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10 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

SEPTEMBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

10 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

SEPTEMBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

10 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

SEPTEMBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

Volume 7 • ISSUE 12 PUBLISHER James R. Baker ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Dick Openshaw

ALUMAWELD, THE PERFECT ALL AROUND BOAT FOR FISHING, HUNTING AND FAMILY FUN.

EDITOR Andy Walgamott LEAD WRITERS Jeff Holmes, Andy Schneider CONTRIBUTORS Ralph Bartholdt, Jason Brooks, Chris Cocoles, Tyler Dungannon, Chris Gregersen, Doug Huddle, Randy King, Leroy Ledeboer, Terry Otto, Buzz Ramsey, Troy Rodakowski, Scott Staats, Mark Veary, Terry Wiest, Dave Workman SALES MANAGER Brian Lull ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Michelle Carpinelli , Becca Ellingsworth, Mamie Grifﬁn, Mike Nelson, Mike Smith, Vanesa Sax, Paul Yarnold DESIGNERS Dawn Carlson, Beth Harrison, Sonjia Kells PRODUCTION MANAGER John Rusnak

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PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker OFFICE MANAGER/ACCOUNTING Audra Higgins ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Katie Sauro INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER Lois Sanborn WEBMASTER/INBOUND MARKETING Jon Hines CIRCULATION MANAGER Heidi Belew DISTRIBUTION Tony Sorrentino, Gary Bickford ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@nwsportsmanmag.com CORRESPONDENCE Email letters, articles/queries, photos, etc., to awalgamott@ media-inc.com, or snail mail them to the address below. ON THE COVER Hunting his dad’s farm in Morrow County, Ore., on last year’s stormy opening weekend, Chad Zoller of Camas, Wash., bagged this very nice muley, which scored 179 ¾ Boone & Crockett. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

ISSUE MOTTO At least one correction this issue or your money back! DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Last issue’s p. 79 cutline incorrectly identiﬁed a pair of binoculars in Dave Workman’s On Target column as a Leupolds rather than Bushnells. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES Like us (please, please, we’re so needy, we’ll be your BFF!) on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and get daily updates at nwsportsmanmag.com.

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OCTOBER 2014

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Northwest Sportsman

CONTENTS

VOLUME 7 • ISSUE 12

COLUMNS 33

BUZZ RAMSEY When fall arrives, there’s just one thing on our resident salmon-steelhead guru’s mind: Elk, and we don’t mean the Oregon river.

INLAND NORTHWEST Text message sent from up around 5,500 feet and way back in the Joe: “It’s going to be a good year for (elk) hunters this year.”

ON TARGET How not to have to go vegetarian – Dave outlines meat care for that big buck or bull with your tag on it …

CHEF IN THE WILD … And Randy serves up a great meal for when the family’s had enough of ground-venison tacos and spaghetti.

THE LONG HAUL Idaho’s Troy Pottenger takes the long view on whitetail hunting – his season’s 365 days long – and raising his two sons right.

BASIN BEACON Looking into the Columbia Basin’s southern corners, Leroy finds starkly contrasting news for deer hunters.

NORTH SOUND Just as the maples start to color up Whatcom and Skagit Counties, so too do the fall opportunites: there are blacktails, silvers and snows to be had this month, Doug reports.

109 CENTRAL OREGON There should be more upland birds crowing, scurrying and winging around Central and Eastern Oregon this season, Scott says. 125 THE KAYAK GUYS Yes, they sit a little lower in the bay than all the powerboaters, but kayak anglers have just as good a shot at Tillamook toads, Mark details. 129 STUMPTOWN A bumper run of perhaps as many as 25,000 coho are headed above Willamette Falls, great news for an emerging fishery in Portland’s backyard, Terry Otto reports.

DEPARTMENTS 13 The Editor’s Note 15 Correspondence 16 Big Pic: The Gulf of Alaska’s giant mystery ‘blob’ may be bad news for Northwest salmon and steelhead 19 People: WSU’s hunting-and-fishing head football coach, Mike Leach 22 Wright & McGill/Eagle Claw Photo Contest winner 22 Browning Photo Contest winner 25 News: Lead tackle and ammo 26 Outdoor Calender 29 NEW FEATURE! Derby Watch 31 Dishonor Roll; Jackass of the Month 129 Jig of the Month: Coho twitching jig 157 Rig of the Month: Bob Toman’s Mag Lip as diver rig 159 Reader photos from the field

135 WESTSIDER Terry Wiest’s got his twitch on – after an Alaskan tune-up, he’s ready to welcome back river coho this month, but he says there’s another great tactic to try too!

FEATURES 37 71 79 103

Q&A with ith Solo S l Hunter’s H Tim Burnett Oregon rifle deer preview North-central Washington muleys Western and Eastern Oregon, and Washington waterfowl and upland bird prospects 115 Tillamook Bay Chinook 139 Klickitat River mouth coho 147 Tri-Cities fall Chinook

RIFLE SEASON’S HERE! From the Blues foothills and St. Joe backcountry to the North Cascades, the Willamette Valley to the ﬁrescarred Okanogan, we preview what should be a great month for Northwest riﬂemen! (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Go to nwsportsmanmag.com for details. NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Avenue South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Periodical Postage Paid at Seattle, WA and at additional mailing ofﬁces. (USPS 025-251) POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Northwest Sportsman, PO Box 24365, Seattle, WA 98124. Annual subscriptions are $29.95 (12 issues), 2-year subscription are $39.95 (24 issues). Send check or money order to Media Index Publishing Group, or call (206) 382-9220 with VISA or M/C. Back issues are available at Media Index Publishing Group ofﬁces at the cost of $5 plus tax. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2014 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A.

10 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

SEPTEMBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

10 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

Operates On The Clearwater River Salmon & Steelhead

THEEDITOR’SNOTE ack when Congress was able to do big, meaningful things, our federal legislators passed a pair of bills that celebrate their golden anniversary this fall. Signed by President Johnson 50 years ago, the Wilderness Act and the Land & Water Conservation Fund have come to set aside vast swathes of our mountains, forests and deserts, and fund billions of dollars worth of habitat for our favorite tasty critters, parks for kids, and later working forests for rural communities. These days in the Northwest, Idaho has the most wilderness acreage, 4,523,000 acres, but is followed closely by a state only fourfifths its size, Washington, with 4,463,000. Oregon has 2,476,000 acres. Archers prowled that high ground last month for bucks and bulls, and this month, riflemen will head up to famed wildernesses such as the Frank Church, Eagle Cap and Pasayten. True, not every hunter will come back with meat, but you can bet they will all return with memories of pristine, primeval country like Lewis & Clark saw. And besides footprints, they will leave behind cold hard cash in mountain towns. According to a new report from the Washington Wildlife & Recreation Coalition, in the Evergreen State alone, sportsmen annually spend an estimated $1.6 billion, supporting nearly 22,000 outdoor jobs. (That just might include yours truly’s gig – thank you very much, I do appreciate it.) The coalition also says that since its creation, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has funded over 600 projects across Washington to the tune of $600 million. That’s gone towards preserving access to the upper Skagit River and securing waterfowl habitat on its delta, blocking up game bird habitat near Potholes Reservoir, and helping buy a quarter of the sprawling Colockum Wildlife Area north of Ellensburg. LWCF funding has also been key for a host of waterfowl and big game refuges in Oregon and Idaho. But all is not rosy, as you might imagine. Today’s overly divisive politics are endangering the flow of funding, which comes not from taxpayer dollars, but rather royalties from offshore energy leases. That’s a pretty sweet deal from crude. Even as oil and gas royalties have risen in recent years, LWCF is not being funded to its $900 million cap. And while the Wilderness Act is added to every few years, LWCF has to be reauthorized annually. Right now there is worry that without passage out of Congress this session, it could expire next year. In 2013, a House subcommittee infamously defunded the entire thing, though a deal was eventually worked out, and $306 million was budgeted. The good news is that the president has forwarded a 2015 budget calling for LWCF’s full (and permanent) funding, and many Northwest legislators – from Rep. Dave Reichert, the former King County, Wash., sheriff and Idaho Senator Mike Crapo to almost all of Oregon’s far-sighted delegation – have signed letters to colleagues urging them to support “strong appropriations.” Ironically, though, some legislators from parts of the Northwest with the most to gain from the cash cow that is outdoor recreation are among those who still need a bit of a nudge to support this common-sense funding mechanism. You can learn more about the benefits of LWCF at lwcfcoalition.org, and then I urge you to contact your federal legislators. –Andy Walgamott

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Northwest Sportsman

CORRESPONDENCE BUOY 10 ADVENTURE Andy, I wanted to thank you for your advice and assistance. I studied the Buoy Ten Commandments (article) and we tried (Buzz Ramsey’s coho rig). This was our first time to Buoy 10; we After requesting a pair of past articles explored the area a lot, but from Northwest Sportsman, the Peters we only made it to Buoy 14. family – Erik, Barb and Colton – enjoyed good salmon ﬁshing at the mouth of the We met many wonderful Columbia River in August. (WRIGHT & McGILL/ and helpful people … As EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST) a mom I had read many stories about this area and had reservations. I had yet to hook into a fish that made me want to come back for more. I now understand whole-heartedly why we get up at 3:30 a.m. to launch and wait for daylight. What amazing memories. I am looking forward to next year. Thank you for taking the time with me. I truly appreciate it. Barb Peters Orting, Wash.

BONNEVILLE FISH BOMB Our coverage of early September’s explosion of kings through the ladders, including the then-record daily passage of 67,024, sparked numerous likes, shares and one snarky comment on Facebook. “That’s about half a springer run!” said an eager-for-their-arrival Teddy Schmitt. The next day’s 67,521 provided the other half.

MOST LIKED PHOTOGRAPH WE HUNG UP AT FACEBOOK.COM/ NORTHWESTSPORTSMANMAGAZINE Olivia Campbell’s first archery buck, taken in early September near Grand Coulee, scored big praise, including over 40 likes and half a dozen atta-girls. She along with her sisters were featured in our January issue.

(BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

TWEET OF THE MONTH After Oregon wildlife managers sent off piles of wolf poo to the University of Idaho for analysis, they reported back that the DNA showed OR7’s mate originated in Northeast Oregon, and that she’d been faithful with the far-wandering canid.

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

Among the oddball species that turned up this past summer in the Gulf of Alaska, this skipjack tuna was netted off the Copper River. (ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH & GAME)

Federal oceanographers say that unusually warm temperatures have been dominating three areas of the North Paciﬁc: the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska – where many Northwest salmon and steelhead stocks feed – and an area off Southern California. The darker the red, the further above average sea-surface temperature. (NMFS) 16 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

Meet The Mystery ‘Blob’ Scientists fret over a massive pool of overly warm water in the North Paciﬁc that could affect Northwest salmon.

A screen grab from Bonneville Dam’s Washington-side counting window on Monday, Sept. 8, the day the new fall Chinook passage record of 67,521 was set. (COE)

SEATTLE—Just a few days before the fall Chinook count at Bonneville Dam went bonkers last month, the folks at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center announced some potentially scary findings for future salmon and steelhead runs. On the flip side, the next time you come back from halibut or salmon fishing off Alaska, you may bring a tote with tuna. Federal researchers say that a giant patch of well-above-average-temperature water known as “The Blob” has been sticking around for more than a year in the North Pacific, and that “the longer it lingers, the greater potential it has to affect ocean life from jellyfish to salmon.” It’s left oceanographers in Newport, Seattle and Southern California befuddled. They say “the situation does not match recognized patterns in ocean conditions.” It’s possible that those northern waters are going through some sort of reversal of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, from the productive-for-ourfish cold phase to a warm one. If so, the water temps are higher and the area involved is larger than previously observed shifts. The National Marine Fisheries Service says the ocean has been as much as 5.4 degrees above average, and waters near the surface 1.8 degrees above average. That brought a number of semi-tropical fish north. Researchers saw thresher and blue sharks in the gulf as well as a mola mola in Prince William Sound. A skipjack was also netted off the Copper River. The last time tuna were seen so far north was

in the “bad” ocean conditions of the 1990s. Why do you care about all this? NMFS’s Michael Milstein writes: “Warm ocean temperatures favor some species but not others. For instance, sardines and albacore tuna often thrive in warmer conditions. Pacific Coast salmon and steelhead rely on cold-water nutrients, which they may have found recently in the narrow margin of cold water along the Northwest coast. But if the warmth continues or expands Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead could suffer in coming years. “If the warming persists for the whole summer and fall, some of the critters that do well in a colder, more productive ocean could suffer reduced growth, poor reproductive success and population declines,” (federal climate and former University of Washington researcher Nate) Mantua said. “This has happened to marine mammals, sea birds and Pacific salmon in the past. At the same time, species that do well in warmer conditions may experience increased growth, survival and abundance.” (Newport-based NOAA oceanographer Bill) Peterson recently advised the Northwest Power and Conservation Council that juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating from the Columbia River to the ocean this year and next may experience poor survival. “The signs for salmon aren’t good based on our experience in the past,” Peterson said, “but we won’t really see the signal from this until those fish return in a few years.” Even if the blob cools or is as good a future run-size predictor as the rest of stuff in the federales’ salmon forecasting bag, it’s a bit frightening. The last warm-phase PDO brought us a host of ESA listings. NS

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

10 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

MIXED BAG Taking on the ferocious defenses of college football is one thing, a Canadian bear another. Washington State football coach Mike Leach (right) joined outdoor TV host Mike Pawlawski to harvest this big bruin recently. (GRIDIRON OUTDOORS)

Running Against The Grain Wazzu’s Mike Leach is deﬁned by more than just college football. By Chris Cocoles

PULLMAN—Mike Leach is fascinated by fascinating characters. Maybe it’s because he too is one of those fascinating characters. If you bumped into him walking through Washington State’s Pullman

campus and were unaware he was the university’s third-year football coach, you might think he was a history professor giving an impromptu lecture on anything from Blackbeard to Sitting Bull to Daniel Boone if you asked. At least such banter might be as plausible a conversation starter with Leach as quizzing him on predicting the defensive schemes of Stanford and Arizona, two of the Cougars’ opponents this month. You can also get on his good side if you talk about the outdoors. Living in Wyoming

and Colorado meant fishing and hunting were just part of Leach’s upbringing. “I certainly can’t even say that we hunted and fished the most (compared to everyone else). We were probably above average, but the typical folks in Wyoming, there were quite a few who were going,” says the 53-year-old. If living in the Rockies makes for high probability of becoming a sportsman, his path to college football coach is unorthodox. He didn’t play the game during his own university years at BYU. Other coaches-to-be often serve as

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

MIXED BAG

Coach Leach led Washington State to the New Mexico Bowl last season, the Cougars’ ﬁrst postseason trip in a decade. Prior to arriving in Pullman, he took his Texas Tech teams to 10 bowls in as many seasons. (WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT)

graduate assistants, but Leach earned a law degree at Pepperdine University. And while other coaches cowrite autobiographies about their long careers in the game or about devising offensive gameplans, Leach’s offseason plans included collaborating on a nonfiction piece about one of his many heroes, Apache leader Geronimo. He’s also quite the outdoorsman, having successfully hunted a giant bear in Canada, teamed with his Washington State staff to catch and release a massive sturgeon in Idaho, and chased Himalayan mountain goats in New Zealand. Is Leach unorthodox? Yep. Eclectic? Check. Diverse? Absolutely. But, with 20 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

apologies to the beer guy of those commercials, Leach is the most interesting man in football. “I get curious, sure. I’d like to get to know a little about this or that,” he says. “Look around and find out more about it.” It makes you want to get to know a little more about Leach, as well.

PERHAPS THE MOST nonstereotyped football coach in the college game today was once mesmerized by a local he met in Wyoming, where he spent a lot of time as a youngster, the son of a forester who took his son hunting and fishing. “We went out with a government trapper, and he was going to trap bobcats,”

Leach says. “He needed to bait the trap so he needed a rabbit for that. Just talking to him he told us all the fascinating things he’d seen and the habits on literally every animal that existed in that part of the country. “We were in a place called McCullough Peaks, and they’re these dirt-covered peaks that kind of look like the moon with a little more geography to them. There are all kinds of rocks, and so these rabbits are all jumping and bouncing and ricocheting between the rocks. He finally sees one, and that rabbit was probably 50 to 70 yards away. And he’s not sitting there. There was herky-jerky motion. He picks his gun up, and with one motion, shoots the rabbit Continued on page 164

SEPTEMBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

PHOTO CONTEST

WINNERS!

John McDonough is this issue’s Wright & McGill/ Eagle Claw Photo Contest winner, thanks to this pic of his wife Linda’s opah, caught about 30 miles out of Coos Bay this past summer. It wins him a package worth $50 of fishing tackle!

Our monthly Browning Photo Contest winner is Jeff Keen, who snapped this fine shot at his cabin in the grousy Northeast Washington woods a couple seasons back. It scores him a Browning hat and sticker!

Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

For your shot at winning Wright & McGill/Eagle Claw and Browning products, send your photos to andy@ nwsportsmanmag.com or Northwest Sportsman, PO Box 24365, Seattle, WA 98124-0365. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for our print or Internet publications. 22 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

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24 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

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A Weighty Issue

As some sportsmen ﬁght rear-guard actions over lead tackle and bullets, others look to ﬁll new markets while more move towards greener, cleaner outdoors future. By Andy Walgamott

t was nearly a decade and a half ago, and I was in a bait-and-tackle shack somewhere in Maine. Bass fishing was on my mind, and the lake on which my girlfriend’s family had a “camp,” in the local jargon, was the immediate destination. But I couldn’t find any bullet-style lead sinkers to Texas rig the worms I was buying. When I asked the clerk, he muttered something distinctly lacking r’s and steered me towards some funky-looking metaland-rubber footballs. After some quick rigging tips, he sent me on my way to the cabin on Three Mile Pond and my first attempt at fishing with nonlead weights. Since then, I’ve become more aware of the push to reduce or eliminate the element from fishing gear as well as hunting ammo. It’s part encouragement – for several years now the Oregon Department of Fish &

Wildlife’s fishing pamphlet and WDFW’s website have advised fishermen on how to get the lead out and its alternatives – and part flat-out prohibitions, like 1991’s switch to nontoxic shot for waterfowling. Other rule modifications include the ban on certain lead-based tackle on a handful of Washington loon lakes as well as in some parks, refuges and states across the country. And in perhaps a sign of the future for the Northwest from our cousins down the coast, California will ban lead ammo for all hunting beginning in 2019.

FOR CENTURIES WE’VE known that lead just ain’t good for human beings. While getting it out of our paint and gas, we’ve learned that after we leave the field, our bullet fragments, shot and small weights continue to pose a hazard to carrion and fish eaters. Still, some sportsmen are suspicious about wider anti-fishing and anti-hunting

agendas while others bemoan the loss of a hard-hitting and fast-sinking material. And when I reported on the issue a couple winters ago, Marc Marcantonio, who owns QuickDrops weights in Steilacoom, Wash., pointed out, “Tungsten is more unfriendly to the environment than lead – it takes 6,000 degrees of heat to mold tungsten, creating a huge carbon footprint,” and he said that jobs would otherwise be shipped to China. Everyone agrees alternatives are costly in other ways too. Yes, I want to do the right thing, I want to be good conservationist – that’s a key part of being a Northwest sportsman, that your connection to fishing and hunting goes beyond just killing and grilling to caring about the critters and their environment. But when a Seattle-area state legislator introduced a bill in 2012 to bar the Continued on page 166

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

OUTDOOR

CALENDAR Sponsored by

OCTOBER Oct. 1 Blackmouth opener on Marine Areas 5, 6, 10; Salmon and steelhead opener on

numerous Oregon streams, lakes; Washington’s Jameson Lake reopens to fishing for one month; Opening of month-long fee pheasant hunt at EE Wilson Wildlife Area Oct. 4 Oregon Coast, Cascade rifle deer, South Coast zone goose openers; Washington chukar, muzzleloader elk openers; Ladies Day Out at numerous Northwest Cabela’s; info: cabelas.com/stores Oct. 10 Deer, elk hunt openers in many Idaho units Oct. 11 Washington modern firearm deer opener as well as first duck and goose openers; Oregon Zone 1, 2 duck, partridge, pheasant, Eastern quail openers as well as goose hunting in Southwest, Lake, Harney, Klamath, Malheur, Eastern Zones Oct. 15 Oregon fall turkey opens; Steelhead retention begins on Idaho’s Clearwater River above Memorial Bridge Oct. 18 Oregon Cascade any-bull, Northwest Zone goose, Eastern Washington pheasant openers; Washington duck season reopens for balance of season; Last day for lingcod retention off Washington coast; Free Oct. 1 11:33 First quarter Family Fishing Event at Mt. Hood Pond in Oct. 8 02:51 Full moon Gresham, Ore., info: odfwcalendar.com Oct. 15 11:12 Last quarter Oct. 19 Last day of Washington mule deer Oct. 23 13:57 New moon rifle hunt in numerous Eastside units Oct. 30 18:48 First quarter *Data courtesy NASA; all times PST Oct. 25 Oregon Cascade buck reopener; Eastern Washington rifle elk opener for most units Oct. 29 Oregon first Rocky Mountain, Columbia Basin rifle elk openers Oct. 31 Last day to fish many Washington lowland lakes listed in regulations pamphlet; Last day to hunt blacktail deer in Western Washington’s general season

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OCTOBER 2014

Nov. 13 Four-day Washington late rifle blacktail hunt opens in select units Nov. 15 Oregon first Coast rifle bull elk, late Southwest bow deer openers Nov. 22 Oregon second Coast rifle bull elk, late Northwest bow deer openers

RECORD NW GAME FISH CAUGHT THIS MONTH Date

Species

10-6-02 German brown 10-8-06 Westslope cutthroat 10-19-97 Chum (freshwater) 10-28-06 Smallmouth bass* 10-29-87 Quillback rockfish *Image

Pds. (-Oz.)

