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Volume 11 • Issue 5

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ON THE COVER Jack Benson, 12, harvested this great bull elk on a youth any-elk tag in South-central Washington last season, and his dad, Jeff, shares the lad’s successful hunt in our annual Big Game Yearbook.

(HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Northwest Sportsman 9

CONTENTS

VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 5

BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K

30 BIG GAME

YEARBOOK, CLASS OF ’18 Massive bulls, first blood, notable

harvests – readers share their stories and photographs from the recently completed 2018 hunting seasons in our annual Big Game Yearbook!

30 41 45 53 61

67

Bry’s Bull Reader pics A Bigger Bull Than Dad’s!

The Hunt For Double Triple Artemis Sportswomen: New group’s state ambassador tells her story, how effort aims to engage more women in sporting conservation New feature! Live critter gallery (BRYANNA ZIMMERMAN)

ALSO INSIDE 105 STEELHEADING A RIVER ON THE RISE One of Sara Ichtertz’s first stories for us was about perfect winter steelheading water – a river on the drop. But what happens when it pours down rain during her family’s annual fish camp on an Oregon Coast stream? Momma and crew take it as a challenge to try and produce “reel results in unreal conditions.”

157 WATERFOWLING, AND THE YOUTUBE GENERATION With mentors lacking, duck- and goose-hunting newbies are turning to video-posting educator-entertainers like young guns Bobby Guy and Josh Rouse, but are there limitations to what you can learn online? Lower Columbia waterfowler MD Johnson, a student from the old school, shares his takes, and they just might surprise you.

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NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Avenue South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Periodical Postage Paid at Seattle, WA and at additional mail offices. (USPS 025-251) POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Northwest Sportsman, 14240 Interurban Ave South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Annual subscriptions are $29.95 (12 issues), 2-year subscription are $49.95 (24 issues). Send check or money order to Media Index Publishing Group, or call (206) 382-9220 with VISA or M/C. Back issues may be ordered at Media Index Publishing Group offices at the cost of $5 plus shipping. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2019 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A.

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BUZZ RAMSEY:

What To Feed The Umpqua’s Big Steelhead Oregon’s Umpqua River is known for plentiful and large steelhead and if there’s anybody who knows what really big winter-runs like to bite, bite it would be Buzz. He checks in with local guide Darrell Moore for advice on running the river and best plug colors – you’ll never believe how many steelies one 3.5 Mag Lip of Moore’s accounted for!

(ELKTON OUTFITTERS)

COLUMNS 117 NORTH SOUND: A Rare Pair, Plus Hares Over the past nine years, there’s been one Skagit-Sauk steelhead fishery in prime time, and at press time it was possible a second would be set for this year. But if for whatever reason it’s a no-go, our tea-leaf reader Doug shares two more midwinter options – jigging smelt at La Conner and hunting bunnies in the lowlands.

125 SOUTH SOUND: Prime Time For Steelies This time of year typically sees good fishing for a mix of hatchery and wild steelhead returning to Olympic Peninsula and Grays Harbor streams, but with how crowded some can get, don’t overlook blackmouth opportunities in Deep South Sound. Jason has hot spots and top tactics for both opportunities!

131 THE KAYAK GUYS: Retrofitting A Kayak Into A Fishing Machine Count Scott B. among those who like a good challenge, in this case restoring an “eyesore” of a kayak bought off Craigslist as a winter project. After repairing it, he found it to be far from an ideal fishing craft and leagues away from those designed with that purpose in mind, but still passable. Ride along on his salmon shakedown cruises and discover what’s possible in plastic!

137 ON TARGET: Rifle Makers Unveil New Big Game Models For 2019 Northwest sportsmen looking to upgrade their deer and elk rifles as well as optics have some new choices to consider well ahead of 2019’s seasons. Dave details new wares from Browning, Winchester and Swarovski.

145 CHEF IN THE WILD: Fold Your Tongue!

Shooting a critter at the bottom of the canyon might lead some to leave edible parts behind in favor of the meatiest bits, but not Randy. He cut the tongue out of his cow elk and used it for a delicious taco topped with garlic avocado crema!

151 GUN DOG: What You Need To Know About E-collars Electronic collars are a valuable training tool for gun dog owners, but knowing how and when to use them is critical. Scott H. checks in with noted trainer Jess Spradley for how to correctly use e-collars on your budding hunting pup.

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17 (NMFS)

THE EDITOR’S NOTE

Stopping salmon fishing won’t save the orcas

DEPARTMENTS 69

PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS Yo-Zuri, hunting monthly prizes

71

FISHING AND HUNTING NEWS Mobility-impaired angler fighting to save beach access; ODFW begins removing Willamette Falls sea lions; Washington wolf count likely to rise, possibly sharply; Oregon Coast Xmas tree recycling event to benefit coho cancelled over invasive parasite fears

81

THE DISHONOR ROLL BC trophies seized from Spokane brothers after investigation; Book ‘archery’ buck actually killed with a rifle; Jackass of the Month

87

DERBY WATCH 18.54-pounder wins Resurrection Derby; More recent results; Friday Harbor Salmon Classic and other upcoming events

89

2019 SPORTSMEN’S AND BOAT SHOW CALENDAR Dates, links for upcoming shows

91

OUTDOOR CALENDAR Upcoming openers, closures, events, deadlines

91

BIG FISH Record Northwest game fish caught this month

135 GUIDE FLY The Bunny Muddler

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long-wi

THEEDITOR’SNOTE

Salmon anglers work Possession Bar on the opening day of 2018’s Central Sound hatchery Chinook fishery targeting salmon that southern resident killer whales have already had a crack at. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

T

he idea that we can save Puget Sound’s starving orcas by just stopping salmon fishing for a few years once again reared its misinformed head, this time in a big-city newspaper piece last month. The nut was that we humans were shamefully avoiding looking at our own consumption of the iconic marine mammal’s primary feedstock.

Leaving that aspect out of the state of Washington’s recovery plan meant that “We have decided, collectively though passively, to let the Puget Sound orcas go extinct,” it lamented.

We haven’t really, but nonetheless the prominence of the piece left leaders of the region’s angling community disappointed, as well as worried that it could lead to “knee-jerk” responses as Washington responds to the crisis.

THE ARTICLE IN question was a column by Danny Westneat in The Seattle Times in which he primarily quoted Kurt Beardslee at the Wild Fish Conservancy. “To cut back on fishing is an absolute no brainer, as a way to immediately boost food available for killer whale,” Beardslee told Westneat. “But harvest reductions are essentially not in the governor’s task force recommendations.”

As it turns out, we have been cutting back on Chinook fishing.

Have been for years – 90 percent alone in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands, key foraging areas for the southern resident killer whales, over the past two and a half decades. But so far J, K and L Pods appear to have shown no response, having unfortunately declined from nearly 100 members in the mid-1990s to 75 as of last month.

So I’m not sure what Beardlee expects to magically happen when he tells Westneat, “It’s easy to see how cutting the fisheries’ take in half, or eliminating it entirely on a short-term emergency basis, could provide a big boost.”

I mean, how is the 10 percent sliver that’s left going to help if the closure of the other 90 percent coincided with the cumulative loss of 25 percent of the orca population over the same period?

Don’t get me wrong, we fishermen want to help too. Some of nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 17

The region’s three orca pods continue to struggle from lack of Chinook, despite a 90 percent decrease in Washington’s inside king salmon fisheries and 41 percent decline in West Coast catches.

(KATY FOSTER/NOAA FISHERIES)

the most poignant stories I’ve heard in all this are angler-orca interactions. But it’s not as cut-and-dried as not harvesting the salmon translating into us effectively putting some giant protein shake out in the saltchuck for SRKWs to snarf down, as Westneat posited: “Each year the sport, commercial and tribal fishing industries catch about 1.5 million to 2 million chinook in U.S. and Canadian waters, most of which swim through the home waters of the southern resident orcas,” he wrote.

But not only do the SRKWs already have access to those fish, the waters where they’re primarily harvested as adults by the bulk of fishermen are essentially beyond the whales’ normal range. For instance, the Columbia River up to and beyond the Hanford Reach, and in terminal zones of Puget Sound and up in Southeast Alaska.

Pat Patillo, a retired longtime state fisheries manager who is now a sportfishing advocate, told me, “If not caught, those fish would not serve as food for SRKWs – they wouldn’t turn around from the Columbia River, for example, and return to the ocean for SRKW consumption! They already swam through the orcas’ home waters and they didn’t eat them.”

WHILE BEARDSLEE’S TRYING to come off as some sort of orca angel – “It’s like if you’re having a heart attack, your doctor doesn’t say: ‘You need to go running to 18 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

get your heart in better shape.’ Your doctor gives you emergency aid right away,” he told Westneat – he’s more like an angel of death trying to use SRKWs as his latest avenue to kill fishing.

Type the words “Wild Fish Conservancy” into a Google search and the second result in the dropdown is “Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit.” This month WFC might file another, this one against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over West Coast salmon fisheries through the lens of the plight of orcas.

It’s not their usual target, which is the whales’ best short- and medium-term hope – hatchery production. After WFC sued the Washington Department of Fish

A harbor seal steals a Chinook off an angler’s line in the San Juan Islands. (HUGH ALLEN)

and Wildlife over steelhead, a state senator hauled them before his committee in 2015 and pointedly asked their representative at the hearing, “Are there any hatcheries you do support in the state?”

“There are several that have closed over time,” replied WFC’s science advisor Jamie Glasgow. “Those would be ones that we support.”

But that sort of thinking is not going to work out for hungry orcas, given one estimate that it will take 90 years for Chinook recovery goals to be met at the current pace of restoration work in estuaries. To boost their chances, WDFW says it is asking the legislature for funding to raise an additional 24 million smolts over the next two years, and 50 million by the following biennium.

Nor does it leave any place for efforts like those by the Nisqually Tribe to increase the size of those produced by their hatchery to provide fatter fare for SKRWs. I’m going to offer a few stark figures here. The first is 275 million. That’s how many salmon of all stocks WDFW produced at its hatcheries in 1989, according to The Lens. The second is 137 million. That’s how many WDFW put out in 2017, the “lowest production year ever,” per the pro-biz online news source. The third is 56 million. That’s how many Chinook smolts the agency released in 1989, according to figures from the state legislature. And the fourth is 28 million. That’s how many were in 2016.

Now, I’m not going to suggest that 50 percent decreases in releases are due

entirely to Beardslee et al – hatchery salmon reforms and state budget crunches play the strongest roles. Nor am I going to suggest that they’re the sole reason that our orcas are struggling – pollutants and vessel disturbance have been also identified as affecting their health and ability to forage.

But with SRKWs dying from lack of Chinook and other salmon to eat and Puget Sound’s wild kings – which are largely required to be released by anglers – comprising just a sixth to a twelfth of the Whulge’s run in recent years, surely the man must have some qualms about his anti-hatchery jihad, including against key Mitchell Act facilities for SRKWs on the Columbia?

Nope, in his world it’s fishermen who must feel even more pain.

A FAR BIGGER problem for SRKWs is pinnipeds stealing their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Bloated numbers of harbor seals were recently estimated to annually eat 12.2

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million Chinook smolts migrating out of Puget Sound, roughly 25 percent of the basin’s hatchery and wild output. In the world of fisheries-meets-math science, that translates to 100,000 adult kings that aren’t otherwise available to the orcas.

Unfortunately, managing those cute little “water puppies” is realistically way down the pipeline.

By the way, guess who fought against lethally removing sea lions gathered to feast on salmon at Bonneville? Beardslee and Wild Fish Conservancy.

“Given the clamor surrounding sea lions,” they argued in defense of a 2011 federal lawsuit to halt lethal removals at the dam, “you might guess that sea lions are the most significant source of returning salmon mortality that managers can address. Guess again. The percentage of returning upper Columbia River spring Chinook salmon consumed by California sea lions since 2002, when CSL were first documented at Bonneville Dam, averages only 2.1% each year.”

Three years later, sea lions ate 43

percent of the entire ESA-listed run – 104,333 returning springers. Whoops.

Those fish were recently identified as among the top 15 most important king stocks for SRKWs. Double oopsy-daisy.

As sea lion, harbor seal and even northern killer whale consumption of Chinook in the Pacific has mushroomed from 5 million to 31.5 million since 1970, Washington hatchery production has halved since 1989 and the all-fleet West Coast king catch has also decreased from 3.6 million to 2.1 million.

Again, we want to help – we and the orcas both depend on healthy Chinook – but we aren’t the problem.

SO INSTEAD OF shutting down fishing, what could and should we do to help orcas out in the near-term?

I think the governor’s task force came up with a good idea on the no-go/go-slow boating bubble around the pods. That protects them where they’re eating, and it doesn’t needlessly close areas where they’re not foraging for fish that won’t be

there when they do eventually show up.

While I’ll be following the advice Lorraine Loomis at the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission gave after similar just-stop-fishing sentiments came up last fall – “If you love salmon, eat it,” she wrote – anglers can take voluntary measures themselves.

Even if it’s past the gauntlet of orca jaws, if it makes you feel better, go ahead and release that saltwater king you catch, like Seattle angler Web Hutchins did last month with a hatchery fish. “Hope that new baby orca’s mom can find it and give it to him!” he emailed me to say.

Switch your fishfinder frequency from 50 kHz to the less acoustically disturbing 200 kHz for killer whales if they happen to show up in your trolling lane.

Follow Orca Network on Facebook for where the pods are so you can avoid them.

Pay attention to fish counts and if a hatchery is having trouble meeting broodstock goals, maybe fish another river or terminal zone, or species.

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Along with a moratorium on SRKW watching tours for the coming years, Washington officials are likely to increase protective bubbles around the pods.

(GOVERNOR’S OFFICE)

I also think Beardslee and WFC could, say, lay off their low-hanging-fruit lawsuit schtick – lol, fat chance of that – to give

federal overseers time to process permits that ensure hatcheries and fisheries are run properly, instead of having to drop their work and put out the latest brushfire they’ve lit.

And I think boosting hatchery Chinook production is huge, and all the more important because of the excruciatingly slow pace that habitat restoration – which I’m always in favor of – produces results.

Yes, it will take a couple years for increased releases to take effect. The ugly truth is, we have utterly altered and degraded salmon habitat with our megalopolis/industrial farmscape/power generation complex that stretches from here to Banff to the Snake River Plain to the Willamette Valley and back again and can’t realistically expect to turn this ship around by just pressing the Stop Fishing button and have SRKWs magically respond.

It is going to take time. We are going to lose more orcas. But we will save them, and ourselves. –Andy Walgamott

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Bryanna Zimmerman earned her trophy Washington elk, putting in the target practice, strength conditioning and time in her treestand to get a shot on day 11 of her hunt at this eight-pointer. Her bull green-scored 358 inches, she reports. (BRYANNA ZIMMERMAN) 30 Northwest Sportsman

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PICTURE

BIG GAME

2018

Y E AR BO O K

This time of year we like to take a look back at Northwest hunters’ past season to highlight the deer, elk, moose and more we’ve harvested. One of the biggest certainly was Bryanna Zimmerman’s eight-point archery bull, a story she shares here.

But we also like to show off first kills, continuing successes, and, new this year, we’re adding a gallery of live critter pics. And check out Kyla West’s story on Artemis Sportswomen, a new effort that aims to engage more women in sporting conservation.

Throw another log on the fire and please enjoy the 2018 edition of Northwest Sportsman’s annual Big Game Yearbook! – The Editor

Bry’s Bull

By Bryanna Zimmerman

A

fter a few years of putting in for points, 2018 was the year that we were really hopeful on drawing a bull tag. The number one tag my husband Jeff and I wanted was for one of us to draw quality elk in our usual cow/ spike-only unit. We both checked every 10 minutes all day at work and finally Jeff texted me and said, “You’re going to need to take off more days in September.”

I cried in disbelief and anxiety, wishing that he had been the one to draw. Jeff is a much better hunter than I and he has put in the work to earn it.

“Honey,” he said, “it won’t be easy but, hey, you’ve conquered worse and I’m excited to take on the challenge with you.”

I WENT TO the backyard and shot my bow until my arms were limp. Our summer plans changed and we spent every opportunity scouting, setting and checking cameras, setting and checking tree stands, Jeff used his mouth reeds and bugled more than he talked to me, and I lived in the gym. I had

a new goal that pushed me beyond an uncomfortable level. I created a vision that I obsessed over – my elk rack on my back. I talked to anyone willing to share advice or bull hunting stories – the guys at Sportco and PN Wild were my lifelines.

I upgraded my old bow to a Bowtech Realm last spring and was shooting the best I’d ever shot. As summer went on and the pressure to do my best set in, my target panic peaked. I was completely missing the target at 30 yards and it was only four weeks till opening day. I heard about Joel Turner and his program, Shot IQ. In two hours I was back to bull’s-eyes at 50 yards and my confidence was back.

With an Idaho elk hunt in October and a cow tag in November, Jeff encouraged me to only use my Washington tag on something of quality. I will have many more opportunities at elk, but this was a very specific hunt and it could be another 15 years before it came along again. So whether I was successful or not, I made sure that I was as prepared as possible and if I went home empty handed, I wouldn’t have anything to regret. It felt as if the years

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 31

PICTURE

For more than a week and a half this was the sunrise view from Zimmerman’s stand as she waited in hopes a big bull would give her a shot. (BRYANNA ZIMMERMAN) we’ve spent hunting were finally being tested and it was all practice for this season.

We had many bulls on camera, but that was normal for our preseason areas. This past summer, it was a matter of finding areas that the elk would go when the hunters hit the woods. There were three specific sixpoint bulls, one being very unique, that were on our list and all of which were going to the same wallow. If just one of them stuck around, I would be prepared.

THREE-THIRTY CAME EARLY on opening day and Jeff headed with me to an area that we had two treestands. Jeff only had a spike tag, but it was every bit as much his hunt as it was mine. The woods were quiet and after sitting 15 hours and seeing nothing but a doe, the sun forced us out of the stands and back to camp.

We headed back to the same spot for day two and around 10 a.m., I heard commotion and looked up to see one of the six-by-six bulls coming towards the wallow, walking a little faster than he should have been.

The bull walked right up to the wallow and looked around. He appeared slightly disheveled and I knew he must have been looking for two cows that had just walked by. Forty-two yards away, standing almost completely broadside, he stopped right there as if allowing me a moment to get my composure and make my move.

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The only move I made was to unhook my release and swat a bee from my stabilizer. The excuses not to shoot flooded my head. They are poor excuses; embarrassing, actually. The kind of excuses that would make me go home with regret, but I let them fill the space in my head.

I watched him walk out of shooting range and though Jeff cow called, the bull stopped too far away and behind trees, only to continue on his hunt for the cows.

My heart sank. I kept telling myself that I didn’t have a shot. I don’t want “my story” to be “I flung an arrow and missed.” I would Not letting her arrow fly at this six-point elk early in her hunt left the hunter feeling the lowest of lows. “Deep down, I think … I am not capable nor worthy of this bull,” she writes.

“Size and strength are things I’ve battled my entire life and are my biggest insecurities.”

(BRYANNA ZIMMERMAN)

rather have a story that said, “I didn’t have a good shot.”

