Andy “Test of the Emergency Smelt Opener Notification System” Walgamott
THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS
Dave Anderson, Scott Haugen, Jeff Holmes, MD Johnson, Randy King, Buzz Ramsey, Bob Rees, Troy Rodakowski, Sharon Trammell, Dave Workman, Mark Yuasa
GENERAL MANAGER
John Rusnak
SALES MANAGER
Paul Yarnold
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Janene Mukai, Tom St. Clair
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Kha Miner, Gabrielle Pangilinan
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Emily Baker
OFFICE MANAGER/COPY EDITOR
Katie Aumann
INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER
Lois Sanborn
WEBMASTER/DIGITAL STRATEGIST
Jon Hines
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ON THE COVER
John Wood of Wenatchee shows off a spring Chinook he caught on the Lower Columbia early last season while trolling a plug-cut herring in combination with a Fish Flash. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
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ven with all of his success hunting Oregon gobblers over the decades, “Turkey Troy” Rodakowski knows how humbling these big, super-wary birds can be. That’s why he’s offering up his top units and tips to get you ready for next month’s openers!
ALSO INSIDE
GET READY FOR PUGET SOUND, STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA BLACKMOUTH
Given how fast winter Chinook season has come and gone in recent years (not to mention shrunk in terms of area), it will pay to be ready for the get-go of fishing on Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Mark Yuasa sets you up for success on Marine Areas 5, 10 and 11 when they open in April, as well as details where to hit Area 13 in the meanwhile.
83 MARCH KINGS START TO STEAL STEELIE THUNDER IN OREGON
Even as winter steelheading remains viable on Oregon Coast and Willamette Valley rivers, anglers will be increasingly turning their focus to spring Chinook on the Lower Columbia and Willamette system. Bob Rees has pointers for both species – as well as other prime March ops!
91 A WOMAN’S PLACE IS ON THE RIVER, FULL STOP
Sharon Trammell has experienced a lot of condescension both on and off Oregon’s rivers as she’s navigated becoming a successful female angler in a male-dominated sport. She shares tips for women looking to thrive on our salmon and steelhead waters.
99 TIME TO GO COASTAL
As the days lengthen and warm and the rain begins to slack off, the Washington Coast and its rich razor clam digging opportunities beckon anew, but shellfish are hardly the only reason to visit. Jeff Holmes details all the great harvests and family fun to be had!
(TROY RODAKOWSKI)
54 THE BIG PIC BUZZ RAMSEY My South American Chinook Adventure
It’s becoming a pilgrimage of sorts – Northwest salmon anglers heading south of the equator to experience the amazing Chinook fishing to be had in Chile. So it went for Buzz earlier this year as he and a buddy mounted an expedition to these rich sheltered and ocean-facing waters that produce big, “spectacular” eating fish. He shares what they found!
COLUMNS
75 OUTDOOR MD Hangin’ With A Springer High-liner
The secret to catching Lower Columbia spring Chinook? That’s a damn good question, and the answer includes some mysterious mix of tackle, knowledge of the tides and what Richard Casapulla of the Elochoman Valley has learned over the decades. Our MD Johnson hit him up for plunking advice and more.
127 ON TARGET New Guns And Gear Galore
Just in time for spring turkey season and warmer weather shooting fun, Dave W. details some of the new shotguns unveiled at 2025’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas, including models from Stoeger, Benelli, Franchi and Retay USA, along with other new offerings from Smith & Wesson, RCBS and more.
139 GUN DOG Putting Weight Back On A Gun Dog
The long, cold days of waterfowl season tap the reserves of Northwest gun dogs, so how do get them back to their optimal weight? Scott shares the healthy diet regimen he uses to pack a few pounds back onto his pups to get ready for spring training and beyond.
145 BECOMING A HUNTER The Road To Taking Your First Shot At Big Game
Dave A. has personally introduced half a dozen people to hunting, and that’s given him a pretty good idea about the steps someone looking to start pursuing big game needs to take. He lines beginners out on rifles, scopes, target practice and all the preparation that goes into squeezing the trigger on a first deer or elk.
(BUZZ RAMSEY)
THE BIG PIC: A VOICE FOR FISHERIES
MCBRIDE)
THE EDITOR’S NOTE
The mystery of why urban coho are dying before they can spawn is most strongly associated with Seattle. It’s where the condition first became apparent (Longfellow Creek) and where the cause of the mortality (6PPD-quinone, a tire preservative that reacts with ozone and gets washed into streams) was first identified by scientists from two Washington universities. But a February presentation showed Portlanders and Oregonians are well aware of the problem and have doable near-term solutions in mind.
It left me optimistic about an issue I’ve been following for years. A decade ago, my family and I even did our tiny little part by having a bioswale installed to filter street runoff that otherwise dumped straight into a pipe to a Lake Washington tributary. Bioswales’ simple soil mix of bark, compost and other materials is remarkably good at capturing 6PPD-q and rendering stormwater far safer for the salmon (and for their progeny and the insects those young fish feed on while rearing). But the scope of the problem – go to Google Maps, turn on Street View and peer down at the dense blue tangle of roads in Pugetropolis and Portlandia – has always daunted me.
DURING THAT PRESENTATION by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and other state, city and federal agencies, word was that tire companies have yet to come up with a replacement, and even when they do, it may be ages before the useful life of 6PPD-q-laden tires ends. That said, Katie Holzer, a city of Gresham senior environmental specialist, noted that compared to dealing with forever chemicals like PFAS, reducing coho mortality is actually “completely manageable.”
“Six-PPD has a known source. It’s pretty much just high-traffic roads that drain to streams. There are a few other sources as well, but that’s the primary (one) and there are known treatments,” she said.
Those include bioretention swales, proprietary filters and porous pavements, structures initially meant to filter out heavy metals, pesticides, etc., but it turns out also help trap 6PPD-q.
Let’s pause a sec – why again is this contaminant so deadly for coho? “It increases the permeability of the blood-brain barrier in the fish, so it basically puts holes in the blood vessels so all of these other toxins in the stream are getting into the fish’s brain,” Holzer said. “And so, in addition to removing this chemical, continuing to put this stuff [treatment infrastructure] in will help with all of those other pollutants and all of the other stream species that are harmed.”
I’LL ADMIT, I’VE wavered about whether cities are the best place to spend any money to save salmon, but for the Portland area, it’s not just silvers in Johnson, Tryon, Kellogg, Beaver, Abernethy and other local creeks. Young wild Chinook, steelhead and three other salmonid species from 15 different Endangered Species Act-listed populations also rear in and/or swim through Rose City-region waters.
“Data collected three times a year by our city biological team find all salmonid life stages here in Portland streams, including distinct population segments and ecologically significant units from out of basin,” said Jennifer Karps at the city’s Environmental Services bureau. A map she shared showed hatchery and unclipped kings and steelhead from the Mid-Columbia, Snake and Yakima turning up in local backwaters, side sloughs and creeks. While coho are most acutely affected by 6PPD-q, steelies and Chinook are too to a degree.
“So these data tell us that how Portland manages stormwater can affect both resident and transitory listed salmonids,” Karps said.
The presentation gave me hope. Between Holzer’s prioritizing the retrofitting of key outfalls and Karps’ strategic street sweeping to reduce 6PPD-q buildup, we can make waters less deadly for coho and it may not cost an arm and a leg. I love coho. They make me crazy. I know wild fish from little PDX streams can’t be bonked. I want to solve 6PPD-q for my fellow PNW natives anyway. –Andy Walgamott
A Voice For Fisheries
Q&A with Don McBride, whirlwind for Mid-Columbia River fish and angling advocacy.
By Jeff Holmes
Ifirst met Don McBride 14 years ago on the iFish fishing forum when I asked him to do an article for this magazine. I liked how reasonable he was in a sea of bombastic, know-it-all voices and thought he’d be an interesting guy to get to know, especially as a newcomer to the Tri-Cities at that time. I also admired that he was as ardent about fishing advocacy and conservation as he was about fishing.
McBride told me he’d take me out during midday from a Tri-Cities launch in the blistering heat of summer and that we’d boat kings, steelhead, walleye and smallmouth – all during a time when salmon and steelhead were trickling over the next dam downstream, McNary. I figured this was some big talk, but nope, we did all that, zipping around in his big Tracker walleye boat that revealed his passion for salmon angling, especially using Super Baits. There wasn’t an inch of the fabric-covered stern of that boat that wasn’t fossilized in tuna and accompanying scents. I once dubbed the condition of his boat in print as TDS: tuna drip syndrome.
His boat – which he finally retired and replaced in 2024 with another big Tracker – is notorious on the water for the success enjoyed by its captain and his friends and for the filth accumulated over the years. McBride is so accomplished and busy that he realized years ago that cleaning and upkeep would rob him of time and fun. So it was with intent that he allowed TDS to set in. It was a loss for anyone who didn’t want to fish in his boat due to the filth – including my ex and one of his good friend’s wives. I’m giving McBride three years before the early symptoms of TDS first emerge in his new boat.
That summer day in Tri-Cities when we first hit the water together, we landed summer Chinook on Supers, walleye and smallmouth on bottom walkers with worm harnesses, and hot summer steelhead on rusty Blue Fox spinners dragged a foot behind bottom walkers, a feat that amazed me. The fishing was great, but what I learned most was that McBride was cool, knowledgeable and dedicated to our fisheries. Since that time, he and I have fished together a lot, done articles together, and
collaborated on conservation efforts. He’s had a profound impact on my life and the lives of many anglers across the Northwest, especially those on the Mid-Columbia.
Along with being one of the most important and effective people working on nuclear cleanup projects nationwide, McBride is a dedicated family man headquartered in Richland, Washington. He is reasonable and kind but will always calmly stand up for the truth with a smile. That’s one reason why he is so effective as a communicator and advocate for the angling community and why he’d make a perfect Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission member.
McBride is neither a god nor is he the very best angler I know because I know many great anglers as a result of outdoor writing, but he is one of the best men and best anglers I’ve ever met. His infectious and youthful attitude about fishing and about giving back inspires me and serves as a model for me and for many, demonstrating how fishermen can retain their youthful spirit while comporting themselves with honor and dedication in support of our fisheries. Here is my Q&A with McBride.
Jeff Holmes I know you’ve served in many posts as a volunteer over the years, and I know you’re doing volunteer work in an advisory capacity for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in addition to your Coastal Conservation Association commitments – even though I know you hold criticisms about the department. What exactly are you up to with them? And what other volunteer roles have you served in for Northwest fisheries?
Don McBride I’m currently serving as a volunteer recreational advisor on the Columbia River Recreational Advisory Group, a bistate (Washington and Oregon) group that provides input to the agencies and the Columbia River Compact regarding sportfishing issues on the Columbia River. I volunteered for the role because it’s an important way to make sure anglers have a voice, and I like to think I was selected because I’ve become known to
Don McBride’s “infectious and youthful attitude about fishing and about giving back” serves as an inspiration when it comes to the Mid-Columbia’s myriad fish and fisheries. He would make a good Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission member, author Jeff Holmes states of his longtime friend. (DON MCBRIDE)
WDFW biologists and fish managers as a reasonable and well-informed angler who can communicate with other anglers and with the agencies.
A lot of anglers get frustrated with the agencies and give up with any efforts to be engaged with the rulemaking process and fish politics. I am sometimes a critic of the department, particularly because as an agency it still has an unmistakable bias against sport anglers, but the department includes some incredibly hard-working and dedicated individuals who care about the resource and the fisheries just as much as I do. And the good ones can be more effective in supporting us if they get good feedback from sport anglers, especially if that feedback can be rationally expressed and science-based. It’s important not to give up; we need to keep showing up and keep partnering to try to make things better.
To answer the last part of your question, I’m a life member of CCA and am serving as the local chapter president again this year. I’ve been a participant in WDFW, North of Falcon and compact meetings for several decades. Why? I want to make sure my grandkids have opportunities to enjoy sportfishing like I have all my life.
JH It seems like there’s a lot of disinformation surrounding CCA and the work that you and other volunteers do for salmon and steelhead fisheries. Without touching on the artist formerly known as the King of the
Reach derby yet, can you talk about what CCA’s scope of involvement has been in the Northwest and how it came to be? How did this all get started and where are we today?
Why are you so involved?
DM It’s been nearly 20 years – 18, to be exact – since Gary Loomis started a recruiting tour around the Northwest telling the story of how this organization made a difference in the Gulf Coast states, after commercial overharvest crashed populations of redfish to the point that both commercial and
recreational fishing came to a halt. CCA proved it was possible to advocate for the recovery of the fish while restoring a priority for recreational fisheries. That message resonated with me and hundreds of other anglers in the Northwest who were seeing salmon and steelhead recreational fisheries dwindle. We started an active chapter in Tri-Cities as soon as Gary launched CCA up here, and I’ve been engaged ever since. For the first time I felt like I had a voice in helping to influence our fisheries.
With a high-stress job managing nuclear waste cleanup, fishing for a wide variety of species is McBride’s stress release. “I’m just as happy catching a trout or perch as a salmon, steelhead, walleye, bass, albacore – anything,” he says. (DON MCBRIDE)
Recently, we accepted the award from the Hewes family for being the 2024 Top Sales Dealer — an honor we don’t take lightly. I’m thankful for the support from Hewescraft and especially our sales, parts, and service teams at Tom-n-Jerry’s. Great job, team!!!
— Kelly Hawley, President.
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Sales Hours Mon - Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Sat: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm Sun: Closed
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(ccawashington.org/tri-cities)
the organization’s
JH Focusing on the Mid-Columbia, what influence have you seen CCA have up here in and around the Tri-Cities’ salmon and steelhead fisheries? What specific actions or rule changes have resulted from the work CCA has done?
DM One of the first direct impacts I experienced was being invited, because of my involvement with CCA, to meet with the WDFW director and other fish managers to talk about our regional fisheries and regulations. At that meeting, I pressed the director on why we couldn’t be allowed to have a two-pole regulation. He directed his staff to look into it, and a few months later we had two-pole fishing in the Hanford Reach. A year or two later I asked the department to start planning and publishing upper river sockeye seasons in advance instead of waiting for emergency regulations. Since the following year, we’ve had predictable seasons.
Of course, one of the biggest impacts has been the reduction in mainstem commercial gillnetting in the Columbia River. It hasn’t been without its challenges, thanks to some shenanigans by fisheries managers on both sides of the river, but the fact is that spring and summer Chinook fisheries have been prioritized for sportfishing for the past decade.
JH The Tri-Cities chapter and its CCA banquet is a really big event that I enjoy every year. My liver does not. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of that event and give us an idea what kind of impact it has had? I know you guys bring in a substantial amount of money for Pacific Northwest fisheries. I enjoy your work as emcee every year, including your white tuxedo and goofy hat. It makes you hard to miss even amongst several hundred people getting liquored up, spending money and talking fishing.
DM Our chapter has held a successful fundraiser banquet every year since 2008, the late winter following the standing up of the Tri-Cities CCA chapter in 2007. We’re one of the few organizations that had good fortune and timing and even managed not to miss a year or more during Covid times.