28-5 4.71 25.97 9-11.5 7.19

(IDFG)

Water

Angler

Paulina L. (OR) Ronald Lane Abernathy L. (WA) Angus Kerr Satsop R. (WA) Johnny Wilson Dworshak Res. (ID) Dan Steigers Middle Bk. (WA) Bror Hultgren

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

28 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

Upcoming Events Buoy 10 Derby A Challenge

Jason Peters took an early lead in last fall’s Clearwater-Snake Steelhead Derby with this rosy-cheeked 16.42-pound buck, but in the end, an 18.33 took home ﬁrst place. (BRIAN LULL) In late August, R.J. Bennett and his team of ﬁsh-catchers won the 15th Annual Buoy 10 Challenge with an average weight of 22.18 pounds of salmon per angler, 2 pounds better than second place. (NORTHWEST SPORTFISHING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION)

he 15th edition of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association’s Buoy 10 derby lived up to its moniker: It was a Challenge. “The weather came up heavy Friday afternoon, and we, like most boats, didn’t get back in time to weigh our fish,” reported Northwest Sportsman’s Brian Lull, who fished the Aug. 22 event at the mouth of the Columbia River with Jim Stahl of NW Fishing Guides (425-347-1615). “Only 20-some teams out of the field of over 60 got back to weigh-in on time. With an ebbing tide and westerly wind stacking the seas below the Astoria Bridge, our raingear got a workout.” Coming in first in the team competition was R.J. Bennett and his crew. They posted an average weight of 22.18 pounds per angler in the boat. Second place went to Cory Cooper and team who averaged 20.2 pounds while Cameron Black et al averaged 18.58 pounds As for the Big Fish awards, Steve Apple’s 29.35-pound king was good for $1,000 while Jerek Wall’s 10.95-pound coho scored $500. Derby goers were asked to release wild tule Chinook, and new this year, also given the option to donate their salmon to a local food bank.

MORE RECENT RESULTS Southwest Washington Anglers Fall 2014 Derby, Aug. 31, Lower Columbia 1st: Mark Kinyon, 17.70 pounds, $1,000; 2nd: Rose Vela, 17.48 pounds, $500; 3rd: Rick Lee, 17.04 pounds, $300

Edmonds Coho Derby, Sept. 6, Central Puget Sound 1st: Daniel Lejnieks, 11.15 pounds, $5,000; 2nd: Mike Bachtel, 8.8 pounds, $2,000; 3rd: Kari Ross, 8.72 pounds, $1,000

Northwest Kayak Anglers Coho Derby, Sept. 6, Central Puget Sound 1st: Dan Chaffin, 4.87 pounds, new kayak; 2nd: Todd Switzer, 4.39 pounds, safety gear; Richard Wark, 3.97 pounds, certificate

LEWISTON—It’s more than a month and a half off, but excitement is building for the annual Clearwater-Snake Steelhead Derby, billed as the “world’s largest steelhead derby.” This year, the Clearwater’s beefy boys and girls may again be in play when anglers take to the waters of the Lewis & Clark Valley for the weeklong, late-November event. The forecast is for more than 30,000 of the larger B-run steelhead to head up the Columbia this season, about 20,000 more than last year. The small return forced Idaho managers to post a maximum size of just 28 inches in most of the Clearwater to protect the broodstock. That meant derby-goers had to focus their side-drifting, plugging and bobber fishing on the Snake in Hells Canyon if they hoped to have a good chance at intercepting a toad. Idaho’s Salmon also has a B-run, and despite Spokane angler Bill Stanley’s best efforts, Washington anglers only intercept about 1 to 1.5 percent of the run below the Clearwater. According to organizers, as many as 800 anglers participate in the derby. In the past, they’ve come from as far as Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, the Yakima Valley and Enterprise, Ore. This fall’s is slated for Nov. 22-noon Nov. 29. For more, watch steelheadderby.com. Other upcoming and ongoing derbies include: * Tillamook Education Foundation Salmon Derby, through Dec. 31; info: tillamooksalmonderby.com * Westport Boat Basin Derby (Westport), through Oct. 31; info: westportgrayland-chamber.org * La Push (Wash.) Last Chance Salmon Derby, Oct. 4-5; info: forkswa.com/salmonberby * Bayside Marine Salmon Derby (Puget Sound), Nov. 1-2; info: (425) 252-3088; baysidemarine.com Editor’s note: To have your derby listed or results posted here, email awalgamott@media-inc.com.

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

MIXED BAG

Large Pendleton Buck Poached

eer season was still a ways off, but take/possession of a game mammal during that apparently didn’t matter to a a closed season, unlawful take/possession Northeast Oregon resident. He and of a buck, and waste of a game mammal. four friends were discovered with the head Roughly 2,000 permits are given out of a wide-racked velvet buck on Aug. 24. for riflemen to hunt bucks in this wildlife By Andy Walgamott According to the Oregon State Police, management unit, Columbia Basin. a fish and wildlife trooper came across a Jeep Cherokee parked about 9 miles southwest of Pendleton that COMMERCIALS BEHAVING BADLY evening. Not only was its driver’s side door left ajar, but inside the officer could see an empty gun case and ammo. A pair of Astoria-based commercial fishermen were on the wrong Seemed kinda suspicious, so the trooper stuck around, and side of the law this past summer. two and a half hours later another Cherokee pulled up. Riding The deck boss of a groundfish trawler was arrested in late August along with the five people was the mule deer buck’s head. for allegedly assaulting a federal fishery observer at sea, and right The trooper wrote up four Pendleton residents, age 19 to 21, around the same time, the skipper of another boat was alleged to have used an illegal-mesh-sized net to catch 748 pounds of fall for illegal possession of a buck, but saved the most paperwork Chinook out of the Columbia near the mouth of the Willamette. for Vance T. Wright, 23, of Canyon City. He was cited for unlawful That man, Duffy Duncan, 66, was cited with 44 counts of unlawful take and possession of commercially caught salmon, and also had his 1,200-foot-long net seized. Dear Idiots, As for the first guy, according to the National Oceanic and Ever heard of the straw that broke the camel’s Atmospheric Administration, Richard Clayton Palek, 46, of Knappa, back? Ever hear of timber companies closing their Ore., also impeded and interfered with the observer stationed on the lands to access? Maybe you have heard of a few groundfish trawler this past May. Palek was charged with a federal fairly large and well-known companies charging misdemeanor of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. If found guilty, it’s fees now to access their land? Of course you have. You have heard punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and up to half a year in jail. the reasons – property damage and littering, to name a few. “We’re committed to protecting the safety and security of Hunters have long shook our heads and said, “Oh no, not me, I’d observers,” said William Giles, a special agent for NOAA. “They never…” are professionals with physically demanding jobs in challenging When will you learn? When will you learn that you can’t treat conditions. Fortunately most vessel crews recognize the importance private property like your own private dumping ground? When of observers and treat them with the respect they deserve.” will you learn that landowners who deal with early-morning headlights and late-night high-fives after a downed animal is finally loaded up don’t want to pick up your crap? Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. See, it’s not Rogue Valley-based state trooper just the TV and a coastal county’s lead sets, stained prosecutor were honored for their mattresses and work protecting Oregon fish and wildlife. James Collom. (OSP) garbage bags Not only was senior trooper James Collom named the Oregon that finally get State Police’s 2013 Wildlife Division Trooper of the Year back in landowners (DEVIN SCHILDT) May, but in mid-August he was also awarded the Shikar-Safari Club of all sizes to International’s Wildlife Officer of the Year. throw up their hands and say enough is enough. It’s the little Also in mid-August, Lincoln County district attorney Michelle things. It’s the fact that some, not all, but some of us are simply Branam was named the 2013 Wildlife Prosecutor of the Year. She’s too lazy to even take our own trash home. the seventh DA to receive the award. Said OSP Captain Jeff Samuels, Fret not, I picked it up. I hope to keep hunting this area. I hope “I appreciate her willingness to maintain the good relationship I have with landowners who to work closely with local fish border the property. One of us has to. Sadly, the only thing you and wildlife troopers and to didn’t leave after you ate was your name on a receipt. If you had, prosecute those responsible I’d make sure you got your trash back. for wildlife offenses and Devin Schildt environmental degradation.” Lake Stevens, Wash. Michelle Branam. (OSP)

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

Kudos

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

32 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

COLUMN One of the most popular but toughest animals to hunt in the Northwest are elk, which inhabit both sides of the Cascades as well as Northern Rockies. (DAVID BRONSON, ODFW)

Tips For Finding Elk I

t had been two days since we’d found a fresh track in the blanket of snow that covered the forest floor. Some members of our camp were BUZZ RAMSEY worried, suggesting that every elk had left the area for parts unknown. That might have been true had the hunting pressure been intense or we’d been hunting an area where elk migrate to lower-elevation wintering grounds after the first decent snow. But neither factors were true for this area. Bill Bell of Enumclaw, Wash., the oldest and most experienced member of our hunting party, reminded everyone that the elk hadn’t gone anywhere; they just weren’t moving. “I’ve seen the woods come alive with elk after seeing absolutely no movement for days. They’re here, just held up somewhere we can’t find ’em.

They’ll start moving again in a day or two,” he counseled. The elk were moving then, making fresh tracks everywhere, which added a measure of anticipation to our hunt. However, even then, finding tracks with elk standing in them wasn’t easy. But their movement (substantiated by fresh tracks) made it seem that success was just over the next ridge. Now the forest seemed void of elk and our efforts fruitless.

YOU MIGHT THINK an animal the size of an elk would be easy to find, but the opposite is true. After spending most of their lives evading predators like bear and cougar, elk have little trouble outmaneuvering flat-footed humans, especially after the shooting starts, When elk are rotating through large tracts of land in search of fresh forage they can be very difficult to locate. Also, when hunted, they will do their utmost to avoid contact with humans; for example, elk will often avoid crossing a

road, choosing instead to parallel those traveled by hunters. Bell taught me how to find roaming bands of elk or those unwilling to cross roads: walk off the road 200 to 400 yards, depending on terrain, and look for elk sign. Quickly exit if you don’t find an indication that elk have been using the area. Drive a mile or two up the road and repeat the process until you start to find fresh tracks or dropping. Elk can focus on select locations when decent feed becomes scarce. A prime feeding area, like a plot of fresh grass, can create a fairly regular pattern as elk travel to and from their daytime bedding and nighttime feeding area. If you find a spot like this, position yourself downwind from the feeding area or on the downwind path to it early and late in the day. When fresh snow reveals their preferred traveling routes, one strategy is to position yourself at these points during the early morning or evening, when elk do most of their moving. I once bagged a

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

COLUMN fat cow just before dark by doing this. It was 10 degrees and the wind made my evening stand seem a little insane – until three elk appeared. Fresh snow makes tracking easy and will allow you to quickly determine where concentrations of elk are located. However, the person following the tracks may be the least likely to see them. Other members of your party might get the elk you’re following by observing adjacent canyons or the edges of nearby clearcuts that elk might use as escape routes.

ELK ARE NOTORIOUS for circling and exiting at the exact spot where you first picked up their trail. If your hunting party is large enough, station a person on a stand downwind from where you first picked up their trail, or have another member follow behind you several hundred yards. This strategy works the best in areas where there is reasonable cover. Elk are very good at playing the game of hiding from you by using cover to their

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The author with a big bull taken several seasons back in North-central Oregon. (BUZZ RAMSEY) advantage; for example, they will often cross from one canyon to the next by using a timbered-finger draw or low saddle. In addition, they will travel the edge of clearcuts or other brushy corridors. All of these areas are places where taking a stand can lead to successfully ambushing elk pushed by others.

If you spot elk before they see you, don’t wait for the shot to improve, unless you have no shot at their vitals. Elk have an uncanny ability to quickly put cover between you and themselves, even if they only suspect your presence. Intense hunting pressure can also drive elk from an area for a week or more. Given light pressure and plenty of cover, elk may simply circle your advance and continue their activities or hold up for a few days. After seeing no elk for yet another long day, Bell reminded us, “It doesn’t matter if the elk are moving or not, we’ll find them, we just have to be persistent.” Just then another member of our party showed up and told how he’d jumped a group of elk from a small bench part way down the big canyon south of our camp. They were the first elk we’d jumped in days. NS Editor’s note: A brand manager at Yakima Baits, the author is also an avid deer and elk hunter. You can find him on Facebook.

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HUNTING

Gone Solo

Regular-guy TV hunter Tim Burnett shares tips on calls (don’t use), cooking (have someone else BBQ your venison), and talking to rocks, trees and squirrels GXULQJ ÀOPLQJ By Troy Rodakowski

lk are sometimes tough animals to ﬁgure out, so in order to gain a whole new perspective on the ever-elusive wapiti, I talked with my friend Tim Burnett of the Outdoor Channel’s Solo Hunter and Off Grid Hunter TV. Burnett, fellow host Remi Warren and producer Marc Balistreri make for some good viewing on a weekly basis, and they seem to always ﬁnd a way to entertain as well as educate fellow hunters.

Troy Rodakowski Tim, how many years have you been chasing elk across the West? Tim Burnett I stuck my ﬁrst 5x5 bull when I was 13 and never recovered him. I did a lot of things wrong as a kid learning to bow hunt with my brothers. I’m 39 now, so I guess that’s

Tim Burnett. (COURTESY MARC BALISTRERI & SOLO HUNTER)

26 years. Damn, that seems like a long time.

TR What is the most important thing you do to stay in shape for elk hunting?

TB I work out and stay in shape for my golf game and to keep up with my kiddos – not for hunting. I’m no ﬁgure of athleticism. I’ve always had good strength and I think most of the time I rely on that to get me through a tough hunt. But as I get older, the morning hikes and days in the gym are becoming much more important. I’m in the gym only three to four hours a week and run/hike two or three mornings a week. During season I stop working out and just hunt.

TR What do you enjoy most about hunting elk? TB Honestly, I don’t like hunting elk after the rut. I hunt public lands and

those elk have been chased to hell and gone by that time. It would be cool to do a December hunt, but mostly in October and November the big boys are just damn tough to ﬁnd. I guess I’ll ﬁnd out again this November when I go do my late-season elk hunt in Idaho with my Knight muzzleloader.

TR What methods are your favorites to use when pursuing elk later in the year? TB Glassing is important; horses are also nice, and a good riﬂe rather than a bow. If you can hunt near ag ﬁelds, you’re golden. Not everyone has that luxury and I never have. I have always been a spot-and-stalk hunter, even during the rut. I rarely if ever use calls. I feel like, if I can sneak in silent, I have a better chance at getting in close than tooting a call and hoping for a response. I’ve OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING never been afraid of taking a good long hike to get the wind in my favor. You’ve just got to know when the elk are most likely to be on the move or when they are likely to be held up for the day.

TR Out of all the elk hunts you have been on, what is the most memorable for you and why? TB For sure my most memorable would be a Labor Day weekend hunt while in college. I got to the trailhead at 11 at night and hiked in the dark with no moon all night. Thought I was lost until I accidentally ran into base

are getting light-headed from lack of blood.

TR What would you like to tell veteran elk hunters that they might not already know that could possibly help them in the ﬁeld? TB Nothing can compensate for time in the ﬁeld. Veteran elk hunters have forgotten more than I know. But then again, 26 years should make me a veteran too, shouldn’t it? I would never pretend to know more than anyone else. I just know what works for me and what doesn’t. I would say my advice to anyone would be to

“I don’t want them to know I am even there until they are getting light-headed from lack of blood.” camp, at 3 in the morning, where my younger brother was waiting for me. Hunted the next day with no success and then got 2 feet of snow the next night. My brother killed that day, but I just got wet. I have that hunt on ﬁlm somewhere and will probably break it out as a look back some day. Best time ever hunting with my brother.

TR I know you prefer to get away from people and into the backcountry when at all possible, but when you are hunting spooky animals what have you found that works best for you? TB What is a spooky animal? Or do you mean animals that have been spooked and are always on edge? When an animal is always on edge I take my time. Always silent, never making a sound. Everything goes into slow gear for me at that point. If their guard lets down just a bit I will be poised to strike. But as always, you have to be able to ﬁnd them ﬁrst.

TR Late-season calling – what are your thoughts? TB I don’t call late season. I rarely call during the rut and I don’t want them to know I am even there until they 38 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

“know the animals.” As in, know the habits of any given animal or speciﬁc herd. Know their escape routes. Know their feeding patterns. Animals in the wild are never anywhere by chance. Wherever they are, they are there for a reason. When you see a big bull bedded on a bench in the draw, he is there for a reason. When a bull is feeding on a particular hillside, he chose that hillside for a reason. Figure it out so that you can know him.

TR Do you think elk hunting is improving for hunters across the West, or do you see it as more difficult to find quality opportunities? TB Quality hunting has never been the issue. Quality harvest of trophy-class animals, on the other hand, may be. Public lands are wide open and offer some amazing opportunities. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has done some amazing things to support the growth of elk herds across the country, including Kentucky and some other Eastern states where herds were previously extinct. Private land hunts or outfitted hunts are out of my league, but are growing in popularity among the more affluent hunting

class. But why pay thousands or tens of thousands to do what you can do for a fraction of the cost on public land? If you are only interested in killing the biggest and baddest, maybe outﬁtted or private lands are the ticket. I don’t have experience with either.

TR What gear and gadgets have you found to be the most useful during your elk hunts? TB I am not a gear-and-gadgets kind of guy. I revel in simplicity. Most useful items for me would be clothing. Weather changes by the minute in September in the high country and a guy needs to be warm, comfortable and dry all the time or he’s headed for the truck. Don’t be that guy! Good boots and smart layering are vital for me. I wear Under Armour for a reason and was able to be a part of the testing team for them this last fall on a new line of Western hunting wear. Ridge Reaper Barren will be available soon exclusively at UA.com TR Scent is always important, as is the wind direction. Are there any scents you prefer to use for elk? TB I prefer to not have them smell me or anything else unusual. I personally don’t want to introduce any foreign scent into the woods, urine lure or otherwise. Sure, I’ve tried various scents and cover-ups in the past, but in my experience I’ve found them to be less effective. Maybe it’s just in my head – who knows. I know I am going to stink like hell no matter what I do, so I use the wind. Wind is everything.

TR Weather plays a huge role in animal movements and patterns. During rainy, snowy and adverse conditions is there anything you can tell folks that might help them improve their odds? TB If you don’t enjoy being cold, wet and tired, then don’t hunt in those conditions. You’ll just wish you hadn’t. I personally love to tromp around in that type of weather. Makes me feel like a man. Whether it is a productive hunting strategy and no

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Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING matter the weather, you have got to know and understand the animals and what they are doing during that time of year and during various types of weather fronts. TR I know you and your family love to

crockpot with lots of barbecue sauce.