Deep down, I think I am too small to harvest such a big bull. That I am not capable nor worthy of this bull. I know, it’s a silly thing for an adult to feel. But size and strength are things I’ve battled my entire life and are my biggest insecurities.

[Insert sappy feelings here.]

I can honestly say that I have never felt defeat like that afternoon and as I sat in silence with nothing but these thoughts for the next eight hours, I realized all the opportunities I have passed up. Some are unrelated to hunting, and though I was capable of succeeding, I passed them up because I wasn’t confident.

The days go on, Jeff continued to hunt with me most of them until he harvested a cow. By day nine, we have meat in the freezer, life lessons have been learned, we’ve had several days of being on elk, seen new bulls on camera, and have had a blast calling and learning a new style of hunting elk.

ON DAY 11, with just three days left, I had come to peace with my hunt. I was likely going to come out of it with an empty tag but a new perspective. Still, I decided to go back into one of our treestands that had bulls coming in during the day. Two were quality bulls worthy of my tag, eight- and seven-points that we had seen in previous years, but disappeared in 2018 until the hunt started.

That morning, I listened to bugles and

PICTURE

After taking a shot at a bull and not finding it that evening, it was a relief for Zimmerman that her husband Jeff Eklund (right) spotted it the next morning while searching with her and friend Mike (left).

(BRYANNA ZIMMERMAN)

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chipmunks until 10 a.m. when a herd moved below me and bedded down for the day. One lost cow was wandering around me calling for her herd when I heard a bull bugle back and come crashing through the forest in search of his missing girl. They stayed low on the hill as I listened to them find one another and then the woods went silent.

Jeff and I met up and decided to go after him on foot since he was far from the rest of the herd and potentially looking for more cows. But we didn’t get any responses from him after an hour, so I went back into my stand to finish the afternoon.

I was sitting listening to the woods start to come back to life for the evening when I heard elk moving below me. This might be my opportunity to redeem myself from day two. The noise was very close but the timber was thick around me aside from my shooting lane. I looked almost straight down and there was a bull. I could see just enough of his base to know in that instant that I was going to make every decision count.

Instead of on their usual, well-defined

PICTURE game trail in front of my stand, he came through the brush behind me. There wasn’t anything that prepared me for that move except for my mistake on day two. From the moment I saw him, I had about five seconds before he would be out of my sight. I quickly searched for any openings that he might walk into. I had a 1-foot window and about two seconds until he got there. I stood up, turned around to face the tree and drew my bow.

He stopped just before the opening after hearing my movement – thankfully. That gave me another couple of seconds to find my anchor point because my harness was running along my face since I was standing As strong as Zimmerman found herself to really be, she recognized the “community” who helped her eventually notch her tag – not to mention those who helped bring her bull out of the woods, fellow bowhunters (from left to right) Tony, Randy, Brent, Jeff, Tanner, Brent Jr., Mike and Carson. “Everybody had a tag of their own to fill and here they were taking their second to last day to come help get this bull out,” she writes. (BRYANNA ZIMMERMAN) backwards. He began to walk and when his front right leg stepped forward, I released my arrow with intent.

As she prepared for this past season, Zimmerman drew strength from a vision she created in her head – “My elk rack on my back.” And it came true!

(BRYANNA ZIMMERMAN)

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I LOOKED DOWN to see where my arrow was placed and wasn’t overly happy with my shot. The bull was quartered away, but it was a little back and as he turned to run back downhill, I saw that I did not make a complete pass through. Still, I listened intently for any indication that my shot had been successful and heard him below me, less than 50 yards away. I did not hear a crash or last breath, but I heard him stop. My mind raced with “my story” and my heart ached with the thought of an unrecovered animal. I heard him move a couple more steps, then a crash down the hill.

You would think that this was a moment of relief for me but it was far from it. My self-doubt flooded my mind as I created excuses again. I envisioned five different scenarios that would cause that crash except for a bull going down. My elk had seemingly slipped out of my grasp and was now deep back in the woods.

I waited one hour before getting out

PICTURE of my stand in case he was still below me.

Jeff knows that I won’t get out of my stand unless it’s pitch black or I have something down. As I walked up with a defeated demeanor, he was confused and excited at the same time. We used the last bit of light to try and find a positive sign, but there were no heavy footprints, blood or broken branches. It was as if there had never even been an elk there.

The moon replaced the sun and I convinced Jeff with all of my self-doubt.

My bull might still be alive nearby, so we decided to give the woods a break and come back in the morning to start a grid search. That was a sleepless night full of anguish, embarrassment, and remorse. For most hunters, one of the worst outcomes of a hunt is an injured or unrecovered animal.

First thing in the morning, we started making the journey back to the woods with our friend Mike. We searched the

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initial area and still came up with nothing.

We headed towards the hill that I had heard the crashes from and Jeff spotted him. He whistled and my eyes lit up. I went running towards his whistle and Jeff let out a squeal that came swooping down to pick up the weight off my shoulders. Just as I peeked the ridge, I saw my expired bull.

LIFE IN THAT moment turned into everything that I joke about while watching whitetail shows. You know, shaking, sobbing, someone saying this is the hunt of their lifetime, they’ve been after this animal for so long. I sobbed and smiled and hugged my teammates and tried to wrap my head around the last 12 days.

As it turns out, the bull was quartered away enough for me to have had a great shot and his cavity consumed almost my entire arrow. We made quick work of the pack out thanks to every person we knew hunting that unit. They all came to help and we got the load out in one trip. I hadn’t envisioned an eight-by-eight bull like this on my back, but I wasn’t upset when we all

decided that I wasn’t going to get out of the woods with it on my back. Hitting the dirt road and seeing the fleet of trucks made me want to cry all over again. This was hunting.

Everybody had a tag of their own to fill and here they were taking their second to last day to come help get this bull out.

We spent the day celebrating and loading up camp. It was the talk of the town when the meat and head stayed in the local meat locker. One of the locals scores for Pope & Young and was happy to put a tape on the antlers in the freezer, giving him a green score of 358 inches. One of my first phone calls when I got in service was to Nature’s Way Taxidermy, a friend of ours. I was sorry to say that he had one more elk to add to his list, but it was well worth the wait.

This hunt and this bull is my strength and confidence. It was a pivotal moment in my life and a hunting experience that changed the way I conquer goals. I worked for this, but I was not alone. There is a community of people who helped me harvest this bull and I’m grateful to be a part of this incredible sport. NS

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Northwest Sportsman 39

Nathan Sylvester kicked off the new year the right way, bagging this mountain lion on Jan. 1. He was hunting in North Idaho behind hounds.

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BIG GAME

2018

Chad Smith put two fruitless weeks into deer season, and when he tried for elk on the opener he thought he just might be onto something when he spotted a bull across a Western Washington valley from his position. But so was another hunter, a 12-yearold boy, so Smith yielded the opportunity and then took success pics of the kid and his dad afterwards before going on a long hike. Resting and glassing at a clearcut, “All of a sudden the hillside lit up with elk. I found a legal bull to shoot and took him down with a 270-yard shot with my .30-06,” he writes. The elk was his first.

Y EA RBOO K Dayn Osborn, 9, had a great rifle opener, taking this three-pointer in North-central Washington’s Douglas County with a 60-yard shot out of his Remington 700 in .243.

Sara McClendon of Tillamook harvested this dandy 24-inch-wide mule deer from Oregon’s Chesnimnus Unit in early October. It took McLendon five years to draw the tag for the Wallowa County unit, and her 433yard one-shot kill was due to her having practiced long-range shooting many times. She sports a very accurate Browning X-bolt chambered in .26 Nosler combined with a Leupold VX-6HD 4-24 rifle scope with a CDS long-range dial. (HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST, ALL THIS PAGE) nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 41

Hunting in late October, Aidan Harpole took his first buck ever, a forked horn in Western Oregon’s Melrose Unit. He was hunting with his dad and was using a .243. Family friend Carl Lewallen forwarded the pic.

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2018

Y EA RBOO K

Y The Seattle area’s Brett Carlile is continuing his tradition of taking nice elk in the West, this one a Nevada bull that he spotted at midday across a canyon.

Buzz Ramsey put some in some serious time afield this past hunting season.

He spent a week chasing whitetails in Northeast Washington but mainly found predator tracks, 12 days in Idaho where he bagged a mature four-byfive while hunting by himself up the Boise River, and 11 in Oregon where he notched his tag with this unusually racked mule deer.

(BUZZ RAMSEY)

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Shonda Russell shared this pic of Joey Brandsness and his first bull, taken with a 56-yard shot after her husband David Russell called the elk in for Joey. They were in Oregon’s Grizzly Unit.

Never give up.

That might be Carl Lewallen’s motto. “Last day, last minutes of shooting light, raining, windy, nasty, hunted hard all day, about to give up and head home.

On my way back to the rig I spotted this buck with his nose to the ground and on a mission.

He had no idea what happened when I shot him at about 20 yards.” Lewallen’s 100-grain Muzzy MX3 took out both lungs. (HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST, ALL THIS PAGE)

“Jayce worked his tail off for this buck,” says his “super-proud dad,” Troy Wilder.

He was hunting a Southern Oregon youth any-deer tag, passing on smaller blacktails before making a “fantastic shot” on this great one.

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PICTURE

A Bigger Bull Than Dad’s!

By Jeff Benson

S

o it is with every passing year, 2018 the hopes of drawing that special permit tag leaves me with the anticipation and excitement of a hunt yet to be conceived. I have grown up hunting in Y EA RBOO K Washington alongside my dad and older brother. I have enjoyed more than my fair share of memorable experiences, and now the time has come to create more with my own children. This has been a legacy passed down to me, fathers to sons, and with each passing generation comes new experiences to be shared and remembered for a lifetime.

This story isn’t about me, but rather my 12-year-old son, Jack. He has grown up tagging along with me on hunts ever since he could carry his own pack. For him, it all started with first hearing stories shared from the past; second, watching hunting shows on TV; and third, seeing me come home after a successful hunt, and wishing he too could have the opportunity to someday harvest his own elk.

The year 2017 was the first that Jack was eligible to put in for special permits, and he didn’t quite understand how the whole concept worked. I tried explaining how the draw system is designed, and why the state does what it does, but to a kid who just wants to go after a branch

BIG GAME

Drawing the tag was the easy part for Jack Benson, who pulled a youth any-elk permit for the Silver Dollar hunt on private lands in the lower Yakima Valley, but he was ultimately successful, bagging a six-point bull with one shot out of his .270. “Great hunt that took lots of patience as you can see there isn’t much cover to hide behind,” noted his proud father, Jeff, who also can’t claim to have shot the family’s biggest wapiti anymore. (HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Northwest Sportsman 45

PICTURE bull, well, it felt like I was speaking Greek.

But this past year was special because Jack finally grasped the idea that if he was lucky enough to get drawn, then he could possibly realize his ambition and challenges of chasing a mature bull elk.

FAST FORWARD TO June 2018. I had put Jack in for a youth bull tag in a hunt unit close to home, but quite unfamiliar to me. Like so many years when I have put in for permits, they have come with the disappointment that I’d have to wait another year for another chance. After checking the online system and seeing “Not Selected” in all my categories, I jumped over to my son’s profile and eagerly scrolled down through

each entry only to read “Not Selected” over and over. But in the last category, youth elk, it read “Selected.”

Immediately, I started to formulate how to tell Jack he was getting one of a few bull elk tags at age 12, while most hunters can wait a lifetime and still never get that draw.

The unique thing about this hunt is that it’s on private lands, and season starts Aug. 1. Kids are assigned to a hunt manager from one of the participating landowners, and each hunt usually consists of a day afield.

Jack’s first chance came in mid-August when we got the call to join our hunt manager, Rich. “How big of an elk do you want to shoot?” Rich asked.

“A bigger one than what my dad has ever gotten,” Jack replied.

He would come to live up to those words, but it wouldn’t be as easy as he thought.

THE FIRST EVENING was primarily used for glassing and locating the elk moving from their bedding areas to feed and water. The hope was to find them again first thing in the morning. However, as we approached the top of the hill, the hunt threw us a curveball. We suddenly saw a group of six bulls feeding just down over the hilltop.

Jack grappled with the quick reality that this could happen fast, and I could tell he was beyond excited and tried to assure me that he was calm and collected. I knew that I was more nervous for him than he was, and maybe that’s from all the close calls and missed shots that I remember as a kid.

I reached for the rangefinder and told Jack it was 175 yards to the biggest bull, which was a nice, wide five-by-six. The wind was unusual that evening, coming out of the north, but nonetheless was in our favor, or so I thought.

We slipped through the grass, crawling at times on our stomachs to avoid being detected. I ranged the bulls again, and they were at 125 yards, just calmly feeding.

Thoughts began to bounce in my head as the reality of Jack getting a shot became more likely. I reassured him that the only thing he had to do was take a steady stance on the shooting sticks, breathe, and squeeze the trigger, just as he had practiced for many hours at the range.

Then, just as the big bull appeared from the tall grass, I felt a sudden change in the wind on the back of my neck. Everyone who has hunted elk knows that you either get the shot off quick, or else it’s game over. This bull didn’t pose for a broadside shot, and before I could tell Jack “We’re busted,” the elk took off over the hill.

The next morning came and went with another close encounter before the heat of that August day shut down the activity.

JACK’S SECOND CHANCE to hunt was a

Last year turned out to be a pretty good one for the 12-year-old. Jack also bagged a nice mule deer in Walla Walla County. (HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST)

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couple of weeks later when we found ourselves yet again amidst several quality bull elk. The morning of the hunt came early, and Rich asked Jack, “Are you ready to kill a big bull today?” Jack replied, “Yup.” The morning started out a little slow, with not much movement. While Rich and I glassed for animals, Jack took several opportunities to rest his eyes and pretend that he was not sleeping. Several minutes

PICTURE passed and the thought started creeping into my head that the late August heat would yet again put a lid on our plans.

Then suddenly everything changed.

“There’s a nice bull!”

As I finished scanning the horizon, I brought my binos back up after adjusting my eyes. There was not just one bull but 12 coming over the horizon onto the flats.

“Come on, Jack, this is your time to get an elk,” I said.

We set off for what ended up being a 45-minute pursuit seeking out which canyon the bulls might be headed into to find reprieve from the wind. I could almost hear Jack’s heartbeat with every step he took as we approached the first canyon. It was void of elk, so we moved to the next, which also held no elk. The look on Jack’s face was both puzzlement and hope as he wondered where the bulls had gone.

There was only one canyon left to

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check. As we all approached its edge, our anticipation built as we just knew an encounter was about to happen. After all, a dozen elk couldn’t just vanish into thin air. Sure enough, a parade of unmistakable fuzzy velvet antler tines began to emerge from the grass at the head of the draw.

One by one they filed into the canyon, starting to feed down the opposite hillside in our direction.

“Dad, which one should I take?” Jack asked.

“It’s all up to you, son,” I replied. “Pick out the bull you want, and stay right on him.”

It seemed the elk were playing a cruel game of cat and mouse with Jack as they intermingled and moved about each other, kind of like finding the ball under the hat game. I knew it was a lot for a young hunter to manage, thinking about a clear shot, keeping calm and focusing through the scope on that one bull. As soon as the bull got to 175 yards, Rich gave a cow call to stop the bull broadside.

“Are you on him, Jack?”

“Yup,” he said, and with my final words of “Take him,” Jack squeezed the trigger.

Click.

In a freak moment of panic, I realized the bolt on the rifle must have gotten bumped at some point in our pursuit. I quickly reached over and pushed the bolt down firmly. As the bull stood there, Jack again had to locate and confirm his shot.

I watched the bull through my binos for what seemed like an eternity but really was only a few seconds before the boom.

The bull’s knees buckled, and it dropped instantly in its tracks. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Jack had done it!

All the anticipation, excitement, and burning desire to harvest an elk paid off for him. After a few shout-outs, much like scoring the winning basket in his basketball game, hugs of joy and thankfulness were shared about. There was only one question that seemed appropriate.

“Jack,” Rich asked, “did you just shoot a bigger bull than your dad has?”

With the biggest smile a kid could have, Jack replied, “I sure did!” NS

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BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K

The weather was warm and the moon bright at night in the 509 last October, but Chad White and nephew Caleb White still notched their tags. Caleb (above) got his, a two-by-three, on opening day with a .243 – “He was so pumped,” the proud uncle relates – while Chad (below) followed with another a few days later with his 7mm.

Big bulls are available during the general season too, as Ray Cooper will attest. He bagged this six-pointer during Western Washington’s November rifle hunt.

“A long road of recovery after shoulder surgery and I was finally able to transition from rifle hunting back to my passion of archery,” Jo Wiebe writes. “I am super excited to have gotten this buck the opening day of the season at 41 yards on public land in Douglas County, Washington. The best part was the future hunters – my niece and nephews were there to witness the hunt from a distance through their own binos and were able to help in the recovery and field dressing of this beautiful buck.”

(HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST, ALL THIS PAGE)

Former Northwest Sportsman sales manager Brian Lull returned to Northeast Montana’s Missouri River country for the first time after a three-fall hiatus, and he and a hunting partner both came away with some prime venison.

“Those deer, when well cared for, taste excellent. They eat wheat, legumes, barley, etc. It’s all ag land interspersed with coulees where we go,” he reported.

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“All of her hard work of practicing and hiking paid off!” exults Christopher Reed about wife Minden and her cow, taken in Washington’s Bumping Unit in the South Cascades during her fifth year of hunting elk with him. “We backpack in 3.5 miles and then we were 2 miles further in chasing the herd,” he notes.

“This cow walked right into her, she took a front shot, hit the heart and the cow dropped. She was so excited!”

After watching a buck bed down at first light but continuing on his planned morning hunt, Chad Zoller looped back around on his dad’s farm outside Arlington, Oregon, to find the muley still there.

Hunting alone and with a gravel road nearby, he decided to put the sneak on it. “I got about 50 yards from him before he stood up,” he recalls.

“My Ruger Scout Rifle in .308 took him with one shot.”

BIG GAME

2018

Gregg Embree got the job done on opening day of Oregon’s archery elk hunt, downing this big dark-antlered bull in the Murderers Creek Unit. Friend Buzz Ramsey shared the pic.

Y EA RBOO K

Usually in these pages you’ll find Stan Weeks perched way up in the Cascades with a trophy September High Hunt mule deer, but with Chiliwist Unit whitetail permits in his and wife Monica’s pockets he passed up on those bucks for a chance to chase rutty flagtails with his sweetie. Even with warm weather during the November season, they both took good deer.

Chad Smith really likes hunting the backcountry, but says that next time maybe he and brother-in-law Kyle McCullough won’t venture quite so far. They were 13 miles deep in Washington’s North Cascades when a black bear made itself known, leading to a shot opportunity and McCullough’s first bruin.

(HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST, ALL THIS PAGE)

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The Hunt For Double Triple

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BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K

By Alan Clune

Alan Clune has a habit of tagging very big bucks during the late archery hunt in North-central Washington. His latest, nicknamed Double Triple for the three points on both front forks, follows on big boys he took during the 2011 and 2014 seasons and were featured in our pages. (HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST)

I

t all started during Washington’s late archery mule deer hunt. I had one goal in mind: to hang my tag on a mature mule deer buck taken with my Mathews bow in the Evergreen State’s high country.

