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FISHING • HUNTING • NEWS NWSPORTSMANMAG.COM

2016

BIG GAME

JET SLED STEELHEAD

YEARBOOK

Big Bucks, Huge Bulls & Happy Hunters

Cowlitz / Clackamas / Lewis

Oregon Coast Fish Camp Tucannon Ready To Rise Again

LEADING NW BOAT SHOWCASE BOULTON • CLASS 5 • CUSTOM WELD • FISH ON • HEWES MARINE KINGFISHER • LIFE PROOF • RH BOATS • RIVERWOLF • ROGUE JET SJX • STABICRAFT • STARCRAFT • WOOLDRIDGE

Hot Winter Action!

Roosevelt Kokanee Rufus Woods Walleye, Rainbows

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KYUQUOT SOUND VANCOUVER ISLAND

Canada's Super Salmon Highway

“The Wild West Coast” Action packed & Value priced.

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Canadian Dollars

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Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

Volume 11 • Issue 5 PUBLISHER James R. Baker

Your Complete Hunting, Boating, Fi Fishing hi and dR Repair i D Destination i i Si Since 1948 1948.

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Dick Openshaw EDITOR Andy Walgamott LEAD CONTRIBUT0R Andy Schneider THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS Randall Bonner, Douglas Boze, Scott Brenneman, Jason Brooks, Dave Graybill, Scott Haugen, Doug Huddle, Sara Ichtertz, Keith Jensen, MD Johnson, Randy King, Buzz Ramsey, Terry Wiest, Dave Workman EDITORIAL FIELD SUPPORT Jason Brooks GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak SALES MANAGER Katie Higgins

ALUMAWELD INTRUDER

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mamie Griffin, Steve Joseph, Garn Kennedy, Aaron Lund, Mike Smith, Paul Yarnold PRODUCTION MANAGER Sonjia Kells DESIGNERS Michelle Hatcher, Sam Rockwell, Liz Weickum PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker OFFICE MANAGER/ACCOUNTING Audra Higgins COPY EDITOR/ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Katie Sauro INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER Lois Sanborn

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ARIMA 21 SEA RANGER HARD TOP

ON THE COVER Steelheader and future Coug, Ryan Brooks shows off a nice winter-run from a southern Olympic Peninsula tributary. (JASON BROOKS)

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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

22

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VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 5

Hunting high and low and everywhere in between, Northwest sportsmen brought home the venison this past season! We celebrate success with our annual Big Game Yearbook, and the Truaxes lead off the parade of bucks, bulls, does, cows and other critters with a fine muley from Washington’s Cascades!

2016 BIG GAME YEARBOOK

(DOUG TRUAX)

FEATURES 73

JET SLED STEELHEAD From their reach and power to the convenience of not having to shuttle rigs, jet sleds are the best, most efficient way to fish our big steelhead rivers, but expert Andy Schneider has some tips and tricks for making the boats even more productive this winter season.

85

OREGON COAST FAMILY FISH CAMP For Sara Ichtertz, our 2016 Real Women of Northwest Fishing cover gal, February means time on the river with family for a week of steelheading, campfires and fun.

Come along as we head for the Oregon Coast, and Fish Camp!

93

TUCANNON RIVER STEELHEAD SET TO RISE FROM THE DEAD The Tucannon, once a productive Blue Mountains foothills summerrun fishery that dropped way off, is poised for recovery. Find out what happened, and why you need to reorient your Tuc timing from fall to late winter.

99

DOUBLE UP AT RUFUS WOODS Guide Keith Jensen takes us to the “wild, remote, breathtaking” waters of Lake Rufus Woods, which you know as home to tubby triploid trout, but is also an overlooked walleye fishery.

137 EXTENDED GOOSE SEASON Don’t put that shotgun away so soon, Portland and Vancouver waterfowlers. Late honker seasons on either side of the Columbia begin this month, and our resident Canada expert lines you out on the wheres and hows to bring in February fowl.

169 NORTHWEST SPRING BEAR Local bear hunting author Douglas Boze knows a thing or two about chasing bruins, and with this month being the deadline to apply for the thousands of special permits available in Washington and Oregon, check out his tips for bagging your spring bear.

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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COLUMNS

113

NEW WRITER! BASIN BEACON Few folks have the pulse of Columbia Basin fisheries better dialed in than longtime fishing writer and current Washington (DAVE GRAYBILL) Fish and Wildlife Commission member Dave Graybill, who debuts this month with details on catching Lake Roosevelt’s giant, shallow-running kokanee!

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SOUTH SOUND Once upon a time, February was the off-season for Jason, a time to clean and organize gear, but not these days. Since finding the light – or should we say, the chrome? – it’s become steelie season! Jason shares where he’s headed and what he’ll be using.

WESTSIDER From West End rivers to those on the Olympic Peninsula’s south side to the perrenially productive Cowlitz, Terry sets us up for steelhead success.

123 THE KAYAK GUYS One thing about kayak guys: If the powerboaters can do it, they believe they can too. Push off with Scott as he sets out onto Elliott Bay – at night – to jig up some tasty squid!

129 NORTH SOUND With absolutely zero steelhead ops, what’s a Whatcom-SkagitSan Juans sportsmen to do in winter? Doug has three ideas for biding your time till spring: 12 Northwest Sportsman

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Marine Area 8-1 blackmouth and sea-run cutts, and upland bunnies.

147 CHEF IN THE WILD Chinese barbecued pork meets mallard in a scrumptious smoked duck recipe from Chef Randy.

153 GUN DOGGIN’ 101 You’ve decided it’s time to bring a hunting dog into your life and have picked a pup – now what?!

Grab some chew toys and read on as Scott continues his series on the right way to train a gun dog, with things to consider when your new best friend comes to stay for good.

157 BUZZ RAMSEY You are never too old to take a hunter ed refresher course, as Buzz discovered after signing up for a Colorado elk hunt –and he’s got some ideas on how to make the classes better for new sportsmen.

163 ON TARGET Consider this fair warning, Central Washington coyotes: Dave’s coming.

Our firearms expert also spotlights some new rifles and a revolver.

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174 BACK PAGE: TAG SOUP Didn’t get (RUSTY BELL) your deer?

Don’t worry, that unnotched tag can still provide nourishment for next season, if you follow this recipe carefully.

DEPARTMENTS

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19

THE EDITOR’S NOTE Words of wisdom from the Walgamott

21

CORRESPONDENCE Reader reactions to recent news

22

READER PHOTOS FROM THE FIELD 2016 Big Game Yearbook

47

PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS Browning, Fishing monthly prizes

49

THE DISHONOR ROLL Tri-Cities tundra swan shooters fined; Bend deer poachers tracked down; Jackass of the Month

53

OUTDOOR CALENDAR Upcoming openers, closures; 2017 Northwest sportsmen’s and boat show schedule

53

BIG FISH Record Northwest game fish caught this month: walleye, Mackinaw, more

55

DERBY WATCH February steelhead, blackmouth derbies coming up; 2017 Northwest Salmon Derby Series schedule; Oregon Tuna Classic donates $80,000 to food banks

83

RIG OF THE MONTH Bobber-dogging Cheater Rig

Redefining the recreational vehicle. www.teardropsnw.com Salem, Oregon

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THEEDITOR’SNOTE

M

y apologies for harping on this issue so much in this space over recent years, but I am becoming increasingly anxious about this talk of transferring our public lands. We need to rise up together and defeat it: Access to much of our hunting and fishing grounds is in peril.

Washington deer hunters head into an OkanoganThe latest news Wenatchee National Forest basin. (JASON BROOKS) came early last month when the newly installed U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure that would make it easier to dispose of national forests, refuges and rangelands.

Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican, apparently figured out a way to bypass a requirement that costs of transfers of federal lands be accounted for, “a move that will make it easier for members of the new Congress to cede federal control of public lands,” according to a news report.

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers put out a statement saying the effect of that would be to make transfers “’budget neutral,’ eliminating existing safeguards against undervaluing public lands, disregarding any revenue or economic benefits currently generated and paving the way for quick and discreet giveaways of valuable lands and waters – including national forests, wildlife refuges and BLM lands – historically owned by the American people.”

IN THIS IDIOTIC hyperpartisan world we now live in, one where somehow the Russians are suddenly maybe not so bad – my Republican and Democratic grandparents are all rolling in their graves and urns – the opposition to disposing of our federal ground has most prominently been coming from the left side of the aisle. In a widely picked up quote, including on the Field & Stream Conservationist blog, Arizona Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva said Bishop et al’s scheme “to give away America’s public lands for free is outrageous and absurd.”

I am buoyed by President Trump’s initial opposition to the notion and his Secretary of Interior choice of Montana’s Ryan Zinke, who walked out of his party’s national convention over the issue.

And speaking with a senior member of our region’s hook-andbullet cabal – a superbly well-armed, rock-ribbed, oft-interviewed conservative if there ever was one – it sounds like he’s been quietly working behind the scenes to educate folks how this would affect hunters and anglers. I appreciate that, but still, Northwest sportsmen of all political stripes need to be more vociferous in our denunciations of this dumb, dangerous idea. –Andy Walgamott nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

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CORRESPONDENCE CHEHALIS OXBOW SALE The Washington Department of Natural Resources missed out on making more money when it sold 30 acres along the Chehalis River directly to a local tribe whose reservation sits on the other side. “I’d give them $40,000 for it sight unseen,” offered Marc Scott when in late December we first reported on local state Rep. Brian Blake’s concerns about the deal in light of what happened to angler access to the Skokomish last year. “How is that good management practices?” asked Ed Taylor. “When is the last time you have heard of 30 acres for sale for $30,000?” In the end, the sale went through. DNR claimed it was for the uplands only, but during public comment beforehand, the Department of Fish and Wildlife argued the reservation boundary in regards to the river was a “gray area” that should have been cleared up with a clarification in the deed. “WTF!! Why would anyone let that happen?” wondered Richard Burnham afterwards. “Does that mean we can’t float through that area of the river?” Stay tuned.

THE BATTLE FOR PUBLIC LANDS A year and a day after the illegal occupation of Southeast Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge began, the U.S. House of Representatives moved to make it easier for the federal government to dispose of our national forests, range lands and refuges. That drew scorn from some readers – “Wish the voters in Utah would vote Bishop out,” Brad Dailey said in reference to Rep. Rob Bishop, the man behind the effort – though not all.

“What good are ‘public’ lands if they don’t let you use them?” asked Tony Limon. “The rate that Forest Service gates are being locked up and refuges are being treated like zoos, sportsmen can’t use them anyway.” The worry is that states, etc., couldn’t pay for upkeep and would end up selling the land. “If they are trying to find a way to sell it to their billionaire buddies for pennies, no way,” said Karl Johnson. “But if they will divvy it up between people who work for a living, I’m OK with it.” Laura Hudson, however, was not OK with that: “I would rather have access to millions of acres than 1 acre for my own.”

MOST LIKED READER PIC WE HUNG UP ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE DURING THIS ISSUE’S PRODUCTION CYCLE They had some, er, stiff competition from Jerry Han and his walleye popsicle, but Liam and Dave Hartman’s pic of Liam’s big North Idaho pike warmed readers’ hearts early last month. The duo were invited out fishing at Twin Lakes

by Liam’s fourth-grade teacher, and after they’d iced a mess of perch were just about to call it when along came Mr. Toothsome Trophy. The northern went 29 pounds, and Dave reports Liam’s hooked on ice fishing now. We hereby nominate said teacher as Idaho’s instructor of the year! (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Class

You can say that again! Chad Smith, center, says that he and friends Kyle McCullough and Kiel Hutchinson enjoyed “a great opening weekend in Okanogan County.” Two of their muleys were shot on Saturday, one the following morning, and all were taken on public land. “Great weekend I’ll never forget,” Smith adds.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Of ’16

MIXED BAG

PICTURE

W

ith a hat tip to former Northwest Sportsman sales manager (and current tug boat all star) Brian Lull, who originally came up with the idea, once again we’re highlighting some of the biggest bucks and bulls taken in our region, celebrating young hunters’ first harvests, and spotlighting other critters we tagged last season. Please enjoy the 2016 edition of our annual Big Game Yearbook! – The Editor Brothers and sisters don’t always get along, but Denise Travis and her bro David are hunting partners.

They had suspected an island in the Yakima River might harbor some deer, and sure enough it did, this tall-tined muley that Denise took with her shotgun. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Rob Clarey earned this four-pointer, his biggest, by helping put a newb into his first buck – see page 34 for more! (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) As a friend put it, Allison Grindley’s .243 “spoke loud and clear,” accounting for her first deer on only her second outing ever. She was hunting with hubbie Mitch, who arrowed one nearby too.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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MIXED BAG

Misty Fox and her family are eating good this winter after enjoying a fantastic Oregon deer season! Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s her (clockwise from above) daughter Hailea Garcia with a very nice forked horn, brother AJ Vosper with his archery mule deer, son Justin Garcia with his ďŹ rst buck, sister Tammy Page with her three-point piebald, partner Lisa Fox with her blacktail and Misty and her own three-pointer. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Elk hunting was slow, so Erik Turrell set up a ground blind near his camp in North Idaho in hopes a deer would wander past. Instead, a cougar did. He doublelunged it with a 24-yard shot, but before it died the big cat came within 5 yards.

“Only when I went to recover my arrow did I notice I was shaking a little. Whoo, what a rush!” (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Evan and Doug Truax and another member of their party share the results of a pretty productive September drop-camp hunt – two bucks and three bears – in Washington’s Chelan County. They were packed in by Icicle Outfitters. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) Hunting Northeast Washington’s Selkirk Mountains during elk season, Jerry Sparks came across a pretty stout bruin, this estimated 350-pounder, which fell to a 180-grain Nosler Partition bullet fired from his .30-06.

Frank Davido and friends like to hunt really, really rough country for black bears, and the Northeast Oregon haunts of this bruin were no exception.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Nice antlerless muley for Logan Braaten, taken in North-central Washington while hunting with his dad, Eric. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

After a hard day of hunting that didn’t yield any shots, the next day KJ Ruffo bellycrawled to within 80 yards of three deer, dropping this doe with a .270 he’d just been given as a birthday present. He and his dad Kenny were in Oregon’s Columbia Basin Unit.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Kylie Core, 15, of St. Maries, Idaho, drew a Washington cow tag to hunt the north slope of Bethel Ridge with her dad, Ken. The family, originally from the Randle area in Lewis County on the other side of the Cascades from here, has hunted the area for four generations and continues to come back to the Evergreen State with nonresident licenses. “It’s a tradition,” the elder Core says. Kylie toppled her cow on Nov. 5 with a single shot from her .30-06-caliber Ruger bolt action. (DAVE WORKMAN) 28 Northwest Sportsman

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MIXED BAG Annalyssa Ridgeway’s elk was a pretty special one for her and her family. The Columbia County, Ore., wapiti was her first and taken on a youth cow tag with just one shot – from a rifle that has been used by four generations of her family to harvest their first elk. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

The E on his hat may not stand for excellent, but Colton Granger sure did a good job bagging his first elk, this Wenatchee-area cow, with a Remington 700 in .270. Antlerless permits like his not only reduce crop damage and help game managers but are a great way for hunters to find success and score meat. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) Western Yakima County’s Bethel Ridge yielded this cow for Ryan Fortier, 15, his first elk. He took it with a 150-yard shot from his .270. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Brennon Hart’s had success hunting deer with his muzzleloader, and now elk. He harvested this Mt. Rainier-area cow with a single 120-yard shot from his Knight Ultralight.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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The Wiley girls – Ella, Maya and Ava – got some serious hunter mentoring while out with their dad, Jon, in the Silvies Unit. “All three were with me as we saw the bull running across the sagebrush, they were right with me when I took the shot, they all stayed up with headlamps on as I field-dressed it.” (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) Brian “Ought-Six” Johnson and hunting partner and brother Drew “Sticks” Johnson teamed up to take down this symmetrical five-point Douglas County, Wash., muley. Brian knocked it over with his Winchester .30-06 with just 15 minutes of shooting light left in season. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Great and interesting first buck for Syndee Toney!

She was hunting the Kapowsin Tree Farm north of Mt. Rainier. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Jack Allen’s hunting career is off to a great start!