TR Is there any way you haven’t prepared elk of parts of elk that you would like to try anytime soon? Anything Steve Rinella style?

“To truly hunt is ... patience and aggression combined into a series of strenuous events that ultimately end in life and death.”

house for a wild game cookout and I’ll eat anything he wants to make for me. I guess I just don’t enjoy cooking as much as some other guys.

TR Out of all the late-season elk hunts you have participated in what has been your favorite and why? TB Elk are meant to be bow-hunted in September. Any other time you are missing out on the beauty of that beast. TR I have seen you shoot your new

eat wild game. What are some of your favorite ways to prepare elk meat? TB I don’t really have any favorite ways to cook it up. Some guys really get into the preparation and process of cooking wild game. I just like to take a slab of backstrap, add a good High Mountain Seasonings Rub and ﬂash grill it as rare as possible, and then chew that sucker up. That’s just how I eat meat. The kids love jerky sticks and shredded slow-cooked roast in the

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TB I like to hunt it, kill it and eat it. Everything in between from the pack out to the plate is just work for me. But I like to have my meat prepared by someone else who knows what they are doing and who likes doing it. I’ll probably catch hell for saying it, but why be dishonest with yourself and others? If I’m cooking anything, no matter what it is, it will be going on the grill and ﬂamed as fast as I can so I can eat it. Send Rinella over to my

MOA 7mm WSM – do you plan to take it elk hunting anytime soon? TB I love that dang riﬂe! Sweetest setup I have ever had my paws on. I was able to hit a 24-inch plate at 1,800 yards one day after pulling it new out of the box. That’s just over 1 mile. Bob Beck did an amazing job with the Evolution and Evolution Extreme line. Derek Westover set it up for me and they even threw in a Jewel trigger on mine. I don’t have

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OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING any riﬂe elk hunts lined out this fall, but I have a couple mule deer hunts that I can’t wait to get out on.

TR Any plans to hunt Northwest elk? TB I’m leaving for Idaho next week. It is just a matter of scheduling and learning a new area. Fall can be a pretty busy time of year for a guy like me.

TR You have quite a few products for folks to buy on your site, solohunterstv. com. What’s most popular? TB The Solo Hunter Riﬂe cover by far, the ﬁrst and only of its kind to date, and that thing is awesome. But it is also hard to keep those dang hats and shirts in stock. I think people really like the Solo Hunter brand and what it stands for. I know I do. TR You have a huge fan base at Solo Hunter TV and now Off Grid Hunter. What seems to be the biggest key to your success with those shows?

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TB Honesty, humility and reality. I think the way Remi and I do things on Solo is how most everyone else in the country hunts. People are drawn to what they can relate with. It is a common bond. I travel to consumer shows all throughout the spring and that seems to be the overwhelming topic in the booths. I am no better or worse than anyone I look in the eye or shake hands with. TR Most people probably don’t realize you are pretty laid back and like to joke around from time to time. What is the funniest thing that has happened to you while out hunting or ﬁlming that you wish people could have seen? TB A guy who spends as much time hunting alone as I do, you’re bound to wind up talking to yourself at some point. I ﬁnd myself having conversations with rocks, trees, animals and anything else that I can put a personality to. I really do love

nature and things and can probably put a personality to almost anything. That, and I fall on my butt all the time. Hard to hold a camera, riﬂe or bow all at the same time.

TR Before I let you go, is there anything you might want to tell readers that you think might be helpful for them when out in the woods this fall? TB Be smart and be safe. Just have fun and remember that you’re living life for such a short amount of time. If your mind is right, you will ﬁnd yourself hunting right. If your priorities are clear, your head will be clear and you will be able to be more effective with your hunting strategies. To truly hunt is simply a mental exercise of patience and aggression combined into a series of strenuous events that ultimately end in life and death. NS Editors’ note: For more, see offgridhunter. com and search #solohunter.

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Northwest Sportsman

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OCTOBER 2014

A Text From What Might Be Elk Country Again

COLUMN

ason Brebner sends a text and a picture of himself in an island of slender, subalpine timber with a bull elk INLAND NORTHWEST down and a grin on By Ralph Bartholdt his face. He’s at 5,500 feet in the St. Joe drainage of Idaho’s Panhandle, a place where elk numbers over the past several years hit the skids. So far this autumn, though, Brebner, a St. Maries mill worker who hasn’t let poor forecasts cloud his dreams of chasing bulls, has had ample reason to grin. “There’s seeming to be large numbers of elk this year,” Brebner texts from his elk camp. “I already saw one herd that had over 20 elk in it, and that’s just unheard of these days, unless it’s spring time.” By his first week in camp last month, he and his hunting partner had counted 80 deer and 30 elk. In addition, the duo saw several coyotes – sort of an anomaly, especially in wolf country. “We just found our first wolf track tonight and other than that, absolutely no wolf sign,” he texts. “I honestly think they are finally starting to get a handle on the wolf numbers.” A North Idaho native who spends most of his waking hours in the woods, or thinking about being there, Brebner marks years by success rates and game populations. “Tonight we called in a little (raghorn bull elk) to 10 feet,” he texts. “We literally could have spit on him.”

IN HIS BRIEF recap of what was last month’s Panhandle early archery season, Brebner targeted the key issues to elk recovery

After bagging this nice bull in the St. Joe backcountry early last month, Jason Brebner believes “it’s going to be a good year for hunters this year. The sign is there, and we’re seeing lots of game.” (JASON BREBNER)

in the Panhandle, and especially the St. Joe drainage, once a premier elk-hunting destination. The field observations are good news for general season elk hunters who opt to hunt elk in the Panhandle when the general season opens Oct. 10. Department of Fish and Game regional wildlife manager Wayne Wakkinen agrees with Brebner’s assessment. “Reports from archery hunters have been good,” he says. There is a reason for this, one that biologists and hunters know equally well.

A mild winter last year bolstered elk and especially calf survival rates, and allowed wolf hunters and trappers to reach farther into the backcountry to catch the predator packs, Wakkinen says. Easy winters the past three years have benefited not only elk herds and wolf hunters, but IDFG put out the word earlier this year that they’ve led to “unusually” high whitetail and mule deer numbers, including in the Panhandle, where there are lots of flagtail does. The agency discounted the price of second tags for

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

COLUMN resident and nonresident hunters. A forecast for another mild winter could further the trend, Wakkinen says, which results in increased calf-to-cow ratios in some St. Joe elk hunting units. Notably, the ratios are slowly increasing in the Joe’s most popular units, including Unit 6 and Unit 7, although the numbers are still relatively dismal in Unit 7, Wakkinen says. “They continue to be pretty low there, but they seem to have bottomed out and are trending upward,” he says. In 2012, biologists counted nine calves per 100 cows in Unit 7. The following year, the number had risen to 11, and last year biologists flying over the area counted 12 calves for every 100 cows. Wildlife managers use a calf-tocow ratio of 30 calves per 100 cows as a thumbnail for a healthy elk herd. In better years the region boasted ratios in the 40s. Unit 6 has shown better recovery,

48 Northwest Sportsman

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with an average of around 25 calves per 100 cows in the unit that stretches from Avery along the St. Joe River west toward St. Maries. “That’s still pretty crappy,” Wakkinen says. “But it’s going in the right direction.” As elk populations in the St. Joe trend toward healthier numbers, several Panhandle units have seen an abundance of elk. Unit 1, along the British Columbia-Washington-Montana border, has become a new target for hunters, as calf-cow ratios there have hovered in the low 30s for the past several years. “There seems to be an increase in the elk herd in portions of that unit,” Wakkinen acknowledges. “It’s a decent unit with a stable elk population.” Agricultural units in the Panhandle, including Units 3 and 5, have seen a jump in numbers, and because of depredation issues there, IDFG has offered controlled hunts there between

August and December. Hunter success rates have jumped into the 50-percent range, he says. In the Coeur d’Alene Mountains along the fabled North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, calf-to-cow ratios are also climbing. The numbers fluctuate throughout Unit 4, Wakkinen says, averaging about 25 calves per 100 cows.

WHEN BIOLOGISTS START seeing more young bulls harvested, it is an indication that the age structure of herds is becoming healthier. “We’re still seeing low percentages of spikes in the harvest,” Wakkinen says. “We hope to see an increase in that category this year.” Jason Brebner’s observations from the field last month ended with the words October hunters want to hear. “I truly believe it’s going to be a good year for hunters this year,” he texts. “The sign is there, and we’re seeing lots of game.” NS

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50 Northwest Sportsman

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Start Thinking ‘Meat Care’ W

hatever else a successful hunt may be, once you’ve notched a tag and taken photos, the work starts so that all ON TARGET of your preparation By Dave Workman doesn’t wind up turning you into a vegetarian. Let’s get right down to it. You’ve put a bullet into a big buck or bull, or whatever else you’re hunting. Maybe you have a hunting vest full of dead grouse or rabbits, or you’re packing a string of ducks or a couple of geese out of the field. Whatever it is you’ve bagged, you need to field dress your game pronto and start cooling it down. For the past few years, I’ve been hunting on a ranch down along the Snake River breaks with Northwest Sportsman ad sales manager Brian Lull. Longtime readers have seen the results of our endeavors in this space: big bucks taken at sometimes-long ranges (I believe my 350-yard shot a couple of years ago was the longest, but Lull connected last year on a downhill shot that was no stone’s throw either). The sooner you open up the body cavity and remove the innards, the better that venison is going to taste in the long run. I shot a whitetail buck once many years ago on the late hunt east of Colville in Washington’s Stevens County. It was a one-shot stop, downhill about 150 yards or so, but as soon as that animal was down, I was up and walking with my gear. Within minutes, I had the buck opened up and was tossing big handfuls of snow into the cavity to cool it off. Our Snake River adventures have happened in mild weather, so we get our field-dressed bucks as quickly as possible into a nice, shady, cool old barn to let them hang a bit, and then we start peeling hide. Lull is a stickler for getting as much fat off the meat as possible. I’ve never been

The author preaches trimming fat off venison to make it as lean as possible. (DAVE WORKMAN) quite as particular, though whenever I cook up a nice piece of venison, or grind it up for smoked sausage, I take out a good knife and trim off all the fat I can before putting it in the grinder or the skillet. Fat on venison isn’t like fat in beef. Deer fat, in my humble opinion, doesn’t enhance the flavor of the meat at all. It might contribute to the “wild” taste that can turn off some people to eating game meat, so get rid of it. It doesn’t even make for good cooking grease or candle tallow, in my opinion. This year, Lull and I have taken delivery of the Hoist’N Lok from Columbia River Knife & Tool. This Russ Kommer-designed big game hoist features a patented locking-cam system and has a 500-pound lift capacity. It has a welded steel gambrel and comes with 40 feet of nylon rope. We plan to put these hoists to good use about the middle of this month.

HAIR REMOVAL It’s important to get as much hair

off the meat as possible. Use a wet cloth or towel for this chore. In addition to removing fat, getting rid of hair is important to the quality of your meat. We take along a rather large cooler and make sure we’ve got plenty of ice. Lull is a pretty good butcher, and he always brings along an ample supply of zip-lock plastic bags – the gallon size is best – for trimming meat and keeping selected cuts separated. In one bag, we might put the loins and backstraps, while another bag will hold roasts, or cuts we intend to use for burger. When you seal those bags, be sure to squeeze as much of the air as possible out of them. Lull has actually resealed meat over the past couple of years using a vacuum sealer, which is a very good investment. Meat sealed this way can keep for a very long time, if kept frozen. If you cut along the muscle lines, you should have several good cuts of meat at the end of your butchering process. Somewhere along the way – probably as a Christmas gift – I acquired a great cutting

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

COLUMN tool from Knives of Alaska. It’s a cross between a heavy butcher’s knife and a cleaver, and it comes in a sheath with a much smaller trimming knife called the Cub Bear. There’s also a flat sharpening steel in the kit. Keep your knives sharp and have more than one knife because you’ll need them. I’ve written about this before, and at the time I mentioned having an EZE-LAP round diamond sharpener. Another good tool for cutting tissue and removing unwanted fat is a fillet knife. That thin, sharp blade can cut close, saving lots of meat that a bigger unwieldy knife might destroy.

REMOVING DAMAGED TISSUE It is important during the butchering process to cut out all the meat that shows bullet trauma. I’ve tasted some of this stuff over the years and it can be just awful, not to mention the possibility, regardless of however slight, that one

After a successful hunt and careful meat care, sausages and jerky smoke up for yummy fall and winter treats. (DAVE WORKMAN)

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COLUMN might be ingesting tiny particles of lead and/or copper. It is also imperative during the fielddressing process to carefully remove the bladder without puncturing it, and get rid of the scent glands or at least make darned certain you don’t slice them. Typically, if you’ve made a good incision from the sternum to the groin, you can literally roll out the gut pile without having to dig around too much in the body cavity. Now, one thing that people a generation ago didn’t think of but that I now practice religiously is to take along a couple of pairs of rubber gloves for the gutting process. Those latex gloves, like the ones salmon and steelhead anglers now commonly use when handling lures and baits, weigh literally nothing, and you can carry a half dozen of them in your pocket. This keeps your hands clean. Stay safe, shoot straight and good luck! NS

WHET YOUR APPETITE Over the years, I’ve come to the opinion that venison is best served after being slowcooked in a cast-iron skillet that’s been cured with bacon fat, warmed up slowly to cooking heat, and then treated with a bit of olive oil. I may cut up some breakfast steaks from the backstrap or the loins, and cook them up with a slice or two of bacon, a bit of onion, perhaps a pinch or two of fresh garlic (crush the clove, don’t shake it out of a bottle!), and maybe a sliced potato. Cook that up until brown and enjoy. For stew, the crock pot is a marvelous invention because you can dice up the meat, some onions, potatoes, celery if you like (I don’t), a few sliced onions and add the spices you think appropriate. Toss in all of your makings, turn on, and walk away to let it cook things up. I’m hankering to barbecue up some venison this fall after marinating it in teriyaki sauce with a bit of steak seasoning overnight, just to see what that’s like. You might also turn to page 73 of last month’s edition and page 57 this issue and see how Northwest Sportsman chef Randy King prepares his venison delights. If you’re going to go to the trouble and expense of conking a buck, you better take the extra steps necessary to make sure your dinner fare is delicious. What about smoking your venison? I did this once for a Christmas gathering, putting about a 4-pound roast in the smoker, wrapping it with a couple of bacon slices and I believe we also injected a couple of garlic cloves deep into the meat. Everyone who tried it said it was superb. They couldn’t have been lying because they finished it off. Bon appétit! –DW

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For When Venison Tacos And Spaghetti Get Old When the family tires of the usual dinner fare that ground venison is used for, spice things up with Chef Randy’s Southeast Asianinspired elk meatballs with sweet chili sauce and green bean salad. (RANDY KING)

he elk made their way up the ravine in single file. It was a death trap for them, really. The gulch was steep on both IN THE WILD sides, bordered by By Randy King buckbrush with a small game trail running down the middle of it. No way to turn around in a hurry. My brother had spotted the elk a few days prior by following their predictable route: eat the alfalfa in the farmer’s field, make their way up a ravine and bed in the timber. They were like clockwork. All four of us had cow tags and were waiting behind a rock outcropping opening morning. We heard the elk first. The sound of 120 hoofs is not quiet. The tension rose as the noise grew louder and louder until the lead cow came into view. The chill morning air was coming out of her nose in a white cloud of steam. Behind her was a procession of antlerless

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elk, and one lone spike. They created a misty cloud in their wake. When the herd was in shooting distance we all lined up on our elk. Scopes on brown fur and safeties off, we all fired. Four elk fell to the ground. All hell broke loose with the rest of the herd. Elk clambored over each other, turning and spinning in confusion, before finally sprinting upvalley. We waited for a little while, making sure we had a vantage on any wounded elk, and then made our way down to the bottom. My .270 more than enough, my elk was dead as a doornail. But about 15 yards away from me, I heard a loud crash and an “Oh, sh*t!” The elk my neighbor Dick had shot was now standing in the buckbrush, just off the trail. One jump and she was in the middle of the ravine. Next she started to run – right at me. I stood and turned around to look at the rest of my group, all directly behind me, guns in the ready position, but none able to shoot. I was a much better door than a

window. The very nature of the ravine that had led to our success blocked all follow-up shots. After I tagged and gutted my elk, and propped it up to drain, we went to find the wounded elk. It really only had one direction to go, thankfully. The blood trail was also very heavy. Unfortunately we humans were not the only ones on its trail. Two smallish bears (5-footers at best) had decided to trail our elk. When we arrived the cow had passed away, thankfully. But the bears were sitting on their haunches looking at the carcass, expectant of the feast to come. They started “barking” at us as we approached, but eventually fell back to about 40 yards and waited. We tossed them elk bones for snacks as well as to try and scare them off. It is unnerving to have that much dangerous company so close by, especially while covered in elk blood. But the bears would not give up easily, for they knew the truth about elk. They are delicious. NS OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

FIVE-SPICE ELK MEATBALLS WITH SWEET CHILI SAUCE AND GREEN BEAN SALAD As a wild game chef I frequently get asked how to use more ground meat. On game animals it is often the case that up to 50 percent of the meat ends up in the grinder. An elk only has two backstraps, after all. If it can’t be roasted or cut into steaks, the butcher will often toss it in the grind. Not that there is anything wrong with that – it just leads to a lot of taco meat in most houses. Variety is vital to eating an elk over the course of a year. It is a lot of meat for a normal family. One easy-to-accomplish method is the meatball. Balled up and cooked meat is a staple around the world. Italian, Chinese, Japanese, American, Swedish, Turkish (often on sticks) – name the culture and it almost certainly has a ball-shaped ground-meat dish. Why? It is a cheap and easy way to use up what would otherwise

be tough cuts of meat. I am a personal fan of the Chinese/Thai mash-up of five spice-flavored meatballs with a sweet chili sauce – lots of flavor and very filling. I like to serve it with white rice and a green bean salad. Just remember: A recipe is just a good idea someone had and wrote down. They should always be played with. Like garlic? Add more. Don’t like ginger? Don’t add any. Have fun with food!

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Âź cup mayonnaise Â˝ cup bread crumbs 1 tablespoon sesame seeds 1 tablespoon sliced thin green onions Salt and pepper 1 cup sweet chili sauce Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-sized mixing bowl add everything but the sweet chili sauce. Mix well, by hand, for two to three minutes. Using a small ice cream scoop make 1-ounce meatballs; you should get about 18 from this recipe. Place each meatball on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. A little pink in the center is desired. When done, carefully transfer the cooked meatballs to a mixing bowl. Add the sweet chili sauce onto the meatballs. Carefully toss or stir to fully coat the meatballs with the sauce. Garnish with thinly sliced carrot and green onions. Serve hot. For more recipes, see chefrandyking .com.

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Raising Hunters The Long Haul, celebrating people-powered hunting and ﬁshing opportunities and quality of life in the Northwest outdoors.

s I’ve written before, I’m not an especially good whitetail hunter, but I love the pursuit and study of deer THE LONG HAUL nonetheless. I’ve shot By Jeff Holmes several whitetails, including a couple of decent bucks, but my typical style of walking around way too fast with a hulking frame has taught me to identify many successful strategies for hearing the crashing of fleeing deer. I may get lucky this year and shoot a mature (four years or older) buck, but my odds of connecting with a 140-inch or larger public-lands whitetail will be nil compared to those putting in the year-round work necessary to shoot mature bucks annually. When it comes to hunting public-lands whitetails in the Inland Northwest, it takes a bad-ass hunter to trick lots of big bucks, especially without baiting them in. Once a whitetail buck reaches maturity, he is a seriously cagey and tough critter. He’s a secretive creature of habit that follows defined patterns, provided his eyes, nose, and ears tell him all is safe. Guys like my friend and whitetail mentor, Troy Pottenger, are masters at patterning deer and creating scenarios where their winding conditions make deer feel comfortable while allowing him to get close to more bucks in a year than most of us will see in a lifetime in the woods. His hunt lasts 365 days a year. When the season ends for him in late December, it doesn’t end. He continues to

I saw a picture of a guy holding a dead, posed buck today in Montana that made me laugh. His face looked like he was Clint Eastwood after besting a bad guy. When I look at the tough-guy faces from these two, North Idaho’s Troy Pottenger and son Tyson, 11, I buy it. They’re in the whitetail woods 300 days or more a year hunting and ﬁlming public-lands whitetail archery performed at a higher level than I’ve personally heard about – anywhere. They sit in trees when it’s 0 degrees and hike long distances into lonesome stand locations at all hours of the morning and night. They stay ﬁt and train hard year-round for the fall. (TROY POTTENGER)

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

COLUMN check cameras and shed hunt as soon as whitetails begin to drop headgear in early winter. For all of the spring and summer, Pottenger hikes the woods of Idaho and Washington locating and patterning as many bucks as he can find, identifying “shooters” for the upcoming season and for

the buck stone dead 75 yards from impact. Tyson’s camerawork will be featured on Whitetail Addictions TV, where Troy is a full pro-staffer and a contributor to the best whitetail hunting show on TV. Whitetail Addictions TV staffers don’t hunt over bait and take fair chase seriously.

