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Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

Volume 10 • ISSUE 3 PUBLISHER James R. Baker

Your Complete Hunting, Boating, Fishing and Repair Destination Since 1948 1948.

Fi hi dR i D i i Si

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Dick Openshaw EDITOR Andy Walgamott LEAD WRITERS Jeff Holmes, Andy Schneider THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS Jason Brooks, Doug Huddle, Randy King, Buzz Ramsey, Scott Staats, Don Talbot, Mark Veary, Randy Wells, Terry Wiest, Dave Workman EDITORIAL FIELD SUPPORT Jason Brooks, Jeff Holmes GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak SALES MANAGER Katie Higgins ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mamie Griffin, Steve Joseph, Garn Kennedy, Mike Smith, Paul Yarnold PRODUCTION MANAGER Sonjia Kells

ALUMAWELD INTRUDER

DESIGNERS Ciara Pickering, Sam Rockwell, Liz Weickum, Kaitlyn Chapman, Jackson Conard PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker OFFICE MANAGER/ACCOUNTING Audra Higgins COPY EDITOR/ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Katie Sauro INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER Lois Sanborn WEBMASTER/INBOUND MARKETING Jon Hines

SMOKERCRAFT PHANTOM OFFSHORE

CIRCULATION MANAGER Heidi Belew

SEE MORE AT

VERLES.COM!

DISTRIBUTION Tony Sorrentino, Gary Bickford ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@nwsportsmanmag.com CORRESPONDENCE Email letters, articles/queries, photos, etc., to awalgamott@media-inc.com, or to the address below.

ON THE COVER Legendary Northwest steelhead and salmon angler Buzz Ramsey poses with a wild winter-run caught on an Oregon Coast river a couple seasons back.

(BUZZ RAMSEY)

SUN CHASER PONTOON

WE OFFER A LARGE INVENTORY OF QUALITY BRANDS ARIMA • ALUMAWELD • SMOKERCRAFT SUN CHASER PONTOONS • YAMAHA • SUZUKI • MERCURY

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DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and get daily updates at nwsportsmanmag.com.

MEDIA INDEX PUBLISHING GROUP WASHINGTON OFFICE P.O. Box 24365 • Seattle, WA 98124-0365 14240 Interurban Ave. S., Suite 190 Tukwila, WA 98168 OREGON OFFICE 8116 SW Durham Rd • Tigard, OR 97224 (206) 382-9220 • (800) 332-1736 • Fax (206) 382-9437 media@media-inc.com; mediaindexpublishing.com

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Northwest Sportsman 9

CONTENTS

VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 3

FEATURES 31

GURU: PAT ABEL Our new series spotlighting Northwest sharpies begins with Oregon angler, guide and educator Pat Abel, who, our Andy Schneider says, actually once hated fishing.

57

BEADS ARE HERE TO STAY If a side-drifting, back-trolling, anchor-fishing winter steelheader has added bobber and beads to his lineup, you know they’re effective! Schneider has the lowdown on this new tactic.

69

GUIDE: GRANT RILETTE With his handmade drift boat, Grant Rilette is a “unicorn” among Oregon Coast guides, writes our Jeff Holmes. Learn Rilette’s daily rituals, his “God water,” why he thinks steelhead soon won’t be known as the “fish of a thousand casts” and more!

98

YOUNG GUN: TJ HESTER Combine equal parts quirkiness – he donned “a full-length human-banana costume” to fish the Hanford Reach – with success on the water and what do you get?

Tri-Cities’ up-and-coming guide TJ Hester.

157

LAST-CHANCE UPLAND BIRDS

115 BAIT UP FOR WINTER ’BOWS How do you get rainbows to bite in the dead of winter? Our trout terror Jason Brooks has some meaty suggestions!

COLUMNS 63

SOUTH COAST Randy says you just might want to “horn” in on this northern-Northern California steelhead fishery – the upper Klamath.

87

WESTSIDER What’s so great about winter steelheading?

Eight local legends, young guns and tackle reps tell Terry!

123 BASIN BEACON Sometimes it pays to be a jerk – a perch jerker, that is. Don has the how-tos for scoring lots of yellowbellies at iced-up North-central Washington lakes.

(Columns, continued next page)

With quail, partridge and – new this year – pheasant open through Jan. 18 in Eastern Washington, here’s where to head in the final days of season!

(JASON BROOKS)

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Go to nwsportsmanmag.com for details.

NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Avenue South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Periodical Postage Paid at Seattle, WA and at additional mail offices. (USPS 025-251) POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Northwest Sportsman, 14240 Interurban Ave South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Annual subscriptions are $29.95 (12 issues), 2-year subscription are $39.95 (24 issues). Send check or money order to Media Index Publishing Group, or call (206) 382-9220 with VISA or M/C. Back issues may be ordered at Media Index Publishing Group offices at the cost of $5 plus shipping. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2015 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A.

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Northwest Sportsman 11

CONTENTS 133 NORTH SOUND It’s the fourth quarter in the Westside’s waterfowling heartland, so what route are you going to run?

Coach Huddle opens his playbook.

DEPARTMENTS 17

THE EDITOR’S NOTE

19

CORRESPONDENCE

143 CHEF IN THE WILD Pronghorn can be maligned for their gamey flavor, but Chef Randy has a workaround – he shares his recipe for Thai-style red curry antelope meatballs.

20

THE BIG PIC Packing while fishing

39

PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS Monthly Daiwa, Browning prizewinners

149 ON TARGET It’s the 150th anniversary of legendary rifle maker Winchester, and Dave details five commemorative models the company’s rolling out, plus late rabbit and coyote ops.

41

THE DISHONOR ROLL Extra Oregon winter range patrols; Kudos; Jackass of the Month

45

DERBY WATCH Clearwater Snake Steelhead Derby and other recent results; Upcoming derbies

49

OUTDOOR CALENDAR 2016 Northwest boat and sportsmen’s shows

49

RECORD NORTHWEST GAME FISH 2015’s four new records

58

RIG OF THE MONTH Bobber and bead set-up

163 CENTRAL OREGON Should hunters and anglers get behind the push to create a 300,000 national recreation area in the Ochoco Mountains? Scott outlines the proposal.

170 THE KAYAK GUYS Following up on Kayak Waterfowl Hunting 101 in the November issue, Mark has the graduate-level course!

51 BUZZ RAMSEY We leave it to The Man Who Knows to share the whens, hows and wheres of catching big winter steelhead.

(BUZZ RAMSEY)

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Northwest Sportsman 13

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THEEDITOR’SNOTE

A year that saw a million acres burned in Washington and salmon-broiling river temperatures across the region finally got some good news last month with the release of some 2016 fish forecasts. Those call for strong returns of Columbia summer kings and fall brights, and Cowlitz and Kalama (above) springers. (CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: INCIWEB; DAIWA PHOTO CONTEST; USGS)

W

ell, that was an odd year – and not just because it ended in a 5.

The past 365 days will go down as one of the most unusual I can remember in more than four decades of tromping around our region, and one I hope to never see the likes of again, but worry that we will.

To go from record drought, record low waters, record heat and record wildfires to record-setting rainfalls in the span of just a few months – talk about whiplash!

LOOKING BACK ON 2015, it was pretty clear early on that something odd might be afoot. I did a blog last January bemoaning a 66-degree day, one that foretold problems for our salmonid streams. There would be no Cascade concrete dumps in March and April to firm up the snowpack, and instead we went into summer with rivers and creeks nearing base flows and uncomfortably warm for our favorite fish, leading to unprecedented fishery closures or restrictions.

It was like we shifted 10 degrees of longitude to the east, to Montana and its hoot-owl rules – or 10 degrees to the south and the Sacramento Valley.

The most jarring figure I’ve seen is that just 5 percent of Okanogan/Okanagan River sockeye, a temperature-sensitive species, that swam past Rocky Reach Dam made it the rest of the way to their British Columbia spawning grounds.

After The Blob, which powered last winter’s, spring’s and summer’s wacky weather, did its damage, along came El Niño’s floods – four of them on my river as of this writing – that likely didn’t do fall salmon on the Westside many favors either.

Smarter folks than I worry these are harbingers of the future.

Certainly it’s hard to stop the rain from falling in these parts, but last summer showed we need to think about things like coolwater refuges for our fish and better forest management.

BUT NOW IT’S 2016, so let’s kick the year off on a positive note. Initial forecasts for Columbia Chinook stocks look really good for June hogs and fall brights, and even if the springer prediction looks average, I’ll take that any day of the week!

Best wishes to you and yours in the new year. – Andy Walgamott nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

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CORRESPONDENCE HATCHERY PROS AND CONS Readers Mark Ervig and Brad Lambert disagreed about the value of hatcheries, which was touched on in our blog and December issue’s Editor’s Note on Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s support for sportfishing. “Our first hatcheries were built at the turn of the previous century when it became obvious that the demand on wild stocks was too taxing and without the aid of hatcheries the entire fishery would plummet to extinction,” Ervig wrote. “In 1900 the world population was under 2 billion, today it’s over 7 billion and by 2100 it will reach 11.5 billion. It’s a grade-school math problem: common sense says we need more hatcheries!” Lambert believes “the whole darn ecosystem is out of whack with all the hatchery action in lieu of natural populations, in order to maintain the status-quo commercial and noncommercial sport fisheries (tribal and nontribal). I believe this article likely represents the majority feeling, i.e., we need hatcheries. And I fully understand and respect the (point of view). But maybe a nonhatchery salmon’s viewpoint wouldn’t. I believe a holistic view of salmon populations is a better approach than relying on hatcheries. If it’s even possible anymore, and I have strong doubts about that when we seem to have forgotten the past prehatchery days and start advocating for hatcheries.”

POTHOLES PORK Word that a handful of feral swine were roaming around the Winchester Wasteway west of Potholes Reservoir had some readers reaching for their rifles – and getting their frying pans ready.

“Mmmm, bacon,” tweeted Ron Judd, The Wrap columnist for The Seattle Times, in response to one of our blogs on the subject of the unwanted oinkers. At press time, two had been shot, two were believed to still be at large and USDA Wildlife Services was taking charge of eradicating them.

CUTEST PIC & STORY WE RECEIVED PUTTING THIS ISSUE TOGETHER We’re switching it up in this space to share this great story. After nearly an hour soaking bait on the north Olympic Peninsula backyard pond that cold, rainy day, Earl Otis might have been ready to head back inside, but not his grandson, Trevor Earl NolanOtis. “He said, ‘Papa, Papa, Papa, be tough, let’s give it a few more minutes,’ then Fish on!” Earl relates. “Four minutes later he told me to quit messing around and put his fish in the boat. After thousands of hours on the water it was the best fishing trip ever. That smile says it all – guru in the making.” (DAIWA PHOTO CONTEST) nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 19

PACKING WHILE FISHING

Carrying a weapon on the rivers and lakes is a personal decision; here’s why one Northwest angler brings along a handgun when he’s chasing steelhead and salmon.

By Terry J. Wiest, Steelhead University

I

used to never think about packing a gun while fishing. I never had a reason to until several years back while out on the Green River alone. This would change my opinion on carrying a gun, and it still lingers in my mind some 15 years afterwards.

I was wandering back to one of my “secret” holes, one I’d discovered as a teenager and had never, ever seen another angler or trace of another human at since the early 1980s. I’d only shown it to two of my fishing partners, both of whom were sworn to secrecy and who knew I’d disown them if word ever got out.

I was 20 minutes into the usual 30-minute hike on animal trails when a person appeared from nowhere. I literally almost jumped out of my waders.

The dude, who looked strung out and definitely not a fellow fisherman, asked, “Hey, you got some smokes?”

“Nope, I don’t smoke,” I said.

“Do you have any money?”

“Nope, I’m fishing.”

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MIXED BAG A brush deep in the woods along his home river with an unsavory character led to Terry Wiest’s decision to carry a handgun when fishing alone. (RHOSCOE COQUIA PHOTOGRAPHY)

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MIXED BAG Wiest says the decision to pack is personal, one not to be made lightly because of the potential consequences or used as a way to ward fellow anglers away from a fishing hole. (RHOSCOE COQUIA PHOTOGRAPHY)

“I need some money!”

“Sorry, I can’t help you.”

“Dude, you don’t understand, I need money.”

“Sorry, can’t help you,” I said, and walked by him.

Was I scared? Yes, sh*tless!

I reached my fishing hole but couldn’t get the thought that he was stalking me out of my mind, or that I would meet up with him again on the way back to my vehicle. Neither scenario materialized, but afterwards I drove straight to a gun shop and purchased my first self-defense weapon.

Now, if I’d been packing and ran into the guy, would I have drawn my weapon? No – I did not feel my life was threatened.

Would I have felt more comfortable?

Hell, yes! Should my life have become threatened, I would have had the tools and knowledge available to use them.

From that point on I realized that the outdoors aren’t just filled with friendly fellow anglers and hunters.

There are also tweakers and criminals out there.

I PICK WHEN to carry. If I’m alone, you can count on me being armed. If I’m with friends, it all depends. Drift boat or with a guide? Nope, I don’t see a need. Banking it? Yep, usually gonna be packing. And that brings me to another incident.

Once, while on the Calawah River in Forks, I’d been fishing with a buddy and we decided to split up. I fished from the mouth up, while he went from the ponds down. Only about a quarter mile up the river I watched two anglers drift fishing a hole. To me, the hole was meant for a float and jig. I watched and conversed with the pair for about 10 minutes, then decided to ask if I could throw my float out.

First cast and it was “Fish on!”

The dude who had been fishing the hardest was pissed off, to say the least.

“WTF … You SOB, come into my hole and steal my fish! I oughta kick your ass!”

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MIXED BAG The author carries his Walther PPS 9mm in a Kenai Chest Holster. (RHOSCOE COQUIA PHOTOGRAPHY)

Not wanting to cause any problems, I told the guy to take my rod.

“Here, you reel it in,” I said.

The guy was furious, though his buddy was cracking up, saying, “Dude, you got freaking schooled!”

To me, the fish wasn’t worth it. But instead of accepting my offer, the duo left, leaving me fighting the steelhead, which turned out to be a nice 10-pound native that I let go.

Did I feel a need to let them know I was armed? No. Was I glad that I was? Yes.

THERE ARE DANGEROUS people out in the woods, and nobody knows that better than Northwest game wardens.

You may recall the July 2010 issue’s Big Pic feature on marijuana growers invading Northwest hunting grounds.

And the September 2010 Dishonor Roll, which highlighted felons and others with outstanding warrants that Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife police encounter afield. The latter featured one particular license check that nearly ended up very badly.

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described it this way: “The small cluster of cars near the bridge over lower Crab Creek in Grant County caught Capt. Chris Anderson’s attention. He and Officer Chad McGary had been on their way to focus some attention on illegal nighttime sturgeon fishing in the Columbia. It was about 8:30 p.m. What was a few minutes spent checking this group first? ESA-listed fish use this waterway and a little overt presence never hurt to remind people that any salmonids they might catch should be released. Little did Chad and Chris know that a simple license and bag check would result in nearly getting killed.

“Walking down the rocky bank, Chris found a man and his son doing what most fathers and sons should be doing, spending time together.

But this was no ordinary father-son duo. The father, a man without words, silently produced his fishing license as requested. The son, who was still fishing, claimed that his license was at home in his wallet. No problem, Chris told him the officers would be able to check license status with their laptop

computers. Chris decided to walk across the road to the other side of the creek and check a few anglers there, while Chad dealt with the kid with the forgotten license.

“Chad followed the 18-year-old up the bank to check on a license that probably did not exist, an act that he had done a hundred times before.

As they walked, a metal-on-metal clinking sound put Chad’s radar up.

‘What’s in your pocket?’ he asked. The son turned around quickly and began reaching for his back pocket with his right hand. Trained in officer safety to control a suspect’s hands, Chad moved to stop him. The reaction from the kid came as a surprise, shoving Chad backwards. Chad regained his footing, just in time to find himself staring into the muzzle of a .45-caliber handgun.

The familiar but sickening sound of the slide being racked back to chamber a bullet, followed by the kid spitting out the words ‘Motherf%%$,’ cemented the seriousness of the situation.”

As it turned out, the father and son were both illegal aliens, according to Cenci, and the father was wanted

MIXED BAG on an unrelated felony warrant. They had several reasons not to want to be detained – including a Class C felony for being an alien in possession of a firearm, according to Cenci.

But what about those of us who are legally packing – how should we deal with a license check? “Given the inspection-oriented nature of much of our work, we really never know whether a person is harboring a problem that may turn into an officer-safety issue,� Cenci says. “While our officers are great with people, there is always that element of the unknown that can make us uneasy, especially if we don’t understand someone’s behavior, which there may be a reasonable explanation for. So, letting the officer know right away (you’re carrying) is great. We appreciate and support personal defense and are fairly comfortable around firearms,

provided we know where they are.

Someone who lets an officer know he/ she is packing is not likely to do that if they intend harm.�

HUMANS ARE ONE thing. Animals are another, and wildlife encounters may warrant packing for personal protection.

When I first started carrying, it was suggested I go with a .45 for stopping power, as a 9mm would pass through a hyped-up two- or four-legged predator without stopping them. With today’s enhancements to ammunition, this no longer seems the case. I’ve traded my .45 for a Walther PPS 9mm and feel more confident with this gun than ever before. Ballistics prove the new 9mm loads will stop an intruder with a well-placed round just as effectively as a .45. The key to me is getting off the second and third round faster and

more accurately than I could with the .45 because of the added recoil.

Now, while most 9mms and .45s might thwart a cougar or small bear, don’t think they are the answer while in big-bruin country – especially grizzly.

While fishing Southeast Alaska’s Situk River for steelhead in April with a couple of great friends, Mike Zavadlov and Steve Turner, we happened to see a huge sow downriver. We settled back in the drift boat while looking for cubs.

Sure enough, cub No. 1 and cub No. 2 scooted across the river and the sow soon followed. Having thought we’d given them enough time to move off we proceeded cautiously downriver.

But suddenly the woods came alive – there was a third cub that had not yet crossed all the way! The mama bear smashed through small trees and raced towards the river, snot and spit billowing from her jowls.

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Northwest Sportsman 27

MIXED BAG Thankfully for us it was a fake charge – just enough to get No. 3 safely up on shore.

Although we had a shotgun and bear spray, we all knew nothing would have stopped her. If she had wanted us, we were gone.

Do I wish I’d been packing that time?

No, as I don’t believe it would have made a difference. Even a .45 would have bounced right off her big old head, pissing her off even more.

Indeed, packing does not rectify every situation.

THE MOST TROUBLE I’ve had while packing has always been the how. I packed my .45 with a shoulder holster.

While I knew it was there, it was incredible bulky and not the easiest to draw under heated conditions.

As I exclusively wear Simms Fishing Products while fishing, I asked the company’s Northwest representative,

Erick Neufield, what he suggested. He recommended I contact the guys at gunfightersinc.com, as they have the perfect solution while wearing waders.

I spoke with Woody Dixon, their sales and marketing manager who is also an avid high-lakes fisherman.

Together, he and company owner and combat veteran Adam Harris developed the Kenai Chest Holster.

The name alone lets you know it’s for us anglers. The holster itself is made from Kydex, with each holster molded specifically for each pistol it’s designed for. The company chose waterproof materials for those situations where you’re out in weather all day (say, like winter steelheading). It’s also made in the Northwest.

I ordered one for my Walther PPS 9mm and couldn’t be happier. The fit is exact and it’s extremely comfortable, almost as if it was molded to my body.

A pouch is also available for a spare

magazine close at hand. I’ve never been more confident and comfortable while packing. Should the situation ever occur, I can draw my weapon and know that it’s all lined up.

I also ordered a Ronin holster for those times when I pack while not fishing. I’ve never seen such quality and craftsmanship in a holster that is designed with sportsmen in mind.

