FISHING • HUNTING • TRAVEL CALSPORTSMANMAG.COM
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California
Sportsman Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource
Volume 11 • Issue 4 PUBLISHER James R. Baker GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak EXECUTIVE EDITOR Andy Walgamott EDITOR Chris Cocoles CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Brittany Boddington LEAD WRITER Tim E. Hovey CONTRIBUTORS Ben Goldfarb, Scott Haugen, Tiffany Haugen, Todd Kline, Tony Lolli, Bill Schaefer SALES MANAGER Katie Higgins ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mamie Griffin, Mike Smith, Paul Yarnold DESIGNERS Kayla Mehring, Jake Weipert PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker DIGITAL STRATEGIST Jon Hines ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Katie Aumann INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER Lois Sanborn ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@calsportsmanmag.com CORRESPONDENCE Email ccocoles@media-inc.com Twitter @CalSportsMan Facebook.com/californiasportsmanmagazine ON THE COVER Whether it’s the Smith or the Chetco to the north, the Eel or the Mad to the south, the coastal rivers of Northern California should be productive steelhead fisheries over the next two months. (GREEN WATER FISHING ADVENTURES) MEDIA INC PUBLISHING GROUP CALIFORNIA OFFICE 4517 District Blvd. • Bakersfield, CA 93313 (661) 381-7533 WASHINGTON OFFICE P.O. Box 24365 • Seattle, WA 98124-0365 14240 Interurban Ave. S., Suite 190 Tukwila, WA 98168 (206) 382-9220 • (800) 332-1736 • Fax (206) 382-9437 media@media-inc.com • www.media-inc.com
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CONTENTS
VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 5
43
LOVE IS IN THE AIR
In the world of predictable romcom love stories, it’s not a surprise that an outdoor-loving couple met on the back of a research boating with fishing rods in hands. But that’s exactly the setting where our lead writer Tim Hovey first got to know his bride Cheryl. As Valentine’s Day beckons this month, Hovey reminisces about his life with Cheryl and how they raised their daughters Alyssa and Jessica to be just as passionate about fishing and hunting as Mom and Dad are. (TIM E. HOVEY) (TIM E. HOVEY)
FEATURES 15
WELCOMING FRED’S FRIENDS
Anglers, boaters and hunters looking for a great deal on gear or planning a dream trip know where to find whatever they’re looking for: March’s Fred Hall Shows. This year’s lineup again includes three stops, starting with the flagship show in Long Beach. We asked patriarch Fred Hall’s son Bart what to expect as this iconic outdoor show enters its 73rd year.
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BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
By Christmas, Northern California steelheaders are primed to layer up and hit rivers like the Smith, Eel and Mad for sea-run trout. But this season’s “fish were a little bit late showing up everywhere,” says longtime guide Tony Sepulveda. No reason to panic, though, as steelies were finally running in mid-January, and depending on the weather, at least some of the rivers should be
productive well into March. Tony shares where to go and what to use.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
57
SKIRTING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS
Salmon, trout and kokanee chasers swear that adding squid skirts to plugs and other baits often leads to limits. Our Field to Fire squad of Scott and Tiffany Haugen share how to rig up to catch fish with hoochies, as well as use salt blocks to cook your catch!
71 73 83
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THE OTAYS ARE A-OK
Southeast of San Diego are two water bodies teeming with big bass, state-record-sized catfish, trout and more. It’s no wonder San Diego County anglers make the short trip to Lower and Upper Otay to wet a line, but if you’ve never been here, let our Bill Schaefer be your tour guide for this diverse fishery.
Guide Fly: The Bunny Muddler Skinning predators made easy E-collar tips for gun dog owners
DEPARTMENTS 13 21 35 37 41
The Editor’s Note Protecting Wild California: A Bay Area city’s love-hate relationship with beavers Outdoor Calendar Adventures of Todd Kline Photo contest winners
Read California Sportsman on your desktop or mobile device. Go to www.calsportsmanmag.com/digital California Sportsman is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Avenue South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Send address changes to California Sportsman, PO Box 24365, Seattle, WA 98124. Annual subscriptions are $29.95 (12 issues), 2-year subscription are $39.95 (24 issues). Send check or money order to Media Index Publishing Group, or call (206) 382-9220 with VISA or M/C. Back issues are available at Media Index Publishing Group offices at the cost of $5 plus shipping. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2019 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A. 10 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
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THEEDITOR’SNOTE
KERN RIVER VALLEY
$26,544.00 cash and prizes up for grabs!!
There’s something special about spending a winter day on a Northern California coastal river in search of feisty steelhead. (GREEN WATER FISHING ADVENTURES)
A
s I look back on my Northern California upbringing, I can regrettably say that I didn’t spend enough time exploring the wonders of the North Coast. Sure, we took an annual weekend getaway to the Russian River and stuffed ourselves at one of the family-style eateries at Occidental. But I can only remember two experiences when I really entrenched myself in this sparsely populated top left corner of the Golden State. My dad and I took the Redwood Highway on our way to southern Oregon one summer when I was in high school. We spent the night and had a great dinner in Garberville, walked around Eureka to stretch our legs along the way, and then pulled over to get a bird’s-eye view of the mouth of the mighty Klamath River as we got closer to the border. A few summers later when I was home from college, my buddy John and I followed two of his friends up the coast route on the way to checking out Bend and Sunriver in Oregon. It was a long and grueling road trip, but I could appreciate how beautiful – if slow – the drive on Highway 101 can be. I started thinking back on those trips when discussing the joys of steelheading with local guide Tony Sepulveda in coastal rivers from either side of the Oregon border to Humboldt County. There’s something romantic about a NorCal winter scene with an angler bundled in layers and casting off a pristine riverbank or side-drifting in a boat for a chrome-bright, sea-run trout. And while Sepulveda admits that predicting a steelhead season is even more of a “wild card” than projecting summer salmon runs, he adds, “I’ve never seen a (steelhead) year that’s been terrible in my 20 years in Humboldt County.” And it’s hard to complain about the setting you’re in, even if not consistently catching and releasing these remarkable fish. “They call them the fish of 1,000 casts,” Sepulveda says, “and if you get in a boat with a good guide you can cut down considerably on the number of casts it takes to get one. But each one is a special fish.” It’s a special place to be too, even if you haven’t spent as much time there as you should have. -Chris Cocoles
The 30th annual Lake Isabella Fishing Derby Is almost here, so make plans now to attend! This year’s derby dates are April 1315, which is once again the week preceding Easter Sunday. The derby offers cash prizes up to $2,000 for the longest fish, plus many more cash and fishing-related prizes. Derby chairman Fred Clark reports that close to 20,000 pounds of trout will be stocked for the annual contest, including bonus 5-pound-plus Nebraska tailwalkers to be planted. The Lake levels will be perfect with plenty of water and still plenty of beach for lake access. Fishing for cash, raffles for boats, bobbing for prizes and enjoying the outdoors all add up to great family fun in the Kern River Valley in the spring. Check out the Kern River Valley Chamber of Commerce website for all the info.
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FUN AT THE FRED Fishing, hunting, boating, camping – whatever your passion, you’re likely to find it at one of three Fred Hall Shows coming in March. (FRED HALL SHOWS)
WITH THE THREE BIG FRED HALL SHOWS COMING UP IN MARCH, HERE’S A PREVIEW OF WHAT TO SEE By Chris Cocoles
T
alk about March Madness! California sportsmen and -women have three opportunities to get in on the best new gear, learn from the experts and seek out that fishing or hunting destination of your dreams with the annual Fred Hall Shows. As preparations for putting on the Long Beach (March 6-10), Bakersfield (March 15-17) and San Diego (March 28-31) Shows got cranking, we caught up with founder Fred Hall’s son Bart Hall, who now runs the show.
Chris Cocoles How are the preparations going as you get closer to
your three March Fred Hall Shows? Bart Hall Preparations are frenzied. In the 73 years that these shows have been operating, we have never had preshow activity like this. We have basically been “sold out” in the Long Beach Show for months. We are trying desperately to reconfigure things to add more usable space. Because of the flexibility we have at the state fairgrounds, we still have space in our San Diego and Bakersfield Shows. And it isn’t just the volume of the exhibitors; it is the quality. Many of our older exhibitors are adding much more space, so Long Beach is going to look more like a
trade show than a consumer show. We already have more factory fishing tackle displays than any other show in the world, so these additions are going to make this the most beautiful Long Beach Show in history. The hunting section at Long Beach has been growing steadily for years and we are now also the finest hunting show in SoCal. Thankfully, boat dealers and boat sales have made a remarkable recovery in California since the worst of the recession. This year, we will display more boats than ever before in our 73-year history. All three shows will be loaded with
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Crowds line up outside the Long Beach Convention Center, the anchor event of the Fred Hall Shows, now in its 73rd year. (FRED HALL SHOWS)
boats. It used to be that we were known as the “fishing boat shows.” But now, while we still are the finest fishing boat shows in the West, we display and sell everything, including high-performance boats, pontoon boats, cruisers, tow boats and everything that floats. We have a huge kayak display at the shows and Hobie is a major sponsor of the Fred Hall Shows. Sportsman’s travel is a big part of what we do. The travel sections for both hunting and fishing are busting at the seams. We just don’t have enough quality space, although we’ll use almost 3 million square feet of space in all three shows. If you want to go to Alaska, Canada, Mexico, South America, Africa, or New Zealand, you can book a hunting or fishing trip anywhere in the world at a Fred Hall Show.