I’ve been to a lot of banquets, and I have to say our CCA Tri-Cities banquet is
McBride and the Tri-Cities Chapter of Coastal Conservation Association
have been advocating for sportfisheries and raising funds for anadromous species and recreational angling priority via annual banquets – this year’s is March 8 – since
creation in the late 2000s. (DON MCBRIDE)
steelhead, sturgeon and for sportfishing priority. This year’s banquet is March 8 at the Pasco Red Lion, and it’s sold out.
my favorite. We have a lot of great games, fantastic raffle prizes and amazing live and silent auction prizes, including destination and local fishing trips, oneof-a-kind art, just generally some really unique items too. Everyone who attends tells me the same thing – it’s their favorite too. The funds we raise go to our advocacy efforts for healthy populations of salmon,
Tell us about the history of the live capture event/derby you all host every late October on the Hanford Reach. How did it get started and what is its status today? Why does the derby exist? What does it do? And why are the critics wrong? The live capture “angler broodstock collection” event has its roots in 2012 when local WDFW biologist Paul Hoffarth asked our CCA Tri-Cities chapter if local sport anglers might be willing to help collect wild broodstock for the Priest Rapids Hatchery. Of course we said yes, and after a pilot program that year, we organized it with a derby format called the King of the Reach Derby to boost angler participation. We have organized it ever since. Last year we switched from the derby format to a simpler volunteer format and had great success with a lot less upfront effort, so we’ll probably stick with that format for the next few years as long as it remains effective.
The broodstock collection is essential to allowing continued operation of the Priest Rapids Hatchery. It’s important to
keep infusing wild salmon genetics into the hatchery broodstock so that hatchery fish spawning in the wild will not harm the genetics of the naturally spawning fish. The fish from that hatchery are the backbone of fisheries all the way from Alaska to Buoy 10 and up the Columbia. Thanks to this program, nearly all of the 7 million fish produced annually at the hatchery have at least one wild parent.
The way the collection works is that anglers catch wild fall Chinook during the collection weekend – typically about 500 total fish and typically at the end of October after the regular season closes. Participants keep them alive using aerators in a livewell or large cooler until they are handed off to hatchery trucks at Vernita Bridge, White Bluffs and the Punchbowl.
Controversy has arisen because several local guides have complained that the fishing hasn’t been as good as it was in the past, so the live broodstock collection “must be” the culprit. It’s hard to imagine how taking a few hundred fish at the end of the season somehow could have more impact than the 10,000 fish harvested during the preceding weeks in the same location, but the frustration of anglers over dwindling returns is understandable since the fish are heavily harvested in fisheries downriver and in the ocean, leaving local
A critical project for McBride and anglers from Tri-Cities all the way to Alaska is the annual late October collection of broodstock fall Chinook from the Mid-Columbia’s Hanford Reach. The effort helps ensure that each of the 7 million upriver bright smolts raised and released from Priest Rapids Hatchery has at least one natural-origin parent, which is “essential to meet the hatchery genetic management plan requirements” for the program and continued release of fish, CCA has said in the past. (DON MCBRIDE)
anglers holding the short end of the stick with early season closures and restrictive limits while other fisheries keep getting extended. That frustration leads to a lot of finger-pointing and blaming, but it’s equally frustrating to put a lot of hard work into a really important program that
is helping our fisheries and get accused of harming the resource.
JH March is a little bit of a lull in the Tri-Cities fishing community in terms of opportunity, with some steelhead, walleye and maybe a little bit of early bass,
depending on the weather. For fishermen who are excited about spring Chinook and the seasons to come this summer, what kind of preparation can they be doing right now in terms of boat and tackle prep? What kind of preparation do you do this time of year in anticipation of spring Chinook and other salmon?
DM When the snow is flying like it is now and I can’t go walleye fishing this time of year, I try to check my fishing reels, clean and lube them, and usually respool two or three of the heaviest-used ones. This is also a great time to tie up some spinners and Super Baits and herring leaders. I just stocked up on the new Skinny Minis, so I’ll need to tie up an assortment. And it’s also time to scrub and sharpen hooks on my springer Kwiks that have been collecting dust since last spring. My boat gets used all year, so besides looking for a window of opportunity to change the oil, there’s really not much prep needed besides swapping out a dozen rods in the rod lockers.
JH I am always impressed how passionate you are about angling while still having a nuanced life. You play music, serve the community in several ways, work a demanding job, and still have a kid’s enthusiasm for all types of angling. Why is fishing so exciting and important to you? What motivates you, and what are the tangible and intangible benefits that you perceive?
DM My mom took me fishing for the first time on our creek in Montana when I was 6 years old. She cut a willow pole, tied on a piece of fishing line and a hook, helped me catch a grasshopper, and had me dangle it into a pool, and I caught a beautiful little cutthroat and I was hooked for life. I’ve been fishing that little creek for 54 years since then, and it always takes me back to that first time. Fishing is my stress relief and my happy place. I’m just as happy catching a trout or perch as a salmon, steelhead, walleye, bass, albacore – anything. I just got home from ice fishing and fileted a bucket of perch. It helps that I like eating fish, but I’m just as happy catching and releasing fish – as they say, “the tug is the drug.” I even used that line in the latest song I wrote, “Die Fishing.” NS
McBride traces his passion for fish and fisheries back to a Montana stream that ran through the property he grew up on and where he hooked his first catch, a cutthroat trout. The Treasure State is also where he put his grandkids into their first fish, on his pond. (DON MCBRIDE)
Add channel catfish to Jeff Holmes’ list last issue of incidental winter walleye catches on the Mid-Columbia. Jerry Han landed this one in late January and says that while whiskerfish are rare, he’s starting to figure out some strategies that should score more fodder for fish fries. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
If you’re noticing a culinary theme on this page, you’re not wrong. Corbin and Austin Han got into duck hunting this past season and enjoyed some good outings with their dad, Jerry, who also taught them how to process their mallards, wigeons, goldeneyes and other ducks for dinner. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
For your shot at winning great fishing and hunting knives from Coast and Kershaw in our Knife Photo Contest, send your full-resolution, original images with all the pertinent details – who’s in the pic; when and where they were; what they caught their fish on/weapon they used to bag the game; and any other details you’d like to reveal (the more, the merrier!) – to awalgamott@media-inc.com or Northwest Sportsman, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for use in our print and Internet publications.
Last time we saw Skylar Masters with a cat it was three cougar kittens he helped rescue after their mom was killed depredating a lamb. His trapping skills cut both ways, as this mature tom bobcat found out in early January. Masters finds beaver to be his bait of choice, and winter’s dry, cold days most productive. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Mike Huwaldt lassoed this pair of Willamette River coho during a “year-ending rodeo” last fall that saw his boat go four for four. He says he prefers coho fishing to Chinook because it allows him to get away from the busy Columbia. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Before Bill Stanley could put the meat of this 29-inch Rufus Woods Lake burbot into hot water on his stove at home, he had to wade into the frigid Upper Columbia reservoir to catch his runaway boat. He used cut bait to catch the fish regarded as “poor man’s lobster” by many fans. “Damn, they’re delicious boiled,” he notes. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Skylar Henry smiles over a nice hatchery steelhead he hooked earlier this season. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
“She’s addicted.” That’s the word on Ellie after her boyfriend started taking her out fishing and crabbing. She caught this – work with us, we’re kinda winging it here, as salmon are more our thing – southern rock sole off a Puget Sound pier last fall. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Turn In A Snagger, Score $400
Just as monetary rewards have been doubled for turning in those who poach big game in Oregon, payouts for reporting fish snaggers have increased twofold as well.
The Oregon Hunters Association, Coastal Conservation Association of Oregon and the Association of Northwest Steelheaders all partnered earlier this year to fund the boost, payable for tips that lead to a citation or arrest.
They will pay $400 rewards for violations to include snagging and attempting to snag, as well as other methods of illegal take, along with releasing nonnative species into lakes, rivers and streams (a practice commonly known as bucket biology), retaining protected species and going over the bag limit for fish or shellfish.
The move follows on OHA’s August 2023 doubling of rewards for those who turn in bighorn, mountain goat, elk, deer, antelope, bear, cougar and wolf poachers. At the same time, the Medford-based organization also established a $200 reward for reporting snaggers and habitat damage.
And it bolsters Oregon’s ongoing efforts to reduce poaching via highlighting the statewide problem and putting more legal muscle into prosecuting fish and game violators.
“As one of the leading conservation organizations in the state, CCA Oregon is committed to the fair and legal take of our state’s gamefish,” said Pat Hoglund, CCA Oregon executive director, in an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife press release announcing the bolstered rewards. “It’s important that anglers know that laws are in place for a reason, and when it comes to sportfishing we feel it’s vital that those rules are followed to ensure proper escapement while at the same time providing an opportunity for all anglers to participate in our fisheries.”
According to ODFW, OHA paid out almost $32,000 last year to tipsters, though some informants instead went for the preference points, 139 of which were awarded by the state agency.
“OHA supports the vigorous enforcement of laws designed to protect wildlife, habitat,
By Andy Walgamott
private property and hunters’ rights,” stated Steve Hagan, president of the organization.
To report fish, wildlife or habitat violations or suspicious activities, call the Turn In Poachers, or TIP, Hotline at (800) 452-7888, use *OSP (*677) on your smartphone or email TIP@osp.oregon .gov. For more info, see oregon.gov/osp/ programs/fw/Pages/tip.aspx.
JACKASS OF THE MONTH
Amonth’s worth of jackassery came back to bite two Montana men in the butt hard when they were convicted of a slate of fish and wildlife crimes, fined a combined $24,000 and lost their hunting, angling and trapping privileges for a whopping two decades.
According to a February Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks press release, the investigation into Richard Van Meter, 22, and Ty Robert Lewis, 21, began in August 2021 when several big fish in a hatchery display pond outside Great Falls were discovered to have been speared.
A month later, tips linked Van Meter and Lewis to the killing and wastage of a bull elk. Followup warden work revealed that three more bulls as well as a black bear had also been illegally taken.
While it took a few years to fully resolve the case – Van Meter left Montana but his return to the state was “facilitated” by California fish and wildlife officers –the punishments “reflect the value of the resources taken by these two individuals, and especially the importance that the community places on the Giant Springs Hatchery,” FWP stated.
Thanks to Oregon hunting and fishing conservation groups, rewards for turning in salmon snaggers and other violators of state fish laws have increased from $200 to $400. (JIM YUSKAVITCH, ODFW)
Giddyup! Horse-borne Patrol Roams Washington Backcountry
Billed as the “last of its kind in the state,” the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police’s Mounted Patrol was trotted out for public inspection earlier this year.
Comprised of Officer Glenn Steffler and other game wardens, three mares, a draft horse/quarterhorse cross and a mule, the patrol can be found neighing its way into wilderness areas such as the Pasayten and Alpine Lakes as well as backcountry regions in the South Cascades and Washington Coast.
Able to go where WDFW Police trucks can’t, their job is a mix of helping and
educating the public, policing hunting and fishing seasons, and assisting during search and rescue missions.
“These officers serve as a critical resource for educating visitors on responsible recreation and wildlife stewardship,” said Steffler in a WDFW blog post on the patrol. “The mounted patrol’s presence in Washington’s wild spaces acts as a visual reminder to hikers, campers, and hunters about the responsibilities that come with enjoying the outdoors.”
Steffler, who is the grandson of one of this magazine’s original writers, Leroy Ledeboer, and an avid Northcentral
Washington angler, noted that his fourlegged partners – the mule, two older mares approaching retirement, a younger dun mare and the quarterhorse/Clydesdale mix named (wait for it) Clyde – have their own personalities and that that can be both “fun and frustrating.” But the animals allow officers to “conduct long-range patrols without disturbing the natural environment or wildlife” and do so stealthily.
The patrol is something of a throwback in this technology-driven era, but it’s a good fit, given how much of Washington is roadless and how valued that ground is by sportsmen, the tribes and the public alike.
Washington game warden Glenn Steffler patrols Central Washington’s Colockum game reserve on horse during a past season. (WDFW)
OUTDOOR CALENDAR
Will there be a chance to dip for smelt in March? Only the oily little fish know, but seven days have been set aside as possible openers on the lower Cowlitz should enough be caught in test fisheries on the Lower Columbia. (WDFW)
MARCH
1 Metolius Arm of Lake Billy Chinook opens for fishing; Numerous Eastern WA lakes open for fishing; First of seven tentative March smelt dipping openers on WA’s Cowlitz River (others: March 5, 8, 12, 15, 19 and 22) – info: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/smelt; Seattle Sportsmen’s Conservation Foundation fundraiser and auction, Lynnwood Event Center– info: seattlesportsmensconservationfoundation.com/
5 Last day of late goose season in WA Goose Management Area 2 Inland Unit
8 Bottomfish, lingcod, rockfish and cabezon openers on WA Marine Areas 1-3 and Area 4 west of Bonilla-Tatoosh line; Lingcod opener in Area 4 east of Bonilla-Tatoosh line; Youth Outdoors Unlimited fundraiser and auction, Best Western Lake Front Hotel, Moses Lake – info: youthoutdoorsu.org
8-14 Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select WA Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels – info: wdfw.wa.gov
10 Last day of goose seasons in OR Northwest Permit and South Coast Zones and white and white-fronted goose season in OR High Desert and Blue Mountains Zone
15 Last day of bobcat, fox, raccoon, rabbit and hare seasons in WA; Leftover OR spring black bear tags go on sale at 10 a.m.
19 ODFW Introduction to Hunting in Oregon Workshop ($, register), Tualatin Cabela’s – info: myodfw.com/workshops-and-events
20 Mandatory hunter harvest report deadline for WA GMA 1 snow geese and GMA 2 Canada geese
21-23 Ocean Shores Razor Clam and Seafood Festival – info: facebook.com/ RazorClamFestival
26-April 3 Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select WA Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels (digs switch from evenings to mornings starting March 29) – info above
28-29 Quincy Valley Tourism Association Trout Fishing Derby, Burke and Quincy Lakes – info: quincyvalley.org
29 Youth Outdoors Unlimited fundraiser and auction, Red Lion Hotel, Pasco –info above
31 Last day WA 2024-25 fishing and hunting licenses valid; Last scheduled day of WA Coast winter steelhead season; Last day of WA cougar season – quota info: wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/big-game/cougar; Last day to buy WA multi-season permit app – info: mywdfw.org/multi-season-special-hunt
APRIL
1 New fishing and hunting licenses required in WA; Opening day of spring black bear hunts in select ID and all controlled OR units
1-7 Youth turkey hunting week in WA
2 Blackmouth opener on Areas 10-11 (open Wednesdays-Saturdays only)
3 Halibut opener on Areas 5-10 (open daily)
8-14 Youth turkey hunting week in ID
11-13 48th Annual Oregon Knife Show, Lane Events Center, Eugene – info:
|
Walk and wade on the North Fork Coeur d’Alene and Pike trips on the Chain Lakes
12 Youth Bass Team Fishing Tournament, Lake Tapps ($, registration, open to youths ages 6 to 17) – info: dayatthelake2024@gmail.com; Youth Outdoors Unlimited Western Washington fundraiser and auction, Emerald Queen Casino Conference Center, Fife – info above
12-13 Youth turkey hunting weekend in OR
14 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program fishery opener at The Dalles station – info: pikeminnow.org; Blackmouth opener on Area 5 (open daily)
15 General spring turkey season opener in ID, OR and WA; Opening day of black bear hunts in most remaining ID units; Last day of catch-and-release fishing for wild steelhead on portions of WA’s Skagit and Sauk Rivers
17 ODFW Introduction to Hunting in Oregon Workshop ($, register), Tualatin Cabela’s – info above
21 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program fishery opener at Columbia Point and Umatilla stations – info above
22 Fishing or bait opener on select OR waters
26 Opening day of lowland lake fishing season in WA; Start of Washington Trout Derby at select lakes – info: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/contests/trout-derby
MAY
1 2025 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program fishery begins at rest of Columbia and Snake Rivers stations – info: pikeminnow.org; Halibut opener on Areas 1-4 (dates vary by area) – info: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/halibut; ODFW staff-recommended halibut opener on OR Central Coast, Southern Subareas – info: dfw.state.or.us/mrp/finfish/halibut/management.asp
3 Youth Outdoors Unlimited fundraiser and auction, Hells Canyon Grand Hotel, Lewiston – info above
15 OR fall controlled big game permit purchase application deadline
20-23 Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show, Spokane Fair & Expo Center, Spokane; bighornshow.com
28-30 Vancouver Outdoor Expo, Clark County Fairgrounds, Vancouver, Washington; vancouveroutdoorexpo.com
APRIL
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My South American Chinook Adventure
Chile’s Andes Mountains served as a backdrop to stellar Chinook fishing for author Buzz Ramsey, here with a 23-pounder, and his buddy Chris Sessions earlier this year. A rich diet of munida – a type of lobster – and anchovies gives the meat of these salmon a deep red-orange color, making for “spectacular” eating fish that can grow very big. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
COLUMN
BUZZ RAMSEY
The boat was a little small for its owner, our two fishing guides, lifelong friend Chris Sessions and me. We were having fun, though, landing and releasing numerous feeder Chinook that ranged in size from (I’m guessing) 18 to 26 inches. We had two of these feeder salmon on at once a few times while trolling in the open ocean near a place called Valdivia.