IS PACKING FOR everyone? Probably not. You must make that choice. Given the circumstances of your life being threatened, are you willing to take the life of another? Only you can make that choice, and you will have to live with the consequences. Every time I pack, I make a conscious decision about whether or not I’m capable of taking a life to save my own. This is not about machismo, threats or tactics to ward others away from a fishing hole. This is about life and death – yours. NS

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FISHING His fishing career began in the Tillamook Basin and Pat Abel still works the bay and tributaries, but also the Columbia, Willamette and Pacific for salmon, steelhead and sturgeon. (ANDY SCHNEIDER)

the joy of helping others find success.

There should be no goal to achieve guru status; instead, it’s something that should happen naturally with time spent afield.

Here is one steelheader’s journey from novice to fishing guide to guru status.

“I HATED FISHING growing up.”

Meet Pat Abel New series spotlighting Northwest sharpies begins with Oregon angler, guide, educator who once hated fishing.

By Andy Schneider

Y

ou see them every time you are on the river. They almost start to blend into the surroundings, except the number of fish they are catching makes them stand out.

It’s tough to ignore – that splash of chrome, the swing of the net and the whooping and hollering going on in the front seat. You look closely and you watch how they row their boat, where they instruct their clients to cast and how they have a knack of floating down the river without bringing much attention to themselves. These anglers are not just fishing guides, they are steelhead gurus, masters of their trade and operating on a level of fishing as instinctual to them as driving a car is for most Americans. While most steelhead gurus migrate to becoming a fishing guide, there are just as many rowing past you undetected – all except for the splashing chrome and the swinging net, that is. Just as most drivers pass you without catching

your attention, these steelhead gurus prefer to do just the same.

Now, don’t think for a minute that anglers who can catch a lot of fish are automatically gurus. No, there are plenty on Northwest waters who revel in the ability to catch more fish than their fellow fishermen. These successful anglers are anything but gurus and have a lot to learn before they achieve that stature. No, true fishing gurus are humble anglers.

They are not only masters of their trade, but stewards of the rivers and land. They cherish the ability they have and enjoy sharing it with others.

So how does one become a guru?

It starts, grows and carries on through interactions with your fellow human beings. Somewhere along life’s journey, a fellow angler plants the guru seed. With time spent standing on riverbanks or rowing a boat, that seed sprouts and grows as you gain first-hand knowledge and take in sage advice. Soon the enjoyment of catching a fish becomes second to

So proclaims longtime steelhead fisherman and full-time guide Pat Abel (patabelguideservice.com).

“My stepdad would take me out winter steelhead fishing and I was always cold, wet and fishless. I couldn’t understand why he would want to subject himself to the cold and wet for some elusive fish,” he recalls.

“I can still picture my stepdad perfectly. Dark green hip boots, his tan fishing vest and his trusty fiberglass spinning rod,” Abel reminisces. “He would wade out into the water a couple feet and make cast after cast, paying attention to the smallest of things, but taking in all that surrounded him, if that makes any sense.”

“I was 13 years old when I started turning my stepdad’s invitations down to go fishing,” he says. “I wanted to hang out with my friends, or really do anything but stand out in the cold, fishing in the rain. One weekend, while all my friends were busy and I couldn’t come up with an excuse not to go fishing, my stepdad took me down to the Wilson River. We started at Mills Bridge and worked our way upriver, stopping at different pullouts all the way to the Prison Camp. The day of fishing was exactly like I expected – lots of cold rain and no fish. While I thought the day was a complete bust, I couldn’t help but notice how happy my stepdad was when we returned home. He seemed genuinely excited about the elk, eagles and spawning salmon we had seen. Even though we hadn’t caught any fish, he obviously thought the day was a success.”

“The following weekend, my stepdad took me fishing again. I really didn’t want to go back down to the nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 31

FISHING coast again just to end up wet and cold, but he talked me into it. We started in the exact same spot at Mills Bridge; I was standing right across from where the North Fork of the Wilson enters the river. I was casting a simple Corkyand-yarn combo with some pencil lead tucked into a piece of surgical tubing pinned to a three-way swivel. I had been casting in the exact same place for almost 20 minutes when I hooked into a fish. I don’t even remember the bite, but the fish took off, peeling line faster than I thought possible. Then the fish exploded out of the water.

Over and over again, the fish jumped and splashed on the surface. Once I landed the fish, I was shaking with adrenaline. As I stood looking down at this chrome fish, laying on top of lightgrey river rocks, its gills still flaring with bits of sand sticking to its white belly, I knew I was hooked. From then on, my stepdad couldn’t shake me from going fishing with him.”

WE FOREVER REMEMBER our very first steelhead, one that every other winteror summer-run will be compared too.

You most certainly will catch bigger, brighter and better- fighting fish, but that feeling of landing your first steelhead, all on your own, leaves a lasting impression. As your expertise grows with time spent on the water, you gradually move towards different techniques and ways of pursuing your quarry. Once you change techniques up, there is always a learning curve that hopefully leads to success and a similar feeling of satisfaction as when you caught your first steelhead.

Once Abel got his driver’s license, he was making the trip over Highway 6’s summit more frequently than his stepdad. He would start his mornings fishing on the same gravel bar where he caught his first steelhead, but soon he started noticing the wooden drift boats putting in and floating around the corner to waters unfishable by those stuck on the bank. Over the next couple

years, Abel yearned to fish stretches like that, ones he was sure held an abundance of bigger, harder-fighting fish. He finally talked a friend into going in on a new drift boat. They walked into Stevens Marine and met Gary Plautz, who is still working at the Tigard store today, and bought a brand-new 1980 Alumaweld. Since Abel and his friend had no idea how to row it, they talked Plautz into taking them down the Clackamas River. The following weekend the duo decided they were ready to tackle the Wilson, like they had seen countless other boats do.

“We launched at Mills Bridge, just behind the main fleet of boats, and as we came around the first corner, we encountered a boat anchored off to the side, drift fishing. I tried to row around the boat, but quickly got stuck in a back eddy. No matter how hard and what direction I rowed, it was always the wrong way and we spun in circles as I tried to get some control over the boat. I finally just dropped the anchor

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FISHING and told my friend that we were going to have to drag the boat back upriver and take out. My friend talked me into giving it another shot at getting downriver and I finally found my way out of that back eddy and started down the Wilson. All those little things that Gary taught us on our inaugural float down the Clackamas started making sense, and every weekend it started getting easier and easier.”

AS WE GROW in our fishing careers, our interactions with family, friends and fellow anglers puts us on the road to success. Even if given bad advice – found in abundance on the Internet nowadays – we can learn from this, as we now know what doesn’t work. But more often than not, we cross paths with someone who helps us improve.

Being open, receptive and appreciative to these mentors when they come along is the key to unlocking the knowledge and skills that these anglers

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may take for granted. Abel was lucky enough to be taught the basics from his stepdad, but even luckier when it came to encountering some talented guides early in his fishing career. With a couple of years of drift boat ownership under his belt, Abel met a legendary local guide.

“In the early ’80s almost everyone used to just anchor and drift fish out of their drift boats on the coastal rivers. I met Gary Hilton when he was guiding out of The Guide Shop on the Wilson River. I would go in and buy sand shrimp from him and bombard him with questions about fishing. One day, I asked him if he wanted to join me. Since he didn’t have a guided trip that day, Gary hopped onboard and then proceeded to educate me about plug fishing. Gary had a favorite plug, a U-20 FlatFish that was brown and orange in a crawfish pattern. He would fish that plug in places that I hadn’t looked twice at the previous two years. After every bend in the

At first, Pat hated going fishing with his stepdad.

Hanging out with friends beat the cold, rainy conditions of coastal rivers, but a hook-up with a winter steelhead began to change his mind. (PAT ABEL)

river Gary would show me how to read water and what to look for and where to expect to find fish. It was an amazing revelation, one that I still rely upon today to locate fish for clients.”

Equipment, tackle and techniques have changed in the 35 years since, but they have also stayed the same. Drift fishing a Corky and yarn or plugging with a crawdadpattern U-20 will still catch plenty

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FISHING of steelhead today. Fiberglass rods faded to a distant memory as supersensitive graphite rods became über popular, but they’re now seeing a resurgence as some of the traits that made glass rods so popular years ago are rediscovered. But many guides and anglers would agree: modern techniques are catching more fish than ever. Silky-smooth drags, super-sensitive rods, invisible fishing lines, angler-friendly drift boats, high-tech fabrics that keep you warm and dry, infinite amounts of information available instantly on your smartphone – they all play a role in high success rates for modern steelheaders.

Side-drifting and bobber and bead fishing have been all the rage the last few years, but what will the next hot technique be? Abel has seen lots of new trends pop up, only to fade and another surface. But it all comes back to the basics he was taught.

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“I’ll never forget my stepdad showing me where to cast – right on the seam where the faster, deeper water meets the slightly slower water of the pool it’s flowing into,” he recalls.

“Or where Gary Hilton showed me an almost undetectable slot that gave steelhead a spot to rest while moving through some faster shallow water.”

If Abel’s discovered anything in his fishing career, it is that he is never done learning.

“You have to keep an open mind and remember the small things. Pay attention to where you hooked that last fish. Is that a hidden slot that might be holding fish? Has the river changed since the last high water and the fish are holding in different locations?

I’m constantly asking myself these questions and hoping that I’ll find the answers with bent rods and splashing chrome,” he says.

And there’s still a lot of teaching to be done as well.

“A couple years ago I was floating

the Nestucca River for winter steelhead. I had noticed another drift boat following me at a distance and trying to fish the same waters that I had just fished. At the end of the drift, these anglers approached me and bombarded me with questions.

As I was halfway through answering some of their questions, they stopped me and just asked if they could book a trip. I told them they had all the right tools to be successful. They had a new drift boat, quality fishing gear and more tackle than me. But they insisted that they book a trip and learn how I was fishing. As I was explaining where to cast and why, I realized that I was repeating the same exact advice Gary Hilton had given me 30 years ago. I wondered right then and there, Who taught Gary the things he taught me? I can only hope that Gary’s knowledge will be carried on to the next generation of anglers.”

With gurus like Abel around, it is sure to. NS

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PHOTO CONTEST

WINNERS!

Tara Allenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pic of daughter McKenzie Dwyer with a Buoy 10 Chinook is this issueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monthly Daiwa Photo Contest winner. It wins Tara a Daiwa hat, T-shirt and scissors for cutting braided line, and puts her in the running for the grand prize of a Daiwa rod-and-reel combo!

Jeremy Race is our monthly Browning hunting photo contest winner, thanks to this pic of he and son Caleb and their Northeast Washington spring gobbler. It scores him a Browning hat!

Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

For your shot at winning Daiwa and Browning products, send your photos and pertinent (who, what, when, where) details to awalgamott@mediainc.com or Northwest Sportsman, PO Box 24365, Seattle, WA 98124-0365. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for our print or Internet publications. nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 39

40 4 0 NNor Northwest No oorrtth thw hweest hw essstt Sp SSportsman poort orrrttsm tssma sm maan m

JANUARY JA JAN JJANU AN ANU A N NU UA AR ARY RY R Y 2016 20 201 2 01 016 0 16 | nwsportsmanmag.com 16 nw nws n ws wsp por po port or ort orrttssm sma sman man maaan m nm mag. ma mag aag. ag g. g.ccom co o om m

MIXED BAG

Extra Eyes On Oregon Muleys This Winter

Mule deer like these in Central and Eastern Oregon are a little safer this season, thanks to a special emphasis on protecting the prized species on their wintering range. (NICK MYATT, ODFW)

P

oachers were given fair warning that extra sets of eyes were going to be on wintering mule deer in Central and Eastern Oregon.

That’s when the herds are at their most vulnerable to people out targeting bucks for their racks alone, or sniping pregnant does for dinner.

The state police’s Fish and Wildlife Division said Central Oregon would be of special emphasis to troopers. That’s where a study several years ago found that poachers were killing the same number of deer as legal hunters were.

According to the agency, officers out of La Pine, Bend, and Klamath Falls will be working the Fort Rock and Silver Lake areas,

with OSP aircraft making day and night flights watching for suspicious activity.

The latter area is where in December 2014, two men from Bonanza, Ore., and Ketchikan were arrested by troopers for allegedly illegally killing three large bucks during a closed season.

And thanks to donations, surveillance cameras were put up in key areas of winter range.

“These cameras are often placed on roads that are used to gain access to the deer and in areas where we have had poaching problems in the past,” said OSP’s Sgt. Randall Hand.

Oregon’s Turn In Poachers hotline is (800) 452-7888.

By Andy Walgamott

JACKASS OF THE MONTH In late fall, a pair of northeast Okanogan County men were found guilty of killing grouse hunter Michael Carrigan of Hoquiam in September 2013.

For that slaying, John Wayne Jennings, 59, and Adam Shaun Jennings, 29, were sentenced to serve nearly 34 years in prison each, according to

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Northwest Sportsman 41

MIXED BAG the Omak Chronicle.

The shooting occurred near the junction of Cow Camp Road and Pontiac Ridge Road on Labor Day. Carrigan and a friend, who were staying at their nearby cabin, were hunting that evening when Carrigan took two shots at a grouse in a tree. He then was shot in the back and died.

The Jennings, who lived nearby, were quickly determined to be persons of interest. Their shack was searched and two months later, they were arrested. Their trial began in mid-November and lasted a week.

“Thirty-four years is not justice for what they did,” said Roger Wilder of the Jennings. “Mike was a very dear friend and didn’t deserve what they did.”

An obituary that ran in The Daily World of Aberdeen recalled Carrigan as “an avid hunter and outdoorsman” who was also a member of the Grays Harbor Poggie Club, a venerable fishing organization.

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KUDOS

It’s not just beat cops wearing body cameras these days. One mounted on the chest of Idaho conservation officer John McLain showed how he helped out a whitetail deer – and in the process, he launched a viral video.

In August, McLain got a report of a buck tangled up in baling twine near Orofino. At the scene, he turned the camera on with the thought that it would either “be a video of me getting my butt kicked, or it might turn out alright.”

When the twine tangled around one of the buck’s hooves, it fell over and McLain got to work with his knife, quickly cutting it free.

It’s not the first critter he’s untangled, nor the only one that game wardens and biologists freed or saved this past fall, but it’s

definitely the most watched. The two-plusminute video he posted to his Facebook page Nov. 9 had been viewed over 18 million times, shared more than 302,000 times and had 168,000 likes as of early December.

A screen grab from what became a viral video made

by Idaho conservation officer John McClain shows him cutting baling twine away from the antlers and hooves of a whitetail buck near Orofino. (IDFG)

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By Andy Walgamott

17.24-pdr Wins Clearwater Snake Steelhead Derby

‹

It was another close finish in the Clearwater Snake Steelhead Derby. While winner Tony Giammona had nine-one hundredths of a pound of daylight between himself and Vince Froelich, only three-one hundredths separated Froelich and Brian Stachofsky for second and third places.

For their catches, the anglers from Spokane, Yakima and Lewiston won $1,500, $750 and $500, respectively.

Froelich had held the lead at the midpoint of the Nov. 21-28 Tony Giammona and Vince Froelich took first and second place at the Clearwater Snake derby on the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, but Thanksgiving Steelhead Derby with these 17.24- and 17.15-pounders, caught in the Idaho tributary of proved to be extra giving, as both Giammona and Stachofsky the Snake. (COURTESY LEWIS CLARK VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE) scored their big fish that day.

Overall, the Clearwater was the better producer, and that’s where the top two fish – 17.24 and 17.15 pounds – were caught.

As for the kids division, a familiar name was in contention. Last year’s winner, Ty Rasmussen of Pullman, came in second to Kaden Cleveland of Lenore, Idaho. Their fish went 10.86 and 10.24 pounds and won them $100 and $75 gift cards.

The 2014 event’s winning fish went 17.82 pounds, and the largest in recent years was 2012’s 20.07-pounder.

The derby, billed as the country’s largest for steelhead, is put on by the Lewis Clark Valley Chamber of Commerce with major sponsorship from Kendall Chevrolet.

‹

Mike McCauley was the winner of the inaugural edition of the Friday Harbor Salmon Classic, held out of the San Juan Island town early last month. His 18.06-pound blackmouth was nearly 5 pounds heavier than the second-place fish, and for it, he won a whopping $10,000. It was reported that the derby also raised $7,000 for a local salmon enhancement program. For more, see fridayharborsalmonclassic.com. (JIMMIE LAWSON)

‹

In the San Juan Islands’ other big December doin’s, Ryan Kies took home ten grand for his 19.60-pound blackmouth, caught during the Resurrection Salmon Derby. Organizers said a total of 48 fish were landed for 222 anglers in 73 boats. The derby also raises money for rearing salmon, as well as removing derelict fishing gear and awarding fisheries scholarships. For more information, see resurrectionderby.com. (RESURRECTION SALMON DERBY)

MORE RECENT RESULTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

Bayside Salmon Derby, Nov. 7, Marine Area 8 – 1st place: Dan Welty, 10.25-pound blackmouth; 2nd place: Daniel Crawley, 9.61-pound blackmouth Jacobsen’s Marine Grady White Invitational, Nov. 7, Area 9 – 1st place: Scott Clements, 10.7-pound chum 2015 Lake Pend Oreille Fall Fishing Derby, Nov. 21-25, 27-29 – 1st place: Mike Halford, 20.10-pound rainbow; Youth division winner: Trey McCorkle, 14.56 pounds 19th Annual Gene Fink Memorial Winter Chinook Derby, Dec. 5-6, Lake Coeur d’Alene – 1st place: Wayne Hall, 15.40 pounds; Youth division winner: Chloe Laybourne, 7.74 pounds

Jan. 16 NW Ice Fishing Festival, Sidley and Molson Lakes, Molson, Wash.

