Northwest grouse hunting offers mountain splendor, exercise, tasty quarry and options for weapons choices.
By Jeff Holmes
Some of the best times and best camping of the year in the Northwest will be had this September and October as grouse hunters traipse through the latesummer and early-fall woods seeking exercise, relaxation and meals of tasty birds. Finding places to hunt and the places where birds are likely to be is a key to success and is one of my favorite subjects as a lifelong grouse hunter. September is a hot, dry month
in the Inland Northwest, and grouse – ruffs especially – won’t be far from water. This is the number one rule to remember for early-season success.
From the banks of forested rivers to spring-fed mud puddles, any reliable water will draw birds. Blues (more accurately termed dusky and sooty grouse, but lumped as blues for the purposes of this article) like water sources, too, but are more adept at consuming water from dew and food sources. Still, look for them near stock ponds, springs and high mountain
creeks. They generally occupy higher elevations than ruffs and live in drier, more open places like ridgetops.
RUFFS CAN BE found next to blues on dry ridges, but are far more common lower on the mountain near creeks, rivers, lakes and open forest and meadows with reliable water. They are the most common grouse in North America and here in the Northwest. They can be as dumb as spruce grouse or so cagey that they never present a hunter with a viable shot, season after season.
author Jeff Holmes stresses. (JEFF HOLMES)
HUNTING
For ruffs or blues, if you find the food, you’ll find the birds. Both species eat clover and small forbs, along with insects, berries and seeds. Berries ripen at different rates throughout the region, but to generalize, most of the birds I shoot have snowberries, elderberries, huckleberries or wild raspberries in their crops when I find berries. Still, you’ll find more small, succulent plants in the crops of both than berries, and sometimes their crops can be full of exclusively grasshoppers or other insects. They capitalize on moving prey in the mornings when cool temperatures make ’hoppers and ants slow and easy pickings. Once you find water and figure out what grouse are eating, targeting them becomes easier. Birds are clustered into broods in September. Late in the month or in early October those broods will disperse, some sooner than others, especially if they’re disturbed by hunters. Locating broods provides clues for later in the season when brush and trees drop their leaves and make overland travel and seeing birds easier. But in September, expect lots of leaves and heavy cover. Many times brooded grouse will erupt from heavy cover, and all a hunter sees is nothing, instead hearing powerful wingbeats. Paying attention to these places allows a tactical return to the area for an October hunt when leaves have fallen, arguably the best time of year to hunt grouse. Other times, even in fully leafed, heavy cover, grouse will be visible on the ground and in trees, which they often fly into to escape.
Whether for September harvest or to find them for later, covering lots of ground during a day helps to identify concentrations of birds. It’s generally possible and often very easy to focus future attention on areas where you find good numbers of birds. Often, the same places produce year after year. Grouse are very keyed into their desired habitats, and the right blend of food, water and cover will hold birds every season. I know of individual elderberry bushes where I can find
There’s more to the game than just water, however. “Often, the same places produce year after year. Grouse are very keyed into their desired habitats, and the right blend of food, water and cover will hold birds every season,” writes Holmes. “I know of individual elderberry bushes where I can find birds every year as if by tradition.” (JEFF HOLMES)
birds every year as if by tradition.
SPEAKING OF TRADITIONS,
the two-week opening day shift that has been in place for several years in the Evergreen State frustrates some who had a custom of Labor Day grouse hunting trips. For decades, my family shared that tradition, but we acknowledge that an extra two weeks greatly increases the chances of shooting fully feathered birds instead of tiny, immature birds. Hunters in Idaho and Oregon can avoid this early-season pitfall by refraining from blasting entire broods of unwise young birds as they cluster around water sources.
One way to do this is to carefully consider weapon choice. Armed with a 12- or 20-gauge shotgun, it’s easy to quickly blast out a limit. Broods are usually still tightly knitted at the beginning of grouse season, and some are composed of full-sized birds, while some are not. I favor a shotgun for grouse hunting, especially when hunting blue grouse. Blues are as big as pheasants and can be tough to bring down. That said, there are many ways to legally harvest grouse, and in the early season when there are many young on the ground and
when older birds have not been pressured for 10 months, that’s the time to think about options.
I love to successfully wingshoot a grouse, but I am not one to privilege the haughty tradition of only taking grouse on the wing, especially in September when visibility and shooting lanes can be difficult. A grouse with its head picked off with an air rifle or .22 pistol tastes the same and is no less a prize than one taken on the wing with size 8 lead shot.
Since the statute of limitations has expired and since I did not previously know there were weapons limitations on the harvest of grouse, I admit I have taken them in the distant past with rocks, slingshots, pellet guns, a stick and even a carbon fiber muzzleloader ramrod. After many years of shooting an old 870 Remington 12-gauge and a Mossberg 20-gauge, I just purchased and am sighting in a Gamo Magnum GR air rifle in .22 caliber. With a breakopen action and a 10-shot capacity, this air rifle rockets out pellets at 1,300 feet per second. Since this weapon legally complies with laws, I am going to enjoy the challenge of hunting grouse and rabbits with it this season and look forward to reporting on my progress.
HUNTING
As I have in the past, some hunt religiously with a scoped .22 rimfire or even a .22 pistol. Another non-shotgun option is bowhunting with a blunt arrow. Many September elk and deer hunters carry such arrows and look to capitalize on some grouse for camp meat while pursuing larger game. One of the joys of watching Randy Newberg’s Fresh Tracks is his frequent arrowing of grouse on Western public lands elk and deer hunts.
WHEN DISCUSSING FOREST grouse tactics, there’s a 750-pound gorilla in the room.
For many years I followed the example of a huge and silent percentage of the hunters I grew up with. I whacked birds on dirt roads and saw plenty of my brethren doing the same. The practice of sniping forest grouse sitting on roadways is so ubiquitous that I’ve even seen it discussed explicitly in articles and hinted at unintentionally in many others.
I remember a few of those birds I whacked on roads with .22s and shotguns, but it’s the ones I worked for and the many tough grouse hunts I went on with family and friends as
Like Logan Braaten, here with a ruff, and many other grouse hunters, Holmes mostly uses a shotgun, but he has enjoyed other methods as well. It is now officially legal in the state of Washington to hunt forest grouse with an air rifle of at least .22 caliber but no larger than .25, and as this article went to press, Holmes was in the middle of sighting in a 3x9 scope on a Gamo Magnum GR .22-caliber air rifle that fires pellets at 1,300 feet per second. He looked forward to trying it out on grouse and rabbits and reporting on its performance. (ERIC BRAATEN)
a kid and an adult that cemented me as a lifelong hunter. It’s easy to see a different path I could have taken, easier yet to see why so many hunters – even young ones in good shape – drive endless loops looking for game. They learned the wrong way and were presented with no alternative. Luckily, my dad is a walker who insisted that we spend most of our time in the field hiking and working for our birds. The taste of pan-fried ruffed grouse or blue grouse enchiladas will invariably taste better after a day of hiking in the field than after bouncing around in the cab of a truck all day.
Working hard also yields sights and experiences not to be found in a truck cab or on a quad or trailbike. Grouse live in beautiful places and are accessible, relatively plentiful and, in some cases, stupid enough to assist young hunters in making first kills, like the ruffed grouse I shot in the neck on my sixth shot with a Ruger Single-Six when I was a kid. I hiked that bird out to the truck and cleaned it perfectly before taking it home and roasting it for show-and-tell and my lunch the next day. Grouse are delicious to goony kids and adults alike, and they’re a delicate prize best earned, not blasted while pecking gravel or eating clover on a road edge.
THE PLACES THAT follow are excellent grouse hunting spots where I have personally hunted and harvested good numbers of birds. A September trip for grouse is a great opportunity to condition yourself further for big game seasons, camp in beautiful places with friends and family and pursue one of the tastiest wild treats in the Northwest.
Republic, Washington: Blues, ruffs and spruce grouse are abundant in Ferry County, as are tasty snowshoe hares. There is not a better small mountain town to base your grouse hunting efforts out of than Republic. The town is completely surrounded by hills and birds, and while there is some private land to contend with, there is more room to roam on public ground
The history-rich mountains of Northcentral and Northeast Washington, with their good mix of forested federal and state ground and accessible private timberlands, present one of the Northwest's most excellent options for grouse. But similarly good opportunities abound outside Moscow and Lewiston, Idaho, and Enterprise, Oregon, as well. (ERIC BRAATEN)
than one would ever need. Use your map to identify public land before you go, and pretty much count on finding birds if you put in some effort.
The Kettle Range and Okanogan Highlands foothills flank the Curlew Valley, and many drainages empty into the valley from the east, west and north. State land, accessible private timber ground and the Colville National Forest present vast and lucrative opportunities not just for hunting, but also for dispersed camping. Don’t overlook the Kettle Range and roads off Washington’s highest paved mountain pass highway, Sherman Pass. The creeks and other water sources on both sides of the pass hold lots of ruffs and the iconic ridges and high mountain slopes hold good numbers of blues and spruce grouse.
The Republic area is also home to abundant snowshoe hares, which make the finest pot pie in the mountains. Hares exist pretty much everywhere and in all the spots detailed in this article. Honestly, if I had to choose one place in Washington
to hunt small game, it would be the mountains around Republic.
If you plan on hunting grouse behind a dog or dogs, note that this region – and most of those that follow – are home to wolves (as well as other predators), so take proper precautions.