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Northwest Sportsman 53

PICTURE I arrived at camp two weeks before opening day to spend some time in the majestic mountains, the home of what I call big buck camp. Hoping to locate several mature bucks before the opener, I put in many miles climbing the rocky mountains and glassing ridges and timbered draws looking for bucks that just didn’t seem to be anywhere. After days of only finding small bucks and does it seemed my standards would inevitably be lowered.

Hearing that October’s rifle hunt was one of the toughest seasons in regards to animal numbers and harvest I wasn’t surprised with what I was experiencing. So a week into the prehunt I decided to set up trail cameras to monitor deer movement, hoping that it might give me that little edge to succeed with my goal. Two days into the surveillance I finally got my first glimpse of the buck that would haunt me and be forever known as Double Triple.

This buck became the talk of camp during the rest of the lead-up to opening day and beyond. With triple front forks on both sides and a sixth point in line on his G-2, this was my target buck and the only one I wanted to hang my tag on.

The opener came and went with only six does spotted, so it was back to camp for a hot meal and reminiscences about our day’s adventure, then off to bed for the 4 a.m. alarm. My plan was to climb back up the mountain to my stand where I could only hope I would have that fateful encounter with Double Triple.

For the next three nights this majestic animal showed up on camera only to disappear come daybreak. While testing my patience on stand for 10 hours each day, I knew if I could win the mental game with myself, eventually Double Triple would make the mistake and give me the opportunity I was desperately wanting.

On day four I found myself back in my stand for a long day on the mountain.

As the hours passed by, it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but then I noticed some movement on the steep timberline across the hill. I pulled up my binoculars and there he was in all his glory, 54 Northwest Sportsman

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“It was an awesome experience finding a buck like that on public land, then putting 100 percent of the effort into bringing that one home,” Clune says.

(HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST)

Double Triple, working his way towards me with two does trailing.

My heart began to pound uncontrollably. I took my eyes off him and looked down towards my lap and could see my chest pounding. I began telling myself to calm down and relax as finally the moment I’d been waiting for was here.

I slowly reached up and lifted my bow off my bow hanger that was suspended from the roof of my ground blind, then rested it on my knee. Looking up to see where my buck was, I noticed he was coming right at me at about 80 yards.

I slowly hooked up to my string loop

and got ready. He stopped at 27 yards.

Everything was perfect, now I just had to draw my bow and make the shot. At full draw my release broke and my arrow passed through both front shoulders.

Knowing it was a fatal hit I watched him run out of sight over the ridge, and at that very moment I realized my patience and perseverance had finally paid off.

Giving it about 20 minutes I slowly tracked the blood trail to his resting place on the steep hillside where I finally got to put my hands on my buck.

The quest, the journey, the hunt for Double Triple was now complete. NS

When the buck Timothy Zoller and his dad Chad were putting the sneak on on Southeast Washington’s ZMI Ranch stood up at 186 yards, pa handed son his own rifle and told the 17-yearold to aim one pin below the crosshairs. “He took it through the heart. I couldn’t have done better myself,” said a very proud Chad.

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BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K Jeremiah Sitton bagged another nice bull! You might recall his 2016 Skagit muzzleloader elk, the largest taken in Washington by a youth muzzleloader. Well, here’s his latest, a moose taken in the state’s northeastern corner.

“Not a masher but I’m pretty proud of him,” says Devin Schildt of the Everett area about his first-ever buck, and he should be! He bagged the Sitka blacktail during a boat-in adventure in Southeast Alaska that had plenty of wild moments. “Big wind and waves … I had a very notfun grizzly issue – let’s say that my fawn distress calling was apparently very enticing,” Schildt relates.

(HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST, ALL THIS PAGE)

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The hunter who drew Oregon’s coveted Fort Rock Unit premium hunt? That would be Dudley Nelson, and while the tag allowed him to chase a buck starting Aug. 1, he and son Kipp waited till snow was flying late in the four-month hunt to begin. After spotting but passing up deer that were too far off, Nelson closed to within 150 yards of this wide-racked buck, downing it with one shot from his .300 Remington Ultra Mag.

BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K The Molotte boys – brothers Guy and Jon and dad Mike –had quite a season, pulling a couple mule deer out of Washington’s Okanogan County and each downing a bull elk during a once-in-a-lifetime family hunt in New Mexico. Let’s just say that the latter excursion provided a bit more aerobic exercise for the Washington trio – “The elevation was the killer. Hiking at 9,000 feet just whooped us!” said Jon, adding that the family was still very happy for the successful fall.

Earl Foytack’s grandkids were hunting and fishing fiends in 2018! Not only did Emily and Bryce catch salmon during a down year on the Kenai, they both took their first bucks, three- and two-point blacktails from Southwest Washington’s Stella Unit.

(HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST, ALL THIS PAGE)

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Northwest Sportsman 57

Michelle Whitney beams next to her mule deer buck, taken in Northeast Washington in October and photographed at the state game check. According to biologist Annemarie Prince, it was Whitney’s first buck and she took it in her 18th year afield, highlighting the value of never giving up! (WDFW)

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BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K You’ve heard of a mixed bag in fishing. Well, Beau Smith and Travis Allsup accomplished something along those lines while hunting last fall. After a wildfire scrubbed their drop-camp deer hunt in Washington’s Cascades, they headed to familiar country north of Spokane, where first Allsup dropped a black bear and then a whitetail buck.

Searching for his own deer, Smith was taking some video of a cow moose for his wife when he heard a snap. “The noise I thought was her calf above her turned out to be a full-grown male mountain lion that decided I looked like a easier target than a full-grown cow moose,” he recalls.

“Out of pure reaction I pulled up my rifle and squeezed.

The cat fell not 25 feet from me … It was a 2018 deer season I will never forget.” We’ll say!

“The smile says it all!” writes Susan Klander of 12-year-old Kyle Klander, who bagged his first deer on opening day in Whatcom County. The lad made an 80-yard downhill shot with a .308 “with his dad Joel at his side and Grandpa Rick not far behind.”

This kid’s gonna be a scout sniper at this pace! James Garrett “practiced shooting a lot out to 350 yards and he never missed that plate,” so when this legal muley popped up in Washington’s western Palouse at 340 yards for the 9-year-old, he dropped it in its tracks!

(HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST, ALL THIS PAGE)

58 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

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PICTURE

Artemis I Sportswomen Launched

By Kyla West

STATE AMBASSADOR FOR NEW GROUP TELLS HER STORY, HOW EFFORT AIMS TO ENGAGE MORE WOMEN IN SPORTING CONSERVATION.

was 11 when I made my first kill.

We’d waded through golden winter sorghum all morning, the heavy bass of my boot tread vibrating to my skull through a thick headset. As we neared the end of our strip, our hunting party slowed to greet the farm’s attendant, Jim Hellings.

Suddenly, our steadfast Brittany went rigid, holding a shrouded bird in place. On command, the dog advanced and a burst of feathers sprung out. It was a clear shot, so I tugged my 20-gauge single close into my shoulder, my heart pumping as Mr. Hellings instinctively dove for cover behind his ATV. I gently squeezed the trigger and watched her fall. One shot. One kill.

BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K

With the motto “Bold sportswomen creating fresh tracks for conservation,” Artemis Sportswomen takes its name from the Greek goddess of the hunt and the wild. The National Wildlife Federation-sponsored group aims to encourage female hunters and anglers to “(engage) in every facet of the sporting conservation life.” (BLM)

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 61

PICTURE

Author Kyla West, the Washington ambassador for Artemis Sportswomen, grew up back east and counts taking her first pheasant as among the guideposts that put her on her way to becoming a well-rounded sportswoman. “Though my family respects and appreciates wildlife, I am easily the only one to obsess over it, let alone carve a future out of it,” she writes. (KYLA WEST) My excitement swelled as adrenaline coursed with my beating heart. After retrieving the hen, I held her close, eyeing her beauty and unique color. Black feathers glinted in the morning light, revealing shimmers of green and purple at different angles. This hen was melanistic, meaning she had a recessive gene that produced higher levels of melanin, a dark pigmentation which replaces brown, copper, and tan hues that female pheasants are known for. Little did I know it, but this moment was one of many which fed the emergent bud of a much greater fate.

I have always known compassion for wild things and wild places. Though brought up on a regulated shooting preserve in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, I can easily trace pheasant hunting as an early catalyst for my intrigue in and connection to nature. We also spent each summer shore fishing on the Long Island Sound. Though my family respects and appreciates wildlife, I am easily the only one to obsess over it, let alone carve a future out of it.

Some describe their time outdoors as a religious experience – I can certainly see why. All it takes is walking through a foggy morning, when pale sunbeams glow through pillars of silhouetted pines.

That is my cathedral. In the paths I have 62 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

taken, I have always found something wondrous in nature, whether it’s the faint, sweet, smell of budding cottonwood in the spring, or the perfect symmetry of dew drops lining a wild strawberry leaf.

I SHARE MY story as an introduction to what an Artemis Sportswoman can be.

Artemis, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, represents a diverse group of women, many with roots in hunting and fishing. An Artemis Sportswoman makes sporting conservation a livelihood, working to preserve her traditions – and the lands that nurture them – for generations to come.

At the age of 15, I began developing professional skills in veterinary and wildlife science. Between high school and college, I participated and led field camps in wildlife management, took veterinary courses, learned to handle and care for wildlife in rehabilitation and was hired to help conservation efforts for the world’s most endangered canid, the red wolf.

During this time, I also enhanced my scope of hunting skills: I became an undergraduate teaching assistant for a hunting and trapping certification course, began deer, goose, and squirrel hunting, and learned primitive skills to understand how to make the most of each harvest.

Throughout my undergraduate degree, I cochaired a planning committee for Women in Nature. This annual event gives women the chance to build skills in outdoor recreation, with a day of classes dedicated to hunting, fishing, shooting, geocaching, archery – all kinds of knowledge. Fortified by these experiences, I graduated in 2013 with a degree in Wildlife Science from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

IF I LEARNED anything from over a decade of hunting and a four-year degree in biological sciences, it was an immense appreciation for life. Understanding life from a cellular level, following natural histories, evolution, ecology and behavior, while knowing the weight that comes with taking life – there was no way I could come away from these experiences without utter reverence for the natural world. After all, the field of conservation exists thanks to forefathers who spent the most time in nature hunting, fishing, and trapping. It seemed to me that I was rightly following in their footsteps.

After graduation, I developed a robust interdisciplinary portfolio in applied wildlife research and management. In pursuit of a lifelong dream to work with wild canids, I applied my skillset to unique projects where I captured and collared gray wolves, red foxes, gray foxes and coyotes throughout the Midwest and East Coast. To better understand the different agencies involved with wildlife conservation and to practice applied management for other species, I expanded my portfolio to working with captive species at the Philadelphia Zoo. Afterwards I contributed to conservation efforts for the endangered Florida panther, which included habitat management and construction of predator exclusion fences for livestock.

Along the way, my path crossed with a man from the West – a former bull rider, ranch hand, lumber and construction worker – then in service of our great country with the U.S. Army. I followed my heart to his home in the upper left corner of the United States, where themes of public land preservation, backcountry hunting, and true wilderness flooded my mind’s eye. A year later, I became a West.

A year after that, we made the move

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Northwest Sportsman 63

PICTURE out west. We decided on Washington, the home of my husband, and untapped potential for my aspirations. When hired as a state biologist in 2017, I discovered the applied principles of ecology-based restoration of Washington’s watersheds.

On the Methow Beaver Project, we used beavers to restore degraded riparian areas by employing their natural hydraulic tendencies to store water, a desperately needed resource in the face of a changing climate. Increasing temperatures lead to early snowmelt and precipitation that falls as rain rather than snow. With such dry conditions, wildfires are free to ravage the weakened ecosystem. Relocating beavers to their historic ranges helps to combat these effects and strengthen the landscape. Being employed on this project was one of the most motivating positions I’ve held, encouraging me to think of the wild community as a whole as opposed to considering the interactions between one or two species. Beaver wetlands, I

later informed Cabela’s in a grant proposal, even provided an exceptional resource for game species, from bears to bass.

This summer I returned to coyote trapping, leading a crew in Eastern Washington to explore the ecological impacts of gray wolf emigration to Washington. We enjoyed cool tea with landowners who let us trap their property, traversed arid mountainsides in search of scat and tracks, and deployed cameras in pine-rich valleys. To boot, I was working throughout my husband’s old stomping grounds, helping me gain a better understanding of the community he came from.

IT IS EASY to recognize that working as a research trapper has triggered a higher awareness and connection to nature. A friend of mine put it best when he said, “It doesn’t matter how much you study an animal – you could read all the literature you want – but you’ll never know the species as well as the person who has to catch one.” He was right. We spent so much time staring at dust to identify tracks, I saw coyote tracks whenever I closed my

Schooling in wildlife science and then meeting and marrying a Westerner brought West to our region, where she became involved in the Methow Beaver Project and this past year led a crew looking into the impacts of wolf recolonization in Eastern Washington. Here she holds a coyote and writes, “We spent so much time staring at dust to identify tracks, I saw coyote tracks whenever I closed my eyes.” (KYLA WEST) 64 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

eyes. Many nights I even dreamed about trapping. But the clear, maize stare of our first captured coyote gripped my heart.

I’d long been over the green excitement to handle a carnivore. Now on my fourth trapping job, my excitement was guided by instinct to give this animal the respect and compassion it deserved.

After this field season, I realized I’d become a true sportswoman, coming into my own as a huntress, an angler, a trapper and biologist. A public land owner and conservationist who strives to understand the needs of rural communities. A young woman who aspires to build bridges between scientific and local communities, who can work with carnivores while respecting and incorporating the traditions and values of landowners. The West has challenged me since we arrived – but it’s rewarded me to summit mountains, cross thigh-high rivers and navigate winding valleys, where moose and bears roam free.

Needless to say, I’ve fallen fast and hard for the Northwest. Last year, I was welcomed into the community of the PNW Outdoor Women Group and soon became an ambassador for female recreationists on both sides of the Cascade Mountains. This past fall, I proudly accepted the offer to represent Washington as an ambassador with Artemis Sportswomen.

My story is one of many that embraces the philosophy of the Greek goddess Artemis, and consequently the organization’s vision.

Women of Artemis have backgrounds in accounting, ranching, and teaching; they share experiences as wilderness rangers, biologists, and mothers. Our diversity strengthens our ability to work in solidarity for the lands that feed our families and our souls. We embody Artemis’ wild spirit and protective nature to boldly promote conservation for the modern sportswoman.

These brazen women engage in every facet of the sporting conservation life, all of us led by an indomitable instinct to immerse in wildness. Artemis has just begun, is growing strong, and we welcome those who wish to help us ensure that the wild is never lost in wilderness. NS Editor’s note: To learn more about Artemis Sportswomen, visit Artemis.nwf.org and Facebook.com/ArtemisSportswomen.

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PICTURE

E

ven as Northwest sportsmen enjoy the region’s hunting ops, we also raise our cameras and smartphones and put up trail cams to capture images of some of our favorite game species.

Here’s a selection of reader critter pics from 2018.

Coyote looking out from the edge of cover on a North-central Oregon farm. (CHAD ZOLLER)

BIG GAME

2018

Y EA RBOO K

Mule deer bucks in velvet alert to sneaking archery hunters during September’s bow season.

(CHAD ZOLLER)

Drake cinnamon teal on shallow waters at Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge in the western Columbia Gorge. (CHAD ZOLLER)

Eastern Washington bull elk in velvet crossing a meadow. (MICHAEL FREEMAN)

Young bull moose walking through a snowy forest in Washington’s Central Cascades. (MIKE QUINN, FLICKR.COM) nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 67

PICTURE

BIG GAME

2018

Pronghorns resting amongst low cover south of the Columbia River. (CHAD ZOLLER)

Y EA RBOO K

Wild ringneck pheasant evading an upland bird hunter near Heppner, Oregon. (CHAD ZOLLER) California quail flushing along a gravel road in the greater Columbia Basin.

(CHAD ZOLLER)

Wide-racked but sublegal two-point mule deer looking back at hunters in Southeast Washington. (CHAD ZOLLER) 68 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

Whitetail with buck on its butt – or at least one behind it in a trail camera image from Northeast Washington’s Sherman Wildlife Area headquarters. (WDFW)

PHOTO

CONTEST

WINNERS!

Colleen Kulp’s picture of husband Rich Fargo and his kayak-caught fall Chinook is our monthly Yo-Zuri Photo Contest. It wins her gear from the company that makes some of the world’s best fishing lures and lines!

Kymberly Cooper is our monthly Hunting Photo Contest winner, thanks to this pic of husband Ray and his big Southwest Washington bull. It wins her a knife and other hunting stuff from Northwest Sportsman!

Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

For your shot at winning hunting and fishing products, send your photos and pertinent (who, what, when, where) details to awalgamott@media-inc.com or Northwest Sportsman, PO Box 24365, Seattle, WA 98124-0365. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for our print or Internet publications. nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 69

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70 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

NEWS Lake Roosevelt’s Geezer Beach just behind Grand Coulee Dam is popular with trout anglers, including disabled fishermen who can drive down to the water line as the Columbia River reservoir is drawn down at much as 60 vertical feet in winter, but a federal agency is mulling closing it, among other options. (HANK WIEBE)

Mobility-impaired Angler Trying To Save Popular Beach Access A

disabled Lake Roosevelt angler and local officials are concerned that access to a good fishing hole just above Grand Coulee Dam might be reduced, or even lost entirely.

That’s because the Bureau of Reclamation is mulling the future management of Geezer Beach, a top spot to plunk for chunky rainbow trout during the winter and early spring.

Hank Wiebe, a Northwest Sportsman reader who fishes there more days than not from January through June, is leading the charge to keep the area open to all. He’s been working hard to get the word out, circulating a petition at area businesses, writing letters to the local paper and his federal lawmakers, and more.

“Due to my disabilities, this beach provides one of the few places I can access ... fish,” Wiebe explained in comments sent to BOR in December during a “pre-scoping period” identifying issues to address ahead of an environmental assessment that is expected to come out this month. “There is a strong group of fishermen, with varying

degrees of limited mobility, who often fish alongside me.”

The Town of Grand Coulee resident describes himself as a heart attack survivor who has suffered an aortic aneurysm, and has COPD and other medical issues that combine to make walking very far “tough.”

“Not to mention a fall on the rocks would exacerbate all of the above issues, so being able to drive to this location is about my only choice for fishing from shore,” Wiebe says.

OVER THE YEARS he and family members have sent us numerous pictures of themselves enjoying success at Geezer Beach during Lake Roosevelt’s annual winter drawdown, when anglers drive down the lakebed from a parking area and cast their lines out.

Indeed, it’s an opportunity that draws anglers from “as far away as Seattle,” Robert Poch, Coulee Dam’s mayor pro tem, wrote in his city’s official comments to BOR. And those people “stay in our local motels, eat at our restaurants and patron

our stores. The Town of Coulee Dam already struggles to maintain with the limited revenue sources it receives today.”

While the municipality fancies itself as the “green oasis at the foot of Grand Coulee Dam,” Poch worries that fewer visitors will lead to reduced sales and hotel tax revenues.

