Northwest Sportsman Magazine - January 2023

ALSO INSIDE

77 CLEAR OFF YOUR CALENDAR FOR BRUNS

A decent run of larger hatchery steelhead – including a few up to and past the 20-pound mark – is returning to the LewistonClarkston area this season, and they’re biting well. Guide Travis Wendt shares the ins and outs of fishing the Clearwater River.

95

JOIN THE FROZEN CHOSEN

Winter turns many of the lakes in and east of the Cascades into solid ice fisheries, and for myriad species. Jeff Holmes checks in with five ice-auger-toting, tipup-setting, Swedish Pimple-jigging sharpies for how to get in on the fun!

105

WASHINGTON FISHING PLANNER, PART I

From freshwater to salt-, the frigid Columbia Basin to Westside lakes, Mark Yuasa lines out top angling bets for each of the first six months of the new year.

HEAD TO SEA IN 2023

You don’t know it yet, but there’s a day or two out on the briny blue in you this year – well, that’s if enthusiastic Pacific Ocean angler Jeff Holmes has any say! Grab the Bonine for a fast ride through the best the Northwest Coast has to offer this season.

113 OVERSEAS ADVENTURE: FALL FLY FISHING IN THE LAND OF GENGHIS KHAN Tobey Ishii-Anderson of Olympia and her brother Paul Ishii of the Seattle area share stories and pics from their otherworldly do-it-yourself trip to fish for grayling and taimen in the vast remoteness of Mongolia.

141 THE EVOLUTION OF NONTOXIC SHOTSHELLS

Payloads for Northwest ducks and geese have come a long way from Dad’s steel. Nobody knows that better than our staff waterfowler, MD Johnson, who combines a tour of HeviShot’s Sweet Home, Oregon, factory with a history of how we got to today’s high-tech shotgun shell offerings.

(JERRY HAN)

VISIT MOSES LAKE

Your Home Base For Adventure

HOCKEY TOURNAMENTS:

Feb. 3-4, 2023 — 18U Winter Classic (Moses Lake Youth Hockey Association)

Feb. 17-18, 2023 — Moses Lake Freeze (Moses Lake Adult Hockey Tournament)

To confirm dates closer to the event date, please visit www.cityofml.com.

For a list of hotel/motels, restaurants, and other attractions, visit www.tourmoseslake.com.

Tour

Moses Lake

67

BUZZ RAMSEY Egg ’Em On: Roe And Its Imitations For Steelhead

A cluster of eggs and a Corky is just one of several popular ways to catch winter steelhead. Buzz takes a look at all the offerings over the years, from Okie Drifters to soft beads then and now.

COLUMNS

89 FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG To Bait Or To Bead?

Sara will probably always be partial to using yarn and a drift bobber for winter-runs – the go-to method that really set her on her way – but she’s also gradually gained confidence in using a bead, naked or otherwise. She shares her journey.

130 NORTHWEST PURSUITS New Year’s ’Yotes

Whether you’re after coyote pelts in their prime or looking to ease predation on fawns, now is the time to go coyote hunting. Jason has a host of tactics for bagging a few songdogs.

151

GUN DOG Resolve To Correct Behavior Issues Now

It’s not just our four-legged hunting partners who need behavioral corrections; sometimes it’s us owners too. Scott shares three times gun dogs or masters were giving or getting mixed signals, and how to fix them.

159 ON TARGET Ring In 2023 With New SHOT Goodies, Last-Minute Ops

True, Christmas was last month, but for Dave W., part two of the yule season comes in January, at the big Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas. He details some of the rifles, handloading equipment, optics and other new products out this year, as well as late-season hunting opportunities to check out.

169

BECOMING A HUNTER Start Hunt Planning Now

Hunting season just ended, but if you’re a newbie who found their passion for big game last fall, what’s next? It’s time to start thinking about this year’s hunts, of course! Dave A. has some advice on do-it-yourself adventures and going guided for trophy and meat hunts.

(ANDY MARTIN)

Remember the good ol’ days of late fall and early winter steelheading on Southwest Washington’s Cowlitz? They’re a lot closer to coming back than you may realize. State and utility managers have been “working to shift” the lower river’s stock “to produce earlier-returning fish,” a resurrection and reformation of a fabled fishery.

That niche was once held by out-of-basin Chambers Creek-stock steelhead, which lit up the waters off Blue Creek as early as November before peaking in December and January. But the hatchery program ended in the early 2010s over “potential genetic and ecological impacts” on the Cowlitz’s natural-origin steelhead. In the years since, most winters-runs have come back in March and April.

However, the possibility of recreating an earlier-timed return with an in-basin strain of steelhead has always been there in Tacoma Public Utilities’ 2011 Fisheries and Hatchery Management Plan for the watershed it operates two dams on. I won’t bore you with all the “transition plan” and “dam relicensing” and “fisheries technical committee” and “hatchery genetic management plan” talk, but suffice it to say that that the goal now appears in reach.

“Creating an earlier-returning winter steelhead program has been a multi-year process, beginning with feedback from the public asking for the return of an early-timed fish,” TPU and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials told me last month in a joint statement. “We have prioritized this program change and have now shifted to a front-loaded broodstock collection approach by collecting the first returning fish for broodstock in order to move up adult return timing.”

The initial phase saw hatchery fish collection moved from April 1 to February 1. Testing was done to weed out any early-returning fish with leftover Chambers Creek genes; of 65 sampled for broodstock, only two showed signs of the Puget Sound stock once widely used in Western Washington programs, and no eggs or milt were taken from the duo, TPU and WDFW say.

“We will continue to advance the run timing by collecting the earliest returning winter steelhead for the segregated program broodstock with no time limit,” the agencies say. “We believe this management strategy will shift the peak arrival time of winter

Steelheaders launch jet sleds at the Blue Creek ramp on the Cowlitz on a cold mid2010s morning. The season was once dominated by early-returning Chambers Creekstock fish, and while the end of that program left a gaping hole in part of the fishery, managers are shifting a local stock so it returns sooner in winter. (JASON BROOKS)

steelhead returns up to two months earlier over the same period. It is expected that these results will become more and more apparent over the next three [fish] generations – over the course of the next 10 years.”

IN TERMS OF smolt production, TPU and WDFW are married to an overall annual release of 1.2-plus million steelhead spread across the Cowlitz’s four hatchery stocks – Tilton integrated winters, Cispus and upper Cowlitz integrated winters, lower Cowlitz segregated winters, and lower Cowlitz segregated summers. But managers can shift how big the four slices of pie are from year to year.

“So, if a population is having a poor year, we still can meet our release target of 1.2-plus million fish ... Allowing production to shift between steelhead programs as necessary should increase the number of years we reach our release number targets. Since all our hatchery steelhead are adipose clipped, all the returning adults from the four steelhead programs will be available for recreational harvest,” the agencies say.

Last year’s release goal for just the new early winter segregated stock was 524,000 smolts, which will begin to return next season after 18 months at sea, while this year’s is 308,500. The difference is due to covering a summer-run production shortfall.

“Beginning in 2022, we began even more aggressively pushing the lower Cowlitz winter steelhead program earlier,” the utility and state say. “All the earliest returning fish were kept for broodstock to help move the next generation’s return timing earlier.”

The good news is that they believe they can do all of this without requiring late fall and early winter fishing to be shut down or restricted so as to reach their broodstock goals, like we’ve seen with North Sound hatchery programs during past years of weak returns.

IT’S ALL POSITIVE but also way too soon to expect an immediate return to the good ol’ days on the “mother Cow,” like, say, the 200102 season, when anglers bonked 1,488 hatchery fish in November,

Bank anglers work the drift below the Cowlitz Trout Hatchery, one of the most productive stretches of water in the Northwest, thanks to robust returns of fin-clipped steelhead. (JASON BROOKS)

8,656 in December and 3,143 more in January. But in a state where steelhead stocks and fisheries are in such a different place than they were even just a decade ago when the Cowlitz’s Chambers program ended, it’s a glimmer of hope, and not just for the Blue Creek bunch, but those who want to explore well upstream of that combat fishery. TPU and WDFW figures show an average of a quarter million Tilton and upper Cowlitz/Cispus smolts released the past two years.

It could all combine to make for a consumptive-oriented playground between the Northwest’s two major metro areas.

“The lower Cowlitz segregated program is focused on harvest opportunity for anglers, while also allowing us to meet our conservation goals in the upper basin. The shift of the lower Cowlitz program from integrated to segregated means that natural-origin fish do not need to be collected at weirs for broodstock needs, equating to more natural fish on the spawning grounds in the lower Cowlitz and its tributaries,” TPU and WDFW say. “The upper Cowlitz and Tilton integrated programs are meant to support recovery and build adult abundances, while also providing angler opportunity.”

While it literally took biologists from the two agencies six and a half long months to answer my questions about their plans to build the early run back up, in the end they do appear to have been responsive to anglers who want to harvest steelhead in December, and they say they’re “doing our best to create that outcome,” while also protecting natural-origin stocks throughout the system.

“We believe the changes … will lead to angling opportunity for steelhead over a longer time period and increase the number of adult fish in the upper watersheds. This should eventually lead to increased natural juvenile production and greater numbers of natural adults in the Tilton, upper Cowlitz, and Cispus Rivers for years to come,” TPU and WDFW say.

I for one can’t wait! –Andy Walgamott

The Chum Union

Anglers, guides, tribes and state managers are working together to restore North Sound dog salmon runs.

At least 913 chums had been collected for broodstock on the Skagit River as of early December as state and tribal managers work to increase numbers of the struggling stock of late-returning and hard-pulling salmon that once provided important fisheries.

The new program follows on years and years of poor returns to the big north Puget Sound system and is similar to angler-Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife efforts to boost chum runs on the Skykomish River to the south.

Starting earlier this fall and wrapping up in mid-December, the Upper Skagit Tribe used drift tangle nets on the middle stretches of the Skagit to catch adult salmon, which were then brought to shore and trucked by WDFW to the agency’s Marblemount Hatchery for spawning, incubation, rearing and release.

“Hatchery programs can be essential when, despite harvest restrictions, populations don’t recover on their own,” the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission stated on nwtreatytribes.org.

Per NWIFC, both tribal and state chum fisheries have been closed on the Skagit since 2007. The salmon are unique in that their freshwater lifecycle is so short relative to their ocean stage, spending just a few weeks in the rivers as returning adults and only a “few days” as fry after hatching. That means that whatever’s dampening Washington runs is occurring at sea.

THE SKAGIT PROGRAM is being performed under a National Marine Fisheries Serviceapproved hatchery genetic management plan, given the watershed’s ESA-listed Chinook and steelhead. Federal funding is being used to kick start the effort. WDFW said it would be “highly coordinated between Marblemount Hatchery staff, and boat, shore, and truck transport crews representing all the co-managers.” Anglers

were asked to avoid gear conflicts during the Skagit’s extended fall coho fishery.

Plans call for up to 500 chums to be collected in odd years – when pink salmon tend to flood the system – and as many as 1,600 in even-numbered years.

Previous to this fall, the Upper Skagit, Sauk-Suiattle and Swinomish Tribes had operated a small-scale self-funded program that collected 280 and 137 chums in 2020 and 2021, respectively, for rearing at Marblemount.

Upper Skagit natural resources director and elder Scott Schuyler told NWIFC his tribe’s goal with the broodstock effort “is to see the dog salmon return to its historical place of significance in our culture.”

After building from lower levels in the 1960s and ’70s, Puget Sound chum runs peaked in the early 2000s, providing wonderful midfall fishing – mostly but not entirely catch-and-release – on systems like the Skagit, Stillaguamish, Snohomish and others, but they’ve been poorer over the last decade, including “historically low” returns to Hood Canal in 2019.

ON THE SKYKOMISH, the goal is to collect 500 chums, split equally between bucks and hens, for rearing at WDFW’s Wallace Hatchery between Startup and Gold Bar. While this year’s effort fell short of that mark and state managers say that more time is needed to determine the program’s effectiveness at boosting returns, in the meanwhile it was serving as “a model of collaboration.”

“The big takeaway I have from this program is that if you see a problem on your local river, don’t just complain about it. Contact fish and wildlife, talk to your fellow anglers, and work together to try to find a solution,” said guide Charlie Cooper, who brought the idea to WDFW several years ago. Prior to that, WDFW and the Tulalip Tribes had tried but faced issues with “dynamic flows” on the Sky. –Andy Walgamott

Upper Skagit Tribe field biologist Chris Kohn brings a chum salmon collected from the Skagit River to an awaiting Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife truck for a taxi ride to the state agency’s Marblemount Hatchery in midNovember. (KIMBERLY CAUVEL, NORTHWEST TREATY TRIBES)

A beautiful fall day on the lower Chehalis River served up silvers from 8 to 14 pounds for Ron Sorenson, Chris Long and Gary Lundquist. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

(COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

For your shot at winning great fishing and hunting products from Coast, 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.

The sun sets on a great and productive evening salmon fishing trip at Drano Lake for Ashley Bolt, her husband Mike and his friend Bill Harris. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

Puget Sound’s southern end just kept on producing for Eric Schager this past season. He reports this and other coho he caught were all partial to the same hot pink spinner. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

Cliff Anderson smiles over a couple central Puget Sound coho caught back in September in the leadup to the Everett derby.

A twitched jig torqued off this Klickitat River coho for Jerry Hess of Vancouver in late October. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

It looks like one member of the Han family has walleye jigging dialed in more than the other!

Austin showed up his dad Jerry with a nice one caught on the Mid-Columbia in late November. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

A “fantastic year for big steel” on Idaho’s Clearwater yielded this very nice one for Luke Coots. He was fishing with Kelly Colliton. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

The long wait for opportunity was well worth it for Casey Brown Sr. When chum salmon finally opened in portions of Marine Area 13 near Olympia, he enjoyed some pretty good fishing, catching his limit of “quality fish,” per buddy Kelly Corcoran. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

MONTHLY WINNER

“Stunner” is one way to describe Alex Neumann’s beautiful stripe-sided and Coast Photo Contest-winning chum! He caught it on a coastal system this past fall. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

Labor Day Weekend in the ocean off La Push was lit for Justin Bays, here with one of two very nice lings he landed. He also came home from the trip with an above-average halibut. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

2 NE OR Men Indicted On Poaching Charges

By Andy Walgamott

Two Northeast Oregon men have been indicted on a combined 29 counts of poaching big game, wastage, trespassing and other wildlife violations. State fish and wildlife troopers say that their “large and extensive investigation” into the activities of Walker Erickson, 28, of Pendleton, and Hunter Wagner, 23, of Pilot Rock was spurred by tips from the public and began in summer 2020. Evidence gathered over the following year and a half led them to serve a search warrant in December 2021 and then indict the duo last October.

Troopers say they seized three sets of elk antlers, including those of a seven-by-seven bull, six sets of deer antlers, a bow, rifle and meat from a residence in Pendleton.

Erickson was indicted on four counts each of unlawful take of a bull elk and a whitetail buck; three counts each of unlawful take of a cow elk and waste of game; two counts each of unlawful take of a mule deer buck and tampering with evidence; and one count each of unlawful possession of big game, hunting while criminally trespassing, hunting on another’s cultivated or enclosed land and hunting from a motor vehicle.

The East Oregonian reported Erickson has a pretrial conference January 3. Wagner was indicted on seven counts of counseling in the unlawful take of big game. Prosecution is being handled by both the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Office and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s anti-poaching prosecutor.

Skulls, weapons and meat seized during a search of a Pendleton residence as Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division troopers investigated Walker Erickson of Pendleton and Hunter Wagner of Pilot Rock. (OSP)

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

True, you can work in your PJs these days, but snagging fish in them is dangerously cheesy. That might be the lesson from Western Washington’s Stillaguamish River, where a salmon snagger’s “very notable pajama pants” were a colorful part of their downfall.

In late September, state Department of Fish and Wildlife officers reported that anglers had alerted them to a man who “was snagging fish repeatedly” early in the morning and then again later in the day. It turned out that said snagger was familiar to agency game wardens, with Officer Stephanie Tank believing that she’d ticketed the same bozo the week before after allegedly finding him with unlawful gear and illegally caught coho.

So, Officer Tank found herself a nice hidey-hole to catch the guy and sure enough, “right on cue, he arrived wearing very notable pajama pants,” confirmed to be the Men’s Chester Cheetah Sleep Pant, available for as low as $11.98 at Wal-Mart.

Officer Tank took video and pics of his “catch” of two fish in an hour, neither of which he recorded on his salmon catch

card; it was also pretty remarkable given that the coho weren’t biting so well at the time, at least if you’d polled other Stilly anglers, WDFW stated.

THE MAN SUDDENLY left the river, but then returned 90 minutes later, sans those snazzy orange PJs. Yes, they may be comfy and, yes, they may be warm, but you can’t live your entire life in pajamas – especially when you apparently want to be all incognito down at the river.

After Officer Tank observed him “catching” another pair of fish, it was time to talk to the dude about his “fishing.”

Upon contact, she asked if he was going to lie about how he’d been doing on the river that day, to which he “very adamantly stated he was not,” WDFW reported.

