Northwest Sportsman Mag - April 2024

Volume 16 • Issue 7

PUBLISHER

James R. Baker

EDITOR

Andy “Double clipped” Walgamott

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Dave Anderson, Randall Bonner, Jason Brooks, Scott Haugen, Jeff Holmes, MD Johnson, Randy King, Buzz Ramsey, Troy Rodakowski, Amanda Wiles, Dave Workman, Mark Yuasa

GENERAL MANAGER

John Rusnak

SALES MANAGER

Paul Yarnold

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Tawna Lucero, Tom St. Clair

DESIGNERS

Gabrielle Pangilinan, Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Emily Baker

OFFICE MANAGER/COPY EDITOR

Katie Aumann

INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER

Lois Sanborn

WEBMASTER/DIGITAL STRATEGIST

Jon Hines

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

ads@nwsportsmanmag.com

CORRESPONDENCE

Email letters, articles/queries, photos, etc., to awalgamott@media-inc.com, or to the mailing address below.

ON THE COVER

Jo Jewett got a head start on the Northwest’s 2024 trout season last month at Central Washington’s Burke Lake. More fish are being stocked across the region this month for the Evergreen State opener, as well as angling at year-round waters in Washington and Oregon. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

60 ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, FISH!

The big day is nearly here, Pugetropolis trout fiends! And to get you ready for the fourth Saturday in April, Mark Yuasa shares stocking stats, top prospects and details on 2024’s statewide derby – as well as year-round lakes to warm up at now!

69 OPENING-DAY ALTERNATIVES, 509 EDITION

Rather not fish with half of Spokane County? With West Medical, Williams and other lakes likely to be crowded, join Jeff Holmes for a journey deep into the rugged Channeled Scablands for big rainbows and browns, and tuckedaway crappie and other spinyrays at Amber, Rock and Bonnie Lakes.

87 SPRING FISHING SPOTS FOR OREGON KIDS

If you live west of Oregon’s Cascades, there are tons of local ponds to take youngins to catch trout and bass, and Willamette Valley-based Troy Rodakowski offers up some of the best.

103 MAKE MINE A MACK! Blasé about ’bows?

Looking for something – anything! – other than stockers? Idaho’s Priest Lake and a pair of Northeast Washington lakes serve up Mackinaw and more to satisfy that spring char craving!

2024 SPRING GOBBLER PREVIEW

Oregon upland game bird biologist Mikal Cline and Washington NWTF statewide chapter president Russ McDonald share their thoughts on how this spring’s turkey season is shaping up across the Northwest with our MD Johnson.

BUZZ RAMSEY Fishing For Trout With Kiddos 93

Looking to get your little ones (or maybe half-grown kiddos or even adult friends) into trout fishing? Buzz knows a thing or two about that, having raised his boys on the rainbow-rich waters of Southcentral Washington. He details the two best methods for landing limits!

COLUMNS

122 NORTHWEST PURSUITS Spring Turkey Tutorial

(BUZZ RAMSEY)

Gobble! Gobble! With April here, Professor Jason gets you ready to chase longbeards, one of the most exciting hunting opportunities the Northwest offers. He equips you with three methods for pursuing turkeys and tips on decoying, calling and more!

133 ON TARGET Last-minute Tom Tips: Where To Go, Camo, Shotguns

Leave it to our resident gun expert Dave W. to share thoughts on turkey loads and new shotguns that just might fill the bill for toms – and a whole lot more!

139 CHEF IN THE WILD Be Right Back, I’m Off To The WMA

State wildlife management areas offer convenient places to hunt gobblers for Chef Randy and sons, although they can be a bit challenging, to say the least. Speaking of a challenge, try our wild game whiz’s recipe combining Japanese-style barbecue sauce, a slow cooker and tortilla shells to make turkey carnitas with this year’s bird!