Colville and Chewelah, Washington: Northeast Washington is home to the Colville National Forest, which has over 4,000 miles of roads in it, not counting trails. To say there’s a vast amount of access here would be as accurate as saying there is a ton of grouse in the mountains of Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties around these towns. Add plenty of state ground to the mix, and there is more huntable grouse here than perhaps anywhere in Washington.
I cut my teeth as a grouse hunter in the woods west of Springdale in the southern part of the Huckleberry Range, just north of the Spokane Indian Reservation. Later I’d wander through pretty much all of Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties and find birds in good numbers everywhere, although
there has undeniably been a dip in ruffed grouse populations coinciding with turkey colonization. The question of cause or correlation aside, there are still plenty of ruffs throughout both counties, as well as spruce grouse at elevations approximately 4,000 feet and up. Blues also live throughout Northeast Washington, usually at higher elevations along ridgetops and on large mountains near treeline.
Southwest Washington: There are good numbers of grouse throughout Western Washington, from the Olympic Peninsula to the Willapa Hills and throughout the western flanks of the Cascades from the Columbia Gorge to the Canadian border. Probably the best and most accessible chunk of ground on the Westside that holds the most birds – ruffs, blues and occasional spruce grouse – is the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Popular jumpoff points into the forest include Trout Lake, Carson and the Wind River, Cougar and the North Fork Lewis River, and the towns of Randle and Packwood and the Forest Service roads nearby. The
HUNTING
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument outside of the Loo-Wit Game Management Unit (522) offers excellent hunting, especially for blues, and should not be overlooked. There is also vast backcountry grouse hunting opportunity in the Gifford Pinchot, including the Trapper Creek, Indian Heaven, Mount Adams, Goat Rocks and Tatoosh Wilderness Areas.
Clearwater Basin, Idaho: This giant Idaho basin is one of the least populated and most grouse-rich places in the West. Vast roadless and roaded chunks of public land encompass the Lochsa, Selway and North and South Fork
Clearwater Rivers, along with their major tributaries like Kelly and Cayuse Creeks and many more. You could hunt grouse here for the rest of your life and still have new honey holes to discover. From the lowlands along major rivers to the alpine zone and the sparsely treed ridges blue grouse prefer in October, there are all three species of grouse in profusion in Idaho’s massive Clearwater River drainage.
Ruffs are extremely common along rivers and their tributaries here and can be found throughout the mountains wherever you find water. Blues are far more likely to be found at higher
elevations near open forests and meadows in the presence of mature timber – ridgetops especially. It’s tough to go wrong here in terms of finding places to hunt, but great options include the west side of Lolo Pass, the area around the small mountain town of Pierce, the Black Canyon and upper reaches of the North Fork Clearwater, Kelly Creek, the mountains around Elk City, the gateway to the Magruder Corridor and upper Selway River.
Blue Mountains: This WashingtonOregon border range is more well known for elk and deer than small game, but both the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests harbor lots of ruffs and blues. Ruffs are plentiful around the scarce water sources, while blues tend to spread out on the landscape as broods disperse and as fall rains come. In early October you’ll find good numbers of blue grouse up high, but their abundance on the mountains’ trademark 5,000-plus-foot ridges and plateaus increases exponentially as birds move uphill throughout the month.
You won’t find birds everywhere in this dry range, but you’ll find plenty around stock ponds, springs and the scarce creeks. There’s enough water in the Blues to harbor ruffs in places you won’t even expect to see them, like on ridgetops with their larger cousins, blue grouse. The remote mountains above and on both sides of the Imnaha River valley are loaded with birds, and the ridges above Hells Canyon are my favorite place to hunt grouse. (Spruce grouse also exist in this corner of Oregon near the extreme southern edge of their range, but hunting is closed for the state-protected species.)
In Washington, favorites include Lick and Asotin Creeks, Mount Misery, the upper Tucannon River, Skyline Road, Pinkham Butte and Chase Mountain. Ruffs range from the rim of the Blues all the way to the major river bottoms that drain the mountains. I’ve even shot ruffs on the lower Tucannon while pheasant hunting as well as along the Grande Ronde while steelheading. NS
Blue grouse make some of the most excellent table fare in the early season before they retreat to the tops of fir trees and other conifers for the winter where they persist on needles and take on the flavor of turpentine. Holmes took this blue at 8,500 feet in northwestern Wyoming on a hunt with his brother. Its crop was full of berries and grasshoppers, and the bird’s significant bulk helped prop up a stick to cook a beef bratwurst for an on-the-trail snack. (JEFF HOLMES)
Go-time For Birds, Bunnies
ON TARGET
By Dave Workman
Here’s a little eye-opener for Evergreen State upland wingshooters as the first fall seasons open over the next month: Last season, Washington grouse hunters toppled 28,484 grouse, 27,685 mourning doves, 1,102 cottontail rabbits and a paltry 417 snowshoe hares.
I counted coup on some of those grouse, hunting the high country for blues (dusky and sooty), and one of the cottontails was conked by my hunting partner over in Yakima County.
Dove and rabbit seasons open Monday, September 1, while grouse hunting opens September 15.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the top dove-producing counties last year were:
Grant: 11,507
Yakima: 5,303
Franklin: 2,908
Benton: 1,785
Walla Walla: 1,338
Dove hunting can be humbling. Take lots of shells, with the popular payload being size 7½ or 8 shot, and don’t be too disappointed if you can’t limit right away. The folks who can conk 15 of these warpwinged birds in a day never need to prove their shotgun prowess!
Doves like water and they want to be near feed, and over the years, Grant County’s Crab Creek has been a traditionally productive area, as well as down through the lower Yakima River Valley. Make sure of where you’re hunting so that you don’t wind up on somebody’s property.
Author Dave Workman is looking forward to tangling with high country grouse again this year. The season opens September 15, and he will be out there looking for blue grouse in the “usual spots.” He scored this pair on a hunt along South Cle Elum Ridge late last September. He used a 20-gauge O/U Franchi Instinct L stoked with size 6 shotshells. (DAVE WORKMAN)
While rabbit season also opens September 1, it has long been a practice of mine not to shoot one until after the first good frost. A lot of bunnies are taken incidentally to other hunted species, which is one reason I pack a .22-caliber pistol while deer hunting.
The season for rabbits is one of the longest in the state, running until the following March 15. Daily bag limit is five rabbits/hares, and here’s where the most got bonked during the 2024-25 season:
Grant: 138
Yakima: 120
Whatcom: 82
King: 69
The numbers may seem undercounted, and I’m not ready to say with absolute certainty they might be slightly deflated. There are lots of cottontail rabbits in Washington, and I’ve seen snowshoe hares in the higher elevations of King County up toward Government Meadows, and over in Kittitas County along South Cle Elum Ridge. Heck, I’ve got cottontails in my neighborhood, including the ones that occasionally move in under my woodshed!
Out in the Columbia Basin, look for cottontails pretty much anywhere there is cover, including wild blackberry tangles and other heavy brush, maybe around
root wads and along the washes. You can also find them out in the sagebrush of the Basin. My buddy shot his rabbit in kind of a swampy area on the side of a ridge above the Tieton River drainage.
Rabbits are thin-skinned and don’t take a lot of killing. The .22 Long Rifle cartridge probably accounts for as many rabbits as shotguns, and I’ve got a dandy little .410 Stoeger side-by-side double I load up with 3-inch size 6 shells occasionally during the winter.
Incidentally, where there are rabbits, there will also be coyotes. Combine a trip; hunt rabbits in the morning and evening and look for ’yotes during the rest of the day.
Tip: Always keep a pair of rubber or
Cowlitz: 62
Brian Lull bonked this bunny over in Yakima County last October. Notice how he wears black nitrile gloves for cleaning this cottontail. The head of the bunny has been covered to protect his (or her) identity. (DAVE WORKMAN)
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synthetic gloves handy for the cleaning chores with any rabbits you bag.
IT’S WIDELY KNOWN among readers and my pals that I am a grouse hunting fanatic. In my humble opinion, they are the most challenging of upland bird species, varying at times between fast and evasive to being doorknob stupid.
I’ve seen blue grouse just lumbering along old logging roads or sitting still on stumps or tree limbs, thinking they were invisible. I’ve also seen blue and ruffed
grouse literally explode from cover with a thunder of wings that can be so sudden as to leave hunters – including me –completely flustered.
The Washington opener this year is on a Monday, and I’ll be there! Last year’s top five grouse-producing counties were:
Okanogan: 3,843
Stevens: 2,338
Ferry: 2,085
Yakima: 1,976
Chelan: 1,610
You will notice that none of these counties are in Western Washington, but they weren’t far behind. According to last year’s harvest reports, Grays Harbor produced 1,440 fool hens and Jefferson County was right behind with 1,366 birds.
Clallam County saw 1,187 thunder chickens in the bag, followed by Cowlitz County, which delivered 1,109 grouse, and Lewis County rounded out the Westside top five with 1,058 birds.
Early in the season, I hunt up around the huckleberry fields, even if that seems a
DON’T OVERLOOK HIGH BUCK HUNT
Washington’s early highelevation buck hunt once again runs September 15-25 in the Alpine Lakes, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Pasayten and Henry M. Jackson Wildernesses and Lake Chelan Recreation Area in the Cascades and the Buckhorn, Brothers, Wonder Mountain, Mount Skokomish and Colonel Bob Wildernesses on the Olympic Peninsula.