Jan. 21-23 Roche Harbor Salmon Classic, San Juan Islands; rocheharbor.com/events/derby.com Early February-mid-March Spring Steelhead Fishing Derby, Washington’s Grande Ronde River down to Highway 29; boggans.com Feb. 19-21 Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby, eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca; gardinersalmonderby.org Editor’s note: To have your derby listed or results posted here, email awalgamott@media-inc.com.

nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 45

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48 Northwest Sportsman

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OUTDOOR

CALENDAR Sponsored by

JANUARY New Oregon, Idaho fishing licenses required First of 10 brant goose hunt days in Pacific Co. (others: 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17) First of eight possible brant openers in Skagit Co. (others: 10, 13, 16-17, 20, 23-24; note: if aerial count is between 3,000-6,000 birds, hunting will only open Jan. 9, 13, 16) Deadline to file Washington big game report for incentive permit eligibility Blackmouth opens in Washington Marine Area 9 Last day for Washington partridge, quail, pheasant hunting Harney, Klamath, Lake and Malheur Zones late white and white-fronted goose opener; Last day for duck hunting in Oregon Zone 2 Last day to hunt ducks in Idaho Area 2 Deadline to file mandatory hunter reports in Washington, Oregon; Last day for upland bird hunting in Oregon, Idaho; Last day for duck hunting in Oregon Zone 1 and waterfowl hunting in all of Washington; Last day to fish for steelhead on Puget Sound rivers outside of terminal areas

1 2 9 10 16 18 24 29 31

NORTHWEST BOAT & SPORTSMEN’S SHOWS JANUARY Great Rockies Sport Show, Metrapark, Billings; greatrockiesshow.com Portland Boat Show, Expo Center, Portland; otshows.com Vancouver International Boat Show, BC Place, Granville Island; vancouverboatshow.ca Tri-Cities Sportsmen Show, TRAC Center, Pasco; shuylerproductions.com Washington Sportsmen’s Show, Puyallup Fair & Events Center; otshows.com Seattle Boat Show, CenturyLink Field Event Center and South Lake Union, Seattle; seattleboatshow.com

8-10 13-17 20-24 22-24 27-31 29-Feb.6

FEBRUARY KEZI Eugene Boat & Sportsmen’s Show, Lane County Fairgrounds, Eugene; exposureshows.com Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show, Expo Center, Portland; otshows.com Central Washington Sportsmen Show, SunDome, Yakima; shuylerproductions.com Servpro Douglas County Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Douglas County Fairgrounds, Roseburg, Ore.; exposureshows.com Great Rockies Sport Show, Lewis & Clark County Fairgrounds, Helena; greatrockiesshow.com KDRV Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Jackson County Expo, Medford; exposureshows.com Wenatchee Valley Sportsmen Show, Town Toyota Center, Wenatchee; shuylerproductions.com Saltwater Sportsmen’s Show, Oregon State Fairgrounds, Salem; saltwatersportsmensshow.com

5-7 10-14 19-21 19-21 26-28 26-28 26-28 27-28

MARCH 3-6 3-6 4-6 11-12 12-13 17-20 17-20

Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show, Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, Redmond; otshows.com Idaho Sportsmen’s Show, Expo Idaho, Boise; idahosportsmanshow.com BC Boat & Sportsmen’s Show, and BC Hunting Show, TRADEX, Abbotsford; masterpromotions.ca Northwest Fly Tyer and Fly Fishing Expo, Linn County Expo Center, Albany, Ore.; nwexpo.com Great Rockies Sport Show, Adams Center, Missoula, Mont.; greatrockiesshow.com Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show, Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, Spokane; bighornshow.com Puget Sound Boat Show, Tacoma Dome; otshows.com

APRIL 1-3

Great Rockies Sport Show, Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, Bozeman, Mont.; greatrockiesshow.com

TO BE DETERMINED Oregon Coast Sportsman’s Expo, Lincoln County, Ore.oregoncoastsportsmansexpo.com

RECORD NW GAME FISH CAUGHT IN 2015 Date 5-6 6-5 6-19 9-27

Species Tiger trout Green sunfish Tiger trout Opah

Pds. (-OZ.) 18.49 7.9 ounces 1-4.16 35.67

Water Bonaparte L. (WA) Dingle Pd. (ID) Wallace L. (ID) Westport (WA)

Angler Kelly Flaherty Bryan Christensen Douglas West Jim Watson nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

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COLUMN

Whens, Hows, Wheres To Land Big Steelhead T

he next few months could represent your best chance of the year for capturing that dream 20-plus-pound monster steelhead. To be successful, you not only need to fish during this time period; you will need to concentrate your efforts on the right rivers BUZZ RAMSEY and techniques.

Rivers which host strong native runs, or ones expecting returns of broodstock hatchery fish, offer the best chance for a trophy. In Oregon, you could do a lot worse than spending time on the Sandy, Big Nehalem (and Salmonberry), Trask, Nestucca, Siletz, Umpqua and Chetco.

Some good bets in Washington include the East Fork of the Lewis, Kalama, Cowlitz, Chehalis and rivers draining the Olympic Peninsula. In Idaho, it’s fish ultimately bound for the Clearwater River that are of the largest size, and many of these winter over in the Snake downstream from the Lewiston/Clarkston area where anglers forward-troll plugs in the slack-water reservoir.

The accepted theory is that steelhead, especially aggressive males, react savagely to the irritating vibration plugs produce when invading their space. Sure, both male and female steelhead hit plugs, but it is the males that show a definite plug preference.

They just can’t stand a vibrating intruder in their domain. Male steelhead are naturally more territorial and grow larger than females. Because of this fact, you should concentrate your efforts on what big steelhead like – plugs. Remember, they work best in medium to clear water conditions.

DRIFT FISH WHEN WATER IS HIGH The drift fishing technique will work on big fish too, and is the

One of the best ways to get large steelhead to bite is to piss ’em off with plugs, argues Buzz Ramsey. The invasive lure is particularly effective on big bucks.

(BOBTOMAN.COM)

TRY VIBRATING PLUGS While you might capture a big steelhead using whatever fishing method you choose, your strategy for catching a large one should include what techniques or methods to focus on. For example, three of the four steelhead over 20 pounds that I’ve landed were taken while back-trolling plugs. My brother once landed a 20-pounder from the lower Nehalem while, you guessed it, back-trolling a plug. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

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Northwest Sportsman 51

COLUMN technique of choice in higher, somewhat turbid water conditions.

Since you’re after big fish, try stepping up one line test over what you normally use. For sure, this is not the time to go ultralight. You don’t want to lose what may be the fish of a lifetime.

While the saying “big fish like big lures” is true, when drift fishing, keep in mind that water conditions play a key role in which size lures works best and when. Match your Corky or bait size, to the available water conditions, which means using a larger Spin-N-Glo, Li’l Corky, double Corky or other kind of drift bobber when water levels are high and turbid.

If you have a boat or access to one, keep in mind that sidedrifting will work for fish of all sizes and allow you to cover more water than other fishing methods.

WHY WILD STEELHEAD ARE BIGGER Wild and broodstock (first generation from wild) steelhead are more genetically diverse than many strains of hatchery fish that can be of the same cookie-cutter size and return over a fairly short time period. On the other hand, native steelhead are more genetically diverse, meaning they produce a higher percentage of fish that have spent three or more years foraging in the ocean, and they return over a longer time period. It’s also true that since steelhead don’t die after spawning, a large fish may be one that has survived more than one spawning run.

What’s interesting, according to biologists, is that large

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Of Ramsey’s four biggest steelhead, three have been caught on plugs, and this Deschutes fish landed by wife Maggie in 1984 came on one as well.

However, when waters are up, drift fishing is a good tactic. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

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Northwest Sportsman 53

COLUMN steelhead are most often produced from fish that have simply stayed in the ocean longer. You see, repeat spawners donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t gain much weight after going through the rigors associated with spawning. Steelhead, which have spent three or four consecutive years in the ocean, are what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for.

Native strains produce the largest steelhead because most hatchery procedures tend to cull out the odd, perhaps slowergrowing fish, which can represent the fishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genetic diversity that could produce a big one. For example, 75 to 80 percent of hatchery fish spend two years in the ocean and come back at an average of 7 to 10 pounds. With many strains of wild fish, 50 percent stay at sea for two years, 30 percent three years, and most of the rest spend one, four or five summers touring the Pacific. A few donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t migrate to sea, staying in streams instead, though they generally donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t grow very big.

Most Northwest rivers require the release of wild steelhead. If you capture a trophy and want a mount, be prepared to accurately document its size by taking a quick photo and weighing him (where removal from the water is allowed) or measure his length and girth with a tape measure or length of string. There are taxidermists who can reproduce your trophy from these dimensions.

Good luck in your quest for big steelhead this winter. NS

Most trophy steelhead are natives, but hatchery broodstock programs also produce large ďŹ sh. This 39½-inch-long, near-21-pounder bit last winter for Tim Fisher, who was ďŹ&#x201A;oat ďŹ shing an Oregon Coast river with his son Dan. (DAIWA PHOTO CONTEST)

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note: The author is a brand manager and part of the management team at Yakima Bait. Like Buzz on Facebook.

LLC

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Northwest Sportsman 55

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FISHING

Beads Here To Stay Te c h n i q u e e ff e c t i v e o n w i n t e r s t e e l h e a d

By Andy Schneider

N

ew techniques come and go every steelhead season, but some that seem trendy and become overpublicized on Internet forums stick around. Bobber and jig, side-drifting and pink worms were all considered “trendy” at one point, and had many anglers immediately discounting their effectiveness before even trying them. These days, any steelheader worth their Corkies knows that these techniques are proven ways to put steelhead on the bank or in the boat.

A couple seasons ago, there was talk about side-drifters who were bobber-dogging glass trout beads and having great success on Northwest waters. It didn’t take long for the forums to raise this newer technique to Caitlyn Jenner socialmedia status. Bobbers were cut in half, new products were introduced to specifically pin the beads and, of course, there were suddenly lots and lots of empty pegs in sporting goods stores where beads had been hanging for the previous decade without drawing much attention.

Something else also happened during the frenzy: fish were caught on glass trout beads! Everyone from weekend warriors to seasoned professionals was able to make a small investment in tackle and start catching steelhead.

MOST NEW TECHNIQUES are usually slight modifications of popular and successful methods utilized by many,

Andy Schneider is a confirmed side-drifting, back-trolling, anchor-fishing, plug-trolling winter steelheader – who has also added bobber and beads to his lineup because of the rig’s effectiveness.

(ANDY SCHNEIDER)

and bead fishing is a combination of bobber-dogging and side-drifting. If you have tackle for either technique, you are already ahead of the game.

Start with a long, light-action spinning rod that allows you to cast light tackle good distances; most side-drifting rods will work perfectly.

Spool your spinning reel up with at least 100 yards of 20-pound FireLine, and slide a bobber stop and bead onto your mainline just above a ½-ounce torpedo bobber. Below your bobber, tie your mainline onto a snap swivel.

Starting with a No. 1 or 2 thinwire hook, tie 4 feet of 10-pound nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 57

RIG MONTH

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NOTES At times techniques can become overly trendy and it seems everyone on the river is doing the same thing. While continuing to use tried-and-true methods is the safest way to ensure success on the water, don’t limit yourself. Bobber and bead fishing has proven to be extremely successful in varying water conditions. Utilize smaller 8- to 10mm beads during lower water conditions and larger 12- to 14mm beads for ideal to higher water conditions.

The bobber is there to provide buoyancy and resistance to keep your bead moving along the bottom at a natural pace, not to suspend your bead. The distance from your weight to the bobber stop should be adjusted to match the depth of the water. Not only is bobber and bead fishing easy, it’s very productive and should be one to add to your arsenal. –Andy Schneider

58 Northwest Sportsman

48 inches of 10-pound fluorocarbon leader

Size 10 snap swivel

½-ounce (five-bead) slinky

Size 1 octopus hook

(ANDY SCHNEIDER)

JANUARY 2016 | nwsportsmanmag.com

½-ounce bobber

12mm glass bead (pegged)

nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 59

FISHING fluorocarbon leader. Slide a 10- or 12mm bead down your leader and tie your leader to the snap swivel.

Attach a slinky weight or pencil lead to the snap swivel, making sure to use at least the same amount of weight (if not slightly more) than what the bobber is rated for. Now peg your bead 2½ to 3 inches above your hook, utilizing a rubber band, toothpick or a rubber bead peg.

Beads now come in countless sizes and colors, but for most Northwest waters, 10- or 12mm is going to be the most effective size when fishing optimal water conditions. When flows get low, downsizing to 8- or 10mm will be most effective. When river conditions become turbid and high, utilizing a larger 14mm bead will offer the best visibility and effectiveness.

Roe- and peach-colored beads seem to be the most productive and

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popular, but when fishing multiple rods with beads, varying your color spectrum may uncover a more productive color for the day.

AMONG THE ADVANTAGES of bobber and bead fishing is its effectiveness through different water conditions and different holding water. When side-drifting, it’s important to keep your lines even or slightly behind the boat. But when bobber and bead fishing, you can still be effectively angling when your bobber is far below the boat or dragging behind you. The idea of fishing the bead under the bobber is not to suspend the bead, but to allow it to bounce along the bottom at a natural pace.

The bobber will serve as a strike indicator, but more importantly the bobber is adding buoyancy and resistance to allow the neutrally buoyant bead to bounce along the bottom properly.

Bobber and bead can be fished just about any place that you would either side-drift or bobber-dog. But it can also be fished in runs that are too narrow, shallow or slow for either technique. Since the bead is neutrally buoyant, its tendency to get hung up isn’t as prevalent, making it the perfect technique to fish difficult waters.

Another benefit of the rig is that by keeping your terminal tackle as simple as possible, retying after breakoffs is much easier. And with fewer components in play, there are fewer chances of gear failure and lost fish

NO DOUBT, BEFORE too long, another new technique will light up the Internet and bobber and bead will be yesterday’s news. But instead of letting your trout beads gather dust next to your Ronco Pocket Fisherman and Banjo Minnow, keep them nearby because this technique is one to add to the arsenal. NS

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62 Northwest Sportsman

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Brought To You By:

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COLUMN

Horn In On Cali.

Steelhead Fishery A

s the fall salmon run comes to an end that there are reports of hatchery steelhead being caught, but for on the upper Klamath River, steelhead some reason there are none returning to the hatchery. Moreover, show up in big numbers, says full-time Keith said that Bogus Creek, a tributary near the hatchery has big local fishing guide Scott Caldwell. He says that numbers of native steelhead that are entering the Klamath River. anglers can catch steelhead and trout all year, This data was obtained from counting steelhead in the fish traps but the bigger fish show up between fall and located on Bogus Creek.

SOUTH COAST winter on the Klamath. These steelhead/trout

By Randy Wells range in sizes of 1 to 12 pounds.

ALL TRADITIONAL METHODS for catching steelhead work on this The operator of SC Guide Service, Scott targets these abundant river, but some will outperform others, so go prepared and be fish on the river near the Iron Gate Hatchery down to the Scott versatile.

River west of I-5. The hatchery is in Hornbrook, Calif., which is “Anglers can expect to hook-up with plenty of steelhead about 35 miles south of Medford, and about 8 miles east of the throughout January and February on the upper Klamath River,” interstate. During the winter the middle or lower Klamath may says Caldwell. “There are so many steelhead on this section of the blow out, but the upper river is almost always fishable below the Klamath, you can truly have a ton of success with many techniques Iron Gate Dam. in the same day.”

The Klamath, especially the upper section, is a top destination The five main techniques he uses are fly fishing, pulling plugs, for fly and gear anglers in search of big numbers of hook-ups casting plugs, diver with bait, and bobber fishing with jigs, pink and low numbers of boats during winter steelhead season. In worms, eggs or soft beads.

November, Caldwell was reporting huge numbers of steelhead If you’re looking to use your fly rod, try indicator fishing with – and that was just nymphs, big bugs or Soft the beginning of the Beads from BnR Tackle season. For example, on and you will certainly Nov. 15th he landed 44 hook up.

Caldwell steelhead/trout, 43 of recommends either a which were native and Copper John, Golden one was a hatchery fish. or Coffman Stone, and I asked Keith Pimeroy, the Prince Nymph. In an employee of the addition, toss flesh Iron Gate Hatchery, patterns and Soft Beads about what appeared after the salmon spawn. to be a lack of hatchery A Lamiglas 10½-foot steelhead on the Klamath 5/6-weight fly rod is River. His response perfect for these fish. was that the goal is to When back-trolling release 200,000 clipped plugs, try lures like steelhead into the river Not far south of the Oregon border and less than an hour from Medford lies the upper the Mag Lip 3.0, and each year from returning Klamath, a dam-protected river that features good winter fishing for steelhead and trout. crawdad-style plugs with hatchery fish. He then (OREGONFISHINGADVENTURE.COM) the Pro-Cure Crawfish stated that there has Gel added. Use a light been no hatchery steelhead return since 2012. Keith was unable mainline and a 6- to 8-pound-test leader. Back this up with a light to give a reason for the decline in hatchery steelhead; he also said plug rod and get ready for heavy action.

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COLUMN “These steelhead are aggressive, and casting plugs into areas where back-trolling won’t work creates hard hits and jumping fish,” says Caldwell.

Because of the moss on the river bottom, side-drifting is tough, so instead, try using a diver with bait. Caldwell uses a No. 10 Jet Diver followed by a threaded nightcrawler and a single Pro-Cure Bad Azz egg. He says they’re cured so well that they won’t fall off, even under heavy current. Another killer behind the diver is the Holey Worm from BnR Tackle. Available in many sizes and colors, the fact that they are hollow makes them easy to change without destroying the worm. When bobber fishing, try the Nightmare Jig from Yakima Bait – it’s deadly. While gear fishing, you want a light rod due to the average size of these fish. The Lamiglas Infinity 6-10-pound spinning and 6-10-pound plug rods will be a blast.

Always consult the regulations before fishing. California requires a steelhead punch card, and the card must be filled out with the month and date before angling. Anglers can only use barbless hooks, and there is no native steelhead retention on the Klamath.

IF YOU HIT the river on your own, there are many boat ramps and areas with access. However, for ease of shuttling with minimal technical water, Caldwell recommends floating from the Iron Gate Hatchery to the Fish-Hook Restaurant for a half day, or to the Klamathon Bridge for a full day. This section of river is located just

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Fly fishing, back-trolling or casting plugs, float fishing and running a diver and bait – whether a real nightcrawler or plastic one – all work well for Klamath steelies. (OREGONFISHINGADVENTURE.COM) a half hour south of Ashland. From I-5, take the Henley-Hornbrook exit and head east past the Chevron on Copco Road until you see the hatchery on your right. The boat launch is just before the bridge over the river to the hatchery. The water on these floats is not too technical; however, fishing with a guy like Caldwell is a good deal and recommended for your first few trips down the river. Contact him at (530) 905-0758. NS Editor’s note: Author Randy Wells is a full-time fishing guide on the Chetco River in Oregon and in Seward, Alaska. His website is oregonfishingadventure.com.

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FISHING Grant Rilette, here holding a nice wild Oregon Coast winter-run, guides for salmon and steelhead. (GRANTRILETTEFISHING.COM)

The Rules & Rituals Of Grant Rilette

On ‘God water,’ why steelhead won’t be known as the ‘fish of a thousand casts,’ more.

By Jeff Holmes

T

rips to the Oregon Coast are a ritual for families all over the Northwest and far beyond, but

in the winter the crowds diminish and locals have the towns, beaches and rocky headlands mostly to themselves. Meanwhile, rooms at off-season rates sit empty, beaches

stretch uncombed, and the coast’s best restaurants remain open. The sun and the rain play hide and seek with each other all winter, and though the rain and clouds often nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 69

FISHING prevail, beautiful weather windows and changing weather patterns create another draw. Every front brings stormwatching opportunities and fresh shots of winter steelhead.

Excellent rivers exist within a short drive of pretty much all Oregon coastal towns.

In particular, the popular and beloved stretch from Tillamook Bay to Depoe Bay puts visiting anglers and their vacation-seeking families close to some of the very best the coast has to offer. I’ve learned over the past several years that doubling up coastal vacations with a day or two of winter steelheading is one of the season’s best Northwest combos.

I’ve done these hybrid fishing trips on self-support many times, but scarcely is there a better time to hire a great guide than during winter steelhead season when you’re trying to show a spouse, significant other or kids a relaxing coastal vacation.

Lots of great guides operate from the Nehalem to the Siletz, but I can’t think of anybody I’d rather spend a day in a boat with than Grant Rilette. The bead-fishing guru with his artisanal homemade drift boat is a unicorn among wellknown guides: I’ve never heard a bad word uttered about him. In a fishing industry full of gossip and drama, Rilette rows his boat or runs his sled under the radar, showing supreme respect for others on the river, bankies and boats alike. I interviewed him recently on a wild three-hour float during the season’s first winter weather pattern and the first window of steelhead-green “God water.” We fished for winter Chinook, but we talked mostly about steelhead. Rilette is among the most dedicated and passionate coastal steelheaders I’ve met, and his talent is off the charts. Here he shares some insights on the upcoming season and the many beauties of winter steelhead fishing.

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With her lure-colored fingernails, it’s no wonder this nice Oregon Coast fall Chinook bit for Nicole Garrett! (GRANTRILETTEFISHING.COM)

A GAL’S TAKE ON COASTAL WINTER FUN There are few warm days on the Oregon Coast once late fall shifts to winter and winter gives way to more winter. It gets dark too early and the rains come – often. So, what is there to do for any woman who truly loves to fish and is tough enough to endure a little weather to see the beauty of the coast in winter? Aim to catch your sunsets around 4:30, get to bed early and start fishing!