THROUGH MY OWN networking and through my work for Field & Stream magazine reporting on deer around the West, I know a fair number of hunting freaks for whom fitness is a lifestyle and a means to an end. One need not be trim and in shape to shoot a lot of deer, but to gain and lose 1,000 to 2,000 feet of elevation hiking into the secretive haunts that most public lands bucks occupy, it takes conditioning. So does the act of being relentless checking for future years. His first buck this season came on Idaho’s Sept. 1 archery opener, and the hunt was filmed by his 11-year-old son and archery partner, Tyson. Troy took the 140-class velveted buck after watching him grow for three years. When the buck appeared on cue on a high mouintain ridge on Labor Day, headed to feed in a burned clearcut, Pottenger made the decision to arrow him from 18 yards because he knew the deer wasn’t getting any bigger and because he’d never shot a buck with such unique eyeguards. He nicknamed the buck Blades due to its blade-shaped 9- and 11inch eyeguards. Pottenger has taken many larger bucks and would usually pass on a sub-150 animal, but even for a trophy hunter like him, it’s not all about antlers. Having patterned the buck for years and having climbed so many miles over that time to that ridgetop, he felt great about loosing an arrow. It dropped 62 Northwest Sportsman

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sheds, new camera pictures, and new stand locations all year. As an award-winning health teacher at Post Falls (Idaho) High School, Pottenger pins a lot of his success in the field on the healthy lifestyle he learned as a boy and that he has continued to live and pass onto his kids. I asked him to take a few minutes to talk about the role of hard work and conditioning in his success as a hunter and as a dad raising two healthy, respectful boys who love the outdoors. As usual when I talk to this force of nature, I took away lessons I value. I also asked him to talk about Tyson, who is already on staff filming for Whitetail Addictions TV with more skill than many adults filming in the industry. “Both of my sons, Tyson and Jess, have been raised in the outdoors from their earliest years. My wife and I made the decision to live out in the country for our family so we could be able to walk out our back door and literally get lost in the mountains. As a child and teen it was exactly how I grew up, and I cherish that freedom and the life lessons and activities that I was able to do. Those experiences shaped me as a person. I learned from my father how to work through his logging business, and from my mother, who was a teacher, the importance of education. I

Troy Pottenger is a teacher in Post Falls, a Whitetail Addictions TV pro staffer, and the best whitetail hunter I’ve tracked down in the West. All summer he patterned a velvet-antlered Idaho buck, nicknamed “Blades” after his unique eyeguards (top left). Blades is one of several bucks I will likely feature this fall from Pottenger and Tyson, who ﬁlms and hunts with his dad. I rely on Troy’s observations for my reports for Field and Stream’s Whitetail 360 Blog and will feature Troy and Tyson again this November. (TROY POTTENGER)

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Northwest Sportsman

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Pottenger believes instilling a powerful work ethic is the most important thing he can do for his boys. The result, so far, seems to be two badass kids, one of whom, Tyson, shows the dedication to ﬁlm professionally. Both Jess, 13, and Tyson have been brought up being ﬁt and healthy in the outdoors. (TROY POTTENGER)

grew up country, and the country boy in me has never left. My wife and I purposely wanted that same life and freedoms for our sons. “My boys have pretty much gone with me into the woods, working on scouting and hunting, since they were both old enough to ride on the four-wheeler with me. They both shed hunted and hunted with me before their third birthdays. They both had a bow and/or BB gun in their hands from the age of 3 on. I guess when you have two sons and you’re a whitetail fanatic like me, doing work 365 days a year involving your passion, your sons either join you or a guy doesn’t get to spend the kind of quality time he wants to with his boys. My boys enjoyed it, and to this day both of them are fine hunters. “Jess, my oldest at 13, has grown into a devout fisherman and rifle hunter. At 13 he’s landed 20-pound pike, big smallmouth bass and harvested a bear, several deer and an elk. But the bowhunting bug never bit Jess. All the miles, long hours of scouting, prepping, etc., just wasn’t his thing. Quite frankly, I don’t blame him. I’ve always 64 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

felt and know that the kind of bowhunting I am dedicated to is definitely not for everyone. I get it. I’m just wired for it and love it with all my soul. “On the other hand, my youngest, Tyson, has a little bit of his dad in him. Actually, I’ve recently noticed that when it comes to whitetails and bowhunting, he’s wired a lot like his father. I sensed it, and tested him many times with long hours hiking and sitting in stands, and he passed with flying colors. I could just see in his actions and willingness to do all the work necessary that he is and will be a bowhunter and a very dedicated and skilled one. I support both of my sons equally in their outdoor passions, but being archery freaks, Tyson and I spend a lot of time together: scouting, hunting, filming, shed hunting. “Both of my boys know exactly what it means to work hard. They have chores, ‘man chores’ as I call them, splitting and stacking firewood since they were big enough to lift a block of wood. They both have plenty of daily chores, homework, etc., that goes along with our busy lifestyle of living out of town from where we work. Both my wife

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66 Northwest Sportsman

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Pottenger has strong words of praise for both his sons, calling Jess a “devout ﬁsherman and riﬂe hunter,” and says that he’s tried to instill his own father’s lesson in Jess and Tyson: “If you’re going to take part in anything, do it the very best you can and never let anyone outwork you.” (TROY POTTENGER) and I are teachers in North Idaho. I also run my own logging business in the summers, and my wife is the head volleyball coach at Coeur d’Alene High School. Both my boys are football and basketball players. Health, fitness and plain old hard country-boy lifestyle work around our place is important. I’ve taught my boys what my father taught me 40 years ago. If you’re going to take part in anything, do it the very best you can and never let anyone outwork you. These are words and lessons I can not thank my father enough for. Hunting and fishing and the outdoors are a terrific platform to teach our kids those qualities of life. Some people say

work hard; some people say work smarter, not harder. I believe and teach my sons to work smart and harder than anyone else. “At age 11, now, Tyson has fallen in love with what I do, bowhunting. Tyson shot his first little buck at age 9 with a rifle in Washington state, and from that day on he simply told me he wanted to bowhunt only. So I told him the hard honest truth at age 9: if you want to be a bowhunter, son, that is great, but you are going to have to realize that the work and dedication it takes to be a successful bowhunter makes for a very full plate, and very few are cut out for it. The reason

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couple of weeks ago. This engine is a complete rededication to the innovation Evinrude brings to the two-stroke outboard market. The Evinrude E-TEC G2 outboard engine delivers unrivaled performance with best-in-class torque and fuel efficiency and lowest total emissions. The new E-TEC G2 engine offers the ﬁrst and only customizable look, the only clean rigging and fully integrated digital controls. These innovations now allow consumers to choose the absolute perfect combination of boat and engine by selecting top and front panels, as well as accent colors that match your boat. Check them out at your local Evinrude dealer.

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OCTOBER 2014

I shared this with him was because I felt he would not have that much fun if he wasn’t successful, and I wanted his expectations to be clear up front. He was game, and from those early days, he has not wavered whatsoever. Tyson does all the scouting, shed hunting, stand placements and the rest of the dirty work that goes into his bowhunting passion. “By my side, he works with me and spends days shed hunting and running ridges with me. He finds his own bucks, runs his own trail cameras, you name it: hanging tree stands and mucking out trails, etc. The hard work, blood, sweat and many miles traveled to keep up with me in the woods is tough on a young man, but it makes him tough, and he’s healthy as a horse. Keeping up with me is pretty rare, and Tyson does it. He loves the scouting, trail camera checking, long hikes, long cold days on stand, etc. Tyson has also become quite the skilled cameraman. He’s been to camera training school with Whitetail Addictions TV and he graded out as high as the adults. Today I film Tyson’s hunts, and he films me. We have a great working relationship and he balances it with advanced classes at school, a full football and basketball season. He really does more than most would ever imagine for a kid just entering sixth grade, but because he loves hunting the whitetails like he does, he does it and does it well. On his days off from football, he joins me in the whitetail woods. He is a very organized and self-disciplined young man. He has to be or this world of hunting and filming wouldn’t work out for him.”

AS THIS SEASON moves along and as deer change patterns, Troy and Tyson will be hot on the tails of many big bucks they have patterned in the Inland Northwest. For weekly reports from Troy and other whitetail hunters around the Northwest and the broader American West, check out my two weekly articles for Field & Stream’s Rut Reporters. And check out my November article in Northwest Sportsman with Pottenger for a crash course in finding bucks and places to hunt during the madness of the rut here. NS

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Northwest Sportsman

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HUNTING

Get ’Em While They’re Hot Warm, dry conditions could put a damper on Oregon’s deer season. By Tyler Dungannon

unter education instructors teach you that wildlife need food, shelter and water, and in this year of drought, those couldn’t be more important to Oregon hunters. Deer will seek the remaining water sources and move to higher elevations where they will ﬁnd green forage and canopies of cover to keep cool. Forest and range ﬁres could be the wildcard in Oregon’s fall deer season. Habitat change and access restrictions can change everything in a heartbeat, and even the best hunting forecast can go up in smoke. That said, most Oregon district

and assistant wildlife biologists expect good hunting this season despite the lack of water around the state. Here’s the outlook for what the 2014 season has in store for you.

NORTHWEST If you struggle to find forage on national forest land, you’ll struggle to find deer. Those are the words of Department of Fish and Wildlife district wildlife biologist Brian Wolfer in Springfield. Buck ratios are high in the McKenzie and the Indigo Units. The McKenzie tallied 32 blacktail bucks per 100 does, while the Indigo counted nearly the same with 31:100.

These ﬁgures represent great ratios, considering the management objective is 25 bucks per 100 does. Fawns in the McKenzie are faring well with 40 per 100 does, while the Indigo Unit is a little low, as usual, with 26:100. Unfortunately, deer numbers in these units aren’t doing as well as the buck ratios. Last year’s success rate in the McKenzie came in at 15 percent, and the Indigo produced an 18-percent hunter success rate. The southern half of the Willamette Unit is also managed by Wolfer, and he notes that this unit is a deer de-emphasis area due to the overwhelming amount of private land. The key here is simple: know

Amy Hedgpeth took this blacktail buck in Curry County last year with her daughter Alyssa Hedgpeth. (COURTESY OREGON HUNTER’S ASSOCIATION)

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Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING someone with land and some deer, and take care of that relationship. Deer in the lower elevations of this district are battling hair-loss syndrome, especially fawns, and it proves absolutely fatal to young fawns without a full coat. “We had some record low temperatures that impacted fawns with hair-loss,” Wolfer notes. With Weyerhaeuser feehunting some of their prime deer properties this fall, he urges you to check the company’s website to confirm if your hunting area now requires the purchase of a permit. Most of the Weyerhaeuser land in this district does not require one. On the North Coast, harvest reporting for the Trask, Wilson and Saddle Mountain Units showed more blacktail bucks were taken last season than any other in the previous decade. And Herman Biederbeck in Tillamook reports a good number of bucks are still out there, even after last year’s very successful deer hunting season. Biederbeck believes populations in his district are on the rise, and he mostly attributes that to the amount of available habitat due to clearcutting. Also, biologists perceive a slight decrease in the amount of hair-loss syndrome cases in this district. Buck ratios in all these slightly surpass 20 per 100 does, but fawn recruitment lags a little lower than biologists would like to see. In general, deer numbers are better inland than nearer the ocean.

SOUTHWEST According to Mark Vargas in Central Point, blacktail numbers are holding steady across the district. The Rogue Watershed District tallied 27 bucks per 100 does in the fall of last season, and this year had a good number of fawns and a lot of twins, which shows promise for future years. That said, deer here are enduring an ongoing battle with hair-loss syndrome and adenovirus. 72 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

horn-or-better buck should be worth a couple preference points.

HIGH DESERT

Buck ratios in the Rogue Unit, where the author photographed this blacktail this summer, are slightly above management objectives. (TYLER DUNGANNON)

“We’re seeing outbreaks with hairloss in Josephine County,” Vargas says, “but it’s not as bad in Jackson County.” Urban deer are to blame for and the victims of most of these outbreaks because disease transfer is far more common around feeders and water troughs. Also, weather conditions can affect the abundance of hair-loss. “With the dryness we’re having, I expect to see more cases,” Vargas says. Last season’s hunter success rate for this district was similar to previous years. The Rogue Unit produced an 18-percent success rate. The general riﬂe season looks promising this year, because opening day is not until Oct. 4, and there’s a greater chance of getting some rain by then. Vargas mentions that it’s difﬁcult to advise hunters where to go because the location of the animals is so weather dependent. The best advice he can give at this point is to hunt high elevations at the beginning of the season and move lower as it progresses. And keep this one in mind for next year: A new controlled blacktail hunt will become available in the Chetco Unit. Due to good success rates and good buck ratios here over the past few years, a new 35tag muzzleloader hunt for a forked-

The Klamath Falls Watershed will offer good deer hunting this year. According to John Muir in K-Falls, the Keno and Klamath Falls Units are above management objective for buck ratios. An additional 100 tags were made available for the latter unit this year. Fawn numbers weren’t what ODFW would have liked to see heading into the winter, but Muir says overwinter survival appeared great because there wasn’t much of a winter to speak of. The Interstate Unit boasts excellent buck ratios that exceed management objective. This is a productive mule deer area that offers great opportunities at some nice animals. The youth hunt should continue to produce trophies for kids fortunate enough to draw tags. The 25-tag hunt sustains over a 90-percent success rate. Muir says this is a unique opportunity to hunt deer that are fairly concentrated. This tag is highly sought and may require up to eight preference points to draw. It is now vital for kids to be involved in the Mentored Youth Hunter Program to pile the points high enough to draw a tag before they turn 18. Poaching remains an issue for wildlife managers in this district. In the last decade, a study revealed an estimated 85 percent of the adult doe poaching cases took place during the legal authorized buck season. Muir notes that we are losing more deer to illegal kills than roads, including Highway 97, which kills more than any other route in Oregon. Buck ratios are just slightly above management objective in the North Wagontire and Paulina Units. Though population numbers were down this year in the North Wagontire, biologist Corey Heath in Bend notes that the number of tags did not change for fall. This district’s fawn recruitment was fairly average in the low to mid-30s per 100 adults.

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Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING Heath also points out that adenovirus hemorrhagic disease has persisted in this district for many years. AVHD chronic symptoms include ulcers and abscesses in the mouth and throat, while acute symptoms can include open-mouth breathing and foam protruding from the mouth. The virus can be fatal to deer in as few as three to ﬁve days after being exposed to the virus. According to Heath’s counterpart in Hines, Rod Klus, mule deer populations have increased slightly despite the ongoing drought. Fawn recruitment surpassed management objective in all of the units in this district. Fawn overwinter survival excelled this year. Klus observes that typical fawn overwinter survival rates would be in the ballpark of 50 percent, but this year counts showed nearly 75 percent. “We came out better than expected,” Klus says.

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OCTOBER 2014

Fall green-up probably had an impact on the high survival rates. Buck ratios were right at management objective for all of the units in this district. Klus believes we should see a hunting season very similar to last season. “With the overwinter survival,” he says, “there should be a fair number of young bucks out there.”

NORTHEAST Pat Matthews in Enterprise says muleys in the state’s northeast corner aren’t faring as well as ODFW wants. “Deer numbers are below management objective and have been for quite some time,” he explains. The greatest cause of this misfortune is a high fawn mortality rate. “We continue to suffer from poor fawn survival, and most of that is labeled to predation,” Matthews says. “Certainly wolves are taking fawns, but they also take adults.”

He notes that the units in this district were having trouble with poor fawn recruitment before the wolves became an issue, so the blame can’t be placed on the newest predator in the woods. Fawn counts showed the Snake River Unit had 35 fawns per 100 adults, Imnaha 31:100 and Sled Springs 41:100. Despite the struggle, ODFW has maintained the number of controlled buck tags as in recent years. Snake River had the best buck ratios, 27:100 does. However, Matthews warns hunters that this unit has the fewest number of deer in the district. Sled Springs posted a dismal buck ratio of just 8:100, while the remaining units in the district supported ratios of 14: to 16:100. On a more positive note, Matthews reports that a good number of whitetail deer, which can be taken in place of a mule deer by hunters possessing a 100-series buck tag, are expanding

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Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING into the units in the district. Mule deer in the Catherine Creek Unit are signiďŹ cantly below management objectives. Although the population in this unit is stable, Leonard Erickson in La Grande says deer numbers remain around 40 percent of the management objective. However, buck ratios in the Catherine Creek Unit, as well as the Mt. Emily Unit, appear solid, with 17 per 100 does, respectively, where the management objective is 15:100 in each of the units. Buck ratios in the Starkey Unit have increased from last year and now meet the management objective of 15:100. Mule deer were on the move last year in units surrounding John Day, and that led to good hunter success. This year buck ratios in this region are perhaps a little lower than average. According to Ryan Torland in John Day, buck ratios in the Northside Unit came in at 11 per 100 does, while

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the Desolation Unit and the southeast corner of the Heppner Unit each tallied 12:100. The Murderers Creek Unit tallied 17:100. Tags for Northside and Desolation were reduced by 100 to 1,200 each this year to help improve deer numbers and buck ratios. North-central Oregon units show a slight increase in mule deer populations. Travis Schultz in Heppner says the district has increased its tags slightly due to the high buck ratios and good deer numbers. Buck ratios hover well above the management objective of 12:100 in the Heppner and Fossil Units. Fossil is up to 17 bucks per 100 does, and the Heppner is at 16:100. Fawns surveys suggest that the population is slightly increasing. Fawns tallied 40 per 100 adults and 37:100, respectively. Just as wildlife sometimes must adapt to survive, deer hunters may have to adapt this year to be

Jake Jenkins went a fair ways from his Eugene home for this muley. The buck was one of four big game critters he and his dad Dennis bagged in Northeast Oregon last year. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

successful. If you ďŹ nd this fall that your usual hot spots are just that, as well as sparse on water and green forage, you may need to set your sights higher and follow the deer to greener pastures. NS

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HUNTING

Fire-zone Bucks Yes, Washington’s Carlton Complex scorched a quarter million acres of great mule deer range, but it’s not game over for this season. By Jason Brooks

FIREFIGHTER

I knew how devastating forest TWISP, Wash.—This past summer fires can be on my home region, Northhomes, land and central Washington, was hit lives, but as a hunter hard by wildfires. Friends and I also know how old schoolmates of mine were they promote and evacuated, and some even lost propagate the forest their homes. As a hunter I kept for the benefit of thinking about the animals, but wildlife and habitat. most of all I was reminded what it It’s hard to see such was like to live in fire country ... good in disasaters It was a midday summertime like this summer’s thunderstorm, one where you fires in Okanogan could smell the rain and feel the and Chelan electricity in the air. As the wind Counties (Northwest kicked up and the temperatures S p o r t s m a n , dropped several degrees, we September 2014; stepped onto our back deck and nwsportsmanmag. watched for lightning, pointing at com), but in time the hills each time we saw a strike the forest will and kept looking back for smoke return, and so will to rise. the deer and deer The storm front started to roll hunting. along the mountains towards the One of my Methow Valley and soon we began favorite places to hearing the drones of airplanes. hunt is along a First it was the small spotters, firebreak in a saddle Cesnas with their high-pitched The author killed this North-central Washington buck in October 2011, in an area that separates a engines, then the distinctive loud that had burned 10 years before. (JASON BROOKS) feeding area from hum of the fire-retardant bombers. a burn and a bedding area of heavy cover and water. I All of a sudden a midsized plane flew over our house, and killed my first buck and, years later, my biggest buck in this when it reached the foothills, I saw for the first time in same saddle, but it was over 20 years after the fires ripped my life people parachuting. Dad explained that they were through the area. We know that it doesn’t take that long smokejumpers, an elite firefighting crew for the Forest for deer to come back – look at 2012’s famed Tripod Buck Service. (Northwest Sportsman, February 2013; nwsportsmanmag. I was five at that time and knew that someday I would com), so named for the burn it was killed in just six years fight forest fires too. after that fire. Seventeen years later, after serving in the Air Force as But knowing that it will take time doesn’t help when a firefighter, I found myself in the Chelan Ranger District deer season is just a few weeks away. To that end, I had the checking my equipment. In 1995, the year after the big Tyee chance in late August to talk to the two primary Washington Fire that burned up much of east-central Chelan County, Department of Fish & Wildlife biologists for Chelan and I worked on an initial attack crew. For one summer I was Okanogan Counties. After the fires calmed down and the paid to live in the mountains and chase after fires. I learned rains began to fall, both were surprisingly optimistic about a lot, especially how to respect a fire in the forest.

