Montana Hunting & Fishing News - June 2018 by Western Hunting & Fishing News

HUNTING & FISHING MONTANA

June 2018

Finding Trophy Quality Deer In Non-Trophy Units Camping: The Canvas Tent Benefits Rifle Prep For Your Hunt Tips For Fishing Montanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Small Streams Cross Training For A Mountain Hunt The Key To Successful Shooting... HSM Ammunition Made in Stevensville MT. Available at your local retailer.

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TIPS FOR FISHING MONTANA’S SMALL STREAMS From Montana Angler For a guided fly fishing trip, call 406-522-9854 or visit www.montanaangler.com s the snow flies during the winter months here in A Montana it is easy for the mind to wander to warmer days spent exploring the intimate water that we fly anglers hold

near and dear to our hearts. Perhaps a sense of exploration pulls us toward fly fishing Montana’s small, off the beaten path waters... Maybe the typically high numbers and fast action of eager fish… Possibly fishing a stream where a 16” trout is a trophy… Regardless of why we as fly anglers periodically choose these smaller angling venues there are a few things worth keeping in mind when fishing small water. At Montana Angler we offer a number of private access, small water options that can make for very memorable fishing days.

Match your fly rod to the conditions

The slower action of the glass rod loads up with even the shortest of casts and will bend deeply when a small fish is on the end of the line, allowing the angler to really feel the fish during the fight. A double tapered fly line is perfect for the small stream rig as well. Casts on a small stream are rarely longer than 30 feet, and are typically within 15’. A double tapered line will load the rod quickly and will roll cast in tight quarters as well. A fringe benefit of choosing a double tapered line for your small stream setup is that after a season of use you can remove the line, turn it around, and then you’ve got an identical taper on virtually unused line at the back end. Shorter, stout leaders are typically adequate for small stream fishing as well. The smaller, eager fish are rarely leader shy, especially in rougher pocket-water type of streams. Fishing the shortest and heaviest leader that is practical is both beneficial to the fish and to the angler. The fish benefit as it doesn’t take as long for the angler to baby the tippet, thus landing the fish quickly, and returning the fish to the water without unnecessary stress. The shorter, heavier leader is also better for the small stream angler as fewer flies are lost in the ever-present bushes and trees that seem to line the streams at the most inopportune times.

Flies for small stream fishing

Again, a big draw to fishing small waters is that the fish numbers and constant action typically make up for the average fish size. Choosing flies that can handle the abuse of being struck time and time again with as little maintenance as possible is a key Simple, buoyant dry flies are the norm. factor in small stream Montana Angler photo. fly selection. Buoyant dry flies that are tied with synthetic materials like foam, rubber legs, and poly yarn will always hold up better and float longer than natural materials after being eaten time and time again. Typically, small stream fish are less picky eaters as well. Basic “general attractor” patterns excel, whether it’s a dry or nymph pattern. Beadhead nymphs typically do better in rougher pocketwater streams as they drop quickly in the water column and the added flash of the bead likely gets more attention from the trout.

Small stream, large variety of holding water

Small streams like this can make for a fun day! Montana Angler photo.

Most of our small stream fly fishing in Southwest Montana is done by fishing dry flies or smaller dry/dropper rigs to fish that are on the smaller end of the size spectrum. The sheer numbers of fish that we typically expect to catch in small streams make up for the lack of size. A great way to make the most of the smaller fish is to fish a lighter and softer fly rod. The widely accepted “standard” trout rod is a 9 foot, 5 weight. Hook a 6” trout on your 9 foot, 5 weight and fly-fishing quickly becomes fish-flying as you’ll likely toss the little guy into the bushes behind you on the hook set. Downsizing to a softer and shorter rod suddenly makes for a fun, sporty fight with even the smallest of trout. One of our favorite small stream rods is a fiberglass, 7 foot, 3 weight. Our friends over at Tom Morgan Rodsmiths make a number of excellent rods that are perfectly suited to smaller water angling and their 7 foot, 3 weight is second to none.

4 | Hunting & Fishing News

So many targets to cast at! Montana Angler photo.

In much the same way a large river tends to hold fish in certain types of water, a small stream will also hold fish in varied locations, they just tend to be in closer proximity to each other. A number of casts and different drifts can be achieved before moving to a new casting locale.

“Leave no stone unturned” is a great philosophy for fishing small waters. Every break in the current whether it’s a shelf, seam, log, boulder, undercut, foam line, anything suspicious, can hold a fish. One bend or run in a small stream can have a dozen or more targets to probe before moving on. Cover the water thoroughly before moving upstream, you may surprise yourself at how many fish can be in different spots, all within reach.

Casting in tight quarters

Some holding water in small streams can look incredibly promising however getting a fly in the water can be a challenge sometimes. Brushy banks, overhanging willows, and log jams are all examples of casting obstructions that an angler may encounter on small water. Getting creative with one’s casting can be the difference between hooking that trophy trout behind the How would you get your fly to the fish log that’s under the bushes here? Montana Angler photo. versus going home having only caught the eager, easy to catch, little guys. When faced with difficult casting situations the angler must remember that the fish don’t care how you cast. They just care that you get your fly in their feeding lane. No matter how unorthodox the cast may seem, what does matter is that it works to get your fly to the fish. The classic “bow-and-arrow” cast is a fine example.

There is really no casting involved with the bow-andarrow, the angler simply holds the bend of the hook with a short length of leader out the rod tip, bends the rod, and “slingshots” the fly into the water. Another somewhat ugly but effective technique is to use the “water-load” cast when faced with no casting room. Simply put, the angler lets the fly drag downstream and then uses the water tension pulling against the line to flip the fly upstream into the holding water. Remember, the fish don’t care how you cast, they just care that you get the fly to them, especially in small streams.

Travel Light!

Another advantage to the occasional small stream day is that you can leave the typical “everything-butthe-kitchen-sink” A small backpack is all that this angler needed! mentality at home. Montana Angler photo. Most small water fishing can be done with one or two fly boxes and a couple necessities. Taking a full hip pack or vest is usually unnecessary. It’s refreshing to travel light and just bring a fly box with an assortment of general dries and nymphs, a couple spools of tippet, nippers, floatant, and hemos. Most small stream fishing is typically a summertime game, so wet wading is usually a great way to keep cool on a warm day as well. Good, slip resistant wet wading shoes, lightweight pants, and a sun shirt are perfect for a few hours of small stream angling. The added mobility gained from not wearing waders will be appreciated if any fast, bouldery water is encountered as well.

(continued on page 12)

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It will lead you down paths highlighted by extraordinary adventure, undaunted exploration and the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Native Americans, guides, hunters, and outfitters who paved trails into the mountains centuries before us! Dreaming of matching a hunter’s skills against a magnificent ram is what motivates the souls of sheep hunters worldwide to scale higher peaks, to inhale the fresh air of solitude, to explore the unexplored and, finally, to experience the exhilaration and challenge of navigating through some of the toughest terrain on earth while stalking a prized ram in our individual quests to harvest the ultimate trophy. Photo credit: Randy Johnson of High Desert Wild Sheep Guides

SHEEP HUNTING DNA By Randy Johson Originally published at

www.goHUNT.com

W hat is it about sheep hunting that ignites that burning passion and desire within our DNA to sacrifice hard-earned financial resources to climb remote, rugged mountain ranges that laugh at their insignificant human challenges in pursuit of trophy rams? Why would we choose to risk life and limb crossing raging rivers or struggle under the weight of a burdensome backpack to embark on a death march into the scorching heat of an arid desert searching for the elusive, treasured Ovis canadensis nelsoni?

SHEEP FEVER

From my perspective, sheep fever is highly contagious and incurable once you become infected. It is what I refer to as an adrenaline-induced sickness! The legendary Jack O’ Connor succinctly described sheep hunting with the following words: “There is no halfway. After his first exposure, a man is either a sheep Photo credit: Randy Johnson hunter or he isn’t. of High Desert Wild Sheep Guides He either falls under the spell of sheep hunting and sheep country or he won’t be caught dead on another sheep mountain.” Jack O’Connor, The Bighorn March (1960) No one could have stated it better! I believe that each of us become addicted to sheep hunting for a wide variety of reasons. I personally love the unmatched physical and mental challenges that present themselves when I venture into a big ram’s playground. Where else can you find such an unprecedented, natural adrenaline rush as when you match your skills against the unpredictable forces of Mother Nature and the majesty of wild sheep that inhabit the most formidable, yet beautiful country on earth? From the wild splendor of Canada to the jagged, cactus-choked, volcanic canyons of Sonora, from the vast steppes of Asia to the maze of unforgiving sandstone canyons in Southern Utah, bighorn sheep have captivated the souls of a man with their priceless grandeur through the windswept dust of centuries.

It’s funny how one isolated, seemingly inconsequential incident can change and define our lives in profound ways. I discovered this myself years ago when I climbed up over a rugged knoll on the edge of a formidable plateau while hunting mule deer to suddenly find myself staring into the eyes of six magnificent desert bighorn rams. In a flash of movement and wisp of dust, they were gone, scrambling off cliffs that I couldn’t imagine any animal capable of navigating. At that precise moment, I became a lifelong sheep fanatic—totally infatuated with these incredible animals!

Great sheep articles to check out if you have sheep fever How to accurately age bighorn sheep https://www.gohunt.com/read/skills/how-to-accurately-agebighorn-sheep#gs.ieeI=gU Become an expert at field judging bighorn sheep https://www.gohunt.com/read/skills/become-an-expert-atfield-judging-bighorn-sheep How to accurately score bighorn sheep horns https://www.gohunt.com/read/skills/how-to-accuratelyscore-bighorn-sheep-horns

IF THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY

Photo credit: Randy Johnson of High Desert Wild Sheep Guides

Now, years later, after completing my personal goal of completing the Grand Slam or Full Curl of North American Wild Sheep and having guided countless, dedicated and passionate sheep hunters to trophy rams of their own, I understand why the majority of hardcore, dedicated hunters believe that hunting trophy rams are the consummate quest! Successfully guiding countless fellow sheep hunters has enabled Randy Johnson to infect them with “Sheep Fever! (continued on page 40)

Trophy rams indeed capture our imaginations and dwell in the hearts of men and women. They stare down at us from craggy mountain peaks that spring to life in our dreams. Sheep hunting could be referred to as a hypnotic spell, a viral infection that permeates the conscience of man.