His letter stated that the city council “expressed very strong feelings against” BOR’s proposed changes.

The Star, a weekly newspaper, covered the story in a series of front-page pieces in December, and it reported that the federal agency is responding to the Colville Tribes’ issues with vehicles driving on the beach.

“This is a concern for both protection of cultural resources, and protection of water quality,” a tribal official stated in a Dec. 26 Star story, adding that driving on the lakebed is otherwise prohibited on Roosevelt but not enforced at Geezer Beach, which sets a bad example and creates an enforcement headache.

In its press release announcing a call for public comment, BOR said that

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 71

NEWS activities have made this a non-issue. This includes the nearshore environment well below the accessible areas today,” Behrens told reporter Jacob Wagner.

There have been state-tribal tensions this decade over fishing at Geezer Beach and management of Lake Roosevelt.

Hank Wiebe (middle) is leading the charge to keep the Bureau of Reclamation from closing or limiting access to Geezer Beach.

He says it’s a great place to take young anglers – this is his granddaughter Riley at another lake in the area – and for folks with mobility issues like himself to fish.

(HANK WIEBE)

entering the drawdown area in a vehicle represents a public safety risk “because these vehicles can become stuck, roll into the reservoir, or become abandoned.”

That’s not something Coulee Dam officials have seen, however.

“For more than 40 years, we cannot recall ever hearing of an incident where a vehicle has been stuck, driven or rolled into the reservoir or been an accident at Geezer Beach. The access roads, which have been in existence since the 1960’s, are well established and have been packed down, providing a firm surface for vehicles to travel on,” Mayor Poch wrote.

Photographs Wiebe took one day last month of different parts of the beach showed it to be remarkably clean of the type of trash one usually finds, 72 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

unfortunately, at fishing accesses.

“All my fishing buddies and I strive to keep this area litter free,” he notes.

This is not to say that locations significant to the Colville Tribes haven’t been impacted by settlement, development, dam building and other activities or shouldn’t be protected. But in that Dec. 26 story, Greg Behrens told The Star that during a three-decade-long career working at Grand Coulee he did geological and geographic studies of the area, and that Geezer Beach was “reworked and completely modified through the construction of the Dam’s history” while being used for staging.

“If the concern for the allowed vehicle access is based on ‘cultural resource preservation’ then the prior construction

CLOSING ALL ACCESS to the beach was one of three alternatives that BOR was gathering public comment on for the upcoming environmental assessment, or EA. Another focuses on restricting parking to designated areas just off an access road from Coulee Dam and that sit at roughly the 1300-foot elevation mark. That would still allow angling but make it much more difficult for mobility-impaired anglers like Wiebe to reach the water when Roosevelt dips to as low as 1,220 feet in midspring.

The third is to maintain the status quo.

“With the information gathered from the input we received, Reclamation will now write a draft EA and it will be available for public comment,” says Lynne Brougher, a BOR spokeswoman at the agency’s Grand Coulee office. “At this time, we anticipate that the draft EA will be available for comment in February and a final decision will be made this spring.”

Lake Roosevelt is so huge that it is part of two different Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regions, and the managers of both – Steve Pozzanghera and Jim Brown in Spokane and Ephrata, respectively – say they will be watching for the EA to come out so the agency can submit comments.

“We would hope they wouldn’t do an outright closure,” says Brown of BOR’s alternatives. “Their problem statement makes that seem a bit extreme, on its face.

If it is about vehicles, that is seemingly an excessive step, when nothing in the scoping description goes beyond the stated problem being with vehicles.”

“We should be advocating for continued public access -- the issue will be foot traffic versus vehicle entry,” adds Pozzanghera.

For Hank Wiebe, the latter is preferred.

“There’s many of us fishermen who have medical issues and need areas like this to enjoy/teach grandkids all about fishing,” he says. NS

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NEWS

ODFW Begins Culling Sea Lions At Willamette Falls

A

A California sea lion captures a salmonid below Willamette Falls. (BRYAN WRIGHT, ODFW) 74 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

t least four Willamette Falls sea lions had been killed at press time last month by Oregon fishery managers under a recently issued federal permit, an action being taken to help the watershed’s threatened wild steelhead.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to lethally remove as many as 40 California sea lions in the first four months of 2019, and are allowed up to 93 a year.

In 2015, the marine mammals ate 25 percent of a very weak native return, according to ODFW, which in 2017 estimated that there was a 90 percent chance that one of the Willamette’s ESAlisted runs would go extinct if nothing was done to counter sea lion predation.

Attempts to capture and move them to the Oregon Coast were unsuccessful, as the male marine mammals tended to just swim right back.

Operations began as the first 100 or so steelhead of the season had crossed the falls on their way to the upper basin.

“The only fish in the river right now are the winter steelhead,” ODFW’s Bryan Wright told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

“If we can remove all these sea lions right now that will be a huge benefit to them.”

In mid-November, his agency was greenlighted by the National Marine Fisheries Service to begin killing CSLs seen at the falls and in the lower Clackamas River for at least two days or observed eating steelhead or salmon. The federal government shutdown, however, meant new arrivals couldn’t until a NMFS official concurred.

At the end of 2018, the three Northwest states and several tribes were authorized to lethally remove as many as 920 CSLs and 249 Steller sea lions in portions of the Columbia and its salmon-bearing tribs such as the Willamette to help address too many pinnipeds taking too big a bite out of ESA-listed salmon and steelhead stocks and help keep one of their new favorite targets – sturgeon – from being listed too.

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Northwest Sportsman 75

NEWS

Sharp Increase Possible In Next Washington Wolf Count

A

n out-of-state environmental group is trying to minimize the number of wolves running around Washington, but 2018’s year-end tally is likely to be significantly higher than their “approximately 120.”

That figure comes from a pressure ad by the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity that appeared in The Seattle Times and was aimed at getting the governor to force WDFW to stop killing wolves in response to repeated livestock attacks.

It came as the two parties were also locked in a court battle over the state’s lethal removal protocols for wolves.

Twenty have been taken out by WDFW since 2012, an average of just three a year as the state’s wolf population has more

76 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

than doubled, but the ad might have been the inspiration for a Puget Sound lawmaker to prefile a bill for the 2019 session along those exact same lines a couple days later.

Ultimately it all may backfire. In response to CBD’s estimate, instate wolf advocates are indicating that there may actually be more than 150 wolves in Washington these days – even 200.

That higher number comes from Mitch Friedman, head of Conservation Northwest, which put out the lower figure in a post that Friedman shared publicly and in doing so offered his own guesstimate.

Those would be 23 to 64 percent increases over the official 2017 minimum (122).

The former is unsurprising, given the longterm 30 percent annual growth rate,

and while the latter may seem shocking it is not outside the realm of possibility. WDFW’s 2018 count probably won’t come out until next month, but for the first time wolf poop could help provide a more accurate estimate of how many animals are actually out there.

Last year a University of Washington researcher was awarded a $172,000 grant from the state legislature to run his dungdetection dogs through areas where the number of public wolf reports has grown but no packs let alone breeding pairs are known to exist.

“If there are wolves south of I-90, the odds of the dogs locating them should be quite high,” Dr. Samuel Wasser, who heads up UW’s Center for Conservation Biology, said for a May 2018 article in this magazine.

“Colonizing wolves range widely, our dogs can cover huge areas, and their ability to detect samples if present is extraordinary.”

With the 2018 field season over, the samples are now in the lab and being analyzed, and the data will also provide information on diet.

“It will be a little while because we are moving to Next Generation Sequencing, which allows us to simultaneously identify the carnivore scats and what they ate in a single run,”Wasser said by email in December.

Up to this year, WDFW’s year-end count has been a mix of collaring individual wolves and then locating them and their packs again in winter, when they’re easier to track or spot in the snow from the air, monitoring breeding pairs and collecting imagery from a network of trail cameras.

The agency has stressed that their annual tallies are just minimums, that there are likely more wolves on the landscape, and hunters have generally believed there to be many more than official figures.

So this new DNA information could provide a closer estimate of the state’s actual population, not to mention possibly help us get to the wolf management plan’s recovery goals sooner.

As of this past March there was just one known breeding pair in the Northern Cascades Zone, the Teanaway Pack, and none in the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast Zone. Under the plan there must be four breeding pairs in each, but since that count there have been tantalizing public reports around Granite Falls, the northwest side of Mt. Rainier, and Stampede and White Passes.

Wasser says the new method for testing wolf doots his dogs find is just about dialed in, with results likely availables soon.

“We are close to having it validated, using sample previously run using our old method from Northeast Washington,” he said in December. “Once that’s done, we will move forward with the Central Washington samples. That should move pretty quickly once we’re at the stage. We hope to finish the validations this month.

If all goes well, we aim to have all our results by the end of February (or March), although that could be optimistic.”

The results could arrive as the Center for Biological Diversity and WDFW attend a hearing for CBD’s lawsuit over the state’s development of the removal protocols. Both parties are due in Thurston County Superior Court on March 8 to review documents submitted in support of their arguments and determine when to set a trial.

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Northwest Sportsman 77

NEWS

Xmas Tree Recycling On Yaquina Cancelled Over Parasite Fears

O

rganizers of an annual Christmas tree recycling event that places the used yuletide decorations along Oregon’s Yaquina River for fish habitat had to cancel it to prevent the possible spread of an invasive pest.

Old Christmas trees are gifted to salmon during 2017’s “Coho Ho” recycling event.

(U DA MAN FISHING TOURNAMENT)

“Some retailers in the Willamette Valley and other locations purchased Christmas trees from North Carolina this year that have been feared to be infected with the elongate hemlock scale parasite or its eggs,” explained Tom Simpson, secretary

of the U Da Man Fishing Tournament.

The scheduled March 2 habitat project would have been the local group’s sixth annual “Coho Ho.” The trees are placed on otherwise barren banks in tidewater to give outmigrating salmon refuge from predators.

“After researching the problem and hearing concerns from the Oregon Department of Forestry, the local watershed council, ODFW and others, our local group made the decision to cancel this year’s project as we are unable to determine where and from what retailer the donated Christmas trees came from,” Simpson added.

He said his organization didn’t want to risk the coastal river’s habitat if the insect were to spread to the watershed’s conifers.

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FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

MIXED BAG

BC Trophies Seized From Spokane Bros.

After Investigation

T

he walls and nooks of Nathan P. Bock’s and Chad E. Bock’s side-by-side homes outside Spokane once held the full and shoulder mounts, antlers, hides and rugs of 25 mountain caribou, moose, mule and whitetail deer, mountain goats, bears and other animals they shot in Canada.

But in June 2016 those trophies and other items were seized by game wardens from either side of the international border following an investigation that found Nathan Bock was not a British Columbia resident as he claimed to be while working for several years across the province as a lineman.

That made it illegal for the animals to have been killed in the first place, and meant bringing them into Washington was also unlawful.

This past fall, the Bocks and Spokane County prosecutors reached a plea deal: If both men stay out of trouble with state fish and wildlife officers for one year, all 15 charges against Nathan and 10 against Chad will be dropped.

But they won’t get their taxidermy back.

The mounts, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, are considered by Canadian authorities to be “contraband,” per their attorney, Morgan Maxey, who questions their transfer from state to BC custody.

THE CASE BEGAN in October 2014 when BC Conservation Officer Jesse Jones spotted moose antlers in the back of a pickup outside Kamloops and performed a hunting

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

F

“

aster! Faster, Bambi! Don’t look back! Keep running! Keep running!”

Those are the words David Berry Jr. will be hearing once a month in 2019

compliance check on the Bocks and their uncle, Warren Croder of Arizona. They were returning from the province’s northwest corner with the racks and meat from three bulls and a nanny mountain goat.

Jones found Nathan Bock, now 41, had the correct documents to hunt as a resident and for Chad Bock, 51, and Croder, 71, to hunt with him through Accompany to Hunt permits. He let them go with a warning for not having left evidence of sex on their processed moose.

But afterwards, it was determined that Nathan Bock was not a BC resident under the province’s Wildlife Act, according to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife game warden’s case report. It says in 2010 he used a false address to get a permanent resident hunting license and in subsequent years used ones from all over.

Because he wasn’t a resident, that meant his licenses and tags for kills from 2011 through 2015 and those of his brother and uncle on their Accompany to Hunts permits were invalid. And bringing illegally taken game into Washington also violated the state’s version of the Lacey Act, which prohibits the possession of animals wrongfully killed elsewhere. Thus the seizure of the trophies.

“All the animals taken under those licenses are unlawful because they were unlawfully hunted,”says JoLynn Beauchane, the lead WDFW officer on the case.

She worked with US. Fish and Wildlife

after being sentenced to serve a year in a Missouri county jail for his part in a massive, multi-year deer poaching case.

Lawrence County Judge Robert George was so incensed by Berry Jr.’s deeds that he tacked on watching Bambi, where the above words come from, to his prison time.

Show Me State officials called the case one of the largest they’ve ever seen, and while unsure of how many whitetails Berry

By Andy Walgamott

A lengthy case report from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers includes images of mountain caribou, moose and other mounts seized from brothers Nathan Bock and Chad Bock of the Spokane area. An investigation found Nathan Bock was not a resident of British Columbia, where most were taken under a resident hunting license, though his lawyer insists he was. (WDFW) Service agents based out of the Blaine, Washington, border crossing to try and match up the Bocks’ tag numbers and import paperwork.

“I’ve been doing this for almost 15 years and so I know large-scale things, but for two people to do this, it was pretty ‘Wow,’” Beauchane says.

By claiming BC residency, Nathan Bock

Jr. and other members of his family killed, a county prosecutor said in the “hundreds.”

“The deer were trophy bucks taken illegally, mostly at night, for their heads, leaving the bodies of the deer to waste,” they said.

Seems we’ve got a similar case up here; wonder if judges in Wasco, Skamania and other Oregon and Washington counties have this tool in their sentencing drawer?

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 81

MIXED BAG was able to save big money because he didn’t have to hire a guide, as nonresidents must to hunt in the province. Along with being able to then host hunt his relatives, it also allowed him to put in for tags he otherwise couldn’t have, says Beauchane.

For the fall 2018 hunt BC outfitters were pricing mountain caribou excursions from $6,500 into the $20,000-plus range. The savings as well as the cost of the mounts and equipment seized from the Bocks is valued at $192,000, according to Beauchane.

THE BROTHERS’ ATTORNEY, Morgan Maxey of Spokane’s Maxey Law Office, tells a much different story. He says Nathan Bock worked throughout BC as a lineman for as many as 11 months a year during those in question. He bounced from hotel to hostel to locals’ homes, coming down to the U.S. for only two weeks a year, Maxey says.

Bock applied for a permanent work

permit, visa and hunting tags, all of which were granted with “no issue,” Maxey says.

“He had a BC resident card, he had a BC hunting license. Everyone I talked to said he was a resident,” he says.

Nathan first hunted in 2011, Chad in 2012, and their uncle in 2014.

“My clients are thinking they are above board. They have no reason to think otherwise,” Maxey says.

In his mind, the “big thing” is that BC didn’t file any charges against the brothers, letting the statute of limitations on them run out. But afterwards, WDFW filed.

Maxey says he tried to get the case tossed out of Spokane County District Court based on “improper cooperation” between provincial and state officers. He estimates the Bocks might actually be out as much as $300,000 worth of mounts and gear, and he questions the treaty process that allowed the transfer of it all out of the

country without a judge or hearing.

“There’s no chance to reclaim their property,” he says. “BC has the trophies.

They believe they’re contraband.”

Ultimately the 25 charges for possessing the trophies were reduced to one charge for each brother and Maxey says his clients can continue to fish and hunt in Washington.

Officer Beauchene says she’s happy with the case’s outcome.

“I’m grateful they’re not going to get this stuff back,” she says.

Her case report also alleges that Nathan Bock killed a BC billy out of season and didn’t export a bobcat properly through a CITES permit, and that two Alberta deer he shot were illegal too. It adds that a fox Chad Bock shot wasn’t even legal to hunt in BC, and that in 2011 he claimed both Wyoming and Washington residency when buying big game licenses and tags for that fall’s seasons.

Book ‘Archery’ Buck Actually Killed With A Rifle

A

ginormous Southern Oregon mule deer buck that a Lane County resident said he arrowed was actually killed with a rifle, according to state police who reported in late fall that Kevin H. Noel had been convicted and sentenced for the offense.

The story began in 2015 when Noel killed the eight-pointer in the Steens Mountain Unit on an archery tag during the bowhunting season. Afterwards he took it to one of the winter sportsmen’s shows to get it measured and ended up placing first in the nontypical category for the species. The 218 5/8-inch rack also scored as the eighth biggest of all time taken in the Beaver State by a bowman.

But according to the Oregon State Police, last spring as they investigated Noel for unspecified “other crimes” they learned that he may not have used a bow and arrow to down the trophy after all, but a rifle instead.

That potentially violated his tag and sparked wildlife troopers to take a closer look, and they eventually seized the mount

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FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

Three years after killing it, Kevin H. Noel was found guilty of downing this magnificent eight-point nontypical mule deer with a rifle instead of a bow, like his tag required. The trophy mount was forfeited to the state. (OSP) and arrested Noel. In November Noel went on trial and was found guilty by a jury.

Lane County Circuit Court Judge Debra Velure sentenced Noel to pay a $6,250 fine, gave him 15 days in jail, suspended

his hunting license for three years and put him on probation for three years while also forfeiting the buck, according to OSP. Noel also can’t “participate in any hunting excursions for the next three years.”

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Northwest Sportsman 83

Small’s Salmon Wins Year’s First Derby

T

he 2019 Northwest Salmon Derby Series kicked off last month with an 18.54-pounder taking home first place at the Resurrection Derby.

Darrin Small scored $10,000 for landing that resident Chinook on the second fishing day of the Jan. 4-6 event, hooking it at Parker Reef, off the north shore of Orcas Island in the San Juans.

His fish was a quarter pound heavier than 2018’s winning fish, a derby in which Small placed third, and was the largest since 2014.

Second place and $2,500 went to Nic Pulley for a 16.5-pounder that narrowly edged out Jason Mack’s 16.4, which earned Mack $1,500. Christine Cain won the secret weight prize of $500 with her 7.1-pounder.

The derby series is put on by the Northwest Marine Trade Association and the organization’s Mark Yuasa reported that 100 boats fished the Resurrection, held out of Anacortes. Eighty-five salmon were weighed in, mostly on the first day, with the overall average fish running 9.63 pounds.

The top 30 all weighed 10 pounds or more.

Researchers were on hand to take samples from the Chinook to help

By Andy Walgamott

$15K Top Prize On Line At Friday Harbor Classic

O Darrin Small (right) and Nic Pulley show off their first- and second-place catches at early January’s Resurrection Derby. (RESURRECTION DERBY) determine their diet and growth rates.

Proceeds from the derby go towards salmon enhancement projects throughout the San Juan Islands. For more, see resurrectionderby.com.

Note: Entry in any derby series event puts your name in the hopper for 2019’s $75,000 grand prize, a Weldcraft Rebel 202 Hardtop that comes with Yamaha 200 and 9.9hp motors, Scotty downriggers, Raymarine electronics, EZ Loader Trailer and more.