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING the upcoming general deer season. The Methow Valley sustained the largest wildfire in the state’s history, the quarter-million-acre blowup known as the Carlton Complex, but Scott Fitkin, who keeps tabs on the animals in the area, says this could be “a pretty good year” for hunters. He says that buck-to-doe ratios sit up around 25:100, but stresses that you will need to be flexible. For those who hunt the Pearygin, Alta and Chiliwist Units, access may be an issue. Fitkin worries that those trying to hunt their normal spots might find their way in closed. “We saw that the year of the Tripod,” he says, referencing the road closures in the 175,000 acres that burned north of Loup Loup Pass and east of Winthrop as they were surveyed and rehabilitated by federal recovery teams. With heavy rains and no vegetation left on the hills to keep the mud back, several washouts occurred and mudslides blocked roads in late summer. To find deer, Fitkin stresses to stay out of blackened areas. “Poke around the areas just outside of the fire,” he tips. The deer that were pushed off their normal haunts won’t venture too far away. The real concern here is that the fire burned up so much of the winter grounds. Luckily, rains came earlier than usual, and a lot of water that caused washouts also helped remove some of the overlaying ash and push a lot of moisture back into the ground. Grasses should grow back and forage should be available, but to what extent and how bad the range was devastated won’t be known until later this fall. Extra antlerless permits for those who were unsuccessful in the draw for these units may be issued, and that could increase opportunities for hunters and help keep overall deer numbers in check and hopefully avoid a large winter die-off. This will 80 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

FIRE-AREA DANGER I remember rising above a fire in the Prince Creek drainage on the north shore of Lake Chelan back in 1995. As the helicopter climbed I had a bird’s-eye view of the fire and was amazed at the amount of smoke and smoldering trees still inside the fire perimeter though the fire had been contained several months before. It was now late September and we were to rehabilitate the fire line that had been dug that summer. The idea was to make it look like there was no fire line and make sure “water bars” were placed to keep the line from turning into a deep cut on the mountain from spring runoff. We were also to make sure that the fire was completely out for 10 yards up to the fire line. The smoldering stumps This map of the southwest side of the Carlton Complex illustrates would burn until snow that while a lot of land was inside the ﬁre perimeter, it didn’t all blanketed the hillsides. burn at the same intensity. Light green represents low intensity Wildlife biologist Scott ﬁre, yellow moderate and red high. (INCIWEB) Fitkin and I both have concerns about telling And lastly, as hunters we have an hunters to head into a burned area, ethical responsibility to take the meat especially since the Carlton Complex fire of the animals we are lucky enough to is so recent and could still be actively fill our tags with. Trying to keep meat burning. Even if the fire in your favorite clean in a recent burn area will be almost spot has been contained or is out, there impossible. are still a lot of hazards. For example, deep Both Fitkin and his fellow biologist roots that have burned out create deep Dave Volson agree that most deer will still holes covered in dirt and ash just waiting be in the fringes outside the burns, and for you to step through and twist an your best chances are to hunt areas that ankle or break a leg. The ash can kick up were not directly burned. Maybe move in the slightest breeze, causing breathing camp a few miles and hunt unburned difficulties. And most burned trees are slopes and saddles. Your best resource for prone to falling or having branches break finding that ground may be the “Soil Burn off – the term is borrowed from logging, Severity Maps” produced by the Central but “widow makers” are well-named. Washington Burned Area Emergency Hillsides with no vegetation when the Response, or BAER, team and posted at heavy rains fell in August created unstable inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4016/. slopes and loose rocks. Keep in mind Yes, some of the state’s best mule deer that even if you are able to drive into or country has been blackened, but both through a fire area, another rainstorm can Chelan and Okanogan Counties have cause rock and mud slides to block you in. great buck ratios, and some of the highest (And lest you think it doesn’t rain in this deer numbers in recent years. With a country in October, ask the editor about little flexibility and a heaping helping of 2003’s deer-camp deluge). caution, they remain huntable. –JS

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

HUNTING also help keep the high buck-to-doe ratio and the future of mule deer in Okanogan County stable. And with the ﬁres creating open spaces ﬁlled with nutritious grasses and brush, we just may see days even better than “the good ol’ days,” though again, that will take awhile.

IN 1988, THE Dinkleman Fire burned up a lot of the Entiat and Swakane Units between Wenatchee and Chelan. Then in 1994 the Tyee Fire torched from Tyee Mountain in the Entiat Valley across the steep drainage and through Johnson Creek, Mud Creek, and Potato Creek through Baldy Mountain and up the backside of Stormy Mountain, which looms above Lake Chelan. If you saw them or visited afterwards, you would have thought the whole world was on ﬁre, but actually, thanks to those two previous ﬁres, this summer’s blazes in Mills Canyon and on Duncan

An example of why all is not lost in the ﬁre zone would be this part of the Tripod Burn. Only ground cover and downed logs were burned on this area of a slope during the 2006 blaze, creating a mosaic that opened up one patch, but left thicker stuff right next door and up which a muley tried to sneak past the editor last season – and failed. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

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HUNTING in mid-August I got to see the entire fire area along the Columbia and realized that most of what burned was grassland. David Volson, WDFW district biologist out of the Wenatchee, agreed. “The Mills Canyon fire was in winter range, but was a low-intensity fire, like a prescribed burn. It took shrubs out, benefitting grasses, which will be good for the bighorns and OK for deer,” he says. As for the Chiwakum Complex fire west of Leavenworth, Volson says it burned up a lot of summer range for deer, along mostly north-facing slopes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Again, hunt the areas just outside of the fire where animal numbers will be more concentrated. Volson is also very optimistic about the future of that 14,000-acre burn. “In a few years we will have really good summer forage, then in about 15 years it will transition to a forest.

In the near future it will be a place for good quality deer hunting,” he says. Volson isn’t too concerned about the ﬁres affecting Chelan County’s deer herd in the short term, and stresses that his region also sports a very good buck-to-doe ratio and is coming off of a very mild winter. It should be good for those who know how to hunt Chelan County. That said, it can be a “tough hunt” because of the terrain, Volson says. “If you’re willing to hunt up high, you will have a better chance. The best is above 3,000 feet and above the roads. The remoteness factor is key,” he says. While the recent trend of declining hunter success might be troubling to some, Volson says it isn’t necessarily a sign of a lack of legal, three-pointor-better bucks. Instead, he believes that it is an indication of season timing during a “hot and dry” part of the year that has the bucks

largely still in the high country, and the graying of hunters. “As hunters age there has been a decrease in hunters in Chelan County,” Volson says. In other words, this area is rugged and it’s a young man’s game – or at least it’s a heck of a lot easier to hunt while you’re young. Then again, my father, who is now 67, hunted the high country with me on 2013’s opening weekend without success. Then he headed to those same foothills that we watched so many years ago and hunted the old burns, filling his tag in the same area where, as the smokejumpers fell from the sky, we thought the deer hunting would be ruined forever. In time the fires from this summer will provide more forage, which in turn will feed more deer, but for this year keep an open mind, and, as Fitkin suggests, “be flexible.” NS

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COLUMN

Contrasting Buck Prospects Across Eastside W henever I call wildlife biologists in and around the ring of the Columbia Basin for big game updates, I hope for upbeat By Leroy Ledeboer feedback – that deer and elk numbers are peaking, or that at

BASIN BEACON

least the animals are still out there in very healthy numbers. It’s the kind of info I enjoy passing on. But of course that’s totally unrealistic all the time, and right now we’re seeing real negative mule deer numbers coming out of Yakima and Kittitas Counties, low counts that go all the way back to that first big exotic louse-hair loss epidemic

that first hit around 2005. And although this scourge seems to have abated, the muleys haven’t rebounded. “Even though we’ve had fairly decent fawn survival in recent years, our overall mule deer herds haven’t made significant gains in either county,” says wildlife biologist Will Moore in Yakima. “And right now I’d say we’re likely to see about the

Deer prospects in Washington’s southeastern quarter are best around the Blue Mountains, where biologists say late-summer surveys showed as many as 45 whitetail and mule deer bucks per 100 does. It’s also where Nichole Gabbard, then four months pregnant, downed this whopper last season. She bagged it with a Remington Model 7 in .243. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

10 Northwest Sportsman

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SEPTEMBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

COLUMN same hunter success rates we’ve seen in the last five years, around 8 percent. A couple of our units, the Teanaway and the Umtanum, should once again do somewhat better than that, but overall it’s probably not going to be a real good buck harvest.” If there’s any somewhat upbeat info for deer hunters still bent on hitting either of these two eastern Cascades counties, it’s that once again competition will be low, and it’s always good not to see an army of bright orange vests covering the hillsides and meadows you wish to hunt. Then there’s the added pleasure of all that state and federal land where you can roam at will, as long as you have the heart, lungs and legs to handle that terrain. Plus, this would be a good time to check out the upcoming elk season prospects, which appear to be much much better than that muley situation. “Yes, every year a lot of the deer hunters who do come here are setting up their elk camps or at least doing some serious scouting for that season,” Moore

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adds, “and of course they pack their rifles and deer tags along just in case they do come across a legal buck. And every year we see some really nice bucks come out of here, not just legal three-pointers, but real quality animals.” According to Moore, the two big local elk herds are looking great. “Right now we’re well above our overall numbers objectives for both the

Yakima and Colockum herds and have had consistently good calf recruitment, including a year ago, which means more spikes on the landscape.” The opener on the last Saturday in October will always see the most elk hunters afield and success is always dependent on weather – the worse, the better at pushing the animals out of their high summer feeding grounds – but

COLVILLE, N.E. CONTINUE TO COME BACK Northeast Washington’s deer prospects are improving. Over the past five years, which includes the effects of a couple bad winters and subsequent sportsmendriven antler restrictions in two popular units, the average days per deer kill has been 21.3, but 2012 and 2013 bested that with 19 days per kill each. Last year also saw 200 more deer taken than the half-decade average, 4,971 to 4,774. Yes, those figures include muley bucks and antlerless whitetails, but they also point to the rise of deer hunting again in the state’s upper lefthand corner.

The meat-and-potatoes units will probably always be 49 Degrees North and Huckleberry (they’re also under four-point minimums for flagtails), both actively managed for timber production though less so for agricultural crops these days. They’re on either side of Colville, which is the regional deer hunting hub. Newport and the Selkirk Unit shouldn’t be overlooked, and local biologists also rate the Douglas Unit highly for its density of kill per square mile, lighter pressure and high success rates. –NWS

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COLUMN biologists believe that decreased effort is leading to declining harvests. They say that for quality hunts, come back the second weekend in early November and head away from the roads.

IN SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON, everywhere from that arid country just south of the Snake River down into the timbered Blue Mountains and over to the agricultural lands around Walla Walla and Dayton, deer prospects are at the other end of the spectrum from the southeast Cascades. “Our mule deer and whitetail herds are looking really strong right now, with whitetail making up about 40 percent of our total deer counts,” says Paul Wik, district wildlife biologist in Clarkston. “We’ve benefited from several consecutive mild winters, good habitat in most areas, and right now it looks like we have both strong overall buck counts and good quality. Our August mule deer surveys showed around 45 bucks per 100 does, and at least partly because last

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year’s harvest was quite a bit below what we’d expected, bigger bucks make up a good share of those numbers.” Over the seasons I’ve gotten somewhat used to hearing 20 bucks per 100 does quoted as a solid ratio, so 45:100 is a real “wow” figure. Throw in lots of quality bucks, and it’s a double wow. It was towards the end of August when I interviewed Wik, and he did caution that those numbers could change a bit. They’d seen no evidence of blue tongue, the warm-weather virus that can take a real toll on whitetail, but even in September there could be an outbreak. And they still had to crunch the mule deer numbers from a couple areas. “The bottom line is we’re seeing lots of deer and should see a really good season down here,” Wik says. “Everywhere from the agricultural lands to our big wildlife areas, it should be very good. Of course, the heavily forested areas of the Blues traditionally hold far fewer animals, but the transition lands, those that break over

into the crop grounds, are pretty good.” Here too, private access to quality habitat is great, but it’s often already spoken for by now, so all that public ground, from the edges of the Umatilla National Forest to those big wildlife area complexes – Chief Joseph, Wooten, Asotin Creek – may be your best option. (The state-owned lands of the 4-0 Wildlife Area remain closed for general-season big game hunters.) No doubt word is getting out on this region’s vastly improved deer situation, but Washington’s southeast corner is still a long way to drive for most of our state’s hunters, so even on these public lands you’ll be able to have some quality hunts, particularly if you’re willing to get back from the roads by half a mile or more. That advice goes for elk too. Wik reports that last year saw an increase in calf production, and that should result in a “noticeable” bump in spike numbers this season. The Dayton and Tucannon are the most productive units. NS

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Blacktails, Silvers, Snows Color Fall Ops NORTH SOUND

COLUMN

broad range of deer-hunting possibilities are By Doug Huddle available in Whatcom and Skagit Counties this month. From the last half of the early muzzleloader season through the main modern firearms stanza, all options are on the table, from lowland farmlands and forest plots to the North Cascades’ foothills and the Mount Baker Ranger District. As the North Sound’s agricultural community knows, surprising numbers of deer inhabit lowland locales, from undeveloped woodlots to creek corridors coursing through cultivated fields. Even small acreages will host an array of does and a cadre of several bucks including the dominant or herd male and several subordinate ones. A friend of mine with a new family, motivated by a need to make the most of his time, wondered what deer might be available on his parents’ wooded land in the western county. That necessity led him to

The lowlands and foothills are more accessible to most deer hunters, but those who hunt the high bowls of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest know there are quality blacktails to be had this month. Eli Hinkle ﬁlled his tag in eastern Whatcom County a few seasons back with this bruiser. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST) OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

COLUMN put a trail camera up in a scuffed area with a pile of apples. He was amazed when he was able to identify nine different bucks among the troupe that posed for a bite at the site. For him it became a matter of simply walking in and taking a stand his first year, and he bagged the herd animal for his larder. He took a second buck the next year but now is branching back out to hunt other areas with the knowledge that he has a sure-fire fall-back if his stalking further afield fails to net quarry. Hunting unincorporated suburban and agricultural areas requires much more time, discretion and care in setting up access than are needed when heading for broad expanses of private, state and federal forest lands. But it can pay dividends in the long run with less travel time, more day-hunt options and a broader selection of targets from which to choose. In such locales where use of highpowered rifles is a safety concern, modern firearms hunters should opt for a shotgun, bow or blackpowder weapon. That’s mandatory by Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife regulation west of Interstate 5 anyway. A little further afield and east of the lowlands, Sierra Pacific, Weyerhaeuser, Seefeld Corporation and Bloedel Timberlands are the principle private land holders. Across the board, access to their grounds during deer season is limited to day-hiking and bike or horse riding. The front range of foothills running north to south from Sumas Mountain through Stewart, Blanchard, Lyman, Cultus, Devils and Frailey Mountains all have corporate holdings which can be hunted profitably.

HIGHER UP, WITH Game Management Units 418, 426 and 437 open, hunters will be stalking migratory animals on national forest and national recreation areas. The deer move seasonally, spending winters on forested south-facing valley-bottom slopes, following the “green-up” each spring to higher elevation basins and ridges at timberline. Blacktails spread themselves over considerable areas of subalpine ground, but concentrations of as many as 40 to 50 animals occasionally crowd the relative 96 Northwest Sportsman

OCTOBER 2014

COHO SHOW EARLY The mainstem Nooksack has been open for salmon for about a month and the word is fall Chinook returns are not living up to expectations. However, there’s also word that the Lummi Nation’s Skookum Hatchery, in an unusual twist, started receiving coho around the first of September. This bodes well for anglers, as does the daily bag bonus to two extra coho this fall (in the Skagit only, two may be non-clipped coho). That’s quite early for this run to the fish-production facility on the South Fork Nooksack at river mile 14.3, but it’s not unheard of. Nooksack silvers will show up sooner in fall if they “divert” down the Inside Passage, that is, come south from the Gulf of Alaska between the mainland and Vancouver Island. More Puget Sound salmon tend to take this route when open-ocean waters immediately off the coast are warmer (see Big Pic, this issue, p. 16). A greater proportion of Fraser sockeye also make this detour, which can frustrate sport and commercial fishers in the San Juans Unless it rains hard at some point in October Nooksack water clarity can be Continued from page 100

confines of mile-wide, often north-, northeast- to east-facing cirques, which are cooler relative to other slopes. By late August, when many locales dry out, these basins still have a water source, usually a creek or spring, fed by late snow melt. As the timberline transitions to open ground, there’s an abundance of browse in wet swales that remains succulent long after the ground cover elsewhere and at lower elevations has shriveled. The hogs-back terrain also has elevated strips of stunted mountain hemlock and alpine fir that offer dry bed perches from which animals with their backs to trees can cover approaches in relative security. On the north end of the Mount Baker Ranger District such summer deer digs can be found in the upper reaches of Canyon, Dobbs, Barometer, Grouse and Anderson Creek basins. These locale types are less numerous in the Baker Lake basin but can be found in the Marten and Shuksan Lake areas, as well as the midreach section of Rocky Creek on the northeast side of Loomis Mountain. Timber harvest has produced similar ground in upper West Fork Iron Creek, in the Illabot Creek basin, but the old 1620 Road is still present.

EARLY FOWLING OPS include pheasant,

Coho will be flooding into North Sound rivers, from the Snohomish, where Damien Scott, then 10, caught his largest ever silver last fall, to the North Fork of the Nooksack. Many anglers will drift Dick Nites, toss spinners, or fish twitching jigs, but flatline trolling plugs worked for Damien. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

ducks and even snow geese. For ringnecks, the best chances, once again, will be the release sites in Snohomish, Island, Skagit and Whatcom Counties. Of those 15 locales, Whatcom’s three – Lake Terrell, British Petroleum and Alcoa Intalco – have the most legroom, with a total of about 2,700 acres of woods and old farm fields set aside for pheasant stalkers. With that much space, they will receive a few more birds each week, reports Whatcom Wildlife Area manager Richard Kessler. In the forested release sites – Alcoa as well as Bow Hill in Skagit County – trails have been brushed. Also in Skagit County, a limited-duration season still governs the Samish Unit site. Pheasants will only be set loose for September’s youth and seniors special seasons, after which hunters may pursue leftover birds until the start of the waterfowl season when duck hunters move in. The old Headquarters site on Fir Island,

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

COLUMN which once was a pheasant focal point, has been opened to the bay for Chinook recovery and waterfowl hunting. Pheasants are no longer released there. As for ducks, with its prevailing tweetybird weather, October may go down in the scorecard as a win for the birds, but that doesn’t mean this month can’t contribute to your overall season success. Perhaps a most profitable pursuit on the opener, unless a monsoon presents duck weather just too good to pass up, is to do some prospecting for a variety of hunting ground options. This will enable you to take fuller advantage of whatever a given day offers and hunt somewhere no matter what meteorological condition (nor’easters snows, southwesterly rains to fair weather) prevails. Options on public lands need far less extensive lead work, but potential hunting areas on private property requires introducing yourself to owners and getting their permission for access. Even if October’s dry as a bone, evidence of sheetwater readily shows up on aerial

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photos, so taking some initial time to peruse Google Earth or Bing ortho sequences to pick out likely field venues will enable you to make good selections. If fall rains fail to set in and you are sans boat, it’s still possible to prowl along springfed wetted watercourses for jumpshooting. Then there’s snow geese. Even while its relatively warm and sunny, the first of these Russian Arctic breeders can begin to show in Skagit and northwest Snohomish Counties. They can be a mix of passage birds headed for California and overwintering, so-called Fraser-Skagit birds. Adults in the latter flocks have long and vivid memories, but for both southbound snows and guileless gray-feathered juveniles the grounds here are either vaguely remembered waypoints or totally new terrain that offers rest and food. Flocks can be pulled down with decoy spreads, especially in Skagit County. California birds in particular seem to have a taste for grain, which makes August reaped winter wheat acreage promising locales. Newly arrived Fraser-Skagit birds in

recent years have with increasing frequency been landing on stubble or disked corn fields as well. One word of caution when hunting migratory birds on farmed acreage: Read the federal and state regulations defining what crop/harvest conditions constitute a “baited environ that is not lawful to hunt.” Twenty years back, Skagit and Stillagaumish delta islands were considered the exclusive bastion of snow geese, but with changes in crop rotations together with hunting and other pressures, the Fraser-Skagit flocks have begun using farm fields in the Samish Flats, ConwayCedardale, Beaver Marsh as well as the Norman areas.