He’s taken five deer in four years, including this Idaho whitetail, which he “harvested on his own without Dad directing him,” his father Scott reports.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Mark Kenyon says his daughter Taylor, 27, is the best shooter in the family. Following up on her last-day 2015 buck, Taylor nailed this blacktail with a 125-yard neck shot, securing venison for her Junction City freezer. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

While his kids Mary and Joseph might have been watching Paw Patrol, Jason Marquoit was on point patrol, harvesting this blacktail just outside Beaverton in late October. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Jenny Cunningham, Bruce Ward and Sydney Cunningham enjoyed a good deer season on public land in Southeast Washington. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

First she spotted the whitetail, then Madelynn Olson, 16, dropped the four-by-five with a 200-yard shot with her .243. She was hunting on private land near Waitsburg, in Washington’s Blue Mountains.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Rob Clarey (see page 23) reports his buddy Brent Antonius is now hooked on hunting, thanks to finding success on just his third day afield. Clarey took Antonius out on a hunter ed deferral. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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MIXED BAG Fires have moved Stan Weeks out of his favored Washington Cascades basins, but he’s too good of a mountain hunter not to find deer. Here’s his 2016 High Hunt buck. (STAN WEEKS)

Odd years are for pink salmon, and evens are for Bill Waite and Brock Boyer to bag nice Chelan County muleys, we guess! They appeared in our 2014 yearbook with two studs. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

“It’s all about patience and timing,” says Chuck Hartman, who followed up a whopper 2014 Okanogan mule deer with this dark-horned beaut.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

The deer in the San Juans are on the smaller side, but they can take a big bite out of local crops and landscaping. JD Lundquist did his part to thin the herd and protect his family’s farm. He used a shotgun. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Buzz Ramsey scored the Northwest trifecta in 2016, killing muleys in Oregon, Idaho (ask him about his little adventure in the canyon in the dark) and Washington, with this healthy eastern Klickitat County specimen that yielded 130 pounds of meat to pack out. (BUZZ RAMSEY) 36 Northwest Sportsman

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With the corn uncut at his and nearby farms, the mule deer around Heppner, Ore., had a lot of escape cover, but Chad Zoller sniffed out one in the sage. He bagged it with a 90-yard shot from his Ruger Scout .308. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

As snow fell on Washington’s opening day of deer season, Jeff Boulet notched his tag with this Winthrop three-point. (JEFF BOULET) Damn, Ruben Vela – helluva nice first whitetail and first archery buck! He bagged this eight-pointer, which green-scored 187 gross Pope & Young, while hunting out of a stand on public land in Okanogan County. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

A break in a week of bad weather wracking the Blues last October spurred this mule deer to get up and walk into Gary Lundquist’s sights. If you look close you’ll see a bit of a droptine off his buck’s right antler. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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MIXED BAG Frank Workman of Tacoma anchored this three-point Snake Breaks buck on Oct. 22 with a single, 150-yard uphill shot from his Ruger bolt-action, chambered in .308 Winchester. (RICK FINCH)

Hunting on the border of the Pasayten Wilderness during the middle of modern rifle season, Dan Gitchell tracked this hefty buck in the snow before finally getting a shot at it. He used a Tikka .300WSM and 165-grain handload, and says his probable migrator weighed around 300 pounds alive.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Opening morning was awesome for Austin Bowen, who shot this very respectable muley during a solo hunt in North-central Oregon’s West Biggs Unit. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) Wind and rain made for tough conditions during his muzzleloader hunt near Walla Walla, but Randy Hart hung in there and put the smackdown on this three-pointer.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

Thomas Jimeno of Spokane gave up on elk hunting about 10 years ago after six unsuccessful seasons, but last year a friend wouldn’t take no for an answer. So the duo scouted an area in Washington’s Selkirks, found a very large bull, and made plans to return during the rifle hunt. Unfortunately, on opening morning some other hunters beat he and his partner to the trail they wanted and so they had to try another spot, from which Jimeno heard a shot not long after. It was the other party and they had a big bull down, but while Jimeno was discouraged he wasn’t going to give up. Deeper into the mountains he found a spot to watch an “interesting” area, and while eating a snack stick heard the splash of water nearby. It was another bull. Time stood still and buck fever came over Jimeno, but he managed to hit the six-by-seven on the move, dropping the animal within 50 yards. After thanking the bull and God, Jimeno, his partner and another man spent the rest of that day and much of the next cutting up the elk. “This was an experience beyond compare,” he states. “The work was beyond what we thought we had in us and yet we now have shared memories of doubt turned into triumph. So I’ve learned, don’t give up and to go further – the reward is worth it. Can’t wait for next year!” (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) 40 Northwest Sportsman

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MIXED BAG

Dave Anderson says 2016 was the best hunting season he’s ever had, and it was certainly highlighted by his six-by-seven Central Washington bull elk and wife Christina’s Okanogan mule deer doe, both taken on permits, and his upper Methow Valley buck, shot during October’s general season. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

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FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

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Help Us Celebrate Our 34th Season in Hakai Pass, BC! JOE’S “CENTRAL COAST FISHING ADVENTURES” INCLUDE: • Round-trip airfare from Vancouver, BC • Unlimited use of 17-foot Boston Whalers and unlimited fishing time • Delicious home cooked meals • Box lunches, beverages and bait • A beautiful lounge and sun deck • Heavy-duty Wetskin raingear and boots

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nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2016

Northwest Sportsman 43

Best of B.C. Lodges, Charters and Guides • Exchange Rate 0.78 US*

“BEST KEPT SECRET ON THE WEST COAST OF VANCOUVER ISLAND”

2017 Charter All-Inclusive Package Special “Bring Your Large Coolers. You Will Need Them When You FISH With US”

4 person Drive in Fishing/Catching $1200 ea. CA $$ / $1000 ea. US $$* • 4 Nights Lodging • 3 Full days of Guided Fishing/Catching Salmon, Halibut, Ling Cod & MORE • Includes All your meals from our restaurants menu while you are with us. *Limited time offer must be BOOKED by May 31, 2017 *US $$ at today’s exchange rate

(250) 934-7672 | info@westviewmarina.com | www.westviewmarina.com 44 Northwest Sportsman *Subject to change

AUGUST 2015 | nwsportsmanmag.com

Best of B.C. Lodges, Charters and Guides â&#x20AC;¢ Exchange Rate 0.78 US*

nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2016

Northwest Sportsman 45

Best of B.C. Lodges, Charters and Guides • Exchange Rate 0.78 US*

Our area offers some of the very finest Halibut and Ling Cod fishing on the whole BC Coast, including Alaska. We are offering a special early season COMBO Halibut and Ling Cod package for the 2017 season. The dates we have selected for our 2017 Halibut Express are from May 1st to May 5th, May 5th to May 9th, May 9th to May 13th, May 13th to May 17th, May 17th to May 21st, May 21st to May 25th, May 25th to May 29th, May 29th to June 2nd, June 2nd to June 6th, June 6th to June 10th, June 10th to June 14th, June 14th to June 18th and June 18th to June 22nd 2017.This will be a 4 night/5 day package and will include up to 40 hours of guided fishing, all meals and 4 nights accommodations. An added bonus will be that the VACUUM PACKING and FLASH FREEZING of your fish are included in this pricing. This is a heck of a good deal and this package would make a wonderful gift for the fisherman in your family. We will also have our fly-in service available from Seattle, Wash., or Vancouver, BC for these dates.

You will also have the opportunity to target the early runs of CHINOOK and COHO that will be coming through our waters at the time of the season. The pricing for this exciting package is as follows: Party of 2 fishing, 2 per boat…$1875.00 PP + 5% tax. Party of 3 fishing, 3 per boat…$1675.00 PP + 5% tax. Party of 4 fishing, 4 per boat…$1475 PP + 5% tax.

To make your reservations or for more information please give us a call at 1-800-429-5288 or send an email to: rodgersfishinglodge@yahoo.com Best regards, Doug Rodgers PS: With Halibut selling for upwards of $25.00 per pound in your local fish department, you will easily be able to pay for your trip. You are allowed 2 halibut in possession with a combined weight of 100 pounds, 6 Ling Cod in possession and 8 salmon in possession. Last season we were catching Ling Cod up to 50 pounds. Come and fill your freezers!

46 Northwest Sportsman *Subject to change

AUGUST 2015 | nwsportsmanmag.com

PHOTO CONTEST

WINNERS!

The Craig clan’s pic of Cash and his first Columbia sturgeon is this issue’s monthly Fishing Photo Contest winner. It wins the Yakima-area family a pile of loot from the overstuffed office of our editor!

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Randy Fortune’s pic of California huntress and girlfriend Paula Pafford’s big Oregon buck is this issue’s Browning Photo Contest winner. It wins him a Browning hat

Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

For your shot at winning Browning and fishing products, send your photos and pertinent (who, what, when, where) details to awalgamott@ media-inc.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 | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 47

48 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

MIXED BAG

Hunters Fined For Shooting Swans

T

he shooting of several tundra swans near Tri-Cities in midfall served as a good reminder to know your target before you pull the trigger, as well as illustrates the strong partnership between hunters and fish and wildlife officers.

When the giant waterfowl were illegally killed early on Nov. 6 by a pair of middleaged Western Washington men, nearby hunting parties at McNary National Wildlife Refuge by Burbank quickly called the state’s poaching hotline to report the incident.

Details were patched through to WDFW Sgt. Brian Fulton who contacted two federal wildlife officers, and the trio went to the blind and located four hidden tundra swans.

“They told us they’d shot some snow geese the day before and thought they were snows,” USFWS Officer Hindman told Northwest Sportsman.

While that’s possible in the early light of a Columbia Basin morning, there’s also quite a bit of size difference between the two species, plus tundra swan necks are

much longer than those of snow geese.

Hindman says he doesn’t believe the two men went out that morning to purposefully kill swans, but all the same, it was a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Both men were fined $560, which they paid in December, the officer reported.

Hindman says that the unit where the swans were shot is a draw hunt where hunters are given ground rules before going out for geese and ducks.

Information that tundras are in the area was subsequently added to the spiel.

At least three other tundras were also shot there this season, but in this case waterfowlers saw something that wasn’t right and immediately called it in.

“The hunting community by and large doesn’t stand for these violations. It really makes our job easier,” Hindman says.

He adds that USFWS and WDFW have a good working relationship.

Though not open for harvest in Northwest states, limited tundra swan

Deer Poachers Tracked Down

I

t’s always nice when poachers make it easy to be tracked down.

Literally.

An Oregon wildlife trooper just had to follow the boot prints in the snow to catch up with two Bend men who were charged with illegally killing a mule deer buck, not to mention trespassing across numerous landowners’ property.

As the story from the state police goes, on the morning of Dec. 11 a call came in from a resident on the north side of town who’d heard a gunshot and spotted deer tracks and blood in the snow. When a trooper arrived on the scene, they found the blood trail along with tracks from two sets of boots following the deer. With no season open for the area’s muleys, the officer followed the trails over the course of a mile and a half, across both public and private lands, before catching up to two men dragging a small buck.

The two men, identified as William Chapman-Prescott, 29, and Joshua J. Gibb, 27, allegedly admitted to killing the deer. According to OSP, they’d shot it

with a bow and arrow. The gunshot heard by the reporting party apparently was unrelated but an incredible stroke of luck for catching the poaching incident. The bow was subsequently seized.

Chapman-Prescott and Gibb were arrested and placed in the Deschutes County Jail on charges of unlawful take and possession of a deer and game mammal, respectively, and aiding/counseling in a wildlife violation.

OSP reports numerous landowners also wanted to press trespassing charges, and the duo were hit with nine counts each of criminal trespass II, a class C misdemeanor.

Boot tracks in the snow led an Oregon State Police wildlife trooper to two men dragging an unlawfully killed mule deer buck near Bend in mid-December. (OSP)

By Andy Walgamott

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Officers Hindman and Baker hold four tundra swans illegally shot on the McNary National Wildlife Refuge in early November. (SGT. BRIAN FULTON, WDFW) hunts occur in the Dakotas, Utah, North Carolina, Alaska and Montana.

Hindman says the four killed will likely be mounted for display at the refuge’s visitor center.

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

A

n Oregon couple who ignored signs marking Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park and shot a bison a quarter mile inside the boundaries pleaded guilty to the crime in mid-December.

Nearby hunters tipped investigators off to the poaching incident, which occurred in December 2015.

According to a National Park Service press release, Greg and Laurie Washington shot the bison, then used a side-by-side ATV to drag it outside the park. With leads from the hunters and other information, last spring federal rangers and agents went to the Washington’s home for an interview, during which they admitted to killing the animal.

Greg Washington pled guilty in a federal court to violating the Lacey Act and was fined $8,025, and both he and Laurie Washington were placed on three years probation and given a worldwide hunting ban through this year.

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 49

50 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 51

Saltwater Sportsmen’s Show 2017 • February 25-26 First Class Kona Fishing

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A walking path is also a popular draw for locals as well as visitors to Garibaldi.

Follow us for updates! www.portofgaribaldi.org | 503-322-3292

OUTDOOR

Brought to you by:

CALENDAR FEBRUARY 1 4 10 11 15 16 18 19 28

Tacoma (Marine Area 11) blackmouth opener Late goose hunt opens in Northwest Oregon Permit Zone Last day to apply for Oregon spring bear hunts (results typically available Feb. 20) Late goose hunt opens in Washington Goose Management Area 2 (formerly 2A and 2B; open Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays through March 8; private lands only) Last day for steelheading in select Puget Sound terminal areas; Last day to apply for Idaho controlled spring black bear hunt; Washington brant, snow goose and sea duck harvest reports due Sekiu (Area 5) blackmouth opener South Coast (Oregon) Zone late goose season opener (private lands only) Last day of snipe hunting season in Oregon’s Zone 1 Last day of bobcat, fox season in Oregon; Last day to apply for Washington spring bear permit; Last scheduled day of Seattle (Area 10) blackmouth fishery

2017 NORTHWEST BOAT & SPORTSMEN’S SHOWS JANUARY 27-2/4 Seattle Boat Show, CenturyLink Field Event Center and South Lake Union, Seattle; seattleboatshow.com FEBRUARY 3-5 KEZI Eugene Boat & Sportsmen’s Show, Lane County Convention Center, Eugene; exposureshows.com 8-12 Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show & Sport Fishing Boat Show, Expo Center, Portland; otshows.com 17-19 Central Washington Sportsmen Show, SunDome, Yakima; shuylerproductions.com 17-19 Servpro Douglas County Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Douglas County Fairgrounds, Roseburg; exposureshows.com 24-26 Great Rockies Sport Show, Lewis & Clark County Fairgrounds, Helena; greatrockiesshow.com 24-26 KDRV Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Jackson County Expo, Medford; exposureshows.com 24-26 The Wenatchee Valley Sportsmen Show, Town Toyota Center, Wenatchee; shuylerproductions.com 25-26 Saltwater Sportsmen’s Show, Oregon State Fairgrounds, Salem; saltwatersportsmensshow.com MARCH 2-5 Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show, Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, Redmond; otshows.com 2-5 Idaho Sportsman Show, Expo Idaho, Boise; idahosportsmanshow.com 3-5 BC Boat & Sportsmen’s Show, and BC Hunting Show 2017, TRADEX, Abbotsford; masterpromotions.ca 10-11 Northwest Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo, Linn County Expo Center, Albany; nwexpo.com 10-12 Great Rockies Sport Show, Adams Center, Missoula, Mont.; greatrockiesshow.com 16-19 Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show, Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, Spokane; bighornshow.com 31-4/2 Great Rockies Sport Show, Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, Bozeman, Mont.; greatrockiesshow.com APRIL 7-9 Monroe Sportsman Show, Evergreen State Fairgrounds, Monroe, Wash.; monroesportsmanshow.com

RECORD NORTHWEST GAME FISH CAUGHT THIS MONTH

(PHIL COLYAR)

Date 2-4-13 2-7-10 2-20-90 2-26-16 2-28-14 * Image

Species Mackinaw* Utah chub Walleye Yellow perch Walleye

Lbs. (-Oz.) 35.63 2-13 19-15.3 2.96 20.32

Water L. Chelan (WA) L. Walcott (ID) Columbia R. (OR) Cascade Res. (ID) Columbia R. (WA)

Angler Phil Colyar Alfred Woolstenhulme Arnold Berg Skye Coulter John Grubenhoff

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 53

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FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

By Andy Walgamott

OlyPen Salmon Ronde Steelie Derby Coming Up Derby Set

I

f you want to give yourself a little better odds of having your name drawn as the winner of the Northwest Salmon Derby Danny Davis shows off his $10,000 check for Series’ $85,000 boatwinning the 2016 Olympic Peninsula Salmon trailer package later Derby. (GARDNER SALMON DERBY ASSOCIATION) this year, you might just enter the Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby.

A pair of participants at the last two derbies have gone on to score the series’ grand prize, and the 2017 edition boat will also be on display at the Feb. 17-19 event held out of the Gardiner Boat Ramp.

One of the longer running Northwest salmon derbies, it’s put on by the Gardiner Salmon Derby Assocation and this year’s features a $10,000 first prize for biggest blackmouth, as well as numerous cash and product prizes.

Last February’s derby was won by Danny Davis, who landed a 20.7-pound Chinook. Fishing is limited to Marine Areas 6 and 9, the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet, but this year’s event may be impacted by the delayed opener of Area 9.

Tickets ($40) for the 2017 Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby are on sale through Feb. 15 at gardinersalmonderby.org and numerous tackle shops. The event benefits emergency services in the communities of Gardiner, Diamond Point, Blyn and nearby areas.

Hunger Reeled In

By Tuna Classic

T

he Oregon Tuna Classic’s motto is “Reelin’ in hunger,” and boy howdy did they do so in 2016! According to organizer Del Stephens, $80,000 was donated to Oregon and Washington food banks near where the two annual tournaments are held.

“The food banks are able to purchase 4 to 5 pounds of food with every dollar they receive, making this donation worth 320,000 to 400,000 pounds of food for those less fortunate in these coastal communities,” Stephens reported on a Facebook post following the awarding of a $20,000 check to the Long Beach Peninsula Food Banks.

W

inter got off to a snowy, icy start on the Grande Ronde, but the annual steelhead derby is a go, according to organizers at a famed riverside restaurant.

The 11th Annual Spring Fishing Derby, put on by Boggan’s Oasis, is set for Feb. 10 through March 25.

“Hopefully the river will thaw out by then,” the Vails told Northwest Sportsman via email early last month. “It has been one hell of a winter. More snow than we have ever seen. Have closed Boggan’s more in December and January (so far) than in the 34 years we have owned the place. Been actually snowed in twice.”

Fishing is open on the Washington side of the Ronde, between the state line and where Highway 129 crosses the river at Boggan’s.

Chris Richards won last year’s derby with an 8.6-pounder.

Tickets are available at Boggan’s, and there are weekly prizes up for grabs. For more, see boggans.com.

January’s big derby blackmouth derby in the San Juans, the $25,000 Roche Harbor Salmon Classic, occurred after deadline, but it wasn’t the only Chinook event in the islands last month. Friday Harbor’s Bluewater Bar and Grill held a derby, and it was won by Carol Holman.

Her 12.90-pounder took the top, winner-takeall prize of $1,000. (KEVIN KLEIN)

2017 NORTHWEST SALMON DERBY SERIES

Jan 19-21 Roche Harbor Salmon Classic Feb. 17-19 Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby March 18 Everett Blackmouth Derby July 14-16 Bellingham Salmon Derby July 26-30 The Big One Salmon Derby Aug. 5 South King County PSA Salmon Derby Aug. 12 Gig Harbor PSA Salmon Derby Aug. 26 Columbia River Fall Salmon Derby Aug. 26-27 Vancouver Chinook Classic Sept. 2 Willapa Bay Salmon Derby Sept. 9 Edmonds Coho Derby Sept. 23-24 Everett Coho Derby Nov. 4-5 Bayside Marine Salmon Derby TBA Resurrection Salmon Derby Nov. 30-Dec. 2 Friday Harbor Salmon Classic For more info, see northwestsalmonderbyseries.com. nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 55

Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show 3/16-3/19 â&#x20AC;¢ Brought To You By TEARDROPS NW

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 57

Winter Doldrums, Schmoldrums

58 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

COLUMN

F

ebruary used to be one of those “in between” months, a time when I went through my hunting gear, cleaned it all up stowed it away in SOUTH SOUND and totes in the garage or gun

By Jason Brooks safe. Afterwards, for the upcoming trout seasons I would go through my tackle and soak all of the lures and terminal gear in dish soap and scrub off any of the goo left behind from the last time I’d used it.

Yes, February was tweener time for me, when winter’s doldrums took the wind out of my fishing and hunting sails. But then 20 years ago I took a job that landed me in the South Sound. I remembered stories from my grandfather, who lived at the other end of Puget Sound, in Burlington. He talked about steelhead and how his cousins would come by and take him to the Pilchuck River. They fished worms long before the plastic variety came on the scene, so I decided to take up winter steelhead fishing.