Asked if he’d also been fishing earlier in the morning, the guy said he hadn’t and the latest fish were the day’s only catch, agency officers stated.

Tank asked the question a couple more times just to make sure, then advised him she’d actually watched him fish in those striking orange jammie bottoms.

“At that point the fisherman knew he was had and admitted to catching fish earlier that morning. When Officer Tank asked why

It ain’t easy being the cheesiest coho snagger of all time – a guy wearing Men’s Chester Cheetah Sleep Pant was caught, er, orange-fingered on the Stillaguamish River foul-hooking salmon early this past fall. (WDFW)

he was back to fishing unlawfully again so soon after being contacted less than week prior, the fisherman stated, ‘I never said I was smart, but at least I’m not using treble hooks and my barbs are pinched.’”

Credit him, I guess, for being a conscientious snagger, but the county prosecutor will still be biting into the charges WDFW sent over.

9 Coho Saved From Illegal Gillnets

AHood Canal man is entangled in potential criminal charges after he allegedly used two gillnets to illegally catch coho on the Dosewallips River last November.

Washington Department Fish and Wildlife Police acted quickly on a tip from the public about a net stretched across the river, which is never open to any commercial fisheries and was closed to fishing at the time. Using a drone flown from a “public space” nearby, Officer Patrick Murray spotted the net and used the discovery to draft a search warrant.

With the paperwork in hand, that evening he and fellow WDFW Officers Owen Barabasz, Mark Hillman and Sergeant Kit Rosenberger and a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy served the warrant on a property, where they ran into a man in waders and wearing a headlamp.

“The man admitted to setting the net and led the officers to the net’s location. Officers soon observed a second gillnet fishing the river as well,” WDFW reported.

Barabasz and Hillman, both of whom serve on WDFW Police’s Swiftwater Rescue Team, came up with a plan to remove any salmon from the nets while the gear was still in the river.

“They both donned their swiftwater rescue gear and waded to a nearby island where Officer Hillman belayed Officer Barabasz across the river,” officers reported. “Utilizing his dry suit Officer Barabasz swam/ floated to where he was able to disconnect

the gillnet from the opposite shore. The net was pulled to a nearby deep pool where Officers Hillman and Barabasz carefully freed and released six live coho salmon back into the river. The second gillnet was pulled with three more coho released.”

The nets were seized and criminal charges have been referred to Jefferson County prosecutors for unlawful use of the devices, and fishing commercially without a license and in closed waters.

WDFW officers work to free a coho from one of two illegal gillnets set across the Dosewallips River, which drains out of the east side of the Olympic Peninsula between Quilcene and Brinnon. (WDFW)

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Ice Fishing Derby, Festival Coming Up

The snowy Okanogan Highlands of Northcentral Washington will host the 19th annual NW Ice Fishing Festival, slated for Saturday, January 14.

A combination derby/community gathering held over the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, angling is done on Sidley Lake, which is just down the road from the frontier town of Molson, all of it a hop, skip and a snowmobile jump from the Canadian border east of Oroville.

Past years have seen upwards of 100 ice fishermen competing for a $1,000 grand prize and many more enjoying the event’s daylong atmosphere.

For more info, contact the Oroville Chamber of Commerce (509-557-5165).

ONGOING WINTER STEELHEAD DERBIES

By Andy Walgamott

KO Some Cash At KPO Derbies

Kokanee Power of Oregon has announced its 2023 derby schedule, which kicks off in midspring and features $500 first-place prizes, payouts to 10th place and lots of raffle prizes.

First up is the event on Detroit Lake on April 29 and headquartered out of Kane’s Marina, just uplake of the popular state park on this upper North Santiam River impoundment.

Following that comes the June 10 derby on Green Peter Reservoir, east of Lebanon, and held out of the group camp at Sunnyside County Park.

And the season wraps up August 12 at Odell Lake, just east of Willamette Pass, with weigh-in at Shelter Cove Resort.

Organizers do note that the dates “are based on availability and current conditions.” Plans call for lunch and raffle activities after weigh-in is complete.

Tickets are $55 for KPO members, $90 for the general public.

For more details, see kokaneepoweroregon.com.

Pete Valentine of Oroville, Washington, shows off his winning catch from 2017’s Northwest Ice Fishing Festival. (ROBIN STICE, EDEN VALLEY GUEST RANCH)

CALENDAR OUTDOOR

JANUARY

1 New Oregon and Idaho fishing and hunting licenses required; Washington late cougar season opens – quota info: wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/biggame/cougar

7 First of 14 brant goose hunting days in Pacific County (others: 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28 and 29)

10 Deadline to file Washington big game report for incentive permit eligibility

16

21

Oregon High Desert and Blue Mountains Zones late white and white-fronted goose opener; Last day to hunt Hungarian partridge, quail and pheasant in Eastern Washington

First of three brant goose hunting days in Clallam and Whatcom Counties (others: 25, 28)

22 Last day to hunt ducks in Oregon Zone 2

29 Last day to hunt ducks and scaup in Oregon Zone 1; Last day to hunt Canada geese in Blue Mountains, High Desert and Mid-Columbia Zones, all geese in Southwest Zone and white and white-fronted geese in Mid-Columbia Zone

31 Deadline to file mandatory hunter reports in Washington and Oregon; Last day to hunt upland birds in Oregon and Idaho; Last day to hunt ducks and geese in Idaho Area 1; Last day to hunt turkeys in Oregon; Last day to hunt chukar in Eastern Washington; Last day to fish for trout, salmon and/or steelhead on many Western Washington river systems

FEBRUARY

4 Oregon Northwest Permit Zone late goose opener; Mid-Columbia Zone late white and white-fronted goose opener; Oregon and Washington statewide veterans and active military waterfowl hunting day; Washington statewide youth waterfowl hunting day

10 Deadline to apply for Oregon spring black bear permit

11 Washington Goose Management Areas 1, 4 late white goose opener; Washington Goose Management Area 2 Coast and Inland zones late goose opener (state wildlife areas, federal refuges closed; select dates)

15 Last day to apply for Idaho spring black bear hunt; Last day of steelhead fishing in select Puget Sound terminal areas

18 Oregon South Coast Zone late goose hunt opener

18-19 Free Fishing Weekend in Oregon

19 Last day of Oregon Zone 1 snipe hunt

28 Last day of bobcat and fox season in Oregon; last day to fish for steelhead on numerous Washington Coast streams

MARCH

1 Lake Billy Chinook’s Metolius Arm opens for fishing; Numerous Eastern Washington lakes open for fishing; Blackmouth opener on Washington Marine Area 5

10 Last day of Oregon Northwest Permit and South Coast late goose, and High Desert and Blue Mountains Zone white and white-fronted goose seasons 11 Bottomfish, lingcod, rockfish and cabezon seasons open in Washington Marine Areas 1-3 and Area 4 west of Bonilla-Tatoosh line 15 Last day of bobcat, fox, raccoon, cottontail and snowshoe hare season in Washington 20 Washington sea duck, Southwest Canada goose, snow goose and brant harvest reports due 31 Last day 2022-23 Washington fishing and hunting licenses valid; Last day to fish for steelhead on remaining open Washington coastal systems

APRIL

1 New Washington fishing and hunting licenses required; Opening day of controlled or general spring bear hunts in all Oregon and select Idaho units

1-7 Washington youth turkey hunting week 8-14 Idaho youth turkey hunting week 8-9 Oregon youth turkey hunting weekend 15 General spring turkey season opener in Idaho, Oregon and Washington; Opening day of spring black bear hunts in more Idaho units

2023 BOAT AND SPORTSMEN’S SHOW

CALENDAR

Thenewyearbringsthekick off ofboatandsportsmen’sshowseason.Inadditiontoallthebig-name events,2023willalsoseethereturnofshowsthathavebeenonhiatusforayearortwo,including theNorthwestFlyTyer&FlyFishingExpoinAlbanyandtheSaltwaterSportsmen’sShowinSalem.The latteroneiscourtesyofO’LoughlinTradeShows,whichwillprovidebackgroundmanagement,both organizationsannouncedlastMay. (SEATTLEBOATSHOW)

JANUARY

11-15

19-22

20-22

Portland Boat Show, Expo Center, Portland; otshows.com

Tacoma RV Show, Tacoma Dome, Tacoma; otshows.com

Great Rockies Sport Show, MetraPark ExpoCenter, Billings; greatrockiesshow.com

27-29 Tri-Cities Sportsmen Show, HAPO Center; shuylerproductions.com

FEBRUARY

1-5

1-5

3-5

Vancouver International Boat Show, BC Place and Granville Island, Vancouver, BC; vancouverboatshow.ca

Washington Sportsmen’s Show, Washington State Fair & Events Center, Puyallup; otshows.com

Eugene Boat & Sportsmen’s Show, Lane Events Center, Eugene; exposureshows.com

3-11 Seattle Boat Show, Lumen Field Event Center and Bell Harbor Marina, Seattle; seattleboatshow.com

10-12

10-12

15-19

24-26

Douglas County Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Douglas County (Oregon) Fairgrounds, Roseburg; exposureshows.com

Willamette Sportsman Show, Linn County Expo Center, Albany; willamettesportsmanshow.com

Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show, Expo Center, Portland; otshows.com

Central Washington Sportsmen Show, Yakima Valley Sundome, Yakima; jlmproductionsllc.com

24-26 Jackson County Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Jackson County

Expo, Medford; exposureshows.com

25-26 Saltwater Sportsmen’s Show, Oregon State Fairgrounds, Salem; saltwatersportsmensshow.com

MARCH

2-5

3-5

The Idaho Sportsman Show, Expo Idaho, Boise; idahosportsmanshow.com

BC Sportsmen’s Show, Tradex, Abbotsford; bcboatandsportsmenshow.ca

Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show, Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, Redmond; otshows.com 10-11 Northwest Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo, Linn County Fairgrounds, Albany; flyfishersinternational.org 16-19 Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show, Spokane Fair and Expo Center, Spokane; bighornshow.com

9-12

MAY 18-20 Anacortes Boat & Yacht Show, Cap Sante Marina, Anacortes; anacortesboatandyachtshow.com

TO BE DETERMINED

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Join The Frozen Chosen

Winter turns many of the lakes in and east of the Cascades into solid ice fisheries, and here’s why and how to drill into all of the opportunities.

By Jeff Holmes

My dad was very indulgent with my fishing growing up since I’m pretty sure it never gave him anything approaching the joy it brought me, but one thing he was not interested in or particularly tolerant of was ice fishing. I strongly assume that is still the case for him. I think my inability to convince him to ice fish regularly made me more interested, but mostly it was the draw of fishing during months when I did not. Still, my folks were supportive, so just prior to reaching driving age they gave me an ice auger for Christmas, and I went wild as soon as I could drive.

I began imperiling my life and those around me by speeding like a psycho to lakes around Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, places like Hog Canyon, Sprague, Newman, Hauser, Fernan and the Chain Lakes along the lower Coeur d’Alene River. I became briefly obsessed, bought tipups for pike, and would fish several holes simultaneously when in Idaho. I caught fish, but the problem was I put all my effort into fishing and

none into basic comfort or survival due to ignorance. I’d wear layer upon layer of cotton clothes and basketball shoes or leaky moon boots. Then I’d sit in the snow (slush) next to the hole like an obsessive moron until I flirted with the second stage of hypothermia. As any experienced ice angler will tell you, this is a recipe for disaster and/or a quick exit from the sport, and such was the case for me. After three years of rabid ice angling my winter interests turned to partying, toxic relationships, openwater winter angling with fly rods and bird hunting.

IT’S BEEN 27 years since I set foot on ice to fish, but a frigid long-term forecast and $350 bucks of online shopping is about to change that. I have buddies who are crazy over ice fishing and who piqued my curiosity last winter. This fall my editor, Archduke Andrew Von Walgamott, coincidentally asked me if I’d consider writing an ice fishing article. I said yes and decided to interview my buddies and to seek out some other experienced ice addicts, like Tyler Hicks. He runs Spilt Milt Productions on YouTube and

Passionate ice angling advocate Tyler Hicks of Spilt Milt Productions on YouTube and Washington Ice Fishing on Facebook prefers to eat yellow perch but favors the fight of trout, like this big rainbow, and the diversity of species opportunities in the Okanogan these days. Brookies, rainbows, cutthroats, browns and tiger trout can all be had through the ice. (TYLER HICKS)

maintains an awesome Facebook page, Washington Ice Fishing, which points to his frequently updated and highly valuable Google Maps page, Washington Ice Fishing Conditions. God knows I have little to offer here except for collecting the thoughts and pictures of others and to provide some insight for folks like me who are either new to the sport or rejoining it after almost three decades of obsessing about open-water winter angling. I had fun and learned a lot talking with these guys and hope you’ll enjoy the results.

IN TOTAL I interviewed five dudes with different experience levels but with a shared legit passion for fishing through the ice. I started with good friends Teddy Schmitt of Benton City, Washington, and Don McBride of nearby Richland and who is one of my Columbia Basin fishing mentors. Teddy is well known to be enthusiastic and to go all in fast on new hobbies, which he has done after perch fishing through the ice with McBride last winter. Leave it to Teddy to gear up and get obsessed fast and to have success right out of the gate. Leave it to McBride to turn people on to new fishing experiences and to be the most obsessed angler

Max Cook of Yakima is a smallmouth and walleye enthusiast through the ice and is a big fan of the Potholes area’s Seep Lakes. He took this nice eater walleye through the ice. Unlike other interviewees in this article, Cook prefers walleye to the taste of the mighty yellow perch, although he loves getting his kids out for perch. (MAX COOK)

I’ve ever met who still does important adult stuff, like running giant nuclear remediation projects. McBride has been ice fishing for 30 years, but, as he notes, in the southern Columbia Basin that equals about 15 years of actual fishing due to inconsistent ice conditions in the lowest, warmest part of the Inland Northwest.

Many serious ice anglers insist on portable electronics to reveal the presence of fish. The devices can be inexpensive and are helpful for sure, but other ways to find concentrations of fish are to fish where there are holes already drilled, around other anglers, and especially in areas on the ice stained with blood and littered with fish parts. Whereas electronics were especially useful for revealing depths in the past, the Navionics app reveals depths without ever drilling a hole or resorting to spilling hot coffee or urine on the ice to shoot a transducer cone through the hard water. (ADAM MOLDOVAN)

Anyone who knows McBride as a fisherman knows he’s really good and ultra-dedicated, but also that he simply does not clean his boat. Ever. I once described his boat in this magazine as suffering from Tuna Drip Syndrome (TDS) due to his excellent Super Bait game for Chinook salmon and his poor practices of wiping off any of the dripping slurry of tuna, scents and sauces. Since I know he doesn’t lack funds in the least, I marveled this week as I watched him cobble together a homemade electric ice

ON THE TASTINESS OF PERCH

Yellow perch are never more popular among anglers who might otherwise scorn them than during hard-water season, but they are wonderful year-round. Perch are easy and fun to catch on light tackle through the ice, and they are arguably the most delicious freshwater fish, sweeter and tastier even than walleye. All of my ice fishing interviewees but Max Cook, who favors baked walleye, rave about delicious perch as their favorites, which are one of the most accessible fish species in the Northwest whether the water is frozen of not. Tyler Hicks prefers fishing for trout but identifies yellow perch as superior table fare.

“I do have a thing for catching trout through the ice,” says Hicks. “They hit hard and fight like champs even in the cold water, [but] yellow perch are hands down the best. While it’s hard to turn away a lime-marinated and grilled perch taco, my favorite way to prepare perch is in a Vietnamese crispy fish dish, where they are stir fried with jalapeños, cilantro, lime juice and ginger. It’s sweet, crispy and spicy, and a pleasure to enjoy after a cold day on the ice.”

Adam Moldovan agrees: “My favorite species to catch has to be the yellow perch, the staple for an ice fisherman. There’s something nostalgic about panfried yellow perch in the middle of winter. My recipe? Crushed pretzels, pepper and

auger by buying a rechargeable mortar mixer at Harbor Freight and building an adapter to turn his manual auger into a wobbling-but-powered model. I received no real answer when I asked why he didn’t apply all the money he has saved not washing his boat to buying a legit power auger.

My third interviewee is a buddy of McBride’s from the Hanford Site, Adam Moldovan of Kennewick. Moldovan is sick for the sport, having grown up in Michigan. He blames his 20-plusyear obsession on his childhood

friend, Jason, who engaged in shared childhood antics fishing a frozen neighborhood pond from a young age. He also cites his father as an influence and whose nickname is “The Perch King.” Moldovan is a die-hard, owning all the gear and making annual trips with friends to Cascade Reservoir in Central Idaho to fish for the Northwest’s biggest perch, the favored target of most of my interviewees and most Northwest ice anglers. I fished walleye last winter with Moldovan in McBride’s boat, jigging water as deep as 90 feet

garlic powder as the breading. Soak the perch fillets in milk and one beaten egg prior to breading. Then, fry till golden, and beer seems to pair well.”

Sounds delicious, but has he tried White Claws?

