Andy “at this point. At this time. For now. Maybe.” Walgamott
THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS
Dave Anderson, Jason Brooks, Scott Haugen, Jeff Holmes, Rick Itami, Sam Jefferies, Randy King, Buzz Ramsey, Bob Rees, Amanda Wiles, Dave Workman, Mark Yuasa
GENERAL MANAGER
John Rusnak
SALES MANAGER
Paul Yarnold
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Janene Mukai, Tom St. Clair
DESIGNERS
Gabrielle Pangilinan, Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Emily Baker
OFFICE MANAGER/COPY EDITOR
Katie Aumann
INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER
Lois Sanborn
WEBMASTER/DIGITAL STRATEGIST
Jon Hines
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@nwsportsmanmag.com
CORRESPONDENCE
Email letters, articles/queries, photos, etc., to awalgamott@media-inc.com.
ON THE COVER
Emily Foytack bagged this blacktail last November, adding to an impressive harvest résumé that includes multiple bucks, a bull elk, grouse and Alaskan salmon. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
IN MEMORIAM
Mark J. Spada, 66, who passed away in September and was a longtime member of the Snohomish County fishing world and the president of tackle representative business Spada and Associates.
Michael E. Shufeldt, 26, the owner-operator of Reel Deal Fishing Adventures, who died after his guide boat took a large wave over the stern and went down during a sudden Columbia Gorge windstorm.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
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PACIFIC FLYWAY DUCK OUTLOOK
Northwest duck hunting doesn’t get serious until November, and just in time for the arrival of orange-footed northerns our MD Johnson checks in with Oregon and Washington quacker managers to talk season prospects, survey stats and what the heck is going on with pintail regulations.
48 NOVEMGASBORD!
OK, that headline is, er, a mouthful to say, but from urban options to saltwater selections and trout turns, there’s a little something for every angler come the 11th month of the year in the Evergreen State. Mark Yuasa loads up your plate with five great and varied fishing options.
61 STILL SALMON TO BE HAD ON OREGON COAST
Between late fall Chinook, feisty chums and lake-returning coho, there are plenty of reasons to hit Tillamook, Florence and Brookings in November, counsels Bob Rees.
73 FLY FISHING FOR FALL CHINOOK
Leave the stuffer baits and spinners at home – there are more ways to catch kings! Rick Itami breaks out his 12-weights, 2/0 Clouser Minnows and more stout gear for a tutorial on fly fishing for oceanfresh Chinook.
81 ROUND OUT YEAR WITH RUN TO THE GRANDE RONDE
Snake Basin steelhead runs are continuing to rebound, and this year’s return is already larger than the 10-year average. Many fish are headed to the Grande Ronde, which Jeff Holmes knows like the back of his hand. He breaks down six top stretches of the Blue Mountains river.
101 ESSAY: THE LAKE PLACE
From a simple cabin and outhouse out back to a beautiful waterfront getaway, The Lake Place has long been in Amanda Wiles’ family. Now this haven where nature and outdoor fun have always come first is hers to carry on the traditions.
125 ESSAY: FOWL IN THE FOG
Where other waterfowlers came back in early that day on the famed Skagit Flats, Sam Jefferies and buddies headed out into the murk. He relives the adventure on one of region’s best duck spots.
(TOM KOERNER, USFWS)
64
NORTHWEST PURSUITS
All Teeth,
Stripes And Fight: Meet The
Dogs Of Fall
Since being introduced to chum salmon 30 years ago on the cold banks of the Nisqually, Jason has pursued this late-returning species throughout the Westside. He shares top rivers and tactics for these purplesided battlers.
COLUMNS
(JASON BROOKS)
95 BUZZ RAMSEY How To Catch Winter Trout
If you don’t think late fall is a fine time to chase rainbows, boy have we got a deal for you! Buzz details the origins of the Black Friday trout stocking and winter opener, as well as best methods for catching your share of the tens of thousands of recently released fish.
131 GUN DOG Training For Fall Turkeys
Scott and his dogs have enjoyed many a fall turkey hunt over the years, but it took a lot of work with his four-legged companions for it to all come together just right. He shares what he’s learned about training turkey hunting dogs.
137 ON TARGET All Is Not Lost: Tag A Late Buck
Whether it’s blacktails or whitetails, this month’s late hunts provide a good last opportunity to fill the freezer for Washington rifle hunters. Dave W. offers up words of wisdom, as well as details the quick shotgun repair job he had to perform when the recoil pad on his grouse getter went kaput.
143 BECOMING A HUNTER The One Key to Hunting Success
No doubt about it, hunting is hard. There is not an elk behind every tree, nor deer yarded up in every clearcut. Conditions will go downhill, equipment will fail. Dave A. knows all that all too well – as well as the secret superpower of successful hunters.
152 CHEF IN THE WILD Little Buck Down!!!
Lace up your boots for a hunt near what was once known as Gouge-Eye, Idaho, as Chef Randy and sons navigate their way through a big game world now being impacted by chronic wasting disease and required testing. Our staff hash slinger also serves up a deliciously spicy Tunisian venison stew!
(VLAD SIRYK)
THE EDITOR’S NOTE
I– we – owe a lot to Mike Smith, a former Northwest Sportsman salesman who passed away early last month. He was 72. Mike was both my nemesis and the person who turned me onto this company some 194 issues ago now. We first met at Fishing & Hunting News, where he began selling ads in 1995, I want to say, and when it collapsed in summer 2008, he emailed me about a whole different outfit, Media Index Publishing of Seattle, that he’d found and wanted to do something similar. He was recommending me as an editor.
Truth be told, at that point I was ready to walk away from the hook-and-bullet world and was actively looking for jobs in other fields. But Mike was nothing if not a talented and persistent – a very, very persistent – salesman, and soon I found myself on the horn with publisher Jim Baker, and the rest, as they say, is history. Mike’s connections throughout the Northwest and national fishing and hunting industries and his ability to get folks to buy ads are in no small part what helped me to do more with this magazine and in life than I ever had the right to.
MIKE WAS ALWAYS looking for good news to pitch advertisers, but it wasn’t always easy to put a shine on the state of some of our fisheries, deer and elk herds and game bird flocks. Come late winter and the start of the annual North of Falcon salmon-season-setting process and he’d invariably ask me about the Lake Washington sockeye forecast. He was probably envisioning months’ worth of double-truck ads for bare red hooks and downriggers, but for me there was a certain twisted pleasure in delivering the usually woeful prediction. He was on the Ad side of the building, me in Editorial. He was a Husky and I a Coug, he a Lower Columbia kid, me a son of the Puget Sound convergence zone. We jawed a lot, like guys do, and I could zing him by misremembering his hometown as Longview (it was actually cross-river rival Kelso), but we were also pulling together in the same general direction.
“Mike was a grinder and fiercely loyal to his longtime accounts, and I’ve kept the receipts in my email inbox history of him pitching story ideas and looking for any way possible to showcase his guys,” recalls Chris Cocoles, another editor here. “But I would imagine whenever I was able to get those clients some publicity on the print or online side, it brought a smile to his face. When I’d run into Mike in the office hallway or the break room he’d frequently pick my brain about upcoming hunting seasons or derbies. Even when he’d drive me crazy he was too nice of a man to be mad at.”
Indeed, Mike was a very positive guy who liked to talk and laugh, and I actually liked him a lot. I look back on our conversations about our kids – my boys and his son and daughter – and know at the end of the day we were trying to do the best for our families.
Mike was a worker bee who retired from here in summer 2023 as health issues and age caught up to him. I worried then how much he would be able to enjoy his retirement. Still, it gives me some comfort to imagine him now chasing after Saint Peter in the great hereafter to offer an ad deal, with discounts for multiples. RIP, Mike Smith. –Andy Walgamott
They Found Your Lucky Flasher(s)
Divers clean the Lower Columbia and tribs of lost gear, dozens of 360 setups at a time.
By Andy Walgamott
Iremember fishing snaggy Humpy Rock on the Skykomish back in high school and after losing yet another drift fishing rig to its depths, thinking to myself that it would be pretty cool to dive the hole and get my salmon gear back – as well as all the other rigs that were no doubt down there.
It was more of an idle daydream, one you’ve probably had too as fishy waters ate yet another setup. But for one Northwest angler/outdoor enthusiast and his buddies, doing just that has become a reality that’s yielded preposterous numbers of flashers, hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of lead cannonballs, swivels and bumpers for days, enough stuffer baits and blades to fully restock the shelves of several tackle stores, millions of views across multiple social media channels, and incalculable good karma points for helping clean up our rivers.
Vlad Siryk first came to my attention last May when he offered something of a counterpoint to the infamous Drano Lake fight video filmed on the banks of the Toilet Bowl this past spring Chinook season. Diving the salmon-rich Columbia Gorge backwater, he and friends came across old pilings that in the murk looked like bizarro Christmas trees, so much gear decorated them. After cleaning up what they could there, more videos followed over the summer as they desnagged other well-known meat holes, and by fall they were on the Lower Columbia on a series of “special assignments.” When an angler contacted Siryk over Facebook about a pair of lost rods, they dove the spot and Siryk’s buddy Damien had the complete setups back on board in half an hour, and they also brought up a couple buckets’ worth of old and fresh-out-of-the-wrappers flashers. “It’s a win-win-win for everybody involved,” Siryk stated on a YouTube Shorts video about the all-around good turn.
Indeed, while many of us try to leave the river banks cleaner, there’s a whole other world below the surface that needs love too. So who are these guys and how’d they get into this? We caught up with Siryk for more.
Vlad Siryk (right) and his buddy Damien hoist a massive tangle of flashers, bumpers, cannonballs and lures they recovered diving the Columbia River earlier this year. The duo met through an underwater hockey league and Damien invited Siryk on a “recovery mission” this past spring that soon “spiraled out of control” as they found themselves salvaging snags up to five days a week. (VLAD SIRYK)
Northwest Sportsman Tell me about yourself – where’d you grow up? Where do you live now? How old are you?
Vlad Siryk I’m 27, I was born in Ukraine, moved to the U.S. when I was 4 and lived on the East Coast till I was 21. I moved out to Vancouver, Washington, six years ago in pursuit of a fresh start and a more adventurous lifestyle.
NWS Looking at your videos on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, I kinda get the sense that you like all facets of the outdoors – fishing, snowboarding, cliff jumping, surfing, sometimes all in the same day – but how did you get into diving?
VS The Pacific Northwest offered everything my childhood dreams consisted of. I quickly got involved in everything it had to offer –snowboarding, surfing, kiteboarding, cliff jumping, etc. After an aggressive couple years of charging hard in the extreme sports world, I beat myself up pretty well and started dealing with more and more
injuries, especially in my lower back. Then in May 2021 I had a bad snowboard accident that completely changed my life. My lower back has never been the same since that day and I had to give up most of my hobbies.
It took a big toll on me because
my happiness and purpose of life stemmed from my hobbies and passion for adventure and adrenaline. I sought professional help for years from chiropractors, physical therapists, body work specialists, masseuses, doctors, etc. Nothing really helped. Over time and lots
Recovering from lower back problems, Siryk took up diving, then discovered spearfishing. He readily admits that while his videos might show big hauls, there’s often a bunch of other trips that didn’t pan out behind them. (VLAD SIRYK)
Safety is a huge consideration as Siryk and buddies work underwater around hooks, thick fishing line and even gillnets while holding their breaths. They’ve discovered that gillnets hung up on pilings tend to create real snagfests. (VLAD SIRYK)
of PT, I was able to get back into some of my hobbies, but never to the same capacity as I was.
Around this time, I really started enjoying spending time in the water and diving because it was one of the only things I could do that was for the most part painfree. As a guy who always grew up having a weird fear of water and what lives under it, this was the perfect mixture of adrenaline and adventure that was missing in my life during this period of rehab. I started diving in our local clear lakes and smaller rivers and streams searching for lost Apple watches and GoPros and whatever else I could find.
Then I heard about guys spearfishing on our coast and that was a crazy idea to me because the water is freezing,
murky and rough, not to mention (has) great white sharks, sea lions, whales and everything else that lives out in our ocean. This was a big fear to overcome for me. As a kid, I would be scared to look under the water on vacation where the water was crystal clear and warm. But something I was born with is this weird attraction to things I fear most and overcoming them; it’s an addiction in itself.
So it didn’t take long before I became obsessed with spearfishing on the Oregon and Washington Coast. It took a couple years of diving and learning our oceans, tides, swell, etc., to get to a place where I felt comfortable and was well educated on good foraging grounds for fish, scallops, crabs and all types of delicious shellfish our coast offers.
NWS What’s it like spearfishing and diving for crabs and other shellfish on the coast? That’s something that 99.8 percent of other Northwest sportsmen have never experienced.
VS Diving for crab and other shellfish on our coastline is an extremely addicting hobby, first because it’s not as easy as it seems. I may post a video of me holding up a bag full of Dungeness crab on my Instagram and brag about how it took me only 30 minutes, but the part that I’m not bragging about is that I previously went out five other times and was skunked due to terrible visibility, strong currents or just the fact that there were just no legal crab for me to keep down there.
Same goes with shooting a 20-pound lingcod or even finding scallops. It’s never
an easy mission, you never get used to getting into freezing water and there is nothing romantic about diving for hours on end searching for that one fish or that crab in freezing water where you can’t even see your feet below you. But when you do land that 20-pound lingcod or when you are holding that bag full of Dungeness crab or when you are having a raw scallop buffet up on the boat with the boys after prying them off rocks 45 feet deep, it’s a feeling that’s hard to compare to most things we experience in our day-to-day life.
NWS How did you go from foraging for your dinner underwater to finding the gear other anglers lost while trying to catch their own dinner? How many of you guys are at any one dive? Tell me about the crew.
VS The switch from foraging for food to foraging for fishing gear is a funny one. I joined an underwater hockey league here
“With our rugged and wild coastline to our vast mountains and freshwater rivers that have some of the best salmon runs in the world, the PNW is truly a gem. It’s our job to do our part and to take care of this gift that we are given,” states Siryk, here with Damien and a big snag pulled out of the North Fork Lewis River. (VLAD SIRYK)
in town where we play every Tuesday, and yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Definitely a sport only for people who really love spending time underwater.
So naturally I met some really cool guys who share a similar passion for the underworld. Specifically, two guys, Damien and Derek. Damien has been diving for gear for a couple years and he invited me to go join him for a recovery mission in the springtime. It was an exhilarating experience and I quickly discovered another addiction. It was just the perfect storm: We cleaned up the rivers; we cleared the snags for fishermen (including ourselves) who fish these waters; we’re practicing our diving skills, holding our breath and becoming better divers; and we’re able to put a little money in our pocket after we sell back to the fishermen. I made a video about it and it got a lot of traction and people loved it.
We then started diving all sorts of popular fishing rivers, recovering all sorts of fishing gear and lead. It was just shocking to see how much stuff is left behind unintentionally by fishermen, especially in rivers that get fished hard. So we spent this whole summer diving tributary rivers, cleaning them up. I documented all of it, posting on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. There isn’t much money to be made there because most of the gear isn’t worth much to begin with. After the whole summer I made $100 after selling a full bucket of lead I collected from these dives, haha.
But things really got out of control towards the end of summer when we decided to focus specifically on the Columbia River and the trollers. Derek joined the party and this was a dangerous trio. We all have what you can call an addictive personality, so when we got to the bottom of the Columbia and saw how much work there is to do and how many snags there are to recover, our lives spiraled out of control. Work, family and basic human needs all started getting neglected in our lives and we started diving three to five times a week.
NWS You have to be really safety conscious, given all the hooks and line and stuff in the water. Are there snags that you and your buddies have come across and decided it wasn’t worth risking your lives for? What is that line you won’t cross to salvage a 360 flasher or 3.5 spinner in Mexican flag? Any close calls?
VS Even though we all got a couple loose screws, when it comes to safety, we try our best not to compromise. What’s different about our diving is we don’t use scuba tanks, minus two occasions where we used tanks. Otherwise, we are recovering all this gear holding our breath, which makes it a lot more dangerous. But we do it this way because we enjoy the challenge and this is the ultimate training for our breath-hold and spearfishing. Even though we’re all great divers and we can all go down past 100 feet on a single breath-hold, this doesn’t go to say how fast things can go wrong. All it takes is one hook to get stuck in you while working a snag at the bottom of the river and you never resurface.
That’s why we have a method and system in place on how we deal with big, overwhelming snags. We have never turned down a snag yet, but actually, yesterday, we pulled over 175 flashers off one snag and it was the most challenging one yet. It was two massive tree stumps with roots that had tons of gillnet stuck in it, and this gillnet looked like the White House Christmas tree with how decorated it was in flashers, blades, lead and Super Baits. It was sitting at 30 feet and it was a very complicated snag due to the thickness and girth of the tangled gillnet. It took the three of us two hours of nonstop diving to clear this thing out. It was intense and pretty dangerous.
One of the dives, Derek was pulling a flasher out from the gillnet and his dive watch got tangled in it. He stayed calm and had to pull so hard his dive watch broke off, once again another situation
that could’ve ended really bad. But Damien and I were right above him at the surface, so if he never resurfaced, we would’ve gone down and pulled him out. Derek also got a hook stuck in his calf last week while bringing a big rope full of snags to the surface. We have to keep an eye out for that guy, but luckily, he’s an incredible diver.
NWS How many flashers, spinners, cannonballs do you collect on an average dive? What’s the most ever? Is it predictable where the snags will be, outside of, say, terminal fisheries? What do you do with it all??!?
VS So remember how I said this whole thing spiraled out of control for us? Well, I wasn’t lying. Just in the past week (in late September), we’ve pulled out over 1,000 flashers, hundreds of pounds of cannonballs and hundreds of Super Baits, blades, bumpers, etc. But keep in mind, some of this gear has been sitting down here for years and it’s in tough shape, so most of it isn’t even resellable.
NWS I love how you hide some of your hauls as Easter eggs, per se, for anglers to find – they respond so fast, a testament to all your followers. But the guides must love it too, not having to pay retail to replace stuff clients lose – are they on speed dial or what?
VS All the good flashers we sell for $10. Typically, everything else we sell at 50 percent off what the fishing stores sell it at and, yes, the fishermen love it. First, because it’s cheaper; second, because some of them come and get their lucky flasher or blade back. The guides love us too. Sometimes a guide will put us on his most hated snag and we’ll clear it out for him and then he gets all his favorite flashers back and the snag is gone. It’s a win-win for everyone.