Now, these are areas where you really ought to have a .22-caliber pistol along for the hunt, because grouse in these areas don’t get a lot of hunting pressure compared to lower elevations, and this means they may not be as savvy as other birds.
This is a three-point minimum hunt, whether the quarry is blacktail or mule deer, and the high hunt can be a marvelous opportunity to have some semblance of solitude where there isn’t a lot of competition or hunting pressure.
Be aware of the presence of latesummer backpackers and day hikers in these areas, so be careful of your shots.
And check the wildfire maps for closure news. Two OlyPen wildernesses were closed due to the Bear Gulch Fire at press time.
Caring for game meat is important this time of year, because the high country can go from chilly to mildly warm, and you don’t want your meat to spoil.
Probably the busiest areas will be the Alpine Lakes and Lake Chelan Recreation Areas, where September sees a lot of backpackers. They may get game moving, or may just spook it.
I’ve hunted the high country in the past, and this is a game for strong legs and lungs, good binoculars or spotting scopes, lightweight rifles and one-shot stops. You will spend a lot of time glassing and hopefully not much time stalking and connecting.
But those big bucks will not have had any hunting pressure so far, and while they might be naturally wary, you just might catch one by surprise! –DW
Washington’s September High Buck Hunt is the place for a lightweight rifle, like this Savage chambered for the .308 Winchester, along with a .22-caliber pistol for those alpine grouse! (DAVE WORKMAN)
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bit late and berries might not be abundant. I find early-season grouse picking up pea gravel along old logging roads mornings and evenings, while tramping through the mixed conifer and hardwoods such as alder and maple has also produced a fair number of grouse for me.
Forest grouse like vine maple, and I’ve
managed to pop them by working those tangles pretty hard, especially around areas which might be swampy during the rainy season.
My favorite load for grouse, whether I’m using a 12- or 20-gauge smoothbore, is the No. 6, although I know guys who swear by the No. 7½.
Of course, I’ve taken grouse with a .22 pistol, the acknowledgement of which once got me in trouble with some of the purists who consider it unsportsmanlike. Taking grouse with a pistol is legal in every Western state, and certainly a tradition here in the Pacific Northwest.
As I was preparing this column, I got an email from CCI touting the Clean-22 Hyper Velocity ammunition. This round launches a 31-grain poly-coated round-nosed bullet at a published velocity of 1,550 feet per second. There is not a grouse or rabbit on the planet that can take a hit from such a round and get up.
I typically load up with standard velocity 40-grain RNL ammunition –
Winchester, Remington, CCI, Federal –which I’ve found to be accurate out of my Ruger MK IV pistol or my 10/22 rifle. Nothing like popping a blue grouse in the noggin with a rimfire rifle for the camp pot, cooked with a little bacon grease and some sliced potatoes for dinner.
Good luck, be sure to get your regs pamphlet and stay safe. NS
For rabbits, there’s nothing like the .22 Long Rifle for stopping them in their tracks. This is Workman’s rotary magazine from his Ruger 10/22 ready for action. (DAVE WORKMAN)
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Pace Your Pup Early In Hunting Season
By Scott Haugen
Hunting season is here. And while you and your dog are excited, don’t overdo it right out the gate. Easing your dog into each hunting situation this time of year is important, both for their health and obedience.
These first hunts of fall set the tone for the rest of the season. If a dog isn’t taught – or reminded – how you expect them to hunt, it will lead to frustrations. Make sure all communication is calm and consistent, and that your dog understands what it is you’re trying to communicate. Though
you’ve been achieving this during training sessions all summer long, the level of intensity greatly escalates on a hunt. You may need to slow down and redirect your dog in order to attain the desired behavior. Letting a bird or squirrel get away is a small price to pay for the teaching that can be accomplished at that moment.
MY PUDELPOINTERS LOVE hunting western gray squirrels. Echo, my 11-year-old female, hunts close, relying on smell and tracking to get the job done. Kona, my 9-year-old male, is all about covering ground. He likes spotting squirrels scurrying on the ground – often over 200 yards away – then sprinting to them and chasing until they
tree. Before we go on our first hunt, I know I’ll need to put the brakes on Kona.
Fall turkey season is also beginning. Both my dogs love tracking as well as breaking up flocks of these large upland birds. Oregon allows the hunting of fall turkeys with a dog, something I wish every state offered. We don’t usually hunt these birds until winter, once their flocks have grown and the birds have matured. In many parts of Western Oregon, it’s the best turkey hatch I’ve seen in over 25 years. Predator mortality wasn’t overwhelming, which is usually the case. This means the poults will be ahead of the game, maturity wise. Still, I like waiting until winter, once the birds have amassed body fat; those are
GUN DOG
Starting this month, western gray squirrels are fair game in Oregon. These hunts can take place where coniferous and deciduous forests meet. Watch for grass seeds, ticks and poison oak, and if it gets too hot, end the hunt sooner rather than later. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
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the best-eating turkeys out there.
In some places where we hunt gray squirrels, fall turkey are also present. Early in the season I pick one or the other to focus on. If we’re squirrel hunting and see a flock of turkeys, I’ll make sure the dogs don’t engage the birds. They know the difference between the two hunts, and their enthusiasm will often need to be contained. Sometimes we’ll hunt gray squirrels in the morning, turkeys in late afternoon.
Mourning dove season is also wide open. Wherever you go, make sure to have plenty of water for your dog, both to quench their thirst and clean their mouths of the inevitable mouthful of feathers.
During these hot days of early fall, hunting doves over water sources is great for a dog, helping to keep them cool and hydrated. If pursuing forest grouse and mountain or valley quail, start early in the morning while there’s still moisture and scent on the ground. If it gets too warm and dogs lose interest or are slowing down due to overheating, stop. Again, there’s no need to push them early in the season. Their minds will adjust quicker than their bodies. A driven gun dog can be very challenging to slow down, and the only way to ensure their safety is to put a stop to the hunt. Be sure to provide plenty of water and let their body temperature drop before placing them in the kennel for the ride home.
IF LAST SUMMER seemed bad for noxious grass seeds, this year is worse. Way worse. Last month I took my dogs to the vet for their annual checkups. The vet warned me about the seeds. Last summer was the worst he’d ever seen; he did probes for burrowing seeds on a dog a day. Years prior to that he averaged one a week. But this summer he’s averaged three a day.
Be sure to trim all the hair between the toes, pads and around the edges of your dog’s feet. Plucking hair from inside the ears and around the eyes will also help prevent burrowing seeds from being trapped.
Pliers, tweezers, a fine-toothed brush and small scissors are good to have on early-season hunts for quick removal of
Hunting mourning doves over water is a great way to offer relief to a dog this time of year. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
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grass seeds. A first aid kit is a must.
Also be sure to inspect for ticks during and after each hunt; they’ve been bad this summer too. If traveling, be sure and have emergency vet numbers near where you’ll be hunting.
THOUGH WE WANT to hit the ground running, it’s wise to ease into hunting season, especially when it’s hot and dry. Hunt early and late in the day, when temperatures are favorable and safer for your dog. Rest when needed, and always have a means to quickly cool off your dog – hyperthermia is more dangerous and common than hypothermia in this part of the country.
With five months of hunting season ahead, play it smart now. The healthier your dog, and the more obedient it is, the safer and more enjoyable hunting season will be for both of you. NS
Editor’s note: Scott Haugen is a full-time writer. See his puppy training videos and learn more about his many books at scotthaugen.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.
Pursuing forest grouse with a dog early in the morning is ideal, not only for the scent left on the ground by the birds, but for the cooler hunting conditions it affords. Here, author Scott Haugen and his dogs got a great mixed bag start to the day with a blue and ruffed grouse in Oregon’s Cascades. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
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Use Habitat Features To Hunt Fall Turkeys
As Northwest states continue to liberalize autumn opportunities, riversides, roads and forest edges can be key to filling your tags.
By David Johnson
Calling Northwest turkeys in the fall is more difficult than in the spring, as the turkeys’ focus changes from vocal spring breeding to more quiet fall feeding. Yet filling a Washington, Oregon or Idaho fall tag is relatively easy – if you find the turkeys.
In fall hunting, successful hunters tend to spend time thinking about what their quarry needs from the area they live in, and how the birds go about moving through the area to get what they need.
In the fall, turkeys spend most of their time either sleeping or feeding or lounging about. Their food sources tend to be stable, so their daily movement patterns can last for a couple of weeks
East of the Cascades, forest edges along openings provide ambush cover for hunters who take the time to pattern turkeys this time of year. (STEVE JOHNSON)
HUNTING
Fall hen groups hit openings to find seeds and insects as they fatten up before winter. Use cover along the edges of openings to fill your tag. Either-sex seasons begin as early as August 30 in most Idaho units open for the birds, September 1 in Eastern Washington, most of Western Oregon and select Northeast Oregon units, and October 11 in most of the rest of Central and Eastern Oregon. (DAVID JOHNSON)
if nothing forces them to change. They move from where they sleep to where they eat and where they rest and back again. Terrain and habitat available to the turkeys dictate the travel path the birds use during the day. In other words, hunters who study cover and terrain can better predict where turkeys will be during shooting hours. Let’s look at three such features that funnel turkeys: river bottoms, forest edges and roads.