When Don McBride was asked about his favorite, he didn’t just say perch, he said it three times with exclamation points. “They are like smaller, sweeter versions of walleye. I like to fillet and egg wash and roll them in a mixture of Louisiana Fish Fry and lemon pepper panko and fry them crisp and serve with homemade tartar sauce. I also like

them in Creole-style etouffee or in chowder.”

Teddy Schmitt agrees and prefers his breaded in McCormick fish fry and served in taco form with cabbage, cheese, peach salsa and lime.

Me, I eat a lot of almond-flour-breaded fish in Carb Balance tortillas with homemade tartar, pickles and American cheese. It’s as close as I can get the trashy pleasure I take from Filet o’ Fish sandwiches without getting too carby, and this winter those tortillas will be filled with fried perch from the Columbia Basin, Curlew Lake and even Wyoming.

Naturally I’ll pair them with Claws. –JH

Adam Moldovan, who lives in Kennewick and is a native of Michigan with a passion for panfishing through the ice, makes the trip east to Idaho’s Cascade Lake to chase a potentially record-setting perch. Moldovan holds the ultra-tasty yellow perch in the highest of esteem, as do many ice anglers. (ADAM MOLDOVAN)

using unmatched Columbia River Tackle prop jigs (columbiarivertackle .com), and the man lit up about ice fishing perch the way I light up about drift boating for steelhead or drinking White Claws. Max Cook of Yakima also offered some good insights after our

shared friend and my colleague Rob Mackley mentioned Cook’s passion for the sport and for catching walleye through the ice. Cook and Mackley met at Washington’s perch mecca a while back, Ferry County’s Curlew Lake. Bit lethally by the ice bug, Cook

has been hitting the hard water for the last four years after taking a break from ice fishing after doing it as a kid. He makes trips to some of the Northwest’s best fisheries to find solid ice.

Finally, I interviewed Hicks, who is a passionate angler and a prolific

Teddy Schmitt and his kids Rylee and Grayson joined Justin Wehrli and his son Sebastian on a not-soserious cast-n-blast trip in the Winthrop area last winter, including ice time at Patterson Lake. Schmitt thinks ice fishing is a blast for kids, when properly dressed, because they can run around and play in the snow when they tire of fishing. After a single season on the ice, Schmitt is hooked. (TEDDY SCHMITT)

producer of independent fishing media beyond the Facebook and Google maps ice fishing resources. I’m all in on his ice fishing stuff and have found him to be a sincere sharer of useful information. Hicks has been ice fishing for over 30 years and got his start as a little kid

growing up in the Midwest.

“Back then ice fishing was an annual event in Kansas, but now with the warmer climate it’s rare for ice to get sufficiently thick that far south,” says Hicks. “My life as a biologist has taken me to other prime ice fishing

grounds inMinnesota and western Colorado. Fortunately, we ended up moving to the Inland Northwest about a decade ago and I have maintained access to ice.”

Hicks now calls Brewster his home. This Northcentral Washington sockeye capital is within pretty easy reach of many excellent ice fishing lakes –Bonaparte, Curlew, Fish, Patterson and others –making it an ideal location for someone with a passion for ice fishing in the Northwest.

“There are many things that I find attractive about ice fishing aside from preventing me from losing my mind during our long, cold Okanogan winters,” says Hicks. “For one, it’s extremely simple. Unlike open-water fishing, where there are a myriad of lures and techniques, ice fishing is amazingly simplein that you can use the same lure (say, a small tungsten jig) and technique (jigging) and catch everything from kokanee to largemouth bass to rainbow trout. It’s

Lots of ice anglers favor getting their kids out on the ice for a family good time. Here Moldovan’s daughter Lera, age 3, is happily landing perch and trout at Fish Lake near Leavenworth on a family vacation. (ADAM MOLDOVAN)

also an incredibly egalitarianform of fishing in that it’s accessible to anyone who can walk out on the ice and punch a hole. You don’t need a $50,000 Duckworth or North River to be a great ice angler. Plus, walking on water is something most people on Earth will never do. It’s a wild experience.”

THE OTHER END of the experience spectrum is held down by Schmitt, but his perspective on why he ice fishes is valuable nonetheless and motivated me to get back into the sport. He’s also had two weird catches right off the bat.

“I really like the simplicity of it, coupled with the chance of high success,” says Schmitt.“Toss a small tackle box, rod, auger, a seat or bucket, and some snacks in a sled and you’re ready to go.If it’s a popular spot, you don’t even need the auger. It’s also an easy way to take kids fishing and access water that would normally be boat only.”

Last winter Schmitt caught decentsized juvenile salmon in a Columbia Basin desert lake with no business holding salmon. He thought maybe the fish were kokanee.

“I checked the WDFW planting reports and saw there hadn’t been any kokanee planted, so I messaged the regional biologist and he confirmed no kokanee plants and asked that I get a picture next time,” says Schmitt. “He suspected it was a juvenile salmon, since they had observed fall Chinook salmon spawning in the creek that drained from the lake.”

Schmitt also enjoyed a much more valuable catch last winter while taking some 6- to 9-year-old Cub Scouts out fishing.

“We had some rods not being held. I looked over and noticed one gone. I asked who had moved it, and no one fessed up.I didn’t think a 2-foot-long rod would be able to contort down a 5-inch hole from the power of the little fish we were catching.A friend came over and started jigging to see if he could catch the rod and reel. He

exclaimed, ‘Well, I caught a fish!’ When he reeled it up, he had hooked the split ring on the spoon that was in the fish’s mouth. We then pulled the line and got the rod and reel back.”

ULTIMATELY, IT’S THE novelty of drilling holes in the ice and the unknown that lurks beneath that seems to motivate a lot of ice anglers. For example, one might catch crappie, largemouth bass, perch, catfish and trout out of the same hole on one day, or some other such combination of freezing-cold Northwest gamefish –all on the same little spoon or jig.

“That’s the thing that attracts me

most to ice fishing,” says Yakima’s Cook. “You never truly know what you have hooked until it is brought to the hole. It also makes me really curious to see them on the fish-finder to figure what makes them bite.”

McBride is also a fan of a fishfinder, but also has suggestions for those without them.

“I like to bring a portable fishfinder along to check depth and look for fish,” says McBride. “On clear ice you can read the depth without even drilling. Just set the transducer on the ice and it’ll shoot right through. If you don’t get a reading right away, try pouring a little coffee on the spot

Whether you go all in and get all the gear and dedicate your whole winter to ice fishing or cobble together enough stuff for a few trips a year, ice fishing is a blast, and I am happy to return to the sport in 2023 after an almost 30-year absence. I’ll start small with perch and whatever bites, but also aspire this winter to land some burbot and lunker trout like Tyler Hicks is doing here. (TYLER HICKS)

to eliminate any air gap between the transducer and the ice.”

For those of us who prize our coffee, a quick piss might work just as well, provided you don’t break any decency laws.

“If you’re going to a new fishing spot, look for signs of previous fishing

success,” says McBride.“Holes used the previous day, especially if there is evidence of blood or fish parts around, will save a lot of time. And you can sometimes kick open the ice on an old hole without having to drill from scratch. When you do drill a hole, new ice anglers need to know that

smaller-diameter, 5- to 6-inch augers punch holes much more easily.”

Hicks adds, “I see a lot newbies using axes or chainsaws to get thru the ice. They end up soaked and fatigued, and that will ruin your experience on the ice.”

Manual augers in 6-inch diameter are well under $100from Eskimo, and I bought the well-reviewed Strikemaster Mora 6” for $70.

WHEN IT COMES to actually catching fish once you open up a likely hole, “Keep it simple,” says Hicks and the others.

“Don’t overthink your lure selection. Small 5- to 7mm tungsten jigs tipped with bait will catch almost anything out there that the Northwest has to offer. Invest in an ice rod and spring bobbers. Ice rods are inexpensive and a decent ice stick will only cost you $10 to $20.”

The Ugly Stick GX2 combo is only $29.99 on Amazon right now, and as someone who just priced out an

Bonaparte Lake, at 3,500 feet in elevation in the Okanogan Highlands, is a long haul for most Washingtonians, but it is one of the first popular waters to freeze every year. A multispecies lake, it’s especially good for tiger trout these days, like this beauty hoisted by Hicks. (TYLER HICKS)

entire start-up kit, Amazon is a great place to save money on jigs, line, ice fishing sleds, and more.

“Add a $2 spring bobber and you won’t miss those light-biting fish,” says Hicks.

McBride adds, “Bring a large paper clip or two for removing eyeballs from perch. There is no better bait than a perch eyeball, in my experience. Bring some worms or maggots to catch the first fish, then switch to eyeballs. My favorite lures are No. 2 and 3 Swedish Pimples in white or silver, rigged with the single hook that comes in the package. I like to run 4- to 6-pound mono on a tiny spinning rod and rig the Swedish Pimple on a 2-foot leader with another little jig (1/64 ounce or so) a foot above the pimple. Often you’ll catch two fish at once when you’re on the perch.”

“It’s helpful knowing whether the fish are biting right on the bottom or suspended above,” McBride tips. “I

lower the lure to the bottom, raise it just an inch off the bottom, jig it a few times letting it hit bottom to stir up some sediment, then raise and hold it an inch or two off bottom and watch the rod tip for a telltale movement, setting the hook at the slightest dip. I like to drill a series of holes and try multiple spots … Often one or two holes will produce much better than others. If I don’t get bit in the first few minutes, I’ll move.”

CATCHING FISH IS great, but staying alive and warm are especially critical to a successful trip.

“Safety is paramount and there are tricks to learning about safe ice, beyond the image charts,” says Moldovan. “I rely on 4 inches or greater as the safe ice thickness, but caution is always advised. A spud bar is your best friend while venturing onto first ice or unknown ice thickness. Snowcovered ice can insulate it and slow ice growth and create slush. Ice makes

noises, which can be alarming to the inexperienced. Clear/black ice is better than white ice. Shorelines melt out first and deep lakes surrounded with black basalt rocks like in Eastern Washington can take longer to freeze, if at all. Oh, and don’t forget warm clothes. As my good friend says, ‘There’s no bonus points for being cold!’”

“Another huge comfort factor is to wear nitrile gloves and a loose pair of mittens,” says McBride. “They keep your hands dry and still let you tie knots and handle fish while keeping surprisingly warm. When your hands do get cold, it’s easy to slip mittens on and off, and you can keep a hand warmer in your mittens.”

There are many strategies for staying warm, and all five guys underscored its importance. Wearing a PFD or a float coat is also a good idea. The minor discomfort is outweighed by the discomfort of drowning under ice in 32-degree water. NS

Egg ’Em On: Roe And Its Imitations For Steelhead

he concept of drifting an egg cluster or imitation egg, which might consist of a soft bead or Lil’ Corky, along the river bottom is one that river fish readily respond to. It’s just natural (perhaps imprinted into their DNA) for winter steelhead to eat bait, especially salmon eggs, as their upstream migration follows that of when salmon dig nests and deposit their eggs into the gravel.

A few eggs, which as the season progresses could include those from steelhead, wash out of their protective rock nurseries and tumble along river bottoms. Steelhead

Teat these eggs, of course, and, it has been speculated, sometimes return eggs washed downstream from their nest back into it.

Fishing methods that mimic drifting spawn are popular and effective for catching river fish. And while this article is about steelhead, you can catch salmon, trout and other fish species too by drifting fish eggs, either a single egg or a cluster, near the bottom of rivers. The most popular egg drifting methods used by steelhead anglers these days include side-drifting, bobber doggin’, drift fishing and float fishing.

DRIFT FISHING

The most widely used fishing method when I started chasing steelhead back in the late 1960s was drift fishing. What I

used back then to entice steelhead to bite included cut spawn (egg clusters), Okie Drifters, Gooey Bobs (a plastic Okie egg imitation), Jenseneggs (a plastic single salmon egg) and Lil’ Corkies. And while I used and caught fish drifting plastic egg imitations, the Okie and Corky Drifters were far and away my favorite for winter steelhead, followed by egg clusters – sometimes referred to as cut spawn.

I, perhaps like many steelhead anglers at the time, favored the Okie Drifter (sometimes in combination with bait) when the water was running medium to high. As the rivers dropped and cleared, I’d switch to smaller size Corky Drifters, cut spawn or a combination of both. And while I used the plastic egg imitations – even craft-store

A cluster of cured roe and buoyant Corky combination is one of several popular ways to catch winter steelhead using egg and/or egg imitations. (ANDY MARTIN)

BUZZ

RAMSEY

hard plastic beads – and caught plenty of fish on them, their lack of buoyancy meant I got hung on the bottom a lot more as compared to using the buoyant egg imitations.

I’ve always felt that the reason the buoyant egg imitations, like Okie, Birdy and Corky Drifters, produce so well, especially when drift fishing, was due to their buoyancy. Being buoyant, these egg imitations resist the current while drifting along

ahead of your drift sinker and therefore don’t hang bottom as much and are still within easy reach of Mr. Steelhead.

SIDE-DRIFTING

When the side-drifting method became popular for steelhead, the last thing you wanted was to use an egg imitation that was too buoyant. That’s because with this method your offering is drifting along at pretty

much current speed and therefore too buoyant of an offering, especially when rigged in combination with a long leader, when it can float too high in the water column.

For this reason, more than a few side-drifting anglers use a size 12 Corky sandwiched between two size 4 single hooks behind a 36- to 40-inch leader. While perhaps obvious, it’s worth stating that the two-hook rigging takes most of the buoyancy out of the Corky.

Plastic egg imitations of old – now referred to as soft beads – work no matter the method, but especially when bobber doggin’, side-drifting or float fishing. How author Buzz Ramsey first rigged soft single-egg imitations was to thread one or two eggs up over his hook and onto the leader and then tie a section of white yarn between the eggs and hook to prevent the eggs from sliding onto the hook and blocking the hook point. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

How steelheaders (clockwise from top) Tim Hammer, Matthew McCormick and Josh Nilsenrig their soft beads. (TIM HAMMER; MATTHEW MCCORMICK; JOSH NILSEN)

SOFT BEADS

Given the popularity of soft beads these days, I’ve included a few ways to rig them. Keep in mind that soft beads (or similar plastic products) work for all techniques mentioned in this article.

Here are a few alternate ways fellow steelhead anglers rig their soft beads:

Matthew McCormick of Albany, Oregon: “I like to position a small glass bead on my leader three fingers above the hook via a bobber stop. If I’m using a BnR, I put a clear sequin on my leader between the small clear bead and the BnR. Never moves. I feel like I’m constantly fiddling with the T-stop since it can slide on the leader, especially when using scent. (There is) advantage to both ways, but I make more casts between tune-ups by not using the T-stops they include in the package.”

Josh Nilsen of Alsea, Oregon: According to Nilsen, small sequins rigged above a float stop is the way to keep soft beads from blowing through the stop to your hook. He says the silver-colored sequins are money.

Tim Hammer of Puyallup, Washington: Hammer likes to use a clear 2mm plastic bead locked in place 2 inches above his hook by running his leader through it twice. He then slides his T-stop down the leader with his soft bead on it. “It stays in place so you don’t have to worry about the bead sliding down to the hook when using scent,” he explains. –BR

Of course, the other neutrally buoyant offerings that dominate the side-drifting world these days include egg clusters, Puff Balls (sometimes called yarnies), injection-molded beads and plastic egg imitations, often referred to as soft beads.

I’m reminded of the first time I was introduced to side-drifting. It was in 1994 that guide friend Mike Kelly (360-2697628) invited me to fish with him on Washington’s Cowlitz River. I’d brought along my favorite drift fishing rod rigged with a pencil weight and size 3 Okie Drifter on a 20-inch leader. Kelly explained that we were going to side-drift and to do so correctly meant I’d need to lengthen my leader out to 50 inches or more, which I did.

Long story short, while others on Kelly’s boat caught fish that day using a long leader in combination with less buoyant offerings, my more buoyant offering didn’t. I swear there were times I could see my Okie floating near the surface as we proceeded downriver. The first thing I did the next day was to shorten my leader back to 20 inches, which yielded a steelhead limit in just a few casts while side-drifting.

BOBBER DOGGIN’

When bobber doggin’, any neutral or buoyant imitation egg, like a Corky, will work because the river current passing your rig’s weight will push even a buoyant egg imitation near bottom. However, using a soft bead in combination with a long leader might allow the river current to move your bait around in a more natural fashion, which can be an advantage.

A popular way to rig an Okie Drifter (no longer commercially available) or Corky for drift fishing is to simply slide it down your leader to a single hook. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

OREGON

CULVER

Culver Marine (541) 546-3354 www.culvermarine.com

EUGENE

Maxxum Marine (541) 686-3572 www.maxxummarine.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

EVERETT

Boat Country (425) 259-6126 www.boatcountry.com

MOUNT VERNON

Tom-n-Jerry’s Boat Center, Inc. (360) 466-9955 www.tomnjerrys.net

PASCO Northwest Marine and Sport (509) 545-5586 www.nwmarineandsport.com

TACOMA

King Salmon Marine, Inc. (253) 830-2962 www.kingsalmonsales.com

TACOMA Tacoma Boat Sales & Service (253) 301-4013 www.tacomaboatsales.com

FLOAT FISHING

Buoyant egg imitations are not the thing to use when float fishing because your outfit is mostly drifting at current speed, and so therefore a buoyant lure would float above your weight instead of near bottom, where it should be in this setup. However, while an egg cluster or soft bead will likely be the most effective egg offering, you can use a Corky, providing you offset its buoyancy. One way this can be done is to sandwich your Corky between two single hooks. If using a single hook, you will need to peg your Corky onto the leader a few inches above a hook big enough to offset its buoyancy. NS

Editor’s note: Buzz Ramsey is regarded as a sport fishing authority, outdoor writer and proficient lure and fishing rod designer.