CC You added the Central Val-
SHOW TIMES, INFO LONG BEACH When March 6-10 Where Long Beach Convention Center Tickets Adults: $18. Children 15 and under (with paid adult): free. Seniors (62 and over): $16. Military (with valid ID): $13
BAKERSFIELD When March 15-17 Where Kern County Fairgrounds Tickets Adults: $12. Children 15 and under (with paid adult): free. Seniors (62 and over): $10. Military (with valid ID): $7
SAN DIEGO When March 28-31 Where Del Mar Fairgrounds Tickets Adults: $15. Children 15 and under (with paid adult): free. Seniors (62 and over): $13. Military (with valid ID): $10 Note: Much more information for all three shows is available at fredhall.com. CS
ley Show in Bakersfield a couple
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“The excitement we feel at the beginning of each show is real and the fulfillment we get from seeing people celebrate that passion at these shows is extremely gratifying,” Bart Hall says. “This is what we live for.” (FRED HALL SHOWS)
restrictive gun laws. However, hunting is part of our genetic history. For those of us who like to hunt and who honor the traditions of hunting, the passion for the sport is not going to be diminished by the rumblings of California politicians. Mostly, they do not hunt and do not understand those traditions. I don’t see hunting leaving our shows. As a matter of fact, it just keeps getting stronger at our Long Beach Show.
CC Are there some new exhibits/
of years ago. How has the show evolved and where do you see it going forward? BH The evolution of the Bakersfield Show has been very satisfying. When we bought that show there was very little fishing in it. Mike Lum, the general manager of the Fred Hall Shows, has done a magnificent job reconfiguring this event and adding a great fishing section. There are three main buildings that we use at the Kern County Fairgrounds and Mike has turned one of those buildings into a 100-percent fishing hall. This show is one of the finest RV shows in the Western United States. There will be over 400 RVs on display. You will be able to check out travel trailers, fifth wheels, toy haulers, Class A’s, Class C’s, minis and campers. If you are looking for a RV, this is a great show to visit. My family thinks this is the most fun show of the three Fred Hall Shows. There are things at this Fred Hall
Show that we don’t have at the other shows, including the Bako Sand Drags, the Super TT motorcycle races, field dog training, agility dog demonstrations and the famous Dock Dogs regional qualifier. If the people of Bakersfield like the changes we are making, then this will be a great show in the future.
CC I would think that fishing and boating will always be popular with Californians, but judging by what you see at the shows, is hunting still popular with a lot of Californians, especially given the controversy with firearms and the strict gun laws in the state? BH The only show where we have a strong hunting presence is at Long Beach. There are hunting outfitters and guides at each show, but our section in Long Beach is much larger. We see continued interest in hunting and firearms. The state of California has gone off in a completely wrong direction by punishing law-abiding citizens with their
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features to the shows for 2019 that you’d like to mention? BH As I mentioned before, all of the exhibits are getting bigger and fancier, but a big change will be the giant marine electronics display that we will have at both Long Beach and San Diego. The display at the Long Beach Show will be enormous. If you are looking for marine electronics or want to understand what the newest and most innovative features are and where they will be available, then you need to come to Long Beach. There will not be a finer display of marine electronics seen at any show in the West. The San Diego Show will have a really big display, but nothing will come close to the marine electronics section at Long Beach.
CC How important is it from your perspective to have kid-friendly attractions to help the next generation of sportsmen and -women to love the outdoors? BH My father Fred figured out – a long time ago – that you were not going to sell a boat or an RV at the show unless both husband and wife were at the event. If children were involved in the family, then they’d have to come as well. So it became our passion to create an environment that would be fun for kids. We have done that for 73 years. This year we will have the Mammoth Lakes Kids Fish Free Trout
Pond (somewhere between 1.5 million and 2 million kids have fished at a Fred Hall Show – many for the first time); the SoarDist Great American Duck Races; the Ram Ultimate Air Dogs; Kuzz’s Dock Dogs; Fishing in the City’s kids’ casting instruction and contests; archery; air gun ranges; the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show; the Daiwa saltwater tank; the kids’ touch tanks; Hobie kayaks’ test ride in the lagoon; the 805 Beer/Okuma bass tank; and the kids’ motocross instruction. And of course, we’ll have the ever-popular rock walls and face painting. However, as great as all of these attractions are, the number one thing that kids like to do is climb all over the acres of new boats at each show. Kids love new boats. They don’t know what they cost and they don’t care, but you know they’ll be saying, “Mom and Dad: Let’s buy this one.”
CC Do you get a lot of feedback from visitors about what they like and what they’d like to see from Fred Hall Shows? BH We used to, but these days the shows are so complete that mostly we get positive comments about the experience that people who attend the show have had. If we get comments about adding features, then we do our best to investigate the possibility of adding something. And then, generally, we go out and do it. CC You and your family have been a part of this since the beginning. But even now as the doors are unlocked on opening day, do you still get that rush of adrenaline from all the hard work you and your staff do in preparing for another month’s full of Fred Hall Shows? BH My wife Ginny and I – like my father and mother before us – are usually joined by our children Morgan and Travis, their wives, Katie
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and Lori and our grandchildren Hannah, Aiden, Hunter and Sammy. We all assemble at the front door of each show and we hand out show programs and hats to kids. The folks who do the work producing the Fred Hall Shows – Mike Lum, Tim Baker, Katie Hall, Dave Mandagie, Ginny Hall and me – all believe in celebrating the passion of outdoor recreation and these shows are the ultimate celebration of that passion. The excitement we feel at the beginning of each show is real and the fulfillment we get from seeing people celebrate that passion at these shows is extremely gratifying. This is what we live for! This is what makes the Fred Hall Shows special! The Fred Hall Shows are, as the tagline says, the “Ultimate Outdoor Experience.” CS Editor’s note: For more, go to fredhall .com and like at facebook.com/TheFredHallShows.
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PROTECTING
WILD CALIFORNIA
The east Bay Area community of Martinez has enjoyed quite the love affair with the beavers that have made Alhambra Creek home for years. The city hosts the annual Beaver Festival that pays homage to these river dwellers that play a crucial role in aquatic ecosystems. (CHERYL REYNOLDS/WORTH A DAM; CHRIS COCOLES)
CITY OF BEAVER BELIEVERS A NEW BOOK ABOUT THE DAM-BUILDING RODENTS INCLUDES A BAY AREA COMMUNITY’S LOVE/HATE STORY WITH THEM
Editor’s note: Beavers don’t get the same top billing here as in the Pacific Northwest, where they’re more ubiquitous, but they’re still a valuable member of the animal kingdom. And the residents of one east Bay Area city are beaver believers. Martinez, where naturalist John Muir lived before passing on and where baseball icon Joe DiMaggio was born the same year, is something of the Golden State’s beaver capital. It’s a love affair (with a few domestic squabbles) that started over a decade ago when two of the web-footed wonders were first spied building a dam in Alhambra Creek, the start of a strange and beautiful case of kindred spirits. The following excerpt is adapted from Ben Goldfarb’s book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018, coming out in paperback on March 8, 2019) and is reprinted with permission from the publisher.
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PROTECTING
WILD CALIFORNIA
By Ben Goldfarb
H
eidi Perryman did not set out to change the fortunes of California’s beavers. When, back in 2007, the first pair began building in Alhambra Creek, she was simply delighted by the novelty. “They were adorable,” she told me, before revising her opinion. “Well, they were unusual. They were more unusual than adorable. Actually, they’re not really that adorable – but they were very cool.” Perryman was most enamored of the life that rode in on the beavers’ coattails: herons, otters, mink, muskrats. She and her husband Jon strolled daily down to the bridge that spans Alhambra Creek to film the frolicsome creatures. More than a decade later, she has external hard drives loaded with two terabytes of beaver footage – the equivalent of around a dozen MacBooks’ worth. The city of Martinez, however, was less enchanted. Alhambra Creek flows through downtown on its way to San Francisco Bay; during heavy winter rains, the stream is prone to rampaging through the streets. Although Martinez
Author Ben Golfarb, an environmental journalist, writes in his book that “In fairness, beaver dams can pose a temporary obstacle to migrating fish, especially when flows drop in the fall. Usually, though, fish pass the blockades without much trouble.” (BEN GOLFARB/CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING)
alleviated the problem with a $10-million flood control project in 2001, the specter of deluge still loomed large. The town wasn’t sure whether beavers represented a true threat, but creekabutting business owners preemptively complained. The Martinez city council reassured its constituents that the beavers would be killed. The announcement alarmed Perryman, who’d fallen head over heels. The beavers had recently birthed four kits, who actually were adorable, and who uttered the most beguiling squeaks and gurgles. “I remember thinking, do the people that want them killed even know about the sound that a baby beaver makes?” Perryman said, the silver beaver pendant on her necklace glinting in the sun. “And if I don’t do something, will I ever hear that sound again?” At this point in our conversation, Perryman decided her story required a visual aid. “Jon!” she hollered toward the interior of the house. “Bring the scrapbook! Oh, and could we have more coffee? Some waitress you are.” A moment later, Jon, a genial fellow
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who wore a “Worth a Dam” tank top and his hair in a silver ponytail, emerged with a swollen scrapbook, its pages bursting with the paper trail of Perryman’s campaign. I leafed through the documentary evidence of her struggle: pre-stamped, pro-beaver postcards she’d handed out to pedestrians on the bridge; articles she’d written for the Martinez News-Gazette; lyrics to a Blue Oyster Cult parody song (“City don’t kill the beavers”). The San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times covered the quirky controversy. The city announced that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife would live-trap the animals and relocate them to tribal land, assuming this would mollify the beaver freaks. The freaks were not mollified. Schoolchildren stood on the bridge and chanted “Leave her, leave her, save Ms. Beaver!” Even the city’s Wikipedia page became a hotbed of dispute, a battleground between editors praising Martinez’s beavers and anonymous trolls castigating them.