My first few years I didn’t get a bite – that I knew of, anyway – but just enjoyed being out on the river, trying for the elusive steelhead.

Then, on one February day I hooked a fish, a big fish, and fought it to the bank. It was a wild hen, very large, nearing the magical 20-pound mark, and fittingly I had caught it on a pink worm mimicing the drowned nightcrawlers my grandfather used.

Ever since that first fish, February has become anything but an in-between month.

It has zoomed into my top three months of the year, falling just shy of September, when I chase big fall kings, coho and also some grouse and bears. Of course, October is my favorite month for all of the same reasons as September but with general deer season added. While February falls short, it’s not by much, especially when there is a mix of hatchery and wild fish in the river systems.

Once upon a time, February was the off-season for author Jason Brooks, a time to clean and organize fishing and hunting gear, but not any more since discovering steelhead and finding that this month offers peak fishing. (JASON BROOKS)

HATCHERY FISH THIS time of year, at least outside of the Cowlitz, are mostly comprised of “downers” or “kelts,” summer- or winterrun steelhead that have spawned and are heading back downriver. These fish are easy to distinguish as they are skinny looking and a dull silver with some red and orange hues to them. They might not be full of oils and fat like fresh-from-the-ocean steelhead, but they nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 59

COLUMN

An angler fights a feisty late winter hatchery steelhead. Even though early-returning or spawned fin-clipped fish may not be as tasty as those fresh from the ocean, they’re mandatory to keep on many Washington rivers now. (ANDY WALGAMOTT) are not totally inedible, as they are a trout, so their flesh doesn’t deteriorate like a salmon does when they spawn. In recent years, managers have adopted rules for many rivers to increase harvest of finclipped fish – that mauve-highlighted line in the regs about “Mandatatory Hatchery Steelhead Retention” – and this includes postspawn fish.

The hatchery fish that are fresh and haven’t spawned yet are often broodstock or original stock from the same river system, especially now that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is phasing out the Chambers Creek stocks, such as with the Cowlitz and its early runs. It is those bigger hatchery fish that are prized by anglers who work rivers that have hatchery returns. And they can be found from the Cowlitz and Chehalis River systems, including the tiny Skookumchuck, which has a very healthy run of late winter steelhead, to other rivers in the region where WDFW-reared smolts released two springs or more ago provide a fine catch-and-keep fishery.

60 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

Wild fish, of course, fight like no other steelhead. It is easy to figure out that you have hooked into a native, even if it is one on the small side, under 10 pounds.

They thrash on top of the water and then dive deep for any log or boulder they can find. Aggressive biters, I stop using bait for them by mid-February, when the hookup ratio is more likely wild than hatchery fish. Instead, I switch almost exclusively to large pink rubber worms, spoons, jigs and beads. In fact, bead fishing is becoming very popular because they work so well and they are one of the most “fish friendly” set-ups an angler can use. Since the bead is pinned a few inches from the hook, when the fish grabs the bead the hook sticks into the outside of the mouth, making it is easy to release wild fish with little hook mortality.

WHEN FISHING BEADS, I do it one of three ways. The first is the simplest – drift fishing one much like you would a Corky, only with a lighter “nonstick” weight such as a slinky or rubber tubing

over the end of the typical lead. For this technique, a plastic bead works best as it tends to bounce off of rocks or dance around in the substrate current along the bottom. My personal favorites are made

by Lured Beads, developed by guide Randy Bales of Oregon. These are colored to match the dying eggs of spawned steelhead and late-run coho. Bales has done extensive testing, and since they are plastic they tend to hold up throughout a day’s fishing.

The second way I prefer to fish beads is from a dropper below a jig. Rig up a 24inch leader of 8-pound Izorline XXX, which is a limp monofilament, with a size 1 or 2 Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap hook. I like this style because it tends to stick in the fish’s gill plate/side of the mouth better than regular octopus hooks, which have a very slight inward bend at the point whereas the wide gaps are straight. Slide a glass bead from Hevi Beads down the line and tie the leader to the bend of the jig. The jig is suspended under a float and the glass bead sinks down to the bottom.

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 61

COLUMN

Fishing a bead dropper off a jig allows you to run a second offering through steelheading-holding water, an “egg” that just might spur a resting winter-run that wouldn’t go for the jig, to bite this instead.

(JASON BROOKS)

This allows you to fish the jig a few inches up from the boulders and rocks along the bottom and also have an “egg” bounce along where a resting fish might go for it instead of chasing down the jig. This is a great tandem rig which allows you to fish all day with confidence.

Lastly is one of the most productive and deadly ways to fish beads, and which has really taken off the past couple of years – bobber-dogging one along a slow run or a deep slot into a tailout. This technique is designed so that you are always fishing and covering water. Again, I use a tandem set-up with a yarnie and a leader tied onto the bend of the hook to a trailing bead.

Though I don’t like to use bait from midFebruary until the end of the season, I do soak my yarnies in Pro-Cure bait oils, such as water-soluble sand shrimp. One thing that the water-soluble oils do is mix with the water instead of float to the top.

The substrate current is the slow-flowing water within a few inches of the bottom of the river; it’s slowed by friction with the rocks and debris on the streambed. The soluble oils stay down here and mix with the water, creating a cloud of scent that the fish will be attracted to as the yarnie and bead drift along.

BY PRESIDENT’S DAY I’ve also switched out my gear. Upsizing is a must when the big wild fish come into the rivers. Putting away the limber 6- to 10-pound-rated rods with a fast action, I grab the 8- to 15-pound rods with a medium-fast action. My goto is a 9½-foot North Fork Custom Series One, made by the company in Chehalis.

It is paired with a 2500- or 3000-series spinning reel spooled with 30-pound braid by Izorline or Suffix 832, which floats. This rod-and-reel combo with braid allows me to fish every application there is, including float fishing, with the exception of pulling plugs, of course.

I increase my leaders to a minimum of 15-pound test, with my pink worms tied up with 20-pound leaders in Izorline’s clear Platinum. This line is super strong and abrasion-resistant for when the big wild fish head for boulders. For spoon fishing I tie on a small swivel, then a 36inch leader of 20-pound test to a Dardevle from Eppinger. The traditional red-and62 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

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Northwest Sportsman 63

February’s big prize is wild steelhead, like this one caught on a Southwest Washington river by Erik Ackerman. Gear heavier for these fish, and when you finally land them, keep them in the water as much as possible. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST) white model is my go-to spoon, but I also toss copper, chrome, and brass as well.

Another trick a guide friend taught me is to bring along some Sharpie markers in hot pink, green, neon blue, and black.

You can color your spoons and even your plugs right on the river bank, depending on the color of the water.

Don’t leave the plug rods at home either. A Yakima Bait Mag Lip 3.0 in Dr. Death or blue pirate has caught a lot of steelhead in February. During lunchtime breaks I prefer to anchor up on a seam and put out the plug rods and just let them work. When rivers are on the rise from a fresh rain, the fish will be traveling along the seams. This is one way to intercept steelhead while taking a break from rowing. A small side planer allows bankbound anglers to plug too.

FEBRUARY USED TO be the month I spent in the garage, cleaning and organizing my outdoor gear. It was in between seasons until I discovered winter steelhead. Now, this is one of my most eagerly anticipated months of the year. Break out the bigger gear, tie up some pink worms and round up a box of beads. Head to the river and make this February one to remember. NS 64 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 65

Leading Northwest

Boats Showcase

ith the Northwest's many varied fisheries, you see a lot of different boat styles and brands on our waters. In the next few issues, Northwest Sportsman will be showcasing the top manufacturers and

W

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COLUMN

February’s Fine For Steelhead F

ebruary quite possibly is my favorite month of the year to fish for steelhead. The numbers aren’t as WIESTSIDER good as I can put

By Terry Wiest up in December with hatchery fish, but the quality is definitely better. And February is usually the beginning of the wild steelhead migration, when true 20-pounders are hooked and released, showing up those 10- and 12-pounders posed as 20s on Facebook and the forums.

Many anglers have already given up their quest for steelhead by February, whether due to the end of the hatchery run or they’re tired of the dreaded skunk, but either way the crowds are smaller. A caveat to that, however, for 2017 is the lack of fishing opportunities because of closures, so the areas that are open may see an actual increase in pressure over previous years.

SO FAR, FOR the most part, the 2016-17 winter season has been good, and it’s been bad. The normal top-producing waters don’t seem to be panning out. The Skykomish system, the pinnacle of Puget Sound steelheading and the only river in the basin that received its full share of plants for return this season, was partially closed around its two terminal zones at the end of December due to poor returns.

The Wynoochee wasn’t even close to what was expected by many. Even though state statistics show some end-of-year catch, it’s a way better February river anyway.

As for the good, we’re seeing superhealthy steelhead that are noticeably larger than early fish in the past. There

The Calawah, where author Terry Wiest caught this wild steelhead, is among his favorite February rivers in Western Washington for winter-runs. (TERRY WIEST) have been several hatchery teeners caught, and even some early nates!

“Three wild steelhead, with two being big natives already in December,” noted guide Mike Zavadlov (mikezsguideservice .com) early last month. “I can’t wait to see what February brings, as it’s looking to be a great wild run this winter.”

The Humptulips got off to a phenomenal start, but then petered out.

Dang if I didn’t hit that one out of the park with my December column.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT December highs and

lows, let’s head to February. Probably my absolute favorite river this month is the Calawah. Is it one of the top February producers? No. Do I catch a lot of fish on this river in February? No. Does it have 20-pound fish everywhere? No. So then why do I love it? It’s just my kind of river, and I have caught some gorgeous fish on it. In fact, Trophy Fish Replicas is working on a dime-bright teener hen I caught and released here while fishing with Mike Z. So what’s my kind of river, you ask?

Rocks and boulders, baby! It’s bobber and

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COLUMN jig fishing the way I like it.

The “other” more predictable and crowded Oly Pen rivers are the Bogachiel, Sol Duc and Hoh. Although the numbers from December didn’t look good compared to past years on the Bogy (Sol Duc and Hoh closed), those are hatchery fish and in February we’ll be looking for the wild fish to catch and release. The Bogy should produce as usual, but will probably have more pressure as well.

The Sol Duc is now a wild steelhead gene bank, designated so several years ago now and ending the Snider Creek broodstock program, but should have some monsters. The Hoh has been traditionally a great February river and 2017 should be no different.

All of the peninsula’s rivers will be open and all should produce fish.

“Fishing in February on the OP is like Christmas morning,” says Zavadlov.

“Each steelhead hooked could be that 20-pounder you asked Santa for.”

Todd Girtz (toddsextremefishing.com)

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is also looking forward to February.

“Mid- to late February is one of my favorite times of the year to steelhead fish,” the guide says. “February is wildfish time on most of Olympic Peninsula rivers; any cast could be a 20-pound fish.

You have a good mix of fish that have been in the river for a while and fresh ones coming in each day, the mad rush of holiday crowds have disappeared, and each day gets a little longer, giving me more time to fish!”

And talking about big fish, the Quinault, in my opinion, gives you the greatest chance at a trophy. Below the lake you’ll have to pay for a tribal guide to fish this river. One such guide is Ashley Nichole Lewis (badashfishing.com).

“In February, each time I go steelheading, hope comes with me that I may get a client that fish of a lifetime,” Lewis says.

HOW ABOUT HATCHERY fish – where can those who want to keep a fish find one in February? To parse my December column again, “Let’s head south!”

While early-returning Chambers-stock steelhead haven’t been planted in the Cowlitz since 2012, this month marks when the endemic, late-returning stock really begins to roll upriver.

“The run will peak in March, but there will be plenty of action in February,” says guide Todd Daniels (talltailsguideservice .com). “The trend has been some very big fish even at the beginning of the late run.”

I know from fishing with Daniels and Phil Stephens of Mystical Legends Guide Service (riverfishin.com), we’ve hooked good numbers of fish on the Cowlitz in February side-drifting, with many of those being good solid midteen hatchery fish.

Even so, Stephens is already thinking ahead to the next run of fish.

“The only bright side to February is the springers are coming soon,” he says. NS Editor’s note: Terry J. Wiest is the author of Steelhead University: Your Guide to Salmon & Steelhead Success and Float-Fishing for Salmon & Steelhead, and is the owner of Steelhead University, SteelheadU.com.

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FISHING

JET SLED STEELHEAD

From their reach and power to the convenience of not having to shuttle rigs, jet sleds are the best, most efficient way to fish the big Northwest steelhead rivers that can handle the pressure, but expert Andy Schneider, here with a winter-run, has some tips and tricks for making the boats even more productive. (ANDY SCHNEIDER)

With late winter-timed runs set to surge in, here’s a refresher on best tactics and etiquette for sledding.

By Andy Schneider

T

here are few things more thrilling than twisting that throttle and racing upriver through the cool winter air. Your eyes start to water, but you quickly blink those tears away as you approach the first whitewater, making sure you line your run up properly. Weaving river left, you cut across the choppy shallows to the far side of the river, the leafless branches flashing by only inches from your gunnel as you make minor corrections to make sure you’re lined up perfectly as you exit the riffles into the next hole. No matter how many times you run that section of river, it gives you just a little thrill

that you have navigated flawlessly, without any second guessing or soft bumps on the bottom. While you may have to turn down the radio in the car when looking for an address, you’ve once again handled 4 inches of water featuring innumerable variables with your aluminum vessel, all with an outboard jet screaming at 90 decibels in your ear.

EASING ONTO THE THROTTLE Running the shallows of rivers with a boat more expensive than your daily commute vehicle can be stressful, no matter the conditions.

Add in low or new water and your stress level can approach the “Why the heck did I ever do this?” level.

But if new water is never explored, then your adventures may get mundane and become unproductive.

As long as risk doesn’t outweigh reward, then exploring new waters can be something that is done with each outing.

One of the safest and easiest ways to explore new water is by hiring a guide. When booking a trip, make sure to be honest about what you want from the trip. Many guides will go out of their way to explain tricky navigation spots and the proper ways to run them.

When you go on your outing, make sure to film how they run the waters. While rivers do change from season to season, as well as at nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

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FISHING different flow heights, having a video record of the proper routes will give you a good starting point and an easy way to make yourself familiar with the river. While you may be tempted to learn about a river via YouTube, be very cautious of these footages for editing and poor videography.

SIDE-DRIFTING Jet boating for steelhead is an amazing way to fish a river. Not only can you pick and choose what sections you want to fish, you can make pass after pass through them without any muscle fatigue. And after you’ve explored different waters and want to return to where you made your first pass, it’s only a throttle twist away.

One of the most effective techniques for fishing out of a jet boat is side-drifting. While it seems everyone has the basics of this popular method down, there are some nuances to know to make it much more productive.

• Match your weight to the water.

While side-drifting out of a drift boat usually puts you in very similar waters, due to the limitations of a human behind the sticks there is not much need to be constantly changing weights. But a gas trolling motor can hold against much stronger currents and allow anglers to fish water passed over by rower-powered boats.

This faster water will often require heavier weights to fish it effectively.

As the boat progresses down the run, changing back to lighter weights is just as important. While constantly swapping weights takes some time, having to completely tie a new rig takes a lot longer after hanging up due to fishing the wrong weight.

• Keep the baits even with or above the boat. Either make another cast or adjust your throttle speed to make sure your baits are in the proper positions. If your baits sneak below the boat and are picked up by a steelhead, your chances of actually hooking that fish decrease 74 Northwest Sportsman

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JET-IQUETTE 1) Don’t swamp your neighbor. No matter if there are hundreds of other anglers or only a couple, pay attention to your wake and route. While it may seem that manners are thrown out the window on some rivers like the Cowlitz, it’s actually pretty civil and organized. Most boats run up the middle and fish the sides. Very rarely is there a need on the Cowlitz to crowd another boat on your upriver run, and there is not any location where you would need to drive over someone’s water that they are fishing. When passing drift boats fishing close to structure, make sure to mind your wake; if it’s safe, drop off of plane well before your fellow angler and idle slowly past, getting back on plane above the boat. Just be aware that there is a huge difference in wake size between idle and 10 mph. While some boaters may think they are being courteous as they plow water upriver, they are creating a much larger wake than if they were just on plane.

2) Downriver traffic has the right of way.

A boat traveling downstream has fewer navigational options than a boat heading upriver, no matter if it’s outboard or human-powered.

3) Lend a hand. If you see a drift boat having issues, or even another jet boat

dramatically – the angle of your line may just pull that bait right out of the fish’s mouth instead of driving it into the corner of its jaw.

• Don’t be in a hurry. It’s tempting to make pass after pass through a productive section of water and try and rebait and rerig while on the move, but oftentimes quality water is missed. Instead, take the time and pull over to the bank or hold at the bottom of the run and make sure everyone and everything is ready for that first cast on the next pass.

BOBBER-DOGGING Dragging and following bobbers around the river has grown in popularity in recent years due to its productivity and ease of use. While this technique may have been born out of a drift boat on a smaller coastal

in trouble, a quick inquiry can ensure that everyone gets back to the ramp safely.

Problems from losing an oar or your outboard steerage can quickly escalate and winter water conditions are not very forgiving. It’s amazing how a few small pebbles in your intake grate can take a 200-horse outboard out of commission.

4) Don’t be a low-holer. There is a certain type of fishing purgatory reserved for anglers who routinely low-hole. There is very little justification for not fishing your turn through a hole, inquiring if someone is going to fish that slot or just waiting to see what your fellow anglers’ intentions are and adjusting your own. If you see a drift boat lining up to pull some plugs through a fishy slot, don’t race below them and see if you can side-drift up a fish in front of them. –AS

With the “keys” to a jet sled come responsibilities for its safe operation not only for yourself but other river users to be cognizant of. (JASON BROOKS)

tributary, its effectiveness is not lost on larger local rivers. Whether you’re running a bobber and beads, bobber and eggs, bobber and yarnies, bobber and eggs/bead combination, they all work very effectively from a sled.

With bobbers specifically designed for dragging and bouncing baits just off the bottom, there is whole lot more fishing going on than rerigging and retying. Not only do bobbers offer a built-in strike detector, they are a visual indicator of where your baits are fishing and confirmation that they are in the right spot.

Bobber-dogged baits are much more forgiving than side-drifted ones, since the bobber ensures that a hook-set will properly anchor the hook into the jaw of a fish.

Standard rigging when bobberdogging starts with your spinning

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FISHING reel spooled with 20-pound FireLine.

Slide a bobber stop and bead onto your mainline just above a ½-ounce torpedo or bobber-dogging float.