NEXT ISSUE Waterfowl, late buck and North Cascades elk ops, and pheasant wrap-up. NS Editor’s note: The author lives in Bellingham, is retired from the state Department of Fish & Wildlife, and has written about hunting and fishing in the Northwest for over 30 years.

OCTOBER 2014

Northwest Sportsman

Continued from page 96 relied upon to be the best it will get except during a winter nor’easter. A dropping October freezing level around Mount Baker and elsewhere in the North Cascades locks up glaciers just enough to reduce the color rivers carry, improving clarity at depth and favoring anglers who like to fish for coho with light and ultralight gear. I’m partial to the tried-and-true small Dick Nite lures in all chrome (nickel) or 50/50 chrome/brass finishes. At 2 feet of visibility I’ll use a No. 2 on about 4 feet of leader; at 4 feet of clarity, a No. 1 on a 5-foot tip; and with even clearer flows, I’ll tie a No. 0 on 6 to 7 feet of light monofilament leader. Successful coho fishers also fling a wide variety of other hardware for silvers, including No. 4 or No. 5 Mepps Aglia or Blue Fox Vibrax spinners. Rooster Tails also are a popular offering, and are known to provoke strikes from bull trout. Now that the lower reaches of the Nooksack’s main forks are open in October, you may fish for coho up to both hatchery facilities. Look to pools for fish stacked up and waiting to move. Kendall Creek Hatchery does not have a coho program any longer, but it does rear Skookum juvenile coho, which may choose to return there. Accesses are at Mosquito Lake Road bridge and Homestead Eagle Park off Truck Road on the North Fork, and Potter Road bridge, Valley Highway (Route 9) and Saxon Road bridge on the South Fork. In the mainstem, popular coho holding pools, from the top down, can be found at the confluence of the forks as well as Maggie’s Rock and Cooper’s Rock in the Deming area. There is a great public access – a combined WDFW and Whatcom County Park – at Nugent’s Corner that has the best boat launch on the river. Lucrative Skagit coho haunts can be found anywhere from the Highway 9 bridge south of Sedro-Woolley upstream to Finney Creek. This lengthy reach has a considerable number of spawning tributaries, and earlyarriving silvers often stage in main river holes at or below the mouths of these streams. The South Skagit Highway offers excellent access to the river for bank anglers, as does the Cape Horn Road along the river’s north side from Hamilton up to Challenger Road. – DH

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HUNTING

Bring On The Weather! There’s plenty of ducks to our north, and with a little help from the storm gods, this could be a good season. By Terry Otto

eaver State waterfowlers have grown accustomed to rosy forecasts and lots of ducks and geese locking their wings over the decoys. While that is still mostly true this year, there are a few darkish patches on the horizon. Nothing, however, suggests that hunters won’t see excellent hunting in most places, and for most species. Of course, a repeat of last fall’s weird weather could slow hunting down, but let’s think positively. There should be plenty of birds in Oregon’s skies and marshes, and with Mother Nature’s help, hunters will enjoy a happy autumn and winter. “It’s a mixed bag for waterfowl this year,” says Brandon Reishus, the migratory game bird coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife in Salem. “The numbers out of the north should be fairly good.” However, he explains that parts of Oregon, especially the southeast, were too dry. In these areas, local production was poor to nil. “We should see a good northern push,” continues Reishus. “Alaska and boreal forests of the north had good nesting conditions.” Hunters across the state should

An Oregon duck hunter and his dog bring in a pair late last season. Prospects this year for waterfowl, especially mallards, in the Northwest are good. (TROY RODAKOWSKI) OCTOBER 2014

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103

HUNTING ﬁnd good numbers of dark geese and late-season ducks. Cacklers and other Canada goose species should arrive in good numbers too, but all is not roses in the north.

WRANGEL ISLAND, IN the Russian Arctic Ocean, is about as far from the Northwest as you can get, but many of the snow geese shot here are from there. Conditions were not good on the island for nesting this past season, and the snows did not produce many young. According to Reishus, that could be tough on hunters at Summer Lake. “They should see plenty of birds, but only about 5 percent of them could be juveniles,” he says. He explains that those young birds constitute the better part of the harvest, and without young, dumb birds in the ﬂocks, hunters will probably harvest less snows. Also hurt by weather, local duck

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production was reduced because of drought in some parts of the state. Southeast Oregon was terribly dry, and there was very little nesting success. “The marshes that rely on runoff had no water,” says Reishus, “so there was little or no production.” The exception was marshes like

Summer Lake that are fed by springs. Since they were not dependent on rain, production was good at groundwater marshes. Still, early hunting could be tough here. But Northeast Oregon escaped some of the brutal drought, and production for local ducks was better. Early duck

WASHINGTON WATERFOWL PROSPECTS It’s an unheralded part of the Columbia Basin, but the northeastern corner of that vast bowl holds a couple surprises. Local duck production has been rising in the upper Channeled Scablands, and recent EWU grad Nick Barr let the cat out of the bag about enjoying leading off football weekends with a little goose whacking near Cheney. That said, this is largely private ground. The real waterfowl country is Grant County, which last season produced the highest duck and goose harvests in the state, and this year should be good again, thanks to a big increase in mallard

production on the northern Canadian prairies and, more importantly, in southern Alberta. Waterfowlers should check out the exhaustive District 5 hunting prospects biologist Rich Finger put together for more on this stellar part of the state; see wdfw.wa.gov. But the rest of Washington (and the other Northwestern states) should also benefit from continued above-average numbers of ducks on the northern breeding grounds. Now, for a little weather to push them to Potholes, Burbank, the Yakima and Chehalis Valleys and elsewhere. –NWS

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WASHINGTON

NORTHWEST UPLAND BIRDS Let’s face it, the western part of the Beaver State doesn’t hold nearly as many birds as the eastern side. Still, dry springs usually mean good production for Western Oregon pheasants, quail, forest grouse and wild turkey. Also, anecdotal evidence suggests that forest grouse are a bit more numerous this year, and that valley quail numbers should be about average. Specifically, state biologists say bird numbers appear to be higher than last year Southwest Oregon. Surveys in the Rogue and Umpqua drainages showed ruffs and blues to be doing OK, and a little bit better than the last few years. Mountain quail in the same areas, however, are down a little, which seems odd to biologist Dave Budeau. They usually follow trends for blues since they use the same habitat. The sample size is small, so he’s not sure whether they’re really down, or if it’s a data anomaly. Bios also point to the Toketee area, where forest projects have benefited grouse. They advise checking with the Diamond Lake Ranger District for locales. Also note that this year, Oregon’s mourning dove season runs through Oct. 31, with a bag limit of 15 per day. To the north, biologists are predicting improved quail numbers in Southeast Washington, good hunting in the Columbia Basin, and “another good season” around Tri-Cities. In what’s left of the wild pheasant heartland of the Palouse, counts were mostly down, except in the St. John and Parvin areas.

Pheasants let loose at state wildlife areas and other westside locales in both states will again be go-tos for wingshooters like Bunnie and Gary Wall of Toutle and their grandson Hunter Wall. They bagged these at WDFW’s Woodland release site. (BROWNING PHOTO CONTEST)

And though harvests have been sliding in the state’s top topknot country, the Yakima Valley, that may not represent local population trends – at least on the Yakama Reservation, counts have actually been increasing, bios say. As for chukar, Chelan and Douglas Counties should again be the best in the state, thanks to a mild winter, good production this spring and strong bug numbers for young-of-the-year birds. Along with upland ops on Yakama lands, hunters should also check out the Department of Fish & Wildlife’s GoHunt webmap for details on private-land access and ringneck release sites. –TO & NWS

Clark’s All Sports (Colville) 509-684-5069 Northwest Marine & Sport (Pasco) 509-545-5586 Tom-N-Jerry’s Boat Center (Mt. Vernon) 360-466-9955 Westside Marine (Port Townsend) 360-385-1488

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hunting in the northern Columbia Basin should probably be pretty good. Western Oregon ducks had about average nesting success this season too, and hunters should see little change from last year for local birds. Dark goose populations in the western parts of the state are not as cyclical as those northern nesters, meaning they don’t ﬂuctuate as much. Hunters in the Willamette Valley and along the coast should see about the same numbers of geese in the early

season as they did last year. The question is always the same for late-season northern ducks: Will the weather push them down here? Only time will tell, but Canadian and Alaskan populations of most ducks are doing just ﬁne. If conditions are good late in the season, waterfowlers should do well. However, a hard and heavy early snap of cold could send them all packing for California. Continued on page 166

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Bird Numbers Up Across Central, Eastern Oregon O

ne thing is for sure if you’re hunting chukars in Central or Eastern Oregon: you’ll have a great view of CENTRAL OREGEON BY Scott Statts the surrounding countryside. There will be rocky, volcanic rims and high hills covered with grass, plus you’ll most likely be looking down on a scenic canyon. And one of the prettiest, the Malheur River drainage, has some of the best public-lands hunting in the state for chukars and quail. The best opportunities are from the Warm Springs Reservoir to Juntura and along Highway 20 from Juntura to Harper. Chukars will use the same general area year after year, so hunters should be patient when hunting an area they had luck with in the past. The secret is finding a good water source such as a spring up one of the many side canyons, or catching the birds coming up from the river early in the morning.

AND THIS FALL there should be more of

A bike-in chukar hunter works the valley ﬂoor of the Deschutes River. Prospects are much improved over 2013 for the species across the drier part of Oregon. (GABRIEL AMADEUS, LIMBERLOST.CO)

them and other upland birds crowing, scurrying and winging around the central and eastern portions of Oregon. Dave Budeau, the upland game bird coordinator for the Department of Fish and Wildlife in the Salem headquarters, says overall numbers for game birds are

up compared with last year. “Among our districts, chukar numbers showed the most consistent improvement from last year, even though we’ll still be below our longterm average,” he says. Malheur County has about twice the number of chukars as it did last year, and Budeau suspects the northern part of the county will be a little better than the southern part. The Ontario and Vale area had about normal spring precipitation this year but the southern part of the county was about half of normal. Last year was less than that. “It’s a pretty key thing to have that spring precipitation to get the grass and forb growth going and get that insect abundance increased for chick production,” Budeau explains. “Harney County saw some improvement in chukar numbers as well as a few counties in the northeastern part of the state but not to the same degree.” The state conducts game bird surveys in the summer by driving along set routes and counting birds. There are over 2,000 miles of survey routes statewide for quail, over 1,300 miles for chukars and over 1,000 miles for pheasant. In general, Budeau says populations of the three species in Central Oregon are stable. The surveys provide two different indices. One is the index of production, which is the number of chicks per adult.

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COLUMN The other is the number of birds seen per 10 miles of survey route, which seems to be the best predictor of fall harvest for birds such as quail, chukar and pheasant, but not so much for forest species such as grouse. For chukar this year there were 3.0 chicks per adult and 17.1 birds per 10 miles of inventory. For 2013 for chukar there were 1.5 chicks per adult and 11.1 birds per 10 miles. For 2012 those numbers were 1.2 chicks/adult and 13.8 birds/10 miles. The fiveyear average is 2.0 and 13.0 For quail this year there were 2.3 chicks per adult and 14.5 birds per 10 miles. Last year there were 1.5 chicks/ adult

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and 11.5 birds/10 miles. In 2012 there were 1.5 chicks/adult and 19.0 birds/10 miles. The five-year average was 1.9 and 15.9. For pheasants in 2014 there were 4.0 chicks per hen and 2.3 birds per 10 miles surveyed. In 2013 there were 2.3 chicks/hen and 3.1 birds/10 miles. In 2012 there were 1.9 chicks/hen and 4.7 birds/10 miles. The five-year average was 2.8 and 3.6.

WITH UPLAND BIRDS, Budeau says you

Quail chick numbers are also up over the last two seasons and ﬁve-year averages in Central and Eastern Oregon. (SCOTT STAATS)

can expect large annual population fluctuations. This is usually due to weather and the fact that the birds generally are short-lived. Most of any given year’s population is that year’s production because they just don’t have a very long life expectancy. Old age for a chukar or quail can be only a couple of years, according to Budeau. “Hunting makes up such a small part of their annual mortality,” he says. “That’s why we can have long seasons.”

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COLUMN What drives productivity is weather in the short term and habitat over the long term. It’s tough being a bird out there in the elements. Hard winters can obviously influence the numbers of birds available for spring breeding. Then spring moisture and temperature can influence the reproductive success. Weather across the state was variable with some areas very wet during June (early brood-rearing) and others exceptionally dry. There’s so much annual fluctuation that wildlife biologists usually look at long-term trends. A good example is pheasants in Western Oregon. From the 1960s through the 1990s there was a long-term decline due mainly to changes in landscape-scale land use such as switching from cereal grains to grass seed, for example. The state keeps track of upland game bird harvest each year. For quail last year, hunters took 18,833 birds. The average harvest the past twenty years was 66,290. For chukar, hunters took 22,826 birds last year and the 20-year average was 85,619.

GAME BIRD SEASON DATES Pheasants (rooster): Statewide: Oct. 11-Dec. 31 California (valley) quail: Western Oregon: Sept. 1-Jan. 31, 2015 Umatilla and Morrow Counties: Oct. 11-Dec. 31 Remaining Eastern Oregon counties: Oct. 1-Jan. 31 Chukar: Umatilla and Morrow Counties: Oct. 11-Dec. 31 Remaining Eastern Oregon counties: Oct. 11-Jan. 31, 2015.

For pheasants last year, hunters took 19,930 birds and the 20-year average was 49,247.

AS FOR WHERE to go for chukars, Budeau suggests that hunters should target the main river systems and associated drainages such as the Deschutes, John Day, Malheur and Owyhee. For pheasants, most of the harvest occurs in the Columbia Basin (Pendleton, Heppner and Hermiston areas), which is largely private land. However, there are several state wildlife areas, federal refuges

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and other opportunities for hunters. The other big pheasant area is northern Malheur County such as around Ontario, Vale and Nyssa. Quail hunting is good on the Crooked River National Grasslands and the Prineville Reservoir Wildlife Area. “In general it looks like a pretty year,”says Budeau. “Hunters should see a noticeable improvement over last year.” For more, try ODFW in Ontario (541-8896975); Prineville (541-447-5111); Hines (541573-6582); and Bend (541-388-6363). NS

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Experience Westport

Fall/Winter Calendar Of Events: Annual Clean Water Classic The Clean Water Classic surfing competition is the largest continuously run Pro/Am competition in the Pacific Northwest. Weekend includes great surfing, live music, movie showings, a vendor village, silent auction and raffle. www.cleanwaterclassic.com Start: Oct. 4 • End: Oct. 5 • Venue: Westport Westport Wine Festival Crush Me, Squeeze Me, Make Me Wine at The Beach Festival. Live music, grape stomping, food and wine tasting. There will be Lucy and Ethyl look-alike ontest open to men, women, children and dogs. Westport Winery For more information call 360-648-2224. Or visit their website. Date: Oct. 5 • Venue: Westport & Aberdeen • Ph: 360-648-2224

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Cranberry Harvest Festival The Cranberry Harvest Festival features Bog tours, a Cranberry Cook Off and Firelight Parade. Chamber of Commerce Start: Oct. 11 • End: Oct. 12 • Venue: Grayland Jog for the Bog and Beach The race is a combination of Pacific Ocean beach and roads through the Cranberry Bogs. 10K & 5K Run / 3K Walk, 9am, Sunday. Check in at the Grayland Community Hall. Fun for all ages. More Information. Date: Oct. 12 • Venue: Grayland Children’s Hospital Craft Show The Children’s Hospital Craft Show is an Arts & Crafts Bazaar at the Ocosta Recreation Hall. The annual bazaar benefits the Children’s Hospital in Seattle. Friday 12:00pm – 7:00pm, Sat. 10:00am2:00pm, Sun 10:00am – 2:00pm. For more information call 360-267-7872. Start: Nov. 7 • End: Nov. 9 • Venue: Ocasta • Ph: 360-267-7872 Santa by the Sea Join us for the annual Santa by the Sea when the South Beach Buccaneers greet Santa as he arrives at the Westport Marina at 10:30am. The fun continues at the Maritime Museum. For more information call 253-381-5989 or Chamber of Commerce Start: Dec. 6

FISHING

The Bay’s Day October shines for Chinook on Tillamook.

A warm, dry October will make for good salmon ﬁshing on Tillamook Bay, here shrouded in morning fog. (ANDY SCHNEIDER)

By Andy Schneider

he distant whistle of wings could just barely be heard above the idling trolling motor. Just as the waterfowl were moving from the lower estuary to the upper bay, so were the ﬁsh. Or so hoped the Tillamook Bay anglers, as they trolled through the legendary Ghost Hole. While there may be some mystery on how the spot ﬁrst was named, there is no doubt how it keeps its spectral namesake. As anglers troll through the enveloping mist and

swirling fog that move across the bay in unnervingly unnatural ways, Tillamook Bay this month sets the mood for fall with crisp, dewy mornings, brightly colored foliage and chrome-bright Chinook. There may be no better place than this estuary on Oregon’s North Coast to experience the bounty of the harvest season, and no better month to do that than October. Here, we part the fog in search of ﬁsh.

LOWER BAY/GARIBALDI “Hands-down, my most favorite place to ﬁsh Tillamook is behind

the South Jetty,” says Daniel St. Laurent of St. Laurent Guide Service (stlaurentguideservice.com). “If the ocean is calm, I’ll stay there all day.” “There is a channel that runs parallel to the South Jetty where the fish like to sit. I’ll normally troll from the Green Can to where the bottom shoots up to 15 feet deep, before turning around and making the troll again,” he explains. When trolling behind the South Jetty, St. Laurent also likes to alternate how far off the bottom he is fishing. “I’ll stagger my depths till I find

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FISHING where the fish are holding, either dragging the sand, or one or two reel cranks off the bottom,” he says. His second favorite place to troll Tillamook is just inside the jetties. “If the ocean is rough and we have soft tides, I’ll troll from the Coast Guard tower to Lyster’s Corner and back. I find that the fish will really hug the bottom in this stretch, so I’ll keep my gear as close to the bottom

as possible,” says St. Laurent. When there are big tides and seaweed is bad, he will move into the West Channel. “At the top of high water, ﬁshing the West Channel can be very productive and a good place to escape the seaweed for a while. I’ll start my troll almost at Crab Harbor and troll all the way to the channel that feeds the Sheep’s Coral.”