MARTINEZ ALREADY POSSESSED SOMETHING of a split personality: Its two most famous landmarks are the former residence of John Muir and a foreboding Shell Oil refinery. The beaver brouhaha only deepened divisions. “It was a Hatfield and McCoy scenario – either you were totally for beavers or totally against them,” Mark Ross, the city council’s lone pro-beaver member, told me. Some of the community’s wealthiest and most powerful pillars were vehemently opposed. During one confrontation, a well-heeled businessman cursed in Ross’s face, their noses so close they practically touched. “I was thinking, This 70-year-old guy is about to hit me! ” Ross recalled. “Do I hit back against a senior citizen or not?” At last, the worn-down city agreed to hold a public meeting. On November 7, 2007, 200 people packed into a high school auditorium. Eleven police officers had been summoned to mind the restless crowd. The first person who stepped to the mike demanded the city remove the beavers. The next 49 demanded they stay. Tim Platt called the beavers the best thing to happen to downtown Martinez in
Alhambra Creek is a small stream that rolls through downtown Martinez before emptying into Carquinez Strait in San Francisco Bay. In recent years, at least four beaver kits and one sub-adult have died and onlookers haven’t seen the animals. But that hasn’t stopped many in Martinez from continuing its annual celebration of the city’s famous creek dwellers, even if beaver memorabilia wasn’t easy to spot around the city center during a recent stop there by the editor. (CHRIS COCOLES) years. Katherine Myskowski and Linda Aguirre said they were tourist attractions. Sheri-ann Hasenfus claimed they’d brought the city together. Charles Martin suggested the high school change its mascot from bulldog to beaver. The mayor read a comment card from a 9-year-old girl named Natalie who feared for the beavers’ future. The city council did what city councils do: It created a subcommittee. Reluctantly, they gave Heidi Perryman a seat. The battle lurched on into 2008. Perryman, finding the internet lacking, scoured the country for beaver-smart professionals to advise the city, stumbling finally upon Skip Lisle and Beaver 24 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
Deceivers International. At Perryman’s recommendation, the city spent $10,500 flying Lisle from Vermont to Martinez to install a Castor Master.
PROTECTING
BEAVERS OF THE GOLDEN STATE
WILD CALIFORNIA
A constructed beaver lodge and pond in Mono County in the Eastern Sierra. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, “Beaver dams create habitat for many other animals and plants of California. Deer and elk frequent beaver ponds to forage on shrubby plants that grow where beavers cut down trees for food or for use in constructing their dams and lodges.” (GREATER SOUTHWEST EXPLORATION COMPANY) The News-Gazette commemorated the event by running a front-page photograph of Lisle mucking around in the pond, bare arms rippling in the sunshine, below the headline “Burly Beaver Biologist Breaks a Sweat.” A yellowed copy of the article – signed BBB by the burly beaver biologist himself – is pressed into Perryman’s scrapbook. “I’ve never had media coverage like that,” Lisle marveled to me. “Every news outlet in San Francisco seemed to be there.” Unlike so many beaver tales, Perryman’s concludes happily: The Castor Master worked. Alhambra Creek didn’t flood. The city never removed the beavers, but they never quite countenanced them, either. Skirmishes occasionally flared when, in 2011, an artist named Mario Alfaro
painted a beaver into his mural celebrating Martinez’s history, the city made him erase it, like John D. Rockefeller demanding Diego Rivera excise Vladimir Lenin. (Alfaro got the last laugh – if you look closely at the mural today, you can spot a little leathery tail descending from the final O in his signature.) The years passed. The beavers stuck around, integrated into civic life, another ingredient in the urban melting pot. Even detractors moved on, though Mark Ross, the pro-beaver councilman, told me some business owners still don’t talk to him. Beyond its borders, Martinez gained a reputation for castor activism. “To this day, if you go around to obscure corners of the Bay Area and tell people you’re from Martinez, they’ll go,
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Here are some facts about California’s beaver population: • Beaver are native to California and historically occurred along the coast, throughout the Central Valley, Colorado River basin, and into the Sierra Nevada and Cascades mountain ranges. • However, by the early the 20th century their geographic range had decreased dramatically as a result of intensive furtrapping and loss of suitable habitat caused by extensive land and water development. • Between 1923 and 1950, the State of California conducted a successful reintroduction program using parachutes in some instances to plant beavers in remote mountain locations. • Today, interest in beavers in California is on the rise as the benefits to fish and wildlife habitat, surface water storage and groundwater recharge become more apparent during drought conditions. • Beavers are strict herbivores and they generally prefer grasses, leaves, and aquatic plants such as cattails, bulrushes, and water lilies. • Fermentation by special intestinal microorganisms allows beavers to digest 30 percent of the cellulose they ingest. • In the fall and winter, they feed primarily on the bark and cambium of trees and shrubs. Aspen, cottonwood, willow and alder are preferred woody species in California. • Beavers do not hibernate. When the surface of the water is frozen, beavers eat bark and stems from a food “cache” they have anchored to the bottom of the waterway for the winter. • They have also been seen swimming under the ice to retrieve roots and stems of aquatic plants. • They are generally nocturnal, but it is not uncommon to see beavers during daylight hours, particularly in larger water bodies. • They generally do not stray far from the relative safety of water. -California Department of Fish and Wildlife
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PROTECTING
WILD CALIFORNIA ‘Oh, how are the beavers?’” Ross told me. “‘I’m so glad you didn’t kill them.’” The only person who continued to live and breathe aquatic rodents was Heidi Perryman: Once a Beaver Believer, always a Beaver Believer. In 2008 Perryman held the first-ever Martinez Beaver Festival, a quaint affair with eight booths and a few cardboard tails on which kids could glue stickers. “We thought it would be harder for the city to kill them after we’d thrown a party for them,” she told me. Within a few years it had become one of the most beloved events on the city’s social calendar. Worth a Dam (martinezbeavers. org/wordpress), whose website she’d built with programming help from a local homeless man, took off, too. Every week, it seemed, another email drifted in from another beaver-lover seeking advice about how to save their local colony from heavy-handed managers.
IN THE DECADE AFTER the arrival of the Martinez beavers, Heidi Perryman tracked them with the devotion of a proud parent. She learned to recognize them by sight, pieced together elaborate genealogies, and followed the drama as if it were a daytime soap opera. The year 2010 was particularly full of heart-wrenching plot twists: The colony’s matriarch died after she broke her upper incisors, forcing a 2-year-old to assume the burden of caring for her younger siblings. The next year, the male vanished for a while before returning with a new mate. Perryman has watched 25 kits come of age in Alhambra Creek. “It’s all very As the Beaver Turns,” she told me. In 2015 the Martinez drama entered its darkest season yet. All four kits born that year, along with one sub-adult, mysteriously died. State scientists necropsied the bodies and tested for contaminants, but found none. Whatever the cause of death, the parents, apparently having decided that Alhambra Creek was no place to raise children, skedaddled. Although beavers stopped by in 2016, they cleared out again
Artist Mario Alfaro’s downtown Martinez mural that includes native son and baseball icon Joe DiMaggio once also included the image of a beaver that city officials had him remove. “Alfaro got the last laugh,” Goldfarb writes. “If you look closely at the mural today, you can spot a little leathery tail descending from the final O in his signature.” (CHRIS COCOLES) well before August 5, 2017 – the 10th annual Martinez Beaver Festival and the first ever held without its namesake animal in attendance. The festival, held on a bright Saturday in the pocket park next to the Alhambra Creek bridge – hallowed ground for Believers – was a sweet affair: grown exponentially from its roots, still cute enough to charm. Although beavers
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were the honorees, it seemed to have evolved over the years into a general wildlife jamboree; my partner Elise and I saw booths focused on the conservation of seals, coyotes, native pollinators, and birds of prey. Rusty Cohn, a photographer from Napa who spent years shadowing a beaver colony in a concrete-lined ditch, showed off his pictures in a bound
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PROTECTING
WILD CALIFORNIA book. Esteban Murschel, the Portlandbased founder of a group called Beaver Ambassadors, distributed hand-drawn flipbooks. Perryman, looking over-worked but happy, presided from a tent near the stage, trusty scrapbook by her side, dispensing nature tattoos and extolling the merits of her favorite rodent to the next generation of Beaver Believers. Still, an air of loss hung over the proceedings. At festivals past, Jon had led tours along Alhambra Creek to visit the dams and lodges. Now the stream contained nothing but a green skein of algae and a couple of melancholic ducks. We tried to compensate for the absence of flesh-and-blood beavers by purchasing ersatz ones: At the silent auction, I placed the high bid for a beaver print and a beaver T-shirt, while Elise won a brass beaver bottle opener. I didn’t get the sense we had much competition. What the festival lacked in live beavers,
it made up in Bucky Beaver, a character of Brock Dolman’s invention. Dolman, an ecologist at a Sonoma County nonprofit called the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, took the stage at 1:30 sharp, decked out in a head-to-toe plush beaver costume endowed with the bulbous oblate head of a Teletubby. A beaver hand puppet perched on one claw like Mini-Me. To warm applause, he launched into a dizzying spoken-word monologue about all that beavers do to combat climate change, his monologue packed with Dolmanisms like “oil-ogarchy” and “plantcestors.” We cheered on his spiel from beneath the shade of a live oak; in front of the stage, a volunteer ushered away a man attempting to light a cigar. “Right now, the planet is running a serious fossil fool fever,” Dolman continued, undeterred. “You know what I’m saying – due to your collective craze of carbonaceous combustion creating cacophonous climate chaos.” We whistled our approval. “Where we
come from,” he went on, “we say, Where there’s a willow, there’s a way-o.” He blew the audience a kiss. We found Dolman a few minutes later, back in street clothes, still flushed and damp. “Holy hell it was hot up there,” he said as we high-fived. “I assume you made that costume?” I said. He looked pained. “Nah, didn’t have time – I bought it.” He leaned closer. “Dude, you do not want to search for beaver costumes online.”