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SECRETS TO THE 10-SECOND SHOT By Mark Kayser

Igoats t doesn’t matter if you’re hunting in Montana for mountain or Mongolia for rams; you need to be prepared for a

fast shot. Sometimes getting a shot off in 10 seconds or less is a feat beyond finding your targeted trophy. Your summer assignment is to prepare for the 10-second shot and that starts with a practice routine to polish your proficiency. SIGHT IN WITH CERTAINTY To ensure you’re ready to execute a shot under the pressures of a ticking clock and with a target that may only show a small portion of its body make sure your rifle is zeroed with precision. That sight-in session begins at the range. Make sure your firearm is hitting its mark from a rock-solid rest with known distances. Begin by teaming your firearm with the same ammunition you plan to use during the hunt. Remember that all bullets don’t shoot the same despite weighing the same. Design in the bullet and tweaks in the powder, and ignition system could change the trajectory. Either reload with exactitude or purchase the same ammunition load to guarantee that every shot remains the same. It also pays to stick with a somewhat generic brand and even caliber. If you run out of ammunition in far, northeast Montana or Mongolia, and need to find replacement ammunition, it will be easier with a common backup. You’ll be on the road again hunting instead of on the road to find an exotic caliber. At this stage of the practice regime forget about offhand and sight in from a shooting bench. Nestle your firearm soundly between shooting bags to guarantee you don’t inadvertently jostle or sway during the shot. Using specialized shooting sleds, like Caldwell’s Lead Sled, is also recommended for stability. Any slight movement, such as an offhand wobble, could alter your zero. With your firearm benched, check your zero and reconfirm it at least once. After that test run you can begin confirming the long-range trajectory and comparing it to your dope chart on your rifle buttstock. This entire process could take the better part of a day, but it will be worth it to know your rifle is zeroed and to learn your shooting limitations. USE REALISTIC TARGETS Shooting at a bull’s eye target makes sense when sighting in and zeroing a rifle. It doesn’t make sense when you’re perfecting your gun-slinging skills as you rack rounds during a practice session for a split-second shot. Instead of a bull’s eye you should be using life-like targets or at the very least, targets that represent the vital zone size of your intended quarry. A variety of manufacturers print vital-sized targets and a handful print deer-sized targets. Shop for those offering as much body image as possible. If you can’t find a large paper target switch to filling milk jugs and setting them at varying distances. You could also invest in steel plates representing the vital size of your game.

And don’t forget that some firearm ranges have long-distance shooting areas already set with metal silhouettes to pound at long range. To further enhance your target experiences...camouflage your targets in the environment. You may only get a peek of your trophy and a small area to aim at so practice that scenario. If you’re affixing targets to cardboard you can even add a swatch or two of natural-color spray paint to camouflage any brown box. And forget using a bright target. A target affixed to a white cardboard box or using a white milk jug will stand out like a Hollywood celebrity trying to be a Montana rancher. On the contrary, with a touch of camo you’ll have to look hard to find the target after you tuck it away in a variety of settings closest matching the backdrop of your hunting area. Place some of the targets in openings and hide others with only a portion of the target peeking out to simulate realism. Going to these great lengths could cause you pains at your local gun range so if you’re really trying to get the real experience it would be best to land some land. Work with relatives, neighbors or a local landowner to use a remote pasture with safe backdrops to acquire a true shooting experience.

PRACTICE FROM REALISTIC HUNTING POSITIONS With your target stashed realistically into

a brushy hideout it’s time to get imaginative. Will you be able to rest nicely using an old tree trunk as your brace? Will you be able to go prone and shoot from your backpack? Maybe you’ll have to shoot offhand from 100 yards as an elk stands up out of its bed. Will you be ready for that fast-shooting stare down? As you prepare to shoot at various game in varied settings consider all of the shooting possibilities. Remember, a buck could surprise you causing you to setup against a fence post, in a ditch or even from a kneeling position. The most overlooked shooting position I see among my hunting partners is the prone position. Shooting prone gives you the sturdiest platform from which to shoot from. Nevertheless, I still see a reluctance to drop in the gumbo or maybe it’s America’s overweight factor causing some not to want to have to get up after dropping to the ground. Either way, hit the dirt and perfect the prone position for the best shooting in Big Sky Country. As in all shooting positions make sure you align your cheek to the stock and grip the firearm exactly as you would from a seated position to assure proper sighting down the barrel. A slight shift in your form could cause you to miss. Lastly, practice these uncomfortable positions wearing the same clothes you’ll don in the field. Bulking up with hunting clothes, shooting gloves and even wearing your backpack will test your skills in a realistic factor. Some or all of these elements could change your point of impact as they move your firearm from the ideal resting place you experienced at the range. PERFECT THE SNAP SHOT Finally, it’s time to perfect the times you’ll only have seconds to get the shot off. You’ve hidden your target, donned your hunting clothes and crawled into the most uncomfortable position imaginable with a prickly pear irritating your thigh. Think back to times when you missed a shot or didn’t get a chance to depress the trigger. Those are the experiences you want to imagine as you practice pressured shots. Put aside any memories of a pronghorn buck standing for five minutes at 200 yards giving you enough time to have a cup of coffee and range the distance... Conjure up a bad memory and start your stopwatch as you aim at a distant target from a realistic shooting position. Each game meeting varies depending on the species you’re hunting and its homeland environment, but you can be assured you’ll be dealing with a few, fleeting seconds to shoot, especially while hunting public lands. (continued on page 12)

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The entire contents is © 2018, all rights reserved. May not be reproduced without prior consent. The material and information printed is from various sources from which there can be no warranty or responsibility by Big Sky Outdoor News & Adventure, Inc. Nor does this material necessarily express the views of Big Sky Outdoor News & Adventure, Inc. All photo & editorial submissions become the property of Big Sky Outdoor News & Adventure, Inc. to use or not use at their discretion. Volume 14 Issue 12 Cover Photo: By Tom Reichner|Shutterstock.com

10 | Hunting & Fishing News

Ihunting t’s camping season here in the West, and our big game season will be here before you know it. Montana Canvas offers a wide selection of tents, stoves and gear for your outdoor adventure. Based in the beautiful Gallatin Valley of Southwestern Montana, their team is made up of real people who have spent years dedicated to perfecting their approach to building quality tents and tarps. They use only top-quality, Grade “A” canvas, reinforcing each seam with heavy-duty, double-needle stitching, and their enduring wax coating is some of the best in the industry. From helping make decisions, to requesting repairs, or to simply asking questions, the staff at Montana Canvas will help you. They can even build custom tents and tarps designed specifically to accommodate your wildest outdoor dreams. Here are a few options to help you enjoy the summer months camping and fishing, and to prepare for your fall hunting season. Traditional 10 oz. Canvas Wall Tent Standard Tent Includes: •1 standard window (24”x30”) on back wall •5” stove jack with flap •7’6” standard zippered door with buckled weather flap •Sod cloth around tent base •Stakes, rope and rope tension adjusters •Tent storage bag Frames, flys and floors sold separately Spike Tents Montana Canvas Spike tents offer a great base camp solution. This tent is perfect for a couple or a family with one child. It is offered in two sizes. The Spike II is 10’x10’ with 3’ sidewalls and the Spike III is 12’x12’ with 4’ sidewalls. The Spike tents are constructed of proprietary Relite polyester tan material. This material is fully coated and offers an excellent weight savings as compared to canvas.

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Spike tents feature: •Stove jack with a weather flap comes in a 5” oval allowing for a 5” round pipe to fit perfectly with the pitch of the roof. •3 screened windows located in the 3 sidewalls of the tent. •The doors open to a 7’6″ height and feature a heavy duty trouble-free YKK zipper. •Tent package includes full coverage tent fly which completely covers the tent and includes a front awning. •Relite polyester floor with zippered cut out for the stove placement. •12” steel stakes to secure your tent to the ground. •Each wall tent comes complete with 200’ of ¼” black polyester rope, rope slips (tension adjusters), and a tent storage bag. •Suspension ring on the outside top of tent allows for the tent to be hung from a tree without the use of the included frame. Montana Lodge Tent The Montana Lodge is the biggest advancement in lodge tents since the wall tent. The interior spaciousness, with centralized camp stove are just a few of the key features of the Montana Lodge tent. The unique hexagon shape creates an interior that will comfortably Montana Lodge Tent sleep 5-6 people. The 5’ sidewalls and the 9’8” peak height add ample headroom for hanging lanterns and drying clothes. The tent features the Montana Canvas Blend construction with the roof made out of their traditional 10 oz. treated canvas and the sides and end walls constructed out of Relite Tan polyester material for weight reduction. Montana Lodge tents feature: •The Montana Canvas 1 3/8” aluminum frame system with patented adjustable frame joints. The frame provides a very stable structure in the most adverse elements. •Front and back ‘L’ shaped doors that feature heavy duty trouble-free YKK zippers. •4 screened windows. Screened window is 24”T x 30”W and features No See Um mesh to keep out the smallest of insects. Window can be fully closed from the inside of the tent featuring a #5 YKK zipper. •Fully zippered floor constructed of the Relite material. •Floor features a zippered cut out for the stove placement. •12” steel stakes to secure your tent to the ground. •Each wall tent comes complete with 200’ of ¼” black polyester rope, rope slips (tension adjusters), and a tent storage bag.

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Hunting & Fishing News | 11

TIPS FOR FISHING MONTANA’S SMALL STREAMS (continued from page 5) Give big rivers a break

Hooked up in a small stream! Montana Angler photo.

A final argument for spending some time exploring Montana’s small stream fly fishing options is that small water can be the best option during the hottest times of the summer. Our hot summer months can sometimes lead to river closures to protect the fish if the daytime water temps get too high. A great way to get outdoors and still get a fishing fix while the big waters are too warm can be picking a small stream on the map and just going exploring.

In Closing

Most every stream in Southwest Montana holds trout and some absolute gems are out there just waiting to be discovered. The highlight of any small stream fishing day is finding that extra large fish that’s inevitably lurking somewhere in the stream. An 18” fish on any river is a great catch, however in a small stream that 18”er could be the fish of a lifetime.

Secrets To The 10-Second Shot (continued from page 9)

Practice shooting in 10 seconds or less. In reality you may only get a couple of seconds to shoot, but oftentimes you’ll have 5 to 10 seconds of precious moments to tag your target. Sometimes the seconds slip away as you wait for an animal to turn and give you the best shot at its vital zone. A big bull elk is a good example of an animal you can’t afford to shoot unless it is positioned perfectly. You may get away with a marginal position on a small-boned pronghorn, especially while using a large caliber, but don’t push the envelope with an elk or a moose. And remember game animals circle, ramble and roam on their way through the woods, or prairies. One could just as easily come from the side or behind so practice that unplanned occurrence too. Instead of setting up with your firearm pointing in the general direction of the target; point it in the opposite direction. Now do your best to swing 90 or more degrees, and hit your distant target. Run through that practice regimen in a hurried situation and in slow motion in case you need to camouflage movement on a close target. Having a good friend along who can whisper a rash of hunting pressure in your ear also adds to the realism. Have you ever been hunting and had someone behind you increase your adrenaline load by saying “hurry up and shoot. He’s getting away.” You need to practice at the range in controlled settings to guarantee your firearm is performing at its best. You also need to practice in real-world settings to make sure you can make the shot when seconds count, especially on some of Montana’s great trophy opportunities.