Below your bobber tie your mainline to a snap swivel. Starting with a No. 1 or 2 thin-wire hook, tie a 3- to 4-foot leader of 10-pound fluorocarbon.

Either slide a 10- to 12mm bead down this leader, pegging it 2½ to 3 inches above the hook, or forgo the bead and use cured roe or create a yarnie. Attach either a slinky or Dave’s Tangle Free Weights in either ¼- to ½-ounce size, depending on water speed. If you feel up to adding some extra rigging, include a bead dropper. From the bend of your roe or yarnie hook, tie an additional 24-inch leader with a pegged bead.

This “cheater” rig gives you the opportunity to present multiple baits to finicky fish, and gives a fish another shot if they missed your first bait.

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Side-drifting is what jet boats were invented for, but don’t overlook the somewhat similar method of bobber-dogging, as well as plugging. (JASON BROOKS)

BACK-TROLLING When side-drifting or bobberdogging hits a lull during the day, it’s always a good idea to try something different. Plug fishing is usually a slow-paced and good way to warm up, grab some lunch and rerig all the break-offs that side-drifting generates. But don’t think that plug fishing is a less-effective technique

than drifting bait. Many rivers like the Clackamas and Cowlitz see lots and lots of side-drifting pressure, but very little from boaters back-trolling plugs. Some steelhead are just not wired to chase down a bait, but wiggle a piece of offending plastic in front of them long enough and they will more than likely attack. Here are some ways to dial in plug fishing on high-pressure rivers.

• Don’t fish the same waters that everyone is side-drifting. Not only will you more than likely get a grumble or two from diehard sidedrifters, you are fishing on top of the same fish that passed on your baits just minutes ago. Instead, search out waters that are too difficult for side-drifting, or slots and runs that are too deep to effectively fish with light weights.

• Clean your plugs. Lemon Joy and Crest toothpaste are great ways to ensure that those gel scents your buddy applied last year and which have gathered an interesting collection of debris are all washed away.

• Use the right plug for the water you’re fishing. K11Xs, Mag Lip 3.0 and 3.5s, size 30 Hot Shots and Tadpollies are all effective plugs, and while there is some overlap in fishing waters they are most effective in, they are each designed for different depths and speeds. Instead of purely relying on a lure manufacturer’s recommendations, experiment with what plugs fish best with your style.

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No doubt jet sleds are great for getting around a river system quickly, but don’t forget to take time to enjoy the outdoors. The Northwest in winter features an austere beauty, not to mention stunning snow-capped mountains like Oregon’s Hood to appreciate. (ANDY SCHNEIDER)

JET-FRIENDLY RIVERS Since you’ve invested in a boat capable of running shallow water, where can you take it? There are a couple of rivers that are fairly friendly to jet boaters, including the Cowlitz, North Fork Lewis and the Clackamas.

The Cowlitz from Mission Bar up to Blue Creek is some of the easiest water to read when it comes to learning and refining your skills as a shallow-boat captain. This month and next should be prime as the latetimed winter run returns.

The North Fork Lewis above and below the Haapa Park ramp offers good waters for a jet boat and fishing for winter steelhead. While the Clackamas has a lot of sled traffic on it, it should not be attempted by a novice jet boater. The river east of Portland is known for changing its paths seasonally and for offering shallowing dead ends. Hiring a guide to learn the Clackamas is highly recommended and worthwhile to ensure safe travels when attempting it on your own, as well as helping identifying productive areas to fish.

Jet boating a river can be just as fun as fishing itself, making the journey just as enjoyable as the destination.

When navigating a river, don’t forget to slow down a little from time to time to enjoy the stark beauty that a winter river can provide. NS

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ED BY:

SPONSORED BY:

RIG MONTH OF THE

12-pound-test Ultragreen

Bobberdogging Cheater Rig

20-pound-test FireLine mainline Bobber stop

Bobber stop beads

1/2-ounce bobber

¼-to ½-ounce Dave’s Tangle Free Weights

36- to 48-inch, 12-pound fluorocarbon leader

NOTES Bobber-dogging is a very effective and vertical technique that can be used everywhere from small coastal tributaries to popular urban rivers. The variety of baits that can be used under a bobber gives anglers a way to explore options that they are most confident with. Bobber and bead, bobber and roe or bobber and yarnies are just some of the most popular and productive baits on today’s rivers. Adding a dropper/cheater bait below your baits gives you an opportunity to offer multiple baits to finicky fish and give a fish a second chance at your bait. –Andy Schneider

Size 5 split shot No. 1 octopus hook

10mm bead

24-inch, 10-pound fluorocarbon dropper leader

No. 1 octopus hook with yarnie

(ANDY SCHNEIDER)

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FISHING

Fish Camp

Fish camp on coastal Oregon rivers with her “babes,” Ava and Nate, and husband has become a special time for Sara Ichtertz, as they pursue steelhead and family bonding. (SARA ICHTERTZ)

For our December cover gal, February means time on the river with family for week of steelheading, campfires and fun.

By Sara Ichtertz

F

amily. Fishing. Fun. February!

All these things are key essentials to my life, and they bring me a huge smile just thinking about them. Each February I pack up the family for fish camp and we head out to chase steelhead for a weeklong winter adventure, and you should too!

While it’s just great to be with family or friends, gathering together on a river in winter also comes without many of the things that can make summer fish camps a pain. There are no bugs. No dust.

No fire restrictions. And no or very

few neighbors in the form of fellow campers. Indeed, a campfire has never felt so good!

And the reason we really love February fish camp? Steelhead! Those fired-up beauties are thick in my river systems at this point, and I find that traveling to fish with the entire family for just one day isn’t nearly enough time. With all the county and state parks, as well as Forest Service sites, you would be impressed as to how many campgrounds close to fishing are open year-round. For those without a camper, some parks and campgrounds have yurts or cabins for rent.

THERE’S NO GREATER thing in life that we can give our children than our time. And to become a successful angler, there is nothing more important than putting in time on the river. Time’s a precious, irreplaceable thing to share with our kids, and I absolutely look forward to February

fish camp, more so than any other adventure of the year.

Purchasing my babes’ tags for a reasonable price and allowing them enough days on the river so they can be kids too has made winter fishing so much fun for them. The best thing we have done is encouraged the children to join us on the river. My babes have a true comfort in being on the water.

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FISHING I think about who matters most in life, there is nobody I would rather share the banks of the rivers with in February than my family.

PREPARATION ISN’T HARD. It’s just important that you have what you need to keep them dry and happy.

Bring snacks, lots of gloves, have them dress for winter success and you will be amazed how much fun they have. Bring gold pans, buckets, pickaxes – let them be treasure hunters. Fun! When they want to fish, they can fish.

Share your approach with them.

Talk about your rigging, and what it is you think the fish are doing or looking for. Tell them how you are reading the water – what the different flows, colors and structures tell you and how steelhead may relate. Share it all.

Allow them the time and opportunity to give it a whirl. If you

A winter-run flashes its silver side in front of Nate and his dad on a small stream. (SARA ICHTERTZ)

think catching steelhead is incredible, just wait until you put your children onto those fish! Watch their faces light up as a fish screams away. I can tell you, watching my boy handle the rod and the fish is priceless! The feeling this kind of interaction brings

into our lives is healthy and amazing.

I absolutely love it and encourage you to take your children fishing as well. Seeing the effects of the fish inside your children’s little souls is where it’s at.

Listening to my son Nate relive his moments while sitting around the cozy campfire not only makes his dad and I proud, but it goes to show how important sharing that time and this passion is to him too. His fish stories will be quite epic by the time it’s his turn to share what he loves with those who matter most! That is a win for him, and his sister Ava. Also for us.

Sharing time on the river with the children allows them to understand why I love fishing like I do. Nothing makes me happier than getting out of service, to where the only connection I am feeling is from my family, nature, the rivers and what lies beneath them. This family fish camp each February is about so much more than just the fish, even though they are so very incredible.

The value of these campouts is not something you can measure with a scale. Rather, it’s felt within.

AS OUR THIRD annual fish camp draws closer and closer, I cannot help but smile thinking of the run ahead. The children have grown yet another year 86 Northwest Sportsman

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Ready with the net, Mom! (SARA ICHTERTZ)

older and I whole-heartedly believe this will be Nate’s greatest winter yet!

At 7 years old, he is ready for them.

He speaks of how he cannot wait for fish camp, as if it were Christmas Day. Ava should be holding up her first hatchery steelhead as well! I absolutely cannot wait to hear the campfire conversations to be had between the two of them.

At 34 years old I am seeing more and more with each passing run that time does in fact fly. My children will be teenagers and young adults before I know it. All I can ever hope is that once those days are upon me, my babes know their mom led a life full of passions and that sharing my time with them mattered. And I hope that even when the busy, busy hustle and bustle of life is upon them, Nate and Ava still find the time to chase some winter steelhead with me and then reminisce of the good old days at family fish camp – the beautiful fish, the incredible rivers, and the time that we shared. My heart is on the river, and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS Editor’s note: For more on Sara’s adventures, see For The Love Of The Tug on Facebook.

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FISHING

Rising From The Dead The Tucannon River, once a productive Blue Mountains foothills steelhead fishery that dropped way off, is poised for recovery.

By Andy Walgamott

P

erhaps it’s the Okanogan mule deer hunter in me – the part that screams to be afield, rifle in hand, as sun sets on October’s season in hopes of bagging a mosshorned Pasayten migrator – that makes it easy to grasp Chris Donley’s advice for when to fish the Tucannon River for steelhead these days: “Fish as late as the season allows,” tips the veteran Southeast Washington steelheader and regional Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries manager. “Most of the fish will enter on the next warm-up/ freshet, so sometime between now and late February.”

Now, if that doesn’t gel with your understanding of this northern Columbia County fishery, you would not be alone. Recent years have seen some changes with the Tuc. Big changes.

Washington steelheading is in a state of serious flux and perhaps no river exemplifies that better than the Tucannon.

• Where once this Snake River tributary was stocked with outof-basin summer-run smolts, the progeny of native fish from the valley now fire the hatchery program.

• Where for three straight years no harvestable fish were released, they are once again.

• What once was a fall fishery now is a late winter stream.

• Where all those changes led to the impression that the Tuc wasn’t worth fishing anymore, there actually are fish to be caught and kept.

Now, this is not to say the Tucannon’s going to be en fuego this month – it’s not, this season’s A-run

Once upon a time, steelheaders knew the Tucannon as a fine fall fishery – in 2011, the river’s second best season since at least the Nixon Administration if not well beyond, it yielded 563 in October, and more than 300 in the months on either side of that. But the seasons that followed would see a sharp drop as the broodstock changed and three consecutive years saw no releases of hatchery fish. “We used to love fishing that river, but for some reason, didn’t think it fished well anymore,” recalled fly fishing guide David Child of Yakima. “My fishing buddies [that’s Jason McCormick with a pair] and I haven’t been back for years.” State managers hope to change that by getting out the word that the Tuc’s a late winter river now. (DAVID CHILD)

is low and the smolt release for return this year was just 50,000 – but going forward, late winter is going to be when to start hitting this small river.

REINTRODUCING THE TUC In case you are unfamiliar with the Tucannon, it rises on the north slope of Washington’s Blue Mountains, that great heap of basalt, and cuts northwesterly across the northern edge of the rugged WenahaTucannon Wilderness Area. Not far beyond that it takes a hard right-hand turn and flows past the chain lakes in the W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area, one of WDFW’s oldest properties, then makes a gradual leroy and exits its canyon into an open valley. Where its cousin on the other side of Washington’s Blues, the Grande Ronde, carves a serpentine course, the Tucannon has dug itself a

fairly quick path to reach the Snake at Lyons Ferry. (Tucannon is a Nez Perce word for “digging.”)

Along this journey, the river is paralleled high up by Forest Service roads, then Tucannon Road, briefly by U.S. 12, and finally Highway 261 in its lower reach on either side of Starbuck. Note we said Starbuck, singular. This town is named neither for the ubiquitous coffee chain nor the first mate on the Pequod, but a long-forgotten railroad official.

There used to be a tackle shop in Starbuck that dispensed with fine advice, but Darcy Linklater tells me they closed Darver Tackle last May. With the Lyons Ferry KOA also shuttered till March, that means you should bring all the fishing gear you need because local supplies are tight.

Speaking of tight, so is access to nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 93

FISHING the Tucannon, but there are a couple nice long stretches to get on the river. The lowest is at the mouth, the Army Corps of Engineers’ 390-acre Tucannon Habitat Management Unit.

It encompasses about a mile of water, mostly below 261, but a bit above.

Parking is near where slackwater begins, depending on height of the Lower Monumental Pool, and there’s an outhouse there as well.

The second stretch to check out is at Smith Hollow Road, where a kind farmer allows access to the river.

Linklater says to watch for the 2-by-2 mini fridge sitting on the fence along 261; register there to fish upstream of the bridge, on the other side of the Tucannon RV Park.

Local game warden Brendan Vance says there are a few local landowners who will give permission, either verbal or written, to access the river as well.

The upstream deadline of the steelhead fishery is Turner Road, at Marengo.

TIMING THE TUCANNON At the top of this piece, you’ll have noticed that Donley said that “most of the fish” will be entering the river this month, as conditions moderate. That advice is based on passive integrated transponder, or PIT, tag data that shows how switching from the old Lyons Ferry broodstock – which originated from Wells Hatchery in North-central Washington – several years ago to a localized broodstock also radically altered when returning adults enter the river.

According to sonar arrays near the mouth, Lyons Ferry fish stormed in in late summer and by December 1, 70 percent were in the river.

“That big blue hump is why the Tucannon fished so well in October, November, December,” says Donley, referring to a graph put together

by WDFW research scientist Joe Bumgarner in Dayton that shows the arrival of the old stock as a blue line.

But the times, they have 94 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

A chart put together by state fisheries biologists based on PIT-tagged steelhead pinging a sonar array at the mouth of the Tucannon shows the sharp difference between when the old Lyons Ferry Hatchery stock fish –blue line – returned to the river and when the new in-basin hatchery steelhead – orange line – arrive.

The river closes to fishing March 1 to protect wild steelhead, but this data will help show federal fishery overseers the benefits of reopening the Tucannon to harvest clipped fish, both locals and strays. (WDFW)

a-changed.

“If you’re fishing like you used to in October, November and December, there aren’t any fish in the system,” he notes.

The same graph shows that the new in-basin stock more closely echoes the wild run, with just 20 percent of the overall return in the river by Jan. 1, 30 percent by Feb. 1, and somewhere around 45 percent

by March 1.

March 1, however, is when the Tucannon closes, meaning more than half of the hatchery steelhead won’t have been available for harvest this season.

This has not gone unnoticed

by WDFW. “We are working with NOAA to get the necessary permit coverage to open it longer,” Donley says. “Having said that, the wheels of government turn slowly and we don’t expect to have that extension before next year.”

THE BIG CHANGE NOAA is, of course, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, and its National Marine Fisheries Service, NMFS, is the reason the Tucannon’s hatchery program has seen a big transition through the years.

Into the 1970s, sportfishing here was dependent solely on wild steelhead, with 2,000 or more believed to have been annually harvested as late as the ’50s, according to WDFW. As you can imagine, dams, habitat and harvest all led to the run tanking, and so hatchery production began. In the late ’90s, however, steelhead throughout the Snake system were listed under the Endangered Species Act, and with that came scrutiny from NMFS about WDFW’s use of Lyons Ferry fish as hatchery broodstock. To make a long story short, while production with those steelhead continued, unclipped smolts from a wild-based broodstock began to be released in 2000 as part of a five-year test. However, after half a decade “there wasn’t enough information to determine” if that strain could replace the Lyons Ferry stock, according to WDFW. So,

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Northwest Sportsman 95

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another five-year test was ordered, and then four years into it NMFS asked for a new hatchery genetic management plan, then said it wouldn’t authorize any more releases of Lyons Ferry fish.

“Luckily, by 2010, we had enough information to determine that the ‘test’ program was successful in returning adults to support not only the sport fishery, but also to maintain a conservation component of the program to help support the depressed wild origin population,” three WDFW biologists write in a paper entitled “Where Have All The Tucannon Steelhead Gone?

And What Is WDFW Doing To Fix It?” It can be found in the Tri-State Steelheader’s spring 2016 newsletter (tristatesteelheaders.com).

Thus began the phase-out of one stock and phasing in of another, but there was a hiccup. Promises of additional space at Lyons Ferry hatchery didn’t come to fruition, according to WDFW, and so no finclipped steelhead were released into the Tucannon in 2011, 2012 or 2013.

The result of all that is that harvest went from more than 1,600 in 2011 – the second highest take back through at least 1968, state stats show – to just 132 in the 2014-15 season, the fewest in 30 years.

With such a miserable season, it’s no wonder why anglers have given up on the little river.

“Because of no harvestable releases from 2011-2013, and that word spread that ‘no’ hatchery fish were being released anymore, the angling pressure was almost non-existent this past fall/winter – something we would like to see changed,” write the state biologists, Todd Miller, Joe Bumgarner and Jeremy Trump.

Here’s where things stand now: WDFW’s goal is to raise 100,000 smolts a year for release, with half of those being fin-clipped for harvest.

It’s possible the agency could in the future rear more, but that depends on a lot of moving parts. (Millions continued on page 160

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FISHING

Clients of guide and author Keith Jensen display pairs of Rufus Woods Lake rainbows and walleye. Jensen likes to fish the latter species early in the day, then switch to trout afterwards. (BIGWALLYSGUIDESERVICE.COM)

Double Up On Rufus Woods

Tasty walleye, fun triploids to be had at North-central Washington reservoir.

By Keith Jensen

W

ild, remote, breathtaking scenery, and a lot of fish. If Webster had a definition for

Rufus Woods Lake, that would be it.

The opportunity to see mule deer, black bear, turkeys and eagles, and catch walleye and triploid trout is a normal day here. To top it all off,

the one thing you will not see here are many other boats. On most days in late winter and early spring, you will be sharing miles and miles of shoreline with only a couple of boats. nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 99

FISHING Named after a longtime owner, editor and publisher of what was then known as the Wenatchee Daily World and who also played a key role in putting in Grand Coulee Dam, Rufus Woods is a 51-mile-long reservoir that stretches from Grand Coulee Dam downstream to Chief Joseph Dam. The reservoir is bordered on its north shore by the Colville Indian Reservation, while the south shore is a combination of private land and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife ground in the form of the Big Bend Wildlife Area.