AFTER THE FESTIVAL, WE drove north along the Pacific for a few days, ending up in (Washington’s) Olympic National Park for a backpacking trip. We didn’t see any beaver sign in the park’s old-growth rainforest, although our camp was invaded one night by a mountain beaver, Aplodontia rufa – an odd rodent, only distantly related to Castor canadensis, with the peaked face of a mole and the long, grotesque fingers of Mr. Burns.
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PROTECTING
WILD CALIFORNIA When we emerged from the backcountry, now eight days after the festival, I found, not to my surprise, that I’d received several emails from Heidi Perryman. The subject line on one message: “Are you sitting down?” I clicked through to a YouTube video: the dark scrub of Alhambra Creek, its burbling the backing track to the swelling strings of Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.” I saw a familiarlooking pile of peeled sticks, traversed by a curious skunk. And then the camera zoomed in on a dark mound of fur dabbling in the shallow creekbed, hands curled to mouth, sitting upright within expanding rings of concentric ripples. They were back. CS
Editor’s note: Until recently, it was thought that beavers were not native to the Bay Area. In fact, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife averred, the rodents
“To this day, if you go around to obscure corners of the Bay Area and tell people you’re from Martinez, they’ll go, ‘Oh, how are the beavers?’” city councilman Mark Ross told Goldfarb. “‘I’m so glad you didn’t kill them.’” (DAVE FELIZ/CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE)
had originally been absent from most of coastal California and had not historically occupied the Sierra Nevada range. However, current research proves beavers had dwelled nearly everywhere in California, before fur traders decimated their populations in the 19 century. About the author: Ben Goldfarb is an award-winning environmental journalist who covers wildlife management and
32 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
conservation biology. His work has been featured in Science, Mother Jones, The Guardian, High Country News, Orion, Scientific American, and many other publications. He holds a master of environmental management degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is the author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018).
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34 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
OUTDOOR CALENDAR
The Bay Area’s San Pablo Reservoir will host a Trout Wars derby on Feb. 16. (USER FIZBIN/WIKIMEDIA)
FEBRUARY 2
NorCal Trout Challenge, San Pablo Reservoir; anglerspress.com 2-18 Second Imperial Valley Canada goose season 2-3 Foundation Sportsman’s Club Original Sturgeon Derby, Sacramento River Delta; originalsturgeonderby.com 2-3 Youth waterfowl hunts in most zones 2-3 Second Balance of State Zone falconry waterfowl season 10 Central Valley Anglers of Lodi Members Only Trout Derby, Camanche Lake; centralvalleyanglerslodi.org 16 Trout Wars derby, San Pablo Reservoir; redhookadventures.com 23 Start of North Coast late Canada goose season 22-24 The Fly Fishing Show, Alameda County Fairgrounds, Pleasanton; flyfishingshow.com/pleasanton-ca
MARCH 2 6-10
NorCal Trout Challenge, Lake Pardee; anglerspress.com Fred Hall Shows, Long Beach Convention Center; fredhall.com 15-17 Fred Hall Central Valley Sports Show, Kern County Fairgrounds, Bakersfield; fredhall.com 16 Trout Wars derby, Lake Amador; redhookadventures.com NorCal Trout Challenge, San Pablo Reservoir; anglerspress.com 16-19 Blake Jones Trout Derby, Pleasant Valley Reservoir and the Owens River; bishopvisitor.com/blake-jones-troutderby 23 NorCal Trout Challenge, Lake Amador; anglerspress.com 23-24 First spring junior turkey hunt 24-26 Lake Isabella Fishing Derby; kernrivervalley.com 28-31 Fred Hall Shows, Del Mar Fairgrounds; fredhall.com 30 Spring turkey hunting opener Note: For a complete list of bass fishing tournaments, go to dfg.ca.gov/ FishingContests/default.aspx. For more details on hunting zones and regulations, check out wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting.
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s e r u t n e v d A Anytime I travel I bring my Okuma Citrix rod. I was so stoked that I did on my Florida trip because I was able to sneak in a little fishing when not working. It’s always fun catching snook on light spinning gear. (TODD KLINE)
I flew back to Florida, where I grew up, to announce a surf contest. I had not been back to Sebastian Inlet – just north of Vero Beach on Florida’s Atlantic coast – in about 25 years. They have done a great job preserving the area and fishing was as good as I remembered it to be. (TODD KLINE)
Sunrise at Sebastian Inlet is spectacular. (TODD KLINE) This past month my family took a trip down to Cabo for a few days. We had a blast and enjoyed the warm weather and the beauty of Baja. This was taken at a place called Flora Farms. (TODD KLINE)
ee’re not ashamed to admit it: Todd Kline has the kind of life we wish we could experrience. Kline’s a former professional surfer, a successful co-angler on the FLW Tour aand a Southern California bass guide, plus he gets to travel the world as a commenthe World Surf League’s telecasts. Todd has agreed to give us a peek at what he’s up to ttator t ffor th each month. For more on Todd or to book a guided fishing trip with him, check out toddklinefishing.com, and you can follow him on Instagram at @toddokrine. –The Editor
W
Cabo is very beautiful with the mountains very close to the water. (TODD KLINE)
Here is another Florida snook that fell for an IMA Skimmer. I love these fish. (TODD KLINE)
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40 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
PHOTO
CONTEST
WINNERS!
Colleen Kulp’s picture of husband Rich Fargo and his kayak-caught fall Chinook is our monthly Yo-Zuri Photo Contest. It wins her gear from the company that makes some of the world’s best fishing lures and lines!
Kymberly Cooper is our monthly Hunting Photo Contest winner, thanks to this pic of husband Ray and his big Southwest Washington bull. It wins her a knife and other hunting stuff from California Sportsman!
For your shot at winning hunting and fishing products, send your photos and pertinent (who, what, when, where) details to ccocoles@media-inc.com or California Sportsman, PO Box 24365, Seattle, WA 98124-0365. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for our print or Internet publications. calsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019 California Sportsman
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FISHING
Author Tim Hovey (left) and his future wife Cheryl Hovey found they had a common interest when they were both research students on a boat at their college’s fisheries program: angling.
SEALED WITH A FISH
(TIM E. HOVEY)
FOR ONE COUPLE, THE OUTDOORS SHAPED THEIR LOVE STORY By Tim E. Hovey
T
he 85-foot research vessel Yellowfin was anchored off one of the Channel Islands that stretch up and down the Pacific Ocean off Southern California. The ocean conditions were calm and the big gray ship hardly moved as I exited the galley. Off the stern, the jagged hills of the island were visible. They were covered in bright colors as the sun lit up the wildflowers. It looked like a cool place for a hike. It
was late afternoon and our boat work for the day was done. As student volunteers that summer, we were involved in an extensive fisheries survey of the waters near the coastal islands. Living in the cramped quarters of the ship, we’d rise early to collect and assess the fish species captured in the nets we had set the evening before. After backbreaking work of hauling the nets and removing thousands of fish, we’d clean and stow the gear,
record all the data and get everything ready to set that same gear at the next survey station. Once the day’s work was finished, we could relax until dinner. The back deck was almost deserted and I almost didn’t notice her. Sitting on the lower deck, I saw a young woman in an olive-colored military jacket fishing off the side of the ship. I had first met her on this research trip; we had both been on the same small skiff that morning and pulled fish
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FISHING
Cheryl is just as passionate about being out on the water as her husband. (TIM E. HOVEY)
from the nets. Her name was Cheryl. I grabbed a fishing rod and went down close to where she was. I could hear her talking to herself as she made a few casts. I shouldn’t really say I was casting. The rod I had grabbed didn’t have any terminal tackle attached and I was simply pretending to cast and reel. She saw me fake fishing near her and smiled. My heart skipped a beat. We had had some conversation on the skiff, but nothing significant. I was brand new to the fisheries program and I didn’t know anyone on the ship. However, being the new guy has never really bothered me. “Who are you talking to?” I asked. She seemed a bit embarrassed that I had caught her. Without looking at me, she answered. “My grandpa told me that if you want to catch a fish when you’re fishing, you have to talk to your bait.” I thought that was funny and a bit ridiculous. I had no idea that this casual conversation on the back deck of the Yellowfin in 1991 would change my life forever.
WHEN SCHOOL STARTED BACK up in the fall, I would find out that Cheryl was also in the fisheries program. She was a year behind me at Cal State Northridge, but I would occasionally see her in some of the more specific marine biology classes. I started noticing that whenever I saw her or briefly spoke with her, she’d leave me in a good mood. The following summer we were once again on the same research trip. When the day’s work was finished, we’d both grab a school fishing rod and try our luck at the back of the ship. We’d talk about all sorts of things, all the while waiting for a bite that seldom came. It was that second research trip that made me realize that I really liked having Cheryl around. We started dating a few weeks before I graduated. With no real employment opportunities looming on the horizon, I accepted a graduate position at the same school, locking in my 44 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
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FISHING
Fishing was and is a Hovey pastime the family can’t get enough of. “We frequently compete during these family fishing excursions to see who catches the first, most and biggest fish,” Hovey writes. (TIM E. HOVEY)
presence at the university for the next two years. Those graduate years still remain as some of the best adventures I have ever had. We traveled the road to Baja, fishing and diving in support of our graduate student projects. And every step of the way, Cheryl was by my side. When time allowed and we weren’t working, our vacations consisted of flying down to La Paz every summer to fish the fertile waters near Cerralvo Island. Our love of fishing was definitely a solid interest for us both. We went as often as time and student funds would allow. When I graduated with my master’s, I had a job lined up in San Diego. Cheryl still had one year of school left and would remain living local. We decided to give the long-distance relationship thing a try for a while. Every weekend either she would drive down to San Diego or I would drive up to Los Angeles – 150 miles away – for a visit. After a year of this, I knew that the
present situation wasn’t going to work for me. I hated the constant driving and the long distance. I just ended up missing her too much. One weekend in November – for Cheryl’s birthday – I drove up to Northridge and asked her to marry me. Thankfully, she said yes.