RIVERS: BARRIER AND ROADWAY
Rivers often play a critical role in fall turkey movements. That’s partly because everywhere there are agricultural fields next to a river, the rivers offer the best cover (brushy river banks) close to the most succulent feed available (whatever is growing in the meadow, field or pasture next to the river). This is particularly true where dry summer weather continues into fall, as the hills around river bottoms become steadily more parched compared to the relatively wet river
banks and fields.
In Eastern Oregon and Washington as well as Idaho, where fields are irrigated and hillsides are not, the effect is even more pronounced. In many places, turkey populations spread out for miles into the hills surrounding river bottoms in the spring, as feed is abundant and hens look for the best nesting cover near roosting trees. But as the summer wears on into fall, hens, poults and young males form larger and larger groups and begin collapsing back toward the rivers and agricultural fields as hens in particular look for the best food for their rapidly growing young.
To some degree, this also happens in Western Washington valleys and notably parts of the Willamette Valley. And in extremely arid areas of the turkeys’ range, such as the Owyhee River drainage, turkeys are apt to be near the rivers most of the year. Even in Idaho, a map of turkey distribution overlays a map of major river drainages.
Turkeys like rivers because the
brushy banks provide cover to move through and escape into, and in many areas on the east side of the Cascades, waterways also provide the best roosting trees. When turkeys are feeding in agricultural fields bordering the rivers, turkey hunters who do their scouting can find the birds – a flock of turkeys feeding out in the open are not hard to spot. Watch them for a while and you’ll be able to pattern their movements.
Another advantage for hunters of turkeys feeding and moving near rivers is that the birds, though fully capable of flying across rivers, generally avoid making the effort to do so. That means that the river funnels turkey movements while the brush or trees along the river’s edge provide hunters with ambush sites for intercepting turkeys moving in parallel to the river.
Setting up on birds that have fallen into a repeated daily feeding pattern is not super tricky, but you do have to put in time noticing what the turkeys do, where they go and when they do what they do.
The tricky part of hunting riverside edges is that many of the richest food sources are privately owned fields. As it’s private land, you’ll need permission to hunt it. That can be difficult to get, but generally speaking, hunters have an easier time of getting permission to pursue turkey than, say, elk or deer.
Hunters may get a sympathetic response from landowners because some local residents find large fall flocks to be a nuisance so serious that Oregon even has a program to increase harvest in select areas of the state where flocks of hundreds of birds form to feed on farmers’ fields (see sidebar next page).
DIRT ROADS: CLOSE-QUARTER AMBUSH SITES
Dirt roads – stock, logging or access roads that are either closed to traffic on public land or not being used on private land – make good places to set up for traveling turkeys. For obvious reasons, you cannot shoot game animals from public roads that carry traffic.
There are several reasons why turkeys like using roads as travel
Scott Haugen put his Oregon beardless turkey permit to good use last season, bagging his fall quota on a December outing. This year's hunt, which is held exclusively on private lands (but not private timberlands in the Willamette Valley), runs October 1-February 28. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
OREGON’S BEARDLESS PERMIT TURKEY HUNT GROWS
Turkeys have a habit of forming larger flocks in the fall and winter than in the spring. Throughout the summer and into fall, as annual plants mature and dry out, and winter eventually limits plant growth, some parts of turkey habitat no longer support as many birds. These larger flocks – which sometimes number in the hundreds of birds – move to the most reliable and plentiful food sources they can find.
From a manager’s and/or landowner’s perspective, this can be too much of a good thing. Most of the best remaining habitat in some parts of Oregon is private pasture or cropland. In recent years some landowners have suddenly found themselves feeding and housing hundreds of hungry turkeys. Not only do flocks that size eat a lot, they also leave an unpleasant mess.
To help manage this problem, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife recently began a new beardless turkey permit system in addition to the regular fall season.
“The Oregon beardless turkey permit season is a special private lands turkey season with specific boundaries, dates and bag limits that differ from the general fall turkey season,” explained ODFW Upland Game Bird Coordinator Mikal Cline. “The permit allows hunters to harvest three beardless turkeys per permit at the same cost as a single turkey tag, but it can only be used on private lands within areas identified as having chronic nuisance and damage issues.”
The program is still in its pilot phase, having expanded from portions of Grant County to the Willamette Valley last year. It will expand again this season, and early indications are that the program delivers benefits to both hunters (who get extra hunting opportunities) and landowners (who get some relief from nuisance turkeys).
“[T]his fall will be the first year the Rogue and Umpqua Valleys will be open to the permit,” Cline said. “The original season started in the John Day Valley, which experiences very large flock buildups on
private land in the winter time, and they have experienced an increased harvest rate, plus benefit from the hazing presence of hunters which keeps flocks moving around.”
Maps of the permit areas are on the ODFW website and in the small game hunting booklet, along with boundary descriptions. Because all of the open area is private land, hunters who want to take advantage of the hunt will have to secure landowner permission first. Cline has tips for hunters in this regard.
“Plan ahead! Do not knock on a landowner’s door the morning of your hunt to get permission. Do not drive on muddy roads, and never off roads. Always close gates behind you, and avoid hunting in areas where livestock could be startled,” Cline advised. “Communicate with the landowner where you are allowed to hunt, provide your vehicle description and who will be with you. Always thank them for the opportunity, whether a handshake or a small gift.” –DJ
HUNTING
routes. Walking down a road requires less energy than walking through brush. Any roadside in a closedcanopy forest will have more young green plant food for a turkey than the relatively bare forest floor.
Turkeys also like roads because their primary warning system for detecting ambush predators is their vision. Turkeys see movement extremely well. When turkeys are in the open, they are comfortable. Not only can they see predators coming, but they can also see the other turkeys in their flock.
If you disturb a group of turkeys and they run off into the woods in different directions before you get a shot, don’t give up on them if there is a dirt road nearby. A fall flock that is broken up by a disturbance will want to get back together and in brushy woods will go to a nearby dirt road to find each other. The more dense the
In the dry early fall months, any area with enough moisture to produce green shoots will attract feeding turkeys. More widespread greenup will occur the deeper we get into the season.
cover, the more likely the birds will be to use the road to meet up.
If you can loop around and get ahead of them, you have a chance to call them to you. Again, for the most part, fall birds are hard to call, but members of a scattered flock looking for each other will respond to soft “keekee” calls. These calls are named for the soft, questioning calls that young turkeys make when they are lost and looking for the rest of the flock.
In my experience, turkeys generally first try to run away from a threat. In dense forests, they’ll often tend to go uphill if that gets them farther away from the threat, particularly if there is a road or game path they can use for fast travel. I think they trend uphill because most of their predators are ambush hunters, and it is harder for an ambush predator to catch prey uphill of itself.
If I scatter a flock and lose track of
it in the dense cover of, say, the Coast Range or the heavy mixed forests in parts of Northeast Washington and the Idaho Panhandle, I’ll make a wide circle and try to get uphill of the spot I last located them. If there is an abandoned logging road there, I feel I have a good chance of finding the flock again.
FOREST EDGES
By definition, forest edges – the habitat between forested cover and more open meadows or clearcuts – have the one characteristic in common with all three habitat types we’ve discussed: they are all edge habitats.
Edge habitats are always top places to look for fall turkeys. The birds want to gain weight rapidly – particularly the young-of-the-year mixed in with fall flocks – before winter, and edge habitat has a wide variety of food and cover. Inside the trees, turkeys can find grubs in the leaves or duff, or acorns where oaks grow, pinecone seed where pines grow. In nearby openings, turkeys can find seeds and insects.
These forest openings are also common on public land, so hunters who know several examples of them have a good chance to find birds. Turkeys typically start the day where there are trees, but before too long in the morning, they move to openings. By turkey season, insects like grasshoppers are cold doped and easy to catch on cool fall mornings.
If you know of hunting land with power lines through the woods, take the time to check them out in midmorning. Small groups of turkeys (and often toms are in small fall groups) will stroll down these long, linear openings to feed. Hunters can see them at a distance that doesn’t alert the turkeys, and plan an approach through the trees to get in front of and ambush the birds.
Half the battle in fall hunting is to find the birds in the first place. So do your scouting, figure out how the turkeys move each day, and you can successfully set up on birds using their favorite habitat as the ambush cover you need. NS
(DAVID JOHNSON)
You, Me And A Rattlesnake In The Dark
CHEF IN THE WILD
By Randy King
Awhile back, my father texted me. He was suffering from NDD and it required immediate intervention. Most people don’t realize just how impactful NDD can be on your life and happiness. It can be chronic, debilitating; it can even be career-threatening.
NDD – nature deficit disorder – isn’t an official medical diagnosis, but it’s a catchy way to describe what happens when humans – especially hunters, fishermen and kids – spend too much time indoors and forget that trees, grass, creeks and fresh air actually exist.
The term was coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from NatureDeficit Disorder. Louv argued that modern life – screens, schedules, shrinking green spaces – was pulling us away from the outdoors, and that the cost was real: stress, disconnection and a loss of wonder.
It’s like your brain starts craving sunlight and binoculars the way your phone craves a charger. Symptoms might include thinking the sound of birds chirping is a new ringtone or feeling personally attacked by a patch of dirt on your shoes. The cure? Step outside. Touch a tree. Go for a ride in the mountains on a random Tuesday with your father. Remember that the world is bigger than your screen and your job.