NWS I can’t applaud you enough for helping clean up our waters, but does the volume of all the lost gear surprise you? I don’t know how this would work, but any thought about doing this as a contract service for, say, the Departments of Fish
and Wildlife or the sportfishing industry?
VS I will admit, the amount of lost fishing gear in our rivers is alarming. I know it’s unintentional and I have lost my fair share of gear in these waters, but that’s something that the state has to keep in mind when they sell close to a million fishing licenses each year. The salmon industry is a $1.5 billion recreational industry just in Washington. The state can afford to send out some guys like my buddies and I to go clean the river up and do their part if they’re going to allow and charge millions of anglers to come fish our waters. I’m sure it’s something not too many people think about because they simply can’t see what’s going on down there, but after spending a lot of time in our waters, I would highly recommend that someone starts thinking about it.
NWS Ever used gear you just salvaged to go and catch salmon or steelhead?
VS Yes, we’ve definitely caught fish on recovered gear; if anything, that stuff works better because typically when guys are trolling they don’t plan on losing their $50 trolling setup, so they run their best gear and that’s usually the stuff that performs best. So we’re in possession of a lot of people’s lucky lures, haha
Also, a lot of guys have bought from us now and we’ve had at least 10 boats pull up to us in the past couple weeks and say how they just put a fish in the boat with something we sold them. Love to see it!
NWS What’s the weirdest, most random thing you’ve found diving?
VS Surprisingly, nothing too crazy. A lot of trash and rubbish, sunglasses, phones, vapes, boat parts, fishing rods, the occasional sturgeon.
NWS Any closing thoughts?
VS In the last six years I have completely fallen in love with the PNW and all it has to offer. Growing up in Massachusetts for 12 years and living in North Carolina for
five years, I have realized that people truly don’t understand how special this place is. With our rugged and wild coastline to our vast mountains and freshwater rivers that have some of the best salmon runs in the world, the PNW is truly a gem. It’s our job to do our part and to take care of this gift that we are given. But more importantly, it’s the state’s job to do its part as well. I’m not exactly sure if there are any programs set up for specific fishing gear river cleanups, but basing off what I’ve seen underwater and the research I’ve done, it doesn’t look like it. My buddies and I will keep diving and cleaning these rivers; I will keep making content about it. But if the state ever wanted to propose a plan where we could work together to take better care of our rivers, we’d love to be a part of that conversation. NS
Editor’s note: Follow Vlad Siryk on YouTube (@Lion_king25), Instagram (lion_king25) and TikTok (@lion__king25), as well as on Facebook.
put together a pretty
“The smile kind of says it all,” writes proud grandfather Ronnie Rolen of 10-year-old grandson Justin Rolen. The youngster caught his Chinook on Washington’s Marine Area 10 on 2024’s final day of the king season. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
How it started – as a “funny stocking stuffer”; how it ended: “apparently largemouth like gingerbread cookies.” So learned Austin Han and his dad, Jerry, after the young basser used a holiday edition Gingerbread Man from Scum Frog at a Tri-Cities-area farm pond to catch six bucketmouths this summer. A more conventional blue-black bass jig yielded more fish for Austin, but the cookiethemed bait shined in the thick weeds for him. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Bill Stanley hoped the September 1 opener on the Snake below Lower Monumental Dam would light up for summer steelhead, but found that channel catfish from 4 to 10 pounds were feeling dangerously frisky instead.
“Since you can’t get Brad’s lighted lures anymore, we had to pull the plug at 10:30 p.m. Man, they do fight, though; got ’em at the deadline holding steady,” he reports. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
September started out chrome-bright for coho shore angler Eric Schager, who tagged out on a bunch of trips on Deep South Sound.
“These two were nearly back to back and both took me for a ride,” he says.
(KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
For your shot at winning great fishing and hunting knives from Coast and Kershaw in our Knife Photo Contest, send your full-resolution, original images with all the pertinent details – who’s in the pic; when and where they were; what they caught their fish on/weapon they used to bag the game; and any other details you’d like to reveal (the more, the merrier!) – to awalgamott@media-inc.com or Northwest Sportsman, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for use in our print and Internet publications.
Rhonna Schnell
nice lineup of Paulina Lake kokanee. She was fishing the Newberry Caldera lake in July. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Nobody was more eager to get out fishing at the Nevin household this past summer than Jack, age 6, who beat his dad Brent out of bed every morning. Here he shows off an Upper Columbia summer Chinook caught at Chelan Falls on a Brad’s Cut Plug. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
A midsummer trip to Sitka yielded a lingcod of a very different coloration for three generations of Albertson family anglers, Aaron (holding the fish), his son Anders, dad Allen and dad’s old high school buddy, Joe Mounts. “No one had ever seen one like this,” reports Aaron, who hails from Tacoma and states the fish was released. “We hope many other anglers get to enjoy the surprise of seeing this one-of-a-kind lingcod on their line!” (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Walt Rabe and son Ethan enjoyed good fishing for Lower Columbia fall Chinook with reader Dennis Schwartz aboard the boat of buddy Mike Neketuk (background). They were trolling off Caterpillar Island when these bit. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
A trip out onto the briny blue off Westport turned up a yellowtail amberjack for Lance Davis of Tacoma. He and the rest of the crew fishing with skipper Darrell Johnson also put up 45 albacore on that mid-August day. Buddy Gary Lundquist forwarded the pic. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
“Yeah, I’d like to check in for an extended stay through the end of hunting season, and I’ll just take my continental breakfast out in your shrubberies …” That might be what this blacktail outside a hotel in Ocean Shores was thinking when eagle-eyed reader Marvin Holder snapped a pic of it lurking in the parking lot. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Hey, isn’t that that one guy? Yep, that’s Buzz Ramsey behind his latest fall pursuit – Klickitat County turkeys! He put down his salmon rods and deer rifles long enough to ambush this bird and another earlier this season.
(BUZZ RAMSEY)
Northwest Sportsman reader
Derrick Karn of Orting used a 20-gauge Benelli to score on Washington’s grouse opener, hunting on South Cle Elum Ridge in Kittitas County, with his dog, Molson.
(DAVE WORKMAN)
Humptulips hatchery kings staging in Grays Harbor provided good fishing for Darrel Smith in mid-September. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Eggs under a bobber along with drift fishing with a light lead lit it up for Cade Cameron and crew on these coho.
(KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Nathan Craig drew the muzzleloader tag, but he had a lot of help from his buddies and son scouting, on the call, spotting elk and helping pack out his very nice Cowiche Unit six-point bull. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
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First Body Cam Footage From WDFW Officers Released JACKASS
Last month’s release of body camera footage from a late-night break-in at a salmon hatchery was a proactive first that provided a you-are-there sense of what goes into policing Washington’s fish and wildlife resources after dark.
All 152 of the state Department Fish and Wildlife’s game wardens only began wearing the devices in September, and the spliced-together 82-second video captured late that month takes viewers along as Officer Blaine Corey catches up to one of the suspects, knifes a tire on the getaway truck, calls for backup and an hour later engages in almost post-game jocularity with three people in handcuffs.
It may or may not have been the crime of the century – whether the crew was after fish or eggs is unclear, but the situation might have turned out very differently, given that the vehicle came towards Corey’s position multiple times, albeit at a pace that appeared slow enough for him to get out of the way, and twice a door was opened in his direction. But the release of
the footage also reinforced the praise for the alert officer’s actions that night.
“I am proud of Officer Corey’s efforts, quick thinking and his tenacity to provide law enforcement presence in the middle of the night in a remote location,” said WDFW Police Captain Jeff Wickersham. “He knew where to be and what to do. I am also proud of the response and assistance of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and Morton PD. The suspects may not have been located and taken into custody without their help.”
The video also added to initial reports from The Chronicle of Centralia, which broke the story, and more details released in a written statement by WDFW Police.
ACCORDING TO ACCOUNTS, after receiving two recent reports of people unlawfully entering the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery overnight to snag returning Chinook and coho out of fish holding pens, as well as the theft of a hatchery net, officers boosted their patrol presence at the facility just off
By Andy Walgamott
OF THE MONTH
If you’re going to use a predator call, you might not want to be doing anything else that might draw the attention of, say, keeneared game wardens.
That’s the lesson a pair of Metolius Unit bear baiters learned last August. They were first contacted in their pickup by a Bend-based Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division trooper, according to the agency’s monthly newsletter. The driver appeared to be “very nervous,” which might have been due to only one of the duo having a bear tag … or perhaps it was because of all the apples in the bed of truck. Like it or not, bait was banned for bear hunting back in 1994.
That same evening, the same truck was spotted in a location “known to have a good population of bear,” according to troopers, and the next day an OSP sergeant found a ladder stand above a trail camera, in front of which just happened to be a number of apples.
That evening, the sergeant spied a side-by-side parked in the area and heard a predator call being played. Following the sound like the hungry big boar it was meant to bring in led the sergeant right to the ladder stand and the two people the trooper had contacted the day before.
Both were cited for hunting bears over bait and one was ticketed for not having the proper tag. They also got to see their stand dismantled and packed out and it appeared that their fancy scoped and bipodded AR-style rifles were seized too.
Next time, maybe don’t download and play the apples-falling-off-the-tree-into-ascrumptious-pile call while bear hunting – brings troopers in from 10 miles away every time.
The apparent getaway driver of a crew suspected of breaking into the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery in late September credited Washington game warden Blaine Corey’s quick thinking for what led to their eventual arrest. This still image came from Corey’s body cam footage recorded that night; the video was the first released by state fish and wildlife officers. (WDFW)
MIXED BAG
Highway 12 in Lewis County.
While completing paperwork and watching employee traffic in and out of the hatchery around 2:15 a.m. on September 29, Officer Corey spotted five suspects inside the complex toting fishing rods and heading for the fish holding area.
Corey walked towards them, but when he was about 50 feet away, the suspects spotted him and began running, leading the officer to yell, “Stop! Fish and Wildlife Police.” One dropped a hatchery dip net when ordered to do so by Corey and one fell down a steep bank, which is where the body cam video begins, at 2:17 a.m.
“You OK?” Corey asks, then shouts to other suspects ahead of him in the dark, “Y’all leave your buddy?”
“Stop, you’re under arrest. Come here,” he adds as the fallen suspect walks back up the bank.
Meanwhile, the others run toward the public parking area. “Open the car! Open the car!” can be heard on the video.
“Grab your pole,” Corey directs the
fallen suspect, to which comes the reply, “I don’t have one.”
“You’re without one? How old are you?” Corey then asks.
THE FOOTAGE FAST-FORWARDS about 4 minutes and resumes with Corey calling in the break-in as headlights approach his position along the road.
“This is Blaine Corey, Fish and Wildlife. I had multiple juveniles burglarize the hatchery,” he says as a red Ford truck pulls alongside and the back left door opens. “They just took off – Stop! I have you, I have you on video!”
Corey reads off the vehicle’s make, color and license plate to dispatch. WDFW also reported that Corey got a clear glimpse of the face of the alleged getaway driver, later identified as Timothy A. Gubarik, 21, of Kent near Seattle.
About 30 seconds later, per the body cam’s timestamp, and with Corey standing in the middle of the road, the truck comes by again (there are several loops at the hatchery complex) and he orders it twice to “Stop!”
Believing that he was going to be purposefully run down, Corey moved to the side and when the truck stops, apparently to pick up the 15-year-old suspect who’d fallen and was told he was under arrest, the officer drew his duty knife and stabbed the rear left tire to try and disable the truck. It then took off and left the hatchery grounds.
“I slashed his tires and he just took off,” Corey reports to dispatch. “Yeah, he’s taking off out of the hatchery now with a flat tire.”
“If Officer Corey had still been standing there, the vehicle would have struck him,” WDFW Police state in their narrative.
AN HOUR AND 20 minutes later, the video shows six officers, including Corey,
standing with at least three of five handcuffed suspects. They were located by sheriff’s deputies roughly 3 miles from the hatchery “trying to hide” along a private road, unable to proceed any further due to the flat tire. A sixth suspect was found walking along a nearby road and taken into custody by Morton Police Department officers. All were arrested without incident.
“Did you slash his tires?” one of the suspects asks Corey.
“Yeah,” replies Corey. “Why? Did you try to drive off and you were like, ‘(Bleep), I got a flat’?”
“Yeah,” says one suspect. “We were hella confused,” adds another.
“‘Why is my tire flat?’” Corey impersonates
“It kind of threw me to the side a little –(bleep),” said the apparent driver. “It is what it is, man.”
Then the driver offers unexpected props to Corey’s fast thinking knifing his tire. “It was a smart move. Eight thousand IQ, man. I’ll give that to you, boss, I’ll give that to you.”
So too did WDFW Police. “If Officer Corey had not disabled the tire during the initial encounter, it is likely the group would have evaded capture that morning. Officer Corey’s quick decision led to the group being found and arrested,” officers said.
The six suspects included two adults and four juveniles ranging in age from 23 years old down to 15.
Gubarik, the driver, and Roman Tymoshuk, 18, of Auburn in the Kent Valley, were each charged in Lewis County Superior Court with second-degree burglary and attempted theft in the third degree, according to The Chronicle
Gubarik is also facing second-degree assault, obstruction of an officer and attempting to elude charges, the paper reported. His bail was set at $75,000, with Superior Court Judge James Lawler finding “he’s a threat to community safety.”
RELEASING THE VIDEO has several likely benefits for WDFW Police. It reinforces to the public at large that its officers, who
often work alone in remote places, will be recording footage of contacts they make and will release it to the media, a potential deterrent that will also serve to bolster court cases, along with provide increased accountability for officer actions. And it shows wardens working proactively to protect a hatchery. Facilities in both Washington and Oregon are not only targeted by litigious environmental groups, but snaggers and others bent on stealing fish, including Chinook at Wallace
Officer Corey slashes the left rear tire of the getaway truck of the burglary suspects in footage captured by his body cam. (WDFW)
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Salmon Hatchery east of Everett this past summer and winter steelhead at a Coquille watershed fish trap in early 2021. And as we reported here earlier this year, Joshua Heckathorn was sentenced to 30 days after poisoning some 18,000 young Chinook at a lower Umpqua River rearing site.
At the time of the break-in at the Cowlitz hatchery, there would have been between 250 and 350 adult fall Chinook and 750 and 2,200 coho on hand, per WDFW escapement reports, making it a ripe target.
Across-the-force wearing of body cams began in September following a trial period and after input from game wardens and stakeholders was taken into consideration.
The program was funded by $915,000 allocated by state legislators this year.
Said WDFW Chief Steve Bear, “This program advances our commitment to our core values and our mission to protect our natural resources and the public we serve. Deploying body-worn cameras to our officers will help us build trust and relationships with all communities in Washington.” NS
WDFW Police Captain Jeff Wickersham (right) and Sergeant Patrick Anderson model the new devices. (WDFW)
CALENDAR OUTDOOR
NOVEMBER
1 Mussel harvesting opens on Washington Coast beaches outside of Olympic National Park; Various Washington trapping seasons open
1-5
Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select Washington Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels – info: wdfw.wa.gov
2 Western Washington rifle elk opener; Washington Goose Management Areas
3 and 5 seasons resume; Oregon Zone 1 snipe and scaup seasons open
5 Oregon Southwest and Mid-Columbia Zones goose seasons resume
8 Last day to hunt deer with Western Oregon any legal weapon tag
9 Oregon West Cascade and Rocky Mountain elk second seasons open
9-10
Extended Western Oregon youth deer season dates; ODFW Adult Mentored Duck Hunting Workshop ($, register), Gervais, Sauvie Island – info: myodfw.com/workshops-and-events
9-19 Northeast Washington late rifle whitetail season dates
13-19 Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select Washington Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels – info above
14 ODFW Introduction to Hunting in Oregon Workshop ($, register), Tualatin Cabela’s – info above
14-17 Western Washington late rifle blacktail season dates in select units
15 Last day to hunt black bears in Washington; Oregon Zone 1 second mourning dove season opens
16 Southwest Oregon late bow deer season opens in select units
16-17 ODFW Adult Mentored Duck Hunting Workshop ($, register), Coquille Valley – info above
16-19 Oregon Coast bull elk first season dates
23-29 Oregon Coast bull elk second season dates
27 Washington late bow and muzzleloader deer and elk openers in many units
29 Washington “Black Friday” trout stocking, select lake openers
29-30 Oregon Free Fishing Weekend
29-Dec. 5 Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select Washington Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels – info above
30-Dec. 15 Oregon brant season dates
DECEMBER
1 General Eastern Oregon fall turkey hunting season switches to only open on private lands with permission
1-15 Extended pheasant season dates at select Western Washington release sites (no birds stocked)
5 Oregon Zone 2 duck and scaup season resumes
8 Last day of many Washington late bow and muzzleloader deer and elk seasons
10 Oregon High Desert and Blue Mountains Zone Canada goose season resumes
12-18 Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select Washington Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels – info above
14 Washington Goose Management Area 1 season resumes
15 Last day of remaining Washington late bow and muzzleloader deer and elk seasons
21 Oregon South Coast Zone goose season resumes
28-31 Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select Washington Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels – info above
31 Last day to hunt rooster pheasants in Oregon; Last day of Eastern Washington general fall turkey hunting season; End of Oregon and Idaho fishing and hunting license years
Novemgasbord!
Load up your plate with these five great and varied Washington fishing options.
By Mark Yuasa
While the autumn weather outside can be frightful, that shouldn’t hold you back from enjoying some delightful fishing opportunities.
At this particular juncture of the year, many tend to stow away their fishing gear, but November is a month to closely “fall-ow” the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s
hatchery stocking plan, as many year-round lakes are being planted with rainbow trout.
It is also a time to “leaf” behind all the yardwork and hightail it to a coastal beach to dig up a batch of razor clams, catch a hungry resident winter Chinook in southern Puget Sound, jig for squid at a local pier or drop a crab pot in Puget Sound.
Here are my top choices for November:
RAINBOWS ON YEAR-ROUND LAKES
After the Thanksgiving feast, be sure to opt out of the mall madness and take advantage of the more than 69,600 trout (averaging 1 to 2 pounds apiece) stocked in 26 lakes this fall.
“If you’re looking for something to do, we’ll be stocking lakes with thousands of trout in time for Black Friday opportunities,” said Steve Caromile, WDFW Inland Fish Program manager. “It’s a perfect
FISHING
Tens of thousands of rainbow trout will be stocked for the Black Friday fishery that begins the day after Thanksgiving. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
occasion for those that want to avoid the malls and get outdoors.”