AFTER CHERYL GRADUATED WITH her master’s, we found a small apartment in Oceanside and began our lives together. We continued the annual trips to La Paz and fished for fun as often as possible. Then in 1997 I bought a used Mako 20-foot center console boat. After completely tearing it down to the hull and redoing everything, Cheryl and I began spending most weekends offshore and fishing for whatever was biting in our own boat. During that time I was almost fanatical about fishing and had yet to meet anyone who loved it as much as I did. Cheryl came very close. Two years later the California Department of Fish and Wildlife hired me as a marine biologist. Cheryl was
46 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
working fulltime as a pharmacy technician and we had just moved into a new home near the coast. Life was good, and it was about to change. In 2000 and 2002, respectively, Cheryl and I welcomed Alyssa and Jessica, our two outdoor-loving daughters, to our young family. While we did get out to fish and enjoy the coast occasionally in those early years, it was clear to both of us that our priorities had changed. We sold the boat and concentrated on raising our two girls. Looking toward the future, I took an inland fisheries position with the state that allowed us to relocate closer to our extended family. And as the girls got older, we started to develop a different outdoor tradition. We’d cart the girls off to the beach and fish from shore. Cheryl and I trained the girls in casting, hook-setting and being patient. Soon they were catching fish of their own and honing their angling skills on just about every trip. With local lakes close by, we’d occasionally take the girls out on a rental skiff to try their luck catching panfish in the shallows. Excursions like these also allowed us to train them in driving boats and cleaning fish. For Cheryl and me, it became very important that we show our daughters how much we love the outdoors and they were always eager to try new things. A suggestion from Cheryl during a family camping trip to Lake Tahoe put us on a half-day boat with a fishing guide. We trolled the shallows with small salmon feathers, and we all caught our limits of kokanee salmon, a first species for all of us. Fishing is now one of our favorite family activities. We all enjoy the opportunity to get out to try our luck. We frequently compete during these family fishing excursions to see who catches the first, most and biggest fish. These family times at the beach will always be a special memory for Cheryl and me.
I REALIZED VERY EARLY on that the career I had chosen was far different than any regular office job. My 9-to-5
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FISHING The Hovey women – (from left) Alyssa, Cheryl and Jessica – have blossomed into the kinds of hunters and anglers who can hold their own with the guys any day of the week. (TIM E. HOVEY)
days would likely be spent on boats or hauling gear and studying fish populations. My prospects for meeting someone special would’ve been extremely limited in and amongst the dirty nets and stinky fish. Looking back, I feel extremely fortunate to have met Cheryl as she fished on the back deck of the Yellowfin so long ago. My wife is without a doubt the strongest woman I know
and makes me laugh just about daily. She has been an amazing parenting partner as we’ve raised our girls into self-confident and well-adjusted young adults. She has taught me patience, understanding and kindness. Cheryl has also taught me that my stubbornness and extreme protectiveness are noble qualities that need to be kept and used accordingly. In other words, I am not going to
“Cheryl has mentioned that she wants our daughters to pick a man just like me as their husbands,” Hovey writes. “That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” (TIM E. HOVEY)
48 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
change who I am to fit what the world is becoming. Cheryl has mentioned that she wants our daughters to pick a man just like me as their husbands. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. As we move forward, we still get away occasionally to fish. Anyone who knows my family understands that our free time and vacations will always center around the outdoors, and I believe I have Cheryl to thank for that. As I reflect on how life has unfolded, I can’t think of one memorable second that hasn’t involved Cheryl. She has been my guiding force to be successful and is the love of my life. She has taught me that there is no higher importance than taking care of my family. And just her presence is a constant reminder of beauty, strength, commitment and humor. To my lovely wife, happy Valentine’s Day! You, Alyssa and Jessica are absolutely the only reason I live and breathe. Thank you. CS
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FISHING
FASHIONABLY LATE FISH
It’s that time of year again, when North Coast anglers dress warm and check weather.com and the local news for the forecast to plot their strategies for catching winter steelhead. (GREEN WATER FISHING ADVENTURES)
RECENT TRENDS SAYS STEELHEAD ARRIVED IN NORTH COAST RIVERS LATER THAN NORMAL, BUT FISH ARE NOW BEING CAUGHT By Chris Cocoles
B
etter late than never, right? For the North Coast’s steelhead runs that make winter tolerable for anglers, the fish were simply not in the rivers when they should have been as 2018 came to a close. “This season started really wet with lots of high water and fish were a little bit late showing up everywhere,” says longtime Humboldt County guide Tony Sepulveda. The iconic sea-run trout were tar-
dy not just in the far northern part of the region in the Smith River and just across the Oregon border in the popular Chetco, but also to the south in the Mad and Eel Rivers. “Typically by Christmas time it’s a full-borne go. But this time it didn’t start kicking in until (mid-January) when fish started showing up along the coast,” says Sepulveda, who operates Green Water Fishing Adventures (707845-9588; greenwaterguides.com). “It’s atypical, actually. Most years when you get through your holiday
stuff, as soon as you’re done with Christmas it’s time to go to steelhead fishing. And in the last few years it’s been a little different. The fish are a little late for whatever reason. But now it’s finally starting to hit its stride. (Anglers) are catching them pretty good now,” he says. Sepulveda, based in Eureka and a veteran of these waters for two decades, was asked to put on his fishries biologist hat and explain why this has been going on. “I can make up a theory but I’d
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FISHING
Most of the time, particularly on the Smith and Chetco Rivers on either side of the California-Oregon border, side-drifting yarn balls is the ticket to landing one of these sea-run trout. (GREEN WATER FISHING ADVENTURES)
better not,” he jokes. “There’s nothing logical that I can point to that would dictate that.”
WACKY WEATHER Of course, some contrasts in the conditions for the past two months played a factor. After a rather wet stretch in December, a mostly dry run in early January created something of a twopart miniseries in terms of where to fish and how the rest of the winter run will go. When it rains heavily in these parts, the southern Eel and Mad Rivers will get too blown out to be feasible locales to try. So the Smith in Del Norte County and southern Oregon’s Chetco become all the rage.
“Lots of rain in the beginning and now everything is low and clear. And the Eel and Mad are the rivers that come into play when it gets low, and that’s where everyone’s fishing now,” Sepulveda says. “As things stabilize and we get a little high pressure bubble that builds and the moisture starts going north or south of us, if we get a week or so with no rain, that’s when everything starts to come into play in the south.”
GET YOUR LOCAL FORECAST So it’s clear that Mother Nature plays a big factor in where the steelhead are biting. In fact, when booking trips far in advance with out-of-town visitors, Sepulveda tells his clients to stay at a
52 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
hotel in a central enough location that they can get to specific rivers within a reasonable time. “Then a couple days before we’ll go over a game plan,” he says. About the only constant is that most successful steelhead anglers will catch a chromer by side-drifting, and that’s especially true the further north you fish. “The Smith and Chetco are almost a purely side-drifting show. They tend to be busy rivers; there is plenty of boat traffic on them and plenty of fish to go around. But there really isn’t enough room to park right in the middle of it and pull a plug. It’s not a way to make friends. So go with a little bit of yarn and a cluster of roe,” Sepulveda says.
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FISHING “And with the Mad and the Eel, there’s deďŹ nitely more plug ďŹ shing that goes on down there, but still, it’s kind of a side-drifting world these days; there aren’t many places where side-drifting doesn’t catch the majority of the steelhead. But on those rivers down there people will pull some plugs.â€? Solid ďŹ shing should continue well into March before most of these rivers close to steelheading at the end of the month. But February can just as productive, depending on how the weather cooperates. “Really, the only pattern on it is you tend to see more bright ďŹ sh early in the season and more downstream ďŹ sh late in the season. But you’ll catch bright ďŹ sh all the way to the end of March as well,â€? Sepulveda says. “And a lot of times the numbers are better then because you have new ďŹ sh coming up and ďŹ sh going the other way, so you’ll have ďŹ sh going in both directions.â€? CS
“The ďŹ sh are a little late for whatever reason,â€? says guide Tony Sepulveda (left). “But now it’s ďŹ nally starting to hit its stride. (Anglers) are catching them pretty good now.â€? (GREEN WATER FISHING ADVENTURES)
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56 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
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FISHING
FROM FIELD ...
SKIRT YOUR WAY TO MORE FISH ADDING HOOCHIES TO YOUR SETUPS MAKES THEM MORE PRODUCTIVE FOR SALMONIDS
By Scott Haugen
S
quid skirts – also known as hoochies – are something that anglers trolling the ocean and bays have been attaching to their terminal gear for years to entice salmon. Trout and kokanee anglers know the value of squid skirts, too. But when it comes to fishing rivers for salmon and steelhead, the skirt is an often overlooked piece of gear that can help turn bad days into good ones. While on a recent salmon fishing trip with good friend and noted Pacific Northwest guide Austin Moser (austinsnorthwestadventures.com), I was handed a Mag Lip 4.5 with a pink squid skirt attached to the trailing hook. The plug, wrapped with a fresh herring fillet, was soon working its magic and catching Chinook. In fact, the skirted plug was so effective that we added skirts to other plugs. Skirts were something Moser continued to use effectively throughout the rest of his spring salmon season, back-trolling in rivers and trolling them in estuaries. In the fall, Moser had success using
Author Scott Haugen was all smiles over this limit of hefty rainbows and plump kokanee. Both species of fish often attack baits tipped with plastic skirts. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
skirts on plugs when targeting fall Chinook. He previously had success with them when back-trolling and casting plugs for silver salmon. Moser attached a 2½-inch P-Line Sunrise Squid skirt to the plug by removing the trailing hook and sliding the skirt over the eye of a siwash hook. He then reattached the hook to the plug by way of a barrel swivel. This dropped the skirt back from the plug, which increased the skirt’s action, something the salmon couldn’t resist.