While making that long troll on, yes, the west side of the middle bay, he often sees lots of frolicking coho. “I’ll mistakenly catch a coho when targeting kings, but I haven’t found a consistent way to catch those jumping coho,” he says. Join the crowd. While the Ghost Hole doesn’t rank very high on St. Laurent’s faves list, he does like to ﬁsh this water on the

ST. LAURENT’S SEA WAYS Guide Daniel St. Laurent has eight more tips for having a successful trip on Tillamook Bay. Bring lots of lead: “You will have much more success targeting fish in Tillamook Bay if you are fishing directly under your boat, and that takes lots of lead when fishing in heavy current. I’ll use 20-ounce cannonballs in the front of the boat and 16 ounces in the back just to make sure I’m fishing directly under the boat.” Half-hour bait: “Every 30 minutes I’m changing baits, but when we have strong tides, I’ll swap them out every 15 minutes. If I’m seeing a bite take off, I’ll switch baits out immediately. Oftentimes I’ll send a bait down, only to have it get bit in the first five minutes, proving to me that fresh baits make a difference.” All you can eat: “Let those fish eat your bait. You want line coming off the reel. If you jump on the fish too soon, you’ll often miss it or lose it during the fight.” Be quick on the drop: “To avoid your fresh herring from being snatched up by seagull, be quick on the drop. I’ll have my clients open their spool and drop the lead 5 feet below the boat so that when I drop the herring over the side, it gets down to depth without being eaten by a nontarget species.” Don’t be shy: “When you have a fish on in crowded conditions, let everyone know. Don’t be shy about shouting to someone that your fish is heading their way. It will save them time not to tangle into your fish or lose their gear. Most anglers are very appreciative and willing to pull gear.”

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Joanna Fenner and Missy Schneider show off a quartet of Dungeness they caught near Tillamook Bay several falls ago. (ANDY SCHNEIDER) Don’t go following a fool: “Make sure you know who you are following into the shallow waters of the bay. I’ve seen it multiple times – someone following someone they didn’t know, and both end up on a sandbar. While I have a clam rake and shovel on board for a backup plan, I haven’t had to use it in the lower bay – yet.” Strong south wind? Skip it: “If there is a southerly wind over 30 mph, I won’t be fishing. Usually a southerly will also bring pouring rain with a storm to follow, so you won’t be missing much. Anything less than 30, though, and I’ll be out there.” Bring the crab pots: St. Laurent recently

gave up a career as a commercial crabber, and knows a thing or two about crabbing in the Northwest. “I’ll have three crab pots fishing pretty much my entire Tillamook season. I’ll check them in the morning, rebait them and check them at the end of the day. My clients usually end up with 20 to 25 crabs on a slow day and 50 to 60 crabs on a good day.” “My number one bait is razor clams, followed by sardines, then squid. The more bait you add to your pot, the better success you’re going to have.” He crabs in 30- to 50-foot water. –AS

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FISHING east side of the bay between Bay City and Hobsonville Point very early on. “The Ghost Hole can be very productive first thing in the morning,” he says. “Oftentimes fish will move in overnight and stack up. If you are one of the first five boats trolling through there, those fish haven’t seen a herring yet and you can have some good success. But after an hour, when the boats start to populate the hole and fishing slows, I’ll get up and head to more productive waters.” As for the Coast Guard Hole in downtown Garibaldi, it doesn’t even rank on St. Laurent’s list of places to fish this time of year. “During the spring, I love this spot, but during the fall, with all the boat traffic from commercial and sport fishermen and all the crabbers moving in and out, it feels too much like Buoy 10,” he says. St. Laurent’s typical lower Tillamook Bay rigging starts

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with a 6-foot leader of 40-pound monoﬁlament tied with 6/0 and 5/0 hooks. He ties his 6-foot leader to a beadchain, then ties another 3 feet to his mainline beadchain. Running a sliding weight slider, he keeps his lead lines short at 16 to 20 inches. “Make sure you are using weed guards on your swivels. Otherwise, you will not be ﬁshing long with all the seaweed in the bay,” he warns.

UPPER BAY/MEMALOOSE Moving above Bay City, you cross an imaginary line into upper Tillamook Bay. While Chinook can’t distinguish where the upper bay starts and lower ends, ﬁshing tactics change slightly as you move into the shallower waters. For the Picket Fence, Ray’s Place (aka Ray’s Pole), Sheep’s Coral and Memaloose (The Oyster House), anglers transition from the strictly herring ﬁshery of the lower bay to trolling herring and

spinners, along with anchoring up and running plugs. Trolling spinners is a wellestablished way to pull Chinook out of the bay’s south end, but picking the right style and size and right spinner blade and body color can seem a little overwhelming. Start with a spinner that has consistently worked in the bay in the past. Thumper, Mulkey and Cascade blades in sizes 6.5, 7 and 8 have a proven track record in the upper bay. Lightbulb (chartreuse blade with a green dot), red and white, and the Tillamook rainbow (a ﬂame orange upper, brass middle and green or chartreuse tip) are all good colors to start with. With so many other color combinations, hoochieskirted ﬂexible bodies and variety of blade shapes and styles, there is no reason to think that any new spinner won’t work just as effectively as the old standbys. Trolling spinners in the upper bay

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FISHING The author’s son, Ayden, shows off a Ghost Hole Chinook. (ANDY SCHNEIDER)

The

is most productive on an outgoing tide, especially one that goes into a negative tide. That will concentrate fish into the deeper holding waters, making for some extraordinary fishing. While the incoming tide isn’t the most productive for trolling spinners, anchoring with plugs can be a good way to spend the flood. Look for a place that will funnel fish towards your setup. Tying off to a piling, or anchoring along an abrupt edge or tight corner in the lower end of any of the three upper bay tributaries can all be productive. You don’t necessarily need deep water, but as long as you are close to a travel lane for fish moving into tidewater, you will get bit. K15 Kwikfish and M2 FlatFish rigged with a 5-foot leader and a 24-inch dropper are good starting points. Pay attention to your plugs to make sure they are not digging into

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FISHING the bottom as the current increases with the tide. If they do, lengthen your dropper as needed. Make sure to bring plenty of sardines or tuna bellies, as crabs and sculpin will clean your bait-wrapped plugs quickly. Whether you are trolling or anchoring, the larger the tide, the better the upper bay ﬁshes.

TIDEWATER Any time we have a dry October, tidewater fishing is usually excellent. Last year’s September and early October rains cleaned out the bay and pulled fish into the tributaries, making for tough tidewater fishing the rest of the month. But those storms were also a fluke, one that hasn’t happened in almost a decade, so as long as precipitation cooperates this fall, tidewater fishing should be outstanding through the first big freshet. The most popular technique – and

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one of the easiest – is bobber and eggs. Practiced from either a boat or the bank, it’s most productive during slack tides, followed by an outgoing one. Eggs are the essential ingredient, but alone won’t always seal the deal. Adding sand shrimp, sardine, herring, anchovy or tuna belly can help dramatically as fish get finicky. While Tillamook Bay Chinook tend to run on the large side compared to most Northwest kings, downsizing your bobber can increase your success rate. Using a ½- to 1-ounce bobber will allow even the spookiest of salmon to pull the bobber underwater undetected. Cigar- and egg-shaped bobbers tend to offer the least amount of resistance to the fish. Deeper water sometimes is the most productive for this tactic, but not always. Look for outside corners, structures such as tree stumps or fallen logs, smaller tributary mouths,

brush or bank overhangs and current breaks for alternative places to drift a bobber. Many times the most popular float fishery locations are secured hours before they are productive in the tide, but Chinook obviously have to get there first, so searching out your own water can be very rewarding and productive. Back-bouncing eggs can also be very productive under the right conditions, such as on a strong outgoing tide, when it works exceptionally well. While most back-bouncing anglers are using 4 to 6 ounces of lead, ½ to 1 ounce is all that’s needed to move your bait downriver in softer tidal flows. Going to 30-pound mono or 80-pound braided mainline will assist in moving your bait downriver. A small Spin-N-Glo or Cheater used for buoying your eggs will ensure that your presentation stays out of reach of most sculpins. NS

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COLUMN Jeff Anderson nets a nice Tillamook Bay fall Chinook. (MARK VEARY)

The River’s Are Great, But The Bay’s For Dinner M

y first salmonfishing memories took place on the rivers that flow into Tillamook Bay. While I’d been out KAYAK GUYS By Mark Veary on the ocean aboard charter boats as a kid, my fish came from the banks of the Miami,

Wilson and Kilchis Rivers. The bay through which each river’s fish first passed, though full of promise, seemed mysterious and far beyond my reach. To this day I relish days spent plying those coastal streams each fall and winter, but with the aid of my kayak, the estuary has become a favorite reality. Tillamook Bay is a multi-faceted salmon fishery. Rather than one single venue, it’s a conglomeration of opportunities spread

over nearly 10 square miles. Depending on species and tides, you may find yourself mooching the jaws between the jetties, trolling channels and flats, casting to staging schools or simply floating eggs under a bobber at one of the five river mouths. Most of the action occurs throughout the bay’s channels and deeper flats, places with names like the Ghost Hole, the Oyster House, Memaloose and

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COLUMN the West Channel. While powerboaters are limited to the local ramps and marinas, these spots often have nearby roads from which we can access them.

THESE ARE TROLL fisheries between ½ and 1 mile long and with an average depth of 10 to 15 feet. Though the flotilla of guides and personal boats can seem daunting, nearly all the traffic is moving between 1 and 2.5 mph, so your kayak will fit the mix perfectly. Just make sure to fly a safety flag for visibility and exercise some common courtesy when nearby boats hook up. Cut-plug herring is always a solid bait option, especially in the lower bay. Above the Ghost Hole, many trollers switch over to thumper spinners in red and white or green and chartreuse. In the upper stretch at Memaloose, you’ll find most boats trolling hardware. The one commonality is that nearly everyone is dragging bottom with a cannonball weight on a dropper line between 10 and

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18 inches long. As with most coastal estuaries, sea grass can be a constant issue. For this reason, you’ll need to pay close attention to the action of your rod tip and the angle of your line. A change in either signals an accumulation of debris. Though it can be frustrating, take the extra time to keep your line free of flotsam. In the years since I’ve been kayak fishing Tillamook Bay, I’ve found that there’s often an outstanding first light bite. To maximize your opportunities, base your destination on the tides. The upper bay fishes best during the outgoing tide, while the hour before and several hours after high tide are most productive in the lower bay. Though kayakers don’t have the ability to fire up a motor and speed off to another spot, we do have the option of loading our ’yaks back onto our cars and driving to a different part of the bay.

ONE OF OREGON’S latest-running salmon

fisheries, Tillamook Bay will often put out fresh Chinook through December, though consistent action drops off by the end of October. Later in the month or after fall rains begin in earnest, Chinook will end their tidal movement and hold for a time in the deeper tidewater holes of the Trask and Wilson. This is the time to break out the eggs and bobber. Access to tidewater’s bobber fisheries isn’t as convenient as the others on the bay, so be prepared to cover a mile or more in transit. Fortunately, the beauty of the deep and narrow cuts of Tillamook’s tidewater estuaries makes the journey its own reward. As with the upper bay, the best bites are at first light and during the outgoing tide, so plan your trips accordingly. Nothing will ever replace the thrill and beauty I’ve found hiking the cobbled shores of Tillamook’s coastal rivers, but when it comes to harvesting fall salmon for the dinner table, the bay is where you’ll find me this month. NS

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Huge Coho Run Headed To Upper Willamette T

hree falls ago 19,000 adult coho spawned in the tributaries above Willamette Falls, and afterwards, STUMPTOWN when that brood year’s juveniles went By Terry Otto down to the ocean, they were greeted by excellent conditions. That year-class will be returning this month to their natal streams, and according to district fisheries biologist Todd Alsbury, there could be a real mess of them. “We could possibly see a return of 15,000 to 25,000 coho,” he says. All those fish got a free pass as they swam the ocean and up the Columbia. Since they are wild-spawned they aren’t fin-clipped, and can’t be kept by anglers. Until they pass the falls.

STUMPTOWN’S BIGGEST COHO run could dwarf hatchery runs in other local rivers this fall. This stock is very different from those. Generated by the progeny of hatchery plants that were cut long ago, this population has thrived in the Tualatin, Yamhill and other Willamette tributaries. It’s spread into new systems, and continues to grow. Historically, coho did not spawn above the falls because the water was too low to jump this time of year. That changed when fish ladders were installed. Coho have made good use of that access. “The average run is about 6,000 to 7,000 fish,” says Alsbury, but this year is not an average year. And since they are not native or indigenous to the upper Willamette, they can be managed, and harvested, free from the constraints of Endangered Species Act listings that trouble other systems.

Coho ﬁshing might be better in the Willamette’s tribs above the falls once the rains come, but the salmon can also be caught in the mainstem. Ryan Hummel hooked this one on a Brad’s Wiggler last season. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

That has resulted in a terrific silver fishery with liberal harvests in good years. When plentiful, the limit has been as many as three adult coho a day. Will that occur again this season? “The three-fish limit will probably happen this year, certainly,” says Alsbury. Watch dfw.state.or.us for changes to the regulations.

UNLIKE COHO RETURNING to the Sandy and

Clackamas, which sometimes see harvests of up to 25 percent in the ocean and Buoy 10 before they reach local waters, these fish have not been hammered. That means all the best, most aggressive biters are still there when they pass the falls. And these are fine salmon. “They seem to not turn color as fast as the coho in the other rivers,” says Alsbury, “and they stay good into November.” However, don’t expect them to light

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up until they pass out of the Willamette’s warm water. When they stack up at the mouths of its tributaries, they don’t bite well. “It’s a tough bite,” says Alsbury. “It’s good for about the first half hour of light, and then tough the rest of the day.” Reportedly, small plugs are effective. They bite much better once the rains come and they enter their spawning tributaries. While many dig and tend redds in the Tualatin, Yamhill and Molalla Rivers, they enter other, smaller rivers as well. This includes the Pudding, which feeds the Molalla, and just about any small stream that enters the Willamette above the falls. Once into the natal rivers, they fall to most coho methods such as bobber and eggs, spinners, and drifted yarn or bait. Many of the coho will wait for the rains and colder temps before they pass over Willamette Falls. Watch the dam counts, and when more than a hundred coho a day start passing, it’s time to go.

ANGLERS CAN FIND access along the Molalla, which may be high enough to drift once the rains return. Boat access starts at the Cedars Launch upstream of Freyer Park. Going downstream, there is the Meadowbrook Bridge on Highway 211, Wagonwheel County Park on Highway 213, the Canby City Park ramp, Knights Bridge crossing near Canby, and at Molalla State Park, near the mouth. Bank access can be found at each of the parks and launch sites. However, the best bank access may be above the North Fork, on a patchwork of BLM lands from the Glen Avon Bridge to the Turner Bridge. Access is tougher on the Tualatin, and most of it is in the lower reaches, which are sluggish and not the best salmonholding water. The Yamhill also has limited bank access, and while the schools really stack up at the mouth, the bite is notoriously poor until the fish enter the river itself. Most of these rivers are open for coho retention until Oct. 31, and anglers can keep clipped or unclipped fish. Check the regulations before you fish, as some sections of the rivers do not allow bait. NS 130 Northwest Sportsman

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JIG The ‘Martone’ OF THE MONTH

Article and images by Chris Gregersen

his month’s jig is my all-time favorite when it comes to coho twitchin’. The design is a simple improvement on the standard hoochie-on-a-jighead jig, which is one of the most popular twitchin’ patterns out there. The fine rubber strands tied to the shank of this jig give it an excellent pulsating action. Also, by tying

the rubber around the shank of the hook instead of using a bulky hoochie over the hook, this jig can increase your overall landing rate. For colors, I prefer purples, reds and blacks for coho that have been in freshwater awhile, and oranges and pinks for fresh salmon. As for the jig’s name, the Martone, well, that’s just what we’ve always called it.

Supplies Heavy jighooks in the ¼- to ½-ounce range; fine rubber skirt material (or rubber legs from the fly-tying section); thread; Krystal Flash chenille; glue.

2 Layer Up! Add a pinch of a brighter-colored rubber material on top to give your jig some contrast. Anchor this in tight as well.

1 Give That Tail Some Jiggle Begin by cutting your rubber skirt material and stacking it together. You’ll want it long enough so that your tail is 2 to 3 inches long when tied. The tail doesn’t need to be tied at the end of the shank; in fact, tying it further forward puts your hook further back into the tail, which can help you on short strikes. Tie this in with ample heavy wraps of thread.

CONTEST If you tie one of the jigs that Chris Gregersen featureS on this page this year and catch a steelhead or salmon with it, email awalgamott@media-inc.com a photograph with the jig in the fish’s mouth and you could win a full set of Chris’s jigs featured here in 2014!

3 Flash That Body Tie in a piece of Krystal Flash chenille, and wrap it forward to fill the gap between the tail and jighead. This will give the jig some extra flash and attraction. Tie this off at the jighead with some half hitches and a dab of Super Glue.

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COLUMN

A Wickedly Twitchy Month

eptember is a beautiful month for coho. While most Northwest anglers are targeting them in the salt or WESTSIDER at Buoy 10, I was up By Terry Wiest in Alaska fishing the rivers. I was there with good friends Mike Zavadlov and Steve Turner because, like other salmon species, Alaskan coho hit freshwater earlier than their relatives in the Lower 48, and because, well, we couldn’t wait another month to catch them down here. I haven’t twitched for coho for nearly a year and my “go to” method was itching to see how those behemoths of the Last Frontier would respond. Yeah, I know that this column is labeled “Westsider” and not “Alaskaner,” but what follows is a preview for what we can expect this month in the Northwest.

Forks-based salmon and steelhead guide Mike Zavadlov shows off a Southeast Alaskan coho caught on a spinner last month. (STEVE TURNER)

WHEN WE ARRIVED in Yakutat for our stay at Glacier Bear Lodge (glacierbearlodge. com), we were lucky enough to have just missed a massive storm that knocked out the rivers for a solid week. Instead, it was sunshine and low, clear-water conditions with coho reported in all the streams. The Situk would be our main focus this trip, but being a 14-mile float and with only five hours of daylight ahead of us that first day, we had to opt for a secondary choice. That led us to the Lost, a very small river with only 1.5 miles open to fishing. At the fishing boundary, we could see other rigs and, even better, a few fish rolling against the bank. At least 20 fresh coho were visible under it and only about 20 feet away. We approached the hole cautiously so as not to spook the fish, and let a 3/8-ounce jig fly. My first two casts were unsuccessful, so I downsized. As I did so, Mike hooked up on his first cast, but not with a jig – rather, a purple Wicked Lures spinner. The gorgeous fish made several acrobatic leaps before Mike brought it close to shore for the release.

The weight was the difference on my jig as the third cast of the pure-black ¼-ounce Aero Twitching Jig produced the twin of Mike’s fish. The Lost turned out to be a great little river. We hooked 30 or so coho to about 12 pounds by twitching jigs, throwing spinners and, yes, even fly fishing. Well, at least Mike hooked several on the fly.

DAY TWO WAS what we were after, though. The Situk, flowing below normal at 220 cubic feet per second and ultraclear, reminded me of why I love the river so much for steelhead. We hoped the coho fishing would be just as good, and it did not disappoint. Though we didn’t fish the first 7 miles of the 14-mile float, the water did provide

a little excitement: a run-in with one badass mother grizzly that was not in the least bit happy with us intruding into her space. As she hissed, spat, moaned, and strutted back and forth trampling trees along the shore, we were able to scoot around her. During the first half of the float, we passed several large coho schools that contained more fish than any of those we’d seen the day before on the Lost. Glacier Bear’s head guide Eddie, their so-called “best Mexican guide in Alaska” whom we’d met last April while there for steelhead, told us to be patient, that we’d be fishing holes that contained 100 to 200 if not more coho. He was not kidding. As we finally approached our first fishing hole, the surface boiled with fresh coho averaging 12 pounds, with several

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The author calls this his “ultimate twitchin’ setup,” a black bunny-fur swaddled jig with a bit of marabou ﬂash and white rubber legs, mated with a G.Loomis twitching rod and Shimano Stella spinning reel. (STEVE TURNER)

well over 15 pounds. Indeed, there had to be at least 200 fish, and they were super aggressive and supplied us with nonstop action. On most trips I would have been happy to fish a hole like that the entire day, but we still had 7 miles of prime water left, and with every bend, even more impressive holding water appeared. As for competition, besides the griz, there were just four other boats, nothing for a float that long and with coho stacked in every hole. Although the river was extremely low, I upped my twitchin’ jigs to 3/8 ounce for the slighly longer casts needed, and used both Mack’s Lure Bucktail Jigs and Aero Twitching Jigs. Mike’s Wickeds proved to be killers, and he and Steve hammered them on bugs – they even got me into my very first fly-caught fish ever. (Yes, it was a blast.) Most other anglers appeared to be throwing spinners or spoons, with the most popular being No. 5 Vibraxes and Pixies, though their action didn’t compare to ours. Doubles were common, and when Steve put his camera down, we even managed a few triples. It wasn’t every cast; while there were times when we’d hook four or five on consecutive casts, there were also slow periods in which we might 136 Northwest Sportsman

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not hook a fish for five or six minutes. (Yes, Alaska can skew your definition of slow).