Lakes that are being stocked prior to Thanksgiving include Roses (25,000 rainbow trout) in Chelan County; Battleground (2,000) and Klineline (2,000) in Clark County; Kress (2,000) in Cowlitz County; Cranberry (4,000) in Island County; Beaver (2,500) and Green (4,500) in King County; Rowland (2,000) in Klickitat County; Fort Borst Park Pond (2,000) and South Lewis County Park Pond (2,000) in Lewis County; American (2,000), Bonney (350), Harts (550) and Tanwax (1,000) in Pierce County; Ballinger (2,500), Gissburg Ponds (1,500), Silver (2,500) and Tye (2,000) in Snohomish County; Black (3,000), Lawrence (800), Long (1,000), Munn (650), Offutt (1,000), St. Clair (450) and Ward (300) in Thurston County; and Elton Pond North (2,000) in Yakima County.
Three lakes east of the Cascades opening on Black Friday were stocked with trout fry this past spring and
these fish should now average 8 to 10 inches. They include Hatch in Stevens County (12,000 fry), Fourth of July in Adams/Lincoln County (80,000 fry) and Hog Canyon in Spokane County (20,000 fry, plus 1,000 trout averaging 1 pound apiece). And in October, many other year-round lakes were also planted with trout.
Fishing gear simply consists of a lightweight, limber rod with a medium-sized spinning reel. For bait, use the soft, moldable dough baits that come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Others will use worms, maggots, salmon eggs, scented marshmallows or small spinners, jigs and spoons.
For weekly trout plants, go to wdfw .wa.gov/fishing/reports/stocking/ trout-plants.
RAZOR CLAM DIGGING ON COASTAL BEACHES
If you dig razor clams, then definitely make plans to head to four coastal beaches in the months ahead. The first fall digs on October 3-7 generated many limits (a digger’s daily limit is
the first 15 razor clams dug, regardless of size or condition). Coastwide, an estimated 15,324 diggers harvested 214,333 razor clams. Long Beach clammers averaged 13.9 razors, while those at Twin Harbors got 14.5, Copalis, 13.3, and Mocrocks, 14.7.
“While there won’t be a dig on Thanksgiving Day, there will be a chance for folks to get out starting on Black Friday,” said Bryce Blumenthal, WDFW coastal shellfish biologist. “We don’t have a good low tide series during the Christmas holiday break, but we’ve got some days to dig leading up to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day”
Next year’s dates will be released sometime in December, but in the meantime, upcoming digs have been tentatively set for November 1-5 and 13-19, November 29-December 5, and December 12-18 and 28-31. Digging is allowed from noon to midnight only. The optimum digging period usually occurs between one and two hours before the listed time of low tide. Since fall/winter digs occur at night, folks
FISHING
are reminded to use caution when venturing near the surf line and have a powerful lantern and a fully charged flashlight. Not all beaches are open for every dig, and make sure to check before heading out the door. Digging relies on ongoing marine toxin testing, with final approval usually occurring about a week or less prior to the start of each digging series.
During fall and early winter, it’s not unusual to encounter some small clams, but it’s important diggers keep the clams they’ve dug to prevent wastage. For more, check out the October issue of Northwest Sportsman, in which I provided an outlook for the entire 2024-25 razor clam season!
DUNGENESS CRABBING ON PUGET SOUND
Winter tends to be quite productive for crabbers and unlike summer, you’ll likely find fewer crab pots in the water to compete with your own! Crabbing is open daily through December 31 east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line in Marine Area 4, as well as off SekiuPillar Point (Area 5), in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca (Area 6), the San Juan Islands (Area 7), the eastern side of Whidbey Island (Areas 8-1 and 8-2), in northern Puget Sound/ Admiralty Inlet (Area 9) and Hood Canal north of a line projected true east from Ayock Point (Area 12). In Puget Sound areas, setting or pulling traps from a vessel is only allowed
from one hour before official sunrise through one hour after official sunset.
Remember to keep only crabs that are in hard-shell condition, since softshell crabs tend to yield less than 20 percent of their weight in meat, and their meat can be very soft, mushy and lacking in firm texture. The pinch test is a great way to ID whether or not a crab is in soft-shell condition, but also check the underside to see if the shell is white instead of a darker yellowish-brown color. For the pinch test, under one of the folded claws gently push the elbow of the claw towards the mouth of the crab, exposing the shell that is usually covered by the folded claw. Gently
Less competition and open every day –that’s what well-bundled crabbers will find on Strait of Juan de Fuca, San Juan Islands, north Puget Sound and north Hood Canal waters this time of year. (MARK YUASA)
FISHING
pinch it with your thumb to see if the shell bends or flexes. For details, go to wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfishingregulations/crab.
Coastal areas are open year-round for crabbing, but there are crab pot gear restrictions in place during certain times of the year.
CHINOOK ON SOUTHERN PUGET SOUND
This is the only winter saltwater fishing show in town for hatchery-marked Chinook. Many believe Area 13 is a
From
ghost town for salmon, but I wouldn’t cross it off your list of places to go.
After all, there’s been a resurgence in the baitfish population in deep South Sound, and that lures hungry resident feeder Chinook to the area. Another bonus is that the many popular fishing holes are relatively protected from the ever-present blustery weather and rough seas seen during the late fall and winter timeframe.
Wet a line by mooching, trolling or jigging at Fox Island off Point
Gibson near the Big Rock, Fox Point, Fox Island public fishing pier on the eastern shore, Point Fosdick, Anderson Island, Lyle Point, Budd Inlet, Devils Head and Johnson Point. Areas 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) and 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island) are also both still open through November 15 for coho and chum only. Area 12 (Hood Canal) is open through November 30 for chum only. There’s also several Puget Sound piers that are open year-round for salmon fishing and worth casting a jig or throwing out a bobber with a herring or anchovy underneath.
SQUID JIGGING ON PUGET SOUND
Now through early February is a time when migrating adult squid can be found by anglers in Washington’s inside waters. There are numerous piers to catch them all across Puget Sound, from Edmonds to Tacoma and many points in between.
Like any other fishery, if the bite isn’t happening at one pier, pack up and move to another. Squid feed mainly at night and are attracted to light, which is why public piers are good locations for anglers. Hungry squid lurk in the dark fringes near patches of lighted water and then dart into the bright area in pursuit of food such as young herring and other small fishes.
Because a boat isn’t necessarily needed and jigging equipment is reasonably priced, jigging is one of the most inexpensive ways to catch squid. Anglers should take a camping lantern or large flashlight for unlit locations. Anglers ages 15 and older must have a valid shellfish/seaweed license, available online at the WDFW website or through license dealers across the state. Daily limit, gear and other regulations also apply.
For more info on how to catch squid and the rules, go to wdfw.wa.gov/ fishing/basics/squid#catching. NS
Editor’s note: Mark Yuasa is a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife communications manager and longtime local fishing and outdoor writer.
pier or boat, use a powerful light to attract squid to your jigs. The mini-kraken run arrived relatively early this season and should continue to produce into winter. (MARK YUASA)
Based
Still Salmon To Be Had On Coast
Your monthly Oregon fishing outlook provided by The Guide’s Forecast.
By Bob Rees
November is a transition month for many Oregon fisheries. With salmon season winding down, anglers will find it increasingly difficult to find fresh-run Chinook. Consumptive coho fishing largely shuts down as well, with a few exceptions on the North and South Coasts.
Those exceptions are the North Fork Nehalem and Trask, where managers have integrated wild broodstock into coho hatchery programs. That should provide anglers with catchand-keep opportunity throughout this month, though returns are expected to be modest, so don’t have high expectations.
One of the last remaining catch-and-keep wild coho options exists on the South/Central Coast, where Tahkenitch and Siltcoos Lakes often realize robust late-season returns. This is likely to be the case again this year, and while targeting coho in a lake environment can be challenging, early mornings near the mouths of incoming creeks can be productive. Spoons and spinners are often employed, but trolling plugs is another good strategy.
LATE-SEASON FALL CHINOOK options remain open on the North and South Coasts, with the Wilson and Kilchis Rivers providing some opportunity following significant freshets. Returns on these systems, however, have been fair at best in recent years. They fish best in high water.
The Kilchis and Miami Rivers, and to a lesser extent the Wilson, also get good returns of a rebounding population of chum salmon, which readily take plugs, spinners, jigs and bait after the first significant rainfall of the month. Although this is a catch-and-release fishery only, anglers can not target chum after November 15.
Well to the south, the Chetco, Elk and Sixes Rivers can provide great November Chinook opportunities. Like other systems, success is largely dependent on rain fueling the in-river migration and subsequent sport catch.
These late-season Chinook are receptive to backtrolled or back-bounced plugs and eggs in the bigger flows of these rivers. Anglers often overlook productive anchor options during high, off-color water events, when the
While fall Chinook opportunities remain on Oregon’s North Coast, the focus tends to shift to southern rivers come November. Austin Han picked up this nice king there last fall. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
salmon tend to move the most.
LATER IN NOVEMBER, Thanksgiving was the traditional kickoff for winter steelhead. While the homogenized “hatchery brats” of the Alsea, North Fork Nehalem, Necanicum and Highway 30 systems (Big and Gnat Creeks and the Klaskanine River) should still be an option, the better steelhead fishing for higher quality fish tends to start in late January these days.
These early returnees can be challenging to catch, but egg clusters and sand shrimp often produce the best results, especially in high water when these fish are most likely to bite. In low water conditions, jigs and hardware become a good option, but this strain of steelhead often bolts right to the point of their liberation, often at the hatcheries themselves. This makes for crowded conditions at these locations, but handicapped anglers should take advantage of the platform at the North Fork Nehalem facility, where catches can be great at times. The hatchery hotline here often provides up-to-date reports on how the fishing has been. Give them a call at (503) 368-5670.
Anglers are anticipating a better return this year, as it seems summer steelhead and coho returns have far surpassed expectations.
SALTWATER OPPORTUNITIES ARE highly variable on the Oregon Coast, fully dependent on fair ocean weather. Bottomfishing can be productive when conditions allow, but ocean crabbing is closed, along with Chinook and halibut fishing as of October 31.
Crabbing in Oregon’s estuaries should be productive, however, providing ample opportunity for highquality crustaceans.
And razor clam digging can also be productive this month, though a small surf – the most conducive to productive digging – can be a rare occurrence this stormy time of year. NS
Editor’s note: For more information, visit TheGuidesForecast.com.
All Teeth, Stripes And Fight: Meet The Dogs Of Fall
NW PURSUITS
By Jason Brooks
When I moved to Western Washington nearly 30 years ago from the east side of the state, I continued to head over the passes as November storms blanketed the mountains and soaked the rivers. Chasing chukars and quail and putting hundreds of miles on my truck helped me get my “fix” of the outdoors.
Finally, after a few years of this, and settling down into married life, my new uncle-in-law invited me to fish the Nisqually River. I had no idea what we were going fishing for but went along anyway and soon found myself on a frozen riverbank with guys either standing in the water and casting bright-green Lil’ Corkies or around a campfire trying to keep their frozen fingers from falling off. I spent most of the day around the fire but occasionally ventured over to a successful angler to see them heft a large, ugly but colorful fish up onto the icy rocks. This was my introduction to chum salmon, otherwise known as the “dogs of fall.”
Those days of fishing along the banks of the Nisqually are long gone now. With river closures and poor returns, southern Puget Sound has been a mess in the past decade or so, starting with those late-returning true winter chums of the Nisqually. There is some promise, though, with other systems and their traditional November chum runs.
Since being introduced to chum salmon 30 years ago on the cold banks of the Nisqually River, author Jason Brooks has enjoyed fishing for the late-returning species throughout Puget Sound, Hood Canal and Grays Harbor. (JASON BROOKS)
ANGLERS WILLING TO venture to Washington’s coast have several rivers that still get great returns of dog salmon, so called due to their large teeth when they reach spawning maturity. The Satsop is one such river where anglers can find both bank and boat access. The upper reaches are good for anyone who can row a raft or drift boat, while the lower end has jet sleds racing up and power drifting the long runs. Of course, besides chums, there is a late run of coho and 2024 has become the “year of coho,” thanks to returns well above forecast producing what seems to have been a never-ending silver season in Washington. Other rivers close to the coast offer great chum fishing too, including the Humptulips, Wynoochee and Chehalis and more. But you do not need to run all the way out to where the Pacific crashes onto sandy beaches.
Central and parts of the South Sound still get great returns of chums. An often-fished river is the Green, which turns into the Duwamish and eventually enters Puget Sound under the skyscrapers of Seattle. This was the second river I ever fished for chums, a long time ago now, but luckily it has fared better than the Nisqually and still gets decent returns and has good bank access.
Hood Canal is chum central and the height of the run starts around Halloween and goes until Thanksgiving. Hoodsport is one of the few hatcheries that produces chums in Washington, but there are several creeks and a few rivers that dump into the canal that support runs and fishing. Unfortunately, the best river in the entire state to catch chums – as well as Chinook in August and coho from Labor Day to Christmas – is the Skokomish, which remains
closed to nontribal anglers. The saltwater, however, is open, and anglers often fish for chums returning to it and nearby streams. Bank fishing along Hood Canal is also good, and of course the fishery in front of the Hoodsport Hatchery is well known for good reason. The hatchery did sustain a substantial egg loss due to flooding in 2022 but was able to collect eggs from another facility. It is unknown if this flooding event will affect fishing in the next year or two when the adult fish are due back, but for now anglers can wade out and use an assortment of techniques to catch chums. Fly anglers often use float tubes and small one-person rafts while stripping Bunny Leeches in bright colors. Those with powerboats can troll along the shoreline, anchor and cast, or let the tide take them to where the fish are.
Stout gear is recommended for these battlers. Go with a medium-heavy to heavy-action rod and a reel spooled with 40-pound braid. (JASON BROOKS)
Chums will bite a wide range of gear, but hanging a bright-colored jig underneath a float is a great way to get a go on the rivers. Tipping the jig with a piece of prawn is a good bet too. (JASON BROOKS)
WHEN IT COMES to catching chums, where you are fishing dictates which technique to use. For smaller rivers with deep holes and back eddy sloughs, twitching jigs has become popular. Chums are aggressive, which is why they are so fun to catch. Floating a jig tipped with a prawn will always catch fish, either in riffles, runs or even in the saltwater where chums often stack up and wait for high tide to enter rivers and streams. This is the easiest technique of them all and since it works on about every water type and condition, it is the go-to technique for most.
A long rod that is strong enough to pull a chum out from under a log or along a brush-covered riverbank is needed; go with a medium-heavy to heavy-action rod. Spool the reel with 40-pound high-visibility braid and slide an adjustable float on the line. Then use a short, 18- to 24-inch leader of 30-pound XXX by Izorline and tie on a 3/8 -ounce Rock Dancer jig by Mack’s Lure. Popular colors for
chums include cerise and black or chartreuse and black. Tip the jig with a piece of shrimp, cast it out and wait for the bobber to go down. It can really be that simple.
If you want to practice throwing spinners and spoons, then chums are the perfect fish to try this technique. Blue Fox spinners in sizes 4, 5 and 6 are popular, and again bright green or chartreuse are top colors. It seems chums like very bright colors, or they hate them, which is why they attack various lures if they are bright.
One technique anglers have started to shift away from is pitching plugs like bass anglers. Wiggle Warts, Wee Warts and MagLip 4.5s in hot orange, bright green or fire tiger were a staple for coho and chum anglers. It is time to bring back this technique that works very well in saltwater (just remember to switch out to a single barbless siwash hook) and in rivers when the fish are in soft water.
Anglers heading to fish the beaches
of Puget Sound and Hood Canal often throw bright-colored Buzz Bombs, but do not overlook spinners, spoons and, of course, diving plugs. Drift fishing is not often thought of when fishing saltwater, but anglers fishing low tide at Hoodsport or high tide at Mud Bay cast out the typical drift fishing setup and then slowly reel it in, or just let it sink, basically plunking it, as aggressive chums will grab those brightcolored lures and yarns as they pass by.
CHUMS ARE FUN to catch, but rarely are they good to eat. Their time in freshwater is short and they spawn incredibly low in river systems. This is why even saltwater-caught fish in November are best released so they can reproduce. Upon entering rivers and streams, they spawn and die quickly, with most runs only lasting a couple of weeks.
Timing is everything when it comes to catching chums. Some days you will catch dozens and then return a week later and
OREGON
FLORENCE Y Marina (541) 590-3313 www.ymarinaboats.com
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Tom-n-Jerry’s Boat Center, Inc. (360) 466-9955 www.tomnjerrys.net
TACOMA
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Most anglers catch and release chums, especially those that have entered freshwater, where their
spawning the next generation, the year’s last salmon also deliver
they are all zombie fish or gone.
Another reason anglers should advocate for catch and release is because chums are one of the first fish to return to the salt. The fry hatch and get washed out into estuaries early in their life. These fry often feed searun cutthroat, a species of trout in Puget Sound and Hood Canal that is catch and release only but incredibly fun to hook, especially in April and May when the chum fry are flushed into the tidelands. Cutthroat gorge on the fry, often chasing schools of them just like how coho and Chinook chase schools of herring in the open sea.
The dogs of fall are an important salmon to the entire ecosystem, from the fry feeding sea-run cutthroat to the
adult fish spawning, dying and providing marine nutrients back to the river. Young Chinook and coho feed on the flesh, as well as steelhead. Years ago, biologists realized rivers were becoming sterile because the runs of fish were diminishing, so now hatcheries often take spawnedout adults back to the streams and dump the carcasses into the watershed. Called “nutrient enhancement,” this is exactly why adult salmon die when they spawn. Walk along the riverbanks in late November and you will hopefully see dozens or, even better, hundreds of dead chums, the flesh of which is feeding the next generation of salmon and steelhead. Besides being exceptionally low in oil content and
downright gross to eat, if you need another reason to release chums, think about how they will feed that return of hard-fighting coho in the future.
CHUMS ARE EASY to catch, put up an incredible fight and can be found throughout lower rivers, bays and saltwater beaches. But you only have a few weeks to catch them before they are gone, and by practicing catch and release, we can help them rebuild runs and returns. Maybe in another 30 years, we will be able to stand along the banks of the Nisqually again and catch those latereturning chums. But until then, we can still head to a coastal river or saltwater shoreline and find some fantastic fishing. NS
flesh deteriorates rapidly. Besides
marine nutrients and food to river systems. (JASON BROOKS)
Bonefish, Tarpon,
Barracuda, Cubera Snapper.