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12 | Hunting & Fishing News

POST SPAWN BASS By Kevin Dahlke

www.northlandtackle.com

W aters are reaching warmer temperatures, finally, and that means the spawning beds are vacated and the shallow waters look like land mines have been set off. These times of the season can be a bit tougher for finding actively biting fish, as they are in the transition mode from spring to summer.

Waters we were recently fishing, the deeper waters of the lake, are very structure-less to say the least and cruising the shorelines, there is high evidence that the spawn is recently over. So with the post spawn happening, what baits would you use for seeking out some of these fish?

Photo courtesy Northland Tackle

We tried a variety of baits and presentations for the few days that we were fishing... and the Northland Reed-Runner Tandem Spinnerbait seems to prove itself over and over again with a number of the largemouth and smallmouth bass that were caught. We were finding that on some of the other baits, if and when the fish would hit, they were striking the baits short. So seeing that, we would add a stinger hook to the spinnerbait to improve the hookup ratios. One thing with adding the stinger hook; after sliding that hook onto the baits hook, add a small piece of surgical tubing, so that the hook stays put on the main hooks shank, otherwise you will lose that extra hook. Reed-Runner Tandem Spinnerbait

We were looking for actively feeding fish and cruising the shorelines in our search. Not all of the fish will move away to deeper waters. By targeting the rocks, weeds and overhanging trees, we were productive in locating bites and the Reed-Runner was definitely something they were looking for.

Key presentations included fishing steeper dropping shorelines and casting the bait right up to the water’s edge, reeling the bait at a slower rate which was getting it down to a deeper depth. Fish that were caught were right on the wood or rock and at times, they would follow the bait back to the boat and hit just before coming out of the water. Different times of the year always dictate different approaches for finding the fish that we catch. Certain baits need to be fished slowly and others at a quicker pace. The Reed-Runner allows you to cover water and in turn, put the bait in front of more fish for more opportunities at catching success.

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Hunting & Fishing News | 13

Pitchin’ Ferry

By Trevor Johnson Kit’s Tackle and KT Sportfishing www.kitstackle.com

I can still remember my childhood years jigging monster rainbow trout along the shorelines on Canyon Ferry Lake.

Dad and I would talk about how awesome of a walleye shoreline it would be if they were in the lake. Little did we know, there were a few walleye cruising around due to an illegal introduction in the 1990’s. And now, some 20-30 years later those very shorelines are where we fish for monster walleye. These shorelines gifted us the crowned champions of the 2012 Canyon Ferry Walleye Festival, and some other close calls and cashed tournament checks. I will admit, I love having the walleye in my home waters, but bucket biology makes us all look bad and is pure selfishness. We are starting to see it across more Montana waters. With this being said, with the population of walleye that is now in Canyon Ferry, in my opinion, it should be managed as a MULTI-SPECIES fishery. Walleye have gained huge traction and seem to be the “cool thing” now. And from an economic standpoint, it is and can be very beneficial to all of us. Getting back to fishing walleye on Canyon Ferry...the month of JUNE IS KING! From early June until around the 4th of July is the summer peak for targeting the monsters cruising in the shallows! No matter how many times I reiterate this, people still don’t believe we catch these big fish shallow. Believe it or not, the deepest we have ever caught a 24+” walleye in Canyon Ferry is about ten feet. I know this is a hard concept to grasp, but think about it this way: Canyon Ferry does not support a population of pelagic baitfish like Tiber and Fort Peck. There is no forage base driving these fish deep to feed, other than the occasional guy trolling for trout who catches a suspended fish. I’m sure there are a few walleye cruising in the open water, but not a target-able population. Heck, there is barely a population of larger fish over 20’’ to target on Canyon Ferry, period. This is mostly due to mis-management and over-harvest of the primary spawning fish. The good news is; we still consecutively catch these big fish year after year. The key is to keep casting your jigs right to shore! It does take some knowhow and building confidence, but it will come. I have friends who have fished Canyon Ferry since people started catching walleye and have never broke 20’’, but they also pull bottom bouncers in 18-30’ of water. Every year a few folks hire us to guide them and show them the ropes. This gives them a lifetime of knowledge in one day. Last year pre fishing for the tournament, I landed 5 fish over 24” in one afternoon, with a huge 31” being the biggest. So even with lower numbers of these big fish, they are much more catchable in the month of June. There is a lot less water between ten feet deep and the shoreline than the rest of the lake. You are just putting way more fish in a small area which then ups your odds! And even better news, shallow fish are there for ONE REASON ONLY...TO EAT!! You might have to cover a lot of shoreline, but if you get your bait in front of a shallow fish, you’re going to get bit. Now for the lesson, there are a few critical things here I will cover. The first thing you are going to want to do is establish your “BUFFER ZONE”. A buffer zone is what we call the area between your boat and the shoreline. The key here is to keep as far from the shore as possible to not spook the fish, but also close enough that you can CONFIDENTLY and ACCURATELY cast your jig within a few inches of shore. You don’t want to have to get a running start to make the cast! Our personal buffer zone on a nice day is about 20 yards. Now if the wind is blowing 20 mph and the waves are crashing into the shore you will have to tighten up your buffer zone. With all the surface disruption from the wind, the fish will be much less wary. There are times we are less than ten yards from the shore. Basically the concept here is to move parallel along the shore casting your jig in front of the boat and covering water. Now, let’s move onto the tough part of maintaining your buffer zone and fishing at the same time. The electric bow mount motor will become your best friend in this situation! And heck, they even make a remote you can hang around your neck to control your boat. Sounds easy right? Not as easy as you would think, I can promise you! It will take some time and patience learning to keep your boat in proper position at all times…especially when it’s windy or you have current or other obstacles or distractions. Before you go thinking you have it rough; there are times that I am guiding and running the boat while trying to free a client’s snag, tie another client’s jig on and bait another’s hook, but you can bet your butt I’m still in the zone!

14 | Hunting & Fishing News

This makes a huge difference at the end of the day, and my remote almost never leaves my hand. One thing my father taught me that is better than gold, is to run your electric bow mount out of the back of the boat. This is most important when there is more than one angler on board. We have all seen the guy nosed into the shore catching fish and the guy in the back of the boat can’t make a cast to the fish. If you learn to run your boat out of the stern, and you are in the target zone, every angler in the boat will be in a perfect position to jig the shoreline. Now, where to start?!?! Again, covering shoreline is the key here, but there are certain things we look for on a body of water. We have always been known as the North End Boys on Ferry, fishing the rocky structure and steep drops and points. The south end of Canyon Ferry is a massive flat with little contours; so in our opinion it is much better for techniques like trolling crank baits to cover large amounts of water more quickly. We spend the majority of our time from mid lake to north. The first thing we always do is watch the wind, and really pay attention to what the wind did the day/evening prior to your outing. Wind drives the food into a shoreline and disrupts and churns up rocks sending crayfish, minnows, bugs and other forage scouring through the turbulent water. THE WIND IS A MAGNET FOR THE PREDATOR FISH. In normal conditions we do like to try new shorelines, but the obviously textbook points and rocky shorelines speak for themselves.

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Here are a few final tips to get you started:

Jigs: We mainly use 1/8 and 1/4 oz Glass Minnows tipped w/either a Gulp crawler or Gulp minnow. If there is more than one angler on board we also like to use a paddle tail to get a feel for what the fish want for the day. Our favorite paddle tails are ‘B Fish N Authentic X Pulsars’ and the “Fat Swing Impact by Keitech” Rods: We like a medium/light 6-6’3” extra fast action rod Line: We are mono guys and love the Stren Magnathin for pitching jigs! If you want even more feel you can use the braided super lines, but make sure to use a fluorocarbon leader. Canyon Ferry is crystal clear and the fish are wary. We would recommend 6lb test in either application. Patience: Make sure to bring a cooler full of patience, even we have days where we lay an egg (meaning the big Zero). But, if you want to catch big fish, this is it! And if you get too bored, you can always swing out into deeper water and jig up a few smaller fish for fun. Stewardship: If you take my advice, you are going to catch a big fish. Folks, I won’t get to in-depth with this. All I ask is that you do the right thing for our awesome natural resources we have available to us! Canyon Ferry is in rough shape with its population of walleye, especially the few larger spawning fish we have left. Our boat rule is anything over 20” gets released back into the lake. And I’m here to tell ya, letting a big 30” go and getting a few pics or a video is as rewarding as it gets. I was very blessed to have had the fishing opportunities I had growing up fishing with my dad. I now have a 3.5 year old daughter and an 18 month old son that I pray will have similar opportunities and experiences as I did. Cheers to “Jiggin’ the Dream” Trevor is the co-founder of Kit’s Tackle “Jiggin’ the Dream” along with his father, Kit, and KT Sportfishing. He is a true made in Montana fishing guide, an insane outdoor enthusiast, a wild man in the woods and on the water and they even say he’s a quarter mountain goat. He’s a happy husband, a proud daddy to a beautiful little girl and boy, and two sweet dogs. When he’s not shoveling coal into the jig engine, you can find him on the water or leaving boot tracks in the wilds of Montana.

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16 | Hunting & Fishing News

Trophy Pike Caught in Local Lake By Andi Bourne Seeley Swan Pathfinder http://www.seeleylake.com

Jimmy Zander of Potomac has been fishing for a “wall hanger”

ever since he can remember. After his father Charlie got a 24.5 pound northern pike on Lake Upsata in 1996, he’s been trying to beat him. The day finally arrived on a solo trip to an area lake after work Monday, March 26. He landed a 47-inch, 33 pound, 8 ounce northern pike. The first fish on was a four-pound northern pike. After landing that one, Zander looked out and his tip-up was up. “It was really zinging,” said Zander “I set the hook on it and knew it was a big one by the way it was taking the line that fast.”

Photo courtesy Jimmy Zander

He fought it for about 10 minutes before he got it to the hole. “I knew I had a wall hanger. I’ve been trying to get one in the 20s and mount it my whole life,” said Zander. “Every time I got a look down the hole it was just black down there.” Zander estimated the ice was more than two feet thick. When he finally got the fish’s head to the hole, he reached for the gaff. He was able to get both hands behind the head and started pulling it out of the 10-inch hole. “I kind of laid back and I kept pulling the fish out. It wasn’t real easy,” said Zander laughing at the memory. “I was squeezing it through there.” Zander said the record on Salmon Lake, as far as he knows, is held by Randy Lynn who caught a 45-inch, 30 pound, 8 ounce pike through the ice with a hand-line Feb. 21, 1999. “I’ve been trying to catch one that big for a long, long time,” said Zander. Zander’s 11-year-old daughter Jaylee is following in her father’s footsteps and keeping up the family’s fishing tradition. The trophy pike, that was taken to a local taxidermist and soon will be hanging on the family’s wall, sets a high standard for the next “wall hanger.” If certified, his fish could set a new record for the lake on which it was caught.