I moved to Oregon 14 years ago from North Idaho, so I’m pretty aware and accepting of winter temperatures and activities. I think some people, however, could use a reminder of how fun – even bountiful – coastal winter recreation can be at times.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jeff Holmes reminded me of this very thing. I’d been crazy-busy with work and life, but he helped me find the “reset” button, and invited me to go drift boat fishing with Grant Rilette. Even as the forecast got worse leading up to our trip, I was excited by this promised day of bad-assery. Jeff and I pulled up to the meeting place, jumped out of the truck moving faster than a pit crew, and got suited up in our Grundens. Leaving Jeff’s truck at the take-out, we jumped in with Grant. His Suburban’s wipers were maxed out, pushing away gushers of rain every pass across the windshield.

As we arrived at the launch a few miles upstream on the small Tillamook Bay river, Grant moved like a bread truck and hauled buns. Before we knew it, we were in the Rolls Royce of homemade drift boats. The water was colored from jungle green to bruised indigo and its spinning eddies were nature’s cowlicks. Old-growth trees draped in moss lined the banks and looked like a Dr. Seuss story, a truffula tree. Every direction I looked I felt as if I was in a postcard: green hillsides bisected by a sinuous ribbon of rising water.

When we hit the hole that Grant’s Spidey senses alerted him to, we cast our gourmet huevos overboard and I got an earful from Jeff and Grant about how much they love

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Northwest Sportsman 71

FISHING Depoe Bay is easily within the grasp and budget of anglers across the Northwest.

Jeff Holmes: How are you feeling about the winter steelhead season to come, and generally how are you feeling about the state of steelheading on your slice of the north Oregon Coast between Tillamook and Depoe Bay? Grant Rilette: I have high hopes for 2015-16 winter steelhead, especially the 2016 part of it. We had good numbers of hatchery fish showing up as early as late November this year, and chrome winter Chinook entering the rivers well into December, along with a few very nice, very early wild steelhead. Despite the excellent Chinook fishing, anglers seemed more excited that steelhead showed up in decent numbers for this time of year.

Traditionally, before the development of today’s hatchery broodstock programs and the emphasis on protecting excellent numbers of wild fish in many of our rivers, Thanksgiving was the kickoff of steelhead season. That was back when the bulk of the run was comprised of drop-kick, inbred hatchery fish that were bred to return early, as not to interfere with the later arriving wild fish.

Honestly, that was before my time, but from the old guys who feed it to me straight, the rivers were more crowded than they are now.

Everybody anchored up at the hatchery acclimation points, and everybody caught a bunch of fish.

No, thanks!

Today, these are the good old days – now! January, February and March should all offer excellent fishing this winter on the rivers I fish from Tillamook Bay south to the Siletz. Our broodstock fish and our healthy wild runs spread opportunities and effort across our rivers, and the quality of fish 72 Northwest Sportsman

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Nate’s Baits and about what Jeff could reveal in print about Grant’s secret bait mojo.

While they were blabbing, a Chinook bit, and we soon bonked a stray 9-pound hatchery chrome Chinook.

As we lowered our eggs in the next hole and the storm built – Grant would bail three times during the float – I hooked into a fish of a lifetime, one the guys later called at well over 30 pounds. It fought hard close to the boat, jumped almost totally free of the water, and then ran 100 yards on a tightened reel drag at a 45-degree angle cross-river toward the only downed tree around. Grant gave chase, and his knot held as I held fast to the spooled reel and rod, but the fish broke itself free once in the tree. The scene in the boat was shock, followed by looking at the bright side.

Grant and Jeff both said they’d trade 100 9-pounders for one shot at a fish like that; I’ll never forget it.

I’m beyond grateful for having my day-o-fun, as well as the two days before our float spent hiking, drinking, stormwatching, gourmet dining and enjoying the beaches and dunes. Like I said, with the appropriate warm, waterproof attire and an adventurous attitude, women can discover for themselves that coastal winter steelheading is amazing. Since much of the best fishing is close to a famous coastline, it makes sense to take some time to soak up the sea. Be it taking a short scenic drive over the Coast Range from Portland or planning a little road trip from anywhere in the Northwest, you are absolutely cheating yourself if you don’t treat yourself to two of the Oregon Coast’s biggest treasures: winter steelhead and the peace and quiet of the off-season for tourists! I swear on my eyebrows, ladies, that you won’t regret a day in a drift boat and a couple of nights and days by the seaside relaxing this winter! –Nicole Garrett

is incredible.

JH Beyond the obvious details like their fight and beauty, what gets you most excited about steelhead?

Why are they so special to you?

GR What is it about steelhead fishing? I really don’t know; I end up burnt out salmon fishing day in and day out for many months on a row. Yes, Chinook and chums pull harder, coho jump more often, but maybe it’s the combination of hard tugging and aerial acrobatics from a steelhead’s fight that gets me excited. Chinook are the linemen, but steelhead are the skill players, the born athletes.

The fact that there is no genetic difference between a steelhead and a rainbow trout is also remarkable in and of itself. They interbreed, and they are genetically the same fish. What is it that draws a rainbow out to the big show? That’s part of the allure of steelheading for me. A trout that had to see what’s out there journeys out to sea and disappears.

The fish checks stuff out, follows food around, avoids predators and

finally returns to his hometown the same, but completely different, drawn by a need to reproduce. They return stronger, more powerful, and better adapted to survive and wreak havoc on drags. Any fish that can deal with the pain from going from a salt environment to a freshwater one and back again is remarkable; repeat spawners are the real deal. So, to me and to so many Oregon anglers, steelhead are a really badass fish.

JH You’re a very successful and wellknown bead fisherman, but you use many tactics, I know. When we fished last you talked about how you liked the diversity of steelhead fishing over salmon. What did you mean?

GR What the advent of sidedrifting taught a lot of people is that steelhead will hold in every imaginable type of water. Prior, the main tactics were pulling plugs and drift fishing, both in typical softish, walking-speed water. Side-drifting innovators found they could get a better presentation with lighter lead

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Northwest Sportsman 73

by moving the boat with the gear.

Why not fish it through everything?

Sh*t, they’re everywhere, we were missing fish! That’s part of the fun of steelhead. Chinook like deep, slow water in the river. Chum and silvers like back eddies and structure.

Steelhead can adapt to all of it.

Figuring out where they are and patterning them is part of the great joy I get from winter steelhead. The fact that it’s presentation-oriented is a huge draw for me. Chinook seem to be chemical feeders first and foremost. The right meat put in their face typically wins. For steelhead, it’s more how you show it to them than what you show them.

You can catch them with anything – a piece of yarn, a cigarette butt, spinner, spoon, jig, bead, bait, plug, fly, it’s endless. Show it to them right, and they’ll bite it. Steelhead are pretty easy, and “the fish of a thousand casts” will be a term the next generation has never heard.

People are getting so good at catching them, and information is readily available. Tactics are really getting refined, and technology is making gear so good that it provides an advantage as well. Light and fast rods – G.Loomis and Shimano, in my case – braided no-stretch PowerPro line, and invisible P-Line fluorocarbon leaders are deadly.

The beauty and adventure of the whole experience is what it’s about for me. My clients expect to catch fish – rightfully so; I’m expensive – but for me, personally, my number one question I ask myself before I go fishing for myself is, Where will I have the most fun? Catching the most fish doesn’t really have much sway when it’s my choice. Where is the most beautiful and hardest-toget-to place with the least amount of people? That’s where I want to go. And typically those places have the opportunity to catch big wild steelhead. For me and for lots of my clients, that’s what it’s all about.

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together, we’ve both shared an appreciation for the simple images and daily occurrences of winter steelheading as being equally important and beautiful to the act of catching fish. From a sensory perspective, please explain what you meant on our last float when you talked about the water turning to “winter water,” and talk about your appreciation of “ritual” in a day of winter steelheading.

GR In the fall when we receive the first rains, the water gets that tannin-tea color. Sometimes it’s greenish, but never is it the emeraldjuicy God water. I don’t know the science, but it’s a freaking miracle the color our rivers get in the winter. On that afternoon fishing with Nicole and you, the huge flush of water that had just come through left us a several-hour window of God water, the first of 2015-16.

When it comes to ritual, I couldn’t agree more about deriving joy from the littlest details of fishing in the winter, especially fishing in the snow! Dressing right, that’s what takes me the longest in my morning ritual before heading out.

If you dress right, you’re golden: a synthetic silk layer, thin synthetics, wool socks, another midweight base layer, another pair of socks.

Everything’s breathable and flexible. Then I add another layer of a Simms Gore-Tex aesthetically moveable jacket and, of course, my Simms waders, and a stocking cap.

By the time I’m dressed, I’m moving into sunglasses, smiles, coffee and more coffee.

Mornings involve launching down cliffs in the dark, hearing the drift boat lowered onto the next boulder you know by heart as you let the rope slide smoothly through your leather-gloved hands, seeing your breath, climbing down the icy embankment slowly, each step tested. My next step is climbing in the boat and setting up office.

Everything has a place, and nothing extra is allowed; everything has a

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FISHING use. The dance floor up front where my clients sit is cleared. There are never extra rods in the front – ever – just seats and fishermen. I hand them the tools they will need. I use the usual morning talking points with clients. It’s hard to stay organic and fresh every morning with the same instructions and questions, but I try, and every trip is new and unique.

Most clients are returners, especially if we’re way up in a canyon away from the crowds and the meat fisheries. We have stories to share and lives to catch up on.

They know we will catch fish, or we won’t. They know I know every spot where every bite with them took place. I can’t remember how old I am, but I know what the river looked like five years ago when you hooked three a little higher in the slot than they usually lay at that river height. I remember

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LODGING, DINING RECOMMENDATIONS Here are some suggestions to smooth the way if you’re new to the Oregon Coast or to doubling up a family vacation with a steelhead trip.

Tillamook and Pacific City are both cool towns with some very good lodging and decent eats. If on the night before your fishing trip your destination stream is close to either of these two small coastal towns, perhaps stay there for a night to facilitate an easy meet-up in the morning with your guide if you hire one.

But for family or romantic trips and a diversity of entertainment options, definitely focus on nearby Lincoln City or Depoe Bay just to the south. Along with abundant lodging, restaurants and other businesses, the closely spaced communities feature a range of different coastal environments: sandy beaches, estuaries, and rocky headlands with tidepools. Unlike many Washington beaches, vehicles are not allowed, creating a different and more subdued experience.

There are lots of reviews available for dining options, from fish-and-chips to fine dining in the area, and I had a top-five lifetime breakfast and the finest dinner I’ve ever had last time I visited Lincoln City. The Bay House (thebayhouse.org) is one of two four-star restaurants in the entire state of Oregon. The six-course meal I ate there for a special occasion in October was made extra cool by the staff, including a diehard angler who showed me pictures of a 43-pound Chinook he took from the Siletz earlier that week. The Wildflower Grill (541-994-9663) makes an ornate

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FISHING The Oregon Coast has more to explore than steelhead streams and scenic lighthouses.

(GRANTRILETTEFISHING.COM)

breakfast from scratch. I can’t for sure say it’s the best I’ve ever had, but I can’t say I’ve ever had a more perfect assortment of breakfast foods, including some of the best bacon, potatoes, biscuits and

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gravy, and mimosas I’ve ever had. My favorite place to stay in the area is Trollers Lodge (trollerslodge.com) in Depoe Bay, a very cool and clean property on Highway 101 overlooking the bay. –JH

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FISHING when we chased that 42-pound buck downriver a half mile as the river was rising and getting muddy.

We were the only boat on the river from top to bottom and we had just decided it was getting dangerous.

Winds were getting to the point the weak branches were coming down.

Rain was filling the boat so fast that each time I bailed, I’d count 50 gallon scoops and still was standing in water … As we shove off from a bail session, I tell a guy in front to shoot for just under that willow when I get by it 10 feet off the bank.

Then I tell the other guy to cast 20 feet upriver of him and 10 feet inside. He nails it, and we’re a team covering the water. They trust me, and as we float 5 more feet, there’s always one there.

Then the pressure’s off, and everybody’s warm and high-fiving with better focus. The rest of the

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day unfolds as a beautiful series of interconnected images: More coffee, cold clean air in nostrils … more fish … the sun finally pokes out here and there, but in the deep coastal canyon, it’s never for long. There are standing waves and tight lines and conversations with bankies about the weather and “how many fish we got.” Guests usually stay quiet and defer to me as a courtesy. “Found a couple” is what I always say, and it doesn’t matter if we’ve landed 20. We float by other boats, catch more fish, and see creeks feeding in and fish on the move. Ten miles of river covered, a new snag discovered with somebody’s braid fouled in it – remember that for tomorrow. Every day there’s usually a period of frustration, sometimes 10 seconds, sometimes a half hour. I focus on being positive and tell myself I

don’t need nicotine and to breathe.

We usually end the day on fish, and some days on some rivers, we clean some fish. I keep the boat organized and accept handshakes and a little extra money. Then I drive home hungry, unload the boat, squirt some Lemon Joy around, especially on the anchor rope. I rarely use bait for steelhead, so the boat doesn’t need much of a cleaning. Feels good to get the waders off and take a hot shower with a cold beer on the bathroom counter. My back is tight and hands are shot. Food. Woman.

Dogs. Maintenance. Gear. Emails and voicemails. Set up tomorrow’s meet time. Tie leaders and watch TV, and get to bed by 9, if lucky. At 4:30 a.m., let’s do it again – rinse and repeat for the next straight 14 days of being booked. Still, sometimes I can’t sleep, can’t wait for the next day and the next adventure.

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FISHING JH For folks thinking about a steelhead trip or doubling up and bringing the family for a coast trip that also involves steelhead, what are the river options in your area, moving down coast from the Tillamook area to the Depoe Bay area?

GR Starting from the north, just north of Tillamook, is the North Fork Nehalem, which has a large early hatchery return and is a popular spot among bankies through January. It’s a go-to early hatchery spot. The mainstem Nehalem hasn’t been stocked in many years now. It’s now just good water for a tug or two and the chance for a big wild fish. Moving down to Tillamook Bay tribs, the Miami and Kilchis Rivers are both now unstocked due to the Coastal Conservation Plan that took effect last year. That’s fine by me. They’re small drainages with brief windows to fish green water after a rain event, and both have decent wild runs.

Out of all the bay’s rivers, the Wilson serves as the scapegoat for getting sold out to the masses via articles, videos and people. The river follows Highway 6 on the way into Tillamook. I lived on it for many years, breathed it, and have walked literally from the headwaters to the bay. I float it on an inner tube and snorkel (like all my rivers) every year. Despite lots of people, the fishing

Perfect steelhead-green “God Water” flows past Rilette and his artisanal homemade drift boat. (JEFF HOLMES)

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is still great, and there are lots of broodstock fish and big wild fish returning all winter. The broodstock fish show up in January and show in very good numbers by February.

The nearby Trask is unstocked, but the Wilson’s hatchery fish are raised on the hatchery on the Trask, and a very few imprint and return here.

Mostly it’s just a good wild-fish river for careful catch and release, but it has become pretty crowded of late.

The Nestucca is my home river, and, God, it’s no secret now. Many days it’s more crowded than the Wilson. It has more launch options and a similar management program to the Wilson, but it features much different water. The higher you go, the more technical the water becomes and you encounter fewer people and fish.

RILETTE ALSO FISHES the Siletz, another excellent stream to the south that enters the Pacific between Lincoln City and Depoe Bay. January through March are its best months for broodstock steelhead. During peak season, drift boat fishing can be very productive, but many sections can be busy during favorable flow conditions.

Popular techniques include sidedrifting, pulling plugs or drifting a bobber and jig. New for this winter, there’s a boat slide at Ojalla Bridge that replaces the old steep, muddy put-in. Bank fishing can also be very good in the upper Siletz around Moonshine Park. Effective bank fishing techniques are flow dependent, but include swinging spinners and spoons across riffles, drifting a bobber and bait or jig, plunking, and bouncing a Corky or bead along the bottom.

Many more winter steelhead river options exist along the coast, but Rilette’s range from the Nehalem to the Siletz coincides with my favorite places to visit and some of the Oregon Coast’s most popular and accessible beaches. NS

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What’s So Special About Winter Steelhead Anyway?

F WIESTSIDER

By Terry Wiest

or many of us, winter steelhead season is what we wait for from the time the previous run ends. It’s an addiction that somehow can’t always be explained.

Or can it? With another season upon us, I decided to ask a few of my fishing buddies what makes winter steelheading so dang attractive and addicting. I think you may have heard of some of these guys and gals.

Buzz Ramsey World-famous fisherman, Yakima Bait Co. staffer facebook.com/buzz.ramsey What’s special about winter steelheading: Given the ever-changing water and weather conditions, winter steelhead are regarded as the most difficult fish to catch. This challenge, combined with the fish’s fighting ability, large size and sheer beauty when united with the mostly overlooked winter scenery our many rivers provide is a combination, once experienced, that is hard to not think about and want to do again when season arrives. Yes, I know, it can be freezing cold, windy, raining cats and dogs, but if you dress for the occasion, it’s mostly bearable, and warming up after the adventure can be a memorable part of the experience.

Buzz Ramsey Favorite river: Although there are many, my favorite winter steelhead river is the Trask in Oregon. Since we have a cabin near Tillamook, this, along with the Wilson and Nestucca, is where I chase winter steelhead the majority of the time.

Winter steelheaders work some of the most productive waters in the Northwest, the Cowlitz at Blue Creek. (JASON BROOKS)

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Favorite technique: When it comes to fishing techniques, I like to prepare for and try the ones most likely to produce, based on whether I’m fishing from a boat or bank, combined with the anticipated water conditions. That is why I take along more than a few fishing rod and reel combinations. After all, if there are decent numbers of fish around, they will quickly tell you which method, lure, bait and color they prefer.

Special memory: There was a January day back in the late 1960s when the wind was howling and it was pouring down rain.

I stuck it out and ended the day going one for seven. What made the experience memorable was that while that one fish was the smallest of the group, measuring 39 inches, it was the largest I’d landed thus far in my many years of chasing these admirable fish.

Kiley Brehm Northwest sales rep for G.Loomis, Shimano, PowerPro What’s special about winter steelheading: The awesome thing about winter steelheading is the chance that every fish you hook may be that trophy steelhead. Sure, that opportunity exists with summer-runs, but fishing select rivers in the first part of the year you have a legit chance of hooking a 20-pound steelhead. Add in the opportunity to do it on a crisp, clear, cold winter day, or throwing a steelhead up on a snowy bank, and it’s hard to beat.

Favorite river: The Skykomish – I grew up fishing it and many of my memories of learning to fish for steelhead came from there.

My first steelhead I hooked, my first limit, and many memories of getting dropped off so I could fish before I could drive were spent there. I can only hope that the same opportunities I experienced will continue for future generations.

Favorite technique: Drift fishing. It allows you to fish almost any type of water with a multitude of baits. Everything from Corky and yarn to straight bait in low, clear water, to rags and Spin-N-Glos in high water, to pink worms, yarnies … You can fish chunks of prawn, eggs, sand shrimp, etc. Certainly there are types of water more conducive to drift fishing than others, but something about feeling a winter steelhead bite your set-up, whether it be a Corky and yarn or eggs, is frickin’ awesome!

Todd Girtz Professional fishing guide Toddsextremefishing.com What’s special about winter steelheading: When I was a kid first trying to catch steelhead, the learning curve was super steep.

Even with all the tools and information on the web today, it’s still not easy. Winter steelhead fishing is tough – there’s brutal weather, constantly changing or blown-out water conditions, freezing rod eyes and line, tough road conditions, needing to hit the run timing just right for best results. All that said, the hardest part is there just are not that many steelhead out there. Making matters even worse, steelhead do not roll or show themselves very often, and they are very difficult to spot, which complicates things even more.