I’ll admit things got a little chaotic when hooking and attempting to land larger Chinook (the biggest was 24 pounds) due to having too small of a landing net. As I remember, the net’s size was one you might use when targeting jumbo-size trout or walleye. A little small for even a steelhead, I thought.
Fishing guide Ramon Barria is regarded as a good net man. But every time the 24-pound Chinook thrashed, turned, twisted and jumped out of the net before he peeled 50 or more yards of line off my reel, Ramon would shake himself off and get ready for the next attempt – all while I shouted, “Good job, good job.” Finally on the fourth try, Ramon bounced the thrashing, only-partway-in-the-net Chinook into the boat.
I remember telling Chris I would be sh*tting my pants if that had happened while fighting a spring Chinook on the Columbia River. But we were in Chile, South America, and had no reason to worry; our trip was all about having fun.
OUR TRIP HAD started with a four-hour plane flight from Portland to Dallas, Texas. The next leg of our journey took us to Santiago, Chile, a 10-hour flight. From there, we hopped onto another jet for a ride to Puerto Montt, Chile, where fishing guides Hector “Coco” Ruiz (hruiznayem@ gmail.com) and Ramon Barria (elyypse@ gmail.com) met Chris and me.
Despite being anxious to get on the water first thing the next day, I just couldn’t do it, as I was feeling ill. About noon I awoke and drank a gallon of bottled water before we traveled to the marina where Coco had
COLUMN
his 30-foot Aqualine HDPE plastic boat moored. Thankfully, his boat had a salmonsize landing net. The four of us ran across a huge expanse of water west of Puerto Montt for nearly an hour to a place known to produce Chinook.
Coco and Ramon had talked to friends who had gotten to this area earlier in the day and had some hits and misses. One of the Chinook their friends landed was in the mid 40s. Another salmon – they didn’t know how big – had taken all the fishing line off their reel, leaving them with an empty spool.
Last year, Chris had spent a month fishing for and catching Chinook in Chile. During that trip he ran into Coco and Ramon. They teamed up and explored many different places together. Being local, these two fishing guides know where salmon can be found. In addition to fishing their local waters, the trio made a trip 600 miles south via plane and car to where
The fishery reminded Ramsey and Sessions of Puget Sound, though daily tidal fluctuations in the area north and south of Puerto Montt were far more extreme – 20 to 30 feet from high to low. “As you might guess, during lesser tide exchanges is when the salmon fishing is best,” notes Ramsey, who adds that the tide swings meant that guide Hector “Coco” Ruiz (above) sometimes had to anchor his 30-foot boat in deep water and row a small dingy back and forth from shore to load up his clients. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
COLUMN
Jordan Knigge of Addicted Outfitters guides salmon trips during the season.
In addition to guiding, Coco is half owner of a fishing tackle store. He, Ramon and small-boat owner Jano MoenneLaccoz also have a TV fishing show. It’s called A La Pesca and can be found on YouTube. In addition to playing on YouTube, their show is broadcast all over Chile, and it looks like they have just signed a deal for A La Pesca to air on the Discovery Channel.
IT WAS IN the tidal arms, inlets and fjords where rivers enter saltwater that we spent
most of our time trolling for Chinook. These protected waters reminded Chris and me of Puget Sound and we fished the area much like one would in the Sound –mostly trolling in 100 to 200 feet of water with downriggers. The only exception was when we fished the open Pacific near Valdivia. Due to a rough ocean forecast we only fished that area one day.
Chris and I fished with Coco and Ramon two and a half days before friends Mike Meyers, Jeff Trom and Marty Vanderploeg joined up. Marty grew up in Michigan where he caught salmon and steelhead fever at a young age. All now retired, these
three are lifelong friends who get together for at least one fishing adventure each and every year. It was their first time to fish salmon in Chile.
Because Chris and I wanted to fish a different area each and every day, combined with our trip being a little early in the season – we were there in late January and early February – we didn’t catch as many fish as we might otherwise have. In addition, the logistics involved in getting to so many locations meant we didn’t always arrive early or during the best part of the tide. Looking back, we wouldn’t change a thing, though, except
Sessions, here with guides Ruiz and Ramon Barria, shows off a 30-pound Chinook caught on the last day of the trip. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
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for pushing our trip back a week or two.
The coolest area we fished during our trip was a place called Gorilla Mountain. It was a chore getting there, as it was a long drive on narrow roads in addition to a ferry ride. Getting Coco’s 30-foot boat there was another matter, as it required a half-day boat ride for Coco to reach our meeting place. After connecting up we traveled by boat another few hours before trying our luck in a dead-end fjord where Chris’s friend Marty hooked and landed a 37-plus-pound Chinook. What was unique about Marty’s fish is that it was a feeder, meaning it was sexually immature and, as such, wouldn’t spawn until next year or the year after.
I rigged up one of the anchovies we found in the stomach of Marty’s fish (it didn’t look too bad) and caught an Atlantic salmon while trolling it. Atlantics, trout and coho are farm-raised in floating netpens here. We saw these netpens (there are over 1,000 in Chile) pretty much everywhere we fished. Chile is the world’s second largest producer of farmed salmon, much of it going to the United States.
THERE’S NO DOUBT that salmon brought in from the Pacific Northwest have taken hold in many Chilean rivers. From what I know thus far, eyed Chinook eggs were taken from the Kalama River, Cowlitz River (spring Chinook), Tanner Creek, along with
fall-run Chinook stocks from Puget Sound hatcheries. Some of the fish we caught looked like tule stocks, as they had big adipose fins; others looked like they might have been from our spring or summer Chinook stocks.
Although Chris had a really big fish on – it had no trouble separating a 50-pound leader before almost spooling him – we didn’t land anything over 40 pounds during our trip. Coco, our fishing guide, believes giant Chinook weighing as much as 90 pounds exist in Chile, as he has seen them when diving some
rivers. Rodmaker Gary Loomis landed and released a Chinook of 60 pounds during a 2014 trip to Chile. There is no doubt a trip to Patagonia, Chile, might yield a fish in the 30- to 50-pound range for you.
But what was the most impressive to Chris and me was the average size of the Chinook we caught. Other than when we fished Valdivia, where we caught many small salmon, we didn’t catch a Chinook under 19 pounds in any of the other locations we visited. For example, the last day of our trip we landed 19-, 28- and 30-pound salmon.
The Chinook bit a range of gear for Ramsey and Sessions, including a 2.5 SpinFish stuffed with canned tuna and/or munida (upper left) dissected out of the stomachs of salmon caught the day before and trolled 36 to 42 inches behind a rotating flasher. Overall, spoons fished in combination with rotating flashers is what most of the Chinook were caught on, but experimenting with a smelt rigged to spin and trolled yielded kings to 30 pounds too. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
COLUMN
Marty Vanderploeg’s 37.85-pounder barely fit in the bleed bucket. It was determined to be a “feeder” Chinook, as its gonads were still immature and the fish likely would not have spawned until next year or the year after. A lack of commercial interception allows these introduced kings to grow older than Northwest Chinook do as they pasture off Alaska. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
Ramsey says these waters are thick with floating netpens in which Atlantic salmon, coho and trout are raised. According to one of his guides, some Atlantic escapees appear to have found suitable habitat in Chilean rivers and are reproducing in the wild, including possibly this one, given its fully developed fins. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
Many friends asked how come salmon are doing so well in Chile and not so good in the Pacific Northwest. From what we observed, their success is likely attributable to the mostly pristine river habitats, as in clean gravel, no visible logging and no habitat-blocking dams, an abundant forage base and no targeted commercial fishery. They do have sea lions, but I’m not sure how many lions have figured out that salmon are a lot easier to catch when on the end of a sportfishing line than when free swimming. NS
Editor’s note: Buzz is regarded as a sportfishing authority (as related to trout, steelhead and salmon), outdoor writer and proficient lure and fishing rod designer. Buzz built a successful 45-year career promoting gear related to Northwest and Great Lake fisheries during his tenure with Luhr Jensen, Pure Fishing and Yakima Bait. Now retired, he writes for Northwest Sportsman and The Guide’s Forecast.
Ruiz, Jano Moenne-Loccoz, Ramsey and Barria show off a few of the many Chinook the author and Sessions caught out of Valdivia, Chile, near the open Pacific and north of other, more protected areas they fished. Ramsey saw very few other anglers on any of the waters he fished, but if he went back, he would time his trip more towards our late winter and Chile’s late summer. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
Get Ready BlackmouthFor Season
Here’s how and where to fish Areas 5, 10 and 11 when they open in April, and hit Area 13 this month.
By Mark Yuasa
Change is never easy, but blackmouth anglers who learn how to be flexible on when to go, where to fish and what time to be on the water put the ball in their court for a successful outing.
For starters, fishery managers at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife decided to change the winter Chinook fishery start dates for Marine Area 5 (Sekiu and Pillar Point) to open daily on April 14, and Area 10 (Seattle-Bremerton Area) and Area 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island) to open four days a week beginning April 2.
“We feel starting the season Wednesdays through Saturdays in Marine Areas 10 and 11 gives us the best chance to fish the entire month,” said Lyle Jenning, WDFW’s Puget Sound recreational fisheries manager. “Each week we will evaluate catch rates and assess whether the fishery should be opened additional days per week.”
The decision was made after consulting with the Puget Sound Sport Fishing Advisory Group and recreational anglers, who indicated a priority for preserving fishing opportunity as long as possible into the late winter/early spring season. Another factor for the Sekiu area to open late was due to very limited moorage space and the fact that all the docks are not expected to be installed at the beginning of April. The halibut season is also scheduled to be open daily beginning April 3 in Areas 5 through 10.
WDFW manages the winter seasons in Areas 5, 10 and 11 either by a total Chinook catch quota or guidelines related to wild Chinook unmarked encounters or the sublegal (Chinook under the 22-inch minimum size limit) catch rate. In other words, while the closing date in all three marine areas is April 30, if any of the quotas or guidelines are achieved sooner than expected, an early shutdown might occur.
While this year’s blackmouth seasons were pushed back from previously scheduled starts in central Puget Sound and west-central Strait of Juan de Fuca, you can probably bet Brad Dailey and son Filson will be out on the water when fishing does open. They caught their first keeper last March on Marine Area 10 on a Pro-Cure-slathered Tomic plug trolled 2.5 miles an hour 160 feet deep off Kingston. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
FISHING
Compared to a decade ago, early-year Chinook seasons on Washington’s inside waters are few and far between, and those that are held are governed by strict quotas or guidelines. Bottom line, it’s wise to be prepared ahead of time and get out sooner than later to take advantage of the given opportunities. (CHASE GUNNELL, WDFW)
In Area 5, winter Chinook fishing will be open daily from April 14 through April 30. The available April total sublegal Chinook encounters – Chinook under the 22-inch minimum size limit – are 2,168 (by comparison, it was 3,707 in 2024 and 4,263 in 2023). The daily limit is one hatchery-marked Chinook. Anglers must release all salmon other than hatchery-marked Chinook.
In Area 10, the April winter Chinook guidelines are 4,787 total encounters (4,953 in 2024 and 7,152 in 2023); 735 total unmarked encounters (953 in 2024 and 1,089 in 2023); and 4,055 total sublegal encounters (4,181 in 2024 and 6,295 in 2023).
In Area 11, the April winter Chinook fishery guidelines are 1,196 total encounters (1,191 in 2024 and 1,093 in 2023); 209 total unmarked encounters (259 in 2024 and 256 in 2023); and 840 total sublegal encounters (816 in 2024 and 732 in 2023).
In Areas 10 and 11, the daily limit
is two salmon including no more than one hatchery-marked Chinook. The Chinook minimum size is 22 inches. All other salmon species have no minimum size limit. Anglers must release chum and wild Chinook.
Fishing is open daily off both marine areas’ year-round piers – Bremerton Boardwalk, Illahee State Park Pier, Seacrest Pier, Waterman Pier, Des Moines Pier, Les Davis Pier, Point Defiance Dock and Redondo Pier.
Also note that the Agate Pass Area in Area 10 remains open daily through March 31 for catch-and-release fly fishing only, and then is closed beginning April 1. Commencement Bay in Area 11 east of a line from Cliff House Restaurant to the Sperry Ocean Dock line is also closed to salmon fishing.
While blackmouth anglers now have to wait a bit longer to get on the water this season, for those suffering from a bout of winter cabin fever, you can fish right now for salmon in Area 13 (South Puget Sound), which
is open daily through June 30. The daily limit is two salmon. The Chinook minimum size is 22 inches. All other salmon species have no minimum size limit. Release chum, wild coho and wild Chinook. Anglers may fish with a two-pole endorsement. The Toliva Shoal Area is open for salmon fishing from May 1 through June 15 only.
For weekly updates on the status of all these fisheries, refer to WDFW’s webpage at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/ reports/creel/seasonal#ps-winterchinook. Anglers should regularly check for updates on WDFW website at wdfw.wa.gov.
STRATEGIES FOR WINTER SALMON FISHING
One factor that will make or break your day on the water in late winter and early spring is the weather. Watch the 14-day marine and weather forecast and then monitor it day by day to avoid those windy and stormy periods. Nothing is guaranteed, but the April timeframe usually provides better weather
FISHING
days. Once on the water it is wise to pay close attention as well because there’s nothing worse than being caught in an unexpected storm.
Winter Chinook tend to spend their entire lives in the waters of Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca, gorging on baitfish – herring, anchovies and candlefish. This means keeping a close eye on your fishfinder for schools of baitfish. Developing a
for blackmouth, and he says the key is
better understanding of where baitfish are present during certain times of the year will also likely boost your catch ratio immensely. More often than not, these schools of baitfish are hunkered right off the bottom, so keeping your presentation in this vicinity will up the ante on success.
Familiarizing yourself on where to fish during an incoming or outgoing tide is key, and unlike summer, being
out at the crack of dawn isn’t really necessary. These Chinook are a little more predictable and knowing where the “bite” occurs at a certain time of the day during a specific tide change means it’s almost likely those fish will do the same the following day.
Throughout Puget Sound, there are sharp points of land where the tidal influence collides head on with steep dropoffs that oftentimes are just mere yards from the shoreline. The majority of the dropoffs can’t be found by simply gazing along the water’s surface, so this is where a fishfinder and a bathymetric map are essential.