Bonus points if you can bring home something to eat from the wild.
SO, AT 5 p.m., we headed out to our nearby stomping grounds. High desert country, with juniper and sage stretching out under a fading sky. We were “scouting,” at least in theory, but after all these years we don’t really need to scout the area anymore – we know where the deer and elk like to be. The
trip was more about scratching that NDD itch than anything else.
On the way back down the mountain, the headlights of my father’s UTV caught something unusual at a cattle gate. It was a rattlesnake, coiled tight around a baby jackrabbit. We stopped immediately. The rabbit, as Aerosmith sings, “done died,” and the snake was in a very vulnerable position. We took advantage of that. A quick dispatch, and the snake was ours. It had about 10 rattles, and I still have the skin.
I also picked up the rabbit and tossed it into the UTV. Why not? Might as well
make use of it. My dad looked at me like I’d just lost my mind. I wanted to eat a poisoned rabbit?!? To be fair, the idea that rattlesnake venom might still be in the rabbit hadn’t crossed my mind until he said it. That made me feel foolish. So, we left the rabbit for a coyote and drove on.
But I’ve thought about that moment ever since. Could we have eaten it? Could we have had the ultimate “circle of life” dinner –rabbit and snake together in one pot?
Turns out, yes. If we had cooked that rabbit, it wouldn’t have harmed me at all. Rattlesnake venom is a protein-based
Chef Randy King has experienced the full gamut with snakes, having been bitten by a bull snake he was “playing” with, as well as taking his own bites out of rattlers and drinking snake blood, venom and bile in China. (RANDY KING)
AS COWBOY AS CHILI GETS
Idon’t know that I’ll ever stumble across another bunny in the clutches of a serpent, but I did use the following recipe for a recent meal.
1 jackrabbit, cleaned and cut into chunks
1 rattlesnake (about 1 to 1.5 pounds), skinned, cleaned and cut into 3-inch sections
3 tablespoons canola oil (bacon grease would be more cowboy)
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 poblano peppers, roasted and diced
2 cans (15 ounces each) white beans (cannellini or great northern), drained and rinsed
1 can (4 ounces) diced green chiles
6 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and black pepper to taste
Juice of a lime
Fresh cilantro for garnish
Flour tortillas
Brown the meat: Heat oil in a heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the jackrabbit pieces first, then the rattlesnake sections. Remove and set aside.
Build the base: In the same pot, sauté onion and garlic until fragrant. Add poblano peppers and green chiles. Stir in cumin, paprika and oregano.
Simmer: Return the meats to the pot. Add beans and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Cover and cook for two to three hours, stirring occasionally. The jackrabbit should shred easily, and the rattlesnake will pull off the bone in tender strands.
Finish: Remove rattlesnake bones and shred the meat back into the pot – or leave them whole – it will create conversation!
Add lime juice and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Serve: Ladle into bowls, then top with fresh cilantro and maybe a dollop of sour cream. Warm tortillas on the side make it perfect. –RK
White bean chili with rattlesnake. (RANDY KING)
COLUMN
toxin, and proteins don’t hold up well to heat. When exposed to high temperatures, those complex molecules unravel and break down – the same process that makes a tough roast tender after hours in a slow cooker. By the time that rabbit hit a stew pot or skillet, the venom would have been rendered harmless – just another denatured protein in the mix. Venom, after all, is designed to work when injected into the bloodstream, not when digested.
So, in hindsight, we could have done it. Instead, we left the rabbit for a songdog and drove off with a story. Science says I would have been fine, but at the time, I wasn’t about to argue with my dad in the dark over a dead jackrabbit.
I recognize that this might have been a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, but I keep an eye out now, scanning the sage for rattlesnakes with rabbits in their coils. Someday, maybe, I’ll get another shot at that delicacy. NS
RATTLER RULES
Every hunter I know has a story about a rattlesnake. Sometimes it’s a close call on a dusty trail; sometimes it’s a skin tacked to the wall of a garage. But before you toss a snake in the cooler next to your venison, it’s worth knowing the rules.
Idaho: My home state keeps it simple. If you’ve got a valid hunting license, you can take rattlesnakes. No special tags, no closed season. For years, the limit was four per year, but that changed recently. Now? No limit. You can even sell or trade up to six skins if you want, though the meat can’t be sold as “wild game.” It’s a pretty open policy, but it still pays to check the regs before you head out.
Oregon: Cross the Snake River into Oregon and the rules shift, but not by much. Rattlesnakes are considered unprotected wildlife there. That means no bag limit, no closed season and no special permit beyond your standard
hunting license. The state does list the Western rattlesnake as a conservation strategy species in some areas, but that’s about habitat management – not a ban on harvest. So, legally, you’re in the clear. Ethically? That’s on you.
Washington: Now head north into Washington, and the state’s lone rattler species is currently unclassified, “meaning it is neither a game species nor a ‘protected’ species,” said a spokeswoman for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. “There is no hunting season designated for rattlesnakes in Washington, but you can harvest them if you possess a hunting license (big or small game).”
(For the record, the state’s revised codes say a license is required to hunt any wildlife, including unclassified ones, she added.)
Three states. Three slightly different approaches. Know the law. Because the last thing you want is to turn a good story into a day in court. –RK
A Cast-and-blast Of A Different Kind
Combine hunting rock doves with a float down basalt country streams for steelhead and smallmouth.
By Rob Lyon
Summer spells dog days for upland hunters. There is nothing to get out and after between the end of spring turkey season and fall upland openers in early October. But there are options, and here’s one for you: Imagine a cool river running through a gorgeous high desert canyon and providing a muchneeded break from the daily grind. You can camp along much of the river, but
let’s imagine you think big and push off from the boat ramp at Mack’s Canyon on the Deschutes. Forty river miles and a week ahead of nothing to do but explore, discover, fish and, yes, hunt.
Pigeons are like people. A lot of them live opportunistically in cities, fewer live in the country. Cities and villages around the world are filled with Columba livia, as are rural areas with grain silos and cattle ranches. But as for birds living anywhere I would want to hunt them, such venues are
few. To hunt pigeons in the original spirit of the hunt is to pursue them in the wild. Not certified wilderness necessarily, but some place away from roads and cars and homes and where you like the natural vibe.
As the ancestral digs for rock doves are seaside cliffs, it takes no great leap of insight to see that a canyon cliff makes a good close second. Like the limestone cliffs of the Shetland Islands, where a small population of pure rock doves remain extant, the
Not all rock doves, also known as rock pigeons, are city slickers – some prefer to live in the wilds of the greater Columbia Basin’s canyons. Away from farmers’ grain silos and ranchers’ feedlots, they offer an overlooked hunting opportunity for adventurous sportsmen like author Rob Lyon and pals. (STEVE THOMSEN)
HUNTING
ledgy cracks of basalt palisades provide excellent protection for birds from marauding hawks, falcons and eagles, and a better natural setting to hunt than buildings, barns and bridges. Pigeons will travel upward of 25 miles for a daily meal, while their home range can extend out to 150, but birds needn’t have to settle for such a tiring commute in the central region of the Northwest. There’s freshwater aplenty in river canyons and grain fields, and cattle ranches cover most of the Columbia Plateau of Central and Eastern Washington and Oregon, and that spells chow call to hungry birds.
The beauty of hunting pigeons in a Western river canyon is just that. The old saw about location,
location, location again conveys the truth of the matter. If hunting in natural environs away from the long arm of civilization is important, this might be for you. Nearly every river draining the east side of the Cascade Mountains or the west side of the Rockies, Bitterroots, Blues and Wallowas flows through desert of some type, high or scrub. It may not be the Sahara exactly with hundreds of miles of bosom-like sand dunes, but that’s probably a good thing. Rivers in deserts are like ice cream and pie. When you’re floating a cool river of green, nothing feels better than the melting warmth of old Sol. You get wet, no problem. Beginning to sizzle? Take a dip. Mosquitoes don’t
flourish in the arid environment, but fish do, so if you’re into fishing, you’re set. The same environment that torches living things away from the water produces a fertile medium for aquatic insects and the fish that grow fat and sassy eating them.
When it’s roaring hot in a desert canyon, it is often balmy at night and it is a fine thing to be camped along a river away from road’s end, a cool breeze in off the water, listening only to the lap of waves on the sand beach, the voice of your friends and the hiss of your Coleman lanterns. If you’re jonesin’ to hunt come September and want to do it in style, it’s hard to beat a float trip through one of the Northwest’s vaunted high desert canyons.
The rivers that carve these same basalt chasms welcome summer steelhead back this time of year, making for an interesting and productive cast-and-blast float. (STEVE THOMSEN)
OVERLOOKED COMBO OP
I don’t know why more of us haven’t discovered these marvelous cousins of the mourning dove. I suspect it is because most pigeon hunting is typically done in compromising locales. Read an article on hunting pigeons and more likely than not it is set outside a grain silo or a farmer’s abandoned barn and the hunt is treated as glorified pest control.
Hunting in such conditions is an iffy proposition from the get-go; it is difficult to want to disturb a family you don’t know by driving cold up to their farmhouse to ask permission. Oftentimes farmers would welcome a small dent in the local population, but they’ll think twice before letting you shoot around their home and animals. It’s one thing to ask permission to hunt fields and woods well away from anyone and another to be blasting away in someone’s backyard.