2019 NORTHWEST SALMON DERBY SERIES  Feb. 7-9: Friday Harbor Salmon Classic  March 8-10: Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby  March 16-17: Everett Blackmouth Derby  July 12-14: Bellingham Salmon Derby  July 24-28: The Big One (Lake Couer d’Alene) Salmon Derby  Aug. 1-4: Brewster Salmon Derby  Aug. 3: South King County PSA Salmon Derby  Aug. 10: Gig Harbor PSA Salmon Derby  Aug. 17-18: Vancouver (BC) Chinook Classic  Aug. 31: Columbia River Fall Salmon Derby  Sept. 7: Edmonds Coho Derby  Sept. 21-22: Everett Coho Derby  Nov. 2-3: Everett Blackmouth Salmon Derby For more details, see nwsalmonderbyseries.com.

ne of the biggest top prizes in Northwest derbydom is on the line at this month’s 4th Annual Friday Harbor Salmon Classic.

The Feb. 7-9 shindig on San Juan Island features $15,000 for the biggest blackmouth weighed in.

Last winter’s edition was won by Trent Kies who put a 19.15-pounder on the scale at the San Juan Island port.

Tickets typically sell out by midJanuary, but were $550 a boat.

For more details, see facebook .com/Fridayharborsalmonclassic, fridayharborsalmonclassic.com and nwsalmonderbyseries.com.

RECENT RESULTS  Weekly Tengu Blackmouth Derby, Jan. 6, Elliott Bay: Chris Peeler, 4 pounds, 5 ounces  Weekly Tengu Blackmouth Derby, Jan. 13, Elliott Bay: Unknown, 6-pluspounds

ONGOING/ UPCOMING EVENTS  Sundays, Jan. 6-Feb. 24: 73rd Annual Tengu Blackmouth Derby, Marination (formerly Seacrest Boathouse), West Seattle; tickets: Outdoor Emporium  Feb. 1-2: 2019 Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby, Umpqua River; facebook.com/UmpquaDerby  Feb. 15-spring: Spring Steelhead Derby, Washington’s Grande Ronde River; boggansoasis.com

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 87

Brought to you by:

Northwest hunters, anglers and others walk the aisles and watch a casting demonstration at a sportsmen’s show. (OTSHOWS.COM)

2019 SPORTSMEN’S AND BOAT SHOW CALENDAR JANUARY 25-Feb. 2 Seattle Boat Show, CenturyLink Field Event Center, South Lake Union, Seattle; seattleboatshow.com 26-Feb. 16 Spokane Valley Boat Show at Elephant Boys 2019, Elephant Boys, Spokane Valley; spokanevalleyboatshow.com FEBRUARY 1-3 Eugene Boat & Sportsmen’s Show, Lane Events Center, Eugene; exposureshows.com 6-10 Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show, Expo Center, Portland; otshows.com 6-10 Vancouver International Boat Show, BC Place, Granville Island; vancouverboatshow.ca 15-17 Central Washington Sportsmen Show, SunDome, Yakima; shuylerproductions.com 15-17 Douglas County Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Douglas County Fairgrounds, Roseburg; exposureshows.com 15-17 Willamette Sportsman Show, Linn County Expo Center, Albany; willamettesportsmanshow.com 22-24 Great Rockies Sport Show, Lewis & Clark County Fairgrounds, Helena; greatrockiesshow.com 22-24 Jackson County Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show, Jackson County Expo, Medford; exposureshows.com 22-24 The Wenatchee Valley Sportsmen Show, Town Toyota Center, Wenatchee; shuylerproductions.com 22-24 Victoria Boat and Fishing Show, Eagle Ridge Arena, Victoria, British Columbia; victoriaboatshow.com 23-24 Saltwater Sportsmen’s Show, Oregon State Fairgrounds, Salem; saltwatersportsmensshow.com 28-March 3 Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show, Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, Redmond; otshows.com 28-March 3 The Idaho Sportsman Show, Expo Idaho, Boise; idahosportsmanshow.com MARCH 1-3 BC Sportsmen’s Show, Tradex, Abbotsford; bcboatandsportsmenshow.ca 8-9 Northwest Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo, Linn Co. Expo Center, Albany; nwexpo.com 21-24 Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show, Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds, Spokane; bighornshow.com MAY 2-5 Mid-Columbia Boat Show, Columbia Point Park & Marina, Richland, Washington; midcolumbiaboatshow.com 16-19 Anacortes Boat & Yacht Show, Cap Sante Marina, Anacortes; anacortesboatandyachtshow.com nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 89

OUTDOOR

Brought to you by:

CALENDAR

FEBRUARY

1 2

Washington Marine Area 6 blackmouth opener Late goose hunt opens in coastal portions of Washington Goose Management Area 2 (state, federal lands closed) 9 Late goose hunts open in Northwest Oregon Permit Zone, and Washington’s Goose Management Area 1 (white goose only) and inland portions of Area 2 10 Oregon spring bear hunt applications due 15 Last day to apply for Idaho spring bear hunt; Washington brant, snow goose, sea duck reports due; Last day for steelheading in select Puget Sound terminal areas 16 Area 5 blackmouth opener; Bait restrictions take effect on several Olympic Peninsula steelhead rivers 16-17 Free Fishing Weekend in Oregon 17 Last day of Oregon Zone 1 snipe hunt 23 Oregon South Coast Zone late goose season opener (private lands only) 28 Last day of bobcat, fox season in Oregon; Last day to apply for Washington spring bear permit; Last day of trout, game fish season on many Western Washington streams

MARCH 1

9 15 31

Lake Billy Chinook’s Metolius Arm opens for fishing; Numerous Eastern Washington lakes open for fishing Washington Coast bottomfish opener Last day of bobcat, fox, raccoon, rabbit and hare season in Washington Last day 2018-19 Washington fishing, hunting licenses valid

RECORD NORTHWEST GAME FISH CAUGHT THIS MONTH Date 2-4-13 2-7-10 2-20-90 2-26-16 2-28-14

Species Mackinaw Utah chub Walleye Yellow perch Walleye (image)

Lbs. (-Oz.) 35.63 2-13 19-15.3 2.96 20.32

Water L. Chelan (WA) L. Walcott (ID) Columbia R. (OR) Cascade Res. (ID) Columbia R. (WA)

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Northwest Sportsman 91

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98 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

COLUMN Oregon’s Umpqua River is known for plentiful and large steelhead. Trevor Frieze of Drain shows off a bright one he caught last season. (ELKTON OUTFITTERS)

What To Feed The Umpqua’s Big Steelies T

he Umpqua is a big river compared to most other streams on the Oregon Coast, and that is BUZZ why its lower end RAMSEY can produce hot winter steelhead action when other rivers are just too low and clear.

The size of the Umpqua, including

the North and South Forks and its many tributaries, makes for ideal conditions to support plentiful numbers of wild fish. In addition to a strong native run there is a hatchery program on the river, so catching a fin-clipped keeper is possible too.

ELKTON, LOCATED ON Highway 38 about 40 miles from the coast, is where Arlene’s Café (541-584-2555) offers food, fishing tackle, bait, shuttles, ice, beer – nearly anything a

visiting angler might want, including fishing information and guide services from avid angler and professional guide Darrell Moore of Elkton Outfitters (541-817-7656).

Although Moore started off his guiding career 15 years ago chasing bears, for the last 10 he has switched his focus to fish. It’s this time of year when winter steelhead are the most plentiful on the Umpqua that you will find him guiding clients with a drift or jet boat, depending on how high it

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 99

COLUMN While the size of its fish will attract anglers from far and wide, guide Darrell Moore – here with a winter-run – cautions those who may be unfamiliar with the lower Umpqua to get local advice before running its rapids and rock shelves.

(ELKTON OUTFITTERS)

is. Indeed, it takes a discerning eye to work the river.

“It would be unwise to boat the lower river without a little advice from a trusted source that will give you the straight scoop on where to put in and take out while avoiding the major and sometimes totally unrunnable rapids,” Moore notes. “The tough water starts 9 miles downstream from Elkton at Sawyer Rapids and repeats

itself at Harts Rapids, Smith Ferry, Yellow Creek (a pretty easy one), and Fergusons (that isn’t too bad).”

The good news is there are put-ins and takeouts above and below each major whitewater rapid. And although power-boat navigation is possible for most when the river is running above 6½ feet, there is a fair amount of ledge rock in the river that can take out a jet pump quicker With good numbers of natives returning to the Umpqua, plugs are one of the best bets for hooking these aggressive fish. This 3.5 Mag Lip accounted for 53 steelhead, as well as two springers, before Moore retired it.

Bobber dogging is another top method. (ELKTON OUTFITTERS)

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FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

than a drone could a 747.

And while Moore and others who frequent the lower river might employ their power boats when the river is somewhat lower than 6 feet, the Umpqua becomes a drift boat show for all when levels drop to near 4½ feet in height.

“Four to 6 feet is prime height for the lower Umpqua,” notes Moore, “and although it varies from year to year, we would expect to hook eight or nine steelhead and land four to six fat fish per day during the season peak.”

GIVEN THE STRONG wild run, the ratio of wild-to-hatchery fish is 15: to 20:1. The large number of natives means the chance of catching a giant is higher than on most other Oregon rivers, meaning there are several fish over 20 pounds taken each and every season.

Although they didn’t weigh it or measure its girth, Moore landed and released a monster 44-inch steelhead near Elkton five or six years ago. This achievement was somewhat surprising, as most big fish return later in the season, but this one was caught in December.

And like most places, according to

COLUMN

As Bert Freytag of Elkton and John Dutcher of Eugene will tell you, hatchery fish are also available for harvest on the system. This season the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking anglers to drop the snouts of any they keep at collection barrels at boat ramps or the agency’s Roseburg office to scan for coded wire tags, part of a study to improve the consumptive fishery. (ELKTON OUTFITTERS)

Moore, the big fish tend to be males and are caught on plugs.

As you might know the popular thinking is that males are more territorial than their female counterparts and, as such, they strike plugs more readily. I know this from personal experience, as the only steelhead I’ve landed over 25 and 30 pounds came on plugs.

For this reason Moore spends many a day back-trolling plugs, with his favorite being the size 3.5 Mag Lip. In fact he has one Mag Lip tucked away in his tackle box that accounted for 53 steelhead and two spring Chinook during its tenure. He doesn’t fish that plug anymore, just takes it along for good luck and to show off to clients.

His favorite plug colors include misty river, Dr. Death and punch card. When the water is on the clear side he employs the mother of pearl black color.

If the water is beginning to brown up, he switches to chartreuse color combinations, like fish monger and/or mad clown.

If the water gets above 7 feet but is still fishable in color, he will anchor on a seam and trail plugs on a flat line behind his boat. When anchored he also rigs a Spin-N-Glo on a leader behind a dropper line and weight and places it in the path of migrating steelhead.

Bobber dogging is Moore’s other go-to method, allowing him to cover a lot of water and gives his clients the ability to easily see the bite and set the hook. NS Editor’s note: The author is a brand manager and part of the management team at Yakima Bait. Like Buzz on Facebook.

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FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

FISHING

The Rise

Puget Sound’s old-school salmon technique is One of Sara’s first stories spinning again. for us was about perfect winter steelheading water – a river on the drop – but when the opposite happens during family fish camp on the coast, what do you do?

By Sara Ichtertz

T

here’s this undeniable beauty that I find in a winter’s river on the drop. The predictability of knowing when to fish and how to fish it makes this creature of comfort love it!

You learn your rivers’ levels by keeping a journal of some sort and it doesn’t take long to gauge the systems without even stepping foot on them.

When you find your river in that super fishy and dropping condition, you find a way to get there! You more than likely not only touch a fish; you touch quite a few. Watching others set the hook followed by the most glorious of headshakes and possible eruption of power and mayhem these fish display – I absolutely love a winter’s river on the drop!

HOWEVER, WHAT’S A girl to do when she’s not dropping? Or when the trip dates have been set and not only is she not dropping but is projected to blow?!?

During my first winter spent chasing steelhead I fished a couple rivers on the rise and found myself astonished and semiamazed how those smaller coastal waters can

A river on the rise usually is bad news for steelheaders, and that seemed like the case for the Ichtertz family at their annual winter fish camp on the Oregon Coast.

(SARA ICHTERTZ)

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FISHING literally blow out before your eyes.

I landed my first buck on a river that was rising. It was a miracle!

Beginner’s luck, no doubt. I fished a back eddy when the water was really pushing and found that lone fish snuggled closer to the bank’s edge than I would ever have imagined.

That was not the only time I fished a rising river that season, but it was the only time I touched a fish. By the end of run one I had a decent understanding of when and why.

Between pointers from fellow anglers Barbara and Gary, the helpful Wolfe Pack Guide Service brothers (twins! I honestly didn’t know there were two

of them until the next year. I was so preoccupied and seminervous trying to learn how to fish that I never noticed they had different colored boats and were two totally different men, but that is another story!), my journal, and the NOAA river checker I was getting somewhere!

By itself, understanding that was empowering. With this newfound knowledge and the reality of motherhood I stopped fishing rivers on the rise. I needed to choose my adventure time wisely, as I do not get to go nearly as much as I desire.

Spending a good three runs without facing rising rivers, they rarely crossed

my mind outside of the fact that I was so looking forward to them dropping!

Of course, the day will come when things you don’t enjoy arise, whether in life or fishing. Yes, you can stay in your world of comfort for quite some time, but if you ever want true growth, you should face these things eventually, even if it doesn’t yield instant joy. Many times these very things aren’t the ones you wake up and say, “Yay! Today I am going rock that river on the rise’s world!” or, “I am so excited! Today I am going to tell my boss exactly the way I feel about the way I am treated.” No, a lot of times these sink-or-swim situations are bestowed upon us. Therefore, we don’t have a choice as to whether we face it, but we do have the choice in our mindset and whether or not we shall sink or slay! Or at least I do.

YEAR AFTER YEAR I held my breath

Perhaps it was because author Sara Ichtertz landed her first buck ever in high water that she was confident enough to give it a go instead of just staying in the cabin and playing cards.

Knowing to increase the size of her offering and its scent profile helped too. (SARA ICHTERTZ) 106 Northwest Sportsman

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while booking our family fish camp.

The babe’s dad must put in for time off weeks beforehand and amazingly in every previous year we never faced what we did this past winter run. As camp quickly approached the fish were late, and so was the drop, as far as I was concerned. I wanted that storm to come, bringing forth that beautiful push of fish! Where was it?

Well, as fate would have it, that storm I had been dreaming of was coming – smack dab throughout our fish camp. No! But we were still going.

I had to think on a murky, dirty level, almost as if it was a beautiful high olive river on the drop except she wasn’t that beautiful winter olive.

She was ugly and getting uglier!

Needing to hone our river hunting approach a little differently than I ever had, I thought about my riggings and approach. Large yarn, larger hook.

Larger beads. I typically love a 10mm even a 12mm bead for winters. This water made me go big, bigger than I ever envisioned – 14mm- and 16mmsized BnR Tackle soft beads with yarn, cinching the bead all the way to the yarn like the way I run a Lil’ Corky by

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 107

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“We harvested some nice fish despite all that rain. We lost a couple dandies in crazy fights we will never forget, and even though it wasn’t daily limits it was very cool earning our fish in unreal conditions,” writes Sara of the trip. (SARA ICHTERTZ)

Yakima Bait.

Also, mass scent! Going with ProCure oils allowed the brightness of my yarn color to stay true and saturated.

It was a big, bright, smelly mess, but I liked the looks of it, considering that it felt like it fit best with the chocolate river we would be facing.

Out of all the rivers I have winter fished, I felt thankful camp was here as I have tagged out with three hatchery steelhead with that water just as ugly as can be … with the only difference being she was dropping, not rising.

Getting camp settled was easy because it was way too wet to go into full-blown happy camper mode. We didn’t set up the outdoor kitchen in its normal fashion. It was more like hunker down and stay organized, getting out only what we needed. It

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FISHING rained so hard throughout the course of that week that if you left your rods out against the cabin the backsplash off the ground muddied up your grips, making the corks and reels so very sad! They needed baths – badly!

The ice chests too were covered in that gritty mud and I was like, “Damn! Camp is rough this year.”

We are troopers, though, my babes especially! We had lots of rain gear and gloves and while we ended up playing more cards than I had intended, honestly there was no place I would rather be. I just love something about being up there; it is healing and rejuvenating, no matter the weather.

So I trust in the uniqueness of each camp, knowing one day all I will have to look back on are the memories.

Dad and daughter are happy campers – Roy and Ava Ichtertz show off a chrome-bright hatchery fish caught during the outing.

(SARA ICHTERTZ)

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FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

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THROUGHOUT THE COURSE of camp the river rose and dropped multiple times, so we torqued our methods and riggings around as the river willed. In doing this we did find biters. Roy and I both found nice hatchery fish drifting the bottom with those big, smelly riggings on our first evening! Knowing the real rain was coming we did not miss our shot at decent water, even if it was only for the final light of day. That river turns on the drop of a dime and just as soon as we saw it looked like we could fish it, we did.

Rotating raincoats, we stayed after it. I looked at that water thinking, “Where are you, fish?” As the river raged, I thought of my first buck and how closely he had been hanging to shore. I glanced at the water and noticed soft yet boilish-type water across the river just above the tailout. Thinking a float was my best bet to fish that softer pocket water effectively, I used my E6X 10242S STR paired with a Sahara 4000 Shimano spinning reel, loaded with 30-pound green Power Pro. I ran a naked, sweet pink cherry BnR soft bead with a size two Gamakatsu octopus hook under a Hawkins AeroFloat AF-4 series (which is weighted; I

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FISHING For Sara’s son Nate, angler Zach and his affinity for catching good numbers of steelhead in high water in the dead of winter with spinners proved inspiring.

Even though the lad lost his first, Nate and his mother were proud of the learning opportunity high water brought.

(SARA ICHTERTZ)

like them). Split-shotting my leader, I ran the rig as if the slip float was fixed.

Sure enough, my thinking was correct, and I found a handsome hatchery buck in that softer water.

From across the river I watched my float drain, and reeling up the slack and giving a direct hookset, there he was!

(I can never quite get over hooking fish on a float. When that float disappears, I am like, “No way? That isn’t a fish?” But those headshakes are right there waiting for you, and before you know it braid is peeling off and the fight is on!)

Hooking him across the river 112 Northwest Sportsman

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when it was pushing hard was wild.

Between the mad river and that mad fish, I was shaking, fearing he was going to come undone. It took some time and finesse to land him, but in the end when I cracked him over the head, it was as if it were the first time.

I love how in the sport of fishing we experience so very many firsts!

Small victories rock my world and even though I did not find many winter jewels within that most raging water, I felt victorious! Between Roy and I we harvested some nice fish despite all that rain. We lost a couple dandies in crazy fights we will never

forget, and even though it wasn’t daily limits, it was very cool earning our fish in unreal conditions.

THE STUBBORN LADY that I am, I hardly ever fish spinners for steelhead. I don’t honestly know why but I have never embraced them. My boy, he loves them, and we battle! In my eyes I think, “You aren’t frothing up my drift with that spinner, son!” What mom says (most all the time) goes and so he doesn’t run them as much as he would like. But he does fish them. At the tops and tailouts of the holes or before we move on to the next, he runs them through there every chance he gets. I love that he has his own vision, desire and ambition when it comes to the rivers. I think as a parent even if it isn’t my dream, I should always try to allow him to pursue his – even if it is spinner fishing!