Be sure to study tidal movements and view topographic maps to find out where dropoffs, ledges and underwater structures are located. This could raise the bar and lead you to areas where the salmon are congregating. Also, keeping tabs of what anglers in nearby boats are doing and even asking them for tips –fishermen are usually friendly – could provide benefits in the long run.
WHERE TO FISH
Starting with currently open waters, Area 13, some anglers are quietly finding off-and-on catches of winter hatchery-marked Chinook. Try Gibson Point and Point Fosdick, Fox Point in Hale Passage, the northwest corner of the Sand Spit, Toy Point and the Concrete Dock/Fox Island Fishing Pier. Other go-to spots are Nisqually Flats, Dover Point near Zangle Cove, Itsami Ledge and Johnson Point.
Once the other three marine areas officially open, then your top winter Chinook choices are far and wide.
In Area 5, first try the Caves area, located just outside the breakwater from the resort docks, and work your way westward along the gently sloping sandy bottom. It is best fished on an outgoing tide at depths of 90 to 175 feet. The fish tend to sit right around the bottom picking off candlefish hunkered down in the sand. Other areas to target are Eagle Bay to Kydaka Point, Clallam Bay and from the Slip Point buoy eastward toward Mussolini
Seattle-based charter skipper Justin Wong is a huge fan of mooching
all about your herring’s spin. (MARK YUASA)
OREGON
CULVER
Culver Marine (541) 546-3354 www.culvermarine.com
FLORENCE Y Marina (541) 590-3313 www.ymarinaboats.com
PORTLAND
Sportcraft Marina, Inc. (503) 656-6484 www.sportcraftmarina.com
WASHINGTON
CHINOOK
Chinook Marine Repair, Inc. (800) 457-9459 (360) 777-8361 www.chinookmarinerepair.com
MOUNT VERNON
Tom-n-Jerry’s Boat Center, Inc. (360) 466-9955 www.tomnjerrys.net
TACOMA
Tacoma Boat Sales & Service
(253) 301-4013 www.tacomaboatsales.com
Rock, the Coal Mine and Slide areas. April can be a good period to find some nice-size Chinook at Sekiu as fish move out of Puget Sound and a few migratory fish also begin to poke their noses into the western Strait. Another key indicator is just across the international border in British Columbia. Anglers out of Sooke, Victoria and northwest of the San Juan Islands have been finding decent action all winter long. When the salmon bite slows down at Sekiu you can always find bottomfishing options too.
In Area 10, try Jefferson Head, Kingston, Richmond Beach, Shilshole Bay, Elliott Bay, Allen Bank near Blake Island, Southworth and the northern tip of Vashon Island.
In Area 11, head to the Clay Banks, Slag Pile and Owen Beach off Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, the “flats area” off Gig Harbor, Point Dalco, Quartermaster Harbor and both sides of the southern part of Vashon Island.
TOP WINTER CHINOOK FISHING TACTICS
There are three techniques – trolling, drift mooching and jigging – that are mainly utilized by anglers to catch winter Chinook.
The most popular is downrigger trolling, which allows you to cover a lot of ground, especially in the winter when baitfish schools can be scarce. Use plastic squids, spoons, plugs, herring-style spin baits or a cut-plug or whole herring along with a flasher or dodger that’s set about 8 to 20 feet behind a 10- to 15-pound downrigger lead ball. Make sure your lead ball is bouncing right off or near the bottom. Make sure to add some herring, anise or shrimp scent to your presentation.
Drift or motor mooching with a cutplug or whole herring or candlefish is another effective old-school way to catch winter Chinook. Feeling that initial moment when a salmon grabs your bait is something you can’t replicate with a technique like downrigger trolling.
What is mooching, you ask?
The term “mooching” is a fishing
COMMISSION BUYS SEKIU RESORT’S RAMPS, DOCKS
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission last month approved buying the boat ramps and parking area of a Sekiu fishing resort, securing public access to the west-central Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Acquiring the launch facilities of what was formerly known as Olson’s Resort and today is Mason’s Olson Resort has long been a goal of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, as the ramps are the only put-in for a 62-nautical-mile stretch of salmon-, halibut- and lingcod-rich waters.
The $2.43 million acquisition was approved on a 6-1 vote, and the funds, which have already been appropriated and can’t be rescinded or reappropriated, come from a state Recreation and Conservation Office Boating Facility Program grant and the 2024 Capital Budget.
Commissioner John Lehmkuhl of Wenatchee made the motion to buy the 2 acres, recalling that he’d fished out of the marina in the past and that acquiring it fulfilled WDFW’s mandate to maximize recreational opportunities. He was seconded by Commissioner Jim Anderson of Buckley, who called the site “tremendously valuable” and said it was a real concern anytime to
potentially lose access to the water.
Also voting in favor were Chair Barbara Baker of Olympia and Commissioners Steven Parker of Yakima, Woody Myers of Spokane and Lorna Smith of Port Townsend.
The no vote was Commissioner Melanie Rowland of Twisp who wasn’t comfortable spending the money at a time of “incredible” budget issues for the state and WDFW.
“We appreciate it a ton at a time of state budget challenges,” said Larry Phillips of the American Sportfishing Association, about the acquisition. He noted it’s the only boat access between Neah Bay to the west and Port Angeles to the east.
Phillips, who is also a former WDFW regional manager, termed the deal a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and pointed to the ramp’s solid economic benefits for the area, some $13 million generated by tens of thousands of angler trips.
According to WDFW, it will cost an estimated $200,000 annually to maintain and operate the Sekiu ramps and parking area. That will include a .75 full-time equivalent staffer. The agency calls the site “the oldest continuously operating fishing access in Washington” and says that it is usable at any tide state. –NWS
A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife map outlines the part of Mason’s Olson Resort (red) in Sekiu acquired last month by the Fish and Wildlife Commission for $2.43 million. (WDFW)
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Built for the toughest jobs, the 18-foot Lowe® Roughneck 1860 Tiller fishing, hunting, and work boat was designed with lasting durability in mind. The roomy cockpit, combined with elevated fore and aft decks, makes it ideal for jobs as diverse as bass fishing, trolling, dock work, or duck hunting. The commercial-grade, all-welded hull with a transom and variable deadrise ensures top performance balanced by maximum stability.
FISHING
technique that evolved more than 100-plus years ago on Elliott Bay. In the early 1900s, first-generation Japanese American anglers casting from piers discovered a new technique consisting of a long bamboo cane rod attached to a simple levelwind reel. In order to make long casts they used raw silkworm-gut fishing line attached to a small banana weight hooked onto a 6- to 8-foot leader. Anglers would then retrieve their herring by stripping in line to give it that enticing spin.
Shortly thereafter mooching gained attention from boat anglers who’d anchor in deep, flowing water and allow the tidal movement to get the bait to spin. It was also an effective tool from a slowly rowed or drifting boat and the method dubbed “spinning” eventually became known as “mooching.”
The modern-day mooching technique involves using a cut-plug or whole herring with a quick, tight spin and slowly working it up and down the entire water column.
In the words of Justin Wong, owner-operator of Cut Plug Charters (seattlesalmonfishing.com) in Seattle, one of the premier moochers in Puget Sound, “If your herring isn’t spinning, then you’re not winning.”
There is an art to making a cutplug herring spin correctly and many claim a tight spinning bait with a lot of flash will get the fish to hit more times than not. I stick to cutting the head off the herring at a 40- to 45-degree – or slightly less – angle both vertically and horizontally.
Your herring should be rigged on a 6- to 8-foot leader tied to tandem 2/0 or 3/0 sticky-sharp barbless hooks attached to a 3- to 6-ounce banana weight. The weight size depends on the wind and current, but keeping a 45-degree line angle is critical.
A common angler mistake is lowering a bait straight down too rapidly from the rod tip, which allows the sinker to fall right on top of it. This causes the bait to spin over the mainline and get tangled up. In order
to avoid it, simply cast away from the boat so the bait lands in a straight line beyond the sinker, then let out the line steadily. Figuring this out takes time but keeps you from having to untangle line when the action is happening. When casting make sure your bait isn’t hitting the water, as this will oftentimes rip or tear the herring right off the hooks, rendering it totally useless on the way down.
Those who mooch will often back up their boat to keep the right line angle, especially when battling wind or tidal current.
When you initially feel a salmon biting your bait, keep reeling up but never set the hook right away. Oftentimes, the fish will simply swipe at the bait before taking it and by reeling up ever so slightly, you’ll give the fish time to chase it and then eventually bite or eat it.
There are times when a salmon will swallow your bait and then turn and swim away, pulling down hard on your rod. Other times you’ll feel a light peck, which is the fish swimming up or laterally with your bait, so don’t wait for a pulldown because it usually doesn’t happen. Once you detect a peck for a few seconds, then reel down and don’t yank. It’s all about timing.
Jigging is a technique that is catching on fast with many local salmon anglers. With jigging make sure you have the proper fishing rod, and it should have a stout, stiff backbone and soft, sensitive tip. Then make sure your reel is spooled up with 30- to 50-pound braided line, which has less
stretch than a monofilament line.
There are a wide range of metal jigs to choose from, but matching the color with the baitfish is top of the list in the decision-making process. My favorites include pearl-white, glow, green-nickel, blue-pearl or blue-gold patterns. A Chinook bite is more reactive, so whatever flashes in front of them will likely get them to chomp it. Most store-bought jigs come with a treble hook, and they’re illegal for salmon in Marine Areas 1 to 13. Only single-pointed barbless hooks and one line with up to two hooks may be used. Unlike mooching, where you’ve got some angle on your line, with jigging keep your line as straight up and down as possible. Once you’ve reached the right depth, raise the rod tip up to about 10 o’clock and then drop it back down until the tip hits the surface of the water, causing the jig to flutter. Some quick jerks up and down from time to time can also entice a salmon to grab it, as this imitates an injured baitfish.
How heavy of a jig you use depends on how fast you’re drifting or the amount of tidal current. During slack water or on calm days you can start off using a 2- to 3-ounce jig, but switch to a 4- to 6-ounce jig if you see your line angle changing or back up the boat to stay vertical. NS
Editor’s note: Mark Yuasa is a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife communications manager. He also was the outdoor reporter at The Seattle Times for 28 years.
Given the popularity of the blackmouth fishery, the sun rise may rise and set on the Salish Sea’s 2025 season before the scheduled end of fishing on April 30. (MARK YUASA)
The LeeLock magnum Skeg #LMS-04 is made for Minnkota Instinct motors. It will drastically improve the steering performance and straight line travel of your bow-mounted motor. Not only does this Skeg improve your motor’s performance, it also makes it much more efficient. Your batteries will run longer on a charge. A LeeLock Skeg is a vital part of your trolling motor system. This oversized skeg is made of 5052 aluminum. The size is 8 3/4 inches high by 10 inches wide and it’s 3/16 inches thick. It comes with clear PVC coated stainless steel hose clamps.
The Heavy-Duty Quick Change Base #QB-03 is like the standard Quick Change Base, but beefed up to provide a wider footprint. This provides a more secure mount. Like the standard Quick Change Base, the Heavy-Duty base allows you to easily and quickly switch between the #CRN-01 Columbia River Anchor Nest, any of the 3 Bow Mount Trolling Motor Mounts or the #BL-01 LeeLock Ladder. Simply remove the pin and slide an accessory out and slide another accessory in and replace the pin. The Heavy-Duty Quick Change base mounts to almost any power boat as long as the footprint fits on the bow area of the boat. It has 7 5/16 inch mounting holes. The Heavy-Duty Quick Change Base is handmade of aluminum. Go to LeeLock.com to order the Base alone or to add the CRN-01 Columbia River Quick Change Anchor Nest, the three Bow Mount Trolling Motor Mounts, or the LeeLock Ladder to your order.
Hangin’ With A Springer High-liner
By MD Johnson
“
He’s a highliner."
That’s the phrase my nextdoor neighbor, a tremendous fisherman in his own right, used to describe a fellow angler from up the valley. My confusion must have been OUTDOORS MD
all too apparent.
“A high-liner,” he repeated. “You know, one of those guys who could make his own puddle in the middle of the street and catch a fish out of it. Doesn’t matter the day or the tide or whatever. High-liners catch fish when no one else is catching anything but a cold.”
Then, as old guys are wont to do, he turned and wandered off.
High-liners. Charlie’s use of the phrase had me immediately thinking of two things. One, spring Chinook. And two, Rich Casapulla, the so-called high-liner of whom Charlie spoke.
LET ME BACK up a minute. As a Midwesterner by birth, I know little about spring Chinook. You want to talk crappies or bluegills, walleye or channel cats, I’m all about those what y’all call spinyrays, but springers? What I do know from having listened to those who have gone out day after day after frigid day starting in late February and have returned to the dock, cold, hungry, tired and fishless, is that springers are somewhat a mystery. An unavoidable frustration. A bite per week. Every 10 days. That’s a long time between anything even resembling excitement. But that, I’m told by many, is springer fishing.
And then there’s Richard Casapulla. Said high-liner. A New Jersey native, where he and his brother were employed as by-hand pinsetters at the local bowling alley – 10 cents a game they were paid, he told me. He joined the U.S. Army in 1958 stationed near Spokane, returned to Jersey after his military stint and married a wonderful lady, Sharon, who’s most understanding of a man’s need to fish every single day of the season, in ’63, and moved to Scappoose, Oregon, in ’67. Round about ’96, though “might have been ’97,” he tells me, he and his family relocated to Southwest Washington’s Elochoman Valley, where he’s been ever since.
It’s impossible, I’m sure, to even venture a guess as to how many days Casapulla has fished for kings, both spring and fall, over the past 58 years. Tillamook Bay. The whole of the Oregon Coast. Buoy 10. The Clifton Channel. Cathlamet. The mouth of the Kalama. The Willamette. Close the season from Cathlamet downriver, and he’ll go up. How far? As far as he has to to find open water and the possibility, however remote, that he might get to see that rod in the holder bounce. Day after day. After day. You know the type, or you should.
I introduce Casapulla in part selfishly. Wanting to know more about this enigma known as the springer, I figured it best to talk to someone skilled in the ways of these mysterious anadromous silver fish. And in doing so, I reckon I might pass along some
The secret to catching Lower Columbia spring Chinook? If you’re Richard Casapulla of the Elochoman Valley, it’s all about persistence and putting in your time. (RICHARD CASAPULLA)
Smokercraft Sunchaser Pontoon
Smokercraft Sunchaser Pontoon Alumaweld Stryker
Alumaweld Stryker X202
COLUMN
information that other springer hopefuls might find useful.
BECAUSE I’M NOT a boat guy, I asked Casapulla a simple question: Do you need a boat to catch springers? “You don’t need a boat,” he told me, “but it sure as hell helps matters.”
Casapulla, as the story goes, got his start springer fishing in ’67 from the bank at Sauvie Island.
“It was pretty damn slow,” he said. “We only saw two or three fish caught. But then one of my neighbors had a boat and was fishing around Coon Island (in the Willamette), and asked me to go with him. First time out, I caught a 32-pounder.”
But, and despite Casapulla’s first springer coming from a boat, it is indeed possible to be successful plunking from the bank during March and April. Where? Look for the vehicles parked alongside the road at, say, the Cowlitz/Wahkiakum County line. Sauvie Island. Willow Grove on the edge
of Longview. Vancouver’s Frenchman’s Bar. Some Oregon beaches on the Lower Columbia – Prescott, Willow Bar, Dibblee, Jones. Meldrum Bar near Oregon City.