September is a good month to be on the water. Most of us are there for the fishing. Steelhead have returned from the ocean by then; these days the returns are alarmingly small, although this year is besting expectations by a wide margin, with liberalized fisheries as a result. Along with the big boys are trout, catfish and smallmouth bass. Each river will have a different fishery menu, of course, but there is decent fishing to be had in September, no matter which river canyon you choose.
Where other winged game are subject to seasons – waterfowl opens next month, grouse and mourning dove this month – the completely overlooked rock dove or rock pigeon (as the ornithological society has recently
Rob Lyon shows off a passel of rock doves. Watch for a “fluttering salt-and-pepper cloud” as you make your way along the river, then approach their roost from below, making sure to be able to retrieve any birds you shoot.
HOW TO COOK A ROCK (DOVE, THAT IS)
Here are two ways to cook rock doves:
Pan-fried pigeon: Slice the breasts in strips for stir fry, or pan fry them whole. Sear them hot and quick along with the legs, add your favorite savory herbs and spices, then reduce heat and cook a tad longer until done. Sliced mushroom and onion goes well and garlic is common in our camp.
Dutch oven dove: I’ve read that old pigeons are too tough for anything but a stew, but I haven’t found this to be the case. You
may get a bird on occasion that requires a little more wrestling with the old teeth, but no big deal. If you’ve brought along a Dutch oven, try this recipe borrowed from our chukar camp on Idaho’s Salmon River (credit goes to John Bales at NRS for the original inspiration). Stuff whole birds with sweet onion, green onion, green pepper and garlic. Cover them with strips of bacon. Splash with Worcestershire. Douse whole concoction with beer and bake on hot coals for 30 minutes plus. –RL
Author
(STEVE THOMSEN)
HUNTING
Smallmouth bass are also eager biters in the Columbia, Snake, Deschutes and other inland systems this time of year. (STEVE THOMSEN)
dubbed them) or plain old pigeon to most of us, is fair game year-round.
Between the fishing and the hunting, the river canyons of the Northwest are a sportsman’s smorgasbord guaranteed to keep your head spinning. Not only will you have the canyon walls to reconnoiter for pigeons, but the river for fish, the trees for grouse and the
DESCHUTES RESOURCES
Guide and local info: Deschutes Angler Fly Shop, run by John and Amy Hazel (deschutesangler.com)
Maps, river regs, permits and boater passes: Bureau of Land Management, Prineville District Office (recreation .gov/gateways/16834; 541-416-6700)
Lodging, food: Imperial River Company in Maupin (deschutesriver.com)
Guidebook: If you’re the adventurous type and want to run the Deschutes on your own, be sure to obtain a guidebook detailing river miles, camps and rapids such as the Handbook to the Deschutes River Canyon –RL
flight lanes in between for dove.
I look at it like this. The grouse is mostly a matter of hiking through the forest with your eyes and ears open. Mourning doves like to perch on telephone lines or fence railing; keep an eye out there. And pigeons will be roosting on the basalt palisades; eyes and ears again here as well.
YOU WANNA ROCK? LOOK HERE!
As you float the river, look for pigeon habitat, glassing the cliffs as you go. There is often several stratum of cliffs or palisades in our canyons, from riverside to the rim in the distance. Frankly, it takes either a visual on a good-sized flock of birds or a pleasant memory of birds in a particular location to launch me out of a comfortable seat in the raft and into the rimrock, unless they are close at hand. There are always new discoveries to make but after even one time down the river, you will be much better able to plan where to anticipate hunting.
Look for a flock of birds in the air, hovering over a cliff or perched on top. A fluttering salt-and-pepper cloud spells pigeon. Look for signs of guano on the cliffs, although this is more
often indicative of cliff swallows than pigeons. Don’t run off into the baddest backcountry looking for birds in the heat of midday. Save that for forays out of camp in the cooler temps of morning and evening.
Look for rock walls of sufficient height (at least 30 to 40 feet) that border the river. This is a good time to get out and hike a while and stretch the legs and jump the odd bird. Because you don’t see birds does not mean they are not tucked into a niche in the cliff. Clap your hands as you approach each prospective rock wall – and be ready should they come careening out. Also listen for that familiar cooing sound you often hear in city parks.
If you find a long wall with multiple flocks of birds or have scattered birds into smaller groups, look for a spot where you can remain concealed while being able to view the palisade from both sides. Points are good for this, because you can duck behind the lee side of the rock when you spot birds coming at you. Birds are sometimes skittish and will fly off when you’re well out of shotgun range; other times they’ll sit tight as you close the distance. Ditto for birds in the air; sometimes they’ll flare at the sight of you, while other times they won’t bother. It is always prudent to use what cover you can and to dress in earth tones.
Patience helps when you’re on the cliff after rousting out a flock of birds and they go winging out of sight. Many times they will circle around high overhead only to gradually lose altitude and head back for the roost where you jumped them. Pigeon hunting will give you a crick in the neck from all the craning the head around watching for approaching birds!
Birds are best hunted from below. Birds shot over a cliff are difficult to mark and difficult to retrieve. When shooting from the base of the cliff, try and drop a bird at the base of the ledge. Most cliff walls have a steep slope of scree below; if you drop it there, mark the bird carefully from the cliff to help locate it when you retrieve.
If you float the river in the hottest part of the season, hunt morning and evening hours and siesta or float in the middle of the day. Shade, thank God, is intrinsic to canyons. From your point of vantage deep in a crack in the Earth, the sun will not find you for much of the early and latter part of the day. From birdsong until 9 or 10 in the morning you have three or four hours of prime hunting time, ditto again in late afternoon. If you plan it right, you can find a canyon wall with just the right facing to double your time in the cool. Believe me, the last place you want to be when the mercury is topping 100 is on the oven shelf.
TIMING
Unlike any of the other Northwest winged quarries, rock pigeon are open year-round. April can be dicey, weather-wise, but it coincides with the opening of trout season, and as the weather on the Eastside is a month in advance of the Westside, it gives a much welcomed taste of spring to come. May is a better bet and gets you into stonefly season, which is big on the Deschutes and can make it pretty hard to want to bust out of the water and go tromping off into the rocks.
Do be aware of the shooting ban along the Deschutes from the third Saturday in May through the end of August. You will have to hunt away from the central river corridor if you arrive before this month.
September is a prime bet, though, with the weather moderated just a little (hopefully). Fish steelies morning and evening, which is about the only time they’ll take a fly, then have the milder midday open for birds or smallies. No matter how you cut it, between the things that swim and those that fly, it’s a cioppino – a fishy, birdy stew – of activity.
GEAR UP
Take plenty of water with you away from camp. When you begin to dehydrate you won’t enjoy yourself and it is a long way back to camp for
HUNTING
a sip. Heat exhaustion and sunstroke are players here. This is a good place for an electrolytic drink. I often fill my water bottle with it. Salt tablets can be a handy tool for heat as well.
Travel light. Shorts, T-shirt, maybe a light wind shell tucked in the vest. Wear a light strap vest, as well as gloves – lava is some sharp stuff and
cuts well – and gaiters to protect against fox tails, burrs and, the worst of the lot, some stuff we encountered two years ago in the Salmon River system in Idaho, star thistle, which is like a hundred tiny spears. Gaiters help to keep the dirt and scree out as well, and provide a measure of insurance should you get bitten by a rattlesnake.
A spirited game of Frisbee Cup breaks out at camp at the end of a day in the canyon. While most hunters will focus on more traditional winged quarry this month and deeper into fall, this is a reminder that alternatives await for sportsmen looking for new wrinkles. (STEVE THOMSEN)
HUNTING
Pack energy bars. You do not want to run out of steam on a stone ledge 2 miles away from camp. Drop two or three bars in your vest and make sure you have at least a full cup of water to wash each of them down.
We always take two-way radios with us in the field. Smartphone coverage is spotty in these canyons, but with a radio you can commiserate with and share the tribulations and joys of your hunting partners, and the strategic and tactical advantage is huge. Coordinating a hunt with radios is not only fun but effective, and the safety net they also afford is important if hunters range far.
Finally, we shoot light 28-gauge shotguns, which are plenty for pigeons and noticeably lighter in the hand. Winchester Super X (winchester.com) has been our go-to shell: size 7½s and 6s for pigeon, and a 7½-9 (blend) for dove. Try a highvisibility sight for quick acquisition against a big sky. NS
You can use a Dutch oven to cook cleaned, stuffed birds covered in bacon and beer over a fire or, in times of high fire danger, campstove. (STEVE THOMSEN)
CONNECTICUT
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O’Hara’s Landing Salisbury, CT oharaslanding.com
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Full Fish Bags, Holds Await In September
Your monthly Oregon fishing outlook provided by The Guide’s Forecast.
By Bob Rees
September marks the beginning of fall, when the true meaning of harvest comes home for many sport anglers in the region. Between robust returns of fall Chinook, coho and offshore albacore, canners and smokers light up in preparation for the long winter ahead.
THE COLUMBIA RIVER’S fall Chinook and coho run is shaping up nicely and adult returns of summer steelhead are surprising many as well, offering up opportunities most didn’t count on based on preseason predictions.
Managers went from set regulations to a “fishery plan,” reflecting the ever-changing dynamics of the mainstem Columbia fishery. Simply put, anglers need to read regulation updates frequently and be prepared for last-minute changes based on run performance, catch rates and effort counts. The fall mainstem fishery, particularly from the Cowlitz mouth to Bonneville Dam, can be explosive, so be prepared for emergency regulations.