147 GUN DOG Tools Of The Trade

Spending a little more money on key pieces of safety gear can make hunting with gun dogs more efficient, avoid spendy vet bills and in some cases, potentially save their lives. Scott shares the best tools he’s found on the market.

153 BECOMING A HUNTER Play The Game To Win The Tag(s)

Spring and a young hunter’s fancy turns to … putting in for the draw, of course! As Washington, Oregon and Idaho’s application season arrives, Dave A. has advice for new big game hunters looking to score their first special permits or controlled tags!

THE BIG PIC OSU Fisheries Scholarship To Bear Trailblazer Biologist’s Name

Randall Bonner shares the life, times and now legacy of Nancy MacHugh, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s first female fisheries biologist and whose name will grace an annual $2,500 CCA Oregon scholarship.

DEPARTMENTS

25 THE EDITOR’S NOTE

Lake Washington’s headache, revisited

38 COMMENT: Let’s Keep It Real, Ladies

The female fishing community is hurt when egos and the need for likes undercut the foundation being built, Amanda Wiles argues.

47 READER PHOTOS

Quackers, a jumbo perch, pols on the water, and more!

48 PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

Monthly Coast and Kershaw prize-winning pic

51 THE DISHONOR ROLL

Idaho hunting outfitter and guide face federal charges; Case update: Oregon bighorn reward boosted; Kudos; Jackass of the Month

53 OUTDOOR CALENDAR

Upcoming fishing and hunting openers, events, deadlines, more

26’

26’

24’

THE EDITOR’S NOTE

Remember that headline from these pages last spring, “Here’s Lake Washington’s Next Damn Headache”? Well, my brain is hurting again this month.

In case you don’t recall, the nut of my May 2023 The Big Pic article was that the population of invasive American shad is suddenly taking off in Seattle’s big backyard lake, and it could potentially be bad news for young Chinook, coho and sockeye in terms of competition for zooplankton, complicating state and tribal efforts to boost salmon returns for fisheries and more. Fast forward to this March, and local biologist Aaron Bosworth sent me a picture of a wee little salmonid found in the stomach of a shad, a potentially game-changing omen.

TRUE, ALL OF two fry (so far) in all of two shad (so far) probably is not worth lighting one’s hair over – yet. Bosworth acknowledged it’s possible the shad just happened to suck them in while feeding on plankton. But his news arrived with other ominous developments.

Bosworth reported that his Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife gillnetting crews made a record single-day haul of five totes’ worth of shad – about 300 fish – last month and were catching a “good number” each day out. It’s a puzzling phenomenon: Shad were only first seen in Lake Washington in 2015, but last year WDFW caught 1,200 and the Muckleshoot Tribe over 1,400; alarmingly, shad were also the second most caught species during the tribe’s warmwater test fishery. The initial indication is that most live their entire life in the lake, very unusual for this typically anadromous East Coast species.

The other troubling news is that WDFW also caught its first two northern pike on Lake Washington – making for seven netted overall since 2017 – and the small size of the first of those will raise the specter that there may now be a spawning population of the utterly unwanted fish. The watershed is at “high risk of invasion” due to the illegal introduction, per WDFW’s draft rapid response plan for pike.

THAT SAID, THE bigger issues here, at least in the near term for young salmon, are nonnative spinyrays and native species. Bosworth says rock bass, another new lake resident, “are abundant everywhere now and eat large numbers of salmon fry near the mouth of the Cedar River,” as do yellow perch and black crappie.

Lake Washington is a wildly, wildly messed-up, replumbed system – while working on this, I learned that stray pink salmon made a decent showing last fall in a north end stream I grew up near – but right now the impetus from The Powers That Be is to boost Chinook, coho and sockeye. WDFW will net the ship canal to Puget Sound in May and June to clear a way for outmigrating smolts, and the legislature just gave them another $700,000 for predator fish suppression.