Plunking for springers isn’t too far removed, I’ve learned, from plunking for late May and June steelhead on the Lower Columbia. An 8-foot-6 Okuma Celilo casting rod paired with an Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6000-series baitcaster filled with 40-pound braid. Tie the mainline to a quality three-way swivel, and a 4-foot, 25-pound monofilament leader to a size 0 –or a smaller size 2 or 4, if you prefer – Spin-NGlo, two 5mm beads and a 3/0 to 5/0 hook (barbless if you’re fishing the Columbia). Some will run a beadchain at the head of the leader to the three-way to cut down on line twist. Below, a 24-inch, 10- to 14-pound-test mono dropper line and a weight – or a rock wrapped in electrical tape is cheaper! – of a size appropriate to hold on the river bottom.
or
1.54 million colors and color combinations to choose from, and if you ask 1,000 springer fanatics – and it doesn’t matter if you’re talking a Spin-N-Glo, Kwikfish, SpinFish or what have you – you’re going to get 1,000 different responses. Me? I’m partial to chartreuse, orange and pink, and combinations thereof. White wings. Black wings. Metallic wings. Color me guilty. I use primarily what appeals to me; whether or not it appeals to that springer swimming upriver, I reckon only trial and error will confirm or disprove that decision. And a minimum of two beads between the SpinN-Glo and the hook, I’ve been taught. The beads 1) act like bearings, allowing the SpinN-Glo to turn freely, and 2) provide a bit of distance between the lure, e.g., the Spin-NGlo, and the business end of the hook, thus increasing the likelihood of a good hookset.
A couple of notes here. Spin-N-Glo color is a tough decision, as there are roughly
Three more plunking tidbits I might throw into the mix here, and these learned simply by observation or by me asking a complete stranger on some obscure riverbank, “Why the hell are you doing that?” First, a short piece (1.5 inches) of surgical tubing fit over the horizontal, or leader/ Spin-N-Glo, eye of your three-way will help reduce the odds your leader wraps around the weight dropper or lead line. Just run your leader through the tubing, tie and then push the tubing onto the horizontal eye. Second, and before tying your braided mainline onto the uppermost three-way swivel, run the tag through a bright size 4 (¾-inch) Lil’ Corky and then onto your swivel. This helps tremendously in answering the question, “Where in the hell is my line?”
And finally, don’t be shy about asking others what they’re doing once, that is, you’ve established yourself as both a regular at a particularly plunking spot and a decent human being. Those criteria met, I won’t hesitate to ask others how (or why) they do the things they do when it comes to plunking for springers. Not once, knock on wood, have I had some guy run me off; rather, I’ve become privy to some pretty neat techniques simply by asking.
And while I see 98 percent of plunkers running double rigs, i.e., two three-ways, leaders and Spin-N-Glos, one above the other, I use one because it greatly decreases tangles, frustrations and all around angry
Plunking allows the boatless to try and catch the year’s first salmon. Whether pounding a sand spike into beaches along the Columbia, Willamette, Cowlitz
other rivers, many anglers include a Spin-N-Glo or two in their setup. (BEN HOWARD)
COLUMN
and/or hostile feelings toward fishing tackle in general; however, to each his or her own.
LIKE MOST HIGH-LINERS, Casapulla impresses me with his abilities on the water. Sure, it helps that my wife and I dearly love him and Sharon, but when it comes to catching fish, springers in particular, the man truly knows the business. Bank or boat, it doesn’t matter. I envy good sticks when it comes to salmon and steelhead anglers, I told him. They’re the Cameron Hanes of the Northwest fishing world. But how did this 84-year-old former pinsetter earn the title of high-liner?
“I’ve done it a long time,” Casapulla said humbly. “I’m pretty persistent. I put a lot of time in out there. I’ve seen guys their first time out catch a (spring) fish. I used to be a daylight-to-darker. I can’t handle those hours anymore. Hell [he laughs], I can’t get anyone to stay out there with me.”
And that’s the key, apparently, when it comes to being a high-liner. A springer high-liner, anyway. Staying out there. NS
This year’s overall forecast of 217,500 springers back to the mouth of the Columbia is very close to the 10-year average of actual returns. The fish represent a chance for anglers who don’t chase steelhead or ice fish a chance to break out of their winter torpor, head afield and, if they’re lucky like Casapulla was last April, bring home the tastiest of Chinook. (RICHARD CASAPULLA)
Kings Start To Steal Steelie Thunder In March
Your monthly Oregon fishing outlook provided by
The Guide’s Forecast.
By Bob Rees
Oregon’s sportfisheries start to percolate in March, making the month an opportunistic time for anglers to hit the water throughout the state.
Coastal steelhead fisheries are still well within peak period, and with a robust return of three-salt fish evident in this year’s catches, the opportunity for attaining the lifetime benchmark of a 20-pound steelhead is alive and well. And with the successful broodstock programs on the Wilson, Nestucca, Siletz, Alsea and North Fork Nehalem, a hatchery “20” is also a possibility.
With steelhead becoming more territorial as they close in on their spawning season, they become more receptive to plugs, spoons and spinners. Those strategies fare better in lower flows, which become increasingly more likely in the month of March.
Of course, wild steelhead will grace nearly every Westside stream, giving anglers the chance to get away from consumptive-option streams that often harbor larger numbers of boats and bank anglers. Depending on water levels, steelheaders will utilize bobberdoggin’ strategies with bait or soft beads, bobbers and jigs or simply driftfishing with bait as common techniques for these unique fish.
Coastal rivers will attract most of the attention, but don’t overlook inland options, as the Sandy, Clackamas and tributaries above Willamette Falls will
also have great returns of wild
well into March this
FRONT AND CENTER on the minds of many metro anglers, however, are spring Chinook. Now is when the first meaningful catches start to
occur on the Willamette River, with the mainstem Columbia expected to give up a few “dark-chinned” Chinook as well. Dark-chinned springers are most often destined for the upper Columbia, making them unparalleled in flavor and texture.
Even as winter steelheading remains a viable opportunity on the Oregon Coast and Willamette Valley, anglers will be increasingly turning their focus to spring Chinook on the Lower Columbia. Author Bob Rees and buddy Paul intercepted this one out of Westport on the big river. (BOB REES)
fish
year.
FISHING
The Willamette “snow-bellies” are lighter fleshed but still highly desired and often average larger in size.
Trollers will start working the Multnomah Channel with small, green-label-sized herring behind inline flashers, while mainstem Columbia fishers will often anchor up and run plugs, at least on the outgoing tide. The Portland Harbor up through the Milwaukie area will also start seeing larger numbers of trollers. They often plan their effort around the lower Willamette River’s high tide. It’s best to fish two hours before high tide and one hour after.
Regulations vary by waterbody, so be sure to check them carefully before venturing out. Two rods are again allowed on the Willamette below the falls and its slough starting March 1, as long as you have the correct endorsements.
UNBEKNOWNST TO
OUR skewed salmon and steelhead anglers, trout fishing draws the largest crowds to Oregon’s lakes and reservoir systems. With Oregon’s spring break the last week in March, stocking trucks will be bringing hundreds of thousands of trout to those water bodies for anxious anglers, young and old, to catch. A robust stocking schedule is already underway. You can view what bodies of water are scheduled for stocking from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website (myodfw.com/fishing).
Early-season stocking hits lower elevation lakes in the Willamette Valley and along the coast, with higher elevation lakes, largely in Central Oregon, set to fish after iceoff closer to May and June.
Bottomfishing remains a strong option as many coastal charter operations start to gear up. Although the five-fish bag limit has dropped to four until the summer, anglers can still retain two lingcod if they get lucky. The action is typically pretty good this month; we just need the weather to cooperate.
Many commercial crabbers pack up their gear, but effort can still remain robust as long as the price remains high. Estuary crabbing will remain challenging, but a strong minus tide series towards the end of the month should produce good clam digging if the surf isn’t pounding too hard.
And finally, smallmouth in the Columbia Gorge and John Day River start to stir. Although quantity isn’t high, quality is, as some of the year’s biggest bass are caught at this time. NS
Editor’s note: For more information, visit TheGuidesForecast.com.
Well in excess of 200,000 legal, trophy and broodstock trout will be released into lakes and ponds across Oregon in March alone, making for much surer bites than springers or winter-runs for anglers. Rhonna Schnell trolled up this rainbow a couple seasons back at Haystack Reservoir. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
A Woman’s Place Is On The River, Full Stop
Tips for thriving in a male-dominated sport.
By Sharon Trammell
That women fish seems to be an odd phenomenon to some men who fish. I don’t know why, considering that our ancestors relied on meat, hunted or fished, regardless of who caught it. If we look at Native American tribes, we find that women definitely participated historically. Whether or not this was a maledominated activity at one time, the fact, hard as it may be for some men to grasp, is that we women enjoy – and sometimes actually excel at – angling!
Although some would consider this attitude a gender issue, I tend to see it as more of a human issue. As a woman who fishes, and fishes with her kids, often alone, I have experienced it all, and more. I have been discriminated against more than once, both in the outdoor community and the indoor community (i.e., work life, relationships, etc.). I have been talked down to, told that I wasn’t welcome on the river, made fun of, blocked online and had oaring versus rowing mansplained to me in an online group where a bunch of overgrown little boys felt insecure about me, a blonde in her 20s, catching a bigger fish than them while I was also learning to row (or should I call it oaring so that they can do it all over again?).
HOWEVER, IT ALL started long before I got into fishing. I was raised by a man who believed that women weren’t to have an independent place in the world. I was told that a woman’s place is at home, raising the kids and supporting her husband no matter how he treats her. I married a man who believed this and controlled how I lived my life. Later on, I found out that treatment like that was abuse, and actually not normal treatment from a man (or any partner, regardless of gender!). I decided to write a
Sharon Trammell has experienced a lot of condescension both on and off the water as she’s navigated becoming a successful female angler in a male-dominated sport. (GRANTSNWGUIDESERVICE.COM)
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book about it after we split. The book offended people, too, by the way.
It spurred me to write a second book, where in part I explained that women, in early history, were Greek goddesses, held highly powerful and influential positions in government in their cultures, and that back then people in general were governed by love and held one another, regardless of gender, to high standards that were based in kindness and equality. Yup, we have backslid a long way. However, the outdoor community and fishing have helped me to bring back my inner goddess as I have healed, written and observed a lot along the way.
What I just shared isn’t about men. It represents humanity, as I stated
before. While some men put down women who fish, others lift them up. Some men prefer to protect the women who dare to tread in a maledominated hobby. Some actually stick up for these women and believe that we have an equal place in the outdoor community. Men like this are generally high-value individuals who respect everyone and are highly respected in their communities because of this. This is why I say that the issue of discrimination in the outdoor community, and any other, has more to do with humans in general than any gender.
That being said, I want to dive in a little deeper and share some of the things I have experienced, as well as offer some tips for female anglers
spots and etiquette. This really is a big one. If you don’t know etiquette, people aren’t likely to be nice to you. They don’t always remember that they had to start somewhere too. If you don’t know what you’re doing, people will make fun of you. If you’re a woman who doesn’t know what she is doing, people will make fun of you twice. And if you are a single woman without a man by your side to defend you, they’ll make fun of you three times – you get the point. Ask, talk to people and be polite, but hold your
Some of the bad behavior directed her way has occurred while Trammell has been teaching her children, including her daughter, here with her first fall Chinook, how to fish. (SHARON TRAMMELL)
FISHING
head up. You have as much right to be there as anyone else.
Now, let’s talk weirdos. As a single woman, one thing I often get is many men who are more than eager to offer me a spot on their boat in hopes that I will recognize it is definitely a date, and after one or two more,
“Fishing has taught me a lot about firm boundaries. It taught me to sniff out BS from a mile away. It taught me to discern good people from bad people, and this skill has translated to my life as a business owner and author,” writes Trammell. (SHARON TRAMMELL)
kindness of his heart – just kidding, he also hopes it turns into more.
That is how prevalent men like this are in the outdoor community. You might be thinking, maybe it wouldn’t happen so much if I had a partner to fish with. I’m not sure, because I think that, again, unevolved people will always try to do unevolved things, regardless of someone’s relationship status.
OK, NOW LET’S talk about social media. Sigh. One time, I remember telling someone that it was a huge goal of mine to catch a steelhead on a coastal river and take a pic in a red bikini, proving that I could do what the AI-generated or edited models on tropical oceans did with warmwater fish. I thought that to do that in the Pacific Northwest, as someone who was real and had worked really hard in the gym to have the body I wanted, would be the ultimate accomplishment. Although I did in fact catch a coho and recreate that picture in my red bikini later that year on a sled on the Columbia, the result was just more weirdos hitting on me. I was even told once that someone assumed my Instagram to be a bot account, presumably because it was too good to be true.
they expect return payment for the fishing lesson. Another is the guide, YouTuber or semi-professional who wants to exchange a free trip for pictures of a pretty girl who can help his social media account go viral. Still another, the man who simply wants to offer a seat on his boat out of the
Just kidding, but this did teach me something. Even well-meaning women who aren’t loose with their bodies at all have to be careful with what we put on our social media. The women who often post pictures like this quickly get a reputation. While I do believe some women are on there simply to find hookups in exchange for a boat ride and lots of followers, I think many more just don’t realize that posting stuff like this gives them that reputation. Again, it’s likely due to that skewed perspective, but we have to act according to how we want to be treated as women.
Since realizing this, I rarely even post bikini pictures at all. However, this is up to each of us at the end of the day. For me, as a business owner, I choose to post only what comes
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from the heart and let the right people find me for the right reasons.
FOR WOMEN ANGLERS who are just getting into fishing, I have compiled a few more tips that may very well help you develop your place in the world of angling.
Have thick skin: People will say things, make judgments or be rude no matter what you do, say, post, think or even don’t do.
Develop strong boundaries: Understand clearly what these are and how, even if you want to learn to fish, you have to uphold these in order to stay safe in the outdoor community. In other words, don’t suck it up and go on a weirdo’s boat just to learn.
Fish with the best: If you are going to fish with someone, book a trip with a reputable guide. You will learn a lot and it will actually be good advice. More importantly, the good ones will
never allow a loser to mansplain, hit on you or make fun of you while on their boat.
Use learning opportunities: Ask questions of other bank anglers about how they are doing it. Pay close attention to their setups, who is casting when, what kind of bait they are running and who is catching fish.
Etiquette first: Remember, if you are new to a spot and don’t know the etiquette, ask! People will get more annoyed and make fun of you for not asking, but if you just tell them you are new and you WANT to learn so you can be polite to others and share the spot, they will show you and often you may even make a new friend.
Have thick skin: Oh wait, I’ve already mentioned that. But, yeah, it’s that important.
Fish with confidence: Be OK with fishing alone for a while. If you are worried about safety, get a concealed carry permit and go armed. Or learn
jiu-jitsu or other self-defense skills.
WITH ALL THIS being said, I believe that angling for the traditional woman is about a lot more than catching fish. It is a chance to evolve on a deep level. For me, the experience of fishing has taught me a lot about firm boundaries. It taught me to sniff out BS from a mile away. It taught me to discern good people from bad people, and this skill has translated to my life as a business owner and author. It has taught me to give people grace, to not take things personally and to know who I am on a deep level.
The nastiness has taught me to appreciate the kindness of those whom I have connected with and who respect me and protect me on the river. At the end of the day, this incredible opportunity to be out on the water is about coming back to the self. It is about choosing ourselves, healing and raising our own vibrations. Tight lines. NS
days
and
and
to
off – a
Let’s Go Coastal!
Razor clam digs. Casting for surfperch. The bottomfish opener. Family and couple’s fun – Long Beach Peninsula and Westport serve up spring combo ops aplenty.