Trolling size 3.0 or 3.5 spinners or Super Baits behind a rotating 360-degree flasher will likely produce excellent catches when the fishery is
September is prime time for fall Chinook, both on the Lower Columbia and some Oregon Coast systems. Just double check season dates and bag limits, as there are some changes from last year. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
FISHING
open, which varies by river reach. Bait isn’t as effective so far from the estuary but can still produce good catches in this fishery.
MAYBE THE MOST prolific fishery in the region will be Oregon’s Central Coast non-mark-selective ocean coho fishery that opens on September 1. If history repeats itself, the saltwater sport fleet will harvest around 30,000 wild and hatchery coho out of south, central and northern ports in around two weeks of opportunity. Quality coho to 15 pounds are found during a time of year when ocean weather is often most cooperative.
Freshwater anglers will also realize expanded opportunity for wild coho in most coastal estuaries starting in September as well. A robust return is expected in most watersheds, with some fisheries allowing anglers to pursue these quality fish three days a week this fall, others daily. Anglers can catch them in a variety of ways, but trolling spinners behind flashers is often the most successful.
Fall Chinook will start entering these same estuaries but returns are expected to be mediocre at best. Constricted fisheries will be realized for many estuaries, but the Siletz and Rogue are often the exception – and they’ll also likely draw the most attention. But Coos Bay can often surprise this month, as the adult Chinook return here has bounced back in recent years.
Perhaps the most overlooked fishery on the coast is for cutthroat trout. Trolling lake trolls with a trailing worm or casting spinners in the tidewater reaches of nearly any coastal system can produce quality trout for any motivated angler. Like salmon, these “gateway” sportfish will await the region’s first rain freshet to make their way upstream to feed on any stray salmon eggs that float their way.
Also in the crosshairs of many saltwater sportsmen are albacore tuna. Calm weather and willing fish can make for plugged fish holds for this sportfish, growing popular very rapidly.
Fishing live bait, trolling or casting iron or swimbaits can provide unbelievable catches for this quality fish. Tuna often remain 30 to 40 miles offshore, but on a calm ocean, it’s well worth the effort. Ocean crabbing often picks up, too, as large Dungeness start to fill out after the July molt. Bay crabbing improves as well, with softer tide series providing the best digging.
INLAND SALMON ANGLERS anxiously target returning coho in the Clackamas, Sandy and Willamette River systems, but these fish can be notoriously challenging to catch. Early morning produces the best results for anglers casting spinners,
spoons or brightly colored jigs over concentrated numbers.
The Willamette upstream of Willamette Falls has surprised trollers in recent years. The largest return on record came about in 2024, and it’s likely this year will be excellent as well, with peak passage happening around mid- to late September. Trolling 360 flashers and small spinners will often produce results, but early mornings are always best under this month’s low, clear and relatively warm water conditions. NS
Editor’s note: For more information, visit TheGuidesForecast.com.
Author Bob Rees (red hat) and friends show off the results of a run to the albacore grounds, one of this month’s typically best opportunities for Oregon anglers. (BOB REES)
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Finding My In A New
Footing New Way
We live in a world where effort, passion and hard work are an actual option. Yet it seems like humanity is in bad shape because too few of us are willing to dive all in. In days past, this type of life wasn’t really debatable; no matter the angle, you would not know success unless you were devoted to your life in every way. Nowadays, it seems the masses are just waiting for the bad news more so than fighting to get the results they desire.
FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG
By Sara Potter
Though I have only been pursuing the river and her fish for 12 runs of life, I can say this passion found me at exactly the time it was intended. I was able to dive all in to the joys of a new love that not only brought out the best in me, but allows me to continue to grow today. There were decent enough runs of fish to hog up my entire being, and there was nothing more that I wanted to do with my time than pursue the river. Whether it was prepping to be on those rocks or actually being on them, effort, passion and hard work were what shaped me into the woman I am today.
The fish were in the river and I was able to reach out and connect with them more often than not. That’s the thing about fisheries: The fish have to be there in order for you to connect with them. Those early runs were crucial not only because they were incredible, but it was important that I knew what it felt like to thrive on a river with fish stacked up right there waiting for me to entice them. Not only that, but I was allowed the opportunity to target them. I needed to feel what they made me feel in order to step into this new chapter of my life as our fisheries continue to be mismanaged and in some cases disappear.
The opportunity to embrace such passion and joy should never be taken from us lightly. If you know love, you should fight for it. If you have put devotion into something and times become tough, you shouldn’t just let things go, nor just accept it. There is always a way to right a wrong if you are willing to try and willing to step up. Educate yourself and become
Winchester Bay and the Umpqua River will be a lot quieter this month than in past Septembers because fall salmon fishing will be closed this season due to issues with wild coho and Chinook runs. Rather than defeating her, author Sara Potter, who works at a local tackle shop, is drawing strength to advocate harder for her river system. (SARA POTTER)
COLUMN
part of the answer. I’m not saying life will go exactly as you intended for it to go, but as long as you give it all you can, you will not know regret!
AS THE MOUTH of the mainstem Umpqua has become my summer home more so than my actual home up the North fork, I realize I am intended to do more than just fish. That’s probably a good thing because as our fisheries continue to be ripped from our lives, I had best find more purpose than simply getting my tug on.
The Umpqua is iconic for so many reasons and holds pieces of countless people’s hearts. Some days I wish it wasn’t because there are so many eyes on her. In
this, activists are constantly sharing their points of view, and in a lot of cases, their wishes are met on this watershed.
The coho in Oregon are thriving once more. The retention of wild silver salmon is back, as it should be. Our spawning ground seeding percentages are strong and federally delisting the coho should happen. I believe it will, but only thanks to a handful of smart, passionate, hardworking people. If it wasn’t for them, our management would sadly but gladly continue to keep them listed, continue to collect the federal funding that comes with a watershed or fishery that is in despair. That money becomes a part of their budget alongside millions and millions of sportsman license and tag dollars.
More money, more money, more money doesn’t lead us to success. Or it hasn’t yet! Healthy, thriving rivers and fisheries would, but the almighty dollar leaves opportunity for division. Continuously denying opportunity to people because of money gives some groups all the opportunity in the world to continue to present these misconstrued narratives and deny us our fish and our river. Point blank, these groups just don’t want us fishing the Umpqua. They sure as hell don’t want us having sustainable fisheries where harvest is an option or the purpose.
Most every coastal river in Oregon features the opportunity to retain wild coho this year, but not the Umpqua. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staffers’ recommendation last month was to not give us our fishery this September in the river. And once the quota of 500 wild fall Chinook is met, the mainstem Umpqua is set to close. We won’t even be allowed to target hatchery coho – zero fall salmon opportunity! This is not just; this is not right. Instead of looking at the three basins out of the four in the Umpqua system where the numbers are good, they recommend zero opportunity for all. They focus on the basin where the water issues are – and have always been – and do not mention the goodness that is continuing to happen in the other three basins that hold the majority of this run and always have.
THIS MANAGEMENT REGIME will never lead us to fruition. That’s why I believe no matter how uncomfortable it might be for me, I need to try my best to stand up for what I believe in. Thankfully, I have found a group of people in the Oregon Anglers Alliance who know the facts, understand the science and help me believe I can educate myself and be ready to help us be heard from a different perspective. I am a love-struck Umpqua fisherman, and it’s time I start putting more of myself into the cause, because without it, my visions of being a grandmother on this river simply will not be.
We need leaders leading with purpose and a smart, passionate staff set in place to help bring prosperity back to the rivers and fish of the Pacific Northwest. Living in this state of division, people lose sight of what really matters, jumping on sides
Romona Wentz holds up an excellent coho that returned to the Umpqua last season. “It’s wrong to deny us a fishery when there are fish there to catch and there is dinner to bring home,” Potter writes. (SARA POTTER)
COLUMN
when they probably aren’t even well informed enough to even get involved. As my good friend David Johnson told me years ago – and occasionally reminds me today – “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” That one simple sentence has helped me navigate my life when it comes to this passion I feel for the rivers. He is so very right.
AS I REMINISCE about last September and all those beautiful biting coho we connected with, I smile. They were abundant and they were hungry! I’m super thankful we were able to have the one/three bag limit. With one a day and three in all for the season, we finally were able to bring those fresh fish home to our families once more. That decision by our management was just; it was time and the fish were there.
It’s wrong to deny us a fishery when there are fish here to catch and there is dinner to bring home. It is time we all started standing up for what we believe in instead of just waiting around to hear more bad news. If each of us start truly showing up and showing support in any way we can, we can make a difference. My heart refuses to believe anything other than that. My heart is on the river and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS
Cutplug herring await rigging during last September’s coho fishery. State managers point to a “very low” return to the Umpqua watershed in 2022, which spawned this year’s fish, and low juvenile abundance the next year as why they expect a poor return in 2025, “especially in the South Umpqua.” Potter points out that there are three other, larger basins in the system doing better. (SARA
POTTER)
Deep South Coho, Y’all
The nooks and crannies at Puget Sound’s southernmost end, Marine Area 13, produce lots of hatchery silvers catchable there and further north, and here’s how and where.
By Mark Yuasa
The coho salmon return to Puget Sound sparks a fishing frenzy in September and October, but there’s a location that remains somewhat untapped when it comes to finding some elbow room.