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Todd Girtz

As a beginner out fishing it’s hard to know if you are doing everything right. Am I using the right gear or bait? Is it rigged properly? Am I casting and mending the line correctly? Am I casting in the right spot? Is it even the right time of the year for this area? Even once they bite there are no guarantees. Will I get a proper hook set, or miss the strike altogether? Will the fish spit the hook as it rushes back at me, or will it break the line as it jumps? Will it slice the line as it rips down some nasty rapids or dives in to huge root wad?

All these challenges are what make it so special when I hook and eventually land one of these elusive fighters.

Favorite technique: My two most productive methods are free drifting a sand shrimp tail and a Cheater with a very light lead or fishing jig and bobber, but deep down nothing beats fishing the small streams. Watching the bobber traveling perfectly downriver and disappear, as I crack down and set the hook and see the first flash under the water as the fight begins.

Scott Haugen, World-famous angler, hunter, author scotthaugen.com What’s special about winter steelheading: Crisp, cold air, beautiful scenery, gorgeous fish – and how it’s so different across Washington and Oregon, not to mention the challenge of catching them and the multiple ways they can be fished now days. It’s far different than when I caught my first winter steelhead in the late 1960s.

Favorite river: Oregon’s Umpqua River, and in Washington, the rivers around Forks.

Favorite technique: Whatever catches fish that day. Plugging, drifting, jig, side-drifting, bobber-dogging – it’s all fun. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s better to be good at several approaches than master just one. I’ve seen lots of anglers not catching fish or going by fish using only one method. In today’s age of specialized gear, becoming a well-rounded, proficient

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steelheader is very doable.

Special memory: First solo limit I caught in 1970, at the age of 6. Dad and I launched the boat, then he shuttled the rig to the takeout a few miles downstream on Oregonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alsea River. When he got back to the launch about 20 minutes later, I had my two fish on the bank, caught drifting a bare Okie Drifter. Temperatures were in the teens. It was great!

Ashley Lewis Professional fishing guide (360) 915-3667 Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s special about winter steelheading: Winter steelhead is special because of the time of the year it arrives. For me, the holidays are best spent making memories with loved ones and reeling in a feisty steelhead.

Favorite river: The Quinault.

Favorite technique: Jig under a bobber.

Special memory: Last season, I was finishing college and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have much time to fish. I usually had one day of the week I could commit to something other than school or work. One tiring week of finals ended with a trip to Cook Creek. With snow falling around me and a fresh pile of steelhead in front of me, I caught two that held up to their fighting reputation. I dropped the fish off to my mother, and was warmed up at home in time for kick-off!

Ashley Lewis

Michael Perusse Western sales manager for G.Loomis, Shimano, PowerPro Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s special about winter steelheading: Winter steelheading is special because its typically kicks off during the holiday season.

Fishing from Thanksgiving to Christmas and planning those days with your friends and family, coordinating what days you

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can skip work before your sick days run out is something cool.

Favorite river/technique: Satsop and Wynoochee – jig fishing, fewer people “when other rivers are closed,” small tricked-out jet sleds that let you fish trick spots. And the Salmon River; you must fish with a native guide. Typically, those have more fish.

Gabe Miller Fishing and marine products buyer for Farwest Sports (Sportco and Outdoor Emporium) What’s special about winter steelheading: For me, a lot of it is about the friendships I have formed with other guys on the river. None of those friendships would have developed if we had not spent countless hours standing next to each other on the river bank over the past 20 years.

Favorite river: For hatchery fish, the Snohomish system – the Snoqualmie and Skykomish. For wild fish, the Sol Duc. Favorite technique: Tough call – I like whatever technique will work best in the water and conditions I’m fishing that particular trip. It’s pretty hard to beat a nightmare jig or a pink worm under a float. If the water is moving too fast to present a jig properly, a 2 /5-ounce copper Little Cleo would be my next choice.

Special memory: I think part of the allure of steelhead fishing is how hard and easy they can be to catch – all at the same time.

Here is an example: The winter of 2013-14 I really struggled to

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put Puget Sound hatchery fish on my card. As a matter of fact, I think I only landed two hatchery fish on 20-plus trips that season.

Last year on my first outing, less than 10 minutes after I started I caught a dandy 13- or 14-pound clipped hen. That kind of set the tone for my season and I ended up almost filling my punch card.

The funny thing is, I have good friend who punched tons of fish in 2013-14 and did not land a single one last season. He’s a very good fisherman and fished side by side with me. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s just not your day.

Todd Daniels Professional fishing guide talltailsguideservice.com What’s special about winter steelheading: It’s about being outside in the middle of winter when it’s just plain ol’ nasty out and your family thinks you’re crazy. Up way before sunrise, putting your boat in the river and start floating down, making that perfect cast, then looking up to see the most amazing sunrise that very few people ever get to see. Then before you know it, your rod starts doing that “thump, thump, thump.” You set the hook and a bright chrome steelhead comes flying out of the water. Ah, nothing better! NS Image credits: Buzz Ramsey, Todd Girtz, Ashley Lewis.

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Young Gun TJ Hester Tri-Cities-based guide combines quirkiness with success on the water.

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FISHING TJ Hester fishes hard for his clients, but also likes to have a good time while doing so. (HESTERSSPORTFISHING.COM)

By Jeff Holmes

A

weak-bearded manchild wearing a full-length human-banana costume grabbed and stowed my bobber rod and six-pack last Halloween as I stepped into his 23-foot Alumaweld on a frigid, dead-calm morning in Richland. We pulled away from a Tri-Cities boat launch in search of steelhead and some rare-but-cherished daydrinking for muah with the soberest driver I know. Banana boy pointed the nose toward the Hanford Reach and hit the throttle, and three of us flew up the Columbia River to prime steelhead water that had been producing lots of fish, mostly keepers, including several days of consecutive limits for clients. We’d go on to catch a lot of fish that day, including some very nice ones, fishing water I’ve never seen anyone else work for steelhead.

TJ Hester of Hester’s Sportfishing is one of the state’s youngest and most successful guides, and for sure its most innocently weird. A self-diagnosed addictive personality and freshly 22, Hester won’t so much as take a drink or a whiff of anything intoxicating, although not because he is chaste of mind or spirit, just smart. His addictions lie elsewhere: the Columbia River, social media and sugar.

He navigates the world of all three with surprising ease for such a whippersnapper, facts that do not go unnoticed by legions of friends and followers, and a few haters.

Halloween and his addiction to social media are why he wore the banana suit. He loves to make people laugh and feel comfortable, facts that do not go unnoticed by his large and loyal clientele of anglers of all ages. He has the unique ability to crank a mix of classic rock, Arianda Grande and country that everyone seems to enjoy, complemented by the most unique boat-side manner in the Northwest guiding game. Hester is the profession’s Doogie Howser, M.D., a prodigy but still a kid.

The always-positive and nice Hester is also the frequent target of a lot of negativity for a number of reasons, primary of which is that he is a total spaz who catches lots of fish, sometimes lots more than his much more seasoned rivals on their home turfs. For example – and I asked around extensively and saw it first-hand – Hester beat all guide boats back to the dock at Brewster every morning of the season, 20 days straight. I fact-checked this extensively but couldn’t get Hester to give me anything better than “I’d rather not comment on that.” He ran double or triple trips on all of those days and received tire-slashing and other threats for his excellence and perceived cockiness.

But he’s not cocky; he’s confident, and for good reason.

Hester is a lifelong learner who listens intently and who learns from and corrects his mistakes. Unlike many who are suddenly shocked that there are fewer fish – namely coho – when the writing has been on the wall, Hester and I first started talking about this almost two years ago. My nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

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FISHING Among the guides who’ve figured out Columbia River sockeye, Hester’s done particularly well in the Hanford Reach and up at Brewster. (HESTERSSPORTFISHING.COM)

other guide friends mostly ignored me or were annoyed when I blabbed about savoring the flavor of the epic runs and realizing it’s likely going to grind to a halt. Very real are the lethal effects of El Niño-related ocean upwelling and a resulting dead zone in the Gulf of Alaska where most of our fish grow up. This year’s meager spring Chinook jack return (18,138 at Bonneville Dam, versus the 10-year average of 30,229) and paltry coho showing (37,359 to 130,275) are our first clear indicators of where we’re headed. Instead of blinding an eye like most, Hester figured out how to target new fisheries, decided not to buy a brand-new sled, and just got his paramedics degree on the way to being a fireman fishing guide.

The somehow somewhat slender guide runs highoctane, nitro-burning fast on a diet of strawberry milk, energy drinks, Dairy Queen, gas station burritos, Krispy Kreme, and Roy Rogers mocktails. Even when it’s slow on the water, never a day goes by in Hester’s boat when he doesn’t leave everyone speechless at least a few times.

Climb aboard for a Q&A with Taylor James Hester:

Jeff Holmes: Can you please describe your guiding and fishing calendar in detail – take us around the year, 100 Northwest Sportsman

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beginning in January.

TJ Hester: I kick off January with fishing the Hanford Reach, where I take pride in trying the freeze my clients’ butts off running all over the river all day long, hunting for the elusive steelhead. We throw the kitchen sink every day as fish move around. This fishes well all the way through March.

However, January through March and sometimes into April is also when we get jiggy with it and twitch our arms off in hopes to get the next state-record walleye. The TriCities walleye fishery is world-class and is something I’ve invested a lot into. Feeling a walleye jig-bite on a 6-foot rod with light gear gets me going like a bobber down.

Luckily, we don’t wear basketball shorts on the boat, or it’d be a little awkward …

As the walleye feeding frenzy slows down, I keep my eyes on the dam counts and text bomb Cameron Black twice a day until I get a good springer report to head down to the Longview area to catch a spring Chinook.

Although I do guide this fishery, this has become a buddy tradition where we sit in a hogline with 50 of the Lower Columbia’s finest as they have their game faces on and are shaking at a chance to get a fish. Meanwhile, my

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Northwest Sportsman 101

FISHING and Gogurt, because it’s sockeye time. Sockeye is my baby. The early Hanford Reach fishery allows me to sleep friends and I are usually rocking out to the new Ariana in my own bed and fish travel lanes for the irritating yet Grande CD and wrestling for the last S’mores chewy bar exhilarating sockeye, with days with over 100 takedowns in the cooler as a KF14 KillerFish gets swallowed by a over the course of two trips during the day. Wanapum 15-pound hatchery spring Chinook and starts beating my Dam opens up July 1, which provides another opportunity Kenai Kwik into the water and we don’t notice until the for my guiding. I even provide complimentary football whole hogline is yelling at us in disbelief … This may be helmets and squirt guns for this fishery. If you want to a true story. know why, come on a trip with me and you’ll see. Once the Anyways, after that fishery I change my focus to Wenatchee homies are pounding fish at Brewster, I will set sleeping in my truck at Drano and the Wind River when up shop at “The Cove” and fish there until the fish run up the fish start to pour over Bonneville Dam in decent the Okanogan River. This is another fishery you will have numbers in late April to early May. The first chance I get, to see to believe. It’s a combination of opening day of trout, I like to sleep in my own bed and fish the McNary tailrace shad fishing the Shad Rack below Bonneville and fishing as well as Ice Harbor tailrace (when and if we get to). the Puyallup. As the sockeye bite burns off, I make my way I sit on anchor and wait for floods of Upper Columbia/ back home for a quick breather and prepare for a traditional family trip to Buoy 10 to run the newly popular Super Bait/Pro Troll combo and pretend like beaching my boat at the East Mooring Basin never happened – Zach S. from Maxima, that one’s for you.

Once the fish make their way over Bonneville I fish the traditional fisheries, i.e.

Drano and Deschutes, as they make their way to my stomping grounds, the Hanford Reach. The Reach is such a unique fishery, with fast action, great access, abundance of wild game, lots of From his home waters on the Hanford Reach, Hester fishes up and down the Columbia for salmon like history and big fish. It this upriver bright, as well as steelhead, sturgeon and walleye. (ANDREW PITMAN, HANFORDLEARNING.ORG) is where I will spend September through October every single day. As the salmon make it to the Umatilla/Snake River fish to swim past my spread, while redds, I switch gears into early-season McNary and Reach we chomp on breakfast burritos. In early June, as the mob steelhead, which are both very underrated fisheries in of springers swim past my neck of the woods, I pick up November. As the cold sets in, I will start hunting more the steelhead rods and head down to Longview, swearing and more for steelhead as they move slowly upriver, that I will never fish for springers again until next year. trying McNary and the Snake for shots at B-run steelies The Lower Columbia steelhead fishery provides a chance headed to the Clearwater, but I spend as much time for my guys and I to have wave after wave of chromefishing the Reach for steelhead as possible. I love it. bright, sea-lice-infested summer steelhead swim under the boat, eagerly biting. And, yes, I often pretend they are miniature spring Chinook to give me an ego booster JH Help someone who doesn’t know you expect what after getting my butt whooped the last month. they’re gonna see in terms of your flamboyance on the When the clock strikes midnight on the night of June water. Your boatside manner is, how shall I say… unique.

15th, we sacrifice one of my deckhands to the fish gods, TJH There are a few things you need be ready for when decorate ourselves, and buy Albertsons out of Lunchables you walk onto my boat. You need to get caught up on all 102 Northwest Sportsman

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FISHING your movie quotes because we will definitely go 12 rounds deep into every movie category. You need to be self-confident enough to wear Burger King crowns when the bite slows up to get the rally going. There will be loud noises ... I can’t elaborate much more on that, but when I get excited and things get crazy, the captain may sound like a 15-year-old girl screaming.

You also need to be ready to dish out smack talk to the deck hand because he’s going to bring his A game right back. There will surely be many “overcompensating” jokes made too, so you better laugh at each one. When we limit, we are going to obnoxiously blast ’90’s rap on the way back to the launch.

Above all, we are going to have fun; that’s the name of the game. But the dark side of all of this is I am extremely competitive, and I want to be the guy spanking fish all day, so when it is business time, we will get the job done. But you won’t ever know it’s business time because the general morale of the boat will never be tense, dramatic and serious. I’ve gotten my butt whooped enough times from other guides, and I’ve gone through the school of hard knocks to learn my tricks. I know if there are fish to be caught, we will get our share, so I want to do it in style and be laughing and joking the whole time.

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JH TJ, when I first met you several years ago you had just gotten a sled and couldn’t effectively drive it, yet you took us into one of the most bottlenecked little coho fisheries in the Northwest and did well. Flash forward to now, and your boat control is on point.

Please talk about that process and how you developed your boat-control game.

TJH Now that I’ve broken the boat in so much and gotten the touch for it, I see that boat control is everything. You have to give respect where respect is due, and watching guide Dan Sullivan fish and how everything is a working component in a program really opened my eyes. There is a lot more to boat control, in my opinion, than just driving a boat. One of the things no one talks about when you start guiding is how to manage your crew. Everyone talks about how to rig up, but not how to manage rigs to maximum efficiency.

Boat management is something that I’m always trying to improve on because it makes a difference. For example, if you can deploy six Super Bait rods on 12 passes and avoid hitting bottom, tangling when you go down, properly pulling rods when you hook fish, quickly storing rods when you need to – all of that makes the trip smoother and also allows us to make two to five more passes a trip, and that is potentially a

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FISHING lot of fish!

JH You’re perhaps best known for your sockeye fishing and being one of the first to figure out the Tri-Cities fishery. Due to the low, warm water, the Hanford Reach sockeye fishery suffered last year, and you gained my respect by rescheduling or refunding so many trips when some others Maybe it’s his kidlike nature, but Hester places a lot of emphasis on providing young anglers a did not. Instead, you went to Wanapum good trip. Here Tanner Sullivan, the then-4-year-old son of fellow guide Dan Sullivan, fights a and Brewster and were extraordinarily big one. “If you start it off bad, it will be hard to recondition the child to want to go through that successful, and fast. Please talk about your misery again,” he says. “So sockeye trips, shad trips and summer steelhead trips are ideal for this!”

(RIVERSWESTFISHING.COM) success on sockeye so folks can also think ahead to future fisheries. take care of you” is the moral of the story.

TJH This goes back to an earlier topic where my clients When it comes to sockeye, it’s just like any other are friends and I can’t burn my friends like that. This is fish; they have a pattern and they are certain places not the only fishery that has done this to me and I’ve for certain reasons. They don’t just wonder aimlessly had to do mad dashes to fix everything. Yeah, it is a around hanging out – cough, steelhead, cough. They lot of work, and it is pretty frustrating trying to make have a purpose – get from A to B – and all you have to everyone’s schedule work twice, not just once. But if I do is get in their way. Sockeye is 99 percent location was going to go with a guide, that’s the kind of honesty and 1 percent don’t have bananas. If I could hope to I would expect. If we don’t have a chance to get a limit, improve anyone’s sockeye game, this would be it: If we aren’t going unless they understand. But that has you’re not getting bit, move! These fish move a lot and also gotten me to the point where I am close to 90 quick – just look at the dam counts for the best odds. percent rebook. “Take care of your guys, and they will Be on the fish.

My riggings are not different than anyone else – dodger, Smile Blade rig or Money Maker Shaker Wings with Columbia Basin Bait shrimp.

A big advantage I have is running six rods. Rods have a number, and my guys have to remember that number. No rod is set at the same depth. Once a rod gets hot, I don’t switch everything up to that depth because that’s just one pod.

I will always keep a rod high and a rod low because you never know where the next pod will be. Also, even at Brewster, fishing the most productive water may be one of the biggest pieces to the puzzle. Don’t keep doing the same 4-mile troll if you’re only getting bit in one panel of river; stay on the fish!

JH So you turn 22 on Jan. 2, and you already have a couple boats working for Hester’s Sportfishing, including your dad, Jim Hester. You guys catch a lot of fish and are nice guys, but how else do you account for the growth of your business? Please 106 Northwest Sportsman

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Northwest Sportsman 107

FISHING of my clients to keep track of what is happening in the world of fishing. It is hard to keep up with all that goes on, and it’s nice to see a bite all of a sudden pick up and they can get a chance to get in on the action before it’s too late. I still do magazine and newspaper ads, as well as shows like Angler West, Northwest Wild Country and Pautzke TV, but social media is instant. And that’s what people want nowadays. And of course anytime you can drop Michael Jackson lyrics in a post without people noticing or I can have a client wear my horse mask in a photo makes it constant entertainment for me too.

talk about social media also and its impact on your success.

TJH I know one of the things that will change is I will be constantly blasting Taylor Swift’s “22.” In all seriousness, Gregg “Cap” Couch, my dad Jim Hester and new guide to the block John Plughoff, they’re just great human beings. Their unique personalities have had the same effect on everyone they’ve fished with as well. All of us just want you guys to have a good time, and having a work environment like that with such great people has such a positive pull that you can’t put a price on it.

The way the marketing world is going, social media is it. It’s been going that direction for awhile.

Luckily, that’s my generation. You ask the generation a few before me how to work hard, and you ask mine what a hashtag is. The 15-yearold girl in me has been helpful for something! It truly is a way for any

JH Your clientele ranges from gentlemen in their 80s to little kids, and I’ve noticed your approach doesn’t vary much based on age. I find it remarkable that you can pull that off, but I have noticed you’re especially attentive to the needs of kids and that you value their

participation. We all know the future of the sport depends on continual recruitment, not just kids fishing occasionally, but really engaging in the sport and learning and observing about the natural world. I know this is an important theme for both of us.

TJH I am who I am, and you’re either going to love me or hate me! I don’t have the kind of personality to just sit in a captain’s chair and not engage with my group. It would bore me to death, and don’t get me wrong: I’ve had groups where we have nothing in common. But that’s when you talk about food the whole trip because everyone loves corn dogs. When it comes to the kids, I have yet to have a parent be upset with me that I was paying more attention to helping the child out than them. One hundred percent of them would rather watch them catch fish anyway! If the child is laughing and having a good time, so is everyone else.