Trout
Shoshone,
Fly Fishing For Fall Chinook
Stout gear, big streamers and the thrill of the fight make for an exciting method to catch ocean-fresh kings.
By Rick Itami
When most anglers think about fall Chinook fishing, they envision trolling herring, anchovies, spinners or Super Baits behind flashers. Or maybe hover fishing with eggs, sand shrimp and perhaps a piece of herring right off the river bottom. Others may think of bobber fishing in tidewater with huge
globs of cured roe. Few think about fly fishing for the big salmonids.
Back in the mid-1990s, I was fishing a small coastal stream drifting anchovies or swinging No. 5 Vibrax spinners and spoons through the pools that were alive with rolling fall Chinook fresh out of the ocean. I was enjoying some of the best fishing for these salmon that I had ever experienced. About midmorning of
our first day, I was surprised to see an older gentleman wading on the opposite side of the river from me carrying a fly rod. I was intrigued by the sight and just sat on the bank and watched.
This fellow began casting what looked like a green and white Clouser-type fly and started hooking fish after fish! I couldn’t believe what I
Author Rick Itami tries to slow a fall Chinook on its first powerful run after being hooked on the fly. He recommends pretty heavy gear for these ocean-fresh fish (inset), including a 10- to 12-weight fly rod and large-capacity reel that will hold at least 200 yards of backing. (RICK ITAMI)
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was witnessing.
That evening, the owner of the ranch we were fishing on invited a group of us to a wonderful salmon and halibut dinner prepared by his wife at their home. I mentioned to our host how amazed I was to see the fly angler hooking so many mint-bright salmon on flies. The ranch owner responded by informing me that in most years fall Chinook fresh out of the Pacific seem to hit flies better than bait or hardware. I told him that I wasn’t the best fly caster, but that I would love to give fly fishing for the big salmon a try.
He took me into his living room and introduced me to a kindly older gentleman named Frank Moore. Being from the Inland Empire of Eastern Washington, I did not know how famous Mr. Moore was – decorated World War II veteran, former Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife commissioner, master fly angler and revered by many Oregon anglers as the savior of the North Umpqua. When I told Frank how excited I would be to learn how to fly fish for fall Chinook,
he told me to meet him at a certain stretch of river the next morning. I was ecstatic, to say the least!
AT DAWN THE following day, I found Frank waiting for me at river’s edge. He handed me one of his extra 10foot, 10-weight fly rods and a reel loaded with 400-grain full sinking line. He told me that I would have to learn the double-haul casting method to use this heavier gear with weighted streamer flies. He demonstrated by effortlessly sending his fly across the river and letting it swing through the section of river holding resting salmon.
To be truthful, I had a difficult time mastering the double-haul cast, but with Frank standing by my side, I was soon able to clumsily cast my fly far enough to catch a fish. Frank taught me to cast straight across the river, let the fly swing across and then strip the line in. Then I would take one step downstream and repeat the process. I think it was about my fifth step downstream when my fly stopped just after crossing the middle part of the river. I set the hook and was
thrilled to feel the strong pulsating feel of a fighting fall Chinook!
Frank stood next to me during the battle with the fish and deftly tailed it by hand when I managed to get the salmon into the shallows. It was a small king, about 10 pounds, but I was still thrilled with it being my first flycaught salmon. I can honestly say that was one of the happiest moments of my life and Frank gave me a big hug. We were friends from then until he passed away in early 2022.
SO
HOW DOES one get started fly fishing for fall Chinook in freshwater coastal streams? If you are an experienced fly caster used to flinging large, weighted flies long distances, then you are way ahead of the game. If you aren’t, then your best bet is to learn from an experienced friend or visit a local fly shop and learn from a pro.
The double-haul cast mentioned above is crucial when fishing heavy sinking lines and weighted flies. Believe me, it’s hugely different from casting a 4-weight rod with floating lines and dry flies that you would use for trout fishing. I have always used a single-handed rod, but certainly there are advantages to using spey or switch rods.
Once you gain proficiency in casting, start shopping for quality gear. Fall Chinook are known for their size and powerful runs after being hooked. I have landed fly-caught fall Chinook weighing from 8 to 48 pounds over the years. For the larger fish, you simply can’t skimp on gear. I suggest purchasing a high-quality 8- to 10foot, 10- to 12-weight fly rod with a matching large-capacity reel with a good drag system. By large capacity, I mean a reel that holds at least 200 yards of backing.
Effective flies tend to be streamer patterns such as Clouser Minnows, Comets and various homemade creations in combinations of green, black, purple, white, chartreuse, blue and purple. Patterns that fly fishers use for fall Chinook vary depending on the size of the river fished, water
Where it all began – Itami holds his very first fly-caught Chinook, landed while fishing with legendary Oregon angler Frank Moore in the mid-1990s. Itami and his wife Terri still make an annual fall trek from their Spokane home to get after these kings. (RICK ITAMI)
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FISHING
clarity and flow rates. For clear, relatively slow-moving streams, I tend to use smaller patterns tied on size 1 to 4 saltwater hooks. For fastermoving currents, I use size 1/0 to 2/0 hooks with chrome barbel eyes for extra weight.
Most fly anglers who tie their own flies tend to use less material instead of more. It’s surprising how a 25-pound fall Chinook will hit a sparsely dressed fly on a size 1 hook.
You will need to have several types of fly lines, depending on flow rates and river depth. I carry anything from floating lines to 200-grain sink tips to 400-to 500-grain full sinking lines. Rio makes some multitip lines that can work well under different situations.
Generally, smaller streams along the Washington, Oregon and California coasts that have fall Chinook runs are best for fly fishing. Check your local areas and do some scouting to find your own hot spots.
And don’t get discouraged. If a mediocre fly caster like me can catch
a fall Chinook on a fly, you can too.
And once you feel that first take of a mint-bright salmon and the first
powerful run it takes down the river at lightning speed, you just may become hooked for life, like me. NS
Clouser Minnow and Comet patterns on size 2/0 to 4 hooks, depending on flow and clarity, are good bets. They don’t have to be fancy either. “It’s surprising how a 25-pound fall Chinook will hit a sparsely dressed fly on a size 1 hook,” writes Itami. (RICK ITAMI)
Round Out Year With A Run To The Ronde
With steelhead runs continuing to rebound, here’s a look at top stretches of the Blue Mountains river and how to fish ’em.
Story and captions by Jeff Holmes
Eleven months ago in the December issue of Northwest Sportsman I wrote about rowing friends down the Grande Ronde River in my Clackacraft on an epic float trip. Under sunny skies and in mild temperatures we bore witness to a wildlife spectacle of over 100 bighorns, some mating, among many other amazing wild sights in nature. The Grande Ronde and its canyonlands are known for abundant
wildlife and unmatched natural beauty, along with famously feisty steelhead. We put a half dozen of those summerruns in the net on that day, including one we bonked for a delicious dinner. Each fish put on a powerful fight with multiple jumps per fish.
Steelhead in the Ronde in November are full of energy and loaded with fat to sustain them until the spring spawn. They remain delicious into January and smoker-worthy until perhaps midFebruary. Steelhead are my favorite
salmonid to eat by a long shot, but we didn’t need to harvest one that day for it to make lifelong memories. I’d never need to kill another Grande Ronde fish, and I’d still be drawn back to these hallowed waters that drain the Oregon and Washington portions of the Blue Mountains.
There’s no place like the Grande Ronde in the Northwest, nor the world, and this season promises excellent fishing with greatly improved steelhead numbers and an unusual
Winding its way through the steep, rugged canyonlands of the Blue Mountains, the Grande Ronde River is a spectacle of wild beauty and a cathedral to the sport of steelheading. This view from Washington’s small portion of the Blues overlooks the recent burn scar of the Cougar Creek Fire. Thousands of feet below this vantage are the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Cottonwood Creek acclimation pond and Cougar Creek accesses. The latter is home to a boat launch, dispersed camping and memories of the first place I ever landed a steelhead. (INCIWEB)
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and disproportionate number of large fish that spent two years in the ocean before returning 500 river miles to the canyons of Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon. The updated forecast calls for an overall return of 122,100 A-runs to Bonneville Dam, a 36 percent increase over the preseason prediction, and some 10,000 to 12,000 of those are expected to continue on to the Ronde, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review. You’ve got all of November, December and January to harvest fish for the table or smoker and all the way through March to visit the Ronde and feel the tug of my favorite and the Northwest’s most iconic game fish. If you don’t already fish the Ronde or if you’ve been absent for a long time
during the downtrend in numbers we’ve faced for over a decade, it’s time to go or to return.
THAT FLOAT TRIP
last November down a largely roadless stretch of the river between Boggan’s Oasis and the Shumaker Road access areas conjured memories of 25 years of chasing steelhead on the Ronde. It was my first trip back to the river in several years after nearly living part-time on its banks for almost two decades of steelhead seasons. Like some other steelhead addicts I know, it was tough to fish on such weak runs despite the river being open for harvest even during lean times. Although there were biologically supportable fishing
opportunities, I wanted to give the fish a break, though in hindsight I think I wasted precious time I could have spent on this spectacular and remote Hells Canyon tributary.
The Grande Ronde is one of the most famous steelhead streams in the five states that harbor native populations of metalheads. Of all those rivers in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, California and Washington, none have the Grande Ronde’s reputation for fish that eat dry flies and chase spinners, spoons and plugs with such aggression. Although that aggression abates somewhat during the winter months as temperatures drop and the river can periodically ice up, I’ve hooked fish on the Grande Ronde in 33-degree water temperatures and with ice forming on its waters. Think about fishing the river all winter long as weather allows, but especially think about a trip the Grande Ronde this November or early December when hatchery fish are their fittest as table fare and before water temperatures send fish to slowww, –walking speed or slower – waters to wait out the icy chill of winter.
Starting downstream at the confluence with the Snake River and moving upstream to the WashingtonOregon stateline, this article discusses six distinct stretches of river available to anglers in Washington this November and December. The article does not touch on the excellent late fall opportunities in Oregon, but there is great roadside angling from the stateline to Troy, Oregon, and at times spectacular angling in the multi-night roadless float from Minam to Troy. Those vast angling and camping opportunities are a worthy topic for another article another time.
But Washington’s portion of the Grande Ronde is the fishiest water on the river in late fall, since Oregon’s hatchery and wild fish must swim through these waters and generally do so during this time frame. They are also slightly larger than Washington’s hatchery fish. These clipped Washington fish are bound for the
Greatly improved numbers of hatchery and unclipped steelhead bound for Washington and Oregon sections of the Ronde will bite for anglers in both states this season. Fishing the Washington portion of the Grande Ronde in November gives anglers the best chances of the year to land big, prime specimens, but a few like this midfall fish from last year can be found above there on the Beaver State side. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
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Cottonwood Creek acclimation pond and collection facility and are also in the river during late fall, along with wild fish. Many Washington hatchery fish also hold in the deep, slow-moving holes of the Snake River and funnel into the Ronde throughout the winter.
STRETCH 1 Confluence of the Snake and Grande Ronde at Heller Bar to the Chief Joseph Unit of the Chief Joseph Wildlife Area and “The Narrows” rapid Read your Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations and you will learn that the first 1.5 miles of this 2.5-mile stretch are under special fishery regs with no bait allowed. These are hallowed waters for the fly fishing community, but terminal tackle is effective here too, especially spinners and spoons in the mostly skinny but very fishy water in the bottom mile and a half. Access is extremely abundant in the lower 2.5 miles, and this stretch is easy to reach from the Lewis Clark Valley.
While it’s not my favorite part of
Passive integrated transponder, or PIT tag, counts and early catches suggest that the 2024-25 season will yield a higher percentage of big A-run steelhead than we’ve ever seen in the Snake River watershed. In another big-fish year almost a decade ago when we saw a disproportionate number of steelhead that spent two years instead of one year in the ocean getting larded up, we bagged these two fish back to back: a 29.5inch hatchery hen and a 34.5-inch hatchery buck, the biggest clipped fish I’ve ever personally witnessed on the Grande Ronde. There are rumors of occasional B-runs from the Clearwater or Salmon Rivers straying into the Ronde, but I’ve never seen one. Lots of 30-plus-inch fish should show in the catch this year.
the river to fish, it produces a ton of steelhead and offers lots of options and water types and waves of fresh biters. If you want a first taste of the Grande Ronde, this is a fun place to visit and requires less driving and elevation gain and loss to access the river than the other five stretches detailed in this article.
The water from below The Narrows down to the county bridge that marks the upper boundary of the special-regs stretch is a place where bait is allowed, and these waters
produce a lot of fish. Take a drive up Joseph Creek into the Chief Joseph Unit of the Chief Joseph Wildlife Area when you visit for a chance to see some critters and a popular hunting area. Bighorns are often present near the confluence with the Snake.
STRETCH 2 The Narrows to the Shumaker Unit of the Chief Joseph Wildlife Area Do not attempt to fish this roadless stretch unless you are a skilled whitewater boater or are fishing with a guide who is a skilled whitewater
(JEFF HOLMES)
This view looking downstream from the Highway 129 bridge at Boggan’s Oasis evokes complicated and beautiful memories and feelings in me and in many Grande Ronde devotees. The shuttle is long and can be tricky and downright treacherous, but in good conditions the float and the fishing are more than worth the work and risk. The 10 miles from the bridge to Hole in the Rock at the upstream end of Shumaker Road is, to quote Soundgarden inartfully, “holy water on the brain and I’m losing sleep.” (BILL VAIL)
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rower. If you float it yourself, which I do not recommend, scout the rapid carefully. The Narrows is a class IV that is very … narrow. An extremely swift chute scarcely wider than a boat plunges several feet into churning, recirculating waters that can easily flip you. Portaging the rapid with pontoons is possible, but it’s not easy. This is not a float I can advocate to a general audience, and I do not float it for steelhead in a drift boat. I have seen a wide-bottomed 16-foot drift boat sunken just below the rapid. However, when flows are optimal, this stretch of river holds a lot of fish and is beautiful. I recommend floating the river with Reel Time Fishing (reeltimefishing.com) in late spring for smallmouth to scout the river safely before even considering a steelhead float. Also, accessing this float requires launching at Shumaker and thus descending and ascending Shumaker Grade to complete an epically long shuttle. I detail some of the dangers of Shumaker Grade in the Stretch 4 writeup later in the article.
STRETCH 3 Shumaker Unit to Hole in the Rock at the upper end of Shumaker Road When road conditions allow, and they usually do in November and even
Tri-Cities Coastal Conservation Association Chapter President Teddy Schmitt holds a nice hatchery fish that slammed a green Hot Shot 35 fished stationary from a rod holder in an anchored Clackacraft while we took a pee break along the bank in “Stretch 5,” detailed in the article. (JEFF HOLMES)
day from shore and to fish fresh water all day or for multiple days.
STRETCH 4 Hole in the Rock to Boggan’s Oasis at Highway 129
Although a couple miles of this mostly roadless 10-mile stretch of river is available below Boggan’s Oasis and the Highway 129 bridge to intrepid, sure-footed anglers who stay below the high-water line, drift boats and rafts dominate here. Wildlife, beautiful views and steelhead abound, and this float is my favorite in the Northwest. This is holy water. I have caught and been witness to sooo many caught steelhead here that I can’t come close to remembering most of them, and I have spent many truly special days and nights in the depths of the canyon fishing plugs, spinners, spoons, floats and jigs, and drift gear.
some Decembers, these 2.5 miles of road-adjacent Ronde offer awesome access to very fishy water as well as put-in and takeout spots with plenty of camping. At the bottom of Shumaker Grade you are faced with two choices: go left over a cattle guard and crawl along a rough road to the Shumaker Unit access at the end of the road, or make the turn right, upriver, and continue on Shumaker Road to tons of WDFW access and, ultimately, the end of the road at Hole in the Rock. There’s lots of diverse water here for different fishing approaches, but my preference in November and December is to fish plugs from a boat or to cast spinners or a fixed float and jig if I am shorebound.
It’s not possible to walk very far at all upstream of Hole in the Wall, but if the 2.5 miles of road-adjacent water is not enough or you want to escape people, it’s possible to park at the furthest downstream access of the Shumaker Unit and to walk yet further downstream from there. A few miles of river are available on foot here, and I have some amazing memories of hoofing it below the parking area and enjoying some of my first multi-steelhead days. One need not leave the roaded portion of this stretch, however, to have a great
Despite my love of this beautiful and lucrative stretch of river, it is undoubtedly one of the most fickle floats in the steelhead world. The float itself is easy unless the flows are too low for drift boats without enduring significant numbers of rock strikes (less than 1,000 cubic feet per second at the U.S. Geological Survey gauge in Troy), but the hard part can be getting out of the canyon up supersteep and shaded Shumaker Grade.
Snow and ice can linger in the shaded curves near the top where the grade climbs approximately 5.5 miles from roughly 1,100 feet to nearly 4,000. I’ve almost paid dearly, perhaps with my life, towing a drift boat almost to the top of the grade and being stymied by ice, only to slide backward and to have my drift boat suck off of the roadbed. Only a barbed wire fence and about 10 inches of road prevented my truck from following the boat, and only the kindness and badassery of a local rancher saved my bacon. I promised him I would never return without formidable truck chains with ice cleats. I have kept that promise and strongly recommend you make the same commitment. Those chains came in handy twice after my near disaster. Heed my warning for sure, but also
FISHING
November steelhead are still in prime shape on the Ronde and eagerly bites flies, plugs, hardware and just about any popular steelhead bait. Leave the pink and multi-colored worms that winter steelhead favor at home, however. These fish will bite them, but not nearly so often as other lures/baits. (BILL VAIL)
A BRIEF WORD ABOUT TACTICS
When I started as a steelheader it was my wrongheaded belief that what I tied on the end of my line mattered most. It does not. In fact, a respected Oregon Coast fishing guide I know once feathered out the filter of a used cigarette and used it as a yarnie and landed a steelhead on a Tillamook-area stream. What matters more for catching steelhead is fishing at the right time in the right water conditions, presenting lures and baits where there are fish, and presenting those baits and lures in a manner that will make steelhead strike, which can be very different depending on the offering.