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18 | Hunting & Fishing News

Pets welcome

Jerk Bait Walleyes By Jason Mitchell

Pictured is a trophy walleye caught with the Salmo Rattlin’ Sting.

www.jasonmitchelloutdoors.com

Jerk baits can roll with a lot of different names and monikers.

Twitch baits, minnow baits…. Basically any slender profile, shallow running, minnow shaped hard bait. The actions and characteristics can vary dramatically amongst different companies and lures. The classic lure that started this entire lure category is the original Floating Rapala which has a subdued action and very subtle roll and shimmy. Over time, other lures came on the scene like the Smithwick Rogue and Rattling Rogue, the Rapala Husky Jerk and X rap, Lucky Craft Pointer Minnow, Mega Bass Vision and the Salmo Rattlin’ Sting. This entire lure category can be fished to extremes. From slow steady retrieves where the lure has a tiny subtle footprint to a steady retrieve interrupted by pauses and stalls with suspending lures. Going the other extreme, some of these lures handle slashing speeds and can be snapped forward to get the lure to erratically slash or slide off one direction only to slide off to the opposite direction on the next rip. Lures that were designed for these sharp snaps have a much more aggressive action where anglers often snap the lure forward with a much faster retrieve that might include three rapid snaps during a reel revolution that causes the lure to snap and slash forward rapidly and stopping or hanging momentarily between snaps and then stalling momentarily longer as you bring your rod back towards the lure. The very best lures ride very horizontally on the stall and many of the most recent lure designs feature long cast sliding weight transfers that aid in longer casts. The new Salmo Rattlin’ Sting has been called an absolute jerk bait masterpiece by many astute walleye and bass anglers just because this particular lure does so many things so well. Traditionally, bass anglers casted jerk baits in the spring and fall to cover water fast where walleye anglers trolled these lures in the spring and fall to cover water fast. Trolling jerk baits along rip rap or over shallow sand, gravel and rock contours is a proven big walleye equation each year. Another pattern gaining momentum each season is working these lures over flats and shoreline tapers that have emerging weed growth in less than ten feet of water. Now walleye anglers have casted these same lures for years particularly while wader fishing in the spring and fall around rip rap, current bottlenecks and gravel but more walleye anglers are taking plays from the bass fishing handbook by casting these lures. Both casting and trolling jerk baits have advantages and disadvantages for working these lures to catch walleyes. Trolling shines whenever fish are relating to large indescript locations where fish are spread out over broad areas or whenever you are in search mode trying to work through a new area fast. Because lures run at a deeper depth, trolling also shines whenever fish are deeper than five feet but shallower than ten feet and won’t rise to chase down a bait. Casting can be more effective whenever fish are relating and stacked up against a shoreline, are less than five feet or are positioned higher in the water column after dark or during wind. Casting is also much more efficient when fish are relating to the spot on the spot which is often the case when fish are on rock or relating to weed clumps.

Trolling is a broad brush where casting is precise. With the advancements in spot locking features on trolling motors and anchoring devices like Talons and Power Poles, precise fishing is easier than ever. Early in the season before the water temperatures hit sixty degrees, I find that I catch more fish trolling jerk baits by pulling the boat with the bow mount trolling motor. By trolling with an electric trolling motor, I can creep along at slower speeds that might range from one mile to a mile and a half an hour. In extremely clear water, I often use planer boards, mono-filament line and do a lot of S curves with the boat. So often early in the year, fish seem much spookier but as the water temps rise, I can get away with a lot more. As the summer progresses, I find that I can pick up my speed to well over two miles per hour. Regardless of time of year, there are many days where I catch more fish with the rod I am holding by pumping and stopping the lure. Many hits will come on the turn or stop after a snap or pump forward. Wind or weeds combined with really shallow fish often call for casting these baits. Again, early in the season, we often catch more fish with mono and often prefer a spinning reel as the slower gear ratios make it easier to crawl these lures forward. A few additional tips for casting… change up your retrieve speed and cadence where you methodically fish every cast a little different to find that groove that the fish respond to. As a general rule of thumb early in the year, it is really easy to fish these lures too fast. I have to keep reminding myself to slow down. What also happens almost subconsciously is that we tend to fish faster when we are excited. I find that I often have a tendency to fish faster after catching a fish for example and have to tell myself to slow back down. Finding that zone each day is paramount, and I even go so far as make every angler in the boat use the exact same rod and reel so that if somebody starts hooking up,

we can match the retrieve speed by watching each other. When fish are a little off, long casts often catch more fish because walleyes are notorious for following and pecking at the back of the lure for a considerable distance and fish will often follow the lure out over deeper water. When the fish are aggressive, short casts will allow you to make more casts right in the zone. When fishing over emerging weeds like cabbage or pencil reeds, fish high and make the fish come up for the lure as you won’t catch anything if the lure is fouled up. As the weeds keep growing higher, we often find ourselves using shallower lures as the season progresses to stay above the weeds. Strong wind and waves can also turn on a jerk bait bite. As a rule of thumb, the sweet spot for running depth is double the height of the wave. In other words, in three-foot swells, try to run about six feet but big fish in particular have no problem riding the turbulence right below the surface. Strong wind over rock or a hard bottom is typically an opportunistic pattern where casting or trolling jerk baits shine. A few additional notes to consider. As the water temps heat up over sixty-five degrees and fish start responding to more aggressive cadences and faster speeds, braided line with a fluorocarbon leader can give the lure a much more pronounced action and is sometimes necessary for snapping off weed stalks. Jerk baits in some capacity have been in tackle boxes for decades but are becoming more popular with mainstream walleye anglers. New lure designs have evolved that trigger fish regardless of attitude and time of year. Whenever fish are shallow, jerk baits are capable of finding fish much more quickly than many traditional soft bait and live bait presentations.

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Say Hello To Success: Where to Chase the Fish This Month Brought to you by

A s we roll into June in the Rockies, fishing opportunities will become even greater as the good weather warms the earth.

Run-off is still in progress on many of the regions rivers, but those itching to fly fish have many options on tailwaters such as the Bighorn, Beaverhead, and Missouri Rivers. Yellowstone National Park and Hebgen Lake will also fish very well in June. Warm temperatures create a buzz in the air as newly formed bugs hover around rivers, creeks and lakes. June is also an outstanding time to set-up a fishing camp for a few days and enjoy, relax and have a good time with family and friends.

Here are a few spots with suggestions on catching different species of fish. Where to find the state’s biggest trout. Montana is packed with many of the nation’s most productive trout streams, rivers and reservoirs. All grow big fish, but some produce more trophies than others. Listed here are waters where anglers have their best chance of catching particularly large trout.

Rivers Lakes and Reservoirs

Lower Beaverhead Canyon Ferry Lower Gallatin Hauser Upper Big Hole Holter Madison - below Hebgen Dam Deadman’s Basin Lower Jefferson Georgetown Musselshell Koocanusa Lower Bighorn Blackfeet Reservation Pond Kootenai - below Libby Dam Upper Clark Fork Lower Sun Missouri - between Cascade and Holter Dam, between Ulm and Great Falls, and below Fort Peck Dam

Gates of the Mountains at Upper Holter Lake in Montana

Fishing Backcountry Lakes How to catch alpine trout:

Ultra-light spin-fish outfits make catching small fish fun and larger fish a heart stopping thrill. For alpine trout anglers you have basically 3 options: fly-fishing, spin-fishing or bait fishing. Here is what we recommend to have on hand for flies: •Terrestrial patterns such as ants and grasshoppers •Nymphs such as a #12 or #14 brown Hare’s Ear (with or without the bead head), and #14 pink scuds •Royal Wulff and Elk Hair Caddis dries also do well Top-water Trout - Fly Pattern Primer: There are 100s of fly patterns which can be a bit confusing. These six patterns will suffice in almost every situation. Adams - This is a generic fly which can “match” the hatch. Woolly Bugger - A good imitation for large nymphs or minnow life in rivers and lakes. Caddis - Caddis flies hatch nearly daily throughout the entire season. Humpy - Imitates caddis, hoppers, crickets and makes a good indicator for nymphs. Pheasant Tail - This is a top mayfly nymph imitation in all waters. Copper John - A quick sinker, it is a great imitation for virtually all aquatic insects. For spin-fishing try a #2 Mepp’s Aglia, #1 or #2 Blue Fox, or a 1/8 or 1/4-ounce Rooster Tail, black/gold. Another mountain lake go-to spinner is a 1/4-ounce Kamlooper Spoon (great for cutthroat). Try color combos with silver or bronze blades. Try different color combos until something starts catching fish. For mountain trout anglers who prefer bait, try half a night crawler on a single hook without any additional weight. Regardless of the fishing method you choose, keep your lines and leaders light, 4 or 6 pound test will do.

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20 | Hunting & Fishing News

Montana Walleye

A rule of thumb on fishing walleye in June is to cover plenty of water to locate walleyes first, rather than holding in particular spots, as walleyes are travelers. They are here one day and gone the next. The primary fishing strategies for lake fishing this time of the year are pulling crawler harnesses with spinners behind a bottom bouncer sinker or trolling crankbaits. These methods will allow you to cover more water as you fish. Then, when you locate feeding walleyes you can key in on them and try other techniques like jigs or live bait rigs. Try and figure out a depth that the walleye are hanging at and the spinner color they prefer. Repeat these patterns as you fish similar situations on the lake. When you start the day, look for wave-pounded shorelines with stained water or mud-lines. Trolling crankbaits with planer boards is extremely effective in testing water depths at the same time. Good colors for spinners or crankbaits can vary by the day, but chartreuse is always a good choice as is blue and silver. Perch colors, fire tiger and clown finishes also work well on crankbaits.

Top water picks for walleye include:

Tongue River Reservoir, Tiber Reservoir, Holter Lake, Fresno Reservoir, Cooney Reservoir, and in the Fourchette area at Fort Peck.

Smallmouth Bass

More anglers are going after smallmouth bass in the Northern Rocky Mountains than ever before, but the fishing pressure on smallmouth bass is relatively light in this land famous for trout fishing.

Fish the shallows during hours when boat traffic is at a minimum and the sun is off the water. During midday, most of these game fish suspend in deep waters over rocky humps, sunken trees and deeper channels. Look for depths of 5 to 10 feet, preferably with emerging weeds, and cast a No. 3 or 4 Mepp’s Black Fury on a medium-action spinning outfit. Vary your retrieve to see how the fish react. Also try a top-water spinnerbait in white or chartreuse or a floating twitchbait or stickbait in black or silver.