I love inspiration! I can honestly do so much with it! I see that same gift in my boy as well. I truly believe that even though winter camp 2018 was wetter than I like – which is saying a lot – Nate’s inspiration was right there waiting for us. His inspiration came in the form of one of the greatest young fishermen I know. I am old enough to be his auntie and yet he is my buddy.

I met Zach on that very river a run or two prior, but he and Nate had never met. Zach loves hardware, and on that day I saw why. I went one for one over the course of the day, while that young man literally went 10 for 10 on – what do you know? – spinners! With the river rising steadily, I was impressed watching him fish and enjoy radical success on a mad mix of hatchery and wild fish. But my boy, he was most impressed!

Some lose their joy for the river if they are not the one doing the catching.

I feel thankful for my perspective and love for these creatures, and this sport.

It may not have been “my” success, but there was great success all around me in the form of my 19-year-old buddy.

He straight up inspired my boy in a way that I too felt success. Zach had

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probably one of his best days as far as hooking and landing winter steelhead on a river on the rise. Nate and I learned as we watched Zach work that water, loving every minute of it.

The next day and fully inspired

by Zach, Nate fished hard. Changing his spinners and working his duolock despite the cold of winter, that boy impressed his momma. To my amazement as he was retrieving his spinner while talking just a million miles a minute to me, I saw his rod load, watched him wind down and execute on his hookset, and by golly Nate had a fish on!

I knew the day would come when Nate would lose a steelhead. What I didn’t know was the pride I would still see on his face; hooking a steelhead on a spinner was a total victory for him, even though he never got to grasp on to the fish he hooked. And all because we fished what we had, a river on the rise instead of perfect water.

THROUGHOUT MY JOURNEY

on the rivers what I have learned simply by watching other fishermen has been vital to my constant growth and my success. As my babes and I went on a Christmas coastal adventure this year I loved watching Nate pick out his favorite spinners and spoons at the bait shop. He spoke of Zach, his 10for-10 day, and what he intends on doing this winter at camp.

It confirmed what I already know: Inspiration comes in all forms at the right times, to the right people. The fact it can feed your very soul helps me remember there is greatness in choosing a life that has nothing to do with status and everything to do with embracing what it is you love. The soggy winter camp of a river on the rise may have tested my optimistic eyes, but they still see so clearly what’s true.

My heart is on the river and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS

Editor’s note: For more on Sara’s adventures, see For The Love Of The Tug on Facebook.

114 Northwest Sportsman

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Northwest Sportsman 115

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COLUMN At press deadline, Washington fishery officials were set to make a decision on whether to go ahead with their plan to hold a three-month-long catch-and-release season for wild winter steelhead on the Skagit and Sauk. It would be only the second opportunity to fish for nates during peak season on the brawling North Cascades rivers since 2009. (CHASE GUNNELL)

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y now if you’re still not ready to succumb altogether to the trials

By Doug Huddle of winter and “pull a Punxsutawney Phil,” there are several options for hunter/fisher gatherers to pursue game of somewhat lesser stature.

Smelt at La Conner and rabbits at Lake Terrell are a firm bets in February. But for tribulations of the latest Trump/Pelosi impasse, there might probably have been – or perhaps there still is (I’m not a tea leaf

reader) – a third late-winter run-in with famed winter-running fish that could or maybe has come to pass. And that is where we’ll start.

SKAGIT WILD STEELHEAD … PERHAPS The effort to rekindle the renowned spring wild steelhead catch-and-release fishery of old in the upper Skagit basin wasn’t supposed to sputter along like it did in 2018.

But, lo and behold, the miracle of modern government has found yet another way to muck things up, as the Brits

say. And the English language just doesn’t have enough tense/mood options to tell the story simply.

At the time of this writing (early January), issuance of the anticipated NOAA Fisheries go-ahead for the three-month opportunity was not forthcoming, leaving state and tribal officials in a quandary and anglers infinitely distant from a spring rendezvous with the vaunted fish Last fall the comanagers agreed to a second draft framework for such a recreational fishery, completed, cosigned

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COLUMN The charming community of La Conner, seen here from underneath the Rainbow Bridge over the Swinomish Slough, hosts its 54th Annual Smelt Derby in February, and while catches probably won’t be high, it’s still a fun local gathering at a slow time of year for other outdoor pursuits in the North Sound. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

and submitted the necessary formal request with, they thought, sufficient supporting information to federal fisheries regulators.

Based on prior feedback from the federal agency, the comanagers felt approval of this follow-up submission would be somewhat of a formality.

But in early December NOAA Fisheries managers returned a query on some relatively minor matters back to the comanagers and from that a Jan. 7 meeting was scheduled to resolve the technical questions.

With the timely Christmas present of the Trump Administration/Congressional Democrats stalemate blocking a vote on the critical continuing funding resolution (aka, kicking the fiscal responsibility can down the road), much of the federal government abruptly shut down.

With the desired Feb. 1 season start-up date approaching and no formal consent available from furloughed federal fisheries 118 Northwest Sportsman

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specialists, state and tribal managers were/are left with a dilemma, and so were/ might-still-be the rest of us.

Not being Nostradomuses, we writers have no way on deadline of chronicling absolutely yet-to-unfold events for a future publication, but perhaps we can just call this quantum journalism – recounting a multitude of potentialities, before they happen, for reading at a later date (where are Doc Brown or Professor Peabody when you need them?).

As of early January, comanagers, with no federal concurrence, had several options.

Implementation of the fishery could: • Again be put on hold indefinitely, until federal agencies reconvene. Remember last year pending legal issues delayed this “permitted” fishery till mid-April; • Take place as planned starting Feb. 1 without the latest affirmative federal response; • Proceed (the federal government

having come back in session) with everyone on board and in agreement.

No matter which happens, the wild winter-runs are going to be there, especially in the Sauk, as February rolls around and these fish almost assuredly will be in better shape than we think.

And whether it starts as originally framed or unfolds down the line on the next calendar page, this unique angling opportunity will lay out like this: • Period of fishery: Feb. 1 to April 30; • Legal angling mode: Catch and release with selective gear rules; • Waters to be open: The upper Skagit River from The Dalles Bridge near Concrete upstream to the Cascade River Road at Marblemount; The lower Sauk River from its mouth upstream to the Sauk Prairie Road bridge at Darrington.

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Northwest Sportsman 119

COLUMN will remain closed during this period.

However, from the Memorial Bridge (State Route 536) in Mount Vernon downstream to Skagit Bay there will be a partially overlapping spring opening for trout and bull trout that also has the overarching proviso of releasing wild steelhead and spring Chinook.

• Special rules afloat: In the Skagit section, fishing from a powerboat with the motor running will not be allowed; Afloat in the Sauk reach, fishing from a boat with any engine, running or not, is banned.

Here are two remaining thoughts at the time of this writing. Regularly check the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s regs page (wdfw.wa.gov). When the go-ahead decision is made an emergency order will be written and posted there and that’s all the real temporal blessing you need.

With faith that this will come to pass, my advice is to check back next issue for some savvy hints on how and where to

make a March or April approach to these sacred waters and their bruiser fish.

ANNUAL FAMILY SMELT TILT The 54th La Conner Smelt Derby, the venerable winter cure for family rec room ague, is set for Saturday, Feb. 23 at the quirky Skagit County town on the Swinomish Slough.

Today’s fishing contest has taken a bit of a back seat in what’s now a latewinter community social and mercantile celebration. But it remains a great way for your family to “shrug off the stink” of winter’s enforced indoors idleness.

These days both adults and kids enjoy tangible payoffs, including a $100 prize for the biggest of the tiny forage fish. There are other categories of prizes, including ones for the most usual nonfish item snagged and pulled up from the slough’s bottom.

Jigging a plain gang-rigged trio of bare treble or nine single-point hooks is this event’s harvest mode. Pretied

Sabiki six-hook bait jig rigs (with Nos. 10, 12 or 14 hooks), adorned with tiny redheaded streamers, work as well and save considerable elbow and shoulder stress.

Most businesses along La Conner’s First Street allow fee-free access to their piers or docks on derby day. A dock or two in the Port’s public moorage basin on the north side of town also are open for the derby, and there’s a boat ramp on Sherman Street under the Rainbow Bridge if you want to try on the water for the little finners.

Be sure to arrive in the morning around 8 o’clock to register, have a stack of pancakes and find a seat on a dock deck.

No state fishing license is needed to catch and keep smelt, but there’s a 10-pound daily limit on these specific forage fish and each fisher must have their own keeper container.

Fresh-caught smelt are enjoyable tablefare. For delicious recipes, look up Italian Tegame alla Vernazzana (a Cinque Terre antipasto casserole dish) on onceinalifetimetravel.com or Madrid’s boquerones (either marinated or deepfried ala tapas bar fare) at thespruce.com.

LATE RABBIT STEW For the last hunt of the winter, a rabbitnosy terrier or beagle, a “well-choked” brush shotgun and a sprawling, somewhat unkempt pasture or brushy forest road are essential elements.

In the lowlands, cottontail rabbits are the quarry, while larger, plumper snowshoes hare are the finds in the Cascade foothills.

The handiest hare hunts in Whatcom County are found on the spacious AlcoaIntalco, BP Cherry Point and Lake Terrell units of the Whatcom Wildlife Area complex. All three venues have ample amounts of patchwork cover and forage habitats for cottontails.

On such field hunts, a nail-driving .22 rifle with iron sights or a small scope can be your best rabbit getter. However, in hunt locales where homes, businesses or casual pedestrians (dog walkers and runners are or may be present), consider carrying a 20-, 28- or .410-gauge shotgun rather than the small-caliber pistol or rifle.

Lighter, shorter barreled smooth bores are 120 Northwest Sportsman

FEBRUARY 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

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Northwest Sportsman 121

preferable to heavier fowling pieces.

Constantly be aware of your everchanging field of fire (downrange backdrop) in farm fields and along roads.

Also, to avoid lead toxification risk, use steel No. 6 or 7½ pellet loads. They’ll humanely kill rabbits without destroying edible parts.

Since native lagos here are most active at dawn and dusk, strolls a half after or before morning or evening shoot hours are best. Daytime more often than not finds them hidden in their home warrens or tucked away in some well-concealed nook, hence the need for a good nose to ferret them out. NS

NEXT ISSUE: Early lake cutthroat, mountain snowshoe hunting of the hare kind, upper Skagit steelhead on selective gear.

Editor’s note: Doug Huddle lives in Bellingham, is retired from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and has been writing about hunting and fishing in the Northwest for more than 35 years.

LAST CHANCE AT NOOKSACK STEELIES The first half of February on the lower North Fork Nooksack represents the last directed hatchery winter-run steelhead fishery in North Puget Sound.

Normally, there is at least a smattering of a chance that a finclipped straggler or two are still loitering on the reaches below or just above Kendall Creek Hatchery.

However this return year’s population has been so small, a visit to the North Fork likely will just be casting practice or a “sensitivity” tune-up for Skagit steelheading later this winter (hopefully).

If you do drift from Mosquito Lake Road Bridge down, remember to pull your gear above the Highway 9 bridge above the confluence.

That’s a newer rule that’s now in effect. –DH

122 Northwest Sportsman

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Prime Time For Steelies

This time of year typically sees good fishing for a mix of hatchery and wild steelhead returning to Olympic Peninsula and Grays Harbor streams, but with how crowded some can get, don’t overlook blackmouth opportunities in Deep South Sound. (JASON BROOKS)

F

ebruary comes in as the shortest month of the year, but these brief four weeks are some of the best for winter SOUTH SOUND steelhead fishing and local blackmouth anBy Jason Brooks gling. Hatchery “brats” are starting to show in better numbers as the “B” run gets going, while the wild fish that most steelhead anglers dream of are making their way from the ocean.

But South Sound anglers should ex-

plore a few more options instead of just hitting the more popular Grays Harbor rivers, which will be chock-full of drift boats and jet sleds. This is where taking the boat down to your local saltwater boat ramp could pay off.

WE’LL START WITH steelhead fishing. This time of year it is hard to beat drift fishing a small gob of freshly cured eggs tipped with a piece of prawn or sand shrimp. This diehard, old-school method is a fun way to fish, as you are always working the bait, feeling for the bite, casting, and retrieving,

keeping you busy and warm.

But as the month moves closer to the Presidents Day weekend, it is time to put the bait away and switch over to pink worms, spoons, and spinners. This is because the holiday is the “unofficial” start of wild steelhead catch-and-release season.

Most of my biggest natives have come on this weekend or just after. Due to the need to preserve these fish, it is best to leave the bait at home to keep mortality rates down.

One way to target both hatchery and wild fish late in February is to float fish a pink worm on a jig head. This is a great

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Northwest Sportsman 125

COLUMN way to increase your fishing time and worry less about breaking off and having to retie another leader. Simply take a Gamakatsu 1/8-ounce jig head and slide on a 4-inch pink worm. Float fish it just like you would with a standard steelhead jig, or rig it “wacky” style, putting the hook through the middle of the worm. Pink worms mimic large nightcrawlers that have washed into the river and are drifting downstream in the current. They represent a target of opportunity and an easy meal for a steelhead, and they are used to grabbing them quickly, since the natural worms float by at the speed of the current. This is why fishing pink worms, either under a float or drift fished, is so much fun. The bite is unmistakable as the large fish grabs the worm with violence, but often they can’t swallow the worms, especially the rubber ones we use, and the hook gets buried in the jaw, making for an easy release on wild fish.

The Olympic Peninsula is synonymous with big natives, as well as some decent returns of hatchery fish, depending on which

river system you go to. Hiring a guide will really help out and even if you are a veteran steelheader, booking a trip makes for a fun, stress-free and relaxing day of fishing.

If you are new to a river system, it is best to run it with an experienced oarsman, as these streams often change after each season, and sometimes after each rainstorm.

A few rivers are only accessible with a Quinault Indian Nation guide. Anglers who shy away from this for personal reasons are selling themselves short on a great day of fishing. The rivers and streams that are exclusive to the Quinaults are some of the last pristine waters with good numbers of fish. Even hatchery fish, such as on Cook Creek, can be incredible and reminiscient of the good ol’ days, when the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife stocked heavily. They represent a viable outlet for those who would rather not fight the crowds on the Wynoochee.

A few years ago I would see a handful of boats when I fished here, but now that WDFW has cut a lot of the stocking pro-

grams to other rivers, such as the Cowlitz, it is hard to find a parking spot on the ’Nooch any day in February.

THAT’S THE MAIN issue with hatchery winter steelhead fishing, it seems. The few rivers left to go to that receive decent plants are becoming crowded. But there’s another option out there. If last winter’s hot blackmouth fishing is any indication, this time of year could be prime for fishing places like Point Defiance, Owens Beach, Point Dalco, and even trolling around Fox Island a bit. These fish are found in some of the same places we target in July and August but are a bit smaller, with most averaging 5 to 8 pounds. A few in the lower teens are caught each year, and as the White River’s spring Chinook run continues to build, some could be caught in late February as they make their way towards the area.

Mooching might be a summer’s pastime for South Sound anglers, but for winter blackmouth it is a downrigger trolling

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COLUMN game. This is because the fish hug the bottom of Puget Sound, mostly foraging on sandlance. Using downriggers and keeping your gear as close to the bottom as you safely can, drag Coho Killers in cop car, Wonder Bread, and silver behind a large Sling Blade dodger. Another trick that works well when the fish are on a sandlance bite is to use a herring strip. Simply fillet a blue label-sized bait and then cut the fillets in half lengthwise, making two small strips; each herring makes four baits.

Then use a small herring helmet with the strip and put it back 18 to 24 inches behind the Sling Blade. This gives the herring strip good action and mimics a sandlance, as it is the same size and shape.

LASTLY, I WANT to thank the readers of Northwest Sportsman, especially those who are still reading these last few sentences, as that means you are reading my monthly column. It was ten years ago this month that editor Andy Walgamott took a chance and ran a photo I submitted in the then still fairly new magazine.

That simple photo, which I had sent in as a contest entry, started a friendship that I respect and cherish. Andy and I became friends and he learned that I had a skill set that included interviewing people and telling their stories, not to mention I was the son of two fishing guides (my dad is a retired Lake Chelan guide and my stepfather guides full time in The Dalles) and I

had a fishing and hunting background.

As luck would have it, I used to paint and draw to pass the time as a kid and teenager and that lent itself to photography as I got older. Soon I was writing stories for Andy and Northwest Sportsman, and his guidance has helped me pen over 700 articles, with over 2,500 photographs published and 12 cover shots for various magazines, blogs, e-zines, and other media. Thank you, readers, for the past decade. Ironically, my birthday is also in February and as I get another year older I look forward to another decade, or two, writing stories and taking photos for you to enjoy. I owe it all to Andy and the readers of Northwest Sportsman. NS

“My greatest achievement as a sportsman hasn’t been the wallhanger muley that adorns my office or my 30-pound king. It was a planted rooster, barely out of the crate. It only flew 30 yards in its ‘free’ life,” Jason Brooks wrote in a story about taking a newbie afield for our February 2009 issue. It was about a Thanksgiving pheasant hunt with his then 5-yearold son Adam, who drew a bead with his dad’s old Red Ryder BB gun on a ringneck rising over the Scotch broom, let fly with a shot – backed up by Jason and his shotgun – and downing the bird with a shout of “I got it!”

(JASON BROOKS)

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February Coastal Steelhead

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February marks the month when the biggest, brightest, hardest fighting steelhead of the season enter our coastal rivers and you do not want to come unprepared. Now is the time when a once-in-a-lifetime trophy-class steelhead could finally become a reality!

The coastal rivers of the Pacific Northwest from British Columbia to Oregon feature the only opportunity in the world to target these early outsized spring steelhead and some of these rivers can be accessed by jetboat; some, in fact, are so remote that they can only be accessed by boat.

“Danny Cook with a hog February broodstock steelhead!”

Danny Cook from Wooldridge Boats suggests increasing your chances by using slightly larger terminal gear for catching these inherently larger steelhead. Not only do you want to increase the size of your main and leader line but your offerings as well. This means larger drift bobbers, baits, flies, plugs, etc. You really want to come prepared as these fish have a tendency to break angler’s hearts more often than not.

Rule is, the larger the steelhead, the larger water you want to look for them in. You will find them in deeper and choppier water than you typically find earlier fish in, so increase your weights and slow your baits down. Larger, flashier offerings are encouraged and will illicit more strikes than with the earlier run steelhead as well.

Some rivers offer hatchery broodstock programs and some offer wild steelhead only. If a wild steelhead is caught, they should always be handled with extreme care and released immediately. Always check state and provincial regulations for current fishing and boating laws before heading out on the water. Be careful and have fun out there!

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 129

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COLUMN

Retrofitting A Kayak Into A Fishing Machine T

he pictures on the Craigslist ad depict a kayak that has seen better days. The kayak looks THE KAYAK GUYS to have been stored

By Scott Brenneman outside for a number of years. It appears to be in bad shape but I immediately recognize the treasure in somebody’s backyard. After a brief phone call, I hurry to catch a ferry, en route to the Olympic Peninsula.