For example, a float and jig angler should suspend a jig at or above a steelhead’s eye level and should achieve close to a drag-free drift. A plug angler should back an aggravating plug downstream slowly into holding fish to challenge their position in the river and annoy them. A spoon angler should swing a spoon across the current and flutter it into or above the face of a steelhead. A drift fisherman or bobber dogger should allow a bait to tumble naturally downstream and briefly swing in the current at the end of a drift before reeling in and repeating. A spinner fisherman should cast a spinner at a 90-degree angle across the river or slightly downstream and should retrieve the lure through likely fish-holding water in an attempt to elicit a strike. It’s not that lures and baits don’t matter – they do – but many of us overfocus on the “what” instead of the “how” and “when.”
HOW DOES THAT apply to the Grande Ronde? Generally speaking, the river can give up steelhead in all kinds of conditions, but you will do much, much better in flows under 2,500 cubic feet per second, with, let’s say, 1,200 to 2,200 cfs being optimal flows for my taste. I have also landed plenty of steelhead above and below this flow window and in reduced visibility; however, at least 1 to 1.5 feet of visibility and steelhead green or clearer water on the drop is the sweet spot.
Steelhead are highly visual, and water clarity plays a major role in success here. When the river is turbid and higher than desired, it’s wise to seek fish-holding water closer to shore and to use bait/scents and upsized baits or lures. In optimum conditions, I prefer metallic plugs (Hot Shot 35s, Mag Lip 3.0s and 3.5s and similar sized Tadpollies, Clatter Tads and Wiggle Warts) in purple, blue, green, red, and black with glitter. Many other colors work as well.
know that the road is usually bare and dry and a relatively easy albeit steep and twisty climb. Boggan’s Oasis (509256-3372) runs spendy shuttles for this float and may offer close to realtime road conditions, especially if you book a cabin or have a meal at the only restaurant and services on the river.
STRETCH 5 Boggan’s to the WDFW Cougar Creek access
Without a doubt, these 5 miles of river are the busiest on the Ronde, although the crowds do not usually materialize until the bulk of the Cottonwood Creek hatchery cohort stages below the collection facility. Even though fish are in their worst shape of the season as eaters, lots of harvesting occurs here in February and March. The crowds are often sparse in November and December, however, which always surprises me. Without a bank angler every 50 feet, there is lots of late fall access for bankies and boaters alike here and some good water.
Launching at Cougar Creek and floating down to Cottonwood avails several excellent holes, including one just above Cottonwood that guides and private boaters alike will row in the dark or race on the river to reach and camp out in. Good water continues below Cottonwood down to Boggan’s and Highway 129. For boaters, Stretch 5 is a great half-day float or can be extended for an all-day affair.
For bank anglers, there is plenty of conspicuously good water to fish all day. Grande Ronde River Road, which parallels the river upstream from Highway 129, is entirely paved in this stretch and offers access to vehicles of all types, including bicycles, which friends and I have used in the past to do our own shuttles. Boggan’s Oasis sits at the downstream end of Stretch 5 and offers shuttles, guides, hot meals, desserts and a break from the weather when needed. The original Boggan’s burned down in 2017 but has been rebuilt, and while the landmark was sold by Bill and Farrel Vail in 2022 to Louis and Tia Villagomez, it is in fine form today.
FISHING
For spinners, I like size 3 and 4 models with brass, copper or black blades and favor bodies in greens, candy apple blue, purple, black, and black with glitter, aka the Micheal Jackson. I prefer Vibrax, Mepps, Panther Martin and Steelhead Slammers, but any quality spinner fished with a ball-bearing swivel in good holding or travel water can be a pleasure to fish.
FOR JIGS, MY tastes have evolved, and I do not pretend to be an expert on which colors are best. Longtime advice on the Ronde is to fish black, black and red, black and purple, black and orange, or purple jigs, but I have caught fish in a variety of fluorescent colors after watching float-and-jig anglers outfish me using smaller jigs with more vibrant colors. A chunk of cured shrimp or water-soluble scent will increase strikes, I believe, but that’s true for any fishery. I’ve also caught a good number of fish on bare, scentless jigs and on bare, slightly scented jigs.
Again, success here is about when you fish, where you fish, and how you present your offering. Fishing spoons and drift fishing are extremely viable approaches on the Grande Ronde as well, but to tighten my focus I just prefer to stick with floats and jigs tipped with coon shrimp, floats and spawn sacs, plugs and spinners in November and December. –JH
STRETCH 6 Cougar Creek to the Washington-Oregon stateline
This stretch of the roaded Ronde gets less pressure than one might think, likely because anglers focus their efforts at or below the Cottonwood collection site. Summer steelhead, however, will notoriously run past hatchery facilities,
only to return later in the year. A good number of Cottonwood fish do stray way past here into this 7-mile stretch of water and probably even into Oregon. So anglers will find Cottonwood fish up here, as well as fish bound for hatchery facilities on the Wallowa River and some very awesome wild fish often
topping 30 inches.
Other than a massive bend in the river where the Ronde leaves the road for just over a mile, access from Grande Ronde River Road is excellent here. Some of the stretch, as elsewhere on the Ronde, is skinny water that fish shoot through in search of deeper waters where they feel safe, but there is a lot of fish-holding water available to anglers. To escape Cottonwood crowds, I used to fish this stretch a lot from the road before getting my first drift boat, and I recommend it for its lack of crowding, its wildlife viewing, the natural beauty of the canyon and its camping opportunities. Once I got a boat, I favored it even more because I could access that giant bend in the river, which tends to hold good numbers of fish, including impressive wild specimens. The launch is rough and sits just upstream of the stateline. After a 300-yard float through Oregon, an epic hole greets floaters just inside of Washington’s border. NS
DESTINATION Grays HArbor, WA
Gateway to the pacific ocean & the Olympic Peninsula
Methods For Catching Winter Trout
If you haven’t chased trout during the fall, the day after Thanksgiving might be a good time to start, as Black Friday has become the kickoff for the winter season. This fishery has become so popular, in fact, that many avid anglers get their Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving so they can chase trout on Black Friday. After all, the Departments of Fish and Wildlife have put a lot of effort into raising and planting fish into nearby lakes to support the growing interest in this fishery.
First, a little history. It was in 2011 that WDFW Region 5 fisheries biologist John Weinheimer (now retired) started planting trout in advance of Black Friday as an experiment to determine how anglers might respond to a winter opportunity. Despite the sometimes cool and rainy weather this time of year is known for in the Northwest, participation was good that very first year, and as such, the program was expanded to include many lakes across Washington and other states like Oregon too.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have fished Black Friday each and every year since and although the weather can sometimes be nippy, we have managed to limit on most days in just a few hours. The really good news for anglers – and possibly the reason the program has been so popular – is that these fish are big, averaging over a pound, which means fish measuring 12 to 15 inches are likely what you will catch.
HERE’S WHAT WE’VE learned: The fish mostly don’t start biting good until about 9 or 10 a.m., which might be related to the slight warming of lake temperatures
Friend Michael Hass and his son Sebastian joined author Buzz Ramsey for a few hours of trout fishing in early December of last year. PowerBait is what turned out to be working that day and Sebastian was the one who had all the luck. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
BUZZ RAMSEY
during the day. And while the trout will respond to all normally used fishing methods, when it comes to trolling they react best to slow presentations. And while speed is not a problem if you are stillfishing PowerBait, when trolling you will want to run in the ½- to 1-mile-per-hour range, depending on what you are pulling.
For example, we keep our speed at around ½ mph when pulling F-4- or F-5size FlatFish, but we go faster when pulling
trout-size Mag Lip or SpinFish plugs.
There have been times that tossing and reeling in trout spinners has worked too, but one of our favorite fishing methods is to cast and retrieve a short plastic worm. Rigging is easy, as all you need to do is attach a size 6 or 8 single hook onto the end of your main line (we use 6-pound-test monofilament) and crimp one size 5 split shot on the line 20 inches above your hook. Although any real or artificial bait will
work for this method, we’ve had the most consistent success using a 3-inch Berkley Trout Worm. These scent-filled worms are available in several different colors, but the bright orange one always seems to produce the best, or at least equal to other colors. What’s important is to thread your worm onto and over your hook such that it hangs straight back, like a pencil.
Once rigged, just cast out and reel up any excess line, then let your outfit sink before lifting and lowering your rod tip, reeling 10 feet of line in, and lifting and lowering your rod tip again while feeling for a bite as your worm is falling, etc. Fished this way, nearly all fish will take your scentfilled Trout Worm while it’s dropping. Because the water temperature is cool and fish are not as active as in the spring or summer, you will need to set the hook the instant you feel any hesitation while retrieving your outfit.
FROM THE BANK, the good news is that still-fishing PowerBait works great for these sometimes lethargic fish.
Size 2.0 and 2.5 SpinFish can work for trout when trolled 40 to 50 feet behind your boat. To add scent, Ramsey stuffed the bait chamber of this pull-apart lure with canned tuna fish and smeared the outside with Pro-Cure in the garlic scent gel formula. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
Here’s how Ramsey rigs a Berkley Trout Worm. The single-hook rigging (top) is how he does it for spring and summer fishing, while the double-hook setup, designed to nab short-striking fish, is for the winter months. Remember, your worm will fish best if hanging straight back. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
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Here is some of the tackle you will likely need if you still-fish PowerBait. Bringing a stringer and landing net along is a good idea too. (BUZZ
Rigging up is easy. Start by threading your main line through the hole in an oval egg sinker (3/8-, ½- and ¾-ounce sizes are the most popular), add a small plastic bead and tie your main line to one end of a size 10 barrel swivel. Then attach your leader (18 to 24 inches), complete with size 16 treble hook, to the free end of your swivel and mold a dime-sized ball of dough trout bait/PowerBait around your hook.
The fundamental key to success when still-fishing PowerBait is to use enough dough to float your small treble hook above bottom so cruising trout can quickly find it. To ensure your bait is floating, consider adding a Lil’ Corky single egg imitation onto your leader.
If you use a Lil’ Corky to help float your bait, you can step up to a larger size treble.
For example, with a size 14 Corky (the smallest size made), you can use a size 14 hook. With a 12 Corky, you can go with a size 12 treble. In addition, it’s important to leave some slack in your line after casting so trout can swallow your bait and swim off without feeling line resistance before you set the hook.
KEEP IN MIND that due to the cool water temperatures this time of year, fish may not disperse around the lake when planted as quickly as at other times of the year, so trying your luck near the original release site might be a worthwhile venture. Another place to try your luck is downwind from the release site, since the prevailing wind can sometime move trout in that direction. Also, look for
winter trout near where small, oxygenfilled creeks or warm-water runoff enters the lake. In addition, fish can accumulate where warm underwater springs seep into the lake.
These days, many trout lakes and reservoirs are regularly stocked and open year-round. Still others are planted with fat trout and scheduled to open on Black Friday. Make no mistake, the popularity of fishing the day after Thanksgiving has caused the states to distribute fish in advance of what has become an annual adventure for many anglers.
To find out what lakes have been stocked with fat trout for the winter season, check the department website in your state. NS
Editor’s note: Buzz Ramsey is regarded as a sportfishing authority, outdoor writer and proficient lure and fishing rod designer. As such, fishing rod manufacturer Douglas Outdoors has added Buzz to their ambassador pro staff.
RAMSEY)
The Lake Place
Where nature, outdoor fun and family was and always will be the focus.
By Amanda Wiles
Many of us have that childhood place we remember fondly. A place we learned to fish, swim, row a boat, catch frogs. The core memories of many an outdoorsman consist of a certain location your soul keeps bringing you back to. As we grow and change, life happens. Yet somehow that one special place seems to go unchanged and is a familiar comfort and holder of our memories. That is The Lake Place for me.
Growing up in the mid-1980s and early ’90s, technology did not have
a chokehold on us like it does with the youth of today. You wanted to find your children? Look outside. They were riding bikes for miles, adventuring into the woods, making mud and leaf soups, climbing trees, or hanging out by some body of water, if you were lucky enough to live by one. This is how I grew up; I loved being outdoors. Even as a child, I knew that was a place I could go to calm my stubborn red-headed self down, and it is still true today.
MY GRANDPARENTS BOUGHT the lake property and cabin back in the ’60s. It was a place they would bring my dad
and his siblings to enjoy as they grew up as well. In the ’90s, the property got a much-needed update and went from a small 20x20 cabin with an outhouse out back to a beautiful three-bedroom, two-bathroom lake home the whole family could enjoy. My grandparents would take my brother and I out to The Lake Place throughout the summer, as well as for family gatherings, birthday celebrations and the Fourth of July. This would be the place where I learned to fish, swim and row a boat.
As a child, I remember my grandpa and dad rowing me around the lake as we trolled, trusting our ever-producing Triple Teaser lure to bring in the
Thirty years later, Amanda Wiles is still rowing the same boat at her family’s Lake Place, a formative shoreside retreat originally owned by her grandparents, then her dad and now her. (AMANDA WILES)
FISHING
“Walters” of the lake. When I got old enough, maybe 8 or 9 years old, I was able to go out in the rowboat by myself. Loaded up with my tackle, gear, rod and the most uncomfortable and bulky bright-orange life jacket the early ’90s had to offer, I would set sail on my fishing quest. Unable to properly move or look to the left or right due to the bulky life jacket, I would row away, most likely in a very uneven and comical pattern, but I went for it. The independent and stubborn nature of my youth produced a lot of victories and rowing a boat and catching a fish independently at a young age was one of them.
AS THE YEARS passed, our family grew and aged. Soon we went from a family of two grandchildren (my brother and I) to 12 grandkids. We all enjoyed the lake house, and I am sure my younger cousins loved what the property had to offer them just as much as I did. We would always return for family gatherings and the Fourth of July. You would find me out on the lake in that trusty red rowboat that I always knew would be waiting
for me and our next adventure.
Like one does, I grew up and had a family of my own. Luckily for me, I married a very fishy man, so the love of fishing continued to flourish for me. I was introduced to salmon fishing and my world took a massive shift from the playful trout and bluegill life I had known. But those skills picked up trolling the lake from a young age certainly helped with this newfound obsession and way of life.
Fast-forward to my early 30s: I’m now married with children of my own, my grandparents have passed on and my father has taken ownership of our beloved and cherished Lake Place. It’s a very bittersweet time as one generation leaves it to the next to continue the family traditions and preservations of memories.
My dad loved entertaining and took on the role well for our family. His devotion to our Norwegian heritage and family memories was never unnoticed nor unappreciated. I sit on the deck watching my father row my tiny children out in the same rowboat as he did for me as a child. What a cherished moment in time to be part of.
My boys absolutely adored the time spent at the lake house; it would become a special place they often asked to visit. Watching and teaching
your children the same skills in the same place as you learned them as a child is a special thing. Memories from my youth return each time I see them on the dock trying to get a bluegill or bass to bite their overused and barely hanging on worm. Thankfulness and appreciation for the way I was raised and the opportunity to create such a bond with nature and the outdoors flood my soul in these moments. I am so thankful that my husband and I can offer that and so many more experiences to our children.
DECEMBER 2023 WOULD forever change my life. My dad passed away very unexpectedly. It was a moment in time I was not yet ready or prepared for, as my father was only 66. Losing a parent and going through the process of the necessary protocols and procedures after death catapults one’s memories and all the time spent and cherished together with that parent to the forefront. My love for animals, adventure, travel, nature, and my OCD and list-making skills – all contributed by my father. I am thankful for every moment spent and every life lesson I learned from that man. As much as I denied it and favored my independence, I was a daddy’s girl. But I was a strong,
Wiles’ father, the late Larry Kvamme, rows her sons Kayden and Parker, just as her grandparents rowed she and her brother at the lake. She hopes her boys develop as strong a connection to the place and outdoors as it has for her. (AMANDA WILES)
Larry and his Walter of the lake. His unexpected passage last winter saw The Lake Place left to Wiles, who vows “to take our family’s memories and preserve and continue them for the future.” (AMANDA WILES)
Norwegian-blooded, red-headed daddy’s girl, and I know my dad was and is very proud of the daughter he helped raise.
With my father’s passage, along with the flood of memories came the most ridiculous collection of books on Egypt one could possibly need, and he also left me one of my most cherished and loved places – The Lake Place. To say I was grateful would be an understatement. I was humbled, blessed and felt the impending pressure to take our family’s memories and preserve and continue them for the future. A place almost 60 years in the making, of memories, laughs, cries, excitement, relaxation and love. I will be forever grateful for this place and what it means to our family.
IT’S SO RARE these days to be able to go back to your youth, a time of growing, learning and discovering, and tie it to a place that is still present and possibly untouched. A place where nature and being outdoors is the focus.
Children today often do not have the opportunities we did growing up. I challenge all parents to think back on those early childhood memories in nature and try and recreate that for your children. It’s a blessing as an adult as much as it is for a child. Create a connection with them in nature and continue the appreciation of that space. These memories and moments will never be forgotten. I look forward to sharing many more memories at the lake with my family, all while also preserving the legacy that is The Lake Place. NS
Wiles hoists the first fish she caught after her father’s passage. With any luck, The Lake Place and its rowboat will be there when her own grandkids are ready to take to the water.
(AMANDA WILES)
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Pacific Flyway Duck Outlook
Oregon and Washington quacker managers talk survey stats, season prospects and what the heck is going on with pintails.
By MD Johnson
I’m going to be brutally honest here. It’s awfully difficult, if not impossible, to justifiably bellyache about duck hunting here in the Northwest when all one has to do is look at the current regulations and see that we – unlike the remainder of
the nation outside the Pacific Flyway – enjoy a full 107-day season and a seven-bird daily bag, all of which can be mallards. This, if you don’t know, is the maximum, in terms of both hunting days and ducks, allowed by the waterfowling community’s governing body, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
One hundred seven days and seven birds. That’s a lot of days and a God’s plenty of ducks, even if the duck population, or portions thereof, prove to be somewhat lower than it has been in seasons past.