Being a walleye guide in Central Washington, my journeys take me to Banks Lake, Moses Lake, Potholes Reservoir and Rufus Woods. My rotation through these fisheries is based on time of year, as I’ve learned through experience the best months to fish each body of water. For Rufus Woods, those are March, April and early May. March

With the reservoir’s current issues, you’ll do more jigging for walleye than anything, and ¼- or 3/-ounce jigheads tipped with 4- or 5-inch single-tail grubs are a good bet. But if you’re a hardcore spinner-bottom walker angler, the Buckley Bar area is conducive to trolling a gold Mack’s Lure Smile Blade rigged with a Super Slow Death Hook and worm. (BIGWALLYSGUIDESERVICE.COM)

and April find the walleye making their yearly migration upstream to spawn, while those two months are also when the Colville Tribes often make their first and second triploid

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trout releases into the reservoir. As a result, my March and April guide trips at Rufus Woods typically begin with the first half of the day focused on walleye, then we transition over to triploids for the remainder of the day.

RUFUS WOODS WALLEYE is a fishery that flies under the radar. I believe the reservoir’s remoteness and the river current are the main reasons it receives very minimal pressure.

Indeed, whether you’re fishing for its walleye or trout, the first thing to recognize and adjust to is the current. Rufus Woods is not Lake Roosevelt, where on most days you don’t recognize any current. You will have flow here; the only question is, how much?

When targeting any species of fish in any body of water, the first key to the puzzle is the forage base.

For walleye here, that is crayfish and sculpins, with a heavy emphasis on the former. As a result, bouncing jigs tipped with single-tail grubs or tube baits are the go-to tactic. For jig heads, I prefer to use ¼- or 3-ounce jigs with a black, brown or chartreuse head. I will tip these with 4- or 5-inch single-tail grubs. Yamamoto, Kalin’s and Mister Twister grubs in green

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 101

FISHING pumpkin, watermelon, cinnamon or any other crayfish colors excel at Rufus Woods.

You are looking for current breaks, seams or gravel flats where the reservoir’s walleye are prowling looking for their next meal. When using grubs, the key is to make the bait look like a crayfish crawling on the bottom, so maintaining contact with the river bed with your jig is critical. I prefer a slow drag of the bait back to the boat as opposed to hopping it back.

Although Rufus Woods stretches for 50-plus miles, the majority of my walleye fishing takes place in the upper 10 miles of the reservoir, from Grand Coulee Dam down to the first set of net pens. When launching from the Seatons Grove Boat Launch just down from Grand Coulee, I target three primary areas while jig fishing for walleye: • The cove right at the Seatons

Jensen shows off a nice pair of Rufus Woods walleye. The daily limit allows for the retention of eight, including one over 22 inches. (BIGWALLYSGUIDESERVICE.COM)

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Northwest Sportsman 103

FISHING Grove ramp, which is a great slack water area; â&#x20AC;˘ Buckley Bar, just a couple miles down from the ramp and essentially an island. Get on the downstream of the island and you will ďŹ nd a large area out of the main current where the walleye come in to feed; â&#x20AC;˘ And Nespelem Bar, located right in front of the ďŹ rst set of net pens coming from the upstream end of the reservoir. It is located right in the main current, but the gravel ďŹ&#x201A;at located near deeper water makes for an ideal area for walleye to move up and feed on crayďŹ sh.

For the most part, pulling spinner rigs behind bottom bouncers is difďŹ cult at best at Rufus Woods due to the strong current. However, the one area where they work is Buckley Bar. The backside of the island provides water conditions conducive to slow trolling spinner rigs.

To cut right to the chase, the Mackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Lure Smile Blade in gold is my top preference at Rufus. I will use it with a Super Slow Death Hook, or I will use the Double Whammy Walleye Series Bait, also from Mackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. A 1- or 1½-ounce bottom bouncer typically gets the job done in this area. I focus my efforts in water depths of 15 to 25 feet while bottom bouncing the Buckley Bar area.

The daily limit on walleye at Rufus Woods follows the statewide regulations: eight per angler, and the ďŹ sh must be from 12 to 22 inches in length, except one can be 22 inches or longer.

ONCE YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;VE LIMITED on walleye, or if the bite slows, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to shift gears to triploid trout. Rufus Woods has some unique regulations, so it is important to educate yourself before setting out. Daily limit is two, and the use of bait and scent is allowed, but if you use either, you must keep what you catch, meaning you could be limited after the ďŹ rst two trout, no matter their size. I prefer to use all artiďŹ cial lures with no scent so that my clients can catch and release until they land the ďŹ sh they want to keep. I always pinch the barbs when triploid ďŹ shing to help ensure clean

PERMITS When ďŹ shing Rufus Woods Lake from a boat, you need either a Washington freshwater ďŹ shing license or a Colville Tribal ďŹ shing permit â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you do not need both. However, when ďŹ shing oďŹ&#x20AC; the reservoirâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s north, or reservation, bank anywhere except the Net Pens Campground designated ďŹ shing area, you must have a tribal permit. Big Wallyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s store at Coulee City and Coulee Playland Resort in Electric City carry the tribal permits. â&#x20AC;&#x201C;KJ

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Northwest Sportsman 105

FISHING safe, releases for the fish.

During December, January and February, a large majority of the triploids are roaming around the net pens and Nespelem Bar looking for an easy meal that may have fallen out of the enclosures. As a result, I focus most of my efforts here this time of year. My go-to technique is bouncing white tube baits along the sides of the bar. These Rufus Woods triploids have a strong infinity for the color white. A 3- or 4-inch tube bait bounced along the bottom with a slinky weight or pencil lead has produced countless triploids over the years in my boat.

I run a leader with a single siwash hook in my tube, then I insert a bit of flotation into the bait to get it off the bottom. I like to place either a pill float or a foam ear plug into the tube itself to allow the bait to float up off the bottom as it drifts down the bar in the current. The size of

These photos illustrate the author’s jighead-less rig for bouncing a tube bait along the bottom for Rufus Woods triploids. The trout are particularly fond of white tubes. (BIGWALLYSGUIDESERVICE.COM)

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my slinky weight or pencil lead varies depending on the strength of the current that particular day, but typically I am running ½- to 1-ounce weights. And again, I am not using any additional scent to the tube bait.

Once we hit late February, my technique for triploids switches over to pulling crankbaits. I use two main cranks at Rufus Woods: an Owner Rip ’n Minnow and a Rapala Shad Rap. I troll the latter with no modifications out of the box except for pinching the barbs, while on the other hand the former needs some tweaks. I always remove the trebles and replace them with two single siwash hooks. They greatly increase the number of hook-ups on this crankbait. Color wise, go with the perch-patterned Rip ’n Minnow, while brown crawdad and hot tiger Shad Rap work phenomenally.

When trolling with these baits, I look for shorelines that gently roll into the water, indicating the river bed has a slow taper and not a sharp drop-off right along the shore. During the late winter and all through spring, the triploids will get right close to shore and on shallow rocky flats looking to gobble up crayfish, just like the walleye are doing. I will troll upstream into the current with my crankbaits. My inside rod, the one closest to shore, will be running the Rip ’n Minnow. I want this plug, which will dive down about 3 or 4 feet, to be fishing in water depths of 4 to 7 feet. As for my outside rod fishing the deep, river-channel side of the boat, I want a bait that will dive down 8 to 12 feet, which the Shad Rap will do. I try to maintain a speed right around 2 mph.

One of the biggest keys to this technique is the amount of line you run out. This is shallow-water trolling, so it is vital to run your crankbait at least 100 feet behind the boat. When trolling this close to shore, you will see trout dart off when they see the boat. These fish will quickly calm down, however, and will return to the shallows just 108 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

Along with triploids released by the Colville Tribes for fishing, hatchery and wild rainbows are flushed out of Lake Roosevelt when high runoff “entrains” them downstream into Rufus Woods. Daily limit is two. (BIGWALLYSGUIDESERVICE.COM)

as your crankbait, set 100 to 120 feet back, reaches their area. This is longline trolling, so no extra weights are added to the presentation.

Linecounter reels are ideal for this style of fishing. It takes all of the guesswork out of how far back your crankbait is running. A Shimano Tekota spooled up with 8-pound P-line monofilament has always performed extremely well for me. For rods, I like to use 7- to 8-foot light-action downrigger rods.

No, I’m not using downriggers, but, man, watching a light-action rod get slammed by a big Rufus Woods triploid is quite addicting!!

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a new adventure or a new place to launch the boat with great scenery and lots of fish, give Rufus Woods a try in late winter and early spring. And don’t hesitate to contact me if you are looking for additional information or if you have questions. I am always happy to help as best I can. NS Editor’s note: Author Keith Jensen operates Big Wally’s Guide Service (bigwallysguideservice.com). nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 109

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Roosevelt’s Giant Kokes W

hen I was invited to try the kokanee fishing at Lake Roosevelt last winter, I had to think BASIN BEACON twice. I have caught a

By Dave Graybill lot of kokanee on Lake Chelan, but would it really be worth traveling from Leavenworth to Grand Coulee Dam to catch them? Austin Moser, of Austin’s Northwest Adventures (austinsnorthwestadventuresllc.com), assured me it would be worth the drive.

He was right. Lake Roosevelt has kokanee unlike any you will catch anywhere else in Washington state. Here, fish of 18 inches are considered the small ones.

Giant kokanee weighing 3 and 4 pounds are common, and fish to 25 inches very possible. Many think that the new state record for kokanee (current high mark: 6.25 pounds) will be set on Lake Roosevelt this winter season. That will get anglers that normally park their boats for winter out in force.

GETTING ON THE water is easy. Just 2 miles up the road from the town of Grand Coulee is Spring Canyon. This federal park has a great launch and is open all winter.

The lake level drops considerably in late winter, but you can always get to the water at the Spring Canyon ramp.

The other option is the Keller launch, north of Wilbur. Heading eastbound on Highway 2, you take a left just west of town and go north on Highway 21 down from the plateau to the ramp near the Keller Ferry dock. There is plenty of parking here and a double launch to accommodate the numbers of kokanee anglers who arrive here in the winter. There is even a marina, and you can arrange to keep your boat

Guide Austin Moser of Austin’s Northwest Adventures, shows off a pair of Lake Roosevelt kokanee. (DAVE GRAYBILL) tied up to the dock.

Last winter the fishing was great near Spring Canyon. Anglers can leave the ramp, pass through the buoys, and turn downlake towards the dam. Once you have 100 feet of water under your hull you can start trolling. One of the best areas last winter was right off the steep, rocky shore. If the fish don’t seem to be there, you can try the shore above Spring Canyon or make the run up to the Swawilla Basin. Swawilla Basin is one of the most consistent spots on the lake to find kokanee throughout the season.

Some anglers choose to launch at Keller and try the waters nearby. It is a short run down the lake and around the corner to the first bay. There is a landmark on the shore here, at the base of a draw, known as Camel Rock. It is easy to spot and you’ll know why it got its name when

you see it. Fishing in this bay can be very good, but if you aren’t finding fish, it is a short distance to “the Cliffs” just down lake. Just below the Cliffs is another spot called the Pipe Pile Hole, and if you look on the shore you will see the large stack of white PVC pipe that earned it its name.

Another popular area that anglers look for giant kokanee is uplake, past the Keller Ferry dock on the opposite shore from the Keller launch. Particularly later in the season you will see boats trolling off the mouth of or just inside the Sanpoil Arm of Lake Roosevelt. The shore just above the entrance to the Sanpoil Arm can also be very productive for big kokanee.

NOW THAT YOU know a few places to go on Lake Roosevelt to look for giant kokanee, how do you catch them? First, you have to understand that winter fishing here is very

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Northwest Sportsman 113

COLUMN different than fishing for kokanee on Lake Chelan. The food source there is deep, and it is not unusual to keep your baits below 100 feet to get to the fish. However, on Roosevelt, the forage is in the top of the water column, and you will often be fishing no deeper than 15 feet.

That is why you see most boats using side planers. These devices take your line out away from the boat. When the fish are this shallow they will move away from the boat as it goes over them, so you want your baits out a distance. For the same reason anglers put their baits way, way back behind the boat. It is not unusual to let out 100 to 150 feet of line, and then attach the side planer. The planer is then put out another 40 to 60 feet from the boat.

Moser introduced me to SideWinder planer boards. These bright orange, plastic planers have a white “bill” on the lead end that you can turn so that they run either to the right or left of the boat.

Your main line goes through the planer and you can put some bullet weights

A winning combo on Lake Roosevelt is a Kokabow blade and spinner. (DAVE GRAYBILL)

ahead of a swivel to keep everything on your line. When you put your line out, you first drop your blade or dodger with your favorite kokanee lure over the side and let it slide out while holding onto the planer.

Right out of the box the planer has a pliable plastic clip to hold your line when you have reached the distance behind

the boat you want your line to be. Then you let the line out away from the boat.

Moser had altered these planers and attached his own clip to hold the line. This was such a good idea that you can now even buy the altered planers right at the counter at Hooked on Toys (hookedontoys .com) in Wenatchee. I used the altered

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Northwest Sportsman 115

COLUMN

NEW RESTRICTIONS ON FDR TROUT To help protect native redband rainbows at sprawling Lake Roosevelt, state managers are requiring that trout with an intact adipose fin be released.

The new rule went into place late last year following Fish and Wildlife Commission action and is in effect from Grand Coulee Dam up to the power lines at the Little Dalles, which is 6 miles downstream of Northport.

The trout limit remains five, but now there’s no restriction on how many can be over 20 inches.

“There will be minimal impact to the quality of the recreational trout fishing experience on the reservoir because there are 750,000 adipose-fin clipped triploid rainbow trout stocked annually,” says Chris Donley, the state’s regional fishing manager.

Also beware that the Sanpoil Arm will not open to fishing until June 1, two months later than in the past, to protect staging redbands. –NWS

Along with nice kokanee, you’ll also hook rainbows at Lake Roosevelt, but be aware of new catch restrictions on trout at the reservoir. (DAVE GRAYBILL)

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Northwest Sportsman 117

COLUMN

This big kokanee smacked the Flicker Shad shown in its jaw. A state fishery manager says that where last winter saw stupidgood fishing for huge kokes, this season they’re more scattered.

However, surface trolling should stay good through April, then the landlocked sockeye will begin to drop deeper. (DAVE GRAYBILL) planers and they work great. No false releases, they come off the release with a simple jerk on the rod, and a big kokanee will cause them to release, too. Then the planer just slides up your line.

You can also use downriggers to get these fish. Put out 100 or more feet of line behind the boat and then attach it to your clip. I remember having the ’riggers set at 12 to 14 feet deep most of the season last year. Some days we would run rods on both planers and downriggers at the same time and caught fish on both.

NOW, WHAT DO you attach behind the side planer or downrigger? There are tons of different types of spinners, hoochies 118 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

and other kinds of kokanee getters out there. What I had great success with last year was the blades and spinners from Kokabow Fishing Tackle out of Meridian, Idaho. The blades have a great “kick” to put action on the spinner behind it. The blades and spinners come in a variety of colors, but watermelon is my favorite and the first choice of many anglers.

Beyond that, I use the darker colors on dark or cloudy days and brighter colors on bright days. The gold tail feather is terrific on bright days. Hoochie-style spinners have been popular for years with kokanee anglers, so Kokabow has added them to their available selection this year. I always encourage people to try a variety of gear,

no matter what they are fishing for. I have had great success with this gear, which is why I recommend it. It is something you should have in your box, but fishing is fishing and you may have a hot lure that works on a particular day.

Always put a kernel or two of white shoe peg corn on the hooks of the spinners or hoochies. You can fish this corn right out of the can, but I recommend adding some scent. I have had good luck with Graybill’s Guide Formula Kokanee flavor and the craw anise. This scent was developed by my brother Rick, and I have been using it for 30 years. If you like to stain your corn pink or purple, I would suggest that you use Wizard Kokanee

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Northwest Sportsman 119

Killer Korn Dye. It is easy to mix in the corn and doesn’t wash out.

Another good lure to run out behind the planer or ’rigger is either a Rapala or Flicker Shad. Some days these caught as many fish as the spinners or hoochies.

A proven color combo for Rapalas is bright orange with a white belly. The “purplessence” is another color worth a try. You can experiment with the small ones up to the big jointed models.

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Start with the smaller models.

One last important thing when trolling for kokanee: Don’t hold the horses. Troll at no slower than 1.5 mph, and 1.7 to 1.8 isn’t too fast. When the giant kokanee hit, there is no doubt about it. Often you will see them flying 3 feet out of the water behind the boat before you see your planer skidding backwards or your rod tip bouncing on the rigger. Also, a net with the longest handle you can find will pay off. You will put more fish in the boat.

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I WANT TO mention that there is an effort by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife with triploid kokanee. The state is releasing an average of 250,000 per year and biologists are trying to figure out if it is worth the effort, and you can help. Be sure to look at each kokanee you catch and see if its adipose fin has been clipped. If so, please measure the fish and contact WDFW and let them know about it. You can e-mail them the information at teamspokane@dfw.wa.gov.

Some people will shake their heads when you say you can’t wait to get out on the water this winter. They can’t believe it could be fun. They just don’t know what they are missing. Nothing warms you up faster than seeing a giant kokanee coming out of the water way back behind the boat.

You can be sure that you won’t be alone on Lake Roosevelt. Its giant kokanee will be the main attraction this winter. NS Editor’s note: Dave Graybill is a longtime North-central Washington angler and fishing writer (fishingmagician.com), and he is also a member of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

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COLUMN

Slam Dances With Squid

With the lights of the Space Needle and the rest of the Seattle skyline as a backdrop, the author’s kayak sits on the shores of squid-rich Elliott Bay. Though not a run like Puget Sound’s salmon, squid make an annual migration through the inland sea, starting in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca in spring, reaching Edmonds and Seattle by early fall and deep South Sound in winter, providing plenty of calamari. (SCOTT BRENNEMAN)

(PIXABAY.COM)

T

he anglers are lined up shoulder to shoulder and occasionally hoist up a squid and drop it into a bucket. As the THE KAYAK GUYS

By Scott By Sco cott tt Brenneman Bre renn nnem eman tide change nears, the catch rate increases and additional people wedge themselves in against the railing – combat fishing at its finest. The activity on the pier is frantic as decapods in massive numbers are attracted to the flood lights illuminating the water. Buckets are quickly filled by many happy anglers.

As the chill from the planks on the pier begins to permeate through my shoes, I decide to head home. My firsthand report confirms that the squid – along with the crowds – have arrived.

But this season I am resolute in filling

up my bucket with squid while avoiding jam-packed piers. I have noticed an increasing number of squidders in boats anchoring up with their own light source, and have always wondered how this would play from a kayak.

A FEW DAYS later, I park just south of Elliott Bay’s Seacrest Pier about two hours before high tide. A scattered layer of clouds partly fills the sky. It doesn’t take long to get ready.