Top water picks for bass include:

Bull Lake, Noxon River Reservoir, Nelson Reservoir, Placid Lake, and Seeley Lake. Blanchard Lake near Whitefish and Lake Mary Ronan are also good choices, as is the Bighorn River before it flows into Wyoming, Fort Peck Lake and the Tongue River Reservoir.

Northern Pike - Summer Pike Tips

Larger pike prefer deeper water with summer daytime depths in the 7 to 15 foot mark. On bright, calm days they will hover along ambush spots along drop-offs and weedlines close to shore. As the winds pick up (which they often do on these reservoirs), shift your efforts to offshore weedbeds where the water remains unrolled. Start with deep weeds. The brighter the light, the deeper down the pike will be. Work jigs and trailers along these weedy drop-offs until the sun drops and the wind dies. Then hit the grassy areas near shore with floating plugs. Use spoons and spinners for good success. White, yellow and chartreuse are perfect pike lure colors.

Top water picks for northern pike include:

Hell Creek at Fort Peck, Rock Creek at Fort Peck, Tongue River Reservoir (which still holds the state record 37.5 lbs. from 1972).

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Hunting & Fishing News | 21

Photo Credit Jordan Budd

Finding Trophy Quality Deer In A Non-Trophy Unit By Jordan Budd Originally published at “

www.goHUNT.com

want to hunt a trophy mule deer, but I don’t have enough points.” I think this is an all too familiar thought and phrase for hunters interested in targeting a trophy mule deer in the West. It’s easy to get hung up on the romantic units known for giant mule deer like Region G in Wyoming or the Gunnison Basin (Units 54, 55, 551, 66, 67) in Colorado, but those units take on average about 10 points to draw. Back in 2013, big velvet mule deer in high alpine basins filled my thoughts. While I’m from the Midwest, I had hunted mule deer before, but I wanted the true adventure mountain backpack hunting experience to go along with the chase. I read through books, magazines, and forums in order to gather as much information as I could to start planning my big hunt.

After tracking draw odds and realizing I wouldn’t be able to hunt the premiere units for another ten years, I started looking at lesser known units with good draw odds in the states closest to home. After selecting a unit with 150” trophy potential, based on maps and Google Earth and INSIDER research, I took my first ever summer scouting trip above the tree line in search of bucks. In those first few days, I found a number of bucks over 165” and was convinced that I would find a special deer in this unit. I was hooked. I drew a tag every year for four years and on September 14, 2017, I finally fulfilled my dream and killed a trophy buck scoring 188” in a 150” trophy potential unit. With the do-it-yourself (DIY) hunter in mind, here are my thoughts on selecting an area and harvesting a trophy mule deer in an average unit.

LOCATION CONSIDERATIONS

By this, I don’t mean selecting a specific unit as much as selecting the general area. I live in a state that holds one of the best 180” to 190”+ trophy mule deer areas in the country, but that area is over six hours away. With my work schedule, I didn’t feel I would be able to effectively put the time into scouting or even hunting from that distance so I chose an area within two hours of home. Right away, I gained an advantage being able to scout almost every weekend and hunt whenever I had time during the season. This applies to anyone making longer than necessary drives into the states they want to hunt. Instead of driving hours through mule deer country to a unit that may be a little better, choose a unit that is closer so you can be there quicker and have more time to scout and also hunt.

SCOUTING

One major contribution to my success was summer scouting. In units where trophy densities are low, scouting is going to extremely improve your odds of finding a big buck and going home successful. (continued on page 42)

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REGIONAL NEWS

WDFW Finds Elk Hoof Disease In Eastern Washington Plans To Euthanize Elk To Contain Its Spread By Kyle Garrison, WA. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife

For the first time, state wildlife managers have found elk on

the east side of the Cascade Range infected with a crippling hoof disease that has spread to 11 counties in western Washington over the past decade. Lab results from a deformed hoof and direct observations of elk walking with a profound limp in the Trout Lake Valley of Klickitat County provide clear evidence that the disease has spread to that area, said Eric Gardner, head of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) wildlife program. “This is a huge concern for us and a lot of other people,” Gardner said. “This is a terrible disease and there’s no vaccine to prevent it and no proven options for treating free-ranging elk in the field.” In response, state wildlife managers are preparing to euthanize any elk showing signs of the disease near the small town of Trout Lake, about 60 miles northeast of Vancouver. The goal is to stop it from spreading farther into eastern Washington, Gardner said. “This is the first time the department has tried to stop the advance of the disease by removing affected elk,” said Kyle Garrison, WDFW hoof disease coordinator. “There’s no guarantee of success, but we believe a rapid response might contain this outbreak given the isolation of Trout Lake and the low prevalence of elk showing symptoms of the disease.”

He said the department plans to remove up to 20 symptomatic elk from the area in May.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which supports the proposed action, has pledged $2,000 to help defray the department’s costs... The first sign that the infectious disease had spread so far east came April 4, when a resident of Trout Lake sent the department a deformed hoof from an elk killed in a vehicle collision near his home, Garrison said. On April 17, a WDFW staff team searched the area for other elk that might have been infected. They observed at least seven elk walking with a pronounced limp – a common symptom of the disease – and shot one limping animal to obtain hoof samples for testing. Tests at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the USDA National Animal Disease Center confirmed both elk had hoof disease, Gardner said. “We need to act quickly if we hope to get ahead of this situation,” Garrison said. “Elk in lowland areas begin to disperse into summer grazing areas by the end of May.” “The college is cooperating with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and other agencies in accordance with direction from the Washington Legislature to research elk hoof disease,” said Dean Bryan Slinker. WSU pathologists will conduct post-mortem examinations of the euthanized elk and will collect as many tissue samples as possible, he said... Wildlife managers believe elk carry the disease on their hooves and transport it to other areas. Once the disease becomes established in an elk population, it is extremely difficult to manage. The disease appears to be highly infectious among elk, but there is no evidence that it affects humans...

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Officer Jon Hunter with the three illegally-taken bull elk. Photo Jon Hunter IFG

Elk Poaching Spree Ends With Jail, Fines And Penalties By Evin Oneale,

Regional Conservation Educator Idaho Fish and Game

T wo men shot elk during archery seasons and were convicted of multiple charges

Multiple seasons of elk poaching have ended poorly for two men who now face jail time, hunting license revocations and thousands of dollars in fines and restitution to the citizens of Idaho for their crimes. An anonymous call to the Citizens Against Poaching (CAP) hotline started it all. In September 2016, Jonathan Blaschka (36) of Mountain Home and his companion, Charles McCall (41) also of Mountain Home, gunned down two bull elk during an archery only season near Yellow Pine, Idaho. This, despite the fact that both men held valid archery elk tags for the area. Blaschka returned to the Yellow Pine area in September of 2017 and used a rifle to poach a large bull elk and a cow elk, again during the archery only season. Using information obtained via the CAP hotline, Fish and Game conservation officer Jon Hunter and a team of other officers launched an investigation that involved multiple interviews with several individuals. The investigation led to the seizure of a firearm, cell phone, elk antlers and elk meat stored at Blaschka’s Mountain Home residence. In one text message found on Blaschka’s cell phone, he bragged about shooting multiple elk, wounding another and shooting until he ran out of bullets. This and other similar evidence contributed to the formidable sentencing he experienced this spring. In early April 2018, Blaschka appeared in a Valley County courtroom for formal sentencing by Judge Lamont Berecz on seven wildlife violations including two counts of poaching a bull elk, two counts of possession of an illegally-taken bull elk, poaching a cow elk, possessing an illegally-taken cow elk and using an elk tag belonging to another person. Blaschka was sentenced to 30 days in jail, to be served during the next four months, and was ordered to pay nearly $9,000 in fines, court costs, processing fees and restitution. His hunting privileges were suspended for four years, and he also received two years of unsupervised probation. For his part in the poaching spree, McCall was fined $1,380 and lost his hunting privileges for one year. Conservation officer Hunter credits the successful outcome of the case to the concerned citizen who brought the suspected poaching to the Fish and Game’s attention. “With an average patrol area of over a thousand square miles, Idaho Conservation Officers cannot be everywhere at once,” he noted. “We depend on ethical hunters to be our eyes and ears in the field and encourage them to report illegal wildlife activities.”...

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TREKKING POLES FOR HUNTING… Wimpy OR Smart?

Photo credit Josh Kirchner

By Josh Kirchner

originally published at www.goHUNT.com

A s funny as it might sound, the first time I ever saw someone walking through the hills with trekking poles,

I was a bit surprised. Why was this person walking around the desert with ski poles? Coincidentally enough, it was an older gentleman, so I just chalked it up to his old age. I told myself that a person at his stage in life would surely need some extra support walking around out here. As time went on, I saw more and more folks using these “ski poles” on their hunts. And, to my surprise, they weren’t all seniors either. These were fully capable young adults that shouldn’t have any problems hiking these areas. I will admit, that for awhile, I was anti-trekking pole. That was until I started being more successful at filling the freezer. The more heavy packs that I experienced, the more I thought to myself, “Maybe these people are onto something.”

28 | Hunting & Fishing News

This question slowly started to answer itself as I grew in my hunting. The more backpacking trips and heavy packouts that I experienced, the more it started to make sense. Why wouldn’t you want some extra support, especially with 100 lbs on your back? If you are anything like me, the amount of miles you hike each year is unfathomable. If that is you and you haven’t jumped on the trekking pole wagon yet, here are some things to think about. Longevity I will tell you right now that I am absolutely terrified at the thought of getting older and possibly being limited to what I can and can’t do in the field. I want to be able to do the things I love for as long as possible. Because of that, trekking poles soon became a no-brainer for me. Hiking up and downhill with heavy weight eats at your joints; your knees in particular. By implementing trekking poles into the mix, you can actually reduce stress on your knees by 25% on a 25-degree slope. I imagine that number only grows with how steep of a hill you are going up or down. I don’t know about you, but all of the critters I have been lucky enough to take, haven’t ever conveniently passed away in flat country. The way I see it, if you can reduce stress on your joints, you are only extending the life of them. That sounds like a good deal to me. Better posture This is one that I hadn’t realized until spending more and more time with my newly beloved trekking poles. As we increase the load in our packs, we tend to bend forward gradually. This is natural and expected. We have a heavy pack that is weighing us down and we naturally want to fight against it. Trekking poles help offset that by giving you more support in front, which will, in turn, straighten you out a bit and give you better posture when hitting the mountains. Not only is this going to be healthier for your back, but it is also going to lessen the impact on your energy. You will be able to hike longer and farther due to less fatigue. You’ll also notice that the next day, you won’t be as sore. Stay balanced I wasn’t clumsy before I started using trekking poles, but thanks to them I have definitely taken way fewer tumbles. The advantage of having three to four points of contact when traversing through nasty terrain is huge. By doing this, I have saved myself from falling more than a few times. The poles especially come in handy during creek crossings. Stepping on slippery rocks with heavy weight is a recipe for not only getting wet but also rolling your ankle. That is not something you want on your glory hike back to your truck. You will avoid most injuries simply by being more balanced. Cut weight This idea is specifically geared towards backpack hunting. How can you cut weight by adding weight? There are quite a few shelters available that can be set up using trekking poles. These shelters tend to be super lightweight, weighing roughly a pound. If you grab one of these, you will be cutting the weight down in your pack by not having to carry extra tent poles. I recently did this myself and have been pleased with the results. My new shelter weighs in at a whopping 1 lb 5 oz. With a trekking pole, it adds another 6 ounces. Now, I am sub 2 lbs for a shelter in the backcountry due to my use of trekking poles. If you’re interested in trekking pole durability here is a link to a goHUNT trekking pole stress test http://bit.ly/2GmTBZI