And that said, what might the 2024-25 duck season look like? What are the hot buttons? Harlequins?
duck hunters
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Pintails? Oh, yeah, pintails. After several consecutive one-bird-perday seasons, it would appear that USFWS is going to offer the flyways, along with their respective states, the opportunity to increase the daily sprig limit to three; however, if this flies –no pun intended! – it would not go into effect until the 2025-26 duck season. But it’s a good thought. As they do every August, USFWS
Among the many looking forward to the 2024-25 campaign no doubt is “diehard duck hunter” Carter Rodway. The then11-year-old wrapped up last year’s season, his third, with a strong showing on the early February youth opener at the duck club his dad David belongs to near Olympia. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
released their findings for the year’s annual duck breeding population survey, a joint effort between our federal wildlife service and its Canadian counterpart, a partnership ongoing since 1955. And as there is every year, there’s some good news, some not-so-chipper news and a couple surprises in the results. To address these numbers, Northwest Sportsman tracked down Kyle
Spragens, waterfowl program lead for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and his colleague across the Columbia, Brandon Reishus with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Both men had just returned from Wyoming where they were attending the annual Flyway Study Committee and Council, during which the flyways use USFWS data, among other resources, to propose hunting frameworks for 2025-26 to the federal agency.
So what can duck hunters expect during the 2024-25 season? I asked each manager the same five questions, simple in structure though high in what I’ll call response complexity. However, the answers did indeed provide an excellent glimpse into what this fall and winter might hold in terms of ducks.
THE OREGON ANGLE
MD Johnson So, Brandon, USFWS numbers are out. Big picture?
Brandon Reishus Pretty similar to last year. Last year (2023), the counts were quite a bit lower overall than they had been. They’d been trending lower for a number of years. This year, they’ve bounced up a bit, and while any increase is great, we’re still at the “bottom of a trough” for (duck) numbers.
Things did look a little better the further west you went, relative to last year. Counts in Alaska last year were very low, but I suspect that wasn’t entirely real. It might have been an artifact of survey timing due to a very late winter in Alaska last year. So counts bounced back (for 2024) in Alaska, which I would have expected, but I don’t know if that’s a real change in the numbers of ducks.
Habitat conditions across the West are perhaps a little bit poorer this year than last, but still they’re not bad. We’re not in any kind of a longterm drought or significant drought as we’d been in 2021 and 2022. So in terms of habitat, we’re looking a little better. And production, too, appears to have been on the good side, or at
HUNTING
least on the better side of average.
MDJ Species-specific, Brandon – good news?
BR It’s always good when you see the number bounce up. I don’t put a lot of stock in the year-to-year variation. Species are going to vary like that, and how the survey is done; some years, you just see more of one bird versus another.
I did expect to see a wigeon bump. [Note: wigeon are “up” 55 percent from 2023, and 12 percent over the longterm average, or LTA.] But Alaska’s count last year was so low, which I suspect wasn’t real, so I expected wigeon to come up. The count was quite a bit higher than I would have predicted had you given me a crystal ball. So that’s good news, as we have a lot of wigeon here (in the Pacific Northwest). What hunters see in front of the gun this year, though, is really going to depend on production. And that spring breeding survey doesn’t measure production; it measures your adults in the spring population.
MDJ Same question, Brandon, but the not-so-good news?
Greenwing teal numbers stand out as especially strong to Northwest waterfowl managers. Though a smaller duck species, they are part of the so-called “big four” that make up 85 percent of Washington’s harvest. Along with mallards, the other two members of the club are pintails and wigeon. (TOM KOERNER, USFWS)
BR It would really be my same answer, just going the other way. If I was a hunter, I wouldn’t be too concerned that I was going to see fewer of “X” species. Pintails are down slightly. Gadwall are down. But I wouldn’t predict that hunters are going to see fewer (birds), but it’s going again to depend on production this year. All indications are that for the prairie nesting ducks, it was dry just as the survey started and then the switch somewhat flipped, with some areas receiving rain during the survey and others after. That should have boded well for production.
MDJ To the person who’s easily confused, such as myself, explain pintails, Brandon. We’ve had a onebird daily bag for several years now. Numbers per the survey are down 11 percent from 2023 and down 49 percent over the LTA. But now we’re looking at a three-bird daily bag limit across all four flyways for the 202526 season. Huh?
BR We have harvest strategies in place for a number of species, e.g. pintails, scaup and black ducks in the East. They work on a model
that’s developed and then updated as new information comes in, but the model isn’t redeveloped. So the basic tenets and assumptions that are built into that model remain in place until it’s revised. We went through a long process to revise that pintail model, and in fact replaced it with a new model called the Integrated Population Model. And we’re now using that IPM to derive our pintail harvest regulations for the Lower 48. There was a lot of assumption the previous model had been too conservative over time. And even though we were saying “the model output (indicates) one pintail per day per person for the Lower 48,” we as biologists were questioning some of the science in the model. The new IPM and its associated submodels validated that. They did indeed say that even though the (pintail) population is lower than it has historically been, given the harvest rates and the amount of pressure hunters put on these birds, the model would say you could take more at similar population levels we’ve been (at). And that’s exactly how the model performed with the new data. So when the new model spit out the data, it “said” that the acceptable bag limit would be three per day for the 2025-26.
[Author’s note: At this point, I’ll paraphrase Reishus’s answer to my question regarding the pintail issue, that being – “Is the three pintail daily bag limit for 2025-26 a can be or a will be sort of proposition?”]
Last month, USFWS was set to meet to present their season and bag limit proposal frameworks to representatives of the four major flyways. These are frameworks; that is, the individual state wildlife commissions can set their state waterfowl seasons/bag limits within, but not to exceed those frameworks. In other words, the individual states can be more conservative, but not more liberal than what the USFWS sets as maximum season days and bag
HUNTING
limits. Thus, Oregon, for example, can set the pintail limit at three for the 2025-26, but whether or not they will is yet to be seen. However, Reishus says it’s almost unheard for a state not to operate to the full extent of the USFWS framework. “It’s not out of the question,” he said, “for a state to make a change and remain more restrictive (with the pintail limit).”
But the plot, of course, thickens. Reishus went on to explain that the harvest survey “doesn’t take into
consideration individual states being more restrictive” than the USFWS framework. Rather, the harvest survey for pintails at the end of the 2025-26 season will assume that all the states in all four flyways had a three-bird pintail limit. If not, Reishus explained, “you could see a situation where, say, California, a big pintail harvest state, decided not to implement the three-bird bag and they stayed at one. Well, their harvest would be quite low; however, the
model’s going to look at it and say, ‘Wow! You (California) had a really low pintail harvest with a three-bird bag.’ It’s not going to consider their one-bird bag limit. And then you’re going to see bias in your model.”
THE EVERGREEN STATE ASPECT
Now let’s jump north across the Columbia to the desk of Kyle Spragens in Olympia to get his take on what waterfowlers might expect to see during the 2024-25 season.
Rodway and a buddy pick up decoys following a December 2023 hunt. The typical return of the region’s rainy season this month will help attract birds to forage-rich farm fields flooded by sheet water, while atmospheric rivers will fill side channels and creeks, offering another hunting option. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
HUNTING
MDJ The big picture, Kyle – duck numbers across the board?
Kyle Spragens I think it (the survey numbers) was somewhat of a relief. I think folks were pleasantly surprised to see an uptick in most of the main species. Mallards are a good example. Single year (2023 to 2024) jump was 8 percent on the national stage, but it’s still 16 percent below that LTA. When you look at that LTA, a lot of species have crept back to that LTA. That’s a good thing. The ones that haven’t, well, they’ve always seemed to be those of ongoing concern, like pintails and scaup. They just don’t seem to follow the trends that drive the numbers in a positive direction.
MDJ What’s the good news, Kyle,
based on the survey numbers?
KS The one that stands out the most are wigeon. The annual change is a dramatic jump (again, 55 percent), but when you peel back the numbers, it really is related to the two northernmost areas of the (flight survey) transects, meaning Alaska and the boreal forest north, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory. Two years ago, there was a delay in the (wigeon) migration getting back up north, so I don’t think the number is that dramatic, but it’s definitely a good thing for the Pacific Flyway. The other one that sticks out is greenwing (teal). What are the big four in Washington? Mallard, wigeon, greenwing teal and northern pintail. Those four make up 85 percent of our
total duck harvest. Those are the four you want to look at. But greenwings are also strong. The annual jump was right around 20 percent, but again, the Alaska component was a really strong piece of that.
And then pintails? Not great. There are some changes on the horizon, but those changes don’t take affect this year. The good news is the (numbers from Alaska) didn’t change at all. The spot driving the pintail conundrum is the same spot people have been worried about for some time, and that’s southern Alberta. If you look at the survey results from this year, it’s 93 percent below the LTA from southern Alberta. In other words, southern Alberta isn’t producing anything
It’s a long season, so pace yourself to be able to go the distance through late January’s end of the general hunt. (JULIE JOHNSON)
HUNTING
when it comes to pintails anymore. But what makes up for that? Pintails are now nesting more on the boreal or parkland edge, which is good because it means they have somewhere to go, but productivity is never as high when they’re in those areas. The population just can’t “boom,” per se, as it does when they’re breeding in southern Alberta.
Scaup is the other species of concern. For Washington, scaup are an important bird when you’re talking about those who hunt the big water, especially along the Columbia River all the way up. There was an uptick in scaup. They’re still below the LTA, so we’re not back to where we would hope to be, but the numbers are certainly stronger than they have been (in recent years).
MDJ Crystal-ball time, Kyle. Clouds of wigeon? Waves of greenwings? More pintails than we’ve seen in the past
couple seasons?
KS Again, and in relation to the big four and from a Washington standpoint, mallards are, without question, driven by how many hatchyear (young-of-the-year) birds were able to fly away from whatever pond they grew up in and make it down into Washington. That’s the game changer. While our Pacific breeding population (of mallards) was a little lower than 2023, it was pretty much along the same lines. Our banding crews started slow (in terms of hatch-year birds caught in the traps), but the switch turned on and the crews have definitely gotten into some hot spots of hatch-year birds. So that’s good news, and I think harvest will be strong, thanks to a good local influence.
The big (production) areas you want to look at for Washington are Alaska, central British Columbia, and the northern Alberta/Peace
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River Valley area – that’s a strong location for mallard production coming down into the Pacific Flyway states, especially the Columbia Basin. Population wise, those zones are all up for mallards, and that’s a good sign. It certainly suggests there was an attempt to breed. Now they’ve been fighting a lot of fires and have had some interesting conditions up in those areas, so whether or not productivity is coming out of there is tough to tell. Still, those numbers make me believe it should be a very strong harvest year. I think folks are going to be getting into some mallards this season.
Wigeon numbers are strong. Greenwings are strong. Pintails aren’t all that different, but overall, I think it’s going to be a strong season. There’s the weather to consider. I think the birds are up there (north of Washington), but it’s going to take some weather to push them down here. NS
Fowl In The Fog
Hunting pintails and mallards on the famed Skagit Flats.
By Sam Jefferies
“Engine trouble?” I call to the bobbing boat lights easing backwards into the boat launch.
The two words together are the traditional greeting of the early morning duck hunter or fisherman. They’re overlayed with concern,
yes. Launching a boat in the dark is serious business. They’re also steeped in smugness.
Maybe it’s bad luck, they imply. Or maybe you’re stupid for not changing your oil, or charging your battery, or putting the plug in. Either way, I’m going out and you’re coming in. Keep my stool warm at the diner, pal.
“Can’t see through the fog!” I hear in
reply. My companions and I look at each other, smirks hidden under headlamps. Sure, the fog is thick – the fog of the Pacific Northwest is like a steel curtain of gray wetness that swallows the world in front of you whole. But them’s the breaks, Charlie. This is the Skagit River Valley, and if you don’t know your boat in the fog, you might as well give the ducks a pass till next year.
Despite thick fog over the estuary of the Skagit River in northern Puget Sound, author Sam Jefferies and buddies were able to pick a handful of mallards and pintails out of the murk. (SAM JEFFERIES)
HUNTING HUNTING
“You guys got lights?” the returning boat asks. “Just the headlamps!” we call back.
We’re low in a Boston Whaler, a veritable pleasure cruiser with the teak scraped dull by 101 decoy bags and dog paws, and Shawn gives one last “ha!” and exclaims, “I take the chopper out in this!” before shifting gear and blasting through the fog bank into the channel.
He means it too. Shawn flew rescue helicopters for the US Coast Guard out of Kodiak Island, Alaska, for years. We scream towards the bay, whipping past half-sunken, mammoth fir trees,
liberated watermen heading for the Big Salt. My black lab, Harvey, sits with me perched in the bow, ears flapping. Both our tongues lick the seawater off our noses. Wings whistle past us. Shawn banks the boat, and we all laugh. We think of the ducks in front of us. And of the hunters with their hands cupped around coffee mugs, wishing for anything but warm and dry.
Shawn weaves the Whaler cavalierly through a mostly hidden salt marsh. Massive logs and sand banks are hidden in the gray. He doesn’t care. Neither does Harvey, or Marc, my companion crouched in the
middle of the small boat. Neither do I. Gunshots echo through the fog. The start to legal shooting time has come and gone, and it doesn’t matter. There is no side; sky and sea collide, broken up only by the ripple of the waves.
THERE ARE NO duck blinds in the salt marshes. We pick a fallen tree and stand behind it. Harvey sits, regally, on a custom-built platform, four legs of galvanized steel sunken into the bay’s bottom. Marc and I wear Jones caps, already dripping with moisture. Shawn wears whatever was on his dashboard that morning. The boat is
The muddy Skagit Flats is dotted with stumps and logs that make ready blinds, crisscrossed by small channels and the hunting is influenced by the rise and fall of the tide, all of which make a retriever like Harvey or a boat essential for bringing in downed birds. (SAM JEFFERIES)
stashed back in the marsh grass somewhere.
Ducks are all around us, invisible, then suddenly dark and hovering above our spread. Two fall, both mallards. Harvey is back with them both before the moment registers. We lay them out on the sea-slick log, and a trickle of blood runs into the salt. Jostling and thumping shoulders, we miss two more ducks as they circle and then disappear back into the fog. Harvey peers back disapprovingly.
With no time for preparation in these conditions, the birds appear ghostlike over the decoys. Marc’s shotgun cracks, and a pintail cartwheels into the marsh grass. The water is waist-deep, and we stand, watching Harvey’s muscles churn as he tears violently through the growth and the fog and the saltwater, acutely conscious of the pinprick holes in our waders. All three sets of eyes are on the dog as he turns, swimming steadily back to us. A brown head flecked with purple and gold flops on the right side of his mouth, an enormous sprig of black tail feathers dangling out of the left. It is January, after all, and the pintails are plumed out and stunning. This one is deposited gently in my hand, and Harvey scrambles back up on his platform, shakes once, then settles back on his haunches in a statuesque pose. It’s our third pintail of the morning, our only sprig, and our last legal bird of that species for the day.
SHAWN TURNS ABRUPTLY away from the log, leaving his gun, ignoring the quacks now echoing through the impenetrable sky. “Where ya goin’?” I call, and he doesn’t reply, just waggles a roll of toilet paper above his head in response. We laugh, turn and settle back into watching the fog and imagine what it might be hiding.
Five minutes pass, and suddenly, without warning, a greenhead is floating in front of us. I pull up and my gun erupts, and the duck, wing broken, goes sailing off into the marsh behind us. “Find him, Harvey,” I call, and the churning mass of black-furred muscle disappears in the general direction of the downed bird.
“I don’t think we’re getting that one back,” I mutter mournfully to Marc, who doesn’t respond. We wait. You can’t hear much in this type of weather. A row of ducks, feathers beaded with moisture, rests in a line on the fallen tree trunk.
I whistle into the gunmetal expanse back towards where my dog has disappeared, and hear a vague churning of four legs through the water. Then, from wherever Shawn is perched, an “Atta boy, Harvey!” We see the green head of the mallard first, then the black jaws clamped gently but firmly around it, the rest still shrouded in fog.
The mallards disappear after that, replaced by pintails hovering 10 yards away, their sprig tail feathers dragging across the rising tide. The water is fast approaching the tops of our waders. It’s time to go. Back to the truck, and the diner, and the hunters who never made it out, with a happy dog and a full strap and a story. NS
Training For Fall Turkeys
By
Nearly 20 turkeys fed uphill into the timber. As the flock dispersed under the canopy of Douglas fir trees, I sent in Echo, my 9-year-old pudelpointer. She sprinted at the moving flock from 150 yards out. She’d done it many times over past falls.
Not until Echo got surprisingly close did the turkeys flush into the trees overhead. Echo scampered amid the ferns, nose to the ground, sniffing for a bird that held. There were none.
I gave two beeps on the electronic collar and Echo ran back to me. We hiked around the hillside, out of sight from the turkeys. I sat against a giant old-growth stump and Echo tucked under some sword
ferns next to me where she laid stone-still.
As turkey chatter escalated in the trees, I let out soft “kee kee” calls with a Slayer Calls diaphragm. The birds and I talked back and forth and soon they were on the ground. Multiple turkeys came our way. A payload of Hevi-18 TSS from the little .410 dropped a tom at 15 paces.
I HAVE TWO pudelpointers, Echo and Kona. Both love fall turkey hunting. When they were pups I trained both to hunt for the big upland game birds in autumn.
Echo and Kona have successfully tracked and pointed multiple fall turkeys. I’ve hunted behind other bird dogs that are good at this too. Turkeys leave a lot of scent on the ground and it’s easy for dogs to follow soon after their passage.
Obedience and instincts make for a good turkey dog. It’s instinctual for upland
dogs from a good bloodline to hold point. It’s also important to train for this because turkeys are, obviously, much bigger than quail and are sometimes visible when holding, which can overly excite a dog. Sometimes it’s a lone tom they’ve tracked; sometimes it’s an entire flock. Sometimes turkeys hold; sometimes they run. One of the joys of tracking fall turkeys with a dog is you never know how the hunt will unfold, and that’s where a disciplined dog comes in.
Sending a dog to bust a turkey flock so you can call them back in is a learned behavior. The situation has to be right, and that depends on the habitat and your dog. I’ve learned to not send a dog to break up a flock unless the birds are feeding uphill into cover.
When the dog returns to me and heels, we hike to the birds, keeping out of sight. It’s
Author Scott Haugen and Kona, a male pudelpointer, have enjoyed many exciting fall turkey hunts over the years. Kona tracked and pointed this autumnal tom in Western Oregon. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
GUN DOG
Scott Haugen
Turkey
thick vegetation where I hunt and that’s what my dogs lay in for cover. We use no blind.
I HUNT ONE dog at a time when flushing and calling turkeys; otherwise, the competition gets too high between them. I position the dog at my side so it can see me as well as the turkeys when they approach.
As turkeys come to the call, it’s total restraint and discipline for the dog. If you taught them this from the day you brought them home, it won’t be a problem. If your dog won’t sit still and remain quiet, there’s work to do before embarking upon such a hunt.