A fishing rod, a box of jigs, a bucket, a net and some lights are tossed into my kayak.

Two layers of underlayment and three pairs of socks will keep me plenty warm in my dry suit. I cart my kayak down to the water. With fresh batteries installed, I turn on the stern light, don a headlamp, hop on, and off I paddle.

I spend some time exploring the waters from Duwamish Head to Jack

Block Park. All of Elliott Bay is well lit at night. The distant Seattle skyline projects its light onto every ripple of water and highlights the numerous outcroppings of pilings, piers and barges. I pass Seacrest Pier a couple of times and take note of how the crowd is doing.

I spot a large school of squid on the fish finder; they are midcolumn in 40 feet of water. I turn on a rechargeable LED work light and secure it to the side of the kayak. Eleven hundred lumens brighten the water around me. I cast and retrieve a couple of times with no luck; the school of cephalopods are gone.

The current gradually pushes me into deeper water. I reposition, deciding to concentrate my efforts in 20 to 60 feet of water. An anchor or rope with clips will help on future outings.

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Northwest Sportsman 123

COLUMN IN THE DISTANCE I can see squid are being pulled up in large numbers at the pier. I experiment with different jigging techniques. I cast and retrieve, cast and let my jigs drop. I vary the rate and length of drop with no luck. I quickly change out my top jig with an old-school chartreuse/ white pencil lead jig. Eighteen inches below is a ½-ounce red-and-white jig. I strip out 20 feet of line and slowly drop my jigs with a slight pause before I quickly lift my rod tip and immediately feel success.

Hauling up the first two squid of the night presents a new challenge – avoiding an ink shower. Bring a lid for your bucket and wear rain gear to protect your dry suit.

As I work to fill my bucket, the squid embark on an entertaining display. I watch as they congregate on the surface below my light source. Forming a mosh pit, the decapods go ballistic, dancing violently about. Clouds of ink fill the water. Darting back and forth, squid aggressively propel themselves out of the water, repeatedly

smashing themselves into the side of my kayak. After about five minutes the slam dancing abruptly comes to an end.

I continue to experiment with different depths, but can report that all my squid were caught between depths of 35 to 55 feet. After the tide change, action starts to slow and I decide to paddle to shore.

CATCHING SQUID FROM a kayak requires additional effort, compared with fishing from a pier. But for those reclusive types, the extra work is worth it. I experienced a pleasant feeling of calm and solitude in the darkness. The water, like a blanket of winter snow, insulated me from the surrounding sounds of shore. Also, having the mobility to explore new, uncrowded areas will keep things interesting on future outings.

The availability of increasingly brighter portable LED lights has created an opportunity for growth for kayak anglers wanting to target cephalopods at night.

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will attract more squid; I will be adding another 1100-lumen work light and building an underwater LED light to use on my next outing.

Drifting with the current was manageable but to increase catch rates, bring an anchor or a rope and some hand clamps for mooring yourself to a piling.

If squid are present in large numbers, they are easy to catch. Experiment with jigs from the “C” color groups –cerise and chartreuse. Try out various combinations of one or two jigs until you find something that works. Any light-action spinning rod will suffice. Shorter 6- to 7-foot rods are easier to manage, while 8- to 10-footers keep the ink spray from getting on you or your kayak.

In addition to daytime kayak fishing safety equipment, you will need a white, omnidirectional stern light that is visible from up to 1 mile away. Secure a strobe light to your PFD, plus add some flares and a flashlight into a ditch bag. A GPS and VHS radio round out the essential safety items for night fishing. NS

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COLUMN

Bide Wintertime With Blackmouth, SRCs, Bunnies E

ven as Puget Sound rivers have abruptly closed with the

By Doug Huddle temporary decline of hatchery runs and hunting seasons are now largely over, there still are February options for anglers and gunners.

Late-season blackmouth fishers and winter sea-run cutthroat anglers have a number of choices, including Marine Area 8-1, to ply for their respective quarries.

And with light, long arms such as a 20-gauge smoothbore or .22 rifle, plump native hares are a challenging hunt on snowshoes or cross-country skis.

NORTH SOUND

is focusing on forage fish aggregations.

Find schools of candlefish or herring, either inferred by the presence of feeding seabirds or with the aid of a good fishfinder, then plumb the depths below and around these clouds of Chinook food with a cripple-imitating strip, cut-plug or whole herring.

Concentrate your search on the reach that old hands here call the Saratoga “hump,” that section of the passage or strait from Onamac Point south to Elger Bay (Camano side) and from Snatelum Point to East Point (Whidbey side). This is

where the water mass of the passage tends to split on outgoing tides, or where return flow coming in from both Deception Pass and Port Gardner clash.

The closest boat launch for this fishery is Camano Island State Park west of Elger Bay; alternate ramps are at Coupeville or Oak Harbor.

In the midst of this daily ebb and flood of tidal action, baitfish schools are able to loiter and get their daily dose of plankton.

Be forewarned, these waters have extralong fetch and almost in the blink of an eye, winds can whip them into a frenzy.

An afterwork trip paid off well for Marcus Whalen last blackmouth season. He hooked this estimated 20-pounder on a cop car-pattern spoon behind a flasher. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

INSIDE BLACKMOUTH As winter wanes, fishing for immature Chinook rekindles on the south end of Area 8-1. These are the broad, open waters of Saratoga Passage between Whidbey and Camano Islands, and from mid-February through the end of April, saltwater anglers find action for both feeder and some mature kings.

The Skagit River empties into this zone, carrying with it an annual dose of hatchery-bred juvenile Chinook, and they’re joined by cultured production fish mainly of Snohomish system origin. While in other blackmouth haunts, such as the San Juans, you can park yourself on an outgoing tide shear to mooch or backtroll behind a point or through a small bay’s tidal eddy, in this particular broad marine locale, the singular axis for success

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 129

COLUMN Along the glacier-carved bluffs on either island, there are few leeward shoreline irregularities in which to take refuge.

SHORESIDE SRC’S If keeping your feet on solid ground and just wetting a toe on a winter’s outing is a must, now that rivers have all but closed until summer, here are a few publicly accessible beaches in Area 8-1 with reputations for yielding sea-run cutts.

Utsalady, Camano Island – good beach access and boat ramp located off North Camano Drive, just outside Terry Corner.

The long, arcing beach around Utsalady Bay is uniformly gravel and well known for its occasionally large cutts from the Skagit’s midreach streams above Sedro-Woolley.

Iversen Spit, Camano Island – a stretch of graveled terrace that is publicly accessible via Sunrise Drive. The south end of the spit has a string of houses beachward, but the northern half is a park that blends back into a feeder bluff on the southwest side of Livingston Bay. The sea-run cutts and rare bull trout here are caught at high slack.

West and North Beaches, Deception Pass, Whidbey Island – outside (Area 6) venues that can be fished on most tide levels. Access is assured by the expansive state park complex so-named for the spectacular narrow defile through which marine waters cycle twice a day. West Beach’s intertidal gravels, though not in Area 8-1, are occasionally bulldozed by current and wave action into runnel-like troughs at angles to the upper beach that will hold fish.

Ben Ure Spit, Whidbey Island – perhaps more rightly known as Ala Spit, now secured as a county park for public use.

A gravelly Whidbey appendage shaped by opposing wind and tidal flows from Deception Pass, typically, it’s the very tip of the spit that’s productive for cutts on a high tide.

For beach cutthroat trout angling, I lean toward using smallish spoons, particularly Dick Nites or Miracle lures. Similarly sized Panther Martin and Rooster Tail spinners also are in one of my vest pockets.

With a merciless hierarchy governing the denizens of nearshore marine 130 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

BLOW THE STINK OFF WITH SMELT The 52nd annual La Conner Smelt Derby is set for Saturday, Feb. 25, at the historic port town on Swinomish Slough in southwest Skagit County.

The greater community festival’s calendar of fundraiser breakfasts, footraces, fish painting and merchant-discounted sales now somewhat overshadow the actual fundamental hook-and-line activity from which the celebration sprang.

But this late winter event still is a great way to blow off the stink of seasonal selfimposed indoors confinement, and among the derby’s payoffs is a $100 kids’ grand prize for the biggest smelt.

Many channel-side docks and a portion of the finger piers in the port marina north of town, normally off-limits to most pedestrians, are open to jigging contestants on derby day.

No state personal use fishing license is require for smelt, though fishing regulations do impose a catch limit and restrictions on configuration of the business end of jigging rigs. But any old fishing pole will do and individual plastic buckets or bags for each participant are the only other essential elements for a family effort. –DH environs, larger predators stay further off the surf line, bellying up on the bottom around what structure they can find.

A certain amount of their daily prey intake are tiny larval crab or flatfish, but looking up from their water column basement lairs, a portion of anadromous cutthroat diets also comes in the form of larval baitfish such as herring, smelt and candlefish, which are in turn chasing microscopic plankton drift.

Silhouetted against the sky backdrop, these potential prey from the underside all appear rather uniformly dark but lively, darting targets, so black, brown or deep purple lure body colors work as enticements the majority of the time.

I’ll switch to metallic (chrome) liveries on calm, sunny, flat-water days, or white, yellow or pink if there’s a fair amount of suspended solid murkiness from an active surf or silty nearby freshwater stream discharge.

Be advised, there is a certain amount of frustration attending beach angling.

You’ll encounter from time to time masses of algae, kelp and eelgrasses even on gravelly bottomed locales, so consider using or tying up hooks with weed guards, loops of heavier, stiff monofilament.

Normally, when heading out somewhere to fish trout, I take my heavy “lake” vest, since it has the broadest range of gear. But most of my brand-new lure purchases go directly to it, hooks replete with barbs. Since barbed business ends

of lures are banned on all saltchuck gear, save baitfish jigs, I’ve prepped up a “beach” vest with lure hooks double checked to be sure they’re “fixed.”

Also, it’s not a concern when merely pinching back barbs, but if you trim off hook points or change out a treble for a double or single hook, do check and compare the lure’s action or balance with the pretreated one to make sure it retains its performance. Changes in weight or hook configuration (straight versus siwash) can throw in new twists or dull the action of a lure at varying retrieval speeds.

LAST CHANCE AT LEAPERS Members of the rabbit family – specifically, snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits – together with coyote, fox, raccoon and bobcat, are the latest hunting options remaining on the winter schedule in Washington.

Of those small game selections, rabbits are probably the most palatable of wild meats to immerse in a Georgia Brunswick, Minnesota booyah or Kentucky burgoo.

Snowshoes, proportionally the larger of the two Leporidae species that are fair game here, reside in the foothills of the Cascades and are conspicuous yearround on many forest roads, especially in mixed-stand conifer/deciduous forests open enough to have a robust ground and shrub understory. Often, Douglas firmanaged stands fit this bill. Logging roads offer sunlit transit/foraging corridors for

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COLUMN the animals, and support a diversity of viney/leafy plants on which they survive.

One month into the new year, 2017’s low-elevation snowpack in the Cascade foothills on national forest land was providing an abundance of “drive to” road snowshoeing options on which to seek hares. Sightings and sign in early and mid-December on a number of snowcovered federal and state forest roads indicate this season’s crop of big-footed hares is as robust as last year’s.

Do include gated private timberlands in your forays for snowshoes, though your walks are likely to be a combination of starting on bare ground and walking up to where snow depth requires donning snowshoes.

Also, slowly tooling along state and private logging roads on a bike below the snowline in 8- to 10-year-old clearcut units will be lucrative for these leporides, as well as cotton-taileds. Typically, hare hunts are not all day affairs, although they can be.

Snowshoes are active throughout the winter. They do not bulk up and hibernate like marmots, nor do they store food and live “underground” the way their cousins, pika, do. They must “surface” regularly to forage. It is mainly at dawn and dusk when the majority of animals are active, traveling and feeding, but another indication of the improvement in hare numbers is the ones seen out in the daylight.

Most often during daylight hours they sequester themselves in burrows or simply go hide in depressions or under surface cover such as brush, limb piles or logs called “forms,” from which they can be flushed. Their largely colorless winter pelage makes them harder to spot on snow, but many retain vestiges of the saltand-peppered brown-and-tan fur that is their summer hirsute camouflage.

A lightweight 20-, 28- or 410-gauge shotgun with a full choke is a reliable choice of hunting weaponry for hares and is preferable to a heavier fowling piece. With a head shot as the objective,

No. 6- or 7½-size pellet game loads will humanely kill a hare without ravaging its edible parts. But given concerns about lead, stick to steel or some other nontoxic shot.

Whether it has iron sights or a small scope, a nail-driving .22 rifle is a highly effective hare-splitter, and they and other smaller caliber rim- and/or centerfire modern firearms are appropriate and legal for these small game. If you hunt along limited-sight-distance corridors or terrain, use short .22 cartridges. However, if you’re confident of the backdrop safety, LRs allow you a further punch.

NEXT ISSUE

More on late-season blackmouth and beach angling options for trout, plus the lower Skagit’s spring fishery. NS Editor’s note: Doug Huddle lives in Bellingham, is retired from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and has written about hunting and fishing in the Northwest for more than 29 years.

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Extend Your Goose Season

HUNTING

Late hunting opportunities available in Southwest Washington, Northwest Oregon.

By M.D. Johnson General seasons wrapped up in January, but late goose hunts continue in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. (JULIA JOHNSON)

M

y Old Man â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and please note, that phrase is, without question, being used as a term of endearment toward my artillery captain father, Mick â&#x20AC;&#x201C; called me the other day all giggly and excited. nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 137

HUNTING “You’ll never guess, Jake,” he started. “Our goose season here in northeast Ohio runs through the first part of February. Isn’t that great?”

“It is, Pop,” I said, trying to choose my words carefully. “Ours out here only goes through March 8th.”

Silence on the other end of my cell phone.

“March, you say,” said the Old Man. “That’s a hell of a goose season.”

Even over 2,500 miles of open air, I could hear the gears turning.

“I might get him out here eventually,” I told Julia Carol, my wife. “Besides, what’s there to do on Ohio’s North Coast in March?”

And that’s a fact. For me, February has always been a down month. This was especially true during my 35-year run as a resident first of Ohio, and then later, Iowa. February in the Midwest meant the ice was sketchy, traditional fall hunting seasons were done, and it was a long 10 weeks until the start of the spring gobbler season. Yes, sir; February in the Midwest was … hell, it is a month designed to help homeowners get indoors tasks complete, and perfect the art of bitching about the weather. I got that down pat.

Out here in the Northwest, February is different. There’s steelhead, for one, and plenty of folks wile away the dregs of winter by chasing the big sea-run rainbows.

And it is true – most hunting opportunities have come and gone, and it’s a while until spring bear and turkey season open. But ’fowling fanatics ought not despair, for there are still Canada geese to be chased.

Chased, that is, in Southwest Washington’s Goose Management Area 2, and Oregon’s Northwest Permit Goose Zone. So you can think steelhead. Or squid. Or razor clams, if you must. For many of us, though, it’s all about the goose. Still.

THE PARTICULARS – WASHINGTON Here, allow me to voice a promise I made to myself regarding the topic of Southwest Washington and 138 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com

What began as a chance for expert waterfowlers to help farmers deal with depredation issues has expanded into a wider opportunity for hunters to pursue geese. The author’s well-camouflaged wife Julia Johnson hoists one. (JULIA JOHNSON)

Northwest Oregon goose hunting. I will not, not even once, mention how convoluted and constantly in flux these waterfowling opportunities appear, at least to me, to be. Let me just say in understatement that they are continually evolving, and hunters, even field veterans, would be well advised to check the migratory bird regulations before, during, and after what we’ll refer to here as the Extended Goose Season (EGS) for any updates or changes to which they might not be aware. Get your paperwork in order, and keep your paperwork in order. Above all, know what a dusky Canada goose looks like under optimum viewing conditions. Note: We enjoy said optimum viewing conditions very infrequently here in the country on either side of the Lower Columbia, but that’s no excuse for not knowing – refrain from shooting said dusky Canada goose. If you can keep all that straight, you’ll do fine. Maybe.

The EGS in Washington is open in the aforementioned Goose Management Area 2, formerly known as Goose Management Area 2A and 2B. The area consists of five counties – Clark, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Pacific, and Grays Harbor. The EGS itself is open on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from Feb. 11 through March 8. Hunting is allowed on private and public lands; however, all national wildlife refuges – Ridgefield and Julia Butler Hansen – and state wildlife areas, e.g. Vancouver/Shillapoo Lake, are closed during this time. The daily bag limit is four Canada geese only, with a possession limit of 12.

Shooting hours are 30 minutes after the start of legal waterfowl shooting hours – translation: 30 minutes after legal shooting time for ducks, if duck season were open – to 30 minutes before official sunset. All hunters participating in this or any goose season in Southwest Washington must first take and successfully

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HUNTING pass the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s online goose identification, aka authorization, course. Participants must then have in their possession afield the following certifications: signed federal migratory bird stamp; state migratory bird stamp; small game license; and a Goose Management Area 2 authorization.

See? Simple.

after sunrise to 15 minutes before sunset. Some land masses within the zone are closed during the EGS, and it behooves ’fowlers to consult page 22 of the current ODFW Game Bird pamphlet for those details.

Bag limits, too, differ in Oregon, with hunters allowed four Canada geese, 10 white-fronted geese, and six white (snow) geese. Other than those deviations, it’s the same – no dusky Canada geese and an annual permit/authorization is necessary.

THE PARTICULARS – OREGON Northwest Oregon’s regulations concerning the EGS are essentially the same as Washington’s, with some exceptions. It’s open in 13 counties, including Clatsop, Tillamook, Lincoln, Benton, Polk, Yamhill, Washington, Lane, Columbia, Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, and Linn. The exceptions are as follows: Hunting is permitted seven days a week from Feb. 4 through March 10.

Legal shooting hours are 15 minutes

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WHERE TO GO In Washington, the EGS is essentially a private lands opportunity, meaning, if you don’t have access to private ground with geese, it’s time to start that door knockin’ campaign in earnest.

“Originally, this late season teamed Master Hunters with private landowners who were experiencing goose (depredation) problems,” says Nicholle Stephens, WDFW District 10 wildlife biologist overseeing

operations in Lewis, Cowlitz, and Wahkiakum Counties. “We wanted to expand the opportunities. Now, anyone properly licensed can hunt.”

Still, and at least on the north side of the Columbia, the EGS is, for all intents and purposes, a private lands game. That being said, if a person were to find a knot of Canadas partial to a particular low-tide sandbar on the Columbia that 1) adjoined Goose Management Area 2; and 2) was not part of a national wildlife refuge or piece of WDFW-owned property, I’m not sure what would prevent that site from becoming the scene of quite the memorable February goose hunt.