When it comes to kids getting

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FISHING

The gals at Reel Women of Fishing NW aren’t the only anglers known to have fun by putting on costumes while on the water. (HESTERSSPORTFISHING.COM)

introduced to the sport, when parents want a kids’ trip, I try and make it something so that the child will have a great memory to look back on. If you start it off bad, it will be hard to recondition the child to want to go through that misery again. So sockeye trips, shad trips and summer steelhead trips are ideal for this! Warm weather, lots of action and the gear isn’t too heavy for the kid to do on their own. Also, no kid wants to go out and fish for 10,000 hours for no bites, so I try to help out as much as possible and take people under my wing whenever I can to shorten the learning curve as much as possible to get their feet wet. Once they start to learn things and learn fishery timing, and all the little stuff that goes with it, they will just blow all their money and be in the same boat as the rest of us. But take your kids out when you know fishing is going to be good, or call

up a guide and explain what you want to do; most of us will want to help out because we know how important it is for the kids to have a

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good time.

JH Despite your confidence in your fishing, I always appreciate your

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willingness to show humility and humble yourself to the possibility of the unknown, to learning more, and to actively seeking knowledge. A whole lot of your fellow guides â&#x20AC;&#x201C; lots of anglers, in general â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are somewhat less open. I think your desire to learn and continually evolve plays mightily into your success. Can you give several examples of key lessons youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned and show how youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve adapted to those lessons to gain better results on the water?

TJH I have always been a sponge when it comes to ďŹ shing. Sponges absorb everything and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make a lot of noise because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re trying to take in every last drop, and they look goofy.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a long, long list of people who have helped me, from my cousin to guys such as David Gerhauser â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Jigmiester,â&#x20AC;? who taught me the importance of ďŹ nesse and bite windows. Of course, my dad, who showed me yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; worth of wisdom and stuck with me even when it was frustrating.

A bunch of guides in Tri Cities, like Dave Hedden, Dan Sullivan, Stan Brogdon, Steve Bramhall, Scott Atwood, Leeland Lafferty, who all took me under their wing and showed me a lot of the local ropes because I was new to the area. I learned how sometimes bigger isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always better for sidedrifting steelhead from my friend and mentor Jerry Reyes and his son Ivan. I learned how to be a businessman from guys like Shane Magnuson and Jason Hambly when I was ďŹ rst starting. I started to learn about the industry side of the game from working at Yakima Bait Company from one of my lifelong friends Jarod Higginbotham, as well as Dan McDonald, Jeff and Buzz. Everything these guys said I took as gold and I still do, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know it all and wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ever, but I want to try to learn it all. I could name a hundred more people because there has been so many things Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned from so many people. NS

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FISHING

BAIT UP FOR WINTER ’BOWS Lethargic trout bite meaty offerings.

By Jason Brooks

W

inter trout fishing is a very social event. It’s a time to hang out with friends, all the while checking your rod for a nibble.

It is the time of year where the cold weather means water temperatures will stabilize, and while the trout bite might slow down, the fish will still be hungry.

Last month, we highlighted several Washington lakes and techniques for this winter fishery that the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s new Inland Fisheries Program manager Larry Phillips in part helped establish for holiday angling.

He noted that during the fall and early winter, when daytime and nighttime temperatures can fluctuate drastically, the fish will move around the lake in an effort to find food and a comfortable environment. Now that the air temperatures have stabilized, water temps will remain constant throughout the day. This simplifies January trout fishing.

BAIT’S THE RULE for cold-water trout.

The fish are not as active this time of year, so trolling lures or casting wet flies are not going to produce as many fish as bait will. Fish will be hungry but their metabolism and energy levels are decreased because they are a cold-blooded species.

Soaking baits can be very productive, and it also allows you to stay warm if you are at a lake where a campfire is allowed. Otherwise, bundle up in heavy layers and wait out the cold for the fish.

Some of the most popular offerings are dough baits such as PowerBait and Pautzke’s Fire Bait. Salmon eggs, marshmallows,

Whether you’re fishing from shore, a boat with a warm heater, or set up over a hole in the ice, use bait to entice rainbows to bite at Northwest lakes this winter. (JASON BROOKS)

nightcrawlers, maggots and small pieces of cooked salad shrimp are popular as well. How you fish the bait all depends on the type you are using. For the doughs, which float, a sliding leader system is your best bet.

Starting with a mainline of 8-pound monofilament, run a sliding ¼-ounce

or ½-ounce egg sinker, depending on how far you need to cast. Then tie a swivel and run a long leader of 36 to 48 inches of 6-pound mono to a size 6 or 8 snelled hook. Gamakatsu makes a dough bait hook that has a small piece of mesh on it, or you can use a small piece of yarn. The idea nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

Northwest Sportsman 115

FISHING FOR SINKING BAITS such as worms, is to press the dough bait into the material so it “sticks” better. If you miss a strike, then it is likely your bait is still on the hook.

The idea behind the sliding weight system is that when the fish takes the bait, it can pull a little bit without feeling the resistance of the weight, giving the trout time to hook itself. One thing I have learned over the years is to use a high-visibility mainline, such as Izorline’s XXX in Hi-Viz, which is a bright yellow color.

When you cast out the set-up, let it sink to the bottom and then reel up until there is a slight bow in the line.

Don’t reel all the way until it is tight and the rod tip bends; instead, leave a little slack. Then watch the line. The fish will grab the bait and will be able to swim a little ways, causing the line to go tight before the rod tip moves.

This almost always assures you will hook the fish and not miss the bite.

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single salmon eggs, maggots or salad shrimp, use the same sliding setup as you would with the floating dough baits, but you will need to add something to make it float off of the bottom. Most common is the use of mini marshmallows – which also make a great treat if you are taking younger anglers along. I grew up with a bag of the multicolored mini marshmallows accompanying us on every trip. When we would get bored, we would pick out our favorite colors to eat ourselves.

The use of a marshmallow with a bait means you will need bigger hooks, like sizes 6 and 4, though that can also lead to some missed bites if the fish doesn’t get the point of the hook in their mouth. Instead, you can fish these baits from above with the use of a slip float and no added marshmallow.

When I do this I like to use a two-

Rigged with or without a float, this set-up can be deadly for winter trout. For fishing open water, use a sliding float and bobber stop, swivel, 10 inches of leader to a threeway swivel, another 10 inches to another three-way swivel, and a final 10 inches to a bell sinker. Tie the snelled hooks off of the swivels, and attach baits of your choice. For ice fishing, skip the float and stopper knot.

(JASON BROOKS)

hook system (make sure to check your water’s regs). The set-up is simple; from your mainline, tie on a three-way swivel. On the side ring of the swivel, tie on a short leader to a size 8 or 10 hook using a stout 10-pound monofilament line. This allows the hook to stick out away

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FISHING from the mainline. On the bottom ring of the three-way, tie an 18-inch leader to another three-way swivel and repeat with another snelled hook. Lastly, tie on another leader, about 12 to 18 inches, to a ¼- or ½-ounce bell weight. Tip your hooks with your bait and then adjust the bobber stop knot to the depth you want to fish and cast out.

This is a great set-up if you are fishing a fairly shallow lake that has a lot of weeds. If the lake is iced over and you are sitting on a bucket and simply dropping your line into the lake, this is the way to go, as you will have two baits out there and, of course, there is no need for the slip bobber.

USING SCENTS WILL increase your catch and give you more confidence. If you’re fishing worms, you can inject the scent right into it with the use of a bait injector. For single salmon

eggs, maggots or shrimp, it is best to soak the bait for a few hours or even overnight before your trip. With single salmon eggs, the added scent of garlic, anise or a shrimp oil will help hide any human scent you put onto the bait when rigging it. It is best to have two or three jars of eggs and put one added scent into each one, and then experiment with which one gets the most bites.

For salad shrimp, marinating the baits for a longer period is needed.

I will often soak the shrimp for two or three days, and at the end of the day’s fishing, will save any leftover bait in the freezer for the next trip.

If you don’t like the idea of having to use multiple jars of salmon eggs or want to be able to fish them plain as well as adding different scents, then use a sticky gel such as Pro-Cure’s Super Gels. They have added UV as well, which helps the trout find your bait in the darker waters of winter.

Super Gel is a thick liquid that sticks to everything and you can rub it onto your leader, as well as your swivels and even your weights to get some strong scent out into the water.

WHERE TO FISH is as simple as going to aptly named “Fish Lake” near Leavenworth.

Receiving nearly 190,000 rainbow fry, catchable and jumbo fish planted throughout the year, the lake has brown trout and a good perch population that make for a fun day of fishing. It is likely to receive a thick layer of ice as well, but that all depends on weather conditions.

Roses Lake near Manson on the north shore of Lake Chelan received 18,000 catchable rainbows in November, and also has perch and catfish to keep things interesting.

Moses Lake in Grant County is a great winter lake and often will have enough ice to fish on. If not, then

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FISHING there is plenty of shore access, as well as many boat launches. Be aware that winter winds can come up, so small crafts are best left at home this time of year. It’s also a place where you can enjoy a cast-n-blast through the end of this month, chasing ducks while fishing for trout and other species.

For Westsiders who don’t want to drive too far, Angle Lake in King County received 8,000 trout in late October. Tye Lake by Monroe got 4,000 and is accessible through a public park.

Fazon Lake in Whatcom County had 2,000 dumped in this past November, as well. This 32-acre lake doesn’t allow fishing from floating devices during the winter, but two-pole fishing is allowed with the endorsement, and there is a chance to catch big channel catfish over 10 pounds.

Make this January a social event and go out fishing. Whether you’re

HOW TO CURE SHRIMP FOR TROUT FISHING Start with about a pound of cooked salad shrimp, the kind you can find at the grocery store meat counter. At home I divide the shrimp into four equal amounts. I use pint jars for the curing process and start by pouring distilled or bottled water into the jars until half full. Do not use tap water.

Then I take my favorite egg or shrimp/prawn cure (depending on the cure, I will use 1 to 2 tablespoons) and mix it into the jars of water. The idea is to use different scents or cures in each jar so you have a variety. I use Pro-Cure’s Shrimp/Prawn Cure in orange, Last Supper Egg Cure in red, and will give their new tunaenhanced cure a try this winter.

This is also a good time to put in some bait oils or water-soluble oils, such as nightcrawler, sand shrimp or anise. Shake up the jars to dissolve the cure and then put the shrimp in. Refrigerate overnight or for a few days (you can actually leave it in the fridge for weeks at this point). Make sure to mark on the lid which cure and scent you added so if you find one that is better than another, you know which one to use. This curing method also works well for coonstripe shrimp for winter steelhead. –JB (JASON BROOKS)

standing around a campfire or drilling a hole through the ice, bundle up and bring patience for some winter trout.

Bait will produce bites if you give it enough time and enjoy the outdoors this winter. NS

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COLUMN A trip to Patterson Lake last January yielded a good multispecies haul for Dave Getzin. He and the author used used Swedish Pimples baited with maggots or perch eyes in water 15 feet deep near Sun Mountain Lodge. (DONSFISHINGGUIDESERVICE.COM)

BASIN BEACON

By Don Talbot

How To Jerk Perch M y passion for ice fishing has gone on for over four decades. Every winter, as the temperature goes below 20 degrees, I get excited all over again about the

adventures Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have in North-central Washington. My wife thinks I am totally nuts to drill a few holes and sit on the cold ice waiting for a bite. But she sends me out the door anyway because her favorite fish in the world to eat is perch! I am just a hunter who

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Northwest Sportsman 123

COLUMN likes to hunt perch during the winter. I can’t wait to get into a school of biters!

I maintain a list of lakes to fish in the winter, and it’s a little like wild mushroom hunting in reverse. First, I will check out Patterson Lake, which is above Winthrop and just below Sun Mountain Lodge, for the simple fact that it is at the highest elevation and it will always freeze early.

Patterson usually has a solid layer of ice in the middle of December and it stays frozen until the middle of March.

My next stop is Fish Lake, back in the Cascades by Lake Wenatchee. It is loaded with perch, and because it is mainly thought to be a trout lake, the perch only get picked on during the winter. I fish Fish often in January and February.

Lowland lakes don’t always freeze solidly enough to safely ice fish, but if we get a cold winter, you will find me on the Lind Coulee, an eastern extension of Potholes Reservoir. I have had some stellar perch and walleye days on this body of water in recent years. I will also make at least one trip to the causeway on Banks Lake’s north end, just to see if the perch and walleye are big and biting. Every week in winter you can count on me going ice fishing to at least one of these spots.

SAFETY FIRST That said, there are a few safety considerations I always make. Here are rules I follow in order to stay safe on the ice: * 4 inches of hard ice, minimum: I have seen a group of ice fishermen fishing on 2 inches or less of ice, but I will never follow them out – they expect to fall in at least once a year! Even if anglers are out on the hard stuff, I measure ice thickness by drilling a hole near the shoreline. * Beware warm winds: If you had 4 inches of hard ice yesterday and a Chinook blows in that night, you’re asking for trouble if you go fishing in the morning. I will continue to go ice fishing if the lake is making ice. I like 20 degrees or less at night and no more than 37 degrees during the day. * Careful of crappy layers: Located not far east of the

< Using a size 3 or 4 Swedish Pimple as both weight and attractor, the

author’s terminal ice fishing presentation includes two droppers rigged with 1-inch tube jigs positioned so the hooks are pointed upwards.

(DONSFISHINGGUIDESERVICE.COM)

DAILY LIMITS Fish Lake has a bag of 25 perch and five trout, and it is strictly enforced.

I have been checked several times and really appreciate the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife enforcing the limits on this water body.

Patterson Lake is another story. WDFW wants all the perch removed from the lake because it’s designated for trout only They love me when I post pictures of 100 perch caught in a day. Note the trout/kokanee limit is five total per person.

Banks Lake and Potholes Reservoir both have limits of 25 perch. I always take my fishing rules pamphlet, as I often catch other fish species in these waters. –DT

124 Northwest Sportsman

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COLUMN Cascade crest, snow levels on Fish Lake can build to over 3 feet on the ice and sink the top layer of hard ice underwater. A slushy mix by day, it freezes at night, leaving layer on top of layer of bad ice. It isn’t worth it to break an ankle by falling through several layers of crap ice. If I choose to fish in this nasty stuff, I will wear a good pair of snowshoes to keep on top of all the layers. * Stay away from springs: Know where the springs are on every body of water. If you don’t know, ask before you go. Fish Lake has a couple of large springs downlake about 200 yards from the south end’s cove. The best policy is to stay away from this danger all together. * Bridge to a bad end: The I-90 bridges across Moses Lake go over a really good perch area. This has caused many ice fishermen to let common sense go right out the window. A danger sign should be posted to explain that the bridge heats up the ice layer and makes it super thin. Many ice fishermen have had serious problems when they fell through the ice near this bridge. * Vigilance around culverts: Banks Lake has three or four under Highway 155 at the causeway just south of Electric City that should be completely avoided. Water rushes in and out of them all winter long, weakening the ice.

In addition to following these rules, I pack my sled with a long rope and a couple of long nails to use as spikes, just in case the unthinkable happens. I have heard of scuba divers making a large hole out on the ice and not marking the spot. It is better to be

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prepared than to wish you had after the fact. * Make the ice nicer: To stay comfortable, I wear wool pants with long underwear, a turtleneck undershirt, layers of warm shirts and fleeces and a warm, waterproof While some waters just freeze over, those in the mountains can also be covered in lots of ski-style jacket. I also snow, presenting an additional safety challenge use HotHands and as the weight of the pack forces the lake’s lid foot warmers in my downwards, creating layers of ice. Be extra cautious at Fish Lake and other similar lakes. gloves and toes of my (DONSFISHINGGUIDESERVICE.COM) waterproof boots.

As for gear, to make life easier while ice fishing, I load up an ice sled with an auger (I prefer a gas-powered one, but I fish every week in the winter), propane heater (great if the weather is under 20 degrees), a dipper to clear ice out of the holes, two five-gallon buckets to sit on and put fish in, and holders to keep the rods off the ice.

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Northwest Sportsman 127

COLUMN loaded with 4-pound test and a double-dropper rig with a size 3 or 4 Swedish Pimple as the weight and attractor. My favorite all-time perch colors are yellow, chanteuse and white. Look up dropper loop knot on YouTube to see exactly how I make each extremely strong connection. I like to use size 4 or 6 Gamakatsu bait holder hooks for my dropper rigs. I also use 1-inch tube skirts to cover the hook and half hitch that holds the hook on the dropper loop. If the hook is pointed down after I apply the half hitch loop, then I undo the loop and turn it 180 degrees to get the hook to point up. I space my dropper loop knots about 6 inches apart. Don’t forget to take the treble hook off the Swedish Pimple and apply the single hook with both the yellow and the red attractor tabs on each side of the hook.

For bait, I always get two or three boxes of maggots at the sporting goods store. And I also bring a paper clip with me to remove a perch eyeball to use if the yellowbellies are finicky. Just be careful to not pop the eyeball during the removal process.

The real difference in how many fish you will catch and how fast you will catch them comes down to proper jigging techniques. I have fished right next to many fishermen who don’t understand the biting action of a perch. I will catch five to their one time after time until they learn the right hooksetting action and rod-twitching patterns. If I feel a bite or any weight on my line, then I let the perch have it with a

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massive upward hookset. If I miss, the rod goes right back down for round number 2 and that usually happens very quickly. I always set the hook hard to attract more fish. I have seen it over and over with rookies who let perch steal the bait without even a hookset. Learn to be quick and to set hard every bite. I will twitch my rod every minute or so to see if I can attract some biting action. If that doesn’t work, then I will pretend like I am setting the hook a few times to cause a feeding frenzy. If that doesn’t work for 15 minutes, then I am moving to a new hole. I have been known to cut up to 75 holes in a day to find a sweet spot in the lake. The day we caught 97 perch on Patterson Lake was the last one I owned a manual ice auger. I cut 30 holes that day, and it wasn’t till the last one that we found the honey hole, catching over 90 percent of the fish in about 70 minutes.

If you see me out on the water and need a few holes drilled, just ask. I will gladly invite you to fish with us. The more bait in the water at a particular location, the better the fishing. I always invite as many as possible to fish next to us, though not everyone feels the same way about their private spot. Enjoy the sport and let me know how you like ice fishing! I offer guided trips and will clean your catch. Just give me a call to check a time and location that is excellent fishing and safe.

If you have any questions about this subject, contact me at Don Talbot’s Fishing (509-679 8641; donsfishingguideservice.com). NS

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After famed Painter’s Lodge burned down on Christmas Eve 1985, the next chapter in British Columbia sportfishing began in 1987 when Bob Wright’s Oak Bay Marine Group purchased the property and rights to the Painter’s name. The new Painter’s Lodge opened in 1988, and Bob dedicated part of the facility to the original, where guests could enjoy old photographs and memorabilia. He also worked with the Tyee Club to establish the Tyee Club Trophy Room to showcase the club’s rich history. Each summer anglers from all over flock here to fish from guided row boats with artificial lures to catch a salmon weighing over 30 pounds. If they do so, they’re inducted into the club. Over the years, more rooms, marine and conference centres and a spa were added, broadening the lodge’s appeal. Painter’s continues to be a favorite destination for globe-trotting anglers, celebrities and travelers. Despite the original structure being long gone, Bob and Oak Bay Marine Group have been able to preserve the original’s “magic.”

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132 Northwest Sportsman

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Keys For Bagging Late-season Fowl NORTH SOUND

F

inding places to gun for ducks and geese outside the crowded northern Puget Sound public hunting areas such as Lake Terrell and the Samish Delta is becoming more and more difficult each year. The transformation of rural locales from small farms to platted residential tracts is among other things prompting imposition of

By Doug Huddle formal county government no-shooting ordinances, particularly in Whatcom County.