Here is one (left) of the two steelhead Ramsey caught while side-drifting for the first time ever, with guide Mike Kelly back in 1994, while using an Okie Drifter rigged on a 20-inch leader. Sandwiching a size 12 Corky between two size 4 single hooks (this image) is a popular setup for the tactic, as well as drift fishing or bobber doggin’. You can also use yarnies or soft beads too. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

Clear Off Your Calendar For B-runs

By Jeff Holmes

The Lewis and Clark Valley and the towns of Clarkston, Lewiston and Asotin have felt like home since childhood. My family took frequent winter getaways here to escape the Spokane County snowscape, and I have continued those visits my whole life, especially when it comes to steelheading in the winter. I love visiting the valley and its laid-back pace of life, great restaurants, fine drinking establishments and inexpensive lodging, and I make several trips every winter. Lewiston and Clarkston are great, but it’s undeniably the wild landscapes and waterways that draw most of my attention.

The valley is home to the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, and its proximity to these and other famed fisheries – as well as the Blue Mountains, Hells Canyon and Idaho’s vast working forests and wildernesses – earn Lewiston and Clarkston my vote for best Northwest sporting town. Frankly, nothing comes close when you consider the diversity of hunting opportunities and the amazing fishing for steelhead, salmon, sturgeon, trout, kokanee, trophy smallmouth, catfish and even walleye these days as they make their way into the waters above Lower Granite Dam.

But steelhead rule the valley’s

A decent run of larger hatchery steelhead is returning to the LewistonClarkston area this season, and they’re biting well.

Kiley Mitchell of Yakima tied into a big ol’ hen this December on Idaho’s Clearwater. Famed for its two- and three-salt B-run steelhead, the river is in top form this season after the run over Bonneville was unusually comprised of 80 percent two-salt or older (bigger) fish. One-salt A-runs, which usually comprise 80 percent of the run over the dam, did not show, making other fisheries a little tougher but leaving Clearwater anglers likely to be smiling throughout winter and into spring. (MITCHELL SPORTFISHING)

fisheries, and despite some lean years due to bad ocean conditions, fisheries surrounding the LC Valley have offered the most reliable steelhead angling upstream of Bonneville. That’s true again this season, with the Grande Ronde and Snake offering good angling and with the Clearwater and its extra-large steelhead in especially stellar form.

A very large return of perhaps 20,000 hatchery steelhead – most of which spent two and even three years gorging in saltwater –has been providing excellent fishing all season in the Clearwater, and that excellent fishing will continue throughout January and beyond. It seems strange that the Clearwater’s fishing would be so good given the modest returns over Bonneville this summer, but those modest returns are due to the dismal returns of one-salt fish that typically comprise the majority of the run over the Columbia’s downstream-

most dam. In 2022, 80 percent of the total run is comprised of two-salt fish whereas during a strong run like we saw during the 2000s and early 2010s, 80 percent of the run is comprised of one-salts. As a result, a large number of those two-salt fish are bound for the Clearwater since it historically produces a much higher proportion of two-salt fish than other popular fisheries that are dominated by onesalts, like the Snake and Grande Ronde. The bottom line is that there are lots of big fish in the Clearwater in 2022, and this winter is a fantastic time to combat cabin fever and plan a guided or self-guided trip.

TRAVIS WENDT OF Reel Time Fishing (208790-4113) is one of the most respected steelhead guides on the Clearwater, the river where he got his start as a 14-year-old high school sophomore working for the owner of Reel Time Fishing (reeltimefishing.com), Toby Wyatt. Wendt worked for Wyatt every

weekend during high school and also spent three to four nights a week at his shop cleaning boats and curing up bait during steelhead season. As he progressed through high school he began to learn more about fishing techniques, reading water, operating the boats, and teaching clients. So when it came time to make a decision on what to do with his life, he decided to build on the hundreds of hours he’d spent supporting guiding for steelhead and stuck with it.

In 2008, at age 18, he became the youngest guide on the Clearwater, a title he held up until just a few years ago. Taking a similar route to Wyatt, Wendt earned a business degree from Lewis and Clark State College, bought a boat and then went to work guiding in 2011. He has since been a full-time steelhead guide alongside Wyatt on the Clearwater every October through March. I’ve wanted to work with Wendt, and with Wyatt being in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, dialing in his new

FISHING

offshore boat and presumptive new business venture, it led him to ask me to reach out to Wendt when I reached out to Wyatt. I’m glad I did. I’ve known

Wendt for a few years and asked him recently to sit down for an interview since he and his clients have been landing a lot of big fish –and because

he’s on the water every day.

“The Clearwater is a very special steelhead river, no question one of the world’s most famous because of

Travis Wendt (208-790-4113) of Reel Time Fishing (reeltimefishing.com) and his clients, like this one, have been returning happy to boat ramps in 2022, and that will continue this January in the new year. Wendt prefers plugging, bait divers and sidedrifting the big, deep winter holes where Clearwater steelhead reside in winter. (TRAVIS WENDT)

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our B-run steelhead,” says Wendt. “A B-run steelhead is a genetic strain of steelhead that spends more time in the ocean and is much larger than most other strains in the Northwest. I have taken out many anglers who have become loyal or even addicted to the Clearwater and the size of steelhead we catch here. It spoils some anglers, and they won’t steelhead fish anywhere else.”

“Although the Clearwater has dealt with some struggling returns

in the past several years like all our Northwest steelhead fisheries, even on a bad year we have still seen 8,000 hatchery fish swim 450 miles to the Clearwater,” says Wendt. “On good years like we have this year, we will see upwards of 20,000 hatchery fish make theirtrek back to the river. And these fish are built really different from coastal summer steelhead. Our fish enter the Columbia in August or September packed with the fat they will need to survive eight months in

freshwater before spawning. So even in January, our steelhead fight like crazy and still cut OK.”

“Along with being a reliable bigfish fishery and an especially awesome one this year, what also makes the Clearwater a special steelhead river is the length of the season and the fact that these fish stop and hold throughout the winter,” says Wendt. “It makes them easy to target. B-runs wander a lot and spend time on the Columbia and Snake in pretty random, only somewhat reliable areas. But as we approach January the bulk of the run is in the Clearwater, and if we have cold water in December, those fish slow down and tend to hang out in the deeper buckets. For the most part in January these fish congregate around Dworshak National Fish Hatchery near Orofino, as well as the South Fork Clearwater and up around Clear Creek near Kooskia. This really allows us to target holes with a higher concentration of fish that don’t tend to move around a whole lot.”

“Another plus side to the Clearwater is our hatchery systems, since we are almost always able to provide harvest opportunities whereasmany other steelhead fisheries don’t. A normal harvest season on the Clearwater allows for two hatchery fish to be kept in the fall retention seasons (September 10 to October 14 and November 10 to December 31) and three hatchery fish in the spring season (January 1 to April 30). The river is catch and release from October 15 to November 9. Historically, the river was catch and release prior to the October 15 retention season, but Idaho Department of Fish and Game made that change for the 2022 season due to a complicated mix of reasons. It seems to be working out.”

“THERE ARE THREE primary types of steelhead fishing that I do as a Clearwater guide, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other techniques that work just as well or sometimes even better, but these are the three I know very well and am very confident in with all clients,” says Wendt.

Craig Mitchell of Yakima’s Mitchell Sportfishing (mitchellsportfishing.com) took a weekend off from guiding and headed east toward the LC Valley to catch big B-runs with his wife, Kiley. Many religious steelhead enthusiasts, like the Mitchells, have made the pilgrimage to the holy waters of the Clearwater this winter. This January is a great time to take a family or significant other to enjoy laidback dining, wineries, shopping and some easy living in Lewiston and Clarkston – along with some river time. (MITCHELL SPORTFISHING)

“The first is back-trolling plugs. Once you dial yourself in, this technique is very simple and very effective, especiallyif you run into fish that are tight-lipped or in very cold water temperatures. Running plugs in January you want to target the slower, 8- to 15-foot pockets. My primary plug is a 3.5 Mag Lip,made by Yakima Bait. There are many other options for plugs out there, so use what you are confident in as long as the plug dives to an appropriate depth for the water you’re fishing, which tends to be deep in January.”

“At certain times running a diver and shrimp is also a great technique. If I’m fishing shallower than 15 feet, I will use a Brad’s Standard bait diver or Mud Dog-style diver. If you can

get your hands on fresh sand shrimp, you’re in the game; however, that’s tough to come by upriver, and cured coon shrimp also works very well behind a diver. Some days the fish will push deeper than 15 feet and then I go to a Jet Diver. I use the 50-foot divers because I know they will dive to 30 feet with no problem, but also will fish as shallow as 15 feet. Basically, the colder the water, the deeper the fish will be on the Clearwater.”

“The other technique I use is sidedrifting beads, yarnies or bait. This is very effective, but it requires more skill as a captain and as an angler. Boat control and positioning is key, as well as having people on the rods who can consciously determine the difference from the bottom and a fish,

which can be very difficult at times. In January the water is cold, so the fish don’t bite thathard, and sometimes you won’t feel them bite at all until your rod loads. But once you rip back, you’ll know immediately you have a monster B-run hooked up. Of course, bank anglers use other techniques, and floats and jigs and also old-school drift fishing are very popular on the Clearwater in January.”

“Normally, B-runs average 32 to 34 inches, but we have been catching more 36- to 40-inch fish than in past years thanks to our hatcheries no longer spawning small A-runs with B-runs,” says Wendt. “B-runs now get spawned with B-runs, and as a result our hatchery fish have been chunkier and longer. As a general

The Clearwater can be fished from the bank in the winter quite effectively, but the best way is in a boat, and the best way to learn the river for bank fishing or boat fishing is to go with a guide. Here one of Travis Wendt’s clients shows off a nice buck. Clearwater bucks color up early in the fall after only a short time in freshwater, but don’t let them fool you. They enter the Columbia system in late summer more loaded with fat than any other Northwest steelhead. Had it not fallen to Wendt’s client, this fish would have lived off its rich fat reserves from late summer through early spring. Upriver summer steelhead are a totally different breed than coastal summers and fight like hell, even in late winter. (TRAVIS WENDT)

rule of thumb, a 40-inch steelhead weighs right around 20 pounds, which is extremelyrare, and you don’t see or hear of fish that big being caught frequently, but what is awesome about the Clearwater is the next fish you have biting your line could very well be that 40-incher or maybe one even bigger. I personally have heard and seen picturesof two steelhead over 20 pounds this year, and both were caught by our clients, one on a guided trip with us and another was fishing on his own in his personal boat.”

While Wendt’s bread and butter is Clearwater steelhead fishing, and this is a really good year to book a trip with him, he targets a diverse array of other fish too. His spring months focus on trophy smallmouth on Dworshak Reservoir, which are by far the Northwest’s largest and some of the biggest in the world. The state record from Dworshak is 9.72 pounds and is cruising to be broken.

Wendt also chases spring Chinook on the Clearwater, catches and releases oversized sturgeon on the Snake River in Hells Canyon (as well as smallmouth), and pursues walleye and smallmouth on the Snake in various locations. He also spends most summers in Alaska, guiding for Chignik Bay Adventures where he targets Chinook, coho, sockeye, halibut and lingcod.

WHEN I VISIT Lewiston and Clarkston, which I do all four seasons and which are separated by only the Snake River, I definitely have some favorites.

These days I primarily stay at the Hells Canyon Grand Hotel in Lewiston, which despite the impressive name has really affordable, large, clean rooms and is perfectly located with a giant parking lot that can accommodate my boats in a well-lit area. I also sometimes stay in for dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, Meriwether’s Bistro, which is really good.

But I generally like to go out on the town with friends and prefer Hogan’s in Clarkston as by far my favorite bar, upscale bar food, and part-time live music venue. It’s in the valley’s original sporting goods store building on Main Street, and I freaking love it. I also enjoy Clarkston’s Saute on Sixth and Fazzari’s Finest Pizza, and in Lewiston I love the Mystic Café for breakfast, Bojack’s for the weird, oldschool giant dinner and famed bite-size steak, Bravada’s Hells Canyon, and lots of other places including the food cart pod (“The Food Yard”) on Snake River Avenue.

Basically the LC Valley is, for me, the perfect jumping-off spot for many of my favorite fisheries, morel hunting grounds, and hunting grounds. I can’t recommend a trip highly enough. I’ll be fishing the Grande Ronde and the Clearwater out of the LC Valley this winter, and the Snake is another option for steelheaders who want to avoid crowds in a sportsman’s paradise. NS

To Bait Or To Bead?

FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG

By Sara Potter

Trends. What funny things they are in life. Seeing recurring trends grace us again with their presence always amuses me. They may be slightly different than their inspiration, yet we know we have seen them before. In junior high my girlfriends and I rocked bellbottomed pants as if we were straight out of the ’70s, even though it was 1996. Seeing peg-legged pants reinvented with this generation surprised me, as I thought that silly trend would stay buried. It did not.

Traditions. What special things in life they are. Learning and sharing passion and the ways of the world from one generation to the next – how incredible!

Both trends and traditions bring excitement into our lives, allowing me to see the beauty in being human. Drift fishing is a tradition I’ll never let go of; that is for certain. But as far as what I tie on, I realize some things I wouldn’t have seen as much more than a trend 10 runs ago are in fact here to stay. In seeing this I believe some traditions in the steelhead world might have to be kept alive simply because we love them, not necessarily because we need them.

IN THIS PAST 10 runs of life I have put a great amount of thought and passion into pursuing the majestic winter fish. It’s no secret, I by far prefer to drift fish for them. Bouncing the bottom, waiting for that magical feeling of life is second to none.

In the beginning it was all about yarn. Yarn and eggs; yarn, Corky and Pro-Cure. As long as I had yarn I was good! Yarn holds scent best and isn’t fussy. It stays put exactly as I perfectly position it in my bait loop. I’d use multiple colors of yarn if I so desired; quite simple, quite deadly. I landed 16 winter steelhead in my first real year on the bank. I didn’t dabble in the hearsay of these beads or those floats, though others did.

Potter will probably always be partial to using yarn, eggs and a Corky for winter-runs, the go-to method that really set her on her way, but she’s also gradually gained confidence in using a bead, naked or otherwise. (SARA POTTER)

Sara

I would say I was an old-school fisherman, even though I was not old, nor had I fished long. I found success and a massive amount of joy in this method and those riggings. As much as possible, I made sure to catch a river dropping into shape after a hard winter’s rain. To this day I will put my money on these oldschool methods when the river is olive green and dropping. One should never underestimate the beauty of some yarn with scent and a Corky when the fish are on the move and the river is coming into shape. The way they work together between the weight of the yarn and the Corky’s ability to float, I find they ride just right in the water column and the fish will seek them out in that high olive water and gladly eat it. Oh, man! It’s good stuff.

I HAVE TO remind myself often, though, that if we aren’t growing, then we aren’t truly living. Yes, it’s true I could have stayed cozy in my world of yarn, Corky and eggs, but I’m thankful certain people came into my life and shared beads with me when they did. Seeing the fish want them like they do firsthand was a game changer.

Brandon Wedam of BnR Tackle came into my life by fate. It was funny, as I was indeed intrigued by the idea of a soft bead; matter of fact, Santa had just put my first BnR soft beads into my sock and I couldn’t wait to give them a whirl in the run ahead. It was mildly wild to meet Wedam on my river a month later, as we were both guests on a TV show.

On that day in January 2015 I got a firsthand lesson on his product and gained a friendship that has never wavered in my time on the river or within this industry. I have to say, I have loved watching him and his product grow. With tests and trials Brandon has tweaked his product since 2009. In recent years he has developed a legit bead stop, which is honestly a must. His brand is top of the line, as he has put a great deal of passion into it and I can easily say he has been an innovator in the now booming world of soft beads. I’m super grateful the river brought us together when it did.

Nowadays beads come in all forms and are well on their way to taking over. Soft ones, heavy ones, acrylic ones, rubber ones,

foam ones, glass ones, spiky ones, small ones, big ones! Holy beads! I have to say, these beads are in fact deadly once you figure them out. Each one fishes slightly differently than its competitors. Some are far deadlier than others, but make no mistake: The fish want them.

Honestly, in the beginning of my beading I struggled, possibly because I had zero confidence in what I was fishing, even though I knew they worked – I’d seen that with my own eyes. I had to work my way to where I felt confident in what I was doing, as fishing a method with confidence is damn near as important as the rigging itself.