But even as the comanagers focus on addressing the problems that have gotten away from them, they must keep on eye on rapidly developing issues that risk the rest of their work here. –Andy Walgamott

Lake Washington salmon fry eaten by a nonnative rock bass last month. (WDFW)

OSU Fisheries Scholarship To Bear Trailblazer Bio’s Name

$2,500 CCA Oregon endowment honors state’s first female fisheries biologist and a longtime angler, Nancy MacHugh.

By Randall Bonner

Nearly a decade ago when I started writing for Northwest Sportsman, several of us writers were highlighting individual women in the fishing industry who were setting an example to young women everywhere that fishing wasn’t just a man’s sport, but a recreational opportunity to be enjoyed by everyone. Back then, those articles were well received, even with the sentiment being delivered almost exclusively by male writers. Fast forward to the present day, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find an issue of this magazine without women contributing articles to it on a regular basis.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written an article highlighting a woman in the fishing industry now that female anglers and writers have taken the lead on that in this magazine, but there’s one woman in my community who I feel deserves to be honored for her contributions to the

fisheries of the Northwest: Nancy MacHugh. Retired Oregonian staff writer Bill Monroe made a bold claim that he might owe his career to Nancy MacHugh. His first fish and wildlife class was Jay Long’s techniques course: a comprehensive review of various fishing and hunting methods and equipment.

“I sat down the first day and across the room saw the absolutely most beautiful woman on the campus, Nancy Rosentreter Peterson. Unfortunately, I flunked Erland Juntunen’s fish class because I didn’t have the patience to glue a fish skeleton back together or learn the scientific names of its gill plates. When my counselor, Bob Jarvis, asked me when I wanted to take organic chem, the path was pretty clear – I wasn’t going to make it in parallel courses with Nancy also attending as a distraction. So journalism it was!” recalls Monroe.

As Monroe’s career progressed, he landed his dream job as the outdoor writer for The Oregonian, and as Nancy’s career

Nancy MacHugh is one of the original real women of Northwest fishing, and last month it was revealed her name will grace an annual $2,500 scholarship to Oregon State University from Coastal Conservation Association Oregon. Next to her in this CCA Oregon press release image is Linn-Benton Chapter member Christopher “Doogie” Douglass. (PAT HOGLUND, CCA)

progressed, he began calling her as a source.

“Nancy not only passed basic fish and organic chem, but she wowed everyone in graduate school and landed in the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,” says Monroe.

“I remember her as the steelhead project leader, an inter-agency coordinator (working with the Army Corps of Engineers) and even one of the founders of Wild Wetland Women (W3), a unique chapter of Ducks Unlimited in Albany (Oregon). Nancy has always been regularly fishing, catching and generally being newsworthy,” Monroe states.

AFTER GRADUATING FROM Oregon State University’s Fisheries Program in 1974, Nancy was hired as an ODFW creel sampler that same year. During her time as a fish checker, Nancy got to know lots of local anglers by taking scale samples and talking to fishermen about the life histories of their catches.

One of those anglers was Dave Schamp, who now serves as chairman of the board for Coastal Conservation Association Oregon and sits on CCA’s

national board of directors. While fishing the North Fork of the Trask River in early December sometime during the late ’70s, Schamp caught and harvested a fish that he believed was of hatchery origin due to its deformed fins and run timing. At the time, ODFW was not clipping adipose fins to mark hatchery fish, but they were conducting research from scale samples, so Schamp mailed in a sample from his fish. Soon after, Nancy was a guest speaker at a Beaverton Northwest Steelheaders meeting, promoting participation in the scale sampling program. Schamp spoke with Nancy about the steelhead he harvested on the Trask, concerned that he had erroneously identified the fish as being of hatchery origin. At the time, ODFW did not provide feedback on the scale samples, but a few weeks later, Schamp received a handwritten letter in the mail from Nancy, confirming that the fish he harvested was a hatchery fish.

“She took the time to track down the sample, evaluate the scales, and let me know the results because she understood how important it was to me to know the origin of that particular steelhead,”

remembers Schamp.