In other cases, the tradition of allowing free neighborhood hunting is giving way to the monetization of property access by some landowners.

BATCHING IT Even though such nonpublic options are less prevalent, for January waterfowl hunts – season runs through the end of the month – it’s still possible to secure opportunities if you do the required homework and negotiating. In a few locales, pocket or small area hunts are actually still overlooked, and enterprising hunters might even get, for a time, “exclusives” for such properties.

The goal is to string together several sets of stops at reliable spots that are good for jump- or pass-shooting, and maybe even a decoy block or two.

In this strategy you’re not looking to score a limit in one place or even loiter very long. Rather, you’ll be seeking small groups of exploitable birds, or a daily flight path from which you may get a shot or two.

Like a circuit court judge making the rounds and trying what cases there are, running a two- to three-hour route permits you to stop and exploit any bird presence you find.

These excursions can be done in early morning or late afternoon, before or after work, going to the area that’s got the best weather conditions.

At the same time, such geographic collections also allow you to take advantage of favorable circumstances, such as food sources like harvested fields or specialized habitats such as backwater

Knowing how to hunt the different weather conditions that can hit Whatcom County this month – everything from bitterly cold blizzards to torrential deluges – will lead to bagging more mallards.

(JR MARTIN PHOTOGRAPHY, FLICKR)

webfoot havens.

HIT THE ‘BOOKS’ It isn’t just the students at Western who should be putting in their research this drear time of year. Instead of burning a lot of gas to find and build a repertoire of blue-collar bird hunts, nowadays the initial search can be done on the Internet and its abundance of ortho-photo websites, such as Google Earth, Bing Maps and MSRmaps, among others.

Once you’ve zeroed in on a set of prospective parcels, switching to another Internet source – real estate tax

(ownership) records available online at county assessor sites – will steer you to the landowners with whom you need to talk.

By far, the digital iMap system found on Skagit County’s site is easiest to use.

Whatcom County’s is more awkward and cumbersome, but it will get you ownership info.

When it comes to farmland, at times the fee titleholder may not be your first and last contact for permission. If there is a subrogated authority, such as a lessee of the land, they have legal admission control over the property and can grant access. At times, landowners will defer to renter on

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Northwest Sportsman 133

COLUMN whether or not to let you enter to hunt.

Consider many of these options short or one-volley hunts, a quick look and perhaps a shot or two, then move on.

Depending on the hunt type these sites allow and your time constraints, you can set up forays solely for jump-, passor decoy shooting, making for better efficiency when gearing up.

Carry a short string of decoys, including a mated mallard couple, to throw out on small wooded ponds. As a side note, when doing this, be sure to stop attraction calling if birds wing into view, since isolated pairs are normally silent.

Ensuring retrieval of downed birds also is a critical consideration for boot waterfowlers. To facilitate recoveries, alignment with wind direction or current drift should dictate selection of your gunning position. Having along a good gun dog, wearing waders or toting a personal watercraft gives you even more flexibility in scooping up dead birds.

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NO STEELHEAD? TRY TROUT! North Sound trouting options typically are at their ebb in January. The primary hatcherysupplemented lakes like Padden and Erie are closed, and in the year-round waters that get smaller trout doses, long gone are the gullible spring rainbows.

Having conceded that, there are still fish to be caught, if you are willing to brave the weather and change your fishing approach and tactics. Summer stock survivors, whether larger triploid specimens or catchable carryovers, look to hunker down for the winter in territorial lies where they can dominate, while conserving energy. Alternatively, subordinate trout will look for an edge, congregating where perhaps the water might be slightly warmer (an inlet stream or a lake bottom spring) or prey might concentrate.

But motivated by instinct or prodded by stomach growlings, these trout will still take familiar prey or baits, as long as those temptations are dangled right in front of their noses. Successful anglers this time of year suspend sedentary still-fishing or open water, surface-trolling tactics, opting for an approach that incorporates a little of each style.

Of the lakes getting rainbows in the summer, either as fry/fingerlings or larger catchables or triploids, Campbell and Clear in Skagit County, Cranberry in Island County and Goodwin, Martha and Shoecraft in northwest Snohomish County are the best focal points for forays this month. In Whatcom County, you’ll have to wait until the close of the waterfowl season to hit Lake Terrell for the carryovers from its most recent 800-fish triploid replenishment. Likewise, when the duck hunters depart, Fazon Lake and its November plant of 2,000 ½-pound rainbows should be ripe for the taking, since effort will have been very light in the hunting season due to a scarcity of shore fishing spots. –DH

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ON THE RIGHT WATERFOWL WEATHER

is open for debate. At this latitude, tempering off-ocean flows impart just enough hypothermia-inducing chill and moisture to the air to cause birds to burn more energy. But they’re not stressed enough to head further south.

With the temperature around 40 to 45 degrees, the birds fall into a cycle of daytime rafting on the broad expanses of saltwater bays, and only when the sun starts to set will they wing inland to feed under cover of darkness on harvested crop fields or pastures.

In this scenario, a waterfowler’s best chance is to lie in wait at dusk near a likely destination duck eatery, or lay up along a sea dike at dawn for returning birds in the hopes they’ll make a low approach to a raft of fellow webfoots.

One type of pocket hunt that growers, especially in Skagit County, are glad to oblige if you’re conscientious and careful is where special vegetable seed crops, such as cabbage, beets, cauliflower,

ID

, Inc. ing

Little C a

To get many days in the field in January, Whatcom and Skagit County waterfowl hunters need a flexible attitude and have alternative plans that fit three basic prevailing weather/ground condition scenarios. The most common pattern, even at the north end of the Puget Sound trough, are intermittent windy/rainy southwesterly storms.

Two other dominant conditions that can crop up and hang around are prolonged hard freeze-ups, also known here as nor’easters or Fraser River expresses, and aftermaths of a big flood, when sheetwater abounds.

We assume that since waterfowl seem most active in windy, wet and above-freezing periods – signature maritime Northwest weather – that these conditions are to their fancy. Whether or not ducks and geese prefer these socalled moderate climate conditions, or simply find them tolerable and cope

on Shoo t ny

MARINE & OUTBOARDS

broccoli, are growing.

These seedling starts row-planted in the fall to grow through the winter, are inviting targets. As the young plants draw nitrogen from the soil, they’re not only succulent but nutritious. Cabbage family plants have become a favorite of wigeon, in particular.

With their leaf nibbling, hungry ducks do significant dollar damage to these small-parcel (usually 5 to 20 acres) crops.

Nipped plants become stunted and won’t set good seed-heads, or even may have to be plucked out of the soft ground during a thaw after a hard freeze.

Seed crop plots are widely scattered from one another to prevent cross pollination among strains, and you have to search them and their grower owners out. Often, these small acreages have ditch networks to enhance drainage that also will serve as a recess for a blind.

During rainy, windy bouts of weather, look for puddle water

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in Skagit County along Joe Leary Slough, especially in the vicinity of Benson Road, or further east on the old Brickyard Creek drainage north of Dahlstead Road. You will have either jump-shooting or sheetwater decoying opportunities. Also, Thomas Creek east of the Butler Pit between Kelleher and F&S Grade Roads holds birds generally hidden from plain view.

Also in Skagit County, jump-shooting options are available in both forks of Nookachamps Creek in the old Barney Lake and Beaver Lake areas. Be sure you clearly identify who owns the ground you want to hunt there. The ducky-looking dairy fodder acreage northeast of Big Lake along its outlet is the province of a long-standing private gun club.

Beaver ponds west of Lake Shannon also will hold birds that will stay until a freeze, as does Grandy Lake. Until a cold snap and snow-out, the head end of Baker Lake will have both ducks and geese.

MARINE & OUTBOARDS

DELUGE DUCK HUNTS Where the standard weather pattern limits water to ditches, streams and a few perennial ponds, big storms generate runoff that fills vast tracts of low-lying real estate in the lower Nooksack, Skagit and Stillaguamish Valleys. The slow-to-drain standing water turns many harvested fields into big buffet-style land strips.

While no one should risk going out at the height of a flood event, in its immediate aftermath, the expanse of sheetwater in cultivated areas becomes overwhelmingly tempting for dabbling ducks eager for the easily gleanable grain and other crops.

You will be looking for standing water, especially on fields that were not fall prepped (disked or plowed before it got too wet) that still have crop residual, such as visible standing grain, corn stalks, potatoes, carrots or cucumbers. Use online summer aerial photography to spot crop field wet streaks or stains in tilled soils that signal they collect standing or sheetwater

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in fall and winter. Often, as is the case on the Sumas Flats in Whatcom County, these are old stream channels that have been nearly leveled with the surrounding ground by years of farming.

WHATCOM NOR’EASTER HUNTS These conditions are the least productive for ducks. If you don’t get out the first day or two of a big freeze, you’ll likely get shut out not only until the breaking thaw, but also several weeks thereafter.

This weather pattern shapes up in a specific way. Besides wind-chill and temperature, the key forecast words to listen for are “arctic outflow” or “easterly winds.” The merciless, unremitting wind builds quickly from far-distant high pressure areas east of the Rocky Mountains. They spill their frigid air through Continental Divide passes, and it then swoops down coastal river valleys, including the Fraser, like a freight train. The temperatures in western Whatcom County

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Contact Ron Spada at 503.539.5396 or visit www.siduckclub.com 138 Northwest Sportsman

JANUARY 2016 | nwsportsmanmag.com

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Northwest Sportsman 139

COLUMN can drop in the span of a few hours 10 to sometimes 25 degrees below freezing.

Depending on where the cold air slides under or over warmer, moisture-laden ocean air pushing up from the south, there will be intervals of snow and/or freezing rain. If that happens north of Bellingham, it’ll be as blizzard snow, which, driven by 30 to 50 mph winds, will drift in places to 15 to 20 feet deep. It’s possible to get trapped even on public highways here.

If the snow falls to the south, everything in western Whatcom County freezes bare, which adds a day more to a duck’s sojourn before they turn tail and jet south. Every water source, including spring-fed ditches, eventually succumbs to the plummeting mercury. If frigid conditions persist beyond several days, river flow drops and anchor ice forms on its rocky bottom or in lower velocity reaches its surface hardens.

Some places to look for ducks in the first 24 to 48 hours of a nor’easter are along the north side of Bellingham Bay in

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MARINE & OUTBOARDS

the calm lee waters under the bluffs. But there’s not a lot of good access here and the Lummi Nation boundary (Treaty Rock) takes in much of the sheltered river delta.

Also, fields around Lake Terrell and in the Custer area will harbor birds from Birch and Lummi Bays. Lee areas under northbank levees on the main Nooksack also invite birds seeking protection in the icy blast’s initial grasp. And until the frigid air sucks up even their heat, several lowland streams, including Kamm and Cougar Creeks and Morman and Scott Ditches, fed by perkwater around 42 to 48 degrees, will stay open. They also have aquatic plants and insects that ducks prefer.

NEXT Northern Puget Sound is Western Washington’s waterfowl breadbasket, as Danni Snell will tell you. She shot these drakes a couple seasons ago on a Ducks Unlimited site in Skagit County. Paying attention to the weather there and to the north in Whatcom County this month will add more mallards to your strap. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

MONTH Park-waters trouting, blackmouth options, late rabbit hunts.

Editor’s note: The author lives in Bellingham, is retired from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and has written about hunting and fishing here for more than 33 years.

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Taking The ‘Gamey’ Out Of Speed Goats A

coyote crossed the two-track road in front of my Nissan and I slammed on the brakes. “Coyote!”

I blurted, scaring the three boys in the truck with me.

CHEF Noah, my eldest son, reached quickly

By Randy King for the .243 that was between his legs and hopped out of the rig. Jesse and Cameron, my cousin and middle son, respectively, popped out to watch the action. I pulled my binoculars onto the coyote and saw its full winter pelt gleaming yellow-gray in the mid-November sun. As it moved off the road and into sage, Noah pulled up with his rifle. Bang.

I traced the coyote with my binoculars as it ran, clearly not injured, but my attention suddenly shifted as I caught sight of something else – something far more interesting than a songdog.

Behind the coyote, nearly 1,900 yards away (I love Google Earth for that stuff) was a small herd of antelope, dots in the middle of a yellow sea of grass.

We were actually after antelope, not an incidental coyote. Both Noah and I had drawn antlerless tags for a huge section of Southcentral Idaho and were hunting east of Gooding. I had harvested my first pronghorn near this location a year prior. I figured it was as good a place as any to start.

THE LONGER I LOOKED at the herd, the more respect I gained for antelope. They had chosen a bedding position with 360 degrees of

visibility over a nearly flat topography. They lay with their backs to the wind, looking right in our direction. They seemed unhuntable, but flat ground is never all that flat and a little creativity and crawling can get you a long way. The four of us came up with a plan: go south down a ravine about 1,200 yards to a bunch of willows, then cut east and follow a small game trail out toward the animals. Stay low and we might get lucky. The goal was a sub-200yard shot for my 13-year-old.

We worked our way down the ravine, losing sight of the herd, which can be good and bad. If you can’t see them, they can’t see you, but as the stalk grew longer and longer, my confidence that the game had not moved started to dwindle. What if they got a whiff of the garlic that my hands always seem to smell like? What if they saw the top of my head over the sagebrush? What if, what if?

When we all reached the willows, Noah and I took off up the game trail leaving the other two behind. Less heads and less stink make a stalk more likely to succeed. After a few hundred yards I found the rise we needed to top out on for the closest shot. We snuck close to the top, then crawled to the crest on our hands and knees.

Nothing. Not a single speed goat in sight.

Noah and I stood and looked at each other, a sense of bewilderment clear on our faces. How the hell did we lose the goats? At this point we had nothing better to do than make a wide circle back to the other two boys.

We headed east again for a few hundred more yards, then

Whether because of what they browse on or other factors, pronghorn antelope are known for a gamey taste, but, says the author, that’s because they’re supposed to taste like that, not beef. It’s up to the chef to make the meat more palatable. (TOM KOERNER, USFWS) nwsportsmanmag.com | JANUARY 2016

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COLUMN Armed with an antlerless tag and a .243, Noah King and his dad Randy – here on the binocs – put the sneak on a small herd of pronghorn near Gooding, Idaho. (RANDY KING)

cut south. Still no game, nor idea where they could have gone.

After about a quarter of a mile we cut back west, back toward the boys. That’s when, while chatting and thinking we had blown our chance, I caught sight of the back of an antelope head. It was a

lone bedded fawn, a perfect opportunity. We snuck a little closer. Now we could clearly see the herd – about eight does, one buck and three fawns. A clean dozen.

The herd had bedded at the base of a small bowl that provided just enough cover to get out of the wind – and allowed us to get to about 70 yards undetected. Amazingly, our stink was blowing right onto them, but they did not seem to care.

Noah pulled up on the first fawn, steadied himself on my shooting stick and made meat.

ANTELOPE HAVE A REPUTATION – and not a good one – for being one of the more “gamey” meats. Over the years, several theories have been postulated about the reason, from “they are hot-blooded” to the “you are what you eat” theory about sagebrush.

Some of it makes a little bit of sense, while other ideas are just silly.

Antelope can be tender and delicious, or they can be rutty and so musky that it is hard to swallow the meat. Most times, the problem does not come from the meat itself, but from the care of

WEST MEETS SOUTHEAST Like most big game hunters I am faced with the “grind” problem regularly. I have, on good years, a lot of ground meat and a family that will only eat so many tacos and bowls of spaghetti. To solve this problem I often opt for meat pucks, aka meatballs. In these pages I’ve previously published the recipe for five-spice venison meatballs, and this issue I would like to offer up another.

Keeping with the previous recipe’s Asian theme, let’s make Thai-style red curry meatballs with white rice, green beans and basil.

Meatballs 1 pound of ground venison (I used antelope, but really any ground red meat will work) 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 inch ginger, peeled and finely chopped Handful of Thai basil, chopped 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce (optional as it really stinks, but offers up great flavor) ½ small red onion 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste 2 eggs ½ cup panko or breadcrumbs Salt and pepper

Thai-style red curry meatballs with white rice, green beans and basil. (RANDY KING) Curry Sauce and Green Beans 1 tablespoon sesame oil 1 red onion, chopped 1 inch ginger, peeled and minced 2 garlic cloves, minced ½ pound green beans, sliced into 2-inch sections 1 can coconut milk ¼ cup Thai red curry paste Salt and pepper 3 cups Jasmine rice, cooked and hot Thai basil, chopped

Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients listed for the meatballs together in a medium-sized bowl. Place 1-ounce meatballs on a tinfoil-lined cookie sheet about 1 inch apart from one another. Bake meatballs for 20 minutes, or until they reach 135 degrees on the inside.

While the meatballs are cooking, add the sesame oil to a medium-sized sauté pan. Heat on medium for 2 minutes. Add the red onion and cook until soft. Next add the ginger and garlic. Cook until fragrant, or about 1 minute. Add the green beans, coconut milk and red curry paste. Bring all to a boil. Taste and adjust as needed with salt, pepper or maybe even more curry paste. When it boils and the paste is incorporated, the sauce is done.

Serve meatballs on a bed of white rice, topped with the curry and green beans. Garnish with Thai basil.

For more wild game recipes, see chefrandyking.com. –RK 144 Northwest Sportsman

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COLUMN With help from his brother Cameron and dad, Noah moves his antelope to a good place to butcher the meat. (RANDY KING)

Success! Father and son pose with Noah’s goat. (RANDY KING)

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it. Basically, treat the meat with respect – kill the animal quickly, skin it quick, cool it down quick and then let it age for a few days at 45 degrees or lower.

Follow those simple rules and most game meat will taste just fine.

Unfortunately, even the best cared for meat can still be gamey compared to beef. Everything gets compared to beef; it is a flavor we all know well, to the point that if it does not taste like beef, it is suddenly bad. It is a false dichotomy: antelope tastes like antelope, elk like elk and deer like deer because they’re not steers!

If the criteria is that game animals taste just like beef, we need to collectively reevaluate our decision to hunt. Buy beef for its flavor, hunt game for theirs. If you don’t like antelope flavor, don’t hunt them. Hunt what you want to eat, being as respectful as you can to get the best flavor possible. NS

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New Leverguns, Wabbits, Coyotes

On Tap

By Dave Workman

W

inchester is observing its 150th anniversary this year with the introduction of five commemorative models, and one can say without fear of contradiction that the company’s name is synonymous with the history of the West.

Down through the generations, Winchesters (winchester-guns.com) have ON TARGET

By Dave Workman been there. They have occupied hunting camps all over the landscape. Texas Rangers carried them, as did cowboys, outlaws and Native Americans. Teddy Roosevelt owned several. They are a staple of Western films, and some of the finest specimens occupy places of honor in museums.

This year, all the lore, the facts and even some of the fiction will be amply celebrated with some classics. If only my bank account was as big as my Wish List!

In honor of its 150th anniversary, Winchester Repeating Arms has come out with five commemorative models, including the 1866 Yellow Boy lever-action rifle.

(WINCHESTER)

THE NEW MODELS For openers, there’s the Model 1866 Yellow Boy lever-action chambered for the classic .44-40 Winchester cartridge. Featuring a custom grade V/VI walnut straight-grip stock, the heart of this rifle is the polished brass receiver, with engraving on the sides, lifter and lever. The Yellow Boy has a deeply blued 24-inch octagonal barrel with gold barrel band and special 150th anniversary script.

It is drilled and tapped for an optional tang-mounted rear sight, though it is certainly a collector, not an everyday shooter In addition, there are Model 1873 and 1894 rifles in the mix. The former lever-action also has a grade V/VI walnut straight-grip stock and “rifle-style” forearm with cut checkering and an oil finish.

It wears deep-relief scroll engraving on the silver nitride-finished receiver’s sideplates, lifter, dust cover, crescent buttplate and forearm cap. Like the Model 1866, it has a full-octagon 24-inch barrel and is chambered in .44-40 Winchester.