So, what did I do? I hunkered my soft bead down with yarn. It gave me the slightest

Soft bead guru Brandon Wedam of BnR Tackle with a handsome wild buck caught on yarn and eggs. “I really love that in all my years of fishing with him he isn’t against using other lures,” writes Potter. “Getting to watch that bite, that pull, was super rad.” (SARA POTTER)

comfort in what I already knew, I suppose. Little by little I became comfortable with beads, to where now I prefer a naked bead when beading. That single egg presentation bouncing down an emerald-green winter river is legit! In fact, it’s too legit to quit!

FINDING CONFIDENCE IN beads increased my chances of success and has no doubt evened the playing field for winter fishing as a whole. Everybody has beads nowadays and I truly do see why people love them. Simple, quick, effective, no mess, not much effort is needed to rig them up – what’s not to love? Steelhead slam them when they want them, producing a far different bite than I had encountered, literally hooking

skeins represent bait in the making. Cured roe clusters are a messier alternative to beads, but also their inspiration. (SARA

themselves at times in ways I have never seen! It’s radical, really!

However effective they might be, I never want to not know that pull, that loaded feeling as a steelhead chews on some good old bait and yarn. Let them pull at your heart strings, and then you return the favor! That’s got to be love! One must execute correctly on that pull if one intends on fighting that fish, and I like that!

There is a fair amount of precision when concocting these riggings. Bigger is not always better, I have found. Natural beauty outweighs the flash of flamboyance when it comes to steelhead and bait. It’s very different than the gobs of a bright bait you use for springers. I have nabbed fish on nothing more than my finely trimmed yarn and egg and skein remnants. Bigger isn’t always better for these fish. Water clarity, of course, is a factor, but even then I brighten up my yarn in murky water but keep my eggs evenly matched with my size 2 or 4 Gamakatsu octopus hook. Yeah, there is a bit of effort, a mild stink, and we’re forced to use numb hands more often, which isn’t a bad thing. One must give far more attention to a rigging of this nature more so than a bead; maybe that’s part of why I like it.

Finding things in life that help make things a little easier seems to be the trend nowadays, and as this easier route is indeed effective, I will hop on board. However, I will always cling to the little traditions in my life, yarn and bait being one of them. Fishing will always evolve, just like life. We can let things go or we can hold onto them. The choice really is our own. My heart is on the river and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS

POTTER)

Washington Fishing Planner, Part I

By Mark Yuasa

Let’s kick off the New Year right! Whether you’re making a resolution to get out on the water more in 2023 or possibly trying out a new fishery, we’ve got you covered on the places to go that are not only attainable but could create some memorable moments.

In this first of a two-part series, we’ll cover the top fishing choices and other fun activities from January through June. Next issue: the rest of the year.

JANUARY

Lake Roosevelt, a 77,684-acre impoundment of the upper Columbia River, is worth the long drive to catch large-sized kokanee. The peak kokanee fishing time is January through April, and most average in the 13- to 17-inch range, with some weighing 3 to 5 pounds. The current state record came from Lake Roosevelt and was a 6.25-pounder caught by Clarence F. Rief on June 26, 2003. These are wild kokanee that have thrived due to an abundant biomass of daphnia and other zooplankton that boosts their growth rates and fills out their bodies with tasty reddish, orange-fleshed meat.

Most kokanee can be found in the lower third of the reservoir, from Grand Coulee Dam to above the Sanpoil River Arm at Clark Point. To access the fishing grounds, head to the boat launch at Keller. Good kokanee locations include: Hanson Harbor; below the Spring Canyon boat ramp;

Early 2023 should produce good fishing on Upper Columbia reservoirs, with well-fed triploid trout from Rufus Woods Lake leading the way. Joey Pyburn and Tom Nelson of The Outdoor Line radio show smile over one stout specimen caught on the Northcentral Washington water, which hosts good bank and boat access. (JOEY PYBURN)

From freshwater to salt-, the frigid Columbia Basin to Westside lakes, here are top bets for the first six months of the year.

Swawilla Basin on the north side of the lake; off a landmark known as Camel Bluff along the southern shore; the “Cliffs” area; and the Pipe Pile Hole, where a stack of pipes is visible along the shoreline. Just across from Keller and downstream of the Sanpoil, China Bluff and Moonbeam Bay are popular trolling spots, as is just inside the Sanpoil Arm.

Since the kokanee’s food source is usually in the upper water column, you can troll (1.3 to 1.5 mph, but no faster than 1.7) down 10 to 15 feet and often no deeper than 25 feet.

Side planer boards get your lines away from the boat (100 to 150 feet) and avoid spooking the fish. Downriggers work if you don’t have or want to use planers. The top lure is a Kokabow Fishing Spinner. Make sure to add a kernel or two of white shoe peg corn (never use yellow corn) on the hooks of the spinner

or hoochie. Then add your favorite scent. Leader length should be 12 to 20 inches. A Rapala Flicker Shad or Berkley crankbait also work well.

FEBRUARY

If you’re looking for a trophy-size rainbow trout and possibly seeking a new state record, then head to Northcentral Washington’s Rufus Woods Reservoir, located on the Upper Columbia between Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee Dams. This popular winter fishery is where the long-standing Washington state sportfishing record for a rainbow trout occurred, a 29.60-pound fish caught by Norm Woods on November 11, 2002. An interesting fact is the state record for rainbow trout was broken four times at Rufus Woods, and three happened February and the other during the last week of January. While the hype is on big fish, it’s

also about the quantity and quality of rainbow trout averaging 2 to 6 pounds, with some in the high teens. The Colville Confederated Tribes in cooperation with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife produce about 14 million pounds annually. These trout are known as “triploids” and they don’t reproduce and thus don’t jeopardize native fish stocks. The reason why these get so large is they’re hyperfocused on gorging off the ample feed – daphnia and other zooplankton – found along this vast 51-mile stretch between the towns of Bridgeport and Coulee Dam. The fish tend to stay in the area because they’re attracted to the “hatchery pellet” food source that discharges from commercial net pens.

This is a bank- and boat-accessible fishery. The best shoreline area on the north side is located on reservation land near the net pens and requires

No doubt that the Lower Columbia will really start to draw Chinook seekers in spring, but Sekiu’s no slouch either, as evidenced by this nice March blackmouth haul from the western Strait of Juan de Fuca. (JOEY PYBURN)

a tribal permit to fish. An annual permit to fish or use facilities on the reservation is $80. To buy a permit, visit colville.nagfa.net/online or colvilletribes.com. A map of Rufus Woods can be found at cct-fnw .com/program-1. The boat launches closest to the net pens are located at Tim’s Ranch and Coyote Creek. Another nearby boat ramp is Seatons Grove below Grand Coulee Dam, an 8-mile boat ride to the upper net pen. The lower net pen is about 33 miles above Chief Joseph Dam, and the middle net pen is closest to the mouth of Nespelem Creek, where a flat is located. You’ll see many fly and bank anglers in this area.

From a boat troll a Rapala, Yakima Bait Mag Lip, Flicker Shad, Wiggle Wart, FlatFish or Kwikfish in bright orange or fire tiger. You can also surface troll a Wedding Ring with a nightcrawler or a large Woolly Bugger fly behind a Wiggle Fin action disc. Bank anglers should use Berkley

Washington’s annual fourth-Saturday-in-April trout opener is an A-plus event for anglers like Logan and Zac Smith, here hoisting their stringers from 2022’s edition at a Snohomish County lake. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

PowerBait or a similar dough bait. Be sure to use a heavier slip sinker to keep it on the bottom, depending on currents, along with a heavy leader.

MARCH

Sekiu/Pillar Point in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca has become a focal point for winter Chinook, also known as blackmouth, and is scheduled to be open from March 1 through April 30. Make sure to book your trip on the front end of the season rather than later because Marine Area 5, as these waters are also known, could close sooner if the preseason projected catch is exceeded.

Sekiu is known for producing larger-sized fish in late winter and early spring, kings ranging from 5 to 13 pounds, with a few hitting 15 to 20-plus pounds. The key to success is locating baitfish. Start off the “Caves” located around the corner of the breakwater from the resort

docks, and head toward Eagle Bay. Other places are the green buoy off Slip Point, Mussolini Rock, the Coal Mine and Slide areas, or further east to Cod Fish Bay and Pillar Point. Troll with downriggers using a rotating flasher with a whole or cut-plug herring, plugs, spoons, Needlefish or a variety of plastic squids. Others will drift or motor mooch with herring or use jigs like a Point Wilson Dart, Crippled Herring, Dungeness Stinger or Buzz Bomb.

APRIL

There’s a buzz in the air when April rolls for around anglers, and that excitement is centered around opening weekend of the statewide lowland lakes trout season, April 2223. This is a time when thousands of anglers converge on hundreds of lakes stocked with millions of trout! Several years ago, WDFW came up with a cost-effective way to produce larger

catchable-sized trout in hatcheries, which has been a hit according to angler surveys taken from previous openers. The standardized catchablesize trout is 10 to 12 inches compared to 8 inches in previous years.

For those looking to catch a fish worth a prize, be sure to participate in the annual WDFW Statewide Trout Derby from April 22 through October 31 at selected lakes. And be sure to keep tabs on WDFW’s website (wdfw. wa.gov/fishing/reports/stocking), where sometime in early spring you’ll find the statewide stocking plan.

Also occurring this month, WDFW and state, federal and tribal fishery managers will meet April 2-7 to set the salmon fishing for the 2023-24 season!

MAY

The door to lingcod fishing swings wide open during a six-week season that begins May 1 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Sekiu to Port Angeles

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(Areas 5 and 6), San Juan Islands (Area 7), and most of Puget Sound (Areas 8-1, 8-2, 9, 10, 11 and 13).

Last season saw exceptionally good fishing throughout May. Much of this is tied to improved management of Puget Sound lingcod stocks since the 1980s, when populations began to increase. The lingcod daily limit is one per angler and the minimum size limit is 26 inches and maximum size is 36 inches. This slot limit is one reason why lingcod have rebounded and includes releasing oversized females.

Look for these bottom dwellers around structure like rockpiles, reefs, ledges and marina breakwaters.

Live flounders work the best to catch lingcod, so be sure to stop off

along a sandy-bottomed area and hook some to use for bait. Make sure to have a livewell or aerator on the boat to keep your flounder spunky; a large bucket filled with seawater will even do the job. To catch flounder, attach a 1- to 3-ounce lead to a short leader and hook on your fishing rod. For bait, use a small chunk of a Berkley PowerBait Grub, Sandworm or a herring strip. Bounce it off the bottom until you feel a vibration or tug on the line. Outside of a live flounder you can also use 4- to 6-inch soft plastic squid jigs or grubs in root beer, purple, green, glow or dark motor oil color. Metal-style jigs commonly used for salmon also work. Keep in mind that barbless

hooks are required for all species in Marine Areas 5-13, including for lingcod and other bottomfish.

In Puget Sound, look for lingcod on Possession Bar off Scatchet Head; around Blakely Rock and Restoration Point; off Point Evans near the Tacoma Narrows Bridges or Toliva Shoal off Steilacoom; Itsami Ledge off Henderson Inlet’s north end; near Utsalady Bay or Double Bluff, Deception Pass, Burrows Island, Smith Island and Lopez Pass to the north; artificial reefs south of Richmond Beach, north of the Edmonds Marina and southeast of Alki Point; throughout the San Juan Islands and Bellingham Bay; and the breakwaters at Elliott Bay, Shilshole and Edmonds Marinas.

JUNE

We’ll have to wait until salmon seasons are set in April to know exactly when the central Puget Sound (Area 10) coho fishery will open –typically, early or mid-June – but this has become a very popular closeto-home fishing destination. These resident coho aren’t big like their migrating fall cousins and average 2 to 4 pounds, but action can at times be fast and furious.

This fishery usually sputters out of the gate and takes about one or two weeks for the action to build. Hit the deepwater shipping lanes between Jefferson Head and the Kingston-Apple Tree Point area; the rip currents around the Edmonds oil dock to Richmond Beach; West Point south of Shilshole Bay; and the east side of Bainbridge Island.

Keep a fast troll with a Silver Horde Coho Killer or Kingfisher spoon or plastic squid with a herring strip about 28 inches behind a flasher. Mooching also catches its fair share of coho, and most use a smaller cut-plug herring with a tight spin. NS

Editor’s note: Mark Yuasa is a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife communications manager and longtime local fishing and outdoor writer.

Coho bookend Puget Sound summer salmon season, with resident silvers leading things off before the arrival of Chinook, pinks and then ocean-returning hooknoses. Jeff Redburn and his son enjoyed a good day fishing out of Seattle’s Don Armeni boat ramp. (JEFF REDBURN)

Head To Sea In 2023

By Jeff Holmes

Idon’t know what percentage of Northwest Sportsman readers have been on an ocean charter in Washington or Oregon, nor what percentage has thought about it, but here’s what I think. One hundred percent of readers should consider it, and most people should try it unless they’re super susceptible to seasickness. Even then there are highly effective scopolamine seasickness patches, which are easy to acquire from doctors.

Why the strong words? Why plan a Pacific trip in January? Quite

frankly, saltwater fishing is so beyond awesome. The ocean makes the most fertile and badass lake look like a plastic-lined trout “pond” at a sportsmen’s show. There are frigging sharks, whales, porpoises, giant fish and such a spectacle of the food chain in action that anyone who is fascinated by nature and fishing should go. It may only be January, but you can book prime dates now. What some charters and fishing guides don’t reveal when they suddenly announce they are “now booking” specific trips is that they’re always booking all trips. And they can help you select prime dates if you contact them now. Many

of these charters advertise in this magazine, and all have websites.

This March I’ll write a comprehensive overview of Pacific Northwest saltwater seasons complete with charter recommendations, but in the meantime Google, online reviews and this magazine’s fine advertisers are your friend. But for now, with those readers in mind who don’t charter fish, I’ll briefly touch on the opportunities that await us this spring, summer and even fall, and will describe what is awesome about each of them. I’ll start with the experiences that are perhaps best for beginners and for those wanting to introduce kids to the sport,

Now’s the time to book trips on the Pacific in pursuit of tasty rockfish, lingcod, halibut, albacore and more.

Charter anglers holding onto bent rods give high fives to a deckhand during a trip off the Oregon Coast. From plentiful bottomfish to challenging salmon and tuna, there’s plenty to catch in the Northwest’s ocean waters, and sportsmen’s show season is a good time to book a trip. (WILDRIVERSFISHING.COM)

Where Oregon’s bottomfish season runs yearround and can find fishermen out on the briny blue whenever seas lay down, Washington action fires up with mid-March’s opener for large lings like this one landed aboard the Adrien Rose during a 2021 trip. (DARREL SMITH)

but honestly anything besides tuna is a great option for beginners. And if you’ve reeled in plenty of fish and are able-bodied, even tuna are fair game if you pay attention to your captain’s and deckhand’s instructions.

The ocean will be waiting for you in 2023 whether you’re thinking about fishing out of Brookings, Port Orford, Charleston, North Bend, Winchester Bay, Newport, Depoe Bay, Pacific City, Garibaldi, Astoria, Ilwaco, Westport, La Push or Neah Bay.

ROCKFISH AND LINGCOD COMBOS

Black rockfish and a handful of other rockfish species are abundant, very tasty and at the heart of charter operations up and down the Northwest coastline. Undeniably the best first target for kids and beginner anglers, rockfish angling is typically fast and furious, and good charters pursue them with light gear. Most rockfish live on or around, well, rocks, but some suspend over open water. Their firm, white flesh is perfect for fish and chips, tacos, ceviche, whole roasting, and just about any application. Charter captains are excellent at finding these fish and making short work of bag limits before moving on to pursue limits of their rock-dwelling cousins, lingcod.

Lings are many ocean anglers’ favorite fish to eat. Their meat is moist, sweet, firm and decidedly unfishy. They are ambush predators with giant mouths, impressive sets of teeth and huge heads. They’ll sometimes grab ahold of rockfish as they’re being reeled up, and deckhands and captains will attempt to net or gaff these hitchhiking lings just as they reach the surface, where they tend to let go if not restrained. More commonly, lingcod are caught on large plastics, metal jigs or live sand dab and other flounder species. Sometimes growing well in excess of 40 pounds, their table fare declines when they get huge, but that stops few from retaining these monstrous-looking outsized specimens.

Both Oregon and Washington have outstanding rockfish and lingcod populations thanks to careful

One of the best things about fishing on the ocean, and especially with charters, is the sheer amount of fresh fillets you’re likely to return to port with, like this happy duo and all the albies they brought home after a solid trip out of Brookings. From there all the way north to Neah Bay, there are opportunities galore. (WILDRIVERSFISHING.COM)

management, so anglers usually return to the dock with limits of fish that translate to heavy sacks of snowwhite fillets. In all ports, charters or marinas offer filleting services that are really cheap and worth the money. If you want whole fish, you just have to ask and be ready to do the messy work yourself. These combo trips are ideal first charter outings, and sometimes they result in incidental catches of nearshore halibut and salmon, which can be retained when in season.