If, I believe the bottom line to be, in doubt as to whether or not a spot of ground is “open” during the EGS, it might be best to consult your local fish and wildlife officer or WDFW’s Region 5 or 6 offices (360-696-6211; 249-4628) for clarification.

See? Even simpler.

In Northwest Oregon, the whereto-hunt part of the equation is a bit more liberal, with an emphasis on the phrase “a bit.” Lands within the 13 aforementioned counties are open to goose hunting, with the exception of the Fern Ridge, E.E. Wilson, and Sauvie Island Wildlife Areas, along with a portion of Tillamook County detailed on page 22 of the annual game bird regulations. To backpeddle a bit, select areas of Sauvie Island, namely the Eastside, Westside, and Oak Island Units, are open to goose hunting during the EGS, but for white (snow) geese only.

“Here in Northwest Oregon, it’s (hunting opportunities during the extended season) still relatively limited,” says Brandon Reishus, ODFW’s migratory game bird coordinator.

“There are no opportunities on national wildlife refuges managed for geese here in Northwest Oregon; however, portions of refuges such as Lewis & Clark or Julia Butler Hansen can be good for honkers. You’re not going to see thousands of cacklers grind down in a spot like those, but for honkers, it can be good.”

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 141

HUNTING “The Willamette River, too,” Reishus continues, “can be good.

Folks will set up on small backwaters or gravel bars below the high water mark, and target honkers. But again, (these places) will provide poor opportunities for thousands of cacklers.”

Without question, the best way to approach the EGS in either state is to, well in advance of the season, do your scouting, locate the appropriate landowner, ask for – and hopefully receive – their blessing to hunt, and then hunt the property effectively.

How? Read on.

You’re not targeting the big flocks of cacklers, but local family groups that can be brought in with well-spaced decoys and light calling. (JULIA JOHNSON)

TARGETING LATE-SEASON CANADAS I focus primarily on the larger western Canadas during the EGS, essentially because I can hunt them effectively with 10 to 30 full-body decoys. Cacklers, especially those birds balled up in the late winter and early spring giving thought to

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heading back north to the Yukon for nesting purposes, more often than not require 4.238 million decoys, along with a symphony of callers and calling. To the ’fowlers who

target these little irritants specifically and successfully, my hat’s off to you; personally, cacklers give me the willies, and not in a good way. So I stick with the bigger geese.

By mid- to late February, many subspecies of Canada geese, westerns included, are either starting to or have established pair bonds for the coming nesting season. Too, many of these birds have reverted back to the family group concept; that is, small – four- to seven-member – family flocks appear the priority, outranking feed, perhaps because there never was a scarcity of food throughout the whole of the season.

Whatever the reason, both of these characteristics can be used to your advantage, for as much as these pairs and family groups wish to be left alone, geese are tremendously gregarious creatures. It’s as if they’re unable to resist other birds on the ground, even if it’s to simply swing closer for a look and an outburst of profane goose-speak.

To this end, I continue setting my go-to 20 Greenhead Gear lesser full-bodies in three- to four-bird family groups, with plenty of room, e.g. 10 full steps or more, between each group. For the most realistic look, I’ll set a high-head sentry, aka

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Northwest Sportsman 143

MORE LATE GOOSE OPS Oregon South Coast Zone: Feb. 18-March 10 Klamath, Lake, Harney & Malheur Counties Zone (white and white-fronted goose): Jan. 16-March 10 See the pamphlet for complete rules.

“Aggressive Caller/Greeter,” at the edge of each group. Conflict among these late-season big geese is often imminent; meaning, newcomers frequently won’t land in the midst of these potential problems, but rather on the fringe of the spread. Due to this tendency, I’ll play the wind and position my well-hidden blind – note the word “well-hidden;” if you’re not hidden, you’re not shooting – on the upwind half of the rig, even going so far as to hide 10 to 40 steps upwind should the birds display a hesitancy to land any closer.

Calling, for me, is minimal now to begin with. A honk or two to attract attention – maybe the quick flicker of a black flag – and then quiet. Often, I won’t call immediately upon seeing birds, but will wait until they’ve passed and then hit them with midvolume pleading honks and comebacks before shutting it off. Once the birds get inside 100 yards, one of two things happen: 1) I don’t touch the call again and let them come; or 2) if they appear reluctant, I’ll get aggressive and challenging, as both sexes, goose and gander, are prone to display at this time of year.

Hunting February Canadas can be, and often is, as challenging a waterfowling proposition as can be had. Remember, many of these birds have been hunted now, off and on, for five full months. Pushovers, they’re not, but they also provide a fantastic wingshooting opportunity at a time of year when there’s little to do but fish for silly steelhead.

Oooooo, I’m going to hear about that one. NS

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COLUMN

Chinese barbecued pork meets mallard in this smoked duck recipe that author Randy King says “didn’t suck.” (RANDY KING)

Learning To Call – And Smoke – Ducks I

don’t own a duck call. So it makes sense that I don’t know how to use a duck CHEF call. I grab the

By Randy King wrong end and blow, most times.

When I actually get a call to make a noise, it is combination turkey gobble/owl hoot/

distressed rabbit coyote call. I can flare ducks that are miles off. My wife bought me duck decoys for Christmas one year; half of them have never been wet.

Sure, I harvest a decent number of ducks … that are almost always shot off the same creek bottom I know well.

I know where the mallards congregate, where the wood ducks hide – and how to sneak in for a shot. I like to think that I am

a duck hunter, but I am not. I am a duck jumper. But I have set out to change this.

Mostly because I really like to eat them.

LUCKILY FOR ME, I live within sight of a lake that allows public duck hunting. Lake Lowell in Nampa, Idaho, is a part of the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge complex and provides excellent, if sometimes crowded, duck hunting. (Geese are protected on the nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 147

COLUMN refuge, so there are thousands of them.)

Committed to my mantra of “hunt close when I can” I headed to my local lake.

My hunting buddy Drew, who is the communications director for Ducks Unlimited in Idaho, offered to take me out

and teach me the basics of “calling them in.” I was afraid, but with a backpack full of decoys and wearing 10-ply neoprene waders, I was ready for battle.

The lake is accessed through a wide assortment of walk-in areas and is closed to motorized watercraft during waterfowl

season. After a mile-long hike and with the porch lights from a house overlooking the lake directly behind us, we tossed out our decoys. We made a J-shape in the reeds and quickly constructed a makeshift blind out of them. Then we waited for shooting light.

SMOKED ‘CHAR SIU’ DUCK Char siu is a classic Chinese barbecued pork preparation. It produces this great combination of heat and sweet with exotic flavors bouncing around in your mouth. This does very well with a “fatty” type of meat, and a good wintertime duck is often just the thing! The fattiness of the skin gives the perfect balance of flavors for char siu.

As with a lot of inspiration, this dish came out of desperation. I had an overabundance of duck and wanted a method that allowed me to smoke them whole and give away as gifts. A whole smoked duck makes a great present.

For this recipe it is best to pluck the duck. Some ducks, depending on shot placement, will not be ideal for plucking.

For a great video on plucking a duck, check out Hank Shaw’s YouTube channel. There are several methods, some involving wax, others involving a blow torch. Either way, just get the feathers off and keep the skin on before you put them in the smoker.

TIPS FOR SMOKING A DUCK • Use fruit wood in the smoker. Apple is my go-to, but peach and cherry are good.

• Brining the meat might be helpful, but this recipe does not need it. Brining gets juice into the meat and keeps the meat moister. I do about 2 quarts of water, ¼ cup kosher salt, 1/8 cup brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of pickling spice in my brine. Then I submerge the duck overnight. If you are looking for that pink color of store-bought smoked duck, add 1 teaspoon of Insta Cure #1 to the brine.

• Feel free to substitute flavors. Add orange peel, maple syrup – be creative.

• But note that a dry duck smokes better, so give the duck a whole day uncovered in the fridge to air dry if you 148 Northwest Sportsman

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brine it. This will help the smoky flavor. It creates a pellicle, a sticky film that makes the smoke stick.

• Also follow Shaw’s advice and “don’t smoke sea ducks.” I would add, don’t smoke divers or coots. Do something else with them – make sausage or something.

• And finally, don’t smoke a skinned duck. It will make for dry, disappointing eating. Skinless smoked duck is better as jerky.

CHAR SIU MARINADE/SAUCE For this recipe I have made some substitutions off of the classic preparation so that you should be able to find all of the items below at a regular old grocery store, except for the ducks, which you supply, tiger: 4 whole ducks – plucked ¼ cup apple cider vinegar 3 tablespoons honey 3 tablespoons soy sauce 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce 2 tablespoons gochuchang/chili bean paste 6 cloves of garlic 1 thumb-sized chunk of peeled ginger 1 teaspoon five-spice powder For the sauce, puree all ingredients, except the duck (duh), in a blender for one minute.

Next separate the sauce into two batches. Reserve one batch in the fridge; it will be for basting. With the other liberally rub down the whole ducks. Leave the birds uncovered and breast side down in the fridge overnight on a cookie sheet or in a baking pan. Every few hours spoon the sauce that drips off back on top of the birds and rotate them. (You are letting the sauce dry on the birds at this point, so that

The author smokes the ducks for four hours at 225 degrees. (RANDY KING) it will stick better in the smoker.)

The next day, remove the birds and let them come to room temperature, or about one hour on the counter. Place the birds on the racks in the smoker or hang them, as seen in the accompanying image. Smoke the birds for four hours at 225 degrees. Every hour open the smoker and baste the birds with more sauce. This will start to create a lacquer on the duck and they will begin to turn very dark. That is OK. When four hours are up, remove birds from the smoker and let rest for 20 minutes before eating. These birds also do very well cooled and eaten later.

I’ll vacuum seal them and toss them in the freezer. Give them out as presents to friends – or hoard them and eat them alone in the summer when you want to hunt ducks.

Cut them in half, either on the bone or off. Serve with white rice.

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

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COLUMN Soon, a pair of mallards swung into our spread to take a look. They took a look, didn’t like what they saw and peeled off.

And that was the pattern of the day. We took a few shots at some passing birds,

but not a single duck committed.

As yet another group flew over us, Drew called and the birds didn’t even give us a look. Don’t get me wrong: I like sitting in the mud drinking coffee as much as the next guy, especially when it is freezing

King admits he’s not the world’s best caller, but he’s got a spot or two he can rely on for dinner ducks to fly or, in this case, swim in. (RANDY KING)

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cold out. But the lack of ducks committing was frustrating. Drew just smiled. He showed me the basics, the baseline “how to say” hello, etc., on the call.

“But, if they don’t want to land, they won’t land,” he added.

Another group passed by. Instead of calling Drew started sounding off on his call, making it sound like a vulgar Donald Duck in a profanity-laced tirade. It was quite possibly the best calling/mockery I have ever seen. The ducks did not come in. It was time to pack up.

A few weeks later I was alone at the lake, my decoys in the water and a new call in hand. The sky was all but empty.

The few passing ducks would not even look my direction, but then the funniest thing happened. From the right, a pair of mallards swam up and headed right for my decoys. When they came into range, I stood up. The ducks jumped off the water and I shot the greenhead out of the sky.

I am not sure if it counts, but I’m gonna say I called those ducks in. NS

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COLUMN

Bringing A New Pup Home Y

ou’ve picked out your gun dog, it was born seven weeks ago, now it’s time to bring it home. How hard can GUN DOGGIN’ 101 that be, right?

By Scott Haugen When it comes to establishing discipline, expectations and developing a line of consistent communication, it starts the day you bring that pup home. The key to success is being prepared.

When you bring your puppy home, one of the most important things you can do is play with it, every day. This will begin to establish a strong bond that will carry over into the field. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

I LIKE BRINGING pups home when they are seven to eight weeks old, no sooner.

By seven weeks of age the pups in the litter have had a chance to bond, and now they’re starting to establish a pecking order, but it’s not developed to the point they’ll be stubborn. In order to get a pup that’s not too headstrong, one where you can bond with it and begin to fulfill the position of master, seven weeks is the ideal timeframe. However, if you bring a pup home at this age, it will be biting more and acting up, meaning you have to take action immediately to start teaching it right and wrong behaviors.

Before the gun dog pup comes home, be ready. The goal is to never put your dog in a position where it can get into trouble.

Pick up all shoes, cover any exposed electrical cords, position or cover parts of furniture you don’t want getting chewed on, and make sure any low-hanging items you don’t want the pup grabbing are out of reach. If you have other pets, or children, make sure all their toys are picked up and put away. It works well to have an area in the house completely puppy-proofed for playtime and socialization when out of the kennel. Have items like gates and pens already in place to contain the pup.

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COLUMN I like having two, even three kennels in place before the puppy comes home. I keep one right by the door where it will be potty trained, one by our bed for sleeping at night, and one outside where the puppy can be when not closely supervised.

Kennels, or crates, should never be a place of punishment. They should always be a place of comfort. I’ll focus on crate training in my July column.

As soon as the puppy comes home, let it explore and praise this behavior. Let it see and smell all there is, inside and out. This will take a few days, and even if covering the same ground, that’s good, as this is how the pup becomes familiar with its new surroundings and builds confidence.

Take it for walks outside and introduce it to clean water right away. Let the puppy walk through the water, and if it’s reluctant, get down on its level and make it fun. Even if it’s just getting its paws wet, that’s great.

Avoid forcing the dog into water, especially if it’s cold. You don’t want the pup to have a negative association with water, so be patient, as it can take five months or more for them to become comfortable with it, especially if born in the winter.

IF YOU HAVEN’T had a hunting dog, you’ll be surprised how much a puppy sleeps during the course of the day. Rest is valuable, as their body and brain need it. When the pup is ready to crash, let

it. When it’s ready to play, give it your undivided attention.

If the new puppy has to be left in a crate while you’re at work all day, now might not be the time to get one. A growing puppy needs a lot of stimulation, attention, love, guidance and bonding time, which is established through playing. This is when they learn to trust you, their master and hunting partner.

Their brains are like a sponge, and they need you every day, teaching them how to behave and introducing them to new sights, smells and sounds. The more you’re around them, the more they trust you and the better they’ll be at following your commands as they mature.

A puppy will get into mischief, and rather than swatting at them or hollering, try a simple, raspy, high-pitched “Eh-eh!” This sharp, fast sequence of notes will teach them right away that what they’re doing must be stopped. Learned young, your dog will respect this verbal cue for the rest of its life.

The first few days is a good time to introduce your pup to other people in the neighborhood, friends, relatives and, especially, kids. You want them to meet many people and learn to trust them. Also, get them around the vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, drier, lawn mower and anything else that makes loud sounds.

Do it in a subtle manner, so the dog isn’t scared or intimidated. Hold the pup if

When playing with your puppy, put your hands in its mouth, rub its ears and between its toes.

This helps form trust that will come in handy once the dog starts hunting. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

Having multiple kennels, pens and a puppy-proofed play area are important for not only keeping your pup out of trouble but providing it a place to rest and feel secure. (SCOTT HAUGEN) you have to, rather than leaving it on the ground where things can be intimidating.

Above all else, when that puppy is awake, spend as much time with it as possible. Introduce it to safe toys and play with the pup. Get on the ground and roll around with it, hug it, rub its ears, teeth, mouth, and toes, talk to it and make it feel welcome. Remember, a quality gun dog is going to be a better hunter than you; that trait it’s born with. It’s up to you to make its early days at home safe and positive, and establish yourself as the one who’ll be in charge throughout its life. Puppies are meant to be played with and have fun, even if it’s a gun dog. Don’t be hard on them at this young age, and don’t have unrealistic expectations.

Next month I’ll focus on potty training your gun dog puppy, then we’ll get into teaching it how to efficiently hunt a range of things, while maintaining self control. NS Editor’s note: To watch some of Scott Haugen’s dog training tips in action, check out talltimberpudelpointers.com.

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COLUMN

Hunter Ed, Buzz Style I

couldn’t help myself, booking a drop-camp elk hunt in Colorado before realizing the hunter education BUZZ RAMSEY requirement there included me. Not that passing a course would have detoured me from the trip, it’s just that due to my age, I haven’t had to take hunter ed in order to purchase a hunting license in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming or other places I’ve hunted over the decades.

And while I studied the hunter education material with our two boys when they got their hunter safety card years ago, not needing proof that I’d taken a course, I didn’t take the final test.

With 40 years of hunting experience under my belt it seemed, for a moment, like I was being saddled with a needless project I didn’t have time for. But that didn’t matter: the law is the law. Since I was born after Jan. 1, 1949, I would have to take a state course and pass the final test if I wanted to hunt in Colorado.

WHAT I LEARNED is that while Washington offers traditional classroom hunter education courses, like what our boys and I once attended, I could take an online course followed by the field skills evaluation. And while you can study the online material at any pace you choose, I decided to study it and take the test in a single day. This took me seven hours to complete. I could have shortened the time if I’d not taken the practice test prior to the final.

The main focus of the course, as its name implies, is learning to be a safe hunter. Believe me, the hardest part of hunting is to find a partner who religiously practices hunter safety, combined with one willing to abide by all rules explained in the regulation pamphlet.

Although the course includes a wealth of information on many topics related to hunting, it points out that careless handling is the leading cause of hunting-related firearm

Even though Buzz Ramsey’s been hunting for decades – he killed this cow, his first wapiti, in 1989 – when he recently signed up for a Colorado dropcamp elk hunt, he realized he’d need to take hunter ed to qualify to head afield in the Centennial State. The experience provided him a reminder on safety, but also that courses don’t teach everything, such as how animals act after the shot: He tracked his cow a mile before it tipped over. (BUZZ RAMSEY; WDFW)

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COLUMN accidents. Here are some basic rules every hunter needs to follow, and even veteran hunters should be reminded of: 1) Treat every firearm as if it were loaded; 2) Always point guns in a safe direction; 3) Accept a firearm from another person only if the action is open; 4) Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire; 5) Use your safety … safeties sometimes fail.

The course includes much more than what I’ve listed here, but in addition, the material points out that 60 percent of firearm deaths happen in or near home, with half involving friends and a third of the accidents entailing individuals shooting themselves.

What you might not know, until you take a hunter safety course, is that rifle bullets can travel 5 miles and pellets from a shotgun can travel 200 yards or more before falling to the ground. This means, it’s your responsibility to make sure there is dirt behind your target before firing.

The field skills evaluation, which takes about four hours, includes a pretty complete review of all course material, along with a PowerPoint presentation; shoot/don’t shoot exercises, safe firearm carry positions, live fire, and a 20-question test. All students in the class I attended passed.