MY TWITCHIN’ SETUP consisted of the new G.Loomis IMX 9000S TWTCHR rod, Shimano Stella 3000 with 30-pound green PowerPro tied directly to the jig. The star jig was Aero’s Creepy Nightmare, a standard nightmare pattern with white rubber legs. Mike’s setup was a FethaStyx 763 Twitching Rod, Shimano Stradic 2500 with 30-pound green PowerPro with an 8-foot, 15-pound mono bumper tied to the jig. For fishing the lures, we both used the same rods/reels, but I went along with Mike’s tactic of adding a bumper (4 feet) to a three-way swivel. A small ¼- to ½-ounce weight was attached to the swivel and then another 4 feet to the spinner. The star was Wicked Lures’ purple-bladed, blackhoochied spinner. Although we did use ¼-ounce jigs on the really small Lost River, 3/8 ounce was preferred on the low clear days and ½ ounce on day three, when it rained 8 inches in 18 hours, was a must. Dark colors dominated in clear water while a bubblegum-pink squid jig is what they wanted when the river colored up. Spinners in dark colors were best

in the low, clear conditions with either a purple or blue blade with a black or purple hoochie skirt. Once the river rose and colored, we retired the Wickeds. They are a must in your Western Washington or Oregon coho arsenal. To twitch is simple – at least in theory. The hole should be slow to not moving. Coho love frog water, and twitchin’ is the most effective way I’ve found to pound them in it. Cast out and let your jig sink, preferably to the bottom. Then twitch the rod, which will pull the jig up and to you. As the jig falls, reel in the slack only – you want the jig to free fall. Repeat this process all the way through the hole. Coho hit on the fall, so with your next twitch, you will feel the fish and should set the hook. Twitch too fast and the jig will rise to the surface, out of the strike zone. Too slow and it will dance on the bottom. Although it will be pulled up into the strike zone, it’s preferred to “fall” in the strike zone – again, fish will hit it on the fall. Cadence is something that you have to experiment with each trip and in each hole to find the most effective speed. Once found, there’s nothing more effective. For rising or off-colored water, or both, switch to a squid jig (Silver Horde bubblegum 4-inch hoochie). The bright colors and action of the tentacles will get the attention of coho even in minimal visibility. Wicked Lures’ spinners are just like most other spinners, except that the lure body has no weight. The weight is tied to a three-way swivel approximately 4 feet from the spinner itself. As with all spinners you want the slowest retrieve possible while still making sure the blade is spinning. In faster current you can cast out and just let the lure swing through the hole. In slower water, cast out, let the weight hit the bottom and then start with a small twitch to get the spinner moving. Retrieve ultra slowly. When fish hit, you’ll know it. Mike, Steve and I had several coho almost yank the rod from our hands. And while that trip was to an Alaska river, coho are coho up and down the West Coast. Get your twitchin’ jigs, spinners, and gear ready for October. It’s going to be a blast! NS

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FISHING The October sun rises over Oregon’s Mayer State Park ramp, the best for larger boats to access the ﬁshery at mouth of the Klickitat. The Washington-side Columbia tributary enjoys a good run of late coho, and also serves as a cooling-off area for upstream-bound fall Chinook and B-run steelhead. (ANDY SCHNEIDER)

Coho, Kings Converge On Klick Big runs of both stocks plus B-runs will meet at the mouth of east Columbia Gorge trib this month. By Andy Schneider

LYLE, Wash.—With almost a million coho returning to the Columbia River this fall, ﬁshing should be outstanding at the mouth of the Klickitat. But coho won’t be the only ﬁsh biting here. With all those upriver

brights still crossing Bonneville Dam in good numbers, Chinook as well as B-run steelhead will be competing for angler’s baits and lures. The stocks will all be staging in the coldwater plume of this glacier-fed river as it enters the Columbia, and with those big returns, there should be

some outstanding ﬁshing this month.

TACTICS HAVE CHANGED here slightly over the years. Where trolling plugs was once the most common method, trolling prawn spinners and hovering eggs have become more and more popular. But don’t stow away your

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FISHING The author shows off the quality of coho to be caught over 160 miles above the mouth of the Columbia. (ANDY SCHNEIDER)

favorite Wiggle Warts just yet. There are many days that coho and Chinook will key in on a trolled plug more so than a spinning or suspended bait. Best to come prepared with all your gear for this ﬁshery. Old-style Warts, ½- to ¼-ounce 140 Northwest Sportsman

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Fat Fish and 3.5 Mag Lips in orange, pink, red and ﬁre tiger are some of the most productive plugs. Start your troll on the downriver side of the Klickitat’s mouth and troll upriver, keeping your plugs working at a consistent speed. Deploy your plugs

50 to 75 feet behind the boat, but closer as boat trafﬁc increases. Scent them regularly, and keep a fresh sardine wrap on your Mag Lip. When trolling a prawn spinner, many anglers actually prefer using wet-cured coon shrimp instead of

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prawns. Start with a 4-foot leader of 20-pound test to two fix-tied 2/0 barbless hooks. Run seven 4mm beads above your hooks to a plastic spinner clevis. Clip on a No. 4 or 5 Bear Valley Blade in red and white, fire tiger, rainbow or half brass/half rainbow. Run your prawn spinner above a 24-inch lead line with 3 to 6 ounces of lead to keep close to the bottom. Pay attention to where the bite is and not just where the fish are rolling and jumping. It’s tough to leave jumping, porpoising, rolling and splashing fish at the mouth, but if no one is hooking them, you need to make a move. Moving out to midchannel can be very productive at times. Utilizing downriggers or a heavy lead dropper, troll Kwikfish, Mag Lips, Super Baits or a cutplug herring with a flasher. When moving to deeper water, watch your electronics to locate fish and lower your gear to just shallower than where you are marking fish.

IF THE DEEP water is too rough, or not producing, try moving above the mouth of the Klickitat. It can be productive all the way to the Lyle boat ramp when conditions get too crowded, there is little or no current or there is a very strong west wind. 142 Northwest Sportsman

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But some days the bite just isn’t happening at the mouth of the Klickitat and you’ll need to make a move into the tributary itself. Be cautious crossing the shallow flats from the Columbia, especially when the Bonneville Pool is low. Once inside the mouth, troll plugs in every deep slot of water that you can find. Sometimes the slots are very short and narrow, but can be loaded with staging fish. Hovering eggs along these deep slots can also be productive, but can also be a challenge due to trollers, smolts, pikeminnows and sturgeon. Be prepared for windy conditions at the mouth of the Klickitat. Bring sea socks to slow your troll and be ready to take the top off the boat to keep steerage. The Columbia Gorge breeze that windfarmers are busy harnessing can produce large waves and whitecaps. Make sure to launch at Lyle if you are fishing out of a smaller craft. While the Klickitat is 160-plus miles above the Pacific Ocean, the quality of coho returning to the river will make any angler happy. Be prepared for the wind, enjoy some beautiful scenery, and expect to battle hard-fighting fish when you venture east of Portland and Vancouver for salmon action throughout October. NS

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FISHING

Brights Beyond Reactor B

While the Hanford Reach will be super ﬁshy this month, the mouth of Crab Creek, McNary Dam tailrace, Lower Snake and Hells Canyon are worth exploring too. By Jeff Holmes

TRI-CITIES—The record fall Chinook run showed up a little late this year, per my prediction in early September to naysayer editor Andy “Sky is Falling” Walgamott, but that bodes well for salmon anglers fishing the mid-Columbia and Snake Rivers in October. Bright salmon are continuing to stream over dams, and table quality should hold throughout the season. It’s well known that anglers often sort through dark fish to find freshies in October, but those fresh-arriving fish should be more numerous on the Hanford Reach and to both the less-frequented abovePriest Rapids, Snake River, and McNary tailrace salmon fisheries. Ocean conditions stalled out much of this year’s run a week or two later in the salt, slowing the return and allowing them more time to fatten. There is lots of underrated, much-maligned fish flesh to be gathered in South-central Washington this October, so don’t let the guys with Chrome’s Disease talk you out of doing battle with upriver brights on their home turf. Last year while fishing with Reachmaster Don McBride at Priest Rapids Hatchery, a 20-pound hen put a 200-foot run on a Tekota. The drag may have been a little loose, but not much. There are screamers on the Reach and lots of 4-year-old Chinook returning, even some 5s. Already many 20- to 35-pounders had been taken as of

September 12th with only a fraction of the run over McNary Dam. Make plans with one of the many excellent guides here, or bring your own boat. Here’s an overview of popular URB tactics and techniques employed by in-theknow guides and anglers.

SUPER BAITS Why are some folks jokingly calling Brad’s Super Baits stupid baits? No offense meant whatsoever – they’re just stupid-easy and stupid-effective on stale, upriver fish, with or without flashers. With flashers is often better, and Yakima Bait’s Fish Flash and Pro-Troll 11-inch rotating flashers in chromes work great. According to numerous guides and biologists I know, Austin Moser is the kind of insane that it takes to put when Chinook move upriv- almost 300 adult Chinook in the boat last salmon season. er and further from the salt, He and his clients are off to another amazing start, with lots of 20- to 30-pounders landed by mid-September. their willingness to bite a bait Want to see a clinic on fishing downriggers in heavy, with an insane spin and roll moving water? Moser has been fishing the free-flowing goes through the roof. Plug- Columbia with excellence for many years and is proud owner of Cannon DigiTrolls that pay dividends in the changing cut herring are still a popular flows out of Priest Rapids. Other great guides on The and lethal bait for falls up- Reach include Dan Sullivan (riverswestfishing.com), Steve river, but no plug cut in the Bramhall (stevesguidedadventures.com) and many more. (AUSTINSNORTHWESTADVENTURESLLC) world can spin like an origibait, but you can for sure fish canned nal or plug-cut variety Super tuna – oil or water pack – with confiBait, and they’re way cheaper to dence. The same goes for your homerun than the real stuff. canned albacore if you so desire. The The cost of a can of tuna and some Super Bait’s thrift, effectiveness, and salt and sugar and some scents is all scent-holding capability is why they it takes to fish for one, maybe two were invented and why they catch days. You can stuff ’em with any

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FISHING These custom Ranch and Home SpinN-Glos on ﬁshing leader boards are ideal egg rigs for the Reach, rigged on an ideal storage system for SpinN-Glo rigs, Super Baits, etc. Strung with 40-pound-test Maxima, this is a beeﬁer setup than the tactical Toman setup in this issue’s Rig of The Month, but that test leader works great on the Reach for fall Chinook. (TJ HESTER)

ﬁsh, and why half the anglers on the Reach ﬁsh Super Baits. They continue to work throughout the season, sometimes very well, but many

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switch over to the well-known egg bite as the month wears on. The Super Bait army marches on to the close of the season, and one

excellent piece of trolling water stretches from the Hanford Site’s 300 Area and the big Landslide on the eastern shore, all the way down to the Snyder Street boat launch in North Richand. Once can continue this troll all the way to the 395 Bridge if so desired. Many ﬁsh the downhill troll for a few miles and turn around and run back up. But be careful out there. Last year a Weldcraft sexually molested another in the fog upriver at Vernita’s King Hole, nearly killing the two gentlemen who had the bow of a 22-foot jet poke between their front seats like a Lab checking out the front-seat passengers of a car. These guys planing in the fog and the pitch black during the peak of the season deserve a serious Jackass of the Year nomination.

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FISHING A great way to stay safe on the The Reach as a newbie is to hire a guide before bringing out your own boat. There are too many selling trips to keep track of these days, but a great bet for Super Bait or any Hanford Reach fishing in October is Austin Moser (austinsnorthwestadventuresllc.com). Yakima Bait’s TJ Hester (hesterssportfishing.com) is one of the youngest guides on The Reach, but he’s a solid choice and a name to remember too. Shane Magnuson (uppercolumbiaguide.com) and John Forbes (columbiapigsticker. com) also fish here.

THE EGG ORGY

Tens of thousands of wild fall Chinook spawn upstream of Priest Rapids Dam, and the mouth of Crab Creek is one of the most popular ambush points on this part of the Columbia. It’s where reader Scott Fletcher and friends did some damage last season. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

There are a godawful lot of Chinook and coho everywhere this year, and too many Chinook on the Reach, according to biologists. That means there are eggs to be had for everyone this year, whether they buy or catch their own. That’s good news on the Reach because, cured or fresh, eggs

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FISHING are the most consistent bait during the month of October. Back-bounced, side-drifted, plunked, or back-trolled, decent eggs begin to outfish other offerings during pronounced egg bites. Yakima Bait’s Spin-N-Glos add buoyancy and help protect egg clusters in the sometimes-heavy flow from Priest Rapids Dam. Most anglers prefer sizes from 0 to 4, except apparently for the plunkers at Priest Rapids, based on the broken-off 000 Spin-NGlos floating downriver. In this month’s Rig of The Month, Bob Toman advocates a subtler approach than the golf-ball-sized globs most fish behind large Spin-N-Glos. Whether using lead or a Yakima Bait Mag Lip 5.0 as a diver, or a more traditional Luhr Jensen Jet Diver or Magnum Jet Diver, back-trolling or back-bouncing large or small clusters of eggs accounts for stupid numbers of takedowns. Side-drifting eggs can yield lots of fish too.

Want to try something new in a place where it’s common to expend jars of eggs per day? Try Mike’s Atlas 4-inch spawn netting and Miracle Thread. Tie up some mondo spawn sacs with cured eggs, and save the hassles and use 50 percent to 90 percent less bait. Looking for the easiest and surest egg cures around? Nate’s Baits (natesbaits.com) egg cure is foolproof. I’m proof of that. Any good, cured egg works great in a spawn sac, which are remarkably durable in even heavy ﬂows. But if you’ve got the eggs, ﬂaunt em. Tying spawn sacs isn’t hard, but it’s tougher than cutting up abundant skeins for the skilled and lucky among us.

CRAB CREEK MOUTH Crab Creek is one of the most degraded watersheds in Washington. It receives heavy doses of agricultural efﬂuent and chemicals galore from its source near Bluestem to its

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terminus near Beverly, between Wanapum and Priest Rapids Dams. Its mouth is sampled for contaminants as a reference point for the river corridor cleanup at Hanford, and Crab comes up dirtier than the Site these days, a testament to amazing progress made by contractors. Demonstrating the resilience of Chinook salmon, many thousands of adults are nonetheless back spawning in it. The mouth of Crab Creek is one of the best holes on this part of the Columbia, and the action actually turns on here early in September. Early shots of fall fish travel straight through the Reach to both Priest Rapids Hatchery and for places above Priest Rapids Dam. Even when numbers of Chinook crossing McNary are only several thousand fish, anglers catch fish between Priest Rapids and Wanapum Dam, where many thousands of fish spawn. Perhaps as many as 40,000 will spawn here this fall,

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and the bite should hold throughout the season. Although the water here is technically an impoundment of Priest Rapids Dam, shallow water and hidden hazards make this one of the most treacherous stretches of the mid-Columbia. Exercise caution and survive, and you too might discover the secrets that locals are silent about: There are very large ﬁsh that spawn from Wanapum down to Priest Rapids, and very little pressure.

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Anglers will definitely find larger fish and more keepers on the Columbia, but catch-and-release salmon fishing on the Snake can be outright insane for anyone talented enough to drag a Mag Lip 3.5 or a ¼-ounce Hot Lips – any viable plug. All the chrome colors work well. The small number of anglers who troll flashers and Super Baits on the Snake enjoy fantastic angling in dam forebays, at Lyons Ferry, near the mouth of the Tucannon, near the Clearwater confluence, and in deep holes upstream of Asotin in the free-flowing Snake. This early October I’ll fish with guide Toby Wyatt (reeltimefishing.com) out of Heller Bar for a morning of predicted double-digits Chinook hookups followed by landing double-digits worth of steelhead. If it’s half that good, I’ll be very happy. I’ve enjoyed success on both species out of my boat on the Lower Snake, especially near the Tucannon and Lyons Ferry, but I’ve heard the action upriver can eclipse what I’ve considered some of the best fishing of my life at times in October below Little Goose Dam. Roughly 60 to 95 percent of Snake River adult fall Chinook are unclipped fish and are, thus, unretainable. Numbers are tough to come by, but my guess is the high end of that range. Nez Perce enhancement efforts along with great ocean conditions are largely responsible for the resurgence in fall Chi-

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Danny Cook of Wooldridge Boats has fished the Snoho for many years and considers this fishery one of his favorites. “It really is one of the most consistent fisheries year in and year out; the fish are just always there. Sometimes the bite is good and sometimes they can be tricky, but that’s coho fishing in general.” Cook notes that he always comes prepared with a bag full of tricks just in case. “My top three gear choices would be drift and retrieving small brass-and-silver Dick Nite’s with a 3 ½-foot leader and sliding dropper weight, slow retrieving Brad’s Wigglers in various colors and last but certainly not least, drifting eggs under a float. If the water is up, I prefer larger bright colors and smaller more subtle colors when the water is lower and clear. The important thing is to locate fresh fish. You really want to find the fresh pods of fish, so it’s important to not park in one spot and camp on the same fish all day.” Cook uses his Wooldridge Alaskan XL to locate the fish as well as getting into those tight spots on the Snohomish where a lot of those fish are found. There are generous limits for Snoho coho this year: three per person whether wild or hatchery, but always make sure to check the WDFW website before heading out. Have fun and be safe!

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Trophy walleye swim in every impoundment of the Columbia in the Northwest states, but the biggest specimens constantly show in the mid-Columbia and Lower Snake. Salmon anglers who fish plugs tend to catch a fair number of incidental walleye, as well as steelhead. This 12-pound, 30-inch walleye bit below Wanapum Dam for Janielle Paul after a day of summer salmon fishing. Reliably, much larger walleye than even this trophy will bite salmon and steelhead plugs this fall on both the Snake and Columbia. The bycatch also includes sturgeon, smallmouth, channel catfish and pikeminnow. Almost anything can turn up in the Columbia system. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

nook on the Snake and for sportfishing opportunity. As the tribe continues to rebuild populations, it makes little sense that they would clip fish for nontribal anglers to retain. The downside is lots of fish to release, but the upsides also include lots of fish to release, smaller crowds, arguably better steelhead fishing for plug trollers, and the occasional keeper Chinook adult. The Snake simultaneously produces catches of smallmouth and channel cats on plugs, as well as trophy walleye from Central Ferry downstream. The next state or world record walleye could be caught somewhere between Little Goose and Lower Monumental Dam someday, and big specimens are incidentally hooked in the fall and winte on the Snake these days.

MCNARY TAILRACE The Columbia below McNary Dam has gotten attention for years as a place where some very large, fresh ﬁsh arrive late in the run. Locals are silent about tactics here, but the good news is their boats are conspicuous, and this is big water. Show folks respect, but you’ll see salmon and 154 Northwest Sportsman

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steelhead being caught. Concentrate attention near the Oregon boundary at the dam’s deadline; along the Oregon shore near the Umatilla marina and launch, especially near the Green Can; near the mouth of the Umatilla River; and on various shelves and travel lanes along this stretch. Flat-lining and power-trolling plugs upstream accounts for lots of fish, and the ½- to ¾-ounce Hot Lips is an ideal fish catcher for fall Chinook, steelhead, walleye, and big smallmouth. Many McNary salmon anglers drift or back-troll bait, as well as Fish Flashes and Super Baits. Above the dam, where relatively little pressure is applied by the hordes, fresh fish emerge from the ladder late into fall. Those fish whack Mag Lips, Fat Fish, Hot Lips, Brad’s Wigglers, Wiggle Warts – you name it – but Fish Flashes and Super Baits do damage in the forebay. Eleven-inch rotating flashers are also excellent choices, and the original Super Bait outshines the plug-cut model here. McNary Dam is 1.4 miles wide, so there’s a lot of water to explore on both the Oregon and Washington sides; each has a free public launch operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. NS

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