The kayak has indeed spent a great deal of time outside. The salt and the sun have taken their tolls; chunks of gel coat are missing. What remains is worn and faded. The resin is eroded from the exposed fiberglass rails, guaranteeing a skin rash to whomever dares touch it. The rudder and center hatch are missing, but after some searching we find them in a

shed. I pay the asking price and remove this eyesore from their yard. I am now the proud owner of a Tsunami X-15 Scramjet.

THE X-15 ISN’T at all an ideal fishing kayak and that is exactly why I want to fish out of it. The evolution of kayak design emphasis is directed towards comfort and ergonomics to enhance the kayak fishing experience; this has made it much easier to fish from one.

But what gets my heart pumping is to fish out of a kayak that decreases my comfort zone, one that comes with a seat belt like the X-15.

Glen Gilchrist and Jim Kakuk, two members of the Tsunami Rangers, an extreme kayak group, designed and built the X-15 to withstand extreme conditions.

This is a rough-water boat made for exploring rock gardens surrounded by

thrashing surf.

Their X-15 is built like a tank. At 14 feet long and 24 inches wide, the shell is constructed with Kevlar with extra layering in areas prone to impact. At 50 pounds, it is more than half the weight of most fishing kayaks. The rudder is a kick-up type. It is beefy and can be used for tracking, as well as steering in the surf. I can’t wait to take this kayak for a spin.

Getting the X-15 water-ready was a fun winter project. There was no damage to the Kevlar shell.

The restoration involved a lot of sanding, the application of some resin, followed by spraying on a fresh layer of gel coat – white on the bottom and international orange on the top of the kayak. After some

Count author Scott Brenneman among those who like a good challenge, in this case restoring an “eyesore” of a kayak bought off Craigslist as a winter project. After repairing it, he found it to be far from an ideal fishing craft and leagues away from those designed with that purpose in mind, but still passable. (SCOTT BRENNEMAN)

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Northwest Sportsman 131

COLUMN more sanding and polishing, all that was left was to install new seals to the hatches.

Motivated to get this kayak on the water, I spent every spare minute I had working to restore the X-15.

ON THE WATER, the difference between the X-15 and rotomolded plastic fishing kayaks I am used to paddling is night and day. On its maiden voyage, I immediately notice the lack of stability that I am accustomed to. It is a stark contrast to the super-stable wide kayaks that one can easily stand on.

After a few minutes, I find my seat and feel more balanced. I paddle on with more confidence but never let my guard down.

This sleek craft glides through the water with ease. Little effort is required to maintain speeds that are unsustainable in rotomolded kayaks. The X-15 is a washdeck sit-on-top; it has no scupper holes, so water does not drain. It’s not a design flaw in any way, but it makes for a wet ride. With a few months until salmon season arrives, I will spend some more time getting to know the X-15 better by paddling and playing in the surf before attempting to fish out of it.

My first attempt at fishing from the X-15

was a bust. Though no fish were caught, I was able to fine tune where to stow gear for easy access and where to best place the fish finder and rod holders. This is critical on this kayak; as the widest part of my X-15 measures less than 24 inches, overextending my reach to grab rods or a net will cause the kayak to capsize.

I am now trolling in 2- to 3-foot cross swells. The breeze is just strong enough to occasionally whiten the tips of the cresting swells, but the rougher the water the better this kayak feels. I am confident that I will be successful. The day prior I limited out quickly in a different kayak. Today is different; the early morning action was nonexistent. I finally get a drive by from a bait-stealing coho. After deploying a fresh anchovy, my rod bends over. Fish on! As I fight the fish, the X-15 slows, and with no paddle to propel or brace with, the kayak starts to feel unstable in the light, choppy seas. Dropping my legs over the sides helps to stabilize it while I wrestle with the fish.

I bring a respectable coho to the net. I secure my catch to a game clip, and quickly realize that placing my kill bag behind me was not the best choice. There is no way

If there’s anything to say about his backup angling kayak, it’s that Brenneman found it to be fast on the paddle and easier to get off the water during a surf landing. (SCOTT BRENNEMAN)

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I can stow my catch behind me without taking a swim. I paddle half a mile back to shore with the fish in my lap. After a couple more hours of effort with no bites, I call it and paddle in with a smile on my face.

WITH ITS WET ride and lack of deck space, the Tsunami X-15 is not the best choice for fishing. It is not my primary fishing kayak and I would never use it for halibut, but it is my favorite to paddle and fish from. There are not many sit-on-tops that can match the speed and maneuverability of the X-15. It is icing on the cake to end the day accelerating down the face of a wave and surfing to shore rather than getting pushed in sideways while bracing to stay upright.

There are more options than ever for choosing a new fishing kayak, but the added challenge of retrofitting an older model may bring a greater level of satisfaction than heading out in the latest and greatest on the market. It has for me, anyway. There are many older kayaks that would be great candidates for a fishing retrofit; you just have to look with an open mind. The Mariner Coaster and the Wave Witch are on my short list. NS

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COLUMN

The Bunny Muddler I

went to high school with Bunny Muddler. Of all the girls, she had the biggest pair of … ears. But, I digress.

GUIDE FLY Josh Hayes owns

By Tony Lolli and operates Alaska Trout Guides (alaskatroutguides.com; Instagram: alaskatroutguide). For 20 years he’s been guiding on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula on the Kenai River, a river that’s produced more fly-caught rainbow trout over 30 inches than any other river in the world.

Hayes reports he has always swung flesh flies because Kenai River rainbows prefer to look up and ambush from below.

When swinging, he likes a fly with a strong profile/silhouette. It needs to be something that holds its shape but still has an undulating action.

His favorite flies are those that will fish with any style (dead drift, swung, cast and strip, jigged) and in all water conditions. He also wanted a fly that has some buoyancy, allowing the fly to hover a bit in the strike zone when on the hang down or wash around a bit when dead drifted. Hence, the deer hair head as opposed to wool or some other material, something Hayes learned from watching Larry Dahlberg videos.

He fishes his Bunny Muddler mainly in the winter and spring. In the former months, once the major salmon spawning events are done, trout become more opportunistic feeders. They will eat anything they can easily acquire with minimal effort.

“My best guide day with the Bunny Muddler was the result of a last-minute call during an especially cold day,” Hayes recalls. “I wasn’t expecting much but the angler wanted to go anyway. To my surprise, fishing from the anchored boat in the first hole, my client managed to hook four fish and land three, two of which came on the hang down directly below the boat.”

“I pulled anchor and rowed to a gravel bar to build a warm-up fire. As I collected

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MATERIALS Hooks: Front: Aqua Flies Round Eye Shank 26mm; rear: No. 4 Owner Cutting Point bait hook turned-up eye Thread: Black GSP 100 Hook connector: 12-pound Maxima Mono loop Tail: Flesh/tan rabbit is small tail, then wrapped forward one-third of the front hook shank. wood, he hooked and landed another nice rainbow. Soon, I heard him yell and recognized the unmistakable rod bend of a good fish. In a short time a gorgeous, fat, chrome 23-inch hen was laying in the net.

Laughing out loud, we slapped cold highfives and admired the beautiful native rainbow. I couldn’t tell you how many fish we managed to catch that short, cold February day. But more importantly I shared time on my home water with an angler who had a lifelong dream realized.”

I’ve had some dreams of Bunny Muddler too, but none involved a net, unless you count net stockings. Hey Bunny, if

Wing: Darker rabbit (grey or black) with a slight overhang as a mini “wing” and wrap the rest forward over the second third of the forward hook shank.

Flash: Four strands of copper flash/tinsel Collar: Copper/black chenille Head: Deer hair (black or brown) in a mini Dahlberg Diver shape.

you’re out there, I can get a net. I already have a garter belt. But, I digress, again.

If you’re a guide with an innovative fly to share, contact me (tonylolli@yahoo .com) and I’ll send the details. NS Editor’s notes: This new column rotates each month between Northwest Sportsman and sister titles California Sportsman and Alaska Sporting Journal. Autographed copies of Tony Lolli’s new book, Art of the Fishing Fly, with an intro by President Jimmy Carter, are available from Tony Lolli, 1589 Legeer Rd., Grantsville, MD 21536 for $30 with free shipping.

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 135

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COLUMN

Rifle Makers Unveil New Big Game Models For 2019 A

lthough big game hunting seasons are months and months away, it is never too soon to drool over a new ON TARGET

By Dave Workman hunting rifle and at the recent Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas, Browning and Winchester raised the curtain on several new models.

Browning has introduced three new ones, including a new variation of the popular BAR semiauto which, incredibly, is automatically considered a“semiautomatic assault rifle” in Washington, thanks to last November’s passage of Initiative 1639, the extremist gun control measure that suddenly a lot of people seem to have discovered, even though the election was months ago.

That measure was being challenged in U.S. District Court in Seattle by my Second Amendment Foundation, as well as the National Rifle Association. We’ll keep readers updated on that case.

For starters, the new X-Bolt Max Long Range Hunter features the new composite Max stock with an adjustable comb that allows the user’s eye to be properly aligned with the scope. The scope is gray and black with a textured finish.

It’s got a stainless fluted heavy sporter barrel threaded to take a suppressor or muzzle brake (supplied), and it is offered in nine calibers: 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win., .300 WSM, .26 Nosler, 7mm Rem. Mag., .28 Nosler, .300

Northwest sportsmen looking to upgrade their deer and elk rifles and optics have some new choices to consider well ahead of 2019’s seasons in Oregon, where this muley was photographed, Idaho and Washington. (NICK MYATT, ODFW) nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 137

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Browning’s new-for-2019 rifles include its X-Bolt Tungsten, a BAR variant and X-Bolt Max Long Range. (BROWNING)

Win. Mag., and .300 RUM. Browning’s new X-Bolt Tungsten might be pure eye candy, with an exclusive Generation 2 carbon fiber stock featuring a palm swell on the grip. The barrel and receiver are made from stainless steel with a Cerakote tungsten finish. This one is chambered for 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win., .300 WSM, .26 Nosler, .270 Win., .30-06 Sprg., 7mm Rem. Mag., .28 Nosler and .300 Win. Mag. calibers, according to

New offerings from Winchester include a trio of bolt-actions: the XPR Hunter Highlander, Hunter Highlander in Kryptek and Hunter Strata wearing TrueTimber camo. (WINCHESTER, ALL)

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Browning literature.

The BAR model will delight fans of semiautos, although under language approved

by Washington voters, beginning July 1, this model will be considered an “assault rifle” simply because it’s a self-loader.

Chambered for the .308 Win., this rifle has an alloy receiver, integrated Picatinny rails and a 10-round box magazine. The stock and forearm are Grade II Turkish walnut with an oil finish.

WINCHESTER BOLT GUNS If you like Winchesters, it may be hard to resist checking out the new XPR Hunter Strata bolt-action model for 2019. It wears a polymer stock finished in TrueTimber Strata camo with a flattened forend for shooting over sandbags or a rest.

The barrel, receiver and bolt are finished with Perma-Cote to reduce glare and protect against corrosion, so they will be right at home in the Pacific Northwest.

nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

Northwest Sportsman 139

This one is chambered in most popular calibers ranging up to .338 Win. Magnum, and the choices include 6.5 Creedmoor.

Barrel length for shot-action calibers is 22 inches, while the magnums are offered with 26-inch tubes. It’s got the M.O.A. trigger system, a detachable box magazine and steel recoil lug.

Another entry is the XPR Hunter Highlander, also finished in camo, but this time it’s the Kryptek Highlander pattern on a polymer stock with a Perma-Cote finish on the barrel, receiver and bolt. It is offered in the same caliber choices as the other XPR. And for the folks who like the legendary Model 70, Winchester is adding the 6.5 Creedmoor chambering this year on several variations including the Super Grade, Featherweight, Featherweight Compact, Extreme Weather SS and Coyote Light SR (suppressor ready).

SO ABOUT THE 6.5 …

There has been a lot of ink devoted to the 6.5 Creedmoor lately, including one piece I saw comparing/contrasting it to the .308 Winchester, which was an intriguing choice for one of those “dueling calibers” pieces because that’s almost guaranteed to show the 6.5 as a superior cartridge.

Ballistically, it’s arguably a more potent round downrange, but I suspect some of the praise might eventually be likened to the late Jack O’Connor’s cheerleading for the .270 Winchester. O’Connor liked hunting wild sheep – a fact that becomes immediately obvious with a single visit to the center named in his memory just south of Lewiston – and the .270 is a superb sheep cartridge.

But is the 6.5 Creedmoor the best thing since sliced bread? It utilizes a .264-caliber bullet and from anecdotal evidence, it is capable of remarkable long-range accuracy. North American big game, from all the deer, goats and sheep up through elk and caribou are not safe.

There is plenty of loading data available, because this cartridge seems like a handloader’s dream. With an abundance of modern propellants available, it is 140 Northwest Sportsman

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COLUMN

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possible to brew up loads that send 100-grain bullets downrange at more than 3,200 feet per second out of the muzzle, while heavier pills in the 140-grain realm can still launch at better than 2,600 to 2,700 fps, depending upon the powder.

With a boattail bullet – due to its higher ballistic coefficient – the 6.5 Creedmoor is a game animal’s nightmare.

It’s no surprise that the Creedmoor has earned something of a cult following.

People who brew up their own loads and use them in reliable rifles should be able to connect at well beyond 300 and even 400 yards.

The longest shot I ever took on a buck was at an estimated 400 yards with a .30-06, and the 6.5 Creedmoor has that old warhorse cartridge beat in terms of cartridge length (it’s a short-action round) and recoil.

All that said, I remain a loyal devotee of the .30 caliber, whether in .300 Savage, .308 Winchester or the aforementioned

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Of course, I’ve also popped a couple of bucks with a .257 Roberts, and flattened one in Montana several years ago with a .350 Remington Magnum. Nearly all of those deer fell to a single shot, and a couple of them took two rounds, so I’m not sure the 6.5 Creedmoor would have done any better. After all, just how dead does a buck, bull or ram have to be?

Swarovski’s new Z5 in 2.4-12x50mm has a 5x zoom and weighs just over a pound.

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However, if the 6.5 Creedmoor is your poison, you’ve made a potent choice, and you won’t lose a minute’s sleep because of it. You will find more than 100 recommended loads for the 6.5 Creedmoor in the 2019 Annual Manual published by Hodgdon. If you’re into handloading, you definitely need a copy.

This year’s edition spans 168 pages, and I keep one in my office and one on the bookshelf above my loading bench.

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If you’re going to get a good long-range rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, may as well put a top quality scope on it.

Swarovski Optik just introduced a couple, and one of those caught my attention. It’s the Z5 family’s newest entry, in 2.4-12x50mm. This magnification range makes it ideal for virtually every hunting challenge and environment, from the open prairie to the tall timber.

Built on a 1-inch main tube, the newest Z5 has a 5X zoom range, a four-point coil spring system, and an optional ballistic turret. It measures 13.1 inches and weighs 16.2 ounces.

I’ve used a Swarovksi 2.5-10X scope on a Marlin .30-06 for a couple of decades. It has retained its zero, been instrumental in putting a lot of venison in the freezer and never given me a bit of trouble.

You’ll be hearing about this scope, and the rifles from Browning and Winchester, as the various firearms periodicals discuss the new SHOT Show introductions over the next couple of months.

You can beat the rush. NS

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COLUMN

Shooting a critter at the bottom of the canyon might lead some to leave edible parts behind in favor of the meatiest bits, but not author Randy King, who cut the tongue out of this cow elk and used it for tacos. (RANDY KING)

This’ll Leave A Good Taste In Your Mouth W

“ CHEF IN THE WILD

By Randy King

e l l , crap,” I said.

“What?” asked my much older and much less goodlooking brother, Kris.

“I found the elk …”

“Yeah?”

“At the bottom,” I bemoaned.

“Of course … they have to be at the bottom,” he said stoically, bringing his binoculars to his face. “Where they at?”

Over the years of describing terrain,

Kris and I have developed a code. This skill must be honed for hunting pairs to be effective. Things that others would not notice on the hillside become indicators to us – the dead tree, the limpy tree, the buttcheek-looking rock face, the place we got the chukar that one time.

These descriptions all mean something to my brother and I, but to the layman they are probably gibberish. So when I described the location of the elk to my brother it was undoubtedly in some sort of prattle like “See the fence line? That is the private boundary. Now look at the bare

knob with the one juniper on it … now see the dead buck brush … look left. If you hook around the front side of that, you can see her butt glowing in the morning sun.”

“Got her … damn, all the way at the bottom too … like five of them.”

“Well, this is what I am doing today, so what are we waiting for?”

“One of us is gonna get an elk,” Kris replied.

“Shut up, dude, you’re gonna curse it.”

WE DUMPED OFF the ridge toward the elk, in total losing about 1,100 feet of elevation

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COLUMN Avocado and garlic crema, arugula and diced elk tongue on a flour tortilla. (RANDY KING)

FOLD YOUR TONGUE

H

onestly, I have left most tongues in the field, or in the trash with the rest of the critter’s head. I am not sure why I have done this; as a chef I have always known that they are good.

Even when I was in restaurants I only really made veal tongue dishes.

But times are changing. Food that was formally taboo is now commonplace – my son ordering a lengua taco at the Mexican market down the road proved this to me.

GETTING THE DAMN THING OUT So the first thing with getting the tongue out of your game animal is logistics. How the heck do you access the meat? Shortly after the animal dies rigor sets in and the jaw becomes borderline immovable.

Instead of accessing the meat from the inside I go through the bottom of the jaw. I make a slit from the furthest forward point 146 Northwest Sportsman

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of the jaw bone to the back of the throat.

Then I reach in and detach the tongue from the back of the throat. I find this a heck of a lot easier than dealing with teeth and prying open the jaw bones.

turn an ivory color. Then I freeze it. For this recipe I am using one elk tongue for tacos for four. That would be about four deer tongues, roughly.

BRAISED ELK TONGUE PREPARATION The first step with the tongue is to clean it very well. Depending on how you found the critter it was probably eating or chewing its cud. You can assume that the critter did not Scope its mouth out after you shot it and that dental hygiene for wild animals is not all that great. You want neither cud nor grass in any dish you create.

I put tongues in a plastic bag to not cross contaminate the other sections of meat. When I get back to the house I wash the bejeebers out of the tongue meat. The tongue will be stained brownish, but after a good scrub the whole outside layer will

1 elk tongue, cleaned 3 quarts water 1 head of garlic, sliced in half 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano 1 tablespoon pepper corns 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon red chili flakes 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder 1 tablespoon canola oil Add all the ingredients to a medium-sized stockpot and heat until a simmer. Then cover and let cook for three hours. Basically you are stove-top braising this tongue.

After three hours remove from heat.

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Northwest Sportsman 147

COLUMN At this point options present themselves: 1) Peel and eat the tongue. It will be good but not as good. 2) Let the tongue cool overnight in the broth, then peel and eat – this is the best-tasting option but requires the most planning. After you choose your destiny, you will need to do the following.