DISADVANTAGES OF TREKKING POLES

If you ask me, I will tell you that there are far more advantages than disadvantages by using trekking poles. While there aren’t a ton of downsides, there are some. Remember how I just said that you would cut weight by adding trekking poles to your arsenal? Well, if you aren’t backpack hunting, you are just adding weight. While there are some pretty lightweight poles out there, (continued next page)

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TREKKING POLES FOR HUNTING...(continued from page 28) it doesn’t change the fact that you are adding one or two more things to your pack. With that being said, I still think that trekking poles are worth their weight in gold. You might be adding to your pack, but you are taking away from stress on your joints. That’s a pretty fair trade-off in my opinion. Another disadvantage that I have experienced is they have actually almost made me fall when hiking. That isn’t something that has happened a lot by any means, but it has happened. While hiking, I have had a pole actually get caught in a rock crevice, which totally threw off my balance and made me nearly fall. As you are intertwining your way through the mountains, pay attention to where you are actually placing your poles in the ground.

WIMPY OR SMART?

Like I said above, I was one of those anti-trekking pole people for quite awhile. My reasoning was somewhat childish: I thought that they just made whoever was using them look wimpy. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s the truth. I thought that I was young and strong, leaving me no reason to need help hiking the mountains. That was the sound of ignorance knocking at my door. I was simply unaware of the benefits and thought I would get made fun of for using them. Nowadays, I say let your friends make fun of you. You are going to be the one laughing when they are struggling to keep up with you on future hunts. So, wimpy or smart? I am going to lean on the end of smart all day on this one. There will always be a place in my pack for trekking poles. Not just for what lies ahead today, but more importantly, what lies ahead tomorrow.

Hunting & Fishing News | 29

Tree Stand Basics: How hard can it be? By Tom Cooper

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A n old and trusted hunting partner started the discussion

about hunting from tree stands. He explained, in hardwood forests it is extremely difficult Photo by jeffbanke|depositphotos.com to find whitetail deer while walking because the forest floor is littered with deep, noisy leaves. I will refer to my old partner as Ray, partly because as a name for a hunting partner Ray has a nice solid sound, but also because it’s really his name. Anyway, he said “You teach me to shoot a bow and I will teach you about tree stand hunting.” My eager, although initially cautious response was “Let’s do it; how hard can it be anyway?” The year was 1988. As Air Force officers recently assigned to the Pentagon, we lived in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. Ray had returned from an assignment in Germany, while I had been in Washington for almost a year attending a military service school. We hunted together in Utah about 10 years earlier. During those Utah hunts, we used rifles for both mule deer and elk, although not always very successfully. Neither of us had hunted the hardwood, leaf-littered forest of the Eastern United States. However, Ray was raised in Minnesota and experienced with tree stand hunting albeit with a gun. He committed to learn how to shoot a bow and become an archery hunter. I grew up in Montana, gun-hunted most of my life, never in a tree or a stand, whatever that was. However during an assignment to Utah, well-intentioned Air Force comrades, who shall remain nameless, insisted I learn something about archery hunting. After three years of “practice” with no actual shots at an animal, but many hours in the woods carrying a bow, I believed I was a somewhat competent archery hunter. So when Ray asked, I committed to learn how to hunt from a tree. How hard could it be? I insisted Ray visit a professional archery shop to be properly fitted with a bow. He did so. I also insisted Ray and I practice regularly. We did. Over just a few months he progressed quickly and became a proficient target shooter. Regarding tree stand hunting, Ray explained the approach used in Minnesota was to scout an area, find deer trails, and select a solid tree overlooking these trails. Instead of the camouflaged and machined platforms I had admired in hunting magazines and catalogues, Ray said we would simply pick a nice big old oak tree with large solid branches and in advance, trim it, to allow for ease of climbing and shooting. As a safety precaution, he insisted we use some kind of a harness in case we slipped off our favorite branch while standing in the tree. At this point, it all made perfect sense to a hunter from the mountains of Montana. At the same time, I was starting to wonder: how hard might this be? Within thirty minutes of our Virginia homes was the Quantico Marine Corps Base which offered hunting for military and civilians alike. In addition to hunting, the base provided limited opportunities to scout hunting areas in advance of the season to allow hunters to trim trees and brush to create shooting lanes and even build temporary tree stands.

Of course we took advantage of these opportunities. We found prime deer trails and trimmed our shooting lanes. We climbed our newly found favorite oak trees and tested standing on solid limbs, harnessed securely in place. It was all working just the way Ray had described. Really, how hard can this be? For opening day of archery season, we made reservations for our designated hunting area, and a couple hours before daylight proceeded to Quantico. Imagine our surprise when the US Marines advised they were going to use our hunting area for training. The Marines, being hunters themselves, anticipated our disappointment and offered alternative areas. Before daylight, we selected an area from their map knowing it was not scouted, and needless to say the trees were not trimmed. Anyway, we drove to the parking area, collected our gear, and found what appeared to be a good game trail in the pre-dawn darkness. We followed the trail by flashlight for about 20 minutes and started looking for candidate trees to climb. Somewhere in the dark we heard a turkey gobble and one of us suggested if there were turkeys about, then the deer should be about as well. That made sense but also added to our sense of urgency to select a tree. With my flashlight, I spotted a really nice oak tree with a very large horizontal branch and suggested Ray move a couple hundred yards to the right, or north, or towards the sunrise, whatever. He agreed and quickly disappeared into the darkness. Though in-experienced and still in the dark, it seemed clear I needed just three screw-in tree climbing steps to reach my oak branch. I could reach all three step locations from the ground. Immediately I found I could not penetrate the hardwood of my oak tree with just the point of my screw-in step. Using my knife, I made three starter holes and had my steps in place in just a few minutes. Since I had read articles about using a rope to pull your bow up to the stand after climbing safely up there yourself, I was prepared, and started to climb the tree noting daylight was fast approaching. About halfway between the second and third climbing steps, my left hand passed in front of my nose. The odor, though familiar, was not clear at first. We have all smelled human blood, but that does not make it immediately recognizable when climbing an oak tree in the dark. Retreating to the ground I found a band aid in my pack and covered the wound, apparently inflicted while cutting the starter holes for climbing steps. Back up the tree, just as a trace of the sun was peaking over the horizon, I stood on my solid oak branch triumphantly. Unfortunately when attempting to raise my bow by the attached rope, it tangled in some low untrimmed branches. So, I retreated down the tree, separated the bow from the brush, and returned to my branch. Now for some reason I was sweating a lot. I placed an arrow below the nock point and hung the bow on a convenient branch. At this point I recognized the need to put on my shooting glove, but noticed when I pulled the glove from a rear pocket, my release fell to the ground. Another trip down, I retrieved my release, and back up the tree. This time it was not just daylight, the sun was up. By now I was really ready to hunt. Now I remembered the face mask in my other back pocket. I removed it and tried to slide it over my glasses, but alas it dropped, landing on the bottom tree climbing step. I rationalized a face mask was not really necessary since I was in a tree. Besides one more trip to the ground and back was not going to make this a better hunt. So, just to make sure I could reach the bow from my position on the limb, I grabbed the bow and lifted it from its perch. Unbelievably, my bow bumped an inconspicuous and untrimmed branch, knocking the arrow loose. It fell to the base of the tree sticking in the ground. Unperturbed and extremely calm, I simply placed another arrow securely under the nock point. (continued on page 34)

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Hunting & Fishing News | 31

3 Rifle Practice Tips to Prepare for Your Hunt By Ryan McSparran For information on a guided hunt visit www.kawdyoutfitters.com

W e hope you’re getting excited for the 2018 hunting season. This time of year most of us are planning our fall hunts. And while you can easily get caught up thinking about your travel

plans and what gear you’re bringing, don’t forget the most important part. You need to be getting some rifle practice! Don’t wait to check your rifle until weeks before your trip. Practice starts now so that you can truly prepare to hunt. A blown shooting opportunity can put a serious damper on any hunting trip. We’ve all been there and it’s not a good feeling. The upcoming hunting season will be here before you know it. Here are 3 rifle practice tips to get you started: 1. Step Away From the Bench Rest Assuming that your rifle is already sighted in accurately, your next step is getting some real practice. Step away from the shooting bench and begin practicing in more realistic shooting positions. Try shooting offhand, on one knee, in a sitting position, and in the prone position. Here in the widely varied terrain of northern British Columbia, you never know what a shot opportunity is going to present. Being ready and confident in a number of positions will be a tremendous advantage. If you use any shooting accessories like a bipod or sticks, you never want to show up on a hunt without having given them plenty of practice. If possible, go take a walk out somewhere near your home and practice using these items on the side of a steep bank or in other realistic positions. Make sure that you’re comfortable and that you can deploy them quickly. 2. Practice In Your Hunting Gear Next, it’s time to practice in your hunting gear, including your clothing, binocular harness, backpack and any other accessories that might get in the way. Practice in the same positions we’ve already mentioned, but now do it with the rest of your hunting gear. See how quickly you can get into position, steady your rifle, and make the shot. On a B.C. hunting trip, you can expect to be wearing your rain gear at least part of the time. And with the unpredictable weather here, there are times you might be totally bundled up. That really changes things from practicing at the rifle range in a t-shirt. Save yourself the frustration in the field and iron out those issues now. 3. Elevate Your Heart Rate When you find yourself comfortable shooting in multiple positions and while wearing your hunting gear, it’s time to make the situations even more realistic. When you’re leveling your crosshairs on that giant moose, mountain caribou or mountain goat, there’s a good chance your heart will be pounding. You might be out of breath from a climb up a steep ridge, or from trying to move quickly through spruce or willow thickets. No matter the situation, practicing with an elevated heart rate will allow you to be more steady and confident when that critical moment comes. Do whatever you can to elevate your heart rate just before taking a shot. If you have a place where it’s possible, run sprints between shots. If you don’t have that much space, try burpees or jumping jacks for one minute and then settling in for a shot. After investing so much time, resource and energy on an awesome hunting experience, make sure that you’re ready for that one critical moment of the hunt. Take time over the next several months and show up for your hunt this fall feeling confident in your ability to make a shot, even under tough circumstances.