TYING IT TOGETHER When using single hooks – when the skirt is threaded up the hook rather than over the top of the eye – the
skirt will need to be secured in place. This can be done by tying it on with thread or running a Bait Button onto the hook below the skirt. This is a good way to attach it to siwash hooks and jigs. For treble hooks attached to a split ring, remove the hook and slide the skirt over the eye. If the treble hook can’t be removed, as on some plugs and lures, slit one side of the skirt, slip it over the shank of the hook and firmly tie it in place with nylon thread. The 2½-inch skirt is ideal for most salmon and steelhead setups. It can also be attached to spinners that can be cast or trolled. The skirt can also be attached to jigs fished beneath a float
calsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019 California Sportsman
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FISHING
... TO FIRE
Salt blocks keep fish moist when seared on them. (TIFFANY HAUGEN)
CHIP OFF THE OLD (SALT) BLOCK By Tiffany Haugen
I
have to admit that the salt block sat in my kitchen cupboard for several months before I decided to give it a try. When I finally cooked with it, I wished I’d done it sooner. Mined in the Himalayas, salt blocks – or salt plates – offer a unique cooking surface for a wide variety of foods. Salmon cooks quickly, stays moist and is seasoned to perfection when seared on one. Much like plank cooking, the first time I tried cooking on a salt block, I was skeptical of the method. I was concerned the block would get too hot, too fast and might crack.
Over-salting the food was another worry, as I don’t use a lot of salt and I thought that as the fish cooked, it would soak up too much flavor. As it turns out, cooking on a salt block is one of the easiest ways to cook fish that I have ever come across. It’s also a great way to sear thin slices of meat and a variety of different vegetables. To see a video of this process, go to Cabela’s Cooking on YouTube and search “salt block salmon.” 1 pound salmon fillet 1 teaspoon brown sugar ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic ¼ teaspoon granulated onion
58 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
Tiffany Haugen’s salt block sat in her cupboard for months before she gave it a try – and quickly wished she'd used it sooner. (TIFFANY HAUGEN)
calsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019 California Sportsman
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FISHING ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper 1 Himalayan salt plate Warm salt block gradually. Place salt plate on grill or gas stove on low heat for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, garlic, onion and pepper until thoroughly combined. Cut salmon fillet into four servings. Sprinkle seasoning over salmon, gently rubbing on to all sides. Increase the heat on the salt plate in 10- to 15-minute intervals from low to medium-low to medium to medium-high – until the plate reaches 500 degrees. If you don’t have an infrared thermometer, heat the plate until a sprinkle of water sizzles on the surface. Place salmon fillets on salt plate – flesh side down – and cook two to three minutes and gently turn over using a metal spatula. Finish cooking another one to two minutes on each side or un-
til fish reaches desired doneness or an internal temperature of 135 degrees. To cook vegetables, place on hot salt plate, turning occasionally until they reach desired doneness. Note: There are a variety of heat sources a salt plate can be used on, but they are most commonly placed over a gas stove or grill. Salt plates should be kept dry and heated slowly to avoid cracking. Once the salt plate has reached 500 degrees, the cooking begins. The salt plate not only sears the food but also keeps it moist during the cooking process. Like plank cooking, it also keeps the mess off of the grill and keeps food warm until serving time. Always use heat-resistant gloves to move a hot salt plate and put something between the salt plate and the table when serving.
CLEAN-UP TIPS Cleaning the salt plate is easy. Sim-
ply cool the plate, get it damp with water and gently scrub with a metal scraper edge to remove food particles. For a deeper clean, the plate can be rinsed off with warm water, but never immerse in water as the plate will begin to dissolve. Air dry plate before storing. Editor’s Note: For signed copies of Tiffany’s popular book, Cooking Seafood, send a check for $20 (free S&H), to Haugen Enterprises, P.O. Box 275, Walterville, OR 97489. This and other cookbooks can also be ordered at tiffanyhaugen.com. Follow Tiffany on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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FISHING Skirts add color and movement to a range of presentations. Here, Haugen’s wife Tiffany Haugen is happy with one of many kokanee she caught on a small skirt rigging. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
riety of skirt colors to spinner blade colors and shapes, even bead colors (a bead or two is placed between the blade and skirt so the blade can freely spin). No matter what option you choose – homemade or commercially made – it’s easy to add bait to the hooks, which introduces even more visually appealing qualities, while at the same time offering scent. If fished in an area where bait is not allowed while scents are, then the squid skirt acts as an ideal scent chamber.
USING COMMON SCENTS
or to jigs used to twitch for salmon and steelhead.
Salmon, steelhead and trout are scent junkies, and matching the scent to the species and waters being fished can help turn on the bite. Simply inject or apply your scent of choice inside the skirt and you’re set. The scent will last for a long time and is assured of being distributed into your target water since it’s dissipating from inside the skirt. A sticky gel scent is my personal
favorite, like the ones made by ProCure, as they hold well inside the plastic body and withstand skirt movement. Experiment with squid skirt colors and riggings. No matter what species of salmon, trout or steelhead you pursue or where you do it, there’s a good chance skirts can help you catch more fish. Whether they’re trolled, backtrolled, casted, drifted, suspended beneath a float, or twitched, there’s no denying the added value skirts have to offer. Once you start using skirts, you’ll likely continue to experiment with them in ways you never before thought of, and hopefully, catch more fish. CS Editor’s note: For signed copies of the Haugen’s popular cookbook, Cooking Seafood, visit scotthaugen.com. Scott Haugen is the host of The Hunt on Amazon Prime. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
GREAT KOKANEE OPTION A skirt can also be used when fishing for trout and kokanee. Serious kokanee anglers know the value of a rubber squid skirt, both in the action and color it imparts when being trolled. Yakima Bait’s new Tight Line Kokanee Rig is getting the attention of anglers. With a built-in spinner blade above the skirt and a double-hook setup, the presentation offers color, flash and movement. Last winter, I trolled for trophy kokanee with Moser on Lake Roosevelt in Washington. It was cold, but the kokanee couldn’t resist presentations laced with a small skirt. We caught monster kokanee up to 4 pounds. We also caught some dandy rainbow trout.
TROLLING TIPS Making your own trolling setup for kokanee and trout is simple. One advantage to crafting your own is that you can drop the trailing hook back, which will help catch fish on days when they’re striking short. You can also mix and match a va-
Haugen Haug Ha ugen ug genn w with ith a hefty it hefft he fty sa fty sal salmon lmon lmon lm on tthat hatt coul ha co couldn’t oul uldn dn’t’t’ rresist dn esis es i t a Ma is Magg Li Lip ip tipp ti tipped pped ed w with ith a pink it pinkk ssquid q id sskirt. qu kirt ki rt. “O “Once Onc ncee yo youu st sstart star tart art us ar usi using ing sk in skir skirts, irts ir t ,” ts he w writes, rite ri tesss,, ““you’ll te yyoou’ u ll llikely ikkel e y co continue ont ntin inue ttoo ex eexperiment peri pe riime ment n w nt with ith th it them hem iinn waays ways y yyou o nnever ou ever ev ever er bbefore efor ef ore thought or ore thhou ough g t of. gh of." (SCOTT ((SC SCCOTT OTTT HA H HAUGEN) AUGEEN) N)
62 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
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calsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019 California Sportsman
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FISHING
OTAYS ARE GEMS FOR SAN DIEGO ANGLERS
Massive whiskerfish like this 82-pound blue cat caught by Ronson Smothers are among several species available to fish for at Upper and Lower Otay Lakes near San Diego. (BILL SCHAEFER)
MULTIPLE FISH SPECIES CAN BE TARGETED AT UPPER, LOWER LAKES By Bill Schaefer
L
ower Lake Otay, located in southeast San Diego County, is definitely high on the list of great fisheries that have many species for anglers to target. This lake boasts great fishing for largemouth, as well as catfish, bluegill and crappie. Otay has also done trout plants as well. Its little sister, Upper Otay, is located just across the street to the north and is a tranquil place to get back to basics. Lower Otay Dam was originally constructed and completed in 1897 and was the third reservoir formed in a short three-year period in San
Diego County. The city was so quick to build the dam that no one considered whether it would ever overfill, so no overflow flume was added to the project. Heavy rains and flooding filled the reservoir to capacity in 1916 and the dam collapsed, completely washing away. Two years later, the current improved dam replaced it. When full, the lake covers 1,100 surface acres and has about 26 miles of shoreline. It’s not all fishable, as the shores are lined with tules and brush. Open locations to fish are kept up by anglers or made easier to access by nature or the current water level. It is that brush and tules that many Otay
fish call home. They are the areas you want to attack for largemouth.
SUNSHINE STATE IMPORTS Lake Otay is most famous for its Florida-strain bass. Its largemouth are big, strong fish that fight hard when hooked and will test your tackle. They have grown large over the years without the help of planted trout for dinner too. And now that lake managers have been planting trout off and on, more giant fish are being caught than in previous years. I’m sure the current lake record of 18 pounds, 12 ounces will be tested. In fact, some anglers have come close recently.