If you intend to purchase a hunting license in Washington, realize you must have completed a hunter education course if you were born after Jan. 1, 1972; after Dec. 31, 1974 in Idaho; and are younger than 18 in Oregon. If you’re a first-time hunter and plan to hunt this fall, now might be the time to complete your hunter education training, as very few classes are available late in the year (see page 160 for links to state programs).

WHAT COURSES DON’T cover is how animals may react when hit by a speeding bullet. I’ve shot more than a few deer (and elk, for that matter) that showed no sign of a hit until a minute or more afterwards. I once shot an elk that traveled nearly a mile before falling over. Since the elk showed no immediate sign of the behind-the-shoulder hit, I’m not

sure I would have found the animal had there not been 6 inches of snow on the ground. The lesson: always assume you hit the animal and search the area thoroughly before assuming you missed.

Below are strategies that will help you find success when chasing big game:

Stand Hunting As the name implies, stand hunting is where you position yourself in the path of game moving from a nighttime feeding area to their daytime bedding area. One stand hunting strategy used by solo hunters (trying to compete with the masses) is to take a stand near an escape route frequented by game.

Escape routes, depending on the terrain, may include a thick corridor of brush or trees, well-defined game trail, ravine, creek bottom, or the shortest route into the next canyon.

Remember to conceal yourself downwind where you can watch one or more possible exits. Being familiar with the country can offer you a huge advantage in selecting your position, which may be opposite from where

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COLUMN other hunters enter the woods.

Organizing a Drive You will need several hunting buddies to join in if you decide to organize a drive. The strategy here is for two or more hunters to walk through a selected area in an attempt to drive, or push, game to known escape routes where other members of your party, perhaps you, wait. If you try this, it’s important to allow adequate time for everyone to get into position before starting a drive.

When planning a drive, the amount of available cover dictates how far apart each participant should be – closer in thick brush or trees, farther apart in more open areas. I’ve tried this with an aggressive approach, where each driver moves at a steady pace, and a stop-look-listen advance. As a driver, I’ve always had the best success by moving slowly. However you do it, remember that everyone needs to agree in advance on how fast they will move, and that safety is paramount.

Spot and Stalk If you’re hunting open country, where game can bed in small brush patches or other sparse cover, the spot-and-stalk technique may work for you. This method requires a continued from page 138

of dollars are being spent on habitat work in and along the Tucannon for spring Chinook restoration.) In the meanwhile, this month should see a push of one- and two-salt steelies into the river. The biologists acknowledge that this season might not be that great, but they’ve got their eye on the future.

“All of these changes to the steelhead fishery on the Tucannon were unexpected and we realize it may take some time before our efforts are successful,” the trio write, “but ultimately we would like to see the steelhead fishery on the Tucannon return to previous levels, with lots of angler effort and harvest.

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quality pair of binoculars and/or a spotting scope. The idea is to spy game from far enough away that they don’t consider you a threat or can’t see you at all. Once you locate one, the idea is to sneak within shooting range by using the available terrain or foliage to conceal your approach.

Still-hunting Still-hunting is a strategy that means just what it says: hunting slowly. The idea is to quietly move along while scanning back and forth in an effort to spot game before they spot you. This method will require you to move quietly and with the wind in your favor. You’ll have the best success if you look more than you walk. You can check out suspicious movement by using your binoculars, focused at the desired distance, to scan the thick stuff. NS Editor’s note: The author is a brand manager and part of the management team at Yakima Bait. Like Buzz on Facebook.

Back in the day, hunters didn’t need to take safety courses, but they’re now widely recovered. Buzz’s son Wade completed his several years ago and has gone on to be a successful Washington and Oregon mule deer hunter. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

HUNTER ED INFO You can find out more about hunter ed requirements ements and class options at these state agency websites:: Idaho: Montana: Oregon: Washington:

idfg.idaho.gov/hunt/education fwp.mt.gov/education/hunter dfw.state.or.us/education/hunter er d wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/huntered

your help.”

They’re asking anglers to return to the river, keep all hatchery fish (retention is mandatory), and tell fellow fishermen that once again harvestable steelhead are returning to the Tucannon.

In late winter.

TUCANNON TIPS As for how to fish the river, it’s really no different than other steelhead streams. Where there’s deeper, slower water, like at the mouth, try a shrimp-tipped jig under a bobber.

Where there’s current across a flat, swing a spoon. Find drift fishing water, run a Corky and eggs through it. Bait’s legal, though you’ll need to crimp your barbs.

Trump, the biologist, says that it won’t take much to spur the steelies into biting, just an increase in air temps and flow.

“As we move into late January and February the fishing should pick up, and those fish that are currently holding will begin to move upstream with increases in flow,” he says.

One thing to watch will be flows out of Pataha Creek, below Highway 12, which can make things muddy as these wheatlands begin to thaw, Trump tips. Gauges for both the Tucannon and Pataha can be found at waterdata.usgs.gov/wa/nwis/ rt and through ecy.wa.gov/index. html, respectively.

Daily limit is two hatchery steelhead, as well as 15 whitefish. NS

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COLUMN

Coyotes, New Guns On Tap W

ith all the cold weather and snow in late fall and now winter, you can bet Northwest coyote pelts are in superb condition. If you’re looking for some interesting action, popping a yodel dog or two can get the adrenaline flowing, and it helps maintain patience and trigger discipline in the “off” season.

At the same time, you’re actually doing deer and elk herds a little favor. Dead coyotes don’t take down fawns and calves, nor do they prey on upland game.

ON TARGET

By Dave Workman

IF I CAN set aside some time, I’m going to dust off my old .257 Roberts with the synthetic stock and Douglas barrel, slap on a Harris bipod, grab a box of handloads and make for the boonies east of Snoqualmie Pass, probably over on the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area or somewhere up the Manastash.

During the fall hunting season, I ran across a few coyotes up in those areas, including one knucklehead that stood in the middle of a gravel road about 80 yards from me, like he was daring me to try my luck. Since I don’t shoot coyotes or anything else standing in a road, he was safe, but I don’t like smartass coyotes and I’d like to see that twerp again.

I shoot a 100-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip over a healthy dose of IMR 4895 that is ignited by a CCI primer out of that rifle.

I’ve killed some deer with that gun, but I haven’t really hunted with it for several years. It has always been capable of shooting cloverleaf three-shot groups at 100 yards. The last time I fired it at a ’yote was over above Blewett Pass at a place called Haney Meadow. There were several critters working a cow carcass and I had settled down with my back against an old fence post at about 300 yards away.

At the shot, the coyote I was aiming at jumped a bit, but he managed to run off into the woods and I never found a blood trail, so maybe I just nicked the sucker. But that .257 Roberts is a sizzling little round that can put the hurt on when it hits.

Don’t forget rabbits and snowshoe hares, either. With a good .22 or a .410 shotgun, you can make quick work of a bunny, and they cook up good.

A Central Oregon coyote scavenges a partially covered mule deer. Winter marks prime time for pelts for fur hunters. (JON NELSON, FLICKR)

WHILE NORTHWEST HUNTERS and shooters will warm right up to new firearms from Ruger and Savage, legislation announced in late December aimed at banning socalled “assault weapons” puts at least some of those firearms, and guns that are already owned, squarely in the crosshairs.

The draft bill circulated in December in Olympia classifies .22-caliber semiauto

rimfires with tubular magazines that hold more than 10 rounds as “assault weapons.”

That would include the Marlin Model 60, for example. Pistols with detachable magazines and various other features including threaded barrels that can accept silencers are also singled out.

You can bet antigunners are not going to like the new Savage MSR 10 Hunter

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Savage MSR 10 Hunter in .308. (SAVAGE)

and Long Range models. These modern sporting rifles are chambered for serious game cartridges: the .308 Winchester and 6.5 Creedmoor. Contrary to what gun prohibitionists argue, you really can hunt deer with these, and maybe elk, black bear, mountain goat, mountain lion and other game found in other states.

The MSR 10 models are built on the AR-10 platform. The Hunter version has a 161/8-inch barrel for the .308, while the 6.5 Creedmoor has an 18-inch tube. The Long Range model has a 20-inch barrel for the .308 version, while the 6.5 Creedmoor wears a 22-incher. All barrels feature button rifling. They are finished inside and out with Melonite QPQ surfacehardening treatment.

Ruger’s new Mini Thirty incarnation is chambered for the 7.62x39mm cartridge, which has found a fair amount of popularity among whitetail deer hunters in places like Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s a pretty good brush cartridge, and with the right loads falls in there just behind the .30-30 Winchester.

Virtually all the current loading manuals offer several

®

different loads for the 7.62x39, and there are bullet choices from various manufacturers.

The Mini Thirty has a 16.12-inch cold hammer-forged stainless-steel barrel cut with six groove rifling on a 1:10-inch right-hand twist, and it holds 20 rounds.

Weighing 6.7 pounds, it is 36.75 inches overall length.

It’s got a tough Garand-style action with breechbolt locking system, a fixedpiston gas system and self-cleaning “moving gas cylinder,” according to Ruger literature. The integral scope mounts are machined into the receiver, and rings are included in the package. The stock is synthetic, which makes it impervious to Northwest weather conditions.

The rifle also has metallic sights, including an adjustable ghost ring rear aperture and protected nonglare blade front. It comes with two magazines.

For the traditional bolt-action fan, Remington’s new Model 700 AWR (for “American Wilderness Rifle”) should win quick fans. Featuring a 416

stainless steel barreled action that is finished in rough black Cerakote, it has an All Weather stock made from fiberglass and epoxy with pillar bedding, and it has front and rear QD sling swivel studs and a thick recoil pad. The free-floating barrel is 24 inches long, and the design includes the X-Mark Pro externally adjustable trigger.

Drilled and tapped for scope mounts, the Model 700 SWR is chambered in .270 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum. The -06 and .270 hold four cartridges, while the magnums hold three.

For more on these offerings, see Remington.com Savagearms.com and Ruger.com.

FOR HANDGUNNERS, RUGER has introduced the GP100 revolver in .44 Special. This is clearly a handgun for people interested in concealed carry with decent knock-down power but without the recoil of a magnum. I’ve always liked the GP100 design. It’s tough as nails with a triple-locking cylinder that locks front, rear and on the bottom. This setup assures

Ruger Mini Thirty, chambered in 7.62x39mm. (RUGER)

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positive alignment between the cylinder chamber and forcing cone.

Naturally, Ruger incorporates its transfer bar mechanism for added safety, and the five-round revolver has a 3-inch barrel cut with 1:20-inch rifling on a right-hand twist.

The new GP100 version is made from stainless steel with a matte finish. It sports an adjustable rear sight and fiber optic front sight. The unfluted cylinder holds five rounds, and it wears a Hogue Monogrip. It’s a handsome package that will carry well even at 36 ounces.

Don’t sell the .44 Special short. Just because the cartridge dates back to the late 1800s doesn’t mean it’s over the hill. It was a fight-stopper then and the same applies today, especially since ammunition developers have had more than a century to improve its ballistic performance. Improved bullet designs get the most out of the .44, and that’s saying a lot. NS Ruger GP100 in .44 Special. (RUGER)

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HUNTING

Spring Bear Tips

Spring bear hunts are held throughout the Northwest and this month marks when to apply for controlled permits or pick up one of the limited number of overthe-counter tags for Southwest Oregon. That’s where Ron Gardner got it done in spring 2015, hunting the Indigo Wildlife Management Unit with friend Carl “Pack Mule” Lewallen. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

With this month being the deadline to apply for the thousands of special permits available in Washington and Oregon, now’s the time to consider a hunt.

By Douglas Boze

N

ow is a great time to start considering this spring’s bear season in the Northwest.

It’s a wonderful time to hunt. Bear hides are prime, the weather is fair (sometimes!), the land is beginning

to green up and you can dust off the cobwebs that have been gathering around you since most hunting seasons wrapped up earlier this winter and last fall. It’s also a great time to search for shed antlers.

SPRING BEAR APPLICATIONS are due

shortly – Feb. 10 for Oregon and Feb. 28 for Washington – and if you haven’t put in, you should. I have been drawn twice, and both times – 2009 and 2015 – I was successful, taking a boar each year.

I can remember my first year hunting for spring bear. I wasn’t nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017

Northwest Sportsman 169

HUNTING quite sure what to look for. It was only after much research online, as well as self-taught trial and error that I began to figure it out.

If you have put in for the special draws before, you probably have a good idea of where you want to go and how to hunt it. If you have not, or it is a new area, be sure to take the time to get to know the area beforehand, and to know what food sources are going to be hit by the bears that time of year. This will save you precious time when season starts.

In Washington, there are over 800 spring permits available, mostly in the northeastern and southeastern corners of the state but also on state and private timberlands in the Skagit Valley and near Mt. Rainier, Monroe, Copalis and in Pacific County. New this season are 10 permits split between the Kitsap and Mason Game Management Units.

Oregon has far more tags available, including over 4,400 first-come, first-served permits in 11 southwest wildlife management units, and nearly 4,500 controlled permits for units on the North and Central Coasts, the North Cascades, Klamath Falls area and Blue Mountains. Also of note, Oregon offers nearly 200 youth spring bear tags for the northeast corner, and last year permits were left available.

BEARS DON’T HIT the same food sources in the spring as later in the year. On the wetter sides of both states, you may find they are hitting younger (5to 10-year-old) stands of Douglas fir trees for their cambium layer, while on the drier side, they may be hitting onion patches, fawning and calving areas, or any green grass they can find. If you are new to bear hunting, make sure to take the time to get to know the difference between springtime bear scat and scat found later in the season. You want to be able to take a look at scat and say yes, that is bear and, yes, that is fresh or not so fresh.

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Increased hunting opportunities in western portions of Northwest states are tied to bears damaging young, valuable Douglas firs in spring, when there’s not much else to eat in the woods. The author ended up killing the bruin that stripped this tree, bagging a smaller but also nice, long-coated animal in the process.

(DOUGLAS BOZE)

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Northwest Sportsman 171

HUNTING Spring bear hunting comes down to finding what is greening up in the area and targeting it. After all, that is what the bears will most likely be doing too. They need that fresh greenery to help get their digestive tract working and, in reality, there isn’t a ton of food sources for them during this time, other than fresh greens. You should be prepared to sit and glass for extended periods, either overlooking a nice greenedup logging roads from a vantage point, or scanning the rolling green meadows and valleys of the eastern part of our states.

If a prime hide is most important to you, spring (specifically, the earlier the better) is when you really want to try to bag your bear.

The bear are fresh out of the den, often times with hardly a rub on them. When I say “rub,” I mean a bald spot on their fur which they get sometimes just from being in the den, to scratching and rubbing on purpose to try to cool themselves down as the year heats up.

Other things bears chow down on in spring include wild onions, recently born elk calves and deer fawns later on, as well as grass. Determining that scat is fresh and not old will help you figure out if there’s a bear foraging in the area. (DOUGLAS BOZE)

ONCE YOU’VE FOUND some bear scat

out. If hides are important to you, you will want to watch the bear for some time to ensure it is not rubbed out on the face, butt or sides. You will often have to wait several minutes to make sure you have seen all the way around a bear, ensuring it’s wearing a hide that you want.

Last but not least, spring bear hunting offers some truly wonderful meat for the hunter. I personally love bear sausage, not to mention the summer sausage I slice thin and serve with cheese and crackers. It’s always a big hit at family gatherings.

If you find yourself with the late-winter blues, and deer season or elk season seem like years away, consider putting in for a spring bear hunt. It might be just what you need to shake off cabin fever, and to keep your wife from kicking you out of your house as you wander around aimlessly waiting for the glorious rut to start again! NS

and/or some good food sources, really focus on these areas. The later in season it gets, the better the bear hunting gets, but the worse the hides end up being due to getting rubbed

Editor’s note: Douglas Boze is the author of No Bait Just Bears and The Ultimate Guide To Black Bear Hunting, and has been featured in Bear Hunting Magazine.

to have your downwind side be your longest shooting lane. Predators like bear will try to wind you to see what they are coming into, sometimes leaving themselves open to a shot.

IF YOU’VE READ any of my articles or books, you know that I am a big fan of predator calling for bears. Predator calling can not only save your legs from tons of walking, but can give you an adrenaline boost like you haven’t had since you were a kid on the zipper at the county fair! Calling for bear is different than calling for, say, coyotes. You want to call for at least an hour. Many bears I have observed only walk toward you as you call. When you stop calling, they stop walking. Think about that for a moment. Think of how long it would take something to get to you if it only moved when you call. Now you can see why I advise you to call as often and continuously as possible.

Much of the advice used for coyotes can be used for bear. For example, you want to start off calling kind of quiet so as not to blow animals out of the area. You need to use the wind to your advantage. Remember 172 Northwest Sportsman

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point when talking about spring bear hunting is to make extra certain that you are taking your time before taking a shot to ensure your target is not a sow with cubs. Cubs will be very small this time of year, often lagging behind the sow several yards. Be patient, be observant, be a good steward. I know any ethical hunter would not knowingly take a sow with cubs, so make sure you don’t do it on accident.

Learn how to field judge boars and sows, especially if you are new to bear hunting. Differentiating between the two is notoriously difficult, even for seasoned bear hunters.

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RECIPE FOR HOPE

By Randall Bonner

I

f you’ve ever wondered how you could make your tag soup taste better, here are a few helpful hints that will make it easier to digest.

It might be a little tough to swallow, but tag soup doesn’t have to leave a bad taste in your mouth. With the right preparation, you can make this dish palatable if you don’t marinate in it too long. It’s all in the process.

First, add one cup of hope. The flavor of optimism will carry you through until next season. All those smaller bucks you passed up will be bigger next year anyway.

Add a dash of reflection to taste. Just a hint of all the woulda, coulda, shouldas will help you learn from this season, and motivate you to be better prepared for a successful season next time around.

There’s no such thing as failure in hunting: you either harvest an animal or you learn how to do things better the next time.

Don’t make it too salty or bitter. The sweet is never as sweet without the sour. You want to savor the flavor of disappointment for now, because it will make victory taste that much better when it’s on the table.

Season generously with gratitude.

The outdoors provide us with countless lessons, and the experiences we take from being in nature last a lifetime. Remember that hunting is about the journey and not the destination. Be grateful for your experiences, fruitful or not.

Serve with tradition. In the South, where I came from before moving to Corvallis, there’s a custom that when a hunter misses a shot, the other hunters back at deer camp cut a coattail from their shirts. If you missed, perhaps the piece of cloth might make a nice garnish. NS

(RUSTY BELL)

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