Rockfish and lingcod are open yearround in Oregon and open the second Saturday of March in Washington –the 11th this year. Late April and May and all summer are the best times to get after them due to ocean conditions settling down as spring progresses. The upside to fishing in early spring during good weather windows is the best quality fillets of the year.

HALIBUT

Managed carefully by the Pacific

Halibut Commission, halibut are abundant in both Oregon and Washington, though seasons are somewhat limited due to the popularity of these fish with commercial and sport anglers. It’s especially important to book halibut trips early if you want a seat. During offshore halibut seasons, most boats run to deep water from 350 to 650 feet and deploy a variety of different baits on heavy leads and spreader bars to reduce tangles in the currents at great depths. It’s quite a tussle to reel a big, flat, heavy fish off the bottom at great depths, but the payoff is lucrative and popular. While some reach 200-plus pounds or so in the Pacific Northwest, fish topping 100 pounds are quite rare and they decline in table fare as they get huge. Most caught on charters weigh between 15 and 75 pounds, with 40- to 50-pounders representing the sweet spot between pounds of meat and meat quality. While I prefer lingcod and certain rockfish species for taste and texture, halibut are the favored table fare of many, and it’s tough to argue with the amount of meat that comes off a good-sized one.

Halibut are bizarre creatures to behold, possessing pure white bellies, camouflaged backs, eyes on opposite sides of their heads and wicked sets of teeth. Many halibut charters also pursue deep-water lingcod on the same trip, making for impressive bags of fish. I recommend seeking these trips out.

OCEAN SALMON

Many more anglers pursue Chinook and coho in freshwater, but to land them in the salt is to land them in their truest, tastiest, hardest-fighting form, before they lose any of their energy and taste while developing gonads. Ocean salmon fishing has been on the upswing the past two years and was really excellent in 2022. In advance of fisheries managers’ forecasts, it’s a good bet to expect good to excellent salmon angling this season.

Get ready for even harderfighting salmon than you’re used to in freshwater, more so even

than chromers. Ocean coho put on twirling aerial displays, while Chinook bulldog and dive deep and far, ripping line out of reel drags. Once netted and dropped on boat decks, ocean salmon lose scales galore before being bonked, bled and put on ice. The best boats ice salmon for improved table fare. I’d even ask this question of a charter before handing over my credit card number. While salmon are not my very favorite to eat, I do enjoy many preparations of an ocean salmon when handled well, and friends and family appreciate them immensely.

Ocean salmon seasons generally peak in July and August, and options should exist in every port on the Washington and Oregon Coasts for Chinook and coho in 2023.

ALBACORE TUNA

Albacore are the undisputed champions of the Northwest fish-

fighting world. Swimming 150 percent faster than the fastest salmon (50 mph) and producing more boneless meat per total weight than any other fish, albacore can fill a freezer or a pantry fast with canned deliciousness.

While maybe not the best choice for inexperienced or smaller kids, or for adults lacking mobility, albacore represent the biggest charter challenge due to their raw strength and the bloody mayhem that erupts on boats during a wide-open bite. Anglers must go over, under and around each other to keep fish in front of them and lines from crossing, and they pull far harder pound-for-pound than any other of our Pacific Northwest fish. It’s not unusual to wake up sore and really tired after a day of landing a bunch of tuna, especially on trips with a swell and some wind waves. Keeping one’s balance and landing speedy fish averaging 6 to 18 pounds

is no small feat for most landlubbers like me. I took 25 of these suckers home this summer and caught many more over three trips, and each time was a workout.

The great news is I scored around 90 pints of canned tuna and filled up part of my freezer with trimmed top loins that I sear and slice thin and dip in soy sauce and wasabi. Some I wrap in prosciutto and sear and eat with a delicious marinade of sesame and peanut oil, grated ginger, chopped cilantro, honey, pepper, soy sauce and rice vinegar. Google “tuna bomb” to find this Cadillac of fish recipes.

Albacore fishing is my favorite these days, but any of these charter fishing trips is an amazing way to spend a day and to go home with unrivaled fresh fish. Book now to lock yourself in and keep your eyes open for my March coastal overview complete with specific recommendations to get the most out of your trips. NS

Fishing In The Land Of The Eagle Hunters

Western Washington siblings enjoy otherworldly fall in Mongolia.

by Tobey Ishii-Anderson

“C

atch me on the fly!” is what I seem to be telling my husband and friends as I whisk by. I’ll be on the lake or river!

My mind has a difficult time

slowing down, even on calm water with the trout below. I’m thinking of my to-do list: grocery shopping, book club, walking the dog … the everlasting to-do list.

But what about my to-do list of life? What does that include?

Health care for my adult children? Knee replacement for husband Bret? World peace?

While floating on my device casting out on the wind-free water, I had an epiphany, very much like when I finally understood what it

Author Tobey Ishii-Anderson of Olympia and her brother Paul Ishii of the Seattle area smile over a nice-sized grayling she caught during a do-it-yourself fall 2022 trip in Mongolia. (PAUL ISHII)

meant to “load the rod.”

What was on my to-do list of life? I love to fish. I would love to go to rivers less fished, hard to get to, somewhere far away. A destination fishing trip to Mongolia!

As professional photographers, my brother John and his wife Diana have visited Mongolia several times for photo shoots. When they decided to

return again, they invited me and my fishing buddy brother Paul. A family trip to Mongolia just fell in my lap.

I BEGAN ANOTHER list – the supply list of what to bring. Fishing gear, of course. Waders, two rods, two reels, boots and flies. But which flies? Choices had to be made. Mouse patterns, Elk Hair Caddis, Woolly Buggers, spinners – you

name it, I wanted to try everything. I made some hard decisions and I could only fit one box of flies in my suitcase, which was already full of beef jerky and protein bars.

That was just the fishing gear. I needed to make sure I had the proper clothing, as it was the start of winter in Mongolia. My trusty red down jacket, a warm sleeping bag

Paul Ishii calls Mongolia – home of the iconic eagle hunters and Eagle Festival, along with wolf hunters and 7,000- to 9,000-year-old petroglyphs – “an amazing place, magical and mysterious.” He recommends a local guide and four-wheel drive to navigate the least densely populated country on Earth. “It makes Montana and Alaska feel crowded,” Ishii says. (PAUL ISHII)

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LEELOCK CRAB CRACKER

This new tool from Leelock will allow you to measure your Dungeness crabs to determine which ones are legal to keep. Then use the Crab Cracker to crack them in half, separating the two clusters from the shell and guts.

The Crab Cracker has been designed so that it sits nicely on top of a 5-gallon bucket, perfect for when you clean crabs. The bucket gives you a stable base, which makes it easier to clean – the guts and shell go into the bucket, making cleanup a snap. Crabs cleaned this way take up half as much space as whole crabs, so you can cook twice as many in your kettle.

The Crab Cracker is a unique tool made from solid aluminum, and comes in handy for cleaning Dungeness crabs.

and three pairs of long underwear would protect me from 5 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas.

Paul and I also did our research on the various rivers, as it looked like it was going to be a do-it-yourself fishing trip for us with no guide.

STARTING IN EASTERN Mongolia, we drove eight hours on off-terrain roads. Every body part shook and shimmied as we drove over bumps, ditches and small streams. The vast grasslands were filled with sheep and goats. Herds of wild horses grazed, as did two-humped camels.

The first river was the Onon. It is said that the young Chenggis Khan fished there with his three brothers

to bring food for his mother.

The driver dropped us off at the end of the dirt road. We bushwhacked through the brush and waded in some mud that almost sucked off our boots. The river was crystal clear with smooth rolling rocks. The big open sky was aquamarine blue and there was a chill in the air. I pulled my cashmere cap over my ears.

“Come over here, Tobey!” Paul had found an incredible riffle with a deep trench. On my first cast, I caught a grayling with that beautiful fanned fin. The next cast landed a Manchurian trout, or lenoks, a gorgeous fish speckled with dark brown spots.

We were catching a fish with each cast. We caught at least 40! I used tiny

caddis flies to entice the graylings and a traditional Woolly Bugger for the lenoks. These unusual, nonlocal insects were too great for the fish to resist.

Paul caught a juvenile taimen, the exotic fish that all fisherfolk drool over. They are long and salmon-like, with red tip fins blending into a brownish red tail. Lucky Paul! He caught three on a DIY trip that other fishers spend thousands of dollars for just the chance.

As we were fishing, a herd of wild Mongolian ponies plodded over towards us to drink the water. They shook their manes, snorted and went on their way. Wild country!

BY THE TIME we approached western Mongolia towards the Altai Mountains,

The siblings’ trip coincided with the onset of winter, and even if their flies may have been better suited to Northwest waters, the fish were biting. Along with grayling, their catch included lenoks (inset) and three young taimen, the legendary freshwater salmonid that can grow to impressive sizes, thanks to a diet that’s more like a muskellunge than a trout or char. (PAUL ISHII)

the temperature was dropping at a radical rate. The ice-covered lakes looked like glass and we could see little fish swimming below the surface.

On the way to the mountains, we attended the Eagle Festival. This event draws huge crowds from around the world. Twenty Kazakh eagle hunters with their magnificent golden eagles spreading their wings paraded around the fairgrounds.

That night we stayed at the home of eagle hunter Kumisbek and his family. He brought in the golden eagle that he had raised. The magnificent bird dug its talons into his thick leather glove. Kazakh hospitality included milk tea and fried bread with a plate of noodles and mutton. During this feast the family gave us suggestions about where to fish.

It was 90 miles of rough road travel before we could make our first cast on the Khovd River, which is wide and goes on for miles. We walked through

the snow and waded into the frigid water. Paul went ahead of me as I struggled to keep my balance. I’d be a popsicle if I fell in. Suddenly, we saw a motorcycle with a military person in a camouflage uniform approaching the bank. He beckoned for us to come to the shore.

“Papers, please!” he signaled through universal hand gestures. He was the border police. We were too close to the Chinese border. We left graciously, knowing there were plenty of fish elsewhere.

Our driver Bede took us to another area of the Khovd. We walked among the long-haired yaks that were grazing on the sparse grass.

I ventured on my own and decided to fish just below some rapids. The air was so cold that the guides on my rod were crusted with ice. I would swish the rod in the water to get the line in motion again. Then I cast out just above a riffle to let the line swing.

Suddenly, there was a tremendous tug. The line started to sing out of the reel. I stripped in the line, held the rod tip up and brought in a beautiful 4-pound grayling. Bede was going wild! He helped me bring the fish in and then whacked it over the head.

The grayling became lunch. It’s catch and eat over there. Bede got the portable stove going in the 15-degree weather. My taste buds were dancing as the fresh steamy fried fish warmed us up! Nothing like straight from the river to the frying pan and sharing the meal with new companions.

THIS MONGOLIA ADVENTURE reminded me how wonderful it is to experience another culture, fish historic rivers and be with my family. I can check this destination fishing trip off my list. What’s next? NS

Editor’s note: Tobey Ishii-Anderson is a flyfishing, rock-climbing, storytelling grandma.

Remote, Comfortable & Affordable

Our remote Alaskan fishing lodge is situated on the upper stretches of the beautiful Egegik River. You’ll watch some of Alaska’s most stunning sunrises, complete with a distant, active volcano. We are a fishing camp specializing in coho fishing, brown bear viewing, and flyout fishing adventures to even more remote destinations in the Last Frontier.

Coho Fishing e Egegik River

The Egegik River is touted by many experienced anglers as the best silver salmon stream in all of Alaska. Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River was the first fishing lodge to become established on the breathtaking Egegik River, and is less than a 5 minute boat ride from some of the best fishing holes on the entire river.

Included in your fishing trip:

• 5 days fishing/5 nights stay in camp

• Experienced, fully guided fishing.

• Comfortable cabins furnished with beds, cozy comforters & bedding.

• Home cooked meals, snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages.

• Transportation from the lodge to prime fishing holes on the Egegik River.

• Freezing and vacuum sealing of your fish, up to 50 lbs., per angler.

New Year’s ’Yotes

Din. Bright sunshine didn’t help, but the clear weather also meant that the high-pitched shriek carried throughout the canyon.

NW PURSUITS

By Jason Brooks

eep snow and tall sagebrush kept me concealed well enough as the electric call blasted a rabbit-indistress cry. Though this set was in the middle of the day and most coyotes were napping, I felt confident that a songdog would come

Sitting still while scanning the sage for any movement, my patience faded fast and after 45 minutes my subconscious won out and I gave up. As I stood to stretch, I caught movement over my shoulder as a coyote took off running. Immediately, anger took over at the blown opportunity.

Hunting coyotes can be fun and frustrating. From calling sets to jumpshooting them, the wary coyote is a formidable adversary. But there are things you can do to increase your success in both calling and finding coyotes. This small predator lives in 49 states – everywhere but Hawaii – and most offer a long season, with some states not requiring hunting licenses. One of the best times to hunt

Breaking up your outline with camo clothing and by using natural features will help you blend in while hunting coyotes in winter. (JASON BROOKS)

Calling is perhaps the most popular way to bring songdogs in, but decoys can also be used, and don’t overlook still hunting, or jump-shooting, as author Jason Brooks calls it. (JASON BROOKS)

coyotes is in the middle of winter, from late December until mid-February, making for a great way to extend your hunting season after most big game hunts are over.

THERE ARE A few things you can do to increase your success. When calling, be sure to get comfortable. This starts well before you head out to do a stand or two. Dress appropriately, including layering so that as you hike to the stand you don’t sweat, which will eventually cause you to get cold. Once you do find the perfect spot to sit, it is best to add another layer or two of camouflage to match the conditions. In snow, a white sheet can help, as long as you don’t let it flap in the breeze.

Though most calling sequences are 15 to 20 minutes, you might find yourself sitting for much longer, depending on how far away the call is carried. If you have

ever sat on bare snow, a frozen rock or tried to kneel for 20 minutes, you know this can seem like an eternity. Find a place to sit with back support, such as against a fence post, tree or rock. I have even sat back to back with my hunting partner when there was no solid back support. A small foam pad that gardeners use to kneel on can also make a significant difference. Sit on it to keep warm and comfortable.

Be sure to break up your outline. Coyotes key in on what looks out of place, so if you sit on a ridgeline with your silhouette exposed, do not expect them to come running in. Same with camouflage, as you cannot sit in the open and look like a large object. Sitting in a sagebrush bush or behind it really helps, as does using tall grass to break up your shape.

Any movement you make is bad, but you can overcome some slight moves by using

a motion decoy. These are often furry rabbit lookalike objects that flail around erratically. Some are battery operated and work with your electronic call; others are stand-alone; and some are a spring with a long string that you pull on to create movement.

In the early 1990s, when I hunted for a fur company in Southern Idaho, we would sit as still as possible. This is because we only had mouth-blown calls and the sound came from us. Coyotes would charge right in, as long as we did not move. But now you can use an electronic call (where legal) and a motion decoy. This simple device flutters and flops like a wounded animal and draws the attention of the coyote to it. Place it next to the electronic call and away from where you are sitting so the coyote will focus on it. This means that when you have that itch, or a leg goes numb, you can make the slight scratch or adjustment and not ruin the set.

WHEN CALLING, BE sure to practice and do some experimenting. If you are hunting in an area where it is popular to call for coyotes, then try other sounds such as birds fighting. The jackrabbit is the most common and gets overused quickly as the season goes along. Switch it up to other animal sounds. Then, as winter starts to fade and the breeding season begins, a howling sequence along with yips, barks and other coyote sounds can work wonders.

Knowing when to stop is also important. Most hunters do not give it enough time, but coyotes that hang up should also not be educated by far-off shots, showing yourself too soon after calling, or overcalling. Sometimes just letting them walk away will bring them in closer the next time you call. Do not “educate” a coyote by making mistakes.

Take your time when setting up to start calling. Once you hear wildlife around you – say, birds calling – then it is time to start your calling sequence. Start low and slow, testing the waters, so to speak, especially in thick cover. Keep in mind you are mimicking an animal in distress, which means you need to pause between calls, and always keep an eye out. If you see any kind of predator or scavenger, such as crows and/or magpies, coming your way, get ready, as coyotes are often followed by these birds.

Be cognizant of where you are when you are calling coyotes. If you are hunting in an area close to homes, know that you will likely call in domestic dogs as well. A few years ago, while hunting the edge of an orchard that had a lot of coyote activity, we sat along a fence line and began our calling sequence. A few minutes later two dogs came running in and so our set was ruined. Another time we had just sat down and began some fighting-birds sounds – a great call to use in urban areas – when a coyote came poking along to see what the ruckus was all about.

ANOTHER WAY TO entice coyotes, especially late in the month and towards February, is to locate them in the early dawn or dusk hours with coyote howls. Coyotes are very vocal and do form packs, but theirs are unlike wolf packs. Instead, they are more

Winter finds coyote pelts in their prime, and that’s a reason for some hunters to get out there. Others see it as an opportunity to ease predation on other game animals at a tough time of year for critters. (JASON BROOKS)

of a social gathering until breeding season in mid-February. If you do some howls and get a response back, you now know where to start during the daylight hours.