The Model 1894 has the same embellishments as the 1873, but is chambered for the classic .30-30 Winchester, considered by most folks to be the first “modern day” deer cartridge, and it’s certainly accounted for its share of venison. The Model ’94 has a 24-inch octagonal barrel, adjustable semibuckhorn rear sight with Marble Arms gold bead front sight. The traditional stock features cut checkering.

For those who want a bolt-action, Winchester offers a Model 70 with Pre-’64 style controlled round feeding and claw extraction. This one is something special, with a high grade V/VI American black walnut stock featuring cut checkering and deluxe “shadowline” cheekpiece and black forend

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Winter is time for hunting rabbits, and cottontails make for good sport and good eating. (DAVE WORKMAN)

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tip. It has recessed steel sling-swivel studs fore and aft. The rifle also features deeprelief scroll engraving.

The Model 70 has a 24-inch barrel and is chambered for the venerable .270 Winchester cartridge.

One might observe that a couple of classics are missing, both leverguns of considerable repute. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no rendition of the Model 1892, which is the rifle that shows up in most big screen Westerns, and was the gun John Wayne twirled in Stagecoach, True Grit and other films.

The other missing model is the 1895, a rifle that was remarkably strong, chambered for modern big game cartridges and used by sportsmen and -women all over the globe.

Meanwhile, Winchester has also announced a new XPR Hunter featuring a polymer stock finished with Mossy Oak Break-Up Country camo. This model is available in popular calibers ranging from .243 Win. to .338 Win Magnum. It features

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an MOA trigger and two-position safety with a bolt-release button. The barrel length on short-action models is 22 inches, and 24 inches on standard long-action models. The long-action magnums have 26-inch barrels.

HUNTING’S NOT FINISHED! Hunting seasons are not over in the Pacific Northwest. For the small game and predator hunter, the fun might actually be just beginning. For years, I’ve hoped to spend more time in the field in January, popping cottontail rabbits. Others enjoy this time of year to put the hurt on coyotes.

When it comes to bunnies, I acquired a side-by-side .410 shotgun a few years back. It’s a Stoeger double-trigger model with which I’ve shot grouse, but the .410 has always struck me as a rabbit gun. Snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits are rather thinskinned and don’t take a lot of horsepower to put them in the pot.

I also have a vintage Ruger Standard Pistol (later dubbed the MK I) that is a very accurate sidearm. It can put a .22-caliber lead bullet into a pop can repeatedly at 25 yards, and that’s a smaller target than a rabbit’s head.

I also own a Ruger 10/22, topped with a little Bushnell scope that I’ve actually used to shoot the heads off kitchen matches at 25 yards from a sandbag rest for a story on plinking I did a few years ago. Any rimfire that can do that will be useful in rabbit

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®

country, and I’ve grown rather fond of the .22 semiauto as a game getter and all-around fun gun. But the guy who invented the after-market 25-round magazine for the 10/22 was a fiend, and he probably owned stock in an ammunition company.

About a year ago, I got a chance to shoot the Ruger Charger, a .22-caliber pistol built around the 10/22 action. Put a bipod on one of these and find a good bunny haunt, and you will bring law and order to the critters!

I was down in Wyoming in November and had the opportunity to dine on rabbit legs for lunch one day. They were a bit stringy, but not bad. While there, I saw rabbits all over the place, and I can understand why a fair number of folks occupy their winter weekends looking for fat long-ears.

If you hunt with a shotgun, go with small shot; No. 6 or 7 ½ should suffice.

As for coyotes, I’ve never argued with anyone who likes to pop them for the fur, or just to cut down the population so they’re not around when fawns and elk calves start showing up. The .204 Ruger, .223 Remington and .22-250 Remington are all excellent choices for long-range yodel dog punching. They make tiny little holes in the pelts, and create havoc inside.

All three cartridges are sizzlers in the velocity department, and on calm, cold days those little pills will cross a couple hundred yards in a nanosecond. However, I’ve known guys who can call

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Time to practice on coyote targets. If you can do this to paper, you can do it to them in much closer, and predators! (DAVE WORKMAN) that’s an art I’ve never been able to master.

In recent years, a fair number of people have adopted the AR-15 platform for coyote hunting. One probably doesn’t need a 20-round magazine for this endeavor – the likelihood of being attacked by a pack of rogue coyotes probably isn’t that great – but that doesn’t mean you should leave it at home.

While I prefer bolt-action or single-shot varmint rifles, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot a lot of AR rifles over the years, and some of them And don’t forget, the AR can also put a rabbit in the pot if it is are remarkably accurate, and they can be a hoot to shoot. These properly zeroed. rifles are able to do much more than punch holes in Zombie As ever, be sure to check your regulations and pay attention to targets, and with the right barrel and bullet combination, they property lines. NS are very bad news for ’yotes.

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HUNTING

LAST CHANCE FOR UPLAND BIRDS Quail, partridge, pheasant open through Jan. 18 in Eastern Washington.

By Jason Brooks

I

With seasons running through Jan. 18 and snow cover likely, Eastern Washington offers good opportunities for upland bird hunters to score some last-gasp quail, partridge and – new this year – pheasant working orchards, talus and marsh edges. (JASON BROOKS)

f you’re an upland bird hunter, the coming of New Year’s Day means there’s only two and a half weeks left in Washington’s season. With snow blanketing most of the region and tight-holding birds and coveys joining together near feed, these last 18 days can be the most rewarding of the year.

In the offing is a mixed bag of quail, chukar, Huns and even rooster pheasant, thanks to ringneck season being extended to the same closing date as the other birds. Cover near any food source or place out of the weather can produce birds, and with its strongholds of public lands, the western Columbia Basin has many good starting points for your end-ofthe-season outings.

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Northwest Sportsman 157

HUNTING

The region’s mix of orchards, breaks and rolling uplands offer plenty of cover for topknots, Huns, redlegs and ringnecks. (JASON BROOKS)

Area. At just over 9,000 acres this part of the state is a geologist’s dream; chukar just happen to like the basalt slopes above and below sage-covered flats and native grasses too. Get ahold of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s map for detailed land boundaries, as part of the unit bumps up against Sun Lakes State Park, no hunting allowed. What is open is some of the rough country above Lake Lenore and Blue Lake.

Just south and a bit to the east is the Gloyd Seeps Unit. A multiuse area that includes 178 acres of leased farmland and the blue-ribbon trout waters of Rocky Ford Creek, the unit holds good populations of quail and a few pheasants. Due to the amount of water in the area this is a place 158 Northwest Sportsman

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where a combo duck and upland bird hunt can happen with some jump-shooting. This also means that nontoxic shot is required to hunt either waterfowl or upland birds at the seeps.

In Douglas County, the Bridgeport Wildlife Area is a popular spot for good reason, as it holds quail, chukar, Hungarian partridge and a few pheasants. This is also a nontoxic shot area and has sage grouse as well as sharp-tailed grouse, so be sure of your birds before you shoot. I hunted various parts of Douglas County this past deer season and found several coveys of Huns. Another option is the 6.5 square miles of the new Columbia River Ranch that WDFW finalized the purchase on. Again, there are protected grouse here, but

it might be worth walking with a shotgun while eyeing the land up for deer. Email awalgamott@media-inc .com for a map of the open area.

IF PARTRIDGE ARE your primary focus, a few hours’ drive from just about anywhere in the state will land you in Kittitas and Yakima Counties. The Yakima Canyon between Ellensburg to Yakima has sections of Bureau of Land Management ground, as well as WDFW’s 105,460-acre Wenas Wildlife Area. You can access the hills above the river from a few roads out of Ellensburg, most notably the one that takes you to the top of Umtanum drainage. You can also hunt from the bottom of the canyon up the steep hills to the top of the many draws. If you have

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HUNTING a raft or drift boat, there are several put-ins and take-outs, and a shuttle can be arranged through local fly fishing shops.

Most of the canyons hold quail and the hillsides have chukar, but expect to stretch your legs on this hunt, as the birds are wary from bobcats, coyotes and lots of pressure from early-season hunters.

In Kittitas County the breaks above the Columbia outside of Vantage in the Whiskey Dick and Quilomene Units of the L. T Murray Wildlife Area hold good numbers of chukars. Quail can also be found in the deep draws. But beware that the closer you get to the river, the more ground cactus you run into.

Be careful with dogs and take a pair of pliers to get the quills out of your pants and boots. Also, if the weather turns warm and melts any snow on the roads or if it rains, make sure to take along chains and have a plan to

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get out of the steep canyons. The dirt of the roads turns to a thick, superslick mud real quick.

Besides public lands, certain private lands could be a good option in the late season. Check out WDFW’s GoHunt mapping for a wide range of parcels signed into the various access programs. While some of those are hay or corn circles that might be better for waterfowl, there are some properties in the Beezley Hills and the Moses Coulee and Foster Creek drainages that look conducive to upland bird hunting.

FINDING BIRDS IN the late season is as simple as looking for tracks. Either in snow or mud, the birds tend to not travel far and can be found in the same locations day after day, as long as there is food, water and cover.

Chukar are noisy birds and their call mimics a laugh. A sentry quail’s call is noticeable and similar to a wigeon’s, in a way. If you hear

coveys of birds, pinpoint them and head into the brush. After busting up a covey let the birds settle down and they will start calling to each other. Make a game plan and go after them again. Chukar are notorious for running uphill until they reach the top or a saddle, then holding and flushing as you approach. Most of the time they fly along the side of the hill or down slope. Rarely do they fly uphill; instead, they land and run uphill again.

Quail hold tight this time of year and singles will hold until you walk past them. Be ready to swing and shoot, and make sure you know your backstop, as well as where your hunting partners and dogs are.

There is only 18 days left in the season. Head out and find those birds that often cause heart-thumping flushes and dogs to tire after an hour of hill climbing. A mixed bag of quail, chukar, Huns and even pheasants is always a great day. NS

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COLUMN A proposal to create a 300,000-plus-acre national recreation area in the Ochoco Mountains, including around Walton Lake, below, has support from environmental organizations, while hunting and fishing groups are reviewing it. (ODFW)

Proposal To Create Ochoco Recreation Area

W

hat would an Ochoco Mountains National Recreation Area look like?

There’s been a lot of conversation about the proposal and, according to Sarah Cuddy, a lot of misinformation.

“I think in general there is a lack of clarity CENTRAL OREGEON regarding what a national recreation area

BY Scott Staats is versus any other type of conservation designation,” says Cuddy, Ochoco Mountains Campaign Organizer for Oregon Wild.

As proposed, OMNRA would cover 312,000 acres, which includes about 284,000 acres of the Ochoco National Forest and about 28,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management property.

There was talk going around Central Oregon that the entire 312,000 acres was going to be wilderness, with lots of restrictions and road closures.

Cuddy says the NRA has catered and custom language with no blanket restrictions. There are 25,800 acres of proposed new wilderness on two different small backcountry and currently roadless areas.

“So this is not a massive wilderness proposal, but a pragmatic proposal that balances a variety of uses across the forest,” she explains. “It is not a dramatic change to the landscape.”

Several organizations have given their endorsements so far to the proposal. These include the Deschutes Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Central Oregon Chapter of Oregon Equestrian Trails, Central Oregon Nordic Club, Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Sierra Club and Native Fish Society.

There are also ongoing conversations with more huntingand fishing-oriented groups, such as Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, both at the state and national level, Backcountry Horsemen, Central Oregon Flyfishers, Central Oregon Trail Alliance

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COLUMN

A map from Oregon Wild details the boundaries of the proposed Ochoco Mountains National Recreation Area. (OREGON WILD)

UPDATE ON NORTH CASCADES PARK EXPANSION A few years ago now, my Editor’s Note was about a proposal to expand North Cascades National Park, a plan that would have eliminated hunting in 280 square miles of national forest along parts of Highway 20 and up Ross Lake. Even if only a few guys chase deer, bear and grouse up there, I didn’t like the idea, and fortunately it was scrapped.

The group behind it, American Alps of Seattle, has since come out with a new plan – labeling that same ground a national preserve instead. “The North Cascades National Preserve will allow hunting and fishing, establish a special use climbing area in the Liberty Bell section of the Preserve, allow tribal gathering of traditional plants, and grandfather in several other existing uses,” they claim. That’s an improvement on the initial proposal, for sure, and an acknowledgement that hunters’ voices matter and should be heeded. –Andy Walgamott 164 Northwest Sportsman

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and Oregon Hunters Association, both locally and statewide.

“We are still evaluating our support on the OMNRA, but are tending towards support,” says Jim Akenson, OHA’s conservation director. He said there would be board discussions on the topic, but their final decision was not available at the time of this writing.

NATIONAL RECREATION AREAS are sort of rare – there are only 22 throughout the nation, with three of them within Oregon: Oregon Dunes, Hells Canyon and Mount Hood. All NRAs are custom written to fit the landscape, so the OMNRA would have language specific to the Ochocos.

According to Oregon Wild’s website: “The proposed Ochoco Mountains National Recreation Area would provide for the protection and restoration of recreational, ecological, scenic, watershed, fish and wildlife, botanical, historical, archeological, paleontological values for present and future generations.”

“We believe that clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities and the significant economic benefits provided by these qualities must be preserved for future generations,” says Cuddy.

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COLUMN implementation for that project is expected in the spring.

She described the ecological diversity of the region as astounding, housing some of the most substantial areas of oldgrowth ponderosa pine in Oregon. She said the proposed Ochoco Summit ORV Trail System, located within the proposed OMNRA, would crisscross through the forest, disrupt wildlife, facilitate the spread of noxious weeds, degrade water quality in the North Fork of the Crooked River watershed and displace other low-impact forms of recreation.

“With 10 developed OHV trail systems in Central Oregon, and over 9,000 miles of mixed-use, open roads between the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, along with an already staggering road-density issue, the heart of the Ochocos is not the place for additional fragmentation and ill effects of another OHV trail system,” she argues. “The proposed OMNRA does not restrict OHV use, as it is welcome use on existing designated open roads and trails.”

The Oregon Hunters Association, along with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and many other groups and individuals opposed the Ochoco Summit ORV Trail System (Northwest Sportsman, July 2014) from the start. According to the Forest Service, there were more people against it than for it. A supplemental environmental impact statement on the system is due to be released sometime this month. There will be a 30-day public comment period following the release. You did not have to comment on the previous EIS to comment on the SEIS. A final decision and

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AS FOR HOW the Ochoco Mountains National Recreation Area might become a reality, that would require an act of Congress.

Oregon Wild would introduce a bill to a senator, who would introduce it to Congress. Cuddy says that Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkely are aware of the OMNRA and have been updated and informed frequently.

“After it presumably passes through Congress, it would then require the Forest Service and BLM to jointly prepare a management plan for the area that adheres to the guidelines that are written into the bill,” says Cuddy.

In the short term, there will be a series of public meetings in Prineville. Then Crook County commissioners are scheduled to vote on the proposal sometime in late January or February. A “no” vote demonstrates to the senators that there is not enough local support at the moment. Cuddy says that would not necessarily end the process, but slows it down.

Oregon Wild believes that recreation in Central Oregon provides both a high quality of life and benefits for local economies. The vast array of recreational opportunities in the Ochocos can bolster rural businesses in the gateway communities such as Prineville, Mitchell and other surrounding areas.

“The OMNRA would protect habitat for future generations to experience the Ochocos and the hunting, fishing, hiking, birding and more that it provides,” says Cuddy. NS

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Waterfowling By Kayak 201

If your favorite species of duck hangs out near water – and there’s strong evidence they do – they’re huntable via kayak, as a number of Northwest sportsmen have discovered in recent years. (RICHARD WARK)

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COLUMN Part II of II THE KAYAK GUYS

W

hether this is your first season of chasing wigeons and mallards from your kayak or you have a couple of years under your belt, it’s never too late to fine Kayak Guys

By Mark Veary tune your waterfowl hunting game. As a follow-up to the November issue’s introduction, this month we’ll discuss some of the specific techniques often learned only through trial and error.

‘JUMP-SHOOTING’ Any time that you’re in transit during legal shooting hours, you’ll want to be prepared to capitalize on a flush of birds. So, where do we start?

First, add an ATV-style gun rack to your kayak’s accessories rails. Mounted close to the rail with the business end angled downward, your shotgun will be within easy reach. This also minimizes the risk to your hunting partners.

While you’re at it, put a tether on your gun because even the most seasoned kayak hunter can fumble their weapon or have it become the soggy victim of an off-angle shot.

Next, consider switching to an inflatable personal floatation device. The extra bulk of a standard PFD makes seating the butt of a shotgun to your shoulder difficult, especially when you’re in a hurry to get a shot off.

Finally, be mindful of your swing when hunting with others. Right-handers shoot to their left and lefties shoot to their right. Position yourselves accordingly. Two righties (or lefties) should stagger their positions slightly to avoid interference and allow for the largest shot windows possible. In larger groups, designate shooters and allow them to lead.

As with fishing, the first hours of light can be some of the most productive for waterfowl hunting. This means that you’ll likely be paddling/ pedaling out in the dark. On days such as these, a GPS with waypoints is indispensible. To ensure your safety and meet Coast Guard requirements, make sure that while transiting, each member of your party has deployed a 360-degree white light like the ones found on Scotty and YakAttack safety flags.

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COLUMN DECOYING Let’s face it: There’s not a lot of extra room on a kayak. When it comes to hauling decoys, you’ll be limited to about a dozen standard or half dozen magnum-sized lures. This is where hunting with partners can really pay off. The more people in your group, the more decoys you’ll have in your spread.

When hunting over decoys from the water, anchor from the stern (back) of your kayak. This will ensure that the wind is always at your back. If you prefer to track incoming birds from the side, add a forward anchor and position yourself so that your shooting window (45 degrees to your weak side and 10 degrees to your strong side) matches the travel path of incoming prey.

Though kayaks are limited in terms of cargo capacity, teaming up with friends can yield a nice decoy spread to hunt over. (CRAIG MUELLER)

BLINDS Whether you lay in your camouflage ahead of time or in the field, you’ll find that due to their small size, kayaks are extremely easy to conceal.

Veteran kayak hunter Chris Henderson knows this well.

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“Because you are down low, you can hide in virtually nothing,” he says. “I have had birds come from behind me and literally pass by me at eye level to land in my decoys. Because you are not so obvious, you can actually hide very close to the decoys, which provides close-in shooting. Keep that in mind when you are

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COLUMN end up in the shotgun’s trigger guard. Precautions should be taken at every interval to ensure that the trigger isn’t blocked and won’t be pulled accidentally.

DOGS Most kayak hunters forego bringing their trusty hunting dog along. It takes a well-trained retriever to exit and reenter a kayak without dumping the shooter. One of the few exceptions is Washington hunter Richard Wark.

“I do take my dog out with me,” The primary benefits of waterfowling out of a kayak are super-low profile and being able to get to tough-to-access spots, but it also comes with a restricted shooting range, typically 45 Wark confirms. “If you’ve got a welldegrees to your weak side and 10 degrees to your strong side. (RICHARD WARK) trained retriever, it’s awesome. You take ’em out right in the tank well.”

If you decide to bring your dog along, spend some time selecting a choke. Often, an improved cylinder choke will be your practicing so that you both know what to expect. best option because the ducks will be in your face.”

Henderson also provides this warning.

“If possible, set up in such a way that you are physically limited TRY AND TRY AGAIN [range of motion] from swinging over your fellow hunters. It is too While articles like this may offer a few new tips and tools, nothing easy to get focused on the bird and forget where your buddy is,” compares to time spent in the field. At the end of each hunting he says. day, do a quick debrief with your companions. Talk about the With so much material on your deck, it’s important to be things that went right and the things that went wrong and adjust aware of any “threats” such as ropes or vegetation that might your game accordingly. NS

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