The pristine waters surrounding Marine Area 13 (South Puget Sound) south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge may not be on the radar of many anglers, but those who venture to the area will likely find a good number of coho in early fall.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Squaxin Island Tribe raise around 2.6 million coho salmon at two net pen facilities located between Squaxin and Harstine Islands in Peale Passage.
Staff from WDFW’s Wallace River, Skookumchuck and Marblemount Hatcheries work together to incubate eggs, rear and then ship the juvenile coho toward their new home.
Barges then transport the young fish out to the floating net pens off Squaxin Island where the tribe manages the net pens. In spring or early summer, the young coho are
With a combined forecast of nearly 86,000 hatchery coho, including almost 60,000 back to the Squaxin Island net pens, Puget Sound’s Marine Area 13 off Olympia should be productive for anglers like Eric Schager this season. He makes the beaches there his home away from home this time of year and uses Hyper-Vis+-taped spinners with Nikko Fishing Octopus skirts to tempt these sometimes finicky salmon. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
FISHING
released from the net pens. Returning adult coho that migrate back to the net pen area – as 3and 4-year-old fish – are prone to concentrate near Squaxin Island and the surrounding waterways. In 2025, the Squaxin Island net pen facility forecast is nearly 60,000 coho, up from more than 48,000 in 2024.
This cooperative work has led to a successful sustainable recreational and tribal fishery in deep South Sound waters. There are more than a dozen other salmon net pen projects in Puget Sound that are managed by WDFW, the tribes and private fishing organizations. All of these projects contribute to fisheries throughout Puget Sound.
WHERE TO FISH AREA 13
There are numerous places to fish for coho in Area 13, but several of the biggest challenges are figuring out when to go, where the fish are congregating and what type of fishing gear works best.
South-bound coho usually begin
to arrive in late August and the run peaks by the third week of September, although in 2024, anglers were catching coho all the way into October.
The northernmost boundary of Area 13 begins at the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which the coho funnel through as they migrate south. The key to finding fish is to look for coho jumping and rolling in the water or by watching your fishfinder to see where the schools of fish are located.
In the northern parts of Area 13, try around the Fox Island Fishing Pier, located on the eastern side of Fox Island; Hale Passage; Gibson Point on the southeast side of Fox Island; and the west and east sides of Anderson Island.
In deep South Sound, look for coho off Brisco Point, off the south side of Harstine Island in Dana Passage; Johnson Point north of Zittel’s Marina; the shoreline just outside of Big Fishtrap to Zangle Cove; Luhr’s Landing; Burfoot County Park, Squaxin Park, Gull Harbor and Priest
Point Park in Boston Harbor (all have good shoreline access); the southern and northern tips of Squaxin Island; the shoreline off the eastern side of Harstine Island; and Dougall Point off the north side of Harstine Island.
Area 13 is open daily for hatcherymarked coho through September 30 with a two-salmon daily limit, plus two additional pink may be retained; release chum, wild coho and wild Chinook. Fishing remains open daily beginning October 1 with a twosalmon daily limit; release chum, wild coho and wild Chinook.
NOT-SO-DEEP-SOUTH HOT SPOTS
Just north of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is Area 11 (Tacoma and Vashon Island), while the Seattle city skyline and peekaboo views of Mount Rainier are just a couple of the perks that come with fishing Area 10 (Seattle and Bremerton).
Locations in Areas 10 and 11 to look for coho include Jefferson Head; Richmond Beach to Shilshole
The Area 13 coho fishery is primarily fueled by a joint Squaxin Island Tribe-Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife project that uses young salmon from agency hatcheries and rears them in net pens maintained by the tribe. (NORTHWEST INDIAN FISHERIES COMMISSION)
PYRAMID LAKE, NEVADA
Permits for summer camping, boating and jet skiing available at Pyramid Lake Marina and the Ranger Station, located at 2500 Lakeview Dr, Sutcliffe, NV.
Permits also available online at plpt.nagfa.net/online, and the Pyramid Lake Museum at 709 State Street, Nixon, NV. Visit pyramidlake.us for more information on permit prices. pyramid lake ranger station 2500 Lakeview Dr., Sutcliffe, NV (40 minutes from Reno, NV) (775) 476-1155
FISHING
Bay; West Point off Shilshole Bay; Dolphin Point and Point Robinson off the eastern side of Vashon Island; Redondo Beach to Dash Point State Park; Point Dalco off the south side of Vashon Island; the entrance to Gig Harbor; Browns Point outside of Commencement Bay; and off Point Defiance Park in Tacoma.
In Area 10, coho fishing is open daily through September 30 with a two-salmon daily limit, plus two additional pink may be retained; release Chinook and chum. Fishing is also open daily from October 1 through November 15 with a twosalmon daily limit; release Chinook.
In Area 11, coho fishing is open daily through September 30 with a twosalmon daily limit, plus two additional pink may be retained; release chum and wild Chinook. (Note: the hatchery Chinook fishery may close sooner than the end of this month, so check the WDFW fishing regulations webpage, wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/
emergency-rules, for updates.) Fishing is also open daily from October 1 through November 15 with a twosalmon daily limit; release Chinook.
Coho anglers fishing from the shoreline can also enjoy numerous public access points throughout Puget Sound. Time your outing for the incoming tide (about two to three hours leading up to high slack tide), as coho tend to get pushed closer to shore.
Shore access points include Point Wilson in Fort Worden State Park north of Port Townsend; the west and east sides of Whidbey Island; Possession Point; West Beach at Deception Pass State Park; Point No Point on the Kitsap Peninsula; Edmonds Marina Pier; Richmond Beach; Seacrest Pier in West Seattle; Lincoln Park in West Seattle; Dash Point State Park; and piers at Des Moines, Les Davis in Tacoma and Point Defiance Park Boathouse in Tacoma.
For additional fishing rules, refer to the WDFW regulations webpage at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations.
GEAR OPTIONS
There are a variety of ways and gear to use when it comes to coho fishing, and from a boat the popular methods are trolling, mooching or jigging.
When trolling, make sure to go slightly faster than you would for Chinook, as coho like a swiftermoving presentation. Trolling from 2.5 to 3.5 or even 4 miles per hour is ideal. With downriggers, a 12- to 15-pound ball will put your presentation to the precise depth.
If you don’t have downriggers, troll a diver or a 3- to 8-ounce banana-style weight. You can also troll a bucktail-style fly right behind the prop wash of the boat for coho.
Watch your fishfinder for schools of coho and never stick to one location, as the fish are constantly moving around, especially when they’re chasing baitfish. Tidal fluctuations will also affect their movement patterns.
Oftentimes, the best fishing is found in Puget Sound’s deepwater
Kelly Corcoran hoists a Deep South Sound coho caught last month. He says they like Grim Reefer jigs, and reports that the silvers’ meat this year is “extremely orange and tasty.” (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
FISHING
shipping lanes around rip tides and along the edge of a current. Be on the lookout for silvers rolling and jumping on the surface. Birds feeding on krill and baitfish schools is another sign of hungry silvers swimming nearby.
Anglers need to be aware that fishing is legal in the ship traffic lanes as long as the lanes are kept
clear for ships, according to the Board of Pilotage Commissioners of Washington. Shipping lanes should be cleared when ships are five minutes away (about 2 miles) to avoid impeding traffic, and be aware of your surroundings and monitor vessel traffic on VHF radio channel 14. Lastly, anglers should stay out of ferry
lanes when ferry boats are present. For details, go to pilotage.wa.gov.
The best coho fishing periods are early morning hours or just before sunset, when fish can be found right on the surface down 15 to 75 feet. As the day progresses, get your presentation as deep as 100 to 150 feet.
When you first get out on the water, set your gear at a variety of depths with a couple at 25 to 50 feet and others between 60 to 100 feet. Once you catch a fish adjust the other rods to the same depth and go right back over the area where you caught the fish.
Popular lures include a Silver Horde Coho Killer or Kingfisher Lite or Luhr Jensen Coyote Spoon; plastic hoochies (2- to 4-inch squid imitations); and a Silver Horde Ace Hi Fly in a purple haze or green splatterback pattern.
The Yakima Bait Spinfish is another lure garnering attention and there are a variety of sizes and colors. The Spinfish has a chamber where you can also add scent and comes with two pretied hooks on a 30-pound-test leader. Another good one is the Brad’s Cut Plug.
When trolling, also attach an 11inch dodger in front of your plastic squid, spoon or lure. If you’re using a whole herring (orange- or red-label frozen herring), add a baitfish helmet to keep the bait from ripping off. Brining the bait ahead of time will also firm the herring up.
When drift or motor-mooching, use a small cut-plug or whole herring or cast and retrieve a Beau Mac or Point Wilson-style jig. Your leader length on a bait or jig should be 6 to 8 feet. Make sure to add anise or herring scent to your bait, jig or lure.
From the shoreline, try casting and retrieving spoons, spinners and jigs. You can also cast out a sliding bobber or float attached to a leader with tandem barbless hooks attached to a small cut-plug herring. NS
Editor’s note: Mark Yuasa is a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife communications manager and longtime local fishing and outdoor writer.
There are few better ways to spend a day this time of year than getting out on the water and fishing for Puget Sound coho. Kate Anderson shows off a nice limit caught in the Mukilteo area. (KARSTEN MCINTOSH)