The use of decoys, including a coyote decoy during the breeding season, is becoming popular. Some hunters use dogs as a decoy. This technique is very effective, but you must have a very welltrained dog and be sure to be alone, meaning the area you are hunting should be private property or where you can see a long distance to make sure nobody else is hunting nearby. When using a coyote decoy make sure you sit a little ways away from it, as they are so realistic that anyone who sees it from a distance is likely to believe it is a real coyote. If your hunting companion is a real dog, then a blaze orange collar or some identifying clothing or vest is a good idea, as is a leash just in case your dog decides to break free and visit the incoming coyote. Greyhounds have been used to hunt coyotes, but this is not common in the

Pacific Northwest. However, if you do happen to come across a lost greyhound, know it was likely chasing a coyote and the hunter will hopefully be nearby.

Coyotes do most of their hunting at night, so the early hours of the day are often best, but don’t overlook midday. The coyote encounter I mentioned earlier occurred in the middle of the day; if it is cold out, they need calories. You will often find them out “mousing” in the afternoon, as mice tend to move around in the sunshine. Since mice are a major food source, be sure to watch grain fields and tall grasslands for coyotes, as mice are found in these places.

NIGHT HUNTING IS becoming popular with advancements in optics, but be sure to check the regulations. If you do choose to hunt at night, it is a good idea and much appreciated to let the local game warden know. Several years ago I was chatting with the local warden in my hometown and asked him about hunting

coyotes at night. All he asked was that I give him a call to let him know so that when the calls came in about a nighttime “poacher,” he would know it was us and that we were just out coyote hunting. Admittedly, I have only hunted them at night a few times, mostly because this should only be done in wide-open areas with no houses around, but it also tends to put stress on local deer herds. I also do not have thermal optics but have friends who do, and they do very well.

Jump-shooting coyotes is another way to hunt them. The idea is to hunt deep draws or open areas where coyotes frequent. Years ago, while living in southern Idaho, we would hunt coyotes by climbing up a steep hill that overlooked a farming valley. This vantage point allowed us to glass surrounding hay fields for miles and miles. We’d spot coyotes out mousing, make a note of where they were and then set out to relocate the dogs throughout the day. This meant driving county roads to get us close to where we last saw the

coyote and then it was time to still hunt – slowly walk the ridgelines and look into the canyons and deep cuts where they would go to get out of the wind during the middle of the day. We often jumped coyotes and they would take off on a run, only to stop a few hundred yards out when we would be ready.

This style of coyote hunting is fun, but you also need to know a little about the coyotes in the area. If they have been hunted hard, they might not stop running. But most of the time, if you jump them with a little distance between yourself and the dog, it will run a ways and then stop to look back. Knowing this, drop to a prone position as soon as you see the coyote and anticipate it stopping, with rifle ready.

This style of hunting works well with a hunting partner and using an agreed-to universal signal. When walking together, simply saying “coyote” will trigger your partner to get their rifle ready. But it also works well if you split up and each walk a ridgeline across from each other when

walking out a draw or canyon. When the coyote jumps up, the signal could be something like a quick bark, which often causes the coyote to stop, as well as lets your hunting partner know you located a songdog. If the coyote had keyed in on you, then it is likely your partner will get a good shot off.

THE WILY COYOTE has thrived where other animal populations have faltered, and this is because they are smart and highly adaptive. Coyotes living in urban areas are thriving mostly because there are few places to hunt and there’s so much food. With homes being built in suburbs and developments encroaching on the foothills, Western Washington and urban Oregon have strong numbers of coyotes.

If you are a fur hunter, then it is the east side of these states that you want to head to, as the colder winters produce better furs. Do not expect to get rich shooting coyotes, as the market has crashed from a recent high a few years ago. Now, most

fur buyers offer barely enough to cover the cost of ammunition.

But hunting coyotes is not always for fur. It can be for predator management and to help deer and elk populations. With the recent increase in other predators, such as wolves, black bears and mountain lions, the coyote can seem like an insignificant threat, but they also prey on other game animals and birds, as well as domestic animals and even pets. The chances of your barn cat getting eaten by a black bear is pretty small, but coyotes have no problem sneaking into the yard to eat your pet.

One might ask if it is worth the hassle anymore to try and hunt coyotes. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife acknowledges coyotes can carry diseases such as parvo that affect our pets, and of course they carry fleas and ticks. Voters outlawed leghold traps years ago, but you can still use “live traps,” which are readily found at feed and farm stores. But hunting coyotes is way more fun and can be even more productive if done correctly. NS

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The Evolution Of Nontoxic Shotshells

By M.D. Johnson

Lead. It’s a dirty word now, both literally and figuratively. A shotgunning child of the 1970s, I grew up with lead; so much so, I didn’t know back then there were loads other than 11/8 to 11/2 ounces of the little pellets. My father and I ran the small gray spheres – No. 5s for everything –through our MEC 600 Junior singlestage reloaders. We swept ’em off the floor of the basement, praised them above all others, and picked ’em out of countless mallards, wood ducks, black ducks, fox squirrels, cottontails and –in the Ohio of the ’70s – the occasional rooster pheasant or ruffed grouse.

And we, like tens of thousands of other sporting shotgunners, spewed them liberally and without concern about the landscape. Lead, as most of you know, is both a blessing and a curse. Great for blocking stray radiation when getting X-rays at the dentist, but let a duck or goose or swan get ahold of even two or three pellets while grubbing around amongst the muck, and the bird is destined to die a slow and deteriorating death. Bald eagles, catching and consuming the same lead-weakened fowl, also succumb to the poison. Something, to use the cliché, had to be done.

And done it was. In 1991, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially outlawed the use of lead shot for the purposes of hunting migratory waterfowl. Over the next three decades, other regulatory changes

Loads for Northwest ducks and geese have come a long way from Dad’s steel.

Earlier this waterfowl season, author MD Johnson toured Hevi-Shot’s Sweet Home, Oregon, factory. These tungsten pellets aren’t what the nontoxic waterfowl shell manufacturer was looking for in terms of consistency, so they were melted down for another round of forming. (MD JOHNSON)

involving this slow phasing out of lead shotshells would be enacted, including a total ban of lead shotshells on many state-owned wildlife management areas and federal refuges, regardless of the target species being pursued. Doves, quail, pheasants – didn’t matter.

A SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES

If you were a duck hunter in ’91, lead pellets were out. The problem was the only alternative at that point was steel, but that’s not entirely true. Other alternatives – and you’re going to hear that word a lot – included “magic metals” such as bismuth and tungsten, both of which showed promise, but both of which came with their own

separate issues, the least of which was the fact they were expensive. Steel, then, captured the spotlight.

But while steel was relatively inexpensive in comparison, it wasn’t problem-free. First, steel is hard, much harder than soft ’n squishy lead, which meant steel had the potential to gouge or groove the inside of shotgun barrels, particularly those of older (softer steel) shotguns, like my father’s 1952 Winchester Model 24. Second, steel is light – 7.8 grams per cubic centimeter compared to 11.3 g/ cc for lead. Thus, steel doesn’t pack the “punch” that lead does. It’s a matter of physics. Lead, which is heavier, retains more energy, especially at distance, than does the lighter steel pellet.

Think baseball versus bowling ball, both thrown at the same speed and hitting you in the chest at 15 feet. I prefer neither, but if I had to choose …

Steel pellets could, though, approximate lead in terms of retained energy and on-target performance, if a couple things were done. The steel pellets in question had to be two to three times larger – No. 2 steel versus No. 4 lead – and had to be moving faster – 1,550 feet per second steel versus 1,330 fps lead. Again, it’s a matter of physics where kinetic energy, or the “force” with which a pellet strikes a target, equals mass (volume x density) times velocity/squared. Ugh! In layman’s terms, and as I understand it, to approximate the power of lead with a steel pellet, the steel pellet had to be bigger and faster. Which is doable, but there’s only so much room in a shotshell hull for important things like powder, wad and shot.

Enter the 3 1/2-inch 12-gauge. But we’ll save that for another time.

So in terms of steel shotshells (steel pellets) in the 1990s, there were indeed answers to the USFWS’s no-lead, aka nontoxic, mandate. Unfortunately, and trust me, I shot a lot of early steel, they for the most part weren’t good answers. The good news is that over the next 20 to 25 years ammunition manufacturers greatly improved their steel shotshell offerings, thanks in part to innovations in powder, metallurgic mixtures and – perhaps most significantly – wad design. Protect the barrels. Hold charges of lighter pellets together for more consistent patterns at acceptable distances. Create a better product, which not only performs well – yes, Virginia, there’s some awfully good steel shotshells out there today! – but is environmentally friendly.

Before we leave steel for the time being, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a couple of the steel alternatives to steel; rather, not in the metal makeup of the pellets – steel = steel – but in the physical shape of the pellets themselves. In 2011, Winchester introduced Blind Side, a hexagonal steel pellet “stacked,” per se, inside the

Once mixed with other metals, bismuth is formed into bars, which are then melted and transformed magically into pellets. (MD JOHNSON)

shotshell hull so as to minimize wasted space between pellets, thus resulting in a higher count payload. Combined with their Diamond Cut wad, this design held everything together.

There’s also Federal Premium’s Black Cloud, a unique steel pellet with a ring – think Saturn – around it and meant to improve on-target performance. It was loaded using (first) Federal’s rearbraking FliteControl wad, which has now been redesigned and renamed the FliteControl Flex wad. More nonround steel pellets to come? I imagine so.

BISMUTH

Bismuth, a byproduct of the mining of other materials like tin, lead or tungsten, is a “heavy metal mineral” – some might call it a stone or crystal – which forms naturally in the Earth’s crust and is most commonly found in Australia, China and Bolivia. It’s also slightly radioactive, which might be where I coined the phrase “depleted uranium duck bullets.” Probably not, but I digress.

Ammunition makers took a stab at using bismuth as an alternative to lead

in the late 1990s. However, and while undeniably safe for older softer-metal shotguns and straight full chokes –i.e. no interchangeable chokes – the material during these earlier days proved too brittle for effective and consistent use afield, with some “experts” believing many of the individual bismuth pellets within the wad would fracture and splinter upon ignition and setback, leaving waterfowlers to send downrange a cloud o’ powder. A bit melodramatic, perhaps, but it was a problem.

And then there’s the cost of bismuth – roughly $10 per pound today versus $0.44 a pound for lead – as well as the process used to create the pellets, itself a touch more complex than the act of pouring molten lead from atop a tall tower and letting a combination of gravity and centrifugal forces form a sphere.

But that, as is said, was then. Today, outfits like Hevi-Shot have formulated alloys of bismuth, tin and other metals, and created pellets that are more dense – 9.6 g/cc – than steel, though not quite as heavy as lead; aren’t near as brittle as were the first-generation bismuth pellets; pattern quite well, thanks again to innovations in wad design; and, if you’re asking my opinion, which I’ll give freely, smack the tar out of ducks and geese. So, option two.

TUNGSTEN

Uber-rare and mined primarily in China, which by hypothesis holds some 75 percent of the planet’s supply, tungsten is also quarried in Russia, Portugal, Bolivia and Austria. Surprisingly, at least to me, tungsten is also found in “significant deposits,” per the U.S. Geological Survey, in Alaska and in almost a dozen states in the Lower 48, including right here in the Northwest. Compared to the other pellet materials, as well as gilded unicorn horn, which can hold its own on the stock market, tungsten is ridiculously expensive, with current prices (99.95 percent purity) right around $50 per pound.

The horn’s a joke, right; however, if

A Hevi-Shot technician melts bismuth-mix ingots, which will be turned into bismuth pellets, which will then be dropped into a variety of shot shells. (MD JOHNSON)

it can be dropped into No. 5 or 6 pellets and is found to be environmentally safe and can get nontoxic approval from USFWS, well, then …

Tungsten shotshells have been around for a quarter-century, with the folks at Federal Premium tossing one of the first nontoxic offerings on the table in ’97. Since then, a list – albeit a short list – of what I’ll call designer tungsten duck/goose bullets have come and gone. Oh, they’re incredible downrange, all right, with their first 10, then 12 g/cc density – note: an even heavier variant of tungsten known in the industry as TSS, or tungsten super shot, comes in at a whopping 18 g/ cc, or almost twice that of bismuth – but all that magic comes at a price, with these tungsten shotshells costing

roughly $3.25 a pop as compared to $1 a steel shell. Still, that’s not nearly the cost of TSS shotshells, those used almost exclusively by spring turkey hunters, which will set you back $12 to $20 per trigger pull.

METALLURGIC BLENDS

So, if you’re like me, you’re thinking, OK, Yon Ammunition Maker, how about dropping a little of this and a little of that into that 3-inch hull, and giving me, Mr. or Ms. Duck Hunter, the best of both the steel and/or bismuth and/ or tungsten worlds, but at a price point that won’t give me kidney failure? Ah, yes, Virginia; ’tis here.

Different shot sizes inside one hull isn’t a new concept; turkey hunters have had this option for many a moon now. What is relatively new is what the folks at Hevi-Shot, along with other makers such as Winchester (Wicked Blend), are doing, and that’s stacking, to use the vernacular, one nontoxic atop another, the intent being to provide you, said ’fowler, with the aforementioned best of both materials.

Hevi-Shot’s Hevi-Metal Longer Range, for instance, as well as their HeviHammer shotshells contain 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively, bismuth pellets overtop (stacked) high-quality

Inert/sterilized and environmentally friendly flax seed is used as an overshot filler in some nontoxic shells. (MD JOHNSON)

Specialty wads like Federal’s Flitecontrol Flex elevate nontoxic performance to never before seen levels. (MD JOHNSON)

steel pellets, the latter being one shot size larger than the bismuth so as to balance the ballistic scales downrange. Remember, a steel pellet must be bigger and/or faster than a heavier density pellet in order to balance those ballistic scales, and since it’s impossible to obtain two different muzzle velocities out of the same shotshell, it’s done with size.

NONTOXIC SHOT SIZE SELECTION

Let’s talk a little more about that concept. One of the biggest bug-aboos out of the gate back in ’91 with nontoxics, which essentially meant steel shot, was this new rule that advised increasing your shot size two sizes above that which you normally used. As we shot nothing but lead No. 5s for everything, this meant we wanted No. 3 steel now for ducks and BBs or BBBs for geese. Hell, I’d never even seen a No. 3 pellet; BBB either, for that matter. While pretty plain English, these new pellets seemed a hell of a

lot bigger than necessary to get the job done – until we started shooting them at ducks. Yes, sir – two shot sizes bigger.

Today, that mantra remains in the steel shot realm, save for instances (perhaps) involving higher velocity ammunition, or, if you choose to be like me, you’re stupid-conservative in your shot-taking and shy away from anything outside 30 yards. Maybe 35, but no further. Still, No. 4 steel for No. 6 lead or No. 3 steel for my tried ’n true, albeit now defunct, not to mention illegal No. 5 lead is a good rule o’ thumb.

Shoot an all-bismuth load, and now you’re looking at one shot size larger (in bismuth) than what you normally shot in lead; or, No. 4 bismuth for my No. 5 lead. I, however, have enjoyed excellent performance from HeviShot’s Hevi-Bismuth in a 2 3/4-inch format with 11/4 ounces of No. 6 shot and on everything from greenwings to greenheads. Choose an all-tungsten

shotshell, and it’s three (!!!) shot sizes smaller than what you’d normally shoot with steel (or one smaller than what you might have previously shot in lead). However, and as I do with bismuth, I drop two sizes when shooting straight tungsten, such as my No. 4 Hevi-XII for Canadas over decoys instead of my traditional lead No. 2s.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thirty-two years ago, the nontoxic shotshell menu was pretty slim. Burger, fries, soft drink. Nothing else. Nothing fancy. Three decades on, and the nontoxic choices, while I’ll stop short of using the word limitless, are night ’n day vastly improved. What you shoot depends on what you do, i.e. little ducks, big ducks, white-fronts over decoys, pass-shooting sandhill cranes, Utah tundra swans; what your shotgun prefers, determined only by range time and patterning; and, of course, the depth of your pockets. NS

While hunting dogs are born with drive, it’s up to the owner to get the most from their dog, and it starts with establishing who is boss through clear, consistent communication. (SCOTT

Resolve To Correct Behavior Issues Now

Happy New Year!

If you’re a dog owner and into New Year’s resolutions, sweet! If you’re a dog owner and your dog’s not behaving as you’d like, now is the time to develop a resolution to fix it.

ISSUE “Those dog beds are terrible; my dog chewed it up in less than a week!”

By Scott Haugen

Here are some scenarios I recently witnessed, and how to remedy them.

RESOLUTION First of all, no gun dog that you’ve raised from a puppy should be allowed to chew on anything you don’t want it to. The exception to this is dogs with high anxiety, especially rescue dogs, which many people acquired during the Covid calamity; disciplining and teaching these dogs is a whole different scenario.

The problem with a dog chewing

its bed is not the bed, but the owner’s inability to control the dog, and the fact it carried on for a week is wrong. When a pup chews on anything you don’t want it to, approach it with a harsh “No!” command and remove the object, or the dog. Give the dog a bone or chew to redirect the behavior. If the chewing persists, approach the dog with a harsh “No!” command and swat its backside, or the underside of the jaw. Never raise a hand to a dog and swat

HAUGEN)

GUN DOGGIN’ 101

it in the face or from the top, down, as it could lead to irreparable damage. If this doesn’t work, an electronic collar will do the job.