By Jeff Holmes
Washington’s coastal towns get sleepy in the winter unless you’re a commercial crab fisherman, but there are continual influxes of visitors as razor clam openers beckon folks of all
ages to the beach. They come to the beach in the late afternoon and early evenings a couple hours in advance of the announced low-tide digs in hopes of digging their clams before sunset enshrouds the beaches in darkness, but also come equipped for the dark with lanterns to search for
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“shows” in the sand. Shows are little dimples that appear on the sand’s surface “showing” the presence of a clam and an opportunity to dig and add it to a mesh clam bag in pursuit of what are often easy limits of 15 big, tasty razors.
Razor clams represent the single best, easiest, most accessible and lucrative harvest opportunity in the state of Washington, and opportunities generally stretch from late September through early May. I engage in digging throughout this time frame as my schedule allows, but by far my favorite period to visit the beach is spring when the timing of digs (wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/ shellfishing-regulations/razor-clams) flips from evening to early morning. At the same time, ocean fishing opportunities open up with the start of lingcod and rockfish season on March’s second Saturday, this year March 8. Early spring brings great big-tent ocean seafood gathering and beach recreation opportunities before the big crowds of late spring and summer descend on 1) the Port of Ilwaco and nearby digging on the Long Beach Peninsula and 2) Westport and nearby Twin Harbors razor clam beaches.
Late March and April are also prime time to break the grip of winter cold and lethargy with a family or couple’s trip to the beach to enjoy offseason lodging, good restaurants (especially on the Long Beach Peninsula), sightseeing and beachcombing. Potential exists to make the whole family happy and to return home with a cooler full of razors and surfperch from beaches and rockfish and lingcod from charter or private boat angling in the nearshore ocean environment, when the fickle winds of March and April allow safe fishing.
THERE SIMPLY IS no better harvest opportunity in Washington than razor clams. Would I rather have a bull elk or a big buck or a 30-pound
As the
lengthen
warm
the rains begin
slack
little bit, anyway! – the Washington Coast and its rich razor clam digging opportunities beckon anew, but the shellfish are hardly the only reason to visit the sands and cities of the Long Beach Peninsula and Westport area. (JEFF HOLMES)
FISHING
king than 15 razors? Yes. But I can’t take a wife and kid and extended family of varying physical levels out and expect to harvest something of this caliber, nor can any one individual on a regular basis. But I can take them to the beach and expect them all to dig their 15 razors in a chill environment against the backdrop of the mighty Pacific Ocean. Indeed, clam totals start to stack up quickly when you take friends and family to the beach. For example, I took four family members clamming a couple years ago, and after three days of digs, we had a whopping 225 razor clams. That’s … a lot. Even 15 clams is a great score, and it’s not hard to gear up, nor expensive, and nor does a dig take up close to a whole day. If you’ve been clamming, you know it’s fun and usually quite easy and that razors are delicious and versatile table fare. If you’ve not gone yet and
have heard the hype, you should go and see for yourself that razor clamming is not hype. It’s awesome, and there is a very low barrier for entry into the sport. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife does a fantastic job of managing our clam stocks and also offers comprehensive online resources for everything from identifying beaches and dig days to best digging strategies and equipment, and the agency pairs all that with a bunch of really good recipes, many of which I have tried or riffed off of.
WDFW’s “clam gun versus clam shovel” promotion is predictably lame, but it does frame the two viable approaches to digging. While less trivial than Miller Lite’s old “tastes great–less filling” debate, I can save newcomers the time of engaging in the controversy: Get clam guns. For experienced diggers, shovels
can be faster and more efficient, for sure, and I now see that, having dug many hundreds. I understand how clams travel, how fast they are, how they travel in sand of varying water saturation, etc. I can now excavate a clam quickly using a shovel whereas I would have hack it to death or lose it altogether while I was still learning the ropes. Oh, and you do not want to crack or otherwise crush your clams. Keeping them unbroken and alive and healthy until you clean them is essential to their longevity and deliciousness.
But guns are the best starting point. Along with a gun, get a mesh clam sack, which each digger must possess while digging, along with their license. This is virtually all that is needed besides clothing. I have dug clams in cotton clothes (not recommended), fleece (meh), rain gear (better) and waders (best). Just know you’re gonna get sandy, the ocean is roughly 50 degrees, and it can be rainy and cold or sunny and warmish, but it’ll probably be wet and chilly. The activity of digging typically keeps folks warm on wet, windy, rainy days, but be ready to dress into something comfortable and to warm up when done. Breakfast or dinner after a dig is often sublime.
ONCE YOU HAVE your clamming gear, accessing the beach by car or on foot from the many and easy-tofind beach accesses is the next step. Long Beach and Twin Harbors offer easy, driveable access, although Long Beach is definitely the biggest and most accessible stretch of sand. I’ve seen knuckleheads get stuck on both beaches, and it is essential to only drive on the hard-packed sand where the other vehicles are driving. Do not cut corners through deep sand when entering the beach from an access, and never drive anywhere close to the water or the zone of saturated sand. The tide is as reliable as reliable gets, and if you’re stuck, the tide will come back up. The ocean eats many vehicles every year that do not get
While this beach sign is meant to protect nesting shorebirds and other marine life, it serves as a caution that some parts of the beach are best avoided. Soft sands annually trap vehicles, and those that get stuck can become playthings for the surf unless they get a tow before high tide rolls in, so beware. (JEFF HOLMES)
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unstuck in time, and emergency services will often not prioritize your vehicle over emergencies on the mainland where knuckleheads did not get stuck on the beach. Frankly, if you monkey-see monkey-do and do what the vast majority of monkeys are doing, you’ll be fine. Assuming you can do what tens of thousands of families can accomplish in all manner of vehicles, you will access the beach easily and turn your thinking to digging.
You can find razors almost anywhere along the beach under the tideline, but not all stretches of beach are created equal. Slightly raised portions of beach often reveal the most densely populated clam beds. Another great indicator is to look for large concentrations of people digging successfully. This isn’t steelhead fishing or deer hunting; folks are not so possessive over their personal space, and clams aren’t spooked away by pressure like bucks of either species.
For newcomers, look for folks returning to their vehicle with full sacks of clams, for tons of dug holes and for groups of people on upraised portions of sand who are both digging and bending over to pick things up
and put them in mesh sacks. Those are clams. Go dig them.
There’s a learning curve to understanding how clams show and where on the beach they are showing and easy to nab, but that learning curve is part of the fun. Do not fixate on a certain latitude of beach; move closer or further from the surf to find clams actively showing. Sometimes you must go close to the water, sometimes not.
Speaking of, respect the water, even at low tides when digs occur. Never turn your back to the ocean. I have personally seen and once been hit by a sneaker wave, albeit not while clamming.
When you find a show, center your tubular gun on it but slightly off-center towards the ocean. Twothirds of the circle of the mouth of the gun should be on the ocean side of the show, the other third on the land side of the show. Quickly and gently wiggle and twist it down a couple of feet. Guns all have a pressure-release hole (a “carb”) that you must cover with a thumb or finger while swiftly twisting and pulling the gun out of the sand.
Once clear of the hole, release the carb and let the contents fall
onto hard beach sand next to the hole while simultaneously peeking in the hole. Sometimes the clam is in the sand you dump, sometimes it’s still in the hole. If it’s still in the hole, hit the beach and grab it – fast. They are faster than you’d imagine. Somedays and stages of the tide they are shallow, and other times they are deep. I have plucked them out of the surf without a shovel or gun, and I have laid on my side with my long arm buried all the way to my shoulder to grab them. Let the beach and clams tell you what to do, and focus on harvesting with a fury. It is intoxicating and very fun.
AS MENTIONED, MY party was once legally in possession of 225 clams. The thought of cleaning them all and foregoing fun with family was the only thing that ever drove me to have my clams cleaned and vacuumpacked professionally. You can find businesses and private individuals who will do this for you. I don’t mind cleaning clams and usually only dig enough so that I can eat them fresh, which is best. However, razors are also good when frozen while fresh and sufficiently protected via quality vacuum packing or using Saran Wrap
Chowder. Fritters. Dip. Pasta. Ceviche. Those are just some of the myriad preparations you can make with razor clams. Helpful videos on how to clean the shellfish can be found online. (JEFF HOLMES)
DESTINATION
Grays
HArbor, WA
Gateway to the pacific ocean & the Olympic Peninsula
FISHING
and freezer bags or Saran Wrap and butcher paper. I love frozen razors for chowder, clam dip and clam fritters.
You can find easy instructions online for cleaning clams and that’s how I learned. I save the necks and siphons for surfperch and crab bait, fry and stir-fry the delicate feet, and use the chopped-up bodies for many applications including chowder. Moreover, lots of rich clam broth emanates from the clams as you
clean them, and I use and reduce this flavorful brine for chowder and clam dip. Along with the aforementioned applications, I have made homemade Clamato from razors and my garden tomatoes and have both drunk it fresh and pressure canned it. It makes fantastic Bloody Caesar drinks I enjoy at the beach and at home. I also make razor-stuffed mushrooms; razor-stuffed lingcod, halibut and Chinook; razor clam white sauce and
spaghetti; razors and linguine; razor mac and cheese; and razor ceviche.
BUNDLING SEAFOOD GATHERING ops in one trip is a great joy as well as efficient harvesting. From March 8 through the month of April, rockfish and lingcod come available alongside clam digs, and some charter outfits start their trips in the early season. Call around to see who is getting a jumpstart on the season this year, but you should have no problem booking early seats. A decent number of days get canceled traditionally as the ocean is just starting to lie down after a winter of storms and turbulent tides, but there is annually plenty of fishing to be had in the early season.
Bottomfish are unpressured early on, and the fishing can be great, including for some large lingcod specimens that are still in shallow water after their winter spawn. The flesh quality of both lings and rockfish is at its firmest, whitest and tastiest during the early season, another incentive for fishing early.
One of the benefits of the last few evening razor clam digs of the year is the opportunity to clam and crab on the same day or essentially the same day. For example, you could do the evening dig on March 14 and then hit the ocean on a charter on the morning of March 15. Or on March 26, 27 and 28, you could fish the ocean in the morning and dig for razor clams in the evening.
When digs shift to morning low tides on March 29, another great option is to dig a limit, clean your clams and use the siphons and necks to catch surfperch off the beach in the exact place you just razor clammed. As the tide comes in, pinkfin surfperch raid the beaches to pick up scraps of clams, sand shrimp, worms and who knows what else. A medium-heavy steelhead combo capable of tossing 2 to 6 ounces of lead works wonderfully for perch, which are commonly 1 to 2 pounds. I like a chunk of lead at the very end of my line and two size 2 single hooks
One of this month’s razor clam dig series actually overlaps the opening of rockfish and lingcod season on the Washington Coast, making for an even richer potential haul of seafood delights. And when digs switch to mornings for the rest of the season, use clam necks from your harvest as bait for hungry surfperch as the tide comes up the same beach you just dug razors on. (ANGLERS EDGE SPORTFISHING)
DESTINATION Grays HArbor, WA
Gateway to the pacific ocean & the Olympic Peninsula
FISHING
spaced out and attached to my main line much like a dropshot rig. This makes it easy to feel the tap-tap-tap bites of perch and easy to set the hook. Doubles occur fairly often, especially if you hook one and let the rig sit for 10 to 20 seconds before reeling it in. Some dedicated perch anglers fish with long rods and soft tips specially designed for surf fishing, but I have always done well just using a 8.5- to 10.5-foot steelhead spinning combo.
There is no better bait than the freshly chopped or scissored tips of a razor clam neck. These rarely come
In addition to razor clams, bottomfish and surfperch, a trip to the coast is also a chance to load up on spring Chinook and steelhead bait in the form of plentiful sand, or ghost, shrimp. Reader Amanda Wiles and crew loaded up on the salmonid snacks during a spring 2023 dig.
(AMANDA WILES)
off a hook, and I have at times caught several fish without rebaiting. Carry a long stringer or a hands-free fish bag to hold your catch while fishing, and strongly consider wearing a personal flotation device and being extra wary of sneaker waves and the strong riptides and undertows that annually sweep people to their deaths on these beaches, including the father of a friend of mine many years ago. No fish is worth losing a life, and with some safety in mind, you can reduce or nearly eliminate the risk.
Doubling up on the same spot on
the beach with clams and perch feels very satisfying. The soft, sweet, white flesh of perch is excellent sauteed, poached, fried or in chowder. I like to remove guts and gills and make a rich fish stock with the perch as a base for my razor clam chowder. I’m a dork and call this Ocean Park Chowder, named after the town of Ocean Park, my favorite place to clam, surfperch fish and pick oysters on the northern Long Beach Peninsula.
ILWACO AND THE other towns on the Long Beach Peninsula are great places to visit with families. They feature shops, museums, attractions for kids, great restaurants, and more. Westport, while perhaps less geared toward tourism and more to fishing than Long Beach, similarly has plenty of attractions for families to explore on an early-spring vacation.
The razor clam beaches of the Long Beach Peninsula and the Twin Harbors razor clam beaches near Westport are also great places to watch the spring bird and whale migrations, to see seals in the surf hunting perch and to find all manners of different treasures washed up on the beach. I’ve seen dead humpback whales and sea lions, Kwikfish from the Columbia River, water bottles from Asia and tons of cool ocean critters. The beaches and nearby trails are also great for walking, riding bikes, running dogs, making sandcastles, grilling foods, enjoying beach fires, catching crabs on rod and reel, flying kites and generally enjoying a lot of diverse outdoor freedom at a time when the Northwest is starting to come out of its long winter.
Indeed, it’s time to go coastal. NS
SPRING RAZOR CLAM DATES
By the time this issue of the magazine reaches you, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife shellfish managers should have lined out more tentative spring razor clam dig dates for April and May, but here’s the schedule through April 3:
Noon-to-midnight low tide openers
March 1, 8-14, 26-28
Midnight-to-noon low tide openers
March 29-31, April 1-3
Note that while Long Beach and Twin Harbors are open for each of these digs,
only one of Mocrocks or Copalis beaches is also open at the same time. See WDFW’s razor clam pages at wdfw.wa.gov for the full schedule and for the official greenlight for upcoming digs. They’re typically announced about a week beforehand. –NWS
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Plan Early For April Toms
Given how humbling turkeys can be, it pays to scout, gear up and get ready well ahead of Oregon’s season.
HUNTING
Finding a good place to hunt turkeys and having backup options in case that spot is a bust will lead to increased success regardless of where you set up for gobblers this spring in the Northwest.
By Troy Rodakowski
Many of us have been counting the days until the April 15 opener of the general spring turkey season. With the lengthening daylight, gobbles are now frequently echoing across the land. This is the time to plan a great spring hunt or hunts and since the Northwest has some of the best turkey hunting in the nation, we should all be very excited about 2025. Turkey populations have been expanding throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and this part of the country has become a favorite
(TROY RODAKOWSKI)
HUNTING
for hunters pursuing Rio Grande and Merriam’s gobblers.
I like to have a good plan for opening day and the weeks beyond it well before the season actually opens. Harvesting mature gobblers for well over 30 years across the country has taught me that there is no such thing as being overprepared. Gobblers are always ready to humble a hunter and just when you think you have them figured out, they will make sure to prove you wrong and see you out of the woods with your tail between your legs, so to speak.
While I will give you some great pointers here, the best advice for this spring is to have options and be ready for the unexpected. The most important thing is to have patience. Turkeys are not easy. I have scouted and worked hard to pattern birds for the openers only to have them switch things up on me. Whether it’s other hunters applying pressure or other factors, turkeys seem to always be a step ahead. So, this is why you need to be able to adapt come April.