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FISHING
Palm-sized bluegill are abundant at the lake, but giants are around and can be had on red worms and pieces of nightcrawler. (BILL SCHAEFER)
HUNGRY FISH Otay largemouth eat all forms of lures – from white or white/chartreuse spinnerbaits to Bomber crankbaits in everything from crawdad pattern to fire tiger to all types of plastics. No matter what your favorite set-up to throw is, you should do well here. In some of the brushier areas, you may want to go to the classic Texas-rigged worm. The Otay Special – a brown worm with a black stripe – has always been a killer here. When the reeds are in the water flipping can also be good for largemouth. Other favorite fish to chase here include crappie and bluegill. The lake records for these two species are 3½ pounds for the bluegill and 3.37 pounds for black crappie. Even the lake record for the usually smaller white crappie comes in at 2.18 pounds. This is a great place for the entire family to learn about fishing. Found around shoreline brush in the Otay Arm or drifting the length of
Harvey Arm, these fish can be great fighters on light tackle. Shiners have always worked well at Otay for crappie, but traditional crappie rigs will take many fish as well. Bluegill will eat red worms and pieces of a nightcrawler. A bobber will help for fishing the shallow brush where Otay’s bluegill thrive.
HERE KITTY, KITTY
mackerel or bonito on your hook and tossing it out. But with such big fish, you’ll need heavy tackle. Most of the serious giant chasers use ocean tackle. Try heavy rods and reels like a Daiwa Saltist ocean set-up with 25- to 50-pound line. One trick the pros master is fishing with super lines like Maxima Braid, which provide high breaking strength in a small diameter.
Lake Otay has always been a favorite of anglers who pursue giant catfish. This breeding ground for big blues and channel cats has produced state records. Years ago, the old California high mark for blue catfish, an 85.45-pounder, was set at this lake, and later a 102.9-pounder was brought to the scales and obliterated that record and an ensuing lake record. Even the record for channel cats is 33.43 pounds. The cats here will eat all the old standard stinkbaits, but if you want a giant, then try putting a big piece of
As I mentioned, Otay had been planting trout in the fall, winter and spring when funding allows. Standard trout rigs and lures will do well. Floating cheese or PowerBait on a treble rig will entice strikes from the lake’s rainbows. The trout are fairly new to Lower Otay and soon a pattern will develop to where they like to hang out the most. Probably your best bet is at the dock and launch areas where the fish are released. Check the City of San Diego Lakes website (sandiego.gov/
66 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
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calsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019 California Sportsman
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FISHING reservoir-lakes/lower-otay-reservoir) to see if the funding is there this year for plants.
UPPER OTAY
Dean Jamieson with a giant Otay bass that gobbled a trout swimbait. Fish well into double digits are common at the lake. (BILL SCHAEFER)
Located just to the north of the lower lake is Upper Otay, a 20-acre pond that was opened to the public in April 1996. Prior to that it had been closed to all fishing since it was established as a natural hatchery for the propagation and introduction of Florida-strain largemouth in 1959. A lot of the bass in lakes all over California came from this pond. Upper Otay offers fishing for largemouth, bluegill, bullhead and trout. Fishing is offered on a catchand-release (zero kill) basis, with only barbless artificial lures allowed for all species. As you can guess, this is a popular destination for San Diego-area anglers, given its location and the variety of species you can target. Call (619) 668-2050. CS
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IF YOU GO Upper Otay Lake patrons can float tube or fish from shore, but no boats are allowed. Use of float tubes is restricted to within 150 feet or less from shore. Canoes, kayaks and float tubes, as well as rental and private boats, are allowed on Lower Otay. The lake level as of mid-January is about 70 percent full and launching conditions have been excellent. It doesn’t take much rain to fill this lake, and it’s pouring as I write this. There are no concession services at Upper Otay, so permits must be purchased at Lower Otay before heading up. At Lower Otay, daily permits may be purchased at the concession store, pay station or on the dock when staff is present. There is a fishing dock and some picnic tables at the lower lake if you wish to have a barbecue, so bring the entire family. Overnight camping is not allowed at Upper or Lower Otay. The nearest camping is Thousand Trails, about 2 miles away. Call (800) 560-8833 for more information. BS
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70 California Sportsman FEBRUARY 2019 | calsportsmanmag.com
FISHING
THE BUNNY MUDDLER I
went to high school with Bunny Muddler. Of all the girls, she had the biggest pair of … ears. But, I digress. GUIDE FLY Josh Hayes owns By Tony Lolli and operates Alaska Trout Guides (alaskatroutguides.com; Instagram: alaskatroutguide). For 20 years he’s been guiding on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula on the Kenai River, a river that’s produced more fly-caught rainbow trout over 30 inches than any other river in the world. Hayes reports he has always swung flesh flies because Kenai River rainbows prefer to look up and ambush from below. When swinging, he likes a fly with a strong profile/ silhouette. It needs to be something that holds its shape but still has an undulating action. His favorite flies are those that will fish with any style (dead drift, swung, cast and strip, jigged) and in all water conditions. He also wanted a fly that has some buoyancy, allowing the fly to hover a bit in the strike zone when on the hang down or wash around a bit when dead drifted. Hence, the deer hair head as opposed to wool or some other material, something Hayes learned from watching Larry Dahlberg videos. He fishes his Bunny Muddler mainly in the winter and spring. In the former months, once the major salmon spawning events are done, trout become more opportunistic feeders. They will eat anything they can easily acquire with minimal effort. “My best guide day with the Bunny Muddler was the result of a last-minute call during an especially cold day,” Hayes recalls. “I wasn’t expecting much but the angler wanted to go anyway. To my surprise,
(ALASKATROUTGUIDES.COM)
MATERIALS Hooks: Front: Aqua Flies Round Eye Shank 26mm; rear: No. 4 Owner Cutting Point bait hook turned-up eye Thread: Black GSP 100 Hook connector: 12-pound Maxima Mono loop Tail: Flesh/tan rabbit is small tail, then wrapped forward one-third of the front hook shank.
fishing from the anchored boat in the first hole, my client managed to hook four fish and land three, two of which came on the hang down directly below the boat.” “I pulled anchor and rowed to a gravel bar to build a warm-up fire. As I collected wood, he hooked and landed another nice rainbow. Soon, I heard him yell and recognized the unmistakable rod bend of a good fish. In a short time a gorgeous, fat, chrome 23-inch hen was laying in the net. Laughing out loud, we slapped cold high-fives and admired the beautiful native rainbow. I couldn’t tell you how many fish we managed to catch that short, cold February day. But more importantly I shared time on my home water with an angler who had a lifelong
Wing: Darker rabbit (grey or black) with a slight overhang as a mini “wing” and wrap the rest forward over the second third of the forward hook shank. Flash: Four strands of copper flash/tinsel Collar: Copper/black chenille Head: Deer hair (black or brown) in a mini Dahlberg Diver shape.
dream realized.” I’ve had some dreams of Bunny Muddler too, but none involved a net, unless you count net stockings. Hey Bunny, if you’re out there, I can get a net. I already have a garter belt. But, I digress, again. If you’re a fishing guide with an innovative fly to share, please contact me at tonylolli@yahoo.com and I’ll send the details. CS Editor’s notes: This new column rotates each month between California Sportsman and sister titles Northwest Sportsman and Alaska Sporting Journal. Autographed copies of Tony Lolli’s new book, Art of the Fishing Fly, with an intro by President Jimmy Carter, are available from Tony Lolli, 1589 Legeer Rd., Grantsville, MD 21536 for $30 with free shipping.
calsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019 California Sportsman
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HUNTING
Author Tim Hovey (left) works on a bobcat, which is prized for its fur. A “die-hard predator hunter,” he advocates using as much of the animal as possible. (TIM E. HOVEY)
HIDE AND SLEEK
UTILIZING THE FUR OF PREDATORS SUCH AS BOBCATS CAN BE A REWARDING PROCESS FOR HUNTERS By Tim E. Hovey
W
hen I was younger, I did a fair amount of urban trapping around our home in Atascadero, in San Luis Obispo County. Nuisance species like gophers, mice and rats were abundant at the suburban edge and all were constantly present on our acre of land. Occasionally, we’d also have raccoons treat our property like their own personal recreation area, doing their best to steal
anything that wasn’t nailed down. My dad made it very clear that he wanted all the nuisance animals controlled or gone. It was during this time that I happened upon a trapping magazine in a local store. I leafed through the pages and noticed a piece on fur handling – putting up fur. Of course, the article dealt with true furbearers and not the potato-sized gophers or mangy rats I was trapping. I read the text that described the process and I knew as soon as I could acquire a large furbearer, I
was going to try and put up some fur.
NOTHING IS WASTED As a die-hard predator hunter, I try to utilize every part of the animals I kill. When it comes to coyotes and bobcats, that means skinning them and taking their skulls for my dermestid beetle colony (California Sportsman, December 2018). Over the years, I have developed a pretty simple and effective way to put up fur. To be clear, I don’t put up fur to sell to a fur buyer. That re-
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HUNTING
Predators might not provide hunters with food, but like Hovey you can skin the animal and eventually send the hide to the tannery and create a lot of uses for the fur. (TIM E. HOVEY)
quires a trapping license. I put up fur so that I can send it off to a tannery. Once tanned, the finished pelt can be made into any number of different fur items. I’ve been skinning animals for almost 20 years, and it didn’t occur to me until very recently that not everyone knows how to do this. If you have an animal on the ground, the first step in fur processing is skinning it.