When Echo was a pup she whined when turkeys got close. She was perfectly still from day one, but the whining spooked birds. That’s when we headed afield to call turkeys, and I didn’t take a shotgun. Not taking a gun deescalated Echo’s intensity because I was able to put my hand on her and whisper commands – that was step one.
Step two was delivering a single beep on Echo’s e-collar when she whined. She knew one beep meant to stop and that if she didn’t obey, an intense beep or light shock would follow. By focusing on bad behavior, Echo was quick to learn.
Restraint and discipline are vital to building a top-notch hunting dog, especially when it comes to fall turkeys, where the action can quickly escalate. This is the author’s preferred setup when calling turkeys in with his dog. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
wings are great training tools, as they carry a lot of scent. They can be cut in half at the elbow joint, doubling your training tools.
While Oregon and Idaho allow hunters to use dogs to hunt turkeys in fall, Washington does not. Season dates and limits also vary by region in all three states. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
COLUMN
WESTSIDE CAMO A HIT
Turkeys see in color and have 8x vision, so quality camo is key when calling them into your lap. I never owned a piece of Sitka clothing until just over a year ago. Now it dominates my closet. I love the fit, functionality and performance in all situations I’ve tried it in, and their new Optifade Cover pattern matches the West Coast as well as anything I’ve seen in nearly 50 years of hunting this land.
I was able to test the Optifade Cover pattern starting last spring in multiple states amid the Coast Range, valley floors and Cascades. This pattern is made for folks like us.
I’ve never been a fan of photo-finish camo patterns. Camo patterns are about creating depth through the use of larger dark and light contrasting patterns, capitalizing on shadows and rays of light to help create the illusion. Sitka nailed it in their Cover pattern, and the name and performance confirm it. –SH
I only had to zap Echo one time. After that she sat quietly. When a hen got within 8 yards and she didn’t make a sound, I was elated and knew Echo was ready to hunt.
TO PREPARE TO track fall turkeys, train your dog with wings saved from birds you’ve taken. Take the wings out of the freezer, thaw them to increase scent release, train for two days and then put them back in the freezer. This is a great tune-up. The wings can be cut at the elbow joint, doubling your training tools. Run them on drags for dogs to track and place them for dogs to work the wind.
Washington does not allow the hunting of fall turkeys with a dog, but Idaho, Oregon and California all do. If you have to travel, it’s more than worth the effort, and it’ll be the start of many great hunts to come. NS
Editor’s note: For signed copies of Scott Haugen’s popular book, Western Turkey Hunting: Strategies For All Levels, visit scotthaugen.com. Follow Scott on Instagram and Facebook.
Quality camo can only help when hunting sharp-eyed turkeys, and Scott Haugen has become a big fan of Sitka Optifade Cover, which blends in well with Westside forests. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
Whether it’s blacktails or whitetails, this month’s late hunts provide a good last opportunity to fill the freezer for rifle hunters. (TROY
All Is Not Lost: Tag A Late Buck
ON TARGET
By Dave Workman
Iused to hate Washington’s late buck season because it meant I hadn’t already notched a tag, and my odds of eating venison through the looming winter were declining … until I wised up.
The late-season deer hunter, whether taking the field in Northeast or Westside game management units where the hunt will open later this month, has some advantages we didn’t have in October.
• The woods will have opened up nicely with autumn in full swing and leaves dropping to the ground. If they’re damp, it
will be much quieter stalking, and either way, we’ll be able to see farther and detect movement a little easier.
• I n higher elevations, especially in Northeast whitetail units, there could be snow on the ground, making for much easier tracking. It will also be easier to spot movement against a snowy
RODAKOWSKI)
background and deer need to feed and move when it’s cold.
• The rut will just be coming on, and there’s nothing like the prospect of a little romance to keep even the wisest old buck from being as careful as he was a few
weeks ago. Especially watch for scrapes and rubs, and if you find a fresh one, stay on it and hide back maybe 50 to 100 yards – or even farther if the conditions allow for a wide-open shot.
• If you spot a doe or group of does
KICK-EEZ RESCUE!
As luck would have it, the factory recoil pad on my fancy Franchi Instinct O/U shotgun literally started falling apart on opening day of grouse season.
The next day I went online and ordered a new Kick-Eez Sorbothane replacement pad. They are available as sized-to-fit and, sure enough, several days later the replacement showed up. It needed just a little tweaking here and there – I’ll save the main work for this winter to include refinishing the buttstock – and I was quickly back in business.
I did a story some years ago about today’s recoil-absorbent pads made from Sorbothane and a few other materials. The result was that I personally changed all of the recoil pads on my rifles and shotguns because of that experience. For this particular project, I mounted the pad, anchored it and used a punch to etch a line on the base in places the pad was a little wider than flush. A few minutes with a sander, some buffing and it fits good enough to finish the season. Washington’s grouse hunting continues into January, and I can also hunt other upland birds through the holidays. –DW
moving through an area, watch for one or more to glance back over their path. If they do, it’s a good indication there’s a buck somewhere behind them. Stay put, and keep your eyes peeled.
• Get a pair of nitrile gloves and wear them inside your regular gloves to keep your hands warm. Carry some sort of pad you can sit on to prevent loss of body heat. Have a clear field of fire.
• Hunt from first light to the last available light. I’ve killed a few deer in late afternoon, at or near dusk, when they’re starting to move toward a feeding area.
THE ONLY WHITETAIL buck I’ve shot was taken during a late hunt in the hills east of Colville on the edges of the Little Pend Oreille game range. I was using a .257 Roberts and a handloaded 100-grain boattail bullet on a downhill shot of about 100 yards. There was snow on the ground and I was in an old clearcut. The buck had come down a gully to my left undetected and suddenly walked right out in front of me, oblivious to my presence. One shot through the ticker dropped him where he stood.
How did that happen? I sat down in a comfortable spot and didn’t move for nearly an hour. People who fidget, stand up and sit back down, rustle around with stuff – pretty much every deer in the neighborhood knows they’re there.
Washington’s late-season rifle whitetail hunt runs November 9-19 in GMUs 105, 108,
The recoil pad on author Dave Workman’s shotgun started crumbling on the grouse opener back in September. It was Kick-Eez to the rescue with a sized replacement recoil pad made from Sorbothane.(DAVE WORKMAN)
By mid-November, there might be snow falling, which will improve tracking, make the forest quiet and deer will want to feed. Fall windstorms also help clear up sight lines in decidious forests. (DAVE WORKMAN)
COLUMN
111, 113, 117, 121 and 124 for any buck.
Over in Western Washington, the traditional four-day extended weekend hunt runs November 14-17 in GMUs 407, 454, 466, 501-520, 524-560, 568-572, 601621, 624 (except Deer Area 6020), 627-654 and 658-699 for any buck, and November 14-17 in GMUs 410-417, 419-424, 564, 655 and Deer Area 6020 for any deer.
OK, WE’RE TALKING about mid- to late November. Aside from there being no shirtsleeve weather, and the potential for rain and maybe even snow, what else is going to be different?
Shorter daylight hours and primarily overcast skies, and don’t think this isn’t important. Sunrise and sunset will be to the south, so any warmth generated by available sunshine will be on south-facing slopes. Cold animals just might gravitate toward areas where it is a little warmer, and watch for movement along the edges of clearcuts and anywhere farmland butts up against state or national forest land.
Be willing and prepared to hike back into the brush, where you might find small clearings that are impromptu deer meeting and gathering places, or at least where one might find fresh sign of wellused trails. Stake these trails and clearings out from a distance, but still close enough for a safe, clear shot.
Dress accordingly for the cold and have a good raincoat or parka, find a spot where you might be able to stay out of the rain, and sit still. Modern materials offer some relief, but I’m rather old-fashioned and haven’t given completely up on wool hunting pants. Your choice, of course.
Pay close attention to wind direction, because it is more likely you’ll have a good breeze this time of year than in midOctober. I once spotted what I thought was a young buck going up an old deer trail north of Snoqualmie. It was chilly and had rained a good deal overnight, and it was just my luck the wind changed just as this guy was trotting along. I was about to let him have it as soon as he stepped
out from behind a tree, but he froze. The wind was at my back. He stayed that way, staring in my direction, about 150 yards uphill, and it became a battle of wills and wits, his head carefully positioned so it was impossible for me to make out antlers.
This stalemate ended when the bugger made an abrupt left turn showing me only a brief glimpse of his butt, and then he disappeared into a cluster of vine maples because another hunter moving into the area spooked him. It would have been a risky shot and I didn’t want to lose a wounded animal, so he lived.
Breezes can carry the scent of tobacco smoke, soap, gasoline (never gas up on your way to a hunting spot!) and anything you’ve eaten. Get some butterscotch hard candies and keep a few in your pocket.
And don’t forget to carry a .22-caliber pistol in the event you run into grouse. That season remains open through midJanuary, so there is no reason to lose out on opportunity! My rimfire pistol always rides along during elk and deer seasons. NS
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you
The One Key to Hunting Success
BECOMING A HUNTER
By Dave Anderson
Hunting is often viewed as a test of skill, strategy and preparation. Yet one of the most crucial factors that separates successful hunters from those who struggle is a simple quality: perseverance and not giving up.
By no stretch of the imagination is hunting easy. There are long days. Blood, sweat and – yes – even tears are involved. Some years may be easy, and you will find yourself notching your tag on opening day as lady luck shines down on you. But for most, including yours truly, it does not always work that way. The prospect of needing to wake up early and put on miles in the mountains by foot day in and day
out with the possibility you’ll still not notch your tag can become daunting. However, embracing the mindset of not giving up can lead to both personal growth and greater success in the field.
HUNTING IS UNPREDICTABLE. Factors such as weather conditions, hunter pressure, animal behavior and seasonal patterns can drastically affect outcomes. It is easy
No doubt about it, hunting is hard. There is not an elk behind every tree, nor deer yarded up in every clearcut. Conditions will go downhill, your equipment will fail at inopportune times, but persevering and making the most of the opportunities you have will go a long way toward tagging out. (BEN HOWARD)
to become discouraged after several unsuccessful outings, but I encourage you to not get disheartened and stick with it, especially if you still have a legal tag and time to hunt. Your odds of notching a tag are much higher being in the field than sitting at home on the couch or at a bar
having a cold one.
As a seasoned hunter, I understand that persistence is necessary to finding success even though success might seem unattainable. Persistence and perseverance might look different from person to person. For me, I make sure that
I am up early and in the woods before daylight comes and I do not leave the area until the last bit of legal shooting light fades away. Each day and outing in the woods, whether successful or not, is an opportunity to learn and adapt.
Over the years, I have enjoyed a decent
Learning to not take things so seriously and have fun while also putting himself in a position to succeed increased author Dave Anderson’s enjoyment of hunting and his success rates. (DAVE ANDERSON)
COLUMN
“Remember, each trip in the field is a chance to learn, grow and eventually reap the rewards of hard work and persistence,” writes Anderson. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
success rate and one of the biggest contributors to that success has been my evolution into not taking my hunts so seriously. Once I got back into the mode of having fun and not putting so much pressure on myself, my success rate went up. When I see a ton of people in the field, it makes me work that much harder to harvest an animal. While most people drive back to camp after the morning hunt to take a nap or have some beers and social time with friends, I am still in the field. Every animal that you were hunting in the morning is still out in the afternoon. When an area has high hunter pressure, I go to the steeper and nastier spots where animals retreat to get away from us. Yes, these areas suck to hike and push through, but there’s a reason deer
and elk go here. Areas of windfall and dense vegetation can be challenging to hunt. However, if you take your time and move slowly through them, while also being mindful of every step you take and being as quiet as you can, you can find some fantastic hunting opportunities that many pass up.
HUNTING’S A SKILL that improves with experience. Each outing contributes to your knowledge of animal behavior, terrain navigation and effective strategies. One of those strategies that I have learned over time is implementing the practice of going back to the basics. I am constantly reminding myself to return to the fundamentals of taking a step and glassing. One of my mentors’ quotes
always comes to mind: “Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.” Move ever so slowly and look for any bit of the animal that you’re hunting – ear, white rump, legs under low branches, an antler tine.
Back when I was guiding clients from across the country and who were in all types of physical condition, I could always take a step and glass. Most clients would think I was nuts – until we would almost step on a deer or elk completely unaware of our presence.
Along with moving slowly and glassing, another rule to always follow is having the wind in your face. If you use this practice of taking a step and glassing with the wind at your back, it will not work. Each step that you take is a different perspective that you would not have seen in the last step. It only takes an antler tip, the flick of an ear or a piece of hide for you to find your target.
PATIENCE IS ALSO a vital component of perseverance. Many successful hunts require hours of waiting, observing and being silent in the outdoors. The ability to remain patient not only enhances the chances of being successful, but also deepens your appreciation for nature and the hunting experience itself. Hunting can be one of the most challenging things to do, especially as the days get shorter. Hunters who rush through hunts may miss crucial signs or opportunities, while those who take their time and are patient often reap the rewards. Hunting is not just about the thrill of the chase. It is a venture filled with unpredictability, which can lead to frustration. However, most experienced hunters understand that setbacks are all a part of the journey.
One of the most common variables faced by hunters is weather. Conditions at the beginning of the season are going to be different from those at the end and will vary from day to day throughout your hunt. As the temperatures drop, you may also be met with snow or rain. Rain is probably one of my least favorite things to hunt in. However, we are extremely blessed to have some of the best hunting gear available to us today. If you are a Westside hunter, I would have the best possible and most reliable rain gear that I could afford. While there are other decent brands and
HUNTING HUNTING COLUMN
gear available to us, I have had impressive results with Kuiu when it comes to hunting in rain and wet weather conditions. The other benefit of hunting in harsh weather is that noise control is not nearly as big of a factor with rainy and windy conditions.
SUCCESS IS AS much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. When faced with difficulties – be it a missed shot, a failed stalk or the specter of an empty freezer –staying persistent and resilient can lead to eventual success. My number one goal each season is to fill my freezer. Ultimately, I want the most pure and organic meat on the planet to provide for my family. So, when I have not filled a tag, I make it a priority to get out in the field.
There are different ways to do this, depending on what state you live in. For example, where I live in Idaho, the opportunities to hunt different times of year and different seasons are much greater than if I lived in Washington. In Idaho, we get an archery season,
muzzleloader season and a rifle season. In Washington you have to pick your weapon and are limited to the time of those seasons. One way around this is to also apply for and purchase a multiseason tag to hunt each weapons type if drawn. The application period for the Washington multiseason tag has already happened for this year, but should be something to consider for next year if you want multiple opportunities and the ability to participate in archery, muzzleloader and firearm seasons.
Engaging with fellow hunters can also bolster perseverance. Sharing experiences, strategies and encouragement with others can reignite motivation and provide new perspectives. One thing I have found through engagement with other hunters is to invest my time in the latter half of the season when hunting pressure is not as high, since a lot of hunters tend to give up and are no longer in the field.
I have had my own success by switching to hunting later on than earlier.
When I lived in Washington, I hunted the Eastside for mule deer every year and some seasons I would not step foot in the field on opening day due to the number of people out for a buck. Utilizing this strategy of just hunting the latter half of the season, I notched my tag on some dandy muleys. True, there is a lot to be said about being on the mountain on opening day and it is a tradition for many, but it sure is nice to be on the mountain with not as many people.
Ultimately, the key to hunting success lies not just in skill or strategy, but also in the ability to keep pushing forward and not giving up despite the challenges. Every hunter faces obstacles and challenges, but those who embrace perseverance will find success. If you still have a tag and time to get out in the mountains, I would highly recommend that you make the most of it and get out there. Remember, each trip in the field is a chance to learn, grow and eventually reap the rewards of hard work and persistence. NS
LBD!!!
CHEF IN THE WILD
By Randy King
The sun was barely peeking over the mountains of Idaho as two-thirds of my boys – Noah and Cameron – and I set out from my aunt and uncle’s house near Riggins, between Boise and Lewiston. It was Cameron’s birthday, and what better way for a University of Idaho student/frat boy to celebrate than a hunting trip with his old man and brother?
Riggins is in an area of the world that is surrounded by mountains and hills “as steep as dirt can stack” and is notorious among hunters. Many times, I have seen game in dark wooded hellholes here and simply passed on the opportunity for fear of my back and/or legs breaking before the critter can be salvaged. It’s tough country. Riggins was originally named Gouge-Eye for a particularly spirited type of bar fight. As the story goes, two miners would scrap until one ended up with his eye gouged out. They would grow their thumbnails out for this purpose, according to legend. Thankfully, the town fathers decided to go with a slightly less violent name in 1901 when they applied for a post office, honoring Dick Riggins. Thanks, Dick.
As we hiked up a closed logging road, the crisp autumn air filled our lungs. Several grouse bursting from the underbrush nearly gave me a heart attack. I should expect them at this point in my life, but I still don’t. Kind of like the Spanish Inquisition. (If you don’t get that joke, it is OK, but watch more Monty Python …)
The closed road was a blessing in disguise, offering us a clear path without the worry of UTVs or four-wheelers buzzing by. But it required that we hike several miles as well, unless we wanted to climb some steep dirt mountainsides.
Emerging into the head of an open draw, we paused to glass. I had a bull elk tag and Cameron an either-sex whitetail tag. At the first few spots we saw nothing but some orange hats on the horizon and some elk feeding on private ground below us.
DECIDING TO MAKE one last push, we were pounding our way up a grassy knob when
Chef Randy King glasses an Idaho landscape near Riggins last month while his son and college guy Cameron looks on. (NOAH KING)
SPICY NORTH AFRICAN VENISON STEW
Sitting on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, Tunisia has been a crossroads of civilizations for millennia. Phoenicians, Romans (in togas, no doubt), Arabs, Ottoman Turks and the French all left their stamp on the country’s culinary landscape.
One of the staples in Tunisian cooking is harissa, a fiery chili paste that adds depth and heat to many dishes. (Honestly, harissa was about the only thing I knew about Tunisian cuisine, I regret to say.) Harissa’s origin can be traced back to the 16th century
when chili peppers were introduced to North Africa from the New World. (The good ol’ Columbian Exchange strikes again!)
The Tunisians, with their love for spices, quickly incorporated this new ingredient into their cuisine. Hot places love hot food, for some reason. I think it is because sweating cools you down? I have no idea on the science with this …
Anyway, another staple of Tunisian cuisine is the humble chickpea. Cultivated in the Mediterranean region for thousands of years, chickpeas have been a protein-rich
staple in North African diets since ancient times. It is the base for hummus and gives stews a better textured “bean” that is not quite a bean. Use them together and you get a dish that is full of flavor and depth.