TURKEY SUCCESS ACROSS the Northwest is on the rise. Oregon, Washington and Idaho have some of the most liberal spring seasons in the country. Each state allows harvest of multiple birds deep into the end of May, with all tags sold over the counter for both residents and nonresidents.
Private lands offer great advantages in all three states. However, I have had openers ruined by either trespassers or hunters who also had permission without my knowledge. Nowadays, it’s almost a given that you will run into other hunters or unexpected roadblocks. Last season I had a really great place to hunt with lots of birds and no other hunters with access. However, the local power company decided it was a good time to trim the brush and mow the berries and grass. Multiple tractors and trucks, chainsaws and trimmers
spooked the birds and ruined the spot for several weeks. Luckily, I had other options at my disposal, which led to some great opportunities.
Probably one of the most important aspects of preparing for turkey season is finding the right gun with the right load and getting it patterned properly. I have had so many people tell me about birds they “missed” that it’s almost ridiculous. Don’t be one of those folks who goes out and buys turkey loads –or a turkey gun, for that matter – the day before season starts. Yes, you might get lucky and bag a bird, but don’t expect to find consistent success. Take the time now to pattern your gun and your loads. It’s not rocket science, but it is necessary if you want to be successful on a regular basis. Several seasons ago my father missed a very nice gobbler at 30 yards. We patterned his gun and found some major inconsistencies with the loads he was using. We ended up switching brands and shot size, and he hasn’t had an issue since.
Yet another necessity is good gear. What do I mean by this? Good camo, good boots, turkey vest, pants, jackets, calls, decoys, etc. Don’t plan to go out in blue jeans and a T-shirt with lowbase size 6 game bird loads and be successful. You want to be a turkey hunter? Become a turkey hunter and take it seriously. If you take the time to purchase the right gear and have it
Wildflowers, shed antlers and the warm spring sun are some of the other attractions throughout the hills of Oregon during April and May’s turkey season. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)
HUNTING
available to you during the season, you will increase your success rate tenfold.
A great example is turkey chokes for your shotgun. I have had several folks over the years come hunting with me and wonder why they didn’t drop the bird easier. “Do you have a choke for your gun?” I asked them. No?!? The next season they showed up with a choke and patterned loads and, boom, no issue. Take the time to research and get things right to save yourself frustration in the field.
And remember, spring can bring everything from cold, snowy weather to temperatures approaching the 90s, so make sure to have a good assortment of clothing, along with some excellent insect repellent and poison oak wash for both your skin and clothing. I have seen some of the worst tick infestations over the last couple seasons, mainly due to milder winters across the region. The oils from poison oak can remain on your pants, jackets and turkey vest for long periods of time without washing.
AS FOR WHERE to scout now, being from Oregon I have seen turkey populations explode across the state.
“Oregon has excellent turkey opportunities at the moment, as our flocks just seem to continue expanding,” notes Mikal Cline, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife game bird biologist.
Northeast Oregon and the Blue Mountains offer some of the best
TURKEY TUTELAGE
Each spring, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offers wild turkey hunting workshops for both youths and adults. These classes cover all the basics of turkey hunting in the state, including seasons, gear, tips for bow and shotgun hunting, turkey behavior, calling birds and more. Check the Workshop and Events page on MyODFW.com in early spring for more information and to register to learn about turkey hunting across Oregon. –NWS
mountain hunting. The towns of Elgin, Imbler, Enterprise and La Grande are great hubs for spring turkey hunters.
Turkeys are also thriving in the John Day highlands, Meacham, Sumpter, Sled Springs, Heppner, Ukiah, Lookout Mountain and all through the Northside Unit. The Malheur River, Mount Emily and Pine Creek Units are home to increased bird populations and are places to look to avoid heavy hunting pressure.
The White River and Metolius Units also have thriving populations of turkeys. The key in both of these locations is finding birds that have not been harassed by hunters or reside on mainly private property. Heppner is the leader on the Eastside with over 170 birds harvested in recent seasons.
The Westside is mainly a private land
game, although some Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands have good numbers of birds. Douglas County is the capital of Oregon turkeys and by focusing on lands near Roseburg and Sutherlin, hunters will find some great success. The mountains and hills around Medford and Grants Pass also have some excellent populations.
The Evans Creek and Applegate Units hold expanding flocks, and the nearby Melrose and Rogue Units boast spring harvests of over 300 birds and are some of the best options across Western Oregon. Hunt the hills and oak savannahs for these tough Rios.
And to the north, the west side of the McKenzie Unit, Willamette (where over 90 percent of the harvest occurs on private lands) and Siuslaw have shown great expansions over the last decade. NS
Author Troy Rodakowski shows off a recent Oregon gobbler harvested in the Siuslaw Unit. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)
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New Guns And Gear Galore
ON TARGET
By Dave Workman
Back in January at the 2025 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas, a lot of new guns and gear debuted, and I’d say some of these entries were well-timed, what with spring turkey hunting on the horizon.
Meanwhile, rabbit hunting continues through March 15 in Washington, and this is also a good time to be hunting coyotes, which will help reduce predation on fawns and calves in the spring.
FOR OPENERS, BENELLI has added three more shotgun models to the Super Black Eagle 3 series, including a 24-inch-barreled version of its 28-gauge smoothbore. This one, finished in Mossy Oak Bottomland Original camo paired
New-for-2025 shotgun offerings include additional color configurations for the M3000 Turkey Edition from Stoeger, Benelli’s 28-gauge SBE3 and the Instinct Sideplate SPLX over-and-under double-barrel from Franchi. (BENELLI; STOEGER; FRANCHI)
with a patriot brown Cerakote treatment on the barrel and receiver, will pair up nicely with TSS turkey loads, according to Benelli literature.
This shotgun will double in the fall for grouse and other upland gamebirds.
Benelli also announced it is expanding the SBE3 28-gauge line with two new color configurations available for 28-inchbarrel models: Gore Optifade Marsh furniture combined with patriot brown Cerakote and Gore Optifade Timber working with a tungsten Cerakote.
Also from Benelli comes the Nova 3 Hunting pump shotgun featuring onepiece and corrosion-proof framework with 100-percent poly-mod construction design featuring a unitized receiver and buttstock configuration. It has a reshaped buttstock and forend with Ergo-Evolved Diamond Grip scalloping for improved grip and operation in all weather
conditions. The trigger guard is also enlarged and reprofiled for enhanced use when wearing gloves. It’s also got a larger ejection port.
The Nova 3 Hunting debuts with a 12-gauge 2¾- and 3-inch chamber in 26or 28-inch barrel lengths. It is available in black synthetic, Realtree Max-7 camo and Mossy Oak Bottomland camo. It comes with improved cylinder, modified and full Mobil choke tubes, vented rib with red bar sight and a drilled and tapped receiver for optic installation.
STOEGER HAS A new M3000 Turkey Edition and M3020 Turkey Edition in 12- and 20-gauge, in 2¾- and 3-inch chamberings, respectively.
According to Stoeger, the M3000series Turkey models wear a Mossy Oak Bottomland camo finish, and allow different sight options. Both feature a
Hi-Viz fiber-optic front sight on the 22inch barrel and there are optic-mounting capabilities. The M3000 Turkey Edition receiver is supplied with adapter plates for an RMR or Burris footprint, while the M3020 Turkey gun comes with an installed Picatinny rail.
FRANCHI GOT MY juices flowing with the introduction of the new Instinct Sideplate SPLX over-and-under double-barrel model. I own an earlier version of the Instinct in 20-gauge, with a color case receiver, and it is an extraordinary grouse killer!
The Instinct Sideplate SPLX features a new and extended sideplatestyle polished aluminum receiver, embellished with intricate engraving along the sides and bottom, plus gold inlays of upland species surrounded by a medallion-type motif. The 12-gauge model features partridge and pheasant engravings, while the 20-gauge model comes with quail and chukar on either side of the receiver, according to Franchi.
The Instinct SPLX boasts an AA-grade Prince of Wales-style walnut stock with satin finish and Schnabel forend with checkering on the grip and forend. This model has a 28-inch vent rib barrel topped with a high-visibility red fiber-optic front bar sight. Both 12- and 20-gauge models
will handle 2¾- and 3-inch shells.
ANOTHER SHOTGUN ANNOUNCEMENT
comes from Retay USA. This outfit has introduced the Air Control Extreme, which the company describes as “the next generation in Inertia Plus shotguns.” Scheduled for availability this summer, the ACE lineup includes two distinctive receiver designs – a standard “slope back” receiver and a slight “humpback” version called the Type-R – allowing hunters to choose the style that best fits their preference, the company said.
They feature a cutout loading port and the improved Inertia Plus blot design enhances reliability and reduces cycling friction, according to Retay USA. The ACE is compatible with Benelli extended magazine tubes and Crio Plus chokes.
The ACE and ACE Type-R are available in 12-gauge, 3.5-inch, 20-gauge, 3-inch and 28-gauge, 3-inch configurations, with a choice of drilled 28- or 26-inch barrels.
Another Retay USA entry is the Gordion Rifled Slug Gun, now available in 12- or 20-gauge with 3-inch chambering. The Gordion Rifled Slug Gun features a deep bore drilling process which produces a “dead straight” barrel, the company said.
Retay’s patented Inertia Plus Bolt
System rotates the bolt head into battery and locks it in place. The shotgun features an aerospace-grade 7075 aluminum alloy receiver, and it comes equipped with an integrated cantilevered Picatinny rail mount and iron rifle sights. It is available in two finishes: black or camo.
IT’S WIDELY KNOWN I’m a handgunner, so when Smith & Wesson and Lipsey’s announced an exclusive series of doubleaction revolvers, including a revival of the famed Mountain Gun in .44 Magnum (N-frame), it got my undivided attention.
There is also a Model 686-Plus in .357 Magnum on the L-frame, which holds seven rounds of either magnum or .38 Special cartridges.
The best feature of either wheelgun, in my humble opinion, is that neither model has that internal locking mechanism, so there is no keyhole on the left side of the frame above the cylinder release.
Both guns have 4.13-inch tapered barrels with Patridge-type front sights with brass bead, and adjustable rear sights. They are all stainless steel construction, and they wear Bear Hug grips from Tyler Gun Works.
Among the new entries from Retay USA is the Gordion Rifled Slug Gun in 12- or 20-gauge with 3-inch chambering. (RETAY)
Smith & Wesson’s 2025 wares include a revival of its famed Mountain Gun in .44 Magnum (N-frame) and the new Model 1854 Stealth Hunter lever-action series chambered in .44 Rem Magnum, .45 Colt or .357 Magnum. (SMITH & WESSON)
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is the Model 632-UC Ti. Chambered in .32 H&R Mag, this little “pocket rocket” has a six-round capacity, and features a lightweight titanium cylinder and aluminum alloy frame to reduce weight. It has a 1.88-inch barrel topped with a bright dot tritium front sight and a black U-notch rear sight. And just for the record, the .32 H&R Magnum was originally
introduced as a self-defense round, and over the years, my experience with the cartridge has affirmed its accuracy and horsepower.
Also from S&W comes the Model 1854 Stealth Hunter lever-action rifle series. Chambered in either .44 Rem Magnum, .45 Colt or .357 Magnum, this modern levergun features a flat trigger design, a large loop lever, removable magazine tube and a synthetic stock with textured grip panels.
hammer for a snag-free draw. The cylinder holds five rounds. One of the key features of this revolver is the customizable front sight, which allows for sight replacement. It is compatible with a variety of existing five-shot speed loaders and holsters.
Key features, according to S&W, include an extended 10.5-inch Picatinny rail, a newly designed T6 aluminum forend with 15 M-Lok-compatible slots, a Hi-Viz H3 fiber-optic front sight, and a shortened 16.3-inch 410 stainless-steel barrel.
ANOTHER HANDGUN ENTRY
comes from Taurus USA, the Taurus 850, a compact double-action-only wheelgun chambered in .38 Special. The Taurus 850 is available in either black or stainlesssteel finishes, with 2-inch and 3-inch barrel options. It has an internal shrouded
SWITCHING GEARS FROM guns, for precision handloaders, RCBS has introduced the UPM-3 Competition Powder Measure. It gives handloaders “the ultimate in speed and accuracy,” according to RCBS literature. Featuring a MatchMaster Micrometer adjustable screw, this unit allows for precision adjustments to deliver consistent charge weights. The UPM-3 Comp’s universal cylinder accurately meters all types of powder by volume, with a range of 0.5 to 100 grains, per RCBS.
In the ammunition arena, Remington has introduced Royal Flush shotshells for hunting upland birds. With offerings in 12-, 16- and 20-gauge, this new ammunition series will cover all the bases.
Royal Flush shotshells are offered in three shot sizes – 4, 5 and 6 – allowing hunters to select the best option for their specific needs. With muzzle velocities ranging from 1,300 to 1,550 feet per second, your payload will literally be “ahead of the game.”
Remington has also introduced the new Duck Club Steel shotshell load, designed for all waterfowl endeavors. It will be available in an assortment of lengths, payloads and shot sizes. See remington.com for the Royal Flush and Duck Club Steel lineups.
Meanwhile, Fiocchi has expanded its line of premier centerfire rifle hunting cartridges with six new loadings in the Hyperformance Hunt lineup featuring Barnes’ Tipped TSX bullet.
Fiocchi is offering the Barnes Tipped TSX in .243 Winchester, 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, .308 Winchester and 7mm PRC.
RCBS’s UPM-3 Competition Powder Measure serves up “the ultimate in speed and accuracy” for handloaders, according to the company. (RCBS)
And finally, MTM Case-Gard has announced the Carbine Rifle Case, based on their single and double rifle cases. Tailor-made for short-barreled rifles or pistol-caliber carbines, breakdown shotguns and compact ARs, the Carbine Rifle Case has interior dimensions of 34 inches by 9.5 inches by 3.2 inches. NS
Stirring The Pot
CHEF IN THE WILD
By Randy King
Dinner was not starting off well. The chicken was cooked and getting dry, but the rice was still crunchy in my Instant Pot. My son was making dinner and following one of those Instagram posts for chicken biryani, a flavorful South Asian dish (more on what that is in a moment).
The recipe said the whole mess could be made in an Instant Pot, and it did look delicious in the video. Junior had followed the recipe and the flavors were great, but overall it was just a little “off” from what the dish should be.
It got me wondering, why are some dishes better in a Crock-Pot – the slowand-low method – and why are some objectively better in an Instant Pot, the “fast” food of slow food cooking methods? So I put my wild game chef hat on – even though the dish I was concerned with was chicken – and began my research. Here is what I learned …
SEVERAL TIMES IN my life I have taken the “scenic byway” to locations – it’s longer, the roads are not as good and my kids might get carsick. But, man, did I see some cool country and really absorb the area. That is kind of like cooking in a Crock-Pot. There is certainly a faster way to get the job done, but you lose something along the way. An Instant Pot is more like I-5 –not very scenic, but it will get you there. Both cooking methods make good food, just differently. When it comes to game meat, particularly red game meat, understanding when to take the long road and when to take the interstate can be the difference between tender and flavorful or crunchy rice.
Let’s talk about slow cooking first. A
Crock-Pot transforms those tough, sinewy cuts of venison into something magical. The extended low heat gently transforms the collagen in the meat into gelatin over the course of several hours (this is called hydrolysis for us nerds in the group). Then when we eat the meat, our body has an easier time transforming the gelatin into sugar. Consequently, we like meat that is easy to digest or meat that is slow-cooked over a long time.