NANCY’S LIFE HISTORY, rich with a lifetime of achievements in fisheries and wildlife conservation, is truly a tale that rivals that of any Western pioneer. When she ran into roadblocks to her goals in OSU’s Fisheries and Wildlife program, she side-stepped them through the Food Science and Agriculture department to become the first woman to receive her master’s in Fisheries Management from the university in 1978. After becoming the first woman hired as a fish biologist at ODFW, she served as chief of the agency’s Habitat Division and head of Coastal Steelhead research for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

She was also the first woman to appear on the television show Fishing the West, with her true charisma captured on screen reeling in steelhead from the rower’s seat and bantering with host Larry Schoenborn.

She was given the 2018 Director’s Choice award by ODFW Director Curt Melcher.

“I have always been struck by the fact that she was our first female biologist (hired in 1976), always has a positive attitude and remained engaged with us

In this screenshot, MacHugh smiles while fighting an Alsea River steelhead during a taping of the legendary show Fishing the West, hosted by Larry Schoenborn. (FISHING THE WEST)

after retirement. I gave her our ODFW Service Belt Buckle for being a ‘Pioneer in the Field’ and setting the stage for hundreds of female biologists to follow her,” says Melcher.

Chuck Pavlik, who served on the advisory board for the Oregon Hatchery Research Center, grew familiar with Nancy as she frequently attended board meetings to offer public opinion. Pavlik also led the Alsea Sportsman’s Association for many years.

“Nancy used to fish with me on the Alsea; she’s definitely a fisherman. She’s not shy, she speaks her mind. She’s still involved with fisheries to this day,” says Pavlik.

And to this day, Nancy has continued her life of fisheries service on the board of the South Santiam Watershed Council, which serves to protect the primary source of Albany’s drinking water.

Nancy also became a source of inspiration for our local CCA chapter president, Mei Li Chung, who is also the first female CCA chapter president in the state of Oregon. After we honored

CCA Linn-Benton Chapter president Mei Li Chung, who credits MacHugh for being a personal inspiration, and Douglass had been mulling a grad student scholarship in her name, and when discussing it with state director Pat Hoglund who had a similar idea, they joined forces to get it done. (RANDALL BONNER)

Nancy at last year’s CCA banquet, Chung said, “Nancy has been a great friend and advocate for me, among many others. Her attitude inspires me to carry the torch of conservation to have fish populations that will survive us long after we’re gone.”

THE OPPORTUNITY TO highlight Nancy’s career of service to our fisheries in a magazine that dedicates an annual issue to the “Real Women of Northwest Fishing” is also a chance for reflection on the growth being seen in female participation. A 2022 Special Report on Fishing by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation showed an increase of 3.8 million female anglers since 2011. The report stated 37 percent of anglers were women – the largest share on record. The most prominent age bracket of anglers is between the ages of 6 and 12, meaning that fishing is introduced to most individuals during childhood, and young women need role models like Nancy to advance into the same careers.

“While we’ve known being near the water provides mental health benefits, this study demonstrated the significant, rewarding effects of fishing, specifically for women,” says Rachel Piacenza, RBFF senior director of marketing. “Their experiences on the water foster confidence, patience and determination that they can rely on in other areas of life.”

There are few pioneers in our fisheries with the confidence, patience and determination of Nancy MacHugh.

Last month, at my local Linn-Benton County Chapter banquet, CCA Oregon announced they were naming a scholarship after Nancy while she was there in attendance. Chung and Christopher “Doogie” Douglass had been working behind the scenes trying to convince the organization to designate funding for an annual scholarship awarded to a graduate student at OSU who embodies the mission of CCA and is mindful of the importance of recreational angling. CCA state director Pat Hoglund recognized the contributions of Nancy and was convinced that dedicating

a scholarship in her name to a student from her alma mater was a great proposal from our CCA chapter’s leadership.

“When I came in as executive director, I presented a plan to award a scholarship to an OSU fisheries student. I had the funds approved through CCA’s management