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Tree Stand Basics: How hard can it be? (continued from page 31)

Then, I attempted to return the bow to the previous perch. Another improperly growing branch, and a second arrow lies stuck in the ground at the base of my tree.

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Before I removed a third arrow from my quiver, but after I dropped my shooting glove trying to clean the blood off the lens of my binoculars, I scanned the surrounding trees to make sure Ray was not observing my Photo by jeffbanke|depositphotos.com dysfunctional activity. I could not spot him. Then, I proceeded to secure a third arrow. This time I decided to just hold the bow for a while. Within a few minutes, it occurred to me to determine whether I could actually draw from my branch. I tried but didn’t have room to come to full draw. Releasing the drawn bow, the arrow banged off the rest and stuck just inches from the two previous drops. Because I really did not want to drop a fourth arrow, I called Ray on our short range walkie-talkies, informed him I had not seen anything and was about to descend. Further, I explained my intent was to circle around his location, maybe one of us would see any deer I might jump. He seemed quiet but did not disagree with my plan, and indicated I could find his stand if I moved from my location directly toward the sun. From my tree even though slightly overcast, I could see the sun so, I was confident I knew about where I would find Ray. Once on the ground I picked up my bow, face mask, glove, and arrows scattered about the base of the tree. From the ground I scanned the area, but could no longer find the sun through the dense foliage and overcast. Secure in the knowledge that my Montana sense of direction had seldom disappointed me, I selected a route up a small ravine toward a ridge paralleling the direction where I thought Ray was located. I figured an arc covering a quarter mile ought to put me in the right place. However in less than 75 yards, I saw a variety of orange and red color at the base of a large White Oak. Using my binoculars, I could see what appeared to be several arrows sticking in the leaves at the base of the tree. In addition there was a dark green glove lying on a yellow-leafed bush. I knew the vanes on Ray’s arrows were orange and red, but honestly did not recognize the glove. About 15 feet up the tree, I spotted Ray standing on an oak branch. Carefully I moved to the base of his tree and politely asked “What happened, did you drop some arrows?” He responded as calmly as I had ever heard him speak “There are just five arrows down there because I already descended once and picked up the first three, so that only makes eight.” He did not mention dropping the glove, so I let it pass. Since I had just heard a turkey gobble, suggesting turkeys were about, I commented that deer were probably about as well. And besides we had been tree stand hunting for almost two hours, maybe it was time to walk for a while. With an approving nod Ray organized his gear, started his descent, and suggested Virginia tree stand hunting had not really proven to be that hard. Maybe we should try it again next weekend. I agreed but recognized it was just a bit harder than I had anticipated.

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CROSS TRAINING MOUNTAIN HUNT For A

By Zach Lazzari

T raining for a physically demanding mountain hunt is a long, arduous process. This doesn’t mean it should

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be monotonous and uninspiring. Cross-training and participating in other sports, competitions and activities is a great way to stay motivated and active during the off-season. Training solo on a mountain is a lonely process in the long run. Work in social activities to create accountability and add some fun to your training routine.

Running -

Mountain hunting requires endurance and running is flat out effective for conditioning your legs. You can join a running group or train solo. Sign-up for local runs, set goals and work towards those events and competitions. Start with a 6k and build up to longer runs as you gain momentum. You can take this very seriously and enter really competitive events or join charitable runs and simply enjoy the overall process while building endurance and maintaining off-season conditioning.

Hiking Clubs and Trail Exercise -

You don’t necessarily have to join an official club but hiking with friends is a fun way to stay physically tuned. Consistency is the key to making this work. Get out every week and go with people who will challenge and push you. I like to pick a few difficult peaks for the summer and work up to those hikes with a friend or two. Setting that goal is motivating and reaching several difficult peaks in July and August has my legs ready for the archery season trails in September. You can double up on these trips and use them as scouting missions. I love backpacking to a lake with my fly rod in an area that may hold elk. I’ll glass the morning and evening and fish during the day. It’s a perfect way to have some fun and check off new zones on the map.

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Crossfit and other short burst workout programs are not only effective, they are time efficient. Busy professionals can knock out a hard workout in 45 minutes or less and get on with their day. Group workouts are ideal as partners can spot and push each other. Finding a crossfit group is pretty easy in most areas and numerous other local workout program groups exist as well. The key is sticking to a program that is engaging and challenging.

Intramural Sports Leagues -

Physically demanding sports that require sprinting and strength are ideal. I’m not discouraging you from the local softball league, but it doesn’t translate well to the mountain. Focus on flag football, soccer and even racquetball. Elevate your heart rate and strive for aerobic and anaerobic activity. Sports leagues are fun and will keep you mentally alert and excited as well. For information on mountain hunting in remote British Columbia with Kawdy Outfitters, please explore their website at www.kawdyoutfitters.com or call 1-250-306-8624 (Oct.15-July 1), and 1-604-629-9582 (July1-Oct.15) for more details or specific availability.

36 | Hunting & Fishing News

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HUNTING PUBLIC LAND ELK WITH A MONTANA DECOY By CJ Davis Montana Decoy Co. www.montanadecoy.com

T he first thing to plan is where to hunt. This involves two details: the best states and the hottest areas within them. Three of our favorite spots for public land elk are Oregon, Colorado and Idaho. These states offer sprawling acreage and over-the-counter hunting permits that make the season more convenient for you. For more information on public land elk hunting in these states, take a look at this recent article we wrote https://www.montanadecoy.com/news/find-thebest-colorado-otc-elk-hunting-units No matter what state you choose to hunt in, be sure to follow these tips once you get there.

Get Far From Roads

Public land elk are much more skittish than those living on private land due to the amount of pressure they face during the hunting season. That heavy traffic will push herds into more secluded areas. For us, that means being willing to work for meat.

Exude Patience and a Will to Work

Because of the high hunting pressure, you’re probably going to have to travel much farther than you normally would when hunting private property. You also have to be willing to wait and be more patient than other hunters, meaning that when others start to head home, you’re setting up camp. When you’re not hiking out to the farthest possible point, there are three things you should be doing: glassing, glassing and glassing some more. You want to know as much as you can about that habitat, and glassing during hiking breaks is one of the best ways to achieve that. Also carry a good plat or topo map.

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38 | Hunting & Fishing News

Hunting public land for elk with a Montana Decoy should only be done during the archery season. Calling and Decoying Public Land Elk

Hunting pressure helps educate elk to false calls since so many hunters are using them at once. This will continue to push them farther. Instead of bugling and cow calling away, try to listen to the animals’ intermittent communication. The herd will become much more reliant on what they see. This opens up the perfect opportunity to use a Montana Elk Decoy. Decoys evoke a sense of comfort and an elk decoy in the right spot can convince an old bull that a feeding area is safe. Plus, since Montana Decoys are so lightweight and portable, you’re guaranteed at least one piece of equipment that won’t weigh you down.

Be Smart with Safety

Hunting on public land – especially with a decoy – requires an added level of safety and awareness. You have to continually remind yourself that you may not be the only hunter in that area; even if you think you’re miles away from anyone else. Here are a few tips to keep you safe and successful on your hunt.

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Don’t Move With an Open Decoy

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Never Get Behind a Decoy

Similar to the above suggestion, be sure that you are never waiting directly behind your decoy. This, again, can make you an accidental target. Additionally, if a bull approaches your decoy from any angle other than the front, it might catch a glimpse of you and derail the day’s hunt. Instead, move about 15 yards away from your decoy under the cover of trees or bushes while maintaining good visibility.

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Hunting & Fishing News | 39

SHEEP HUNTING DNA (continued from page 7)

Yes, drawing or purchasing a sheep tag is extremely difficult. Sheep hunts are expensive and normally beyond the grasp of the average person’s financial ability. Yet, what would life be if we didn’t have goals to shoot for? For many of us, the difficulty of scraping together enough money to book a sheep hunt can be a daunting proposition. However, if there is a will, there’s a way to fulfill your dream. I guarantee that designing a plan to hunt wild sheep will involve incredible personal sacrifice, unrelenting, selfless family support, unforeseen obstacles, and backbreaking work stained with the sweat and toil of dreams. Your personal sheep hunting journey will translate into the pure love of unclimbed mountains, unexplored terrain, surviving the merciless wrath of Mother Nature, and fair chase hunting. Along with your sojourn, you will understand the true definition of what I call the encompassing experience and countless cherished memories will forever become branded into your mind to never be erased. Your life—if you are privileged to hunt wild sheep—will inevitably be touched with lifelong relationships established with individuals of unbreakable character that you climbed the mountains with, shared the warmth of a campfire, and tasted the bitter and painful mental anguish of a trophy ram that escaped your stalk before ultimately culminating in the exhilarating exuberance of success. Sheep hunting translates into grown men and women crying together, the tears of celebrating one of the most difficult hunting achievements in North America streaming down their faces after harvesting and honoring the prized ram they hunted.

Photo credit: Randy Johnson of High Desert Wild Sheep Guides

Each aspiring sheep hunter must recognize that without the vigilant efforts of wildlife conservation activists who generate and appropriate the money needed to put wild sheep on the mountain, that they would not exist today for you nor I to enjoy and pursue. I encourage you to join, support and get involved with organizations whose vision and goals are to put wild sheep on the mountain! What great personal satisfaction you will gain in becoming part of a hunting fraternity that supports and works to see that the dreams of men and women who wish to hunt wild sheep are achieved? As life races on I encourage those of you who question whether you can find the resources or time to complete your personal goal of hunting sheep to take the challenge before the twilight of time envelops you. Sheep hunting will give you the will—and determination—to achieve physical and mental goals that you may have never dreamed possible. On one of my recent sheep hunts, it seemed as if I was standing on the fingertips of God, as my view of the Absaroka Range in the Central Rockies of Wyoming was literally unbelievable. Find a path to fulfilling your dream!