SKINNING There are essentially two ways to skin an animal: case skinning and rug skinning. Case skinning can be described as similar to removing a sweater. The skin is removed by pulling the pelt down the body and over the head. Rug skinning is what is done to make a bearskin rug. The fur is split
up the belly and the extremities are skinned out so that the pelt eventually comes off in one flat piece. For the purposes of getting animal pelts tanned, I prefer the case skinning method. If you’re just starting out, I recommend viewing a few YouTube videos to get yourself familiar with this process. One of the best tools you can buy or make for case skinning an animal is a gambrel. A gambrel is a swiveling device that enables the skinner to hang the animal, head down and keeping the back legs spread so that the first cuts can be made. A few commercial places make gambrels for different-sized animals. It is hands down the best investment you can make in skinning. After tying up the gambrel to a suitable spot, I’ll hang the animal in a head-
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down position. Make a cut around the ankle of the animal on both back legs. The cut should be through the skin only. Try to avoid deep cuts. Your goal is to just remove the skin, leaving as much flesh on the animal. On the inside of most furbearers, you’ll notice that the fur changes colors down the length of the leg on the inside. Using this color line as a guide, cut down from the ankle all the way to the crotch. Do this for both legs. You can now start to remove the skin. Much of skinning is equal parts knife work and equal parts pulling. I delicately skin around the ankle cut until I have enough pelt to grip. I then pull the skin off the body in a downward motion until I reach near the hips. You can do this for both back legs. When you get to the tail and anus,
HUNTING
Tools of the trade include a fleshing board (center) flanked by two fur stretchers, super important if you want to put up fur. Below, a gambrel along with a sharp knife are essential for the first step, skinning. (TIM E. HOVEY)
you’ll have to gently cut the fur from around these areas so that the pelt is free to pull down over the rest of the body. Again, when I have the back legs and tail skinned out, I can essentially pull the pelt down from the hips all the way to the front shoulders. At the front legs, cut around the
ankles and pull the legs through the inside. When you get to the neck, pull the pelt down as far as it will go and start skinning the fur off the head. When you’re finished, you should essentially have a tube of fur with a larger opening at the back legs. Again, watching someone do this on
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a video should lay the groundwork for doing it yourself.
SEWING AND FLESHING The pelt should now be turned fur side in and stretched over a fleshing board. This board is a slender piece of wood that is pointed at one end and is
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HUNTING The Hovey girls, Alyssa (left) and Jessica, show off their creation, super comfortable fur hats made from predators. (TIM E. HOVEY)
used to stretch the skin out to remove any excess flesh. I use a sharp knife and some care to remove any excess flesh or fat from the skin while it’s stretched over the
fleshing board. It’s also at this point that you’ll want to sew up any holes in the pelt. I use dental floss and a large gauge needle to take care of any skinning holes or pelt damage. Use a cardboard tube and small fans to dry your work. (TIM E. HOVEY)
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Pull the pelt down over the board and tack it down, skin side out, at the bottom of the fur. Give it a good stretch before you attach the pelt to the board. I also run a piece of PVC tubing through the front legs to make sure they dry straight. To accelerate the drying process, I rub every inch of the skin with borax. This absorbs moisture, which keeps bacteria from growing. If bacteria start to grow, the pelt will slip and the hair will fall out. Moisture is the enemy at this point. Once the pelt is tacked down, I place the board and fur in front of a fan for several hours to assist in the drying process. Monitor the pelt frequently during this step. You’ll want the pelt to be just dry enough to be able to turn inside out without issue. Pelts that are completely dry are almost impossible to turn inside out. Depending on the air temperature,
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HUNTING I’ll dry out my pelts for four to six hours in front of the fan. When the fur is adequately dry, I turn the pelt fur side out and pull it over a wire stretcher. This device will stretch the fur further during the last drying process. I tie each back leg to the wire form using zip ties to hold the stretched fur in place. I then run a cardboard tube through the hole at the back of the fur and channel fan air through that hole. This will eventually dry the entire inside of the pelt. During this part of the process, I use a small hairbrush to smooth out the fur and remove any burrs on the pelt. I will leave a stretched pelt on the stretcher and dry it for up to 24 hours. It’s very important that the pelt is completely free of any moisture before you remove it from the stretcher. A dried fur processed in this way is referred to as a green pelt. The fur is dry and the skin takes on an almost cardboard feel. When the green pelt is
completely dry, it can be stored in a dry place for months without issue. Frequently, taxidermists or hobbyists will store several dry skins and send them out in bulk to save money during the tanning process. I currently have 15 green pelts stored for tanning. I know this process sounds daunting, but in all reality it isn’t. Skinning an animal quickly and efficiently does take practice, but the more you try, the better you’ll get. It took me 90 minutes to skin my first coyote when I first started. Now I can skin a coyote in about 10 to 15 minutes. If I can keep the fur hole free and not leave too much meat on the skin, the rest of the process is just setting it up for drying. During the last drying station, when the pelt is fur side out, I can essentially walk away from it until it is completely dry.
OFF FOR TANNING These pelts are now ready to be sent
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off and tanned. Tanneries will run these pelts through the tanning process and send you back a supple fur suitable to make any number of fur items. After an exceptionally good predator season, I sent several of my tanned pelts out to Wildthings Fur Company (wildthingsfur.com) in Wisconsin and had them make four fur hats for my family. The results were the warmest and most comfortable hats you’ll ever wear. And the cool thing about them is that, with the exception of the tanning and the sewing, I was involved in every step of the process. Next time you harvest a furbearer, give this fur-prepping process a try. Once you figure out how it’s done, it just becomes another step in the process of doing outdoor things yourself. As I get older, I find that acquiring skills where I can handle tasks on my own is by far the best kind of knowledge to possess. CS
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HUNTING
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT E-COLLARS
Electronic collars are a valuable training tool, but understanding how and when to use them is critical. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
By Scott Haugen
E
lectronic collars. They’re one of the most widely used pieces of dog training equipment, and, perhaps, the GUN DOGGIN’ 101 most misunderBy Scott Haugen stood. Used properly, e-collars can be one of your best training tools. But used improperly, they can be one of your worst. Often referred to as shock collars for the electrical stimulus they can emit, they also give off beeps and vibrations, both of which can be very effective, positive, forms of communication. “The biggest misconception is that
people are out there shocking their dogs and making it a cruel interaction,” shares noted dog trainer Jess Spradley, owner of Cabin Creek Gun Dogs (cabincreekgundogs.com, 541219-2526) in Lakeview, Oregon. “It’s not a cruel tool at all when properly used; it’s a teaching tool. You just have to know how to use it, and when to use it.”
IF YOU’RE A new dog owner who is training their own pup, Spradley suggests seeking the advice of a dog trainer or hunter in your area. “Seeing someone properly use an e-collar before you try it is ideal, because timing for correcting a dog’s
behavior is critical,” he says. “If that warning comes too soon, the dog can be confused, and the same is true if the warming comes too late. Used in the wrong way, it’s very difficult to reverse bad teaching resulting from improper e-collar use. These dogs are smart, and you have to know exactly what message you’re sending them.” What Spradley shares about smart dogs is spot on. I was amazed with the first dog I trained with an e-collar. Using soft bumps with her, she caught on so quickly that I couldn’t believe it. I’ve not had to shock her for nearly three years. Two male dogs I recently trained were a bit more stubborn. I didn’t shock them more,
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HUNTING or harder, just rethought how I was trying to teach them what I wanted them to do.
A SHOCK IMPULSE from an e-collar is not a free ticket to zap your dog every time it does something wrong. You have to deliver precise prompts and follow it up accordingly, and do it the same way every single time so the dog knows what to expect. “As soon as a pup can start wearing an e-collar, I’ll put it on,” continues Spradley. “I won’t turn it on; I just want the pup to get used to wearing it. Any time we go outside, that collar is on. I start using the e-collar prompts when the pup starts getting defiant, and that typically means not wanting to go into their kennel. “When this starts to happen, lead the dog and order it to ‘kennel.’ Start with a treat and say ‘kennel’ so they know to go in. Eventually, as they start slowing down again, not wanting to go into the kennel, just give them a little bump (light shock) to reinforce that you want them to get in the kennel. If reinforcing a known command, like ‘kennel’ which they’ve been hearing since you brought them home, they catch on really fast,” says Spradley. Such consistency transitions into other training practices, making it easier for your dog to understand what you want from them. Spradley warns not to give too much power when giving a bump. “You don’t want the dog to make a noise when you shock it; if that happens, it’s too powerful.” He also makes clear to not use an electric bump when there’s confusion. “The pup needs to know exactly what you expect, and they can’t do that if there’s chaos.” ONCE YOUR PUP starts becoming defiant in other behaviors, usually by about six months of age, Spradley suggests to start disciplining them with the e-collar. “You can beep as a precursor to let
Noted gun dog trainer Jess Spradley works one of his prized pudelpointers. Spradley has been breeding and training high-end hunting dogs for years, and an e-collar plays a big part in his success. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
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HUNTING
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a dog know a shock is coming if they don’t obey, then quickly follow that with a light bump, if necessary,” he says. “It really depends on the dog’s personality, as some will immediately comply, others will intentionally move slow. With some dogs you never need to shock them, as once they learn that a beep tells them what’s coming, they’ll comply.” Again, this prompting carries over into the field, and allows you to communicate with your dog by way of beeps, rather than hollering at it or blowing on a loud whistle. Used properly, e-collars can be a trainer’s best device. But make sure you know what you’re doing, because it’s much harder to correct a dog that’s been misled by improper e-collar stimulation than doing it right the first time. CS Editor’s note: To watch Scott Haugen’s series of puppy training videos, visit scotthaugen .com. Follow Scott on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out his TV show, The Hunt, on Amazon Prime.
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