This cooking process is particularly friendly to those shoulder roasts or neck
cuts that worked hard during the animal’s life. After long enough the meat literally falls apart; it is super gratifying to twist a fork in a shoulder roast and watch it turn with ease. But if you don’t plan correctly and give yourself enough time, then you will never get that desired texture. Cue up the fast-food solution.
Pressure cooking is like the assertive coworker who bullies things into getting done. The high-pressure working environment forces moisture into the meat while the elevated temperature
No competition here – Crock-Pots and Instant Pots both shine for cooking wild game. The “real wisdom,” Chef Randy King says, is recognizing that they’re “just different tools for different tasks,” in this case, different cuts of meat. (RANDY KING)
YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT IN AN INSTANT COLUMN
Biryani emerged from the royal kitchens of the Mughal Empire (1526-1857), where Persian and Indian culinary traditions merged. The dish features basmati rice layered with meat or vegetables and is often infused with saffron, cardamom, cinnamon and other spices. Traditional biryani is slow-cooked in sealed pots (think Crock-Pot), allowing the flavors to meld and the meat to tenderize.
Like most culinary traditions, biryani has an ever-evolving number of variations. Each family has its own version. The name is rooted in the Persian word “beryā”, meaning fried or roasted.
When the Mughals came into India in the 16th century they carried their culinary traditions with them. This is the story the world over. Different regions in India developed their own signature biryani, and there are an ever-evolving number of variations.
The city of Lucknow became famous for its subtle, aromatic “pakki” biryani, where meat and rice are cooked separately and then layered. Hyderabad embraced the “kacchi” style, where raw meat marinated in spices is layered with partially cooked rice and slow-cooked together. Kolkata added potatoes during
the British era when meat was scarce, creating yet another variation.
INSTANT POT WILD TURKEY (OR CHICKEN) BIRYANI
I am using breast meat for this dish for reasons stated in the main article – it is lean and does not have a lot of connective tissue, making it amenable to an Instant Pot.
2 tablespoons butter for sautéing
1 large onion, sliced
2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste (or 1 tablespoon each of ginger and garlic)
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1½ pounds turkey or chicken breast, cleaned and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 ounce biryani masala (about half a packet of Shan Bombay Biryani)
¼ cup plain yogurt
2½ cups basmati rice, washed and drained
1 potato, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 cups hot water
½ teaspoon salt
Fresh cilantro for garnish
Set Instant Pot to high sauté mode and add oil. Heat for two to three minutes. Add sliced onions and sauté for about seven minutes until golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for two minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and scrape bottom of pot to prevent burn warning. Cook until tomatoes soften. Add meat and sauté for a few minutes. Let sit for five minutes to develop color and start cooking.
Add biryani masala seasoning and mix well. Scrape the bottom of the pot again, then add yogurt. Stir and let cook for a few minutes with the lid loosely on (no pressure). Add washed rice and diced potato, mixing well to combine.
Pour in three cups of hot water and add ½ teaspoon salt. Stir thoroughly.
Now for the pressure cooking stage. Lock the Instant Pot’s lid and set the valve to sealing position. Cook on rice setting (low pressure) for 12 minutes. When done, allow natural pressure release for eight to 10 minutes. Open the lid when there’s no resistance. Fluff rice gently with a fork. Garnish with fresh cilantro before serving. –RK
A South Asian dish, biryani combines meat and vegetables with spices and basmati rice. (RANDY KING)
breaks down those tough fibers more quickly. It’s particularly effective with cuts that are low on tendons and gristle, pieces that aren’t quite as tough as shoulder meat but still need some convincing. Those big hunks of meat off the hind end of a critter are the best.
Theoretically, the pressure keeps the moisture locked in, preventing the lean game meat from drying out, while the quick cooking helps maintain distinct flavors rather than melding them all together. Yes, kind of, sure. I have also found that unless done just right, you get dry cooked meat and raw rice. So finding a quality recipe is key. An influencer’s Instagram post might not be the best quality assurance method.
Please don’t take this as me crapping on Instagram chefs! Those folks got mad skills, and the more they can influence younger ones to make cool dishes, the better. I am all in on the content and videos; I am just saying that your dish might not look like the one filmed when you are done.
The real wisdom comes in knowing that neither the Crock-Pot method nor the Instant Pot method is superior. Rather, they’re just different tools for different tasks. It’s like choosing between your favorite pocketknives. Both work, but which one do you want to use today? NS
Putting Weight Back On A Gun Dog
Iclosely monitor the weight of my dogs all year. Both are pudelpointers. This versatile breed allows me to get outside with them year-round, hunting for waterfowl, upland birds, shed antlers, fall turkeys, squirrels and more. In the offseason we typically train twice a day.
Waterfowl season takes the most out of my dogs. A long season combined with long days in cold water and even colder air temperatures means they’ll lose weight. For simplicity’s sake, here’s how I manage the weight of Kona, my 8½-year-old male pudelpointer.
KONA’S OPTIMAL WEIGHT is 63 pounds. He maintains that weight from March through August. Starting in September, I will increase the fat in Kona’s diet. By midNovember he weighs 66 to 67 pounds. The weight is put on slowly.
(By the way, my dogs never eat before a hunt. Stomach twist is always a fear in deep-chested dogs like pudelpointers. Kona nearly died from it when he was 5. Lethargy, discomfort, less efficient
Cold weather can make it difficult for a hard-working gun dog to retain weight all winter long, especially in lean, versatile breeds like author Scott Haugen’s pudelpointer Kona. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
GUN DOG
By Scott Haugen
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digestion and compromised performance are also reasons I don’t feed the morning of a hunt. If the hunt ends before noon, I’ll feed them. If not, I’ll double what they eat at dinner and feed earlier.)
Once duck season starts, Kona is hunting five days a week. He’s lean, runs hard and covers a lot of ground on land and in the water. Because he burns so many calories, by season’s end Kona might only weigh 60 pounds. It’s hard keeping weight on him during the season.
Once duck season is over I start increasing the amount of fat in his diet. In addition to feeding a 25 percent NutriSource kibble and 75 percent raw diet, eggs and goat milk are also part of Kona’s diet. I’ll add one egg to a meal, a cup of goat milk to another meal. During the first two weeks, an egg or milk is added once a day. For the next two weeks, three times every two days he’ll get an egg or a cup of milk. After that, it goes to twice a day until Kona hits his target weight of 63 pounds.
Mind you, Kona is still active following duck season, training every day and hunting for shed antlers in the hills once a week. We’re also hunting geese a day or two a week during Oregon’s late season, which runs through early March. The goose hunts and shed hunts are brief, usually winding down by 9 a.m.
I prefer feeding duck eggs over chicken eggs. I crack and feed the whole raw egg, shell and all. A duck egg has more fat than a chicken egg. Duck eggs are also higher in omega-3 fatty acids, providing about 71 milligrams of omega3s compared to about 37 milligrams in a chicken egg. Both duck and chicken eggs contain calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, selenium, zinc, copper, sodium, potassium and manganese, minerals that help dogs in many ways.
I also like feeding goat milk instead of cow’s milk. A cup of goat milk has 10 grams of fat compared to cow milk that has 8 grams of fat. This means the goat milk is higher in calories, about 19 more calories per cup. Being higher in fat, the goat milk is also higher in saturated fat, all of which help weight gain.
Goat milk and eggs, especially duck eggs, play an important role in Haugen’s dietary plan for putting weight back on his dogs following hunting season. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
Haugen and Kona with a last-day limit of ducks. The following day began Kona’s weight gain diet regimen to bring him back up to 63 pounds after the exertions of waterfowl season. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
Cow milk largely consists of long-chain fatty acids. Goat milk is made up of medium-chain fatty acids that are easier to digest and do not require pancreatic enzymes to break down. This is easier on the dog’s pancreas.
NOT ONLY ARE high-protein and -carbohydrate diets important for active hunting dogs, but so is moisture. Echo, my other pudelpointer, drinks water all the time. Kona is reluctant to drink, which is where goat milk serves two purposes. With meals where no goat milk is served, I’ll add a cup of water to Kona’s kibble and raw food. A dehydrated dog cannot efficiently gain muscle mass or maintain optimal energy levels needed to carry out their daily activities. Hydration is an important part of putting weight on a gun dog.
By late March, Kona is back to his 63-pound optimal self, and he stays there all summer long until it’s time to get ready for winter hunting season.
I wish I could manage my diet as efficiently as I do my dogs! NS
Editor’s note: Scott Haugen is a full-time writer. See his puppy training videos and learn more about his many books at scotthaugen.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.
The Road To Taking Your First Shot At Big Game
BECOMING A HUNTER
By Dave Anderson
Embarking on the journey of big game hunting can be both exciting and intimidating at the same time. A lot of us are incredibly lucky to have been raised or mentored from an early age by other hunters. For me, I had a friend whom I met in the ninth grade whose father and friends took me under their wings and taught me the basics, ethics and what it takes to be an outdoorsman.
I have every intention of passing on my love for hunting and the outdoors to my two young boys, Ryland and Barrett, who are already fully immersed in both. Both of the boys have heard me preach to them about gun safety and know how to respect firearms. Under close supervision, they have already started shooting a .22.
I have a passion for mentoring beginner hunters. I love meeting random
people who have never touched a rifle before and hear them say they really want to get into hunting but do not know where to start. Instead of keeping everything to myself, I have always been one to help guide those who have no idea where to start. I’ve gotten at least half a dozen people into hunting, and some of them have become remarkably successful hunters. If you are a beginner hunter gearing up for your first big game season, understanding the process that leads to that moment of taking your first shot can make the experience both safe and rewarding.
Before heading into the mountains, it is crucial to familiarize yourself with the basics of hunting. This includes understanding your equipment, the type of game you will be pursuing, local hunting regulations and safety protocols. Here are my top recommendations for what you should consider before heading afield on your first hunt:
SELECTING A RIFLE Everyone’s budget is different and if you asked 100 hunters what they would recommend, you would get 100 different answers. When buying a rifle there is one huge variable and that is glass. If I had a $2,000 budget for a rifle and scope, I would spend at least half if not more on a highquality scope. I cannot say enough good things about the Leupold VX5HD 3-15x44 CDS. I have five of them and many of my friends have the same scope. For the price, it is a high-quality, reliable scope that is easy to use. It also has the Custom Dial System, or CDS, to match up with your ammunition for shooting long range.
In addition, you will also want highquality rings and bases – the components that attach your scope to your rifle – that will stand up to the test as you are hiking, climbing over timber and the off chance you may bump your scope or drop your gun. Having rock-solid, high-quality rings and bases will make sure your gun is not off when you go to take a shot.
Author Dave Anderson has successfully introduced half a dozen people to hunting and is currently mentoring his two young sons. Along with developing their love of the outdoors, he’s had the boys start shooting a .22-caliber rifle under his close supervision. (DAVE ANDERSON)
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It is also important that you pick a rifle that you are comfortable handling. This brings up the topic of selecting the appropriate caliber. In the past 30 years, I have had so many different calibers of rifles – .270 WSM, .300 Win. Mag., .300 Weatherby, 6.5 Weatherby RPM, .30-06, .308, .260 Remington and 7mm-08. All of these rifles served me well. I have also been extremely lucky to try out rifles from many different manufacturers. Currently, I have a couple of 7PRC rifles, and a rifle chambered in the new Federal cartridge 7mm Backcountry.
Each one has its pros and cons. For the beginner, I would not recommend grabbing a lightweight rifle in a large magnum cartridge of .300 Win. Mag. and above. Yes, the .300 Win. Mag./.300 Weatherby and other magnum cartridges are amazing rounds. But being someone new to hunting, you can end up developing some bad habits right out of the gate. These calibers have a lot of recoil and if you are trying to sight in at the range, it is going to beat the hell out of your shoulder. Also, the cost of ammunition
in some of these large calibers is $80 to $120 a box for high-quality bullets.
Once you get sighted in, you will want to stick with that same exact load for accuracy. You cannot sight in with a 180-grain bullet from one manufacturer and just go to another and expect it to shoot the same. You could be 3 inches or more off at 100 yards, and the further you go out, the wider the margin of error. This could lead to missed shots or even wounding an animal and never recovering it.
I have now harvested two elk with the 7PRC shooting Hornady 175-grain ELD-X, and my father-in-law shot an elk with it as well at 330 yards in January. I have found this round to be a happy medium between less recoil and outstanding performance.
I also shoot suppressed and both of my 7PRC rifles are fun to shoot and do not break the bank to target practice on a regular basis. Retail price for a box of 20 cartridges costs about $49.99 here in Idaho. This makes going out into the woods and setting up real-life scenarios much easier than dropping $100plus for a box of ammo. Two-fifty a shot is a
lot easier to swallow than $5 per trigger pull.
EDUCATION Most states require completion of a hunter safety course before purchasing a license and tags for hunting. These courses cover essential topics such as firearm safety, ethics, wildlife conservation and proper techniques. This foundational knowledge is crucial in ensuring your safety and the safety of others.
PRACTICE Before embarking on your first hunt, practice is key and, in my opinion, mandatory in order to become proficient with a rifle. Spending time at the range to familiarize yourself with your rifle, scope and ammunition is a good start. Focus on your stance, aim and trigger control. In addition, it is always important to understand how to manage recoil when it comes to shooting. Focusing on these key elements will help build your confidence and skill.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR TARGET Research the species you plan on hunting. Knowing their habits, habitat and behavior will
Choosing a rifle and scope is a pretty critical step in becoming a hunter. Anderson aims for quality in both, and he advises budgeting about half or more of your money on optics – and anchoring your scope with solid bases and rings. (DAVE ANDERSON)
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Hunting is about so much more than the shot, but it’s the shot that counts and demands practice and accuracy and a respect for the animal whose life you are taking to nourish your own.
increase your chances of success. Most of the animals you hunt will be in survival mode at all times and the last thing they want to do is be shot. An animal is always moving and not every shot is going to be at a perfect broadside target. You need to study that animal’s anatomy and know how to execute quartering-to and quarteringaway shots, as well as a broadside shot. When I line up on an animal, I am not only looking at the point of impact, but I also am studying and taking into account where my bullet is going to come out the other side.
PATIENCE The anticipation of taking your first shot can be intense, but it is so important to remain calm and composed. Remember that hunting is not solely about the kill; it is about respecting nature and enjoying the experience. Focus on your surroundings and remain alert for
opportunities while avoiding distractions. Appreciate the moment whether or not you get to take a shot.
This past January, I was out with a few new hunters on their first elk hunt. As an experienced hunter, I took away a lot from that hunt as I saw it through the eyes of a new hunter who had never put the crosshairs on an elk before. Taking an animal’s life is nothing that should ever be taken lightly. It is our job to check off all the boxes and make sure we are proficient with our weapons and comfortable taking the shot. Remember, hunting is not just about the kill; it is also important to recognize the responsibility that comes with harvesting an animal.
Preparation is key for preparing for that first shot. Some of the steps to focus on when preparing to take that first shot should be: positioning, breath control, aiming and follow-through. Make sure you are in a stable
position and take a few deep breaths to steady your heart rate and calm your nerves. Align your shot and focus on your target, ensuring you have a clear view of where you intend to aim. Also, remember to take your time; a rushed shot often leads to mistakes. After you pull the trigger, follow through with the shot. Maintain your position and watch the result of your shot before reacting. These are all steps you should practice at the range as well so that you become familiar with the process and more comfortable and proficient. Practice shooting prone, sitting using sticks or any scenario that you think you may encounter out in the field.
Taking your first shot at a big game animal is a major event in every hunter’s journey. By preparing properly, respecting the process and embracing the experience, you can make your first hunting experience both memorable and fulfilling. NS
(DAVE ANDERSON)
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