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Finding Trophy Quality Deer In A Non-Trophy Unit (continued from page 22) My friend, Robby Denning, uses a quote that is extremely true and has always stuck with me: “Scout hard, hunt easy.” Bucks are in their most vulnerable state when they are in predictable summer patterns. You’ll find them most often above the timberline where there is nutritious feed. They’ll be visible and easy to pick out with your optics with their red-tinted summer coats and growing antlers. Since bucks are most visible during the summer, this will be the best time to cover a ton of country and look through a lot of deer before finding the one you Photo Credit Jordan Budd deem a trophy. If you want to dive further in how to finding quality deer habitat, you can check out a great scouting article by Robby Denning here https://www.gohunt.com/read/skills/how-to-find-big-muledeer-areas-using-google-earth#gs.uzq2EcQ For the most part, bucks will be pretty set in their patterns by mid to late July. I usually start scouting the high country in mid-June. While I usually see a lot of bucks, it seems like a lot of them are just moving through and don’t consider that area home. I found one very big deer in June, but he moved out of the area after one weekend and I was never able to locate him again. If I only had limited scouting trips until hunting season, I would focus them more towards the middle of July. They are where they are, not where you want them to be. I had trouble with this for a couple of years. I think we all have a somewhat romantic vision of where these big bucks are going to be: big, high green alpine basins with cliff bands all around and a 185” buck under every tree. At least, that’s what comes to my mind, but unfortunately, it’s not the reality most of the time. When you climb into one of those basins that looks perfect and in two full days of glassing you don’t see a deer, your hopes pretty much tank. This year, while hiking about 4.5 miles into one of said basins, I hiked through a lot of deer sign and even saw some smaller bucks bedded under some cliffs a little over

42 | Hunting & Fishing News

Jordan’s 2017 mule deer. Photo credit: Jordan Budd

a mile in. After climbing out of the drainage into a nice basin, I had a morning without seeing a single deer and decided to run back down the ridge and glass toward where I had seen the deer on my way in. That evening, I found good bucks: two being definite shooters over 180”; one of which I shot in 2017. Once you have entered into a specific area and not found any deer, look lower, higher, further, closer and in places where you wouldn’t envision a deer to be because, in my experience, that is where the biggest deer always is.

KEEPING TABS

Once you’ve found that trophy buck, study him. More than likely, that buck is going to call that immediate area home and he’ll have a pattern developed that you can learn a lot from: where he likes to bed, feed, different travel corridors, routes to water and, hopefully, an escape route. Getting as good of an idea as you can about the buck and his habits will help you immensely once the season starts and you have a bow in hand. Trail cameras set on a travel route could also be a huge help if permitted in your area. From listening to some great mule deer hunters and some of my own experiences, those big deer are not going to move far from where you have seen them in their summer patterns.

DISAPPEARING ACT

Opening morning in 2016, the group of bucks I’d watched all summer popped over the mountain and dropped into the little basin I’d seen them in all summer; it was a textbook scenario. Fast forward to 2017 and the story wasn’t quite the same, but one that I learned a lot from. I had watched that buck for the whole month of July and headed back up for a scouting weekend the first week in August; I couldn’t find him. I talked to a couple of good mule deer hunters and they assured me that he wasn’t going to be far, but I just had the “what ifs” running through my head. On September 14, I had a bow in hand while I sat on a glassing point I’d sat on dozens of times looking over the same country he had been in. I moved down the ridge about 100 yards to change up perspectives when a big grey body caught my eye. Sure enough, there he was. I don’t believe that deer moved at all from August until then; he was just an old mature lone deer that was weary and smart. So if and when that happens, stick it out in the area that you know he has been in and be patient. Stay low key, move around and persistently use your glass to pick apart the area. It’s extremely easy to think, “Oh, maybe he moved over that mountain” or “Oh, he could have moved around this corner,” but more than likely he’s still there. By second-guessing yourself and moving areas you’ll really be looking for a needle in a haystack.

IN CLOSING

When considering hunting the West for big mule deer, think outside of the box. I really believe every unit holds some trophy quality bucks of around 175”+, but they are just going to be more difficult to locate. By putting in the legwork and embracing the adventure, you may find the next hidden gem—and you may have him to yourself!

COMFORT: Quiet 847cc twin engine for smooth, controllable power • 4-wheel independent suspension w/self-leveling rear shocks • Roomy cabin with plush, high-back seats • CAPABILITY: Conquer the tightest trails with compact, yet roomy chassis • Nimble handling with Yamaha EPS • Maximum traction via On-Command® 2WD/4WD • Versatile stow-away rear seats • Huge ground clearance CONFIDENCE: Real World Tech innovation and reliability • Ultra-reliable CVT: Ultramatic® Transmission • Full length skid plates w/integrated service points • Assembled in U.S.A.

See the full line of YAMAHA SxS and ATVs at one of these Yamaha dealers. BOZEMAN BLITZ MOTORSPORTS 145 Rawhide Ridge Rd. 406-522-7533

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HAMILTON AL’S CYCLE 619 Highway 93N. 406-363-3433

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4 Offer available on approved purchases of new 2018 Wolverine X4 models made on the Yamaha Credit Card issued by WebBank, member FDIC. Subject to credit approval as determined by WebBank. Offer valid through 6/30/18. Available to cardholders of the WebBank Yamaha Card. Account must be open and current to be eligible for this offer. 0%, 4.99%, 9.99%, or 14.99% APR with Minimum Payments of 2.09%, 2.31%, 3.24%, or 3.48% respectively of the purchase price balance, based on your creditworthiness, are effective until the purchase is paid in full. Minimum Interest Charge $2 per month. Standard APR 15.99%-23.99%.*Customer Cash good on select models through 6/30/18. Offer good only in the U.S., excluding the state of Hawaii. Dealer remains responsible for complying with all local and state advertising regulations and laws. Professional driver on closed course. Wear your seat belt, helmet, eye protection and protective clothing. Read the Owner’s Manual and the product warning labels before operation. Model shown with optional accessories. Vehicle specifications subject to change. ©2018 Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. All rights reserved. • YamahaOutdoors.com

Spring Black Bear Hunters Reminded of Key Regulations Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks...

--Hunters should take some time reviewing the identifying characteristics of black and grizzly bears; all black bear hunters must have passed the “Black Bear Identification Test” found on the FWP website in order to purchase a black bear license.

-It is illegal to harvest/take black bear cubs. Cubs are defined as bears less than one year old. -It is illegal to harvest/take a female black bear with cubs. -It is illegal to bait bears or hunt bears with dogs. No scents may be used to attract black bears. © Brandon Smith | Dreamstime.com

JUNE BEAR HUNTS

Last chance for your spring bear. By H&F News Montana’s spring black bear season wraps up this month in the Bear Management Units that run through June 15th. It’s your last chance to hunt black bears in Montana until the fall hunts that begin in September.

Open to hunt through June 15, 2018

BMU - 200 - Middle Clark Fork BMU - 216 - Sapphire - Flint Creek BMU - 240 - W. Bitterroot BMU - 280 - Upper Blackfoot BMU - 290 - Lower Blackfoot - Garnet BMU - 309 - Gallatin Valley Weapons Restriction Area BMU - 316 - Big Hole BMU - 317 - Ruby - Centennial BMU - 341 - Madison - Yellowstone - Gallatin

Mandatory reporting requirements:

Within ten (10) days of harvesting a black bear the successful hunter must present to Montana FWP official the complete bear hide (with proof of sex remaining naturally attached) and skull for the purpose of inspection, tagging and possible removal of a tooth (for aging). The hide and skull must be presented in a condition that allows full inspection and tooth collection (i.e. unfrozen). On the reporting date, successful hunters are required to provide FWP personnel with hunter’s name, telephone number, ALS number, Bear Management Unit (BMU) and County. The FWP hide tag affixed during inspection must thereafter remain attached to the hide until tanned. Hunters should pick up a copy of the 2018 black bear hunting regulations and review them carefully before heading out to the field. 2018 Fall black bear hunts are: September 1 - September 14 (Archery only) September 15 - November 25

NAVIGATING LOW WATER ON BACKCOUNTRY RIVERS

By Zach Lazzari www.lazyjbaro.com

s runoff subsides on many western rivers, there is still reason for caution. Many floaters associate high spring flows with danger on backcountry rivers but low water poses a significant risk as well. The lines are narrow, obstacles are more prominent and although the water isn’t quite as big, the risk of flipping a boat remains a very real possibility. If you’re planning a drop float trip later in the summer or fall, stay on your toes and follow these safety guidelines to navigate bony river conditions.

Scout Lines Finding the best line is difficult in low water. High flows cover rocks while creating multiple routes on a run. Low flows expose danger and your best routes are often found by scouting first. Pull over, take a walk and plot your line in advance. It will save you the trouble of being pinned on a rock or flipping in a narrow chute.

Rope and Walk Through Tight Spots Narrow runs and bony riffles are sometime impassable while you

are inside the raft. You will stick to the bottom, have zero width for oar strokes and be at the mercy of the river. Hop out, lash a rope to a d-ring on the stern and guide the boat through the currents while you walk on dry ground or through shallow water. If you are rowing an angler, walking the boat is also a good way to set them up on fish. It’s a great alternative to grinding your oars through gravel and making a raucous. You can slow everything down and quietly guide them into position for a perfect presentation.

Lighten the Load Consider packing less for a late season trip. This is counterintuitive as colder temps mean

warmer and bulkier clothing and sleeping bags. You can shed weight with lightweight tents, dehydrated meals and backpacking equipment. A light boat will hang less in shallow riffles and is easier to portage if obstacles block your route. Although a big cooler full of meat and beer sounds nice, you will question the decision when you’re hauling it around log jams. Mountain house meals and whiskey bottles are much easier to move around.

Shallow Oar Strokes Feather your oars and make rapid, shallow strokes when navigating tight lines. Big oar

strokes risks jamming the blade under rocks. This is a leading cause of flipped rafts in low water. Keep your strokes tight and controlled, back row constantly to line up and set your direction. When you hit a wave train, push hard and drive right down the tongue. For information on guided fly fishing adventures or drop float trips in the Bob Marshall Wilderness with Lazy J Bar O Outfitters, check out their website at www.lazyjbaro.com

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46 | Hunting & Fishing News

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Presenting the all-new 3-row Subaru Ascent.

The biggest Subaru SUV ever is here - The 2019 Subaru Ascent® Family-sized with flexible seating for up to eight passengers, standard Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, and up to 5,000 pounds of towing capacity1. Subaru EyeSight® Driver Assist Technology2 comes standard. SUBARU STARLINK™ Multimedia and STARLINK Safety and Security3 services are included to keep you informed, entertained, and secure wherever the road may take you.

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Subaru, EyeSight and Ascent are registered trademarks. 1Maximum towing capacity varies by trim level. Trailer brakes may be needed. See your retailer for details. 2EyeSight® is a driver-assist system that may not operate optimally under all driving conditions. The driver is always responsible for safe and attentive driving. System effectiveness depends on many factors, such as vehicle maintenance, weather and road conditions. See owner’s manual for complete details on system operation and limitations. 3Activation with subscription required. Includes a three-year trial subscription to Safety Plus services and a six-month trial subscription to Safety and Security Plus services. The Concierge plan can be purchased annually or monthly. A credit card on file will be required for specific packages and for renewal purposes. See your retailer for details. 2019 Subaru Ascent shown with optional accessories.

Montana Hunting & Fishing News - June 2018

Articles inside

Pitchin' Ferry