PEEL, SLICE AND FRY After the tongue is cool you will need to “peel” it. This sounds far worse than it really is. Basically, after the tongue is cooked the white cap will come off

After thoroughly cleaning, then braising the tongue with spices, “peel” off its white “rind” with a knife (below left). Afterwards, slice it (above left) then dice it (above right) before browning in hot oil. (RANDY KING, ALL) quickly with a knife.

Next slice the tongue crosswise into planks, then into strips and then into cubes.

When you have the cooked tongue in dices it is time for a taco!

Heat a nonstick pan on medium high and add the canola oil. When the oil is almost smoking add the diced taco meat.

Fry until browned on at least one side and hot all the way through.

Next garnish with whatever taco-ish things you want. For the recipe I used a green onion and avocado crema and arugula. I serve mine in a flour shell,

in the process. The beginning of the stalk was easy, with trees and shaded ravines providing cover. We played the wind, the thermals in our favor. As we stalked closer to the elk they began to do what elk do and move around. Soon the original five elk multiplied into 15. Then a bull elk showed up, then the bull was gone. A mule deer buck decided to feed with the herd. It was a sh*t show in the best possible way.

At about 400 yards we stopped as the cover ran out. Nothing but a patch of willows shielded us from the elk. We had to wait them out.

After about a quarter of an hour the elk fed out of sight into a small ravine and we made our move.

On the way toward the elk a hand came out and slapped me in the chest.

“Stop!” Kris whisper-yelled – the kind that is overly loud but still said in a hushed voice.

Dead ahead of us out in the open, just like us, was a solo cow elk.

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“We are busted,” my brother lamented.

The cow made the worst noise that a cow can make, that god-awful barky noise that tells all the other elk the game is afoot. A heartbeat later the elk began to scatter. The barking cow took about ten elk with her up and over the hill. The bull returned, only to quickly vanish. The mule deer buck looked around dumbly before hightailing out.

However, I had not seen the original group of elk vacate the area. They were still around somewhere; I knew it.

I CHARGED UP the nearest hill and on the other side of the ravine, standing broadside at about 100 yards, was a solo cow elk. I put my crosshairs on her and shot. She just stood there. So I shot again.

Big brother then showed up next to me, the elk still broadside across the ravine.

“Shoot her for me, would ya?” I said, lamenting my lack of skills and apparent accuracy.

because I am not a traditionalist in any way and I like flour tortillas.

AVOCADO AND GARLIC CREMA 1/2 cup sour cream or Mexican crema

1 clove garlic, diced 2 each green onions, roots removed ¼ of an avocado 1 teaspoon lime juice Salt and pepper Puree all until smooth. Use as sauce on tacos. Enjoy!

For more wild game recipes, go to chefrandyking.com. RK

“Why?” Kris said, putting his gun down.

I looked at her again with my binoculars.

I could see she had two pink holes near her front shoulder. Then her legs began to stiffen and her balance began to wane.

“She is dead, dude, she just doesn’t know it.”

As if on cue my cow tipped over. And slid from an open hillside about 60 feet into a hawthorn-infested ravine. This was not going to be an easy pack, so why should it be an easy butcher job?

We cut, tied and cursed until the elk was boneless and in game bags. As we prepared to hike the meat out I turned for one final look back – and saw her tongue sticking out of her mouth.

“Wait,” I said. “I’m gonna grab the tongue from this one.”

Clearly not wanting another pound in his back, Kris cocked his head, looked at me and said, “Fine, but you are carrying it.”

We made our way up the hill, suffering the whole way. NS

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COLUMN

What You Need To Know About E-collars E

lectronic collars.

They’re one of the most widely used pieces of dog training equipment, and, perhaps, the most misunderstood. Used GUN DOGGIN’ 101 properly, e-collars can

By Scott Haugen be one of your best training tools. But used improperly, they can be one of your worst.

Often referred to as shock collars for the electrical stimulus they can emit, they also give off beeps and vibrations, both of which can be very effective, positive, forms of communication.

“The biggest misconception is that people are out there shocking their dogs and making it a cruel interaction,” shares noted dog trainer Jess Spradley, owner of Cabin Creek Gun Dogs (cabincreekgundogs.com, 541-219-2526) in Lakeview, Oregon. “It’s not a cruel tool at all when properly used; it’s a teaching tool.

You just have to know how to use it, and when to use it.”

IF YOU’RE A new dog owner who is training their own pup, Spradley suggests seeking the advice of a dog trainer or hunter in your area.

“Seeing someone properly use an e-collar before you try it is ideal, because timing for correcting a dog’s behavior is critical,” he says. “If that warning comes too soon, the dog can be confused, and the same is true if the warming comes too late. Used in the wrong way, it’s very difficult to reverse bad teaching resulting from improper e-collar use. These dogs are smart, and you have to know exactly what message you’re sending them.”

What Spradley shares about smart dogs is spot on. I was amazed with the first dog I trained with an e-collar. Using soft bumps

Electronic collars are a valuable training tool, but understanding how and when to use them is critical. (SCOTT HAUGEN) with her, she caught on so quickly that I couldn’t believe it. I’ve not had to shock her for nearly three years. Two male dogs I recently trained were a bit more stubborn.

I didn’t shock them more, or harder, just rethought how I was trying to teach them what I wanted them to do.

A SHOCK IMPULSE from an e-collar is not a free ticket to zap your dog every time it does something wrong. You have to deliver precise prompts and follow it up accordingly, and do it the same way every single time so the dog knows what to expect.

“As soon as a pup can start wearing an e-collar, I’ll put it on,” continues Spradley.

“I won’t turn it on; I just want the pup to

get used to wearing it. Any time we go outside, that collar is on. I start using the e-collar prompts when the pup starts getting defiant, and that typically means not wanting to go into their kennel.

“When this starts to happen, lead the dog and order it to ‘kennel.’ Start with a treat and say ‘kennel’ so they know to go in. Eventually, as they start slowing down again, not wanting to go into the kennel, just give them a little bump (light shock) to reinforce that you want them to get in the kennel. If reinforcing a known command, like ‘kennel’ which they’ve been hearing since you brought them home, they catch on really fast,” says Spradley.

Such consistency transitions into other training practices, making it easier for

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Northwest Sportsman 151

COLUMN ONCE YOUR PUP starts becoming defiant in other behaviors, usually by about six months of age, Spradley suggests to start disciplining them with the e-collar.

“You can beep as a precursor to let a dog know a shock is coming if they don’t obey, then quickly follow that with a light bump, if necessary,” he says. “It really depends on the dog’s personality, as some will immediately comply, others will intentionally move slow. With some dogs you never need to shock them, as once they learn that a beep tells them what’s coming, they’ll comply.”

Again, this prompting carries over into the field, and allows you to communicate with your dog by way of beeps, rather than hollering at it or blowing on a loud whistle.

Used properly, e-collars can be a trainer’s best device. But make sure you know what you’re doing, because it’s much harder to correct a dog that’s been misled by improper e-collar stimulation than doing it right the first time. NS

Noted gun dog trainer Jess Spradley works one of his prized pudelpointers. Spradley has been breeding and training high-end hunting dogs for years, and an e-collar plays a big part in his success. (SCOTT HAUGEN) your dog to understand what you want from them.

Spradley warns not to give too much power when giving a bump.

“You don’t want the dog to make a noise when you shock it; if that happens,

Gun dog clubs can help teach you so much about training, including the proper use of electronic collars. Here, members of the Central Oregon North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, or NAVHDA, chapter gather for some quality training time. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

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it’s too powerful.”

He also makes clear to not use an electric bump when there’s confusion.

“The pup needs to know exactly what you expect, and they can’t do that if there’s chaos.”

Editor’s note: To watch Scott Haugen’s series of puppy training videos, visit scotthaugen .com. Follow Scott on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out his TV show, The Hunt, on Amazon Prime.

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HUNTING

Waterfowling, And The YouTube Generation

With mentors lacking, duck- and goose-hunting newbies are turning to video-posting educator-entertainers, but are there limitations to what you can learn?

By M.D. Johnson

M

y Old Man taught me how to hunt ducks. He took me.

He showed me. He suffered through my mistakes, and, I believe, he relished my accomplishments. Like my first duck (1974). My first goose (1979). And the time I got frostbite while hunting the Scioto River in central Ohio (1987), and all the skin on my fingertips turned grey and sloughed off. Not an accomplishment, I don’t reckon, but he was there for that one, too.

My introduction into the waterfowling arts was, for the time, typical. We had fathers and uncles, grandfathers and that grumpy old guy next door who loved to hunt but generally hated everyone; still, and for whatever reason, he took a shine to us and would take us with him every now and again. From these men, we learned the finer points of waterfowling. How to do this. How to do that. Decoys. Guns. Dogs. Wind.

Range estimation. Sometimes the lessons came with praise; other things, with a swat upside the head. Either way, we learned, and the schooling, at least for some of us, stuck.

Today, it’s different. Fewer people hunt waterfowl. Period. And of those, there are fewer of the aforementioned blood relatives or crotchety old neighbors to show nimrods how to set a spread, run a call, train a dog, or patch a ripped set of waders. So, that said, who’s teaching this next generation how to duck hunt?

Once, newbies to waterfowling like author MD Johnson learned the sport from their dads, uncles, grandpas. These days, those figures may not be available or never took up hunting, leaving a knowledge gap that’s being filled by enthusiastic camera- and tech-savvy YouTubers like Josh Peck of Outdoor Limits. (SCREEN SHOT FROM OUTDOOR LIMITS)

YOUTUBE, THAT’S WHO. Is it all being done, the education that is, via Al Gore’s Internet? Absolutely not, but here in the 2018-19 waterfowl season, an amazing number of new-to-thesport duck hunters are learning the ropes, per se, by watching hours and hours of YouTube videos.

Washington duck hunter Jeff Landers and his boys Nate and Ben are three of the many. I met Landers a year or so ago when I sold him a layout blind for his boy.

A simple business transaction led to frequent conversations, the common denominator being waterfowl and

waterfowl hunting.

Admittedly new to ’fowling, Landers, a pastor/ international missionary, wanted to get his sons involved, but understood his knowledge when it came to duck hunting was lacking.

Enter YouTube.

“I wouldn’t say (YouTube) was our primary source of information,” Landers said. “We would connect with other men and women who had the experience, and we’d spend time with them in the field. Then,” he continued, “the boys would come home and look on YouTube for specific things based on things they’d nwsportsmanmag.com | FEBRUARY 2019

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HUNTING SHIFT GEARS A bit, if you don’t mind.

Along with software that makes editing easy, videos often include new and interesting angles. “I think YouTube is a way to keep these new people engaged throughout the week until they can go hunting again,” says Washington duck hunter Jeff Landers whose young sons watch episodes between outings. “But it’s not necessarily the be all/end all of (duck hunting) training,” he adds. (SCREEN SHOT FROM BOBBY GUY FILMS)

seen in the field. Things like ‘Why don’t more people hunt shovelers?’ or ‘Why aren’t coots as prized as other ducks?’”

“Too,” he said, “I think YouTube is a way to keep these new people engaged throughout the week until they can go hunting again. A lot of these people come home from a hunt, can’t stop thinking about it, and YouTube plays a key role in keeping them engaged. But it’s not necessarily the be all/end all of (duck hunting) training.”

Landers’ sons, like many novice waterfowlers across the nation, I’m sure, turn to YouTube not only for educational purposes, but for definition.

“Both of the boys,” he said, “have this exposure in the field, and then they come home and start researching what they’ve seen. They’ll watch videos, for instance, and then try what they’ve seen in the field the next time they’re out. Or they’ll make a mention of something they’ve seen, as in ‘Dad, did you know such-and-such?’ I’d say my boys are watching videos – outdoor 158 Northwest Sportsman

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videos – on a daily basis, but they’re using it more like a readily accessible encyclopedia or magazine.”

I’ve been to Hutchinson, Kansas.

I’ve hunted ducks on the Cheyenne Bottoms, pass-shot geese on the firing line, and stubbled layout blinds in more than one field. Trust me; it’s an incredible place, if you’re a waterfowler.

Thirty-one-year-old Bobby Guy lives there, and he lives and breathes waterfowl hunting. So much so that in 2016, he ran his first video episode on YouTube on a channel he calls BobbyGuyFilms.

“My goal,” reads the description on the home page of his channel, “is to teach waterfowl hunting. If you’re looking for big waterfowl hunting, you’ve found it.”

Apparently, Guy’s hitting the mark, as he definitely has an audience. Before this season opened, he had in the neighborhood of 24,000 subscribers; at this end of the season, it’s more than double that, 66,000plus as of press time last month.

“Absolutely I consider myself both an educator and an entertainer,” he told me. “The 21st Century

Channeling the times, hosts are often in your face. “Absolutely I consider myself both an educator and an entertainer,” says Bobby Guy, whose YouTube channel BobbyGuyFilms was closing in on 67,000 subscribers last month, up significantly from this past summer. (SCREEN SHOT FROM BOBBYGUYFILMS)

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HUNTING wants entertainment, but they want real entertainment. Not fake entertainment, like reality TV. So it’s both. On YouTube, I have to teach the world (how to duck hunt) in an entertaining way.”

And Guy practiced what he now preaches.

“I wasn’t blowing a duck call or a goose call at age 8 or 10 or 12. I didn’t have Dad to teach me how to duck hunt. My stepdad taught me how to quail hunt, but I had to go to YouTube to learn to duck hunt. To learn how to blow a feed chuckle on a duck call.”

That, he said, was 15 years ago or so.

But surprisingly, Guy’s audience isn’t made up primarily of 15-year-olds.

In fact, his primary viewing audience consists of men, ages 25 to 34, with his secondary group of visual consumers ranging from 34 to 42 years of age.

“I would say a heavy 75 percent, maybe 80 percent of my viewers are public (land) hunters in their first one

or two years of duck hunting,” said Guy when we spoke last summer.

But with great power comes great responsibility. Guy is, like it or not – and note, I get the impression he absolutely loves what he does – a leader. A mentor. An educator to be mimicked.

“Everything I teach them (my viewers),” he said, “they do. They run with it. But there have been things,” he confided, “that I’ve done wrong. Where I’ve messed up. There is an element of self-responsibility. Of maturity. It is a heavy weight (I’ve taken on). It’s not easy, and it’s not for everyone. Not everyone should try to influence people. It can be very complicated, and it’s a lot of work.”

TODAY’S IS A very personal world. An immediate world. A reach-out-andtouch-damn-near-everyone-at-anytime world. And it’s all part of Guy’s program.

“I get a lot of people (in the field) holding their phone in front of their face saying, ‘Hey Bobby! What gun should I buy?’ or, ‘What duck spread should I use?’ or, ‘I want to hunt snow geese. What do I need?’ People are intrigued by waterfowl hunting. And it’s cool. A lot of these people are older, and they have a little money. And they found (duck hunting) on YouTube.”

“Let’s face it,” he continued, “commercial TV has gone down the tubes. You have YouTube in your pocket. It’s your nightly watch. It’s more personalized; in fact, it’s as personalized as it gets. You can subscribe to a YouTube blogger who does what you do. Or what you want to do, whether it’s a woman doing her nails or a guy teaching you to duck hunt.”

Do I use YouTube as an electronic educator? Damn right, I do. Via any number of channels, I’ve learned to build wooden display boxes, cheaply repair busted PVC pipe, fix small

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HUNTING

Sure, YouTube can talk you through the first four stages of being a hunter – shooting ops, whacking and stacking, killing the unicorn, perfecting skills – but author MD Johnson wonders, what about the fifth, where the overall experience is far more important than killing? “Stage Five … needs a person. A beenthere and done-that waterfowler,” he writes. Maybe so, maybe today’s crop of duck- and goose-hunting YouTubers will eventually get there too. (CHAD ZOLLER)

carburetors, and tend to blueberry bushes here in Wahkiakum County, on the Lower Columbia. Duck hunting, I learned from my father and face-to-face from a long line of men, who possessed collectively more seasons of experience than Carter has little liver pills. Guys over 50, you know what I’m talking about. But the world is different now. Faster.

More streamlined. Fewer fathers hunt; thus, fewer ’fowl teachers exist.

Still, people, i.e. new waterfowlers, hunger for information. They crave 162 Northwest Sportsman

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it. Need it. But it needs to be the right information. Legally correct.

Ethically strong. Responsible. Safe.

Conscientious. Conservation-minded.

So I ask guys like Guy and other online hunting educators: Are you doing it right? Are you?

ORIGINALLY, MY PLAN, so to speak, was to ride, albeit gently, both these YouTubers – non-traditional heathens – and those who “learned” waterfowl and waterfowl hunting electronically.

Also non-traditional heathens.

But then, as the kids from South Park would say, I learned something today. With grandpa gone, and with fathers and uncles at a premium, who’s going to teach these up-andcomers, if not for YouTube?

Magazines – and my apologies, Dear Editor – have for the most part gone the way of buck-fifty fuel, and dreadfully fewer and further between are the newspapers with weekly outdoor columns, which, even if they did exist, would require the aforementioned reading, and we know that’s not cool. So the question remains: Who, then, are the ’fowling teachers, if not for YouTube?

And, too, I’ll admit, if I had ridden these folks unmercifully, would I not be a hypocrite? Wasn’t it YouTube that taught me how to repair busted PVC pipe without digging up everything?

And wasn’t it YouTube that coached me when I was building dormers on the garage? And repairing the chimney? And replacing the throttle body gasket on Grandpa’s ’93 Chevy Work Truck? So is it a good thing, this YouTube, when it comes to teaching 21st Century duck hunters how to duck hunt? It can be, I reckon, as long as it’s being done right.

Which brings me to a final (really!) note regarding Internet-based instruction being done right. Yes, you can teach someone to duck hunt via YouTube. You can teach them the basics of patterning, decoy selection, spread design, concealment, wind direction, calls and calling, safety, and, to some extent, ethics. But before we go any further, let’s review the Five Stages of Hunting.

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a 25-pound gobbler. The bigger, the better here; Stage 4, The Method Stage: How the hunt is accomplished is most important, e.g. a homemade muzzleloader or hand-made game call; Stage 5, The Experience Stage: The time afield is what’s important, not the game harvested. This is the Sunrise Stage.

Back to YouTube. Yes, you can teach someone about Stages 1 through 4 online. You can show the viewer unplugged guns and spring snows (Shooting). You can show them straps of seven ducks (Limit), seven greenheads (Trophy), and a handturned double reed duck call (Method).

But can YouTube really – really – explain the psychological aspects associated with waterfowl hunting?

Why we freeze? Why we suffer? Why we work so hard for a duck?

One duck.

Even no ducks?

Can YouTube convey the emotions involved with watching our 7-year-old grandson retrieve the pair of cacklers we just killed? The ones out of a small flock that followed an even smaller flock of lessers right into the heart of the 18-decoy spread at our feet? Can YouTube get across to the nimrod the confusion – for lack of a better term – we predators feel when we realize we’re no longer the natural born killers we were at 25? And then the moment you realize, I’m okay with that.

I don’t think so.

I think YouTube has a place; yes, even among waterfowlers.

But I also think it most certainly has limitations. Human limitations.

Stage Five is important; perhaps, for many, it’s the most important and most fulfilling of the five stages. But it needs a person. A been-there and done-that waterfowler. For there are some things for which one must walk in those waders in order to understand. And there’s a huge part of waterfowling hunting that falls under that umbrella. NS

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