ISSUE “I like to let her run like that; it’s a good workout.”

RESOLUTION It was summer and I was swimming my dogs in a river. A man came walking by with his German shorthaired pointer. A few minutes prior I had watched

his dog run across a big farm field, chasing a flock of honkers, barking all the way. I asked him what had just happened. “Oh, that, I always let her chase birds; it’s good exercise.”

When I told the man it’s against the law to harass wildlife like that, and that his dog was trespassing, I had his attention. And if he thought a short burst run is conditioning, he had a lot to learn. A long, steady run or swim is much better, and to

get the most of short-burst sprints, do it by throwing bumpers uphill so a dog can build strength in its back end.

As for the question of allowing a dog to chase birds, what’s it going to do come time for a hunt?

ISSUE “Ever since she had a litter of pups, she’s not hunted the same.”

RESOLUTION That’s what a man shared with me on a duck hunt together. Over the course of the morning three of us killed limits in a small creek, yet the dog only retrieved three ducks. The dog was reluctant to swim, walk in the mud or move through brush. The man said his vet checked the dog for hormone imbalances, overall health concerns and confirmed she was on a good diet. This dog was being lazy and just needed some direction and a boost of confidence.

Instead of making excuses and wanting to keep shooting ducks, the owner should have set down his gun and worked with his dog to get her fetching. Tossing a bird, short, for her to retrieve would have done it. The dog was controlling the owner, not the other way around, and at 4 years old, the Lab just needed to be encouraged and told what to do.

ISSUE “He’s just a puppy having fun.”

RESOLUTION That’s what a man said to me in the parking lot as his dog ran over 100 yards away into a duck marsh. The pup chased up ducks, snipe and songbirds and was clearly out of control. When walking from his blind to the truck, the man should have kept the 6-month-old pup on a short leash and controlled it. When the pup finally did come back – at its leisure, no less – it wouldn’t obey a single command.

Never take a break from training and always reinforce the pup to sit, stay and heal. Commands and training should occur at work and play. The owner must establish him- or herself as the leader in order for their dog to know what it’s supposed to do, and for them to enjoy the experience of being a gun dog owner.

Why does this hunter have a whistle in his mouth? Because he’s prepared to correct any unwanted behavior of his dog. For gun dog owners, the training never stops, even when on the hunt. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

ISSUE “Down, get down! I hate it when he jumps on strangers!"

RESOLUTION I’d just seen the yellow Lab

Comes with rear mounted motors that run on two D-cell batteries, for up to 25 hours or more. Optional timer available. Orange weedless paddling feet and foot attachments, easy access for battery holder, waterproof switch and floatation insert.

jump up on his owner and lick his face, and the owner encouraged it. As the passenger got out of the truck, the dog did the same to them. That’s when the owner tried to make it stop. By encouraging the dog to jump up and lick the owner, it was being taught that such behavior is OK, but when it did it to someone else, it was told it was not OK. The owner needs to deliver consistent messages. Otherwise, he and his dog will only be frustrated. The man must not let the dog jump on him when it’s excited, no exceptions.

WITH A NEW year upon us, resolve yourself to shaping your dog into the best behaved animal it can be. This starts with you knowing what’s right and wrong, then delivering clear and concise commands that leave no question you’re the one in charge at all times. 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.

A disciplined dog should do whatever its owner wants, including posing for pictures at the end of a successful hunt. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

Ring In 2023 With New Goodies, Last-Minute Ops

anuary typically means downtime for outdoorsmen; the “off-season” of cold winter evenings and weekends set aside for cleaning and storing guns, reloading empty brass, maybe taking a last crack at grouse and rabbits, and perhaps plugging a coyote if one strays in front of your rifle.

It’s also the month when the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade, or SHOT, Show allows the firearms industry a chance to show off new goods and goodies for four days in Las Vegas.

JUST AS I was preparing this column, Savage Arms announced its new Model 110 Carbon Predator, a rifle specifically designed for putting the hurt on songdogs and other varmints. This bolt-action sizzler

Jscales at 6.5 pounds without a scope. It features a granite-textured AccuStock with AccuFit technology, a carbon fiberwrapped Proof Research barrel threaded for attachments, and a user-adjustable AccuTrigger, which can be set anywhere from 1.5 to 4 pounds.

It also boasts two sling swivel studs and two-piece Weaver-style bases.

Savage offers this rifle in 6mm ARC, .223 Remington, .22-250 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, .300 BLK and .308 Winchester.

Those are perfect calibers for hunting predators in the winter, and in my experience, Savage has produced some remarkably accurate rifles. With the right optics, the 110 Carbon Predator could be the coyote’s worst – and short-lived – nightmare.

For handgunners, Smith & Wesson’s Performance Center is turning out a new entry dubbed the Competitor, a 9mm pistol certain to raise eyebrows, with

models available with either a 10- or 17-round magazine.

This semiauto has a 5-inch barrel, wears a tungsten grey Cerakote or black Armornite finish on the slide, which is cut for optics, and a reversible, oversized magazine release.

The Competitor has a metal frame with a flared magazine well for quick reloading, fiber optic front sight and serrated rear sight.

FOR THE HANDLOADERS, Hornady has announced some new bullets and a new scale. For openers, Hornady will offer 7mm PRC brass cases, a No. 5 shell holder and No. 5 shell plate, as well as a die set, full-length die, match-grade die set, match-grade full-length die and cartridge gauge, all for the 7mm PRC.

Hornady has also announced a Precision Lab Scale, with a 3,000-grain capacity, high and low sensitivity, easy

Savage Arms recently released the Model 110 Carbon Predator, available in 6mm ARC, .223 Remington, .22-250 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, .300 BLK and .308 Winchester. (SAVAGE ARMS)

ON TARGET

By Dave Workman

calibration, a .01-grain readout and a printto-spreadsheet function.

Hornady is also producing 7mm PRC ammunition for new rifles chambered for the cartridge. The 7mm PRC is a long-action round designed to fill a niche between the 6.5 PRC and .300 PRC. The cartridge features long projectiles, weighing 160, 175 and 180 grains. Ammunition is offered in the Outfitter, Match and Precision Hunter families.

If you’re a muzzleloader, Hornady is introducing a .499 Bore Driver ELD-X bullet weighing 340 grains, for .50-caliber front-stuffers.

This is an interesting bullet with a polymer base (it’s not a sabot) that seals the bore to produce maximum energy at the muzzle. Atop this base is an ELD-X or FTX bullet with a gilding metal jacket and polymer tip.

Another new bullet entry is the .30-caliber Sub-X, featuring patented Flex Tip technology allowing expansion at velocities as low as 900 feet per second, according to Hornady publicity materials. It’s got a lead core, gilding metal jacket, crimping cannelure

Hornady’s new Precision Lab Scale has a 3,000-grain capacity, .01-grain readout and printto-spreadsheet function. (HORNADY)

and there are offerings in .30-caliber/175 and 190 grains; .35-caliber/250 grains; and .45-caliber/395 and 410 grains.

This year Hornady is also offering a Dual-Lid lock box that can hold two handguns or a handgun and ammunition. Each compartment has a separate lid and keyed-alike lock.

There is also an Ammo Cabinet, which you can assemble for storing ammunition. Featuring a unique Square-Lok system, the cabinet allows users to arrange the space inside to fit individual needs.

IN THE OPTICS department, Steiner will be showing off its recently announced Predator 8 series of riflescopes.

The Predator 8 series features 8x zoom and is built on a 30mm tube. The scope is offered in three different 8x zoom ranges – 2-16x42, 3-24x50 and 4-32x56 – and features an illuminated reticle with 11 different brightness settings. It offers 1/4MOA click adjustments and, as noted in Steiner’s description, includes “different numbered turret rings that allow the shooter to customize the turret for quick elevation adjustment at preselected

distances. The ballistic turret also provides a zero mode to permit fast and precise dial-back to the zero setting.”

According to Steiner, the Predator 8 2-16x42mm and the 3-24x50mm riflescopes both feature a Steiner E3 second focal plane reticle. For longrange precision, the 4-32x56mm model offers an SCR (Special Competition Reticle) combination.

IF YOU’RE NOT hunting for new products, perhaps you can take some winter walks in the wilds and

be sure you’ve got a gun.

Washington’s hunting seasons for fox, raccoon and bobcat continue statewide through March 15, which is the same closing date for cottontail rabbits and snowshoe hares. Now, before anyone says you can’t find rabbits or raccoons, and bobcats rarely show themselves, I happen to have cottontails in my yard, and I see ringtails constantly.

Do note that according to the regs pamphlet, you may not hunt fox inside the “exterior boundaries” of the Mt. BakerSnoqualmie, Okanogan-Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot National Forests.

I’ve seen bobcats in the forest on occasion, including once when a cat tried to jump a grouse right in front of me on a gravel road east of Eatonville. The bird got away from the bobcat, and the bobcat got away from me, and my pulse didn’t slow down for an hour.

New 7mm PRC cartridges from Hornady weighing 160, 175 and 180 grains are available in the ammo company’s Outfitter, Match and Precision Hunter lines. (HORNADY)

These are rabbit tracks. If you see these in the forest this time of year, stay put and watch for a bunny to come bouncing along. (DAVE WORKMAN)

Rabbits and hares make great winter table fare, and with a bag limit of five bunnies a day, you’re talking about some great opportunity if you can find where they’re hanging out.

The “common denominator” with all of these small game species is that they are best blasted with a .22-caliber rifle or pistol, either .22 Long Rifle or .22 Magnum.

It is small game hunting that really brings out the best qualities of the rimfire. A typical 40-grain RNL bullet leaves the muzzle of a rimfire rifle or pistol at more than 1,200 fps. A .22 Magnum might clock above 2,000 fps. For small game, that’s terminal.

I spend a fair amount of time in the summer honing my skills with a .22 pistol so I can carry it along in the winter when I’m in bunny habitat, and where you find rabbits, you are quite likely to encounter bobcats or coyotes, both of which can be taken with a .22.

One thing I’d suggest if you’re shooting a rimfire pistol is to wear some kind of hearing protection. Others may disagree,

but in my experience, the loud crack of a .22 pistol or revolver is so sharp that it makes my ears ring worse than if I’d just fired my .30-06 bolt-action rifle. I’m fairly certain shooting small game and targets with a rimfire revolver in my youth contributed to the tinnitus that now keeps my ears ringing all day.

I’ve never preferred one brand of rimfire ammunition over another. Whether Remington, Federal, Winchester, Eley, CCI/ Blazer or some other brand, they all seem to work in my guns.

Always be sure to immediately field dress your winter kill, and if there’s snow on the ground, grab a handful and stick it into the body cavity.

One last reminder: Grouse hunting continues through January 15, and you can still find birds occasionally along old logging roads and in places throughout the foothills that may be surprising. Folks who engage in winter sports at higher elevations just might stumble on a blue grouse, so don’t discount the potential for a midwinter fool hen feast. NS

Start Hunt Planning Now

BECOMING A HUNTER

By Dave Anderson

lanning our hunts for the next season can oftentimes be quite overwhelming, but I’m hoping some of my tips and experiences may help guide you as we move into 2023. The beginning of the year is a great time to start thinking about the future and what your fall plans might be for big game.

If this is the year that you are considering

Phunting out of state, you definitely need to research and look up draw dates and regulations for that state. For instance, if you were planning on going to Idaho for the general season, sadly that ship has sailed, as out-of-state general tags were released on a first-come, first-serve basis on December 1. For Idaho, there will still be opportunities for nonresidents to apply for controlled hunts once those are released sometime in the spring. Furthermore, there are a lot of states that have point systems, so you have a chance at getting randomly picked, but

the odds are generally not in favor of new hunters with minimal points.

WHEN I BEGIN my planning for a year, my sole purpose is to be sure that I have a guaranteed hunt or one as close to it as I can get. I tend to lean towards applying for out-of-state cow elk hunts. These can either be a do-it-yourself-type hunt or going with an outfitter. I can personally attest that spending the money with an outfitter is the best option when hunting out of state, based on one of my most

If you’re a beginner hunter and are thinking about going on a rugged Western backcountry hunt this fall or filling the freezer another way, now is the time to start planning your fall adventures in or out of state. (DAVE ANDERSON)

recent hunts.

A group of guys and myself decided to go the DIY route on a cow elk hunt in Wyoming. It was an area we had previously hunted, but prior to this trip we had used an outfitter. When we arrived, I made contact with the outfitter to meet up, talk and give him some salmon and halibut. During our conversation, we quickly learned that we would be unable to gain access to a large area of land that we wanted to take our side-by-sides up to. The only way to access the area was with tracks on the side-by-sides, which none of the members of my hunting party had.

We spent a full week hunting in high winds, and while we hunted hard, all six of us came home empty-handed. Had we booked with the outfitter, the odds of us returning home with notched tags and meat would have almost been guaranteed. Hindsight is always 50/50, but to me the $1,500 he would have charged us for a three-day hunt would have been money well spent. Not only would we not have had to tow over side-by-sides, which in turn, incurred more fuel costs, but we wouldn’t have needed to book as many days in the VRBO, saving more money.

Other benefits of using an outfitter include the fact that the outfitter knows the land and what the animals are up to when you get there. They are local and it pays to have local knowledge. Outfitters are also on the hook for equipment and maintenance of the machines or horses and mules they use to hunt. In my opinion,

taking all the worry out of a DIY hunt is well worth the cost.

COW ELK HUNTS are an awesome entrylevel out-of-state hunt, as there seems to be more of these opportunities available to nonresidents, and some states even offer reduced cow/calf elk licenses. If you have never shot an elk, it’s a great chance to harvest an animal. Any elk, in my opinion, is a trophy when you bring it home to share with your loved ones. The best part is they are delicious and make excellent table fare.

Going on these hunts also allows you to become more familiar with elk hunting and behaviors of elk. You are also able to get in some trigger time and see what it takes to put down an elk. These are tough animals and they can absorb a lot of punishment from a rifle. I have shot several elk with a .300 Weatherby and watched them continue to walk like they were not even hit for 50 to 100 yards before they fell over and died.

A person pointed out some really sound advice to me one day and I always remember it when I go on these cow elk hunts. He said that if you wait your whole life to shoot a large bull or buck and have zero trigger time in taking down any game – including does, cows, smaller bulls and bucks – then you will never know what it takes to take the shot of a lifetime. I can assure you that shooting paper is much different than taking a shot at any animal. When your blood and adrenaline are rushing, heart is pounding and you are out of breath, it takes a lot of effort on your end to put it all together and

get yourself composed and be able to take an ethical, killing shot.

PLANNING A D.I.Y. hunt or hunting with an outfitter takes a lot of work and preparation. Right now is the best time to start looking online or attending a sportsmen’s show and doing some research.

If you plan to use an outfitter, I would start by going to Google and searching whatever type of hunt you are looking to do and in what state. It’s an easy and great place to start. Read the reviews, as these will tell you a lot. However, I will note that you should try to always give the benefit of doubt to the person running a business in regards to negative reviews. A negative review here and there happens, but it is really interesting to look at how many positive reviews that same person who left the negative review actually writes. We live in a world where people are quick to type up a bad review at the drop of a hat.

In addition, most outfitters will have references – folks you can call and who have been on hunts with them. The other benefit you have when using an outfitter is that they will help you navigate applying for a tag. They know exactly what you need to put in for, and some outfitters may even put you in for the draw. They also may have some guaranteed allocated outfitter tags in some states. My No. 1 piece of advice in regards to choosing an outfitter is to do your research.

If you choose to go the DIY route, I would highly recommend going to websites like GoHunt or Huntin’ Fool. They will give you

Author Dave Anderson learned a good if also expensive lesson on a do-it-yourself hunt he and buddies got skunked on this past season. If they’d gone guided, they likely would have tagged out and probably saved money on hauling their side-by-sides and more, even with the cost of booking an outfitter. (DAVE ANDERSON)

draw odds and even statistics like success rates for folks who drew the tags in the past.

When trying to hunt out of state, there will be a lot of preparation, planning and effort by you to make it all come together. Be prepared to take everything you will need. Weather is always a wild card, so I bring every piece of clothing I think I may need. Clothing for warm and cold weather, along with rain gear, are always in my bag when on the road and hunting from a truck.

One thing I have also found to be extremely beneficial is finding a VRBO house near my hunt, unless I’m planning a backcountry hunt. Most homes in areas where hunting is popular accommodate hunters and the locals are extremely friendly. There is definitely something to be said for having a warm shower and comfortable bed when you are out hunting.

HOPEFULLY SOME OF my experiences and advice will help you start preparing for this fall, so start researching and planning now because the 2023 big game hunting season will be here before you know it. NS

“Do not discount getting in on a meat hunt. The more trigger time you have, the more ready you will be when that shot of a lifetime presents itself,” says Anderson, a strong proponent of antlerless elk hunts. (DAVE ANDERSON)