The following recipe is a mashup of several I found online – Hank Shaw and Rabbit Hill Farm deserve credit here. I have no Tunisian roots and in fact never made this dish until this first time. That said, it was bangin’ – highly recommend!
TUNISIAN VENISON STEW
2 pounds venison, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoon harissa paste (adjust to taste)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cups beef stock, low sodium
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 lemon, juiced
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh cilantro and Greek yogurt for garnish
Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the venison in batches, ensuring not to overcrowd the pan. Remove and set aside. In the same pot, sauté the onion until translucent, about five minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute.
Stir in the harissa paste, cumin, coriander, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Cook for one to two minutes until fragrant.
Add the browned venison back to the pot, along with the diced tomatoes and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about one and a half hours, or until the venison is tender.
Add the chickpeas and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, garnished with fresh cilantro and Greek yogurt, alongside couscous or flatbread.
Enjoy – and make extra if the plan is to serve this at a frat house while in a toga. –RK
Tunisian venison stew. (RANDY KING)
Cameron beams over his whitetail buck, taken on an either-sex tag for Unit 18. Successful hunters there are required to have their harvests tested by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for chronic wasting disease. Cameron and Noah’s (right) dad is waiting on test results to come back before further processing the deer. (RANDY KING)
Cameron called out, “Hey, look at this!” He held up a weathered six-point elk antler. It didn’t appear to have come from a large bull, but nonetheless would’ve been one I’d have shot in a heartbeat. I duct taped an orange flag to the antler and strapped it to my back; we would not be leaving this hunt empty-handed.
(I also had visions of a shed antler on the piano in the common room of a frat house at UI; I am certain it will be used as decoration somewhere in Moscow anyway.)
A few moments later, when we crested the knob and looked into the shadow of the other side, Cameron spotted a deer. It was grazing in a small clearing next to a patch of willows and some cut pine trees. It was right on the edge of private land.
We couldn’t make out any antlers, so we assumed it was a doe. It was also facing us and looked suspiciously like a mule deer. But eventually we saw the tail swish from side to side and knew it was a legal whitetail. Cam waited until it was broadside, squeezed the trigger and the deer dropped.
He dashed after the downed deer, wanting to put it down if it was still alive. Then there was a picture I will never forget – my two sons, standing side by side in total befuddlement.
“Uh,” Noah said, “it’s a buck?”
And sure enough, there were two tiny forks, shorter than my pinkie, sticking out of the skull. The antlers were short enough (less than 3 inches)
for the animal to technically count as an antlerless deer in Idaho. We dragged the buck to the edge of a small hill and into the shade to quarter him up.
AS WE FIELD dressed the deer, I reminded the boys about the recent detection of chronic wasting disease in Idaho’s Unit 18, where we were hunting. CWD is an always-fatal neurological disease affecting deer, elk and moose. It’s caused by abnormal proteins called prions and can spread through bodily fluids, tissues and even contaminated environments. At this point there’s no evidence CWD can be transmitted to humans, but it’s crucial to take precautions. It was mandatory that we stop at an Idaho Department of Fish and Game check station on our way home to have the deer tested.
While field dressing the whitetail, we followed the guidelines IDFG has laid out for safe handling:
• Wear gloves when field dressing and processing the deer.
• Avoid cutting through the brain or spinal cord – this one is hard since you must leave the spine but take the head in to be checked. We saved this task for last, since it might have contaminated our tools.
• Bone out the meat when possible before transportation.
• Thoroughly wash hands and instruments after handling the carcass. (IDFG said that soaking tools in a 50/50 bleach-water solution for 10 minutes will denature the protein and make the knives and tools safe to use again.)
IDFG WILL TEST Cameron’s buck and let us know in six weeks if it is contaminated. I was given a barcode and a card for reference. If it is positive, they will give us instructions on its disposal.
Meanwhile, I decided to freeze the quarters of the animal whole, then process the meat (or not) when the results come back. Then Cameron can feed his frat house some of his harvest.
While grunting, pumping an elk shed over his head and wearing a sheet as a toga. NS
Peet Shoe Dryer, Inc.
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In 1968, Gene Peet revolutionized footwear care with the invention of the world’s first shoe dryer. Since then, Peet Shoe Dryer’s unwavering commitment to American manufacturing has been a cornerstone of their success. The Advantage Plus (M2107F) Fan Dryer dries boots, cleats, shoes or skates in just one to four hours, making it the perfect gift and a smart choice for maintaining healthy, dry footwear.
exquisiteknives.com
Selling some of the finest and most collectible custom knives in the world. Owner Dave Ellis is a retired ABS mastersmith as well as a lifelong collector of valuable custom knives. Specializing in Bob Loveless, Bill Moran, Michael Walker and CAS of Argentina. Pictured is the Dragonfly Knife by Dr. Fred Carter. See more on Instagram @daveellis44.
2024 Holiday Gift Guide
OffGrid Faraday Bags
offgrid.co
The OffGrid Faraday Duffel Bag offers superior protection with its built-in signal-blocking technology, shielding your devices from GPS, EMP, Wi-Fi and cellular tracking. Its rugged, water-resistant construction ensures durability, making it perfect for travel, outdoor activities or securing multiple devices. Stay organized and protected with this innovative duffel.
Tim’s Special Cut Meats
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All the holiday fixins! Prime rib, tenderloin, steaks, turkeys, hams and more. Also offering gift certificates and freezer meat packages. Great gifts for the hard-to-shop-for person on your list!
Chrome City Guide Service, LLC
360-751-8748
Call now for the winter steelhead fishing trip of a lifetime! A two-person rafting/fishing trip is $500 –rods, gear and Simms waders included. Guests fish a coastal stream in Southwest Washington, with the option of conventional fishing or fly fishing.
Taku Fisheries
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Four pounds of both wild-caught Alaskan king salmon and wildcaught Alaskan halibut delivered directly to your doorstep overnight. Just $210 for the freshest and highest quality seafood from Alaska’s pristine waters. Directly from Alaskan fishermen to you.
2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Vortex
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Michlitch Company
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Michlitch Company offers a wide variety of jerky and sausage-making seasonings and supplies. For the holiday season, they have gift boxes available for $30 each. Each box includes three seasoning blends and one sauce. Visit the website to see their variety of products and gift boxes.
Pocket Ox
PocketOx.com
The stocking-stuffer-size Half Calf is the tiniest mini hoist offered by Pocket Ox. A cut-down version of their 1,000-pound 8:1 Calf hoist, hence the name, the Half Calf is truly a block and tackle that will fit in a pocket. Standard 50 feet of “rope” has a block-to-block reach of 12 feet. May be ordered with 100 feet, doubling that distance while adding less than an ounce of carry weight.
Vortex performance sunglasses are here to bridge the gap between hyper-tactical eyewear and uncomfortable safety glasses, delivering UV and ballistic-rated protection, comfort, versatility and casual style. Vortex performance eyewear is available in two styles, the Jackal and Banshee, and multiple lens colors in each style.
Tulalip
Beef Jerky Experience
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Over 100 varieties of premium beef, pork, salmon, wild and exotic game jerky! Choose from tender smoked, traditional, classic, biltong or crispy styles. Great gifting alternatives for all budgets. Order online or shop at the Tulalip, Washington, store.
Finn Bay Lodge
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Give the gift of a once-in-a-lifetime adventure by purchasing a partial fishing trip up to an entire fishing trip for a loved one! Reach out to hello@finnbaylodge.com to discuss pricing and options.
Tri Cities Tackle
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Providing the Pacific Northwest with top-quality tackle and bait for every species, Tri Cities Tackle specializes in custom-painted gear. Explore their innovative Scent Bullets from Legacy Fishing, and the game-changing Vortex Blades – proven to enhance your fishing experience!
All Rivers & Saltwater Charters
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The team at All Rivers & Saltwater Charters offers shared and private, fully furnished Washington fishing charters for salmon, steelhead, tuna, lingcod, halibut and crab. Their charter fishing locations include the Seattle-area rivers, Puget Sound, Westport and San Juan Islands, the Columbia River and Olympic Peninsula rivers.
Stonefly Nets
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Stonefly Nets make a perfect holiday gift for the fly fishing enthusiast in your life. Whether wading through rivers or casting from the shore, this thoughtful gift adds joy to their favorite outdoor adventure, enhancing their experience with quality, ease, and the perfect balance of function and craftsmanship.
Verle’s
verles.com
Verle’s has the Big Chief front-loading smoker package for you. Smoking is made simple with the Big Chief Smoker, as all you have to do is plug it into a standard household outlet. Just place your food (after brining or preparation) on one of the five racks that sit over the top of the drip pan. The smoker’s capacity is 50 pounds of meat or fish!
Includes: smoker, four easy-slide chrome-plated grills, electric cord, drip pan, free bag of Smokehouse Alder Wood Chips, and recipe booklet. Christmas holiday special - four bags of Smokehouse Chips & Chunks free with purchase of a Big Chief Smoker. Limited to stock on hand.
Hi-Point Firearms
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Northwest Sportsman Magazine
nwsportsmanmag.com
The premier source for actionable fishing and hunting opportunities in the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. With input from top guides and expert sportsmen, each issue aims to give readers intelligent advice on how to harvest more fish and game that month, provide insight into major issues affecting fish and wildlife, and profile interesting sportsmen. No other magazine in the region can match the breadth of coverage nor the respect Northwest Sportsman has earned.
A one-year subscription is $39.95 for 12 issues.
MKS Supply is excited to announce the latest additions to the Hi-Point Firearms lineup: the 995P and 4595P pistols. The 995P, a pistol version of the popular Model 995 Carbine, is perfect for backpack carry, ensuring that you have a reliable firearm at your side wherever you go. A machined addition on the rear of the pistol includes a Picatinny rail, allowing for the attachment of various accessories, as well as compatibility for buffer tubes and folding braces, adding to the versatility of these firearms.
Coastal Marine Engine
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Get 10 percent off labor on any scheduled maintenance between January 2 and February 28. Please use discount code NWSM2025 when booking your service.
Salmoncrazy Adventures
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Early bird deals on package trips! To qualify, book three days of fishing or more for private boat charter fishing. Call now to secure your dates!
2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Davis Tent
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The sleeping bag cover from Davis Tent is a great way to protect your sleeping bag and add a little warmth. You can even sleep under the stars on a starry night! Roll your sleeping bag, pillow and sleeping pad up and it’s a perfect bedroll to keep all your sleeping gear organized.
The Lodge at Otter Cove
lodgeottercove.com
Give someone special the gift of an Alaskan adventure! The Lodge at Otter Cove’s all-inclusive three-day/ four-night package is priced at $3,995 per person plus taxes and fees. This includes three guided adventures, your accommodations and all of your meals. Check out their website or give Joe a call at 907-299-6450 for details.
Diamond Lake Resort
diamondlake.net
Diamond Lake Resort gift certificates are the perfect stocking stuffer for the outdoor enthusiast. Get your certificates at the website above or call 541-7933333 to purchase.
Fisherman’s Gold
fishermansgold.com
Flounder Pounder Cinnamon Twist three-pack for $11.99. Best soft bait for bottomfishing. These high-quality baits won’t degrade over multiple uses and are made specifically for West Coast fisheries.
Black Hills Ammunition
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The Black Hills 6mm ARC 90-grain Dual Performance load is designed to shoot flatter to 600 yards compared to the 103-grain ELD-X introduced last year, plus open immediately upon impact to create a large, 7-inch-diameter wound channel. Velocity is 2,650 feet per second with over 1,400 foot-pounds of energy.
Teeny, Inc. Fly Lines
jimteeny.com
Teeny, Inc. Fly Lines is offering their $50 coffee table book for $25, which includes free shipping in the United States. This book is hardbound, full-color, and full of stories and photos. A great personal gift!
Puget Sound Fly Shop
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Puget Sound Fly Shop has a comprehensive selection of fly fishing gear and fly tying items. Great gift items for the fly fishing enthusiasts. Gift cards are also available.
Liberty Game Calls
libertygamecalls.com
Liberty Game Calls are predominantly made of rubber, setting them apart from plastic game calls on the market. Rubber is soft and flexible and has exceptional sound transmission properties. Rubber’s high elasticity enables it to absorb and dissipate sound energy more effectively. This ensures that sound waves are not reflected or prematurely absorbed, allowing them to carry further and more efficiently.
Colorado Buck’s Dream Catcher Beef
dreamcatcherbeef.com
The Holiday Dream Box includes two ribeye, two filets and four burgers. The perfect gift for anyone who likes beef for $149.99.
Rubber’s low density and significant internal damping produce deeper, more resonant sounds. Rubber is the perfect material for calling game where the highest sound transmission and quality are essential for attracting game. Alaska Butcher Equipment & Supply
Fireweed Lodge
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Come stay and fish at Fireweed Lodge, the premier luxury Alaskan fishing lodge. Located on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. Make your reservations on their website.
McOmie’s Custom Lures
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McOmie’s Custom Lures’ 3.5 Colorado spinners with squid skirts and 3.5 Colorado blades make perfect stocking stuffers for the fishing family.
Taylor’s Sausage
taylorsausage.com
Taylor’s Sausage is a fourth-generation meat and sausage company. They have a factory in which they make hundreds of different flavors and types of jerky, sausage and smoked meats. Taylor’s offers holiday gift packages on their website and they will process your wild game into fine products to share with your family and friends.
alaskabutcherequip.com
Hunting and fishing processing equipment. Alaska Butcher Equipment & Supply has all you need to process your own hunt or catch! Local and family-owned. Friendly and knowledgeable staff.
★ New patented EASY to use Bobber With A Brain Jr., ONLY automatic slip bobber in the world that requires no line stopper! You can fish 1 & 2 feet off the bottom automatically any depth, even 50 feet deep and it will not drift in 30 mph wind or jet ski waves!
★ Works in combination with any slip sinker and allows you to fish on and off the bottom at the same time on the same crappie or perch type rig!
★ Sold in three packs on e-bay and website: BobberWithABrain.net or SmartestTackle.com
★ Questions answered by Frank, inventor at Stackle23@msn.com
Northern Rockies Adventures
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Join Northern Rockies Adventures’ signature fly-in fishing trips and enjoy the gold standard of Canadian trips! The secret to their great fishing lies in over 70 remote fly-in fishing destinations. Catch all wild native freshwater fish: trophy rainbow, bull and lake trout, northern pike, Arctic grayling and walleye. Premium all-inclusive trips from Vancouver, B.C.
Honest Cut Meats, LLC
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Honest Cut Meats is a full-service custom cut and wrap USDA facility. Specializing in smoked specialty meat, including all wild game.
Rodeo City RV
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Huge end-of-year blowout sale – some trailers below dealer cost, all well below MSRP, no payments till 2025, along with many more incentives. Twenty percent off all parts in store. See how much you can save by shopping a small family-owned dealership and the amazing service you will receive.
GoDark Faraday Bags
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Safeguard your satellite phone with the GoDark Faraday Bag, designed to be highly water- and puncture-resistant. This innovative bag effectively blocks satellite signals, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 5G and EMP interference. It features MOLLE straps on the back for convenient attachment to belts or bags, along with a secure magnetic buckle that allows for easy one-handed access. Uncle Norm’s Marine Products
Pacific Calls
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Deuces Double Reed Duck Call is the numberone-selling duck call at Pacific Calls. It has a great range, is easy to blow and is user-friendly, creating the perfect tool for any duck hunter.
youtube.com/@UncleNormsMarine Uncle Norm’s Performance Fins cut through the water, decreasing turn radius and boat wander for better slow-speed control and docking ability. The horizontal fluke area across the top blocks the prop from drawing water from the surface, effectively eliminating ventilation. You’ll get on plane faster and gain a smoother ride.
Wolfsen’s Meat & Sausage
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Wolfsen’s Meat & Sausage offers charcuterie boards made with Wolfsen’s made-in-house turkey, ham, tri-tip, snack sticks, grapes, nuts and cheese.
Wolfsen’s Gift Bags include:
1 small Wolfsen’s thermal bag;
1 pack of sausage;
1 pack of beef jerky;
1 pack of snack sticks;
1 4-ounce bag of Stewart & Jasper nuts; and
1 bottle of Wolfsen’s Sauce.
Nomar
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The Nomar boat bag is a versatile splash-proof bag to tote your gear to the boat, to the beach or wherever a tough, heavy-duty bag is required. The top zips closed to protect its contents. Heavy-duty carry handles and D-rings on the side to add a carry strap. Measures 15 inches by 10 inches by 15 inches. Available in lots of colors.
Yaquina Bay Charters
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This holiday season, give the gift of an Oregon Coast fishing adventure! Gift cards are available online.
Safe Jack safejacks.com
Safe Jack solves century-old stability and safety issues related to farm jacks and the classic bottle jack. The most common failure is not linked to the jack itself but to stability, too much ground loading in one spot, and the lift point. Check out these kits!
Deep Sea Sportfishing
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Deep Sea Sportfishing is a premier adventure destination for Westport fishing charter enthusiasts, boasting a fleet of exceptional vessels – the Comeback, El Matador, Tequila Too, Sudsy, Aurora and the Ultimate. With a focus on providing an unforgettable deep-sea fishing experience, Deep Sea Sportfishing offers a diverse range of fishing trips, each tailored to cater to the preferences and skill levels of anglers.
KatchKooler Deluxe www.silverhorde.com
The KatchKooler Deluxe “Keeps Your Catch Fresher.” The compact design makes it easy to stow. A high-density closed-cell foam layer will keep your fish extra cold. Made with durable waterproof outer fabric and equipped with a strong handle. Excellent for transporting fish. It’s the perfect gift for the angler in your family.
2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Fish Hunters Guide Service
fishhuntersguideservice.com
Holiday special! The more people in your group, the more you save! Up to $200 in savings!
**$50 off the purchase for two guests, $75 off the purchase for three guests, $100 off the purchase for four guests, $150 off the purchase for five guests, and $200 off the purchase for six guests. This offer expires 1/1/25.
Westview Marina
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Epic British Columbia, Canada, fishing/ catching adventure. Drive or fly-in, four nights’ lodging, three full days of guided fishing/catching salmon, halibut, lingcod and much more, with all your meals off a large restaurant menu. Price is $2,100 USD each for a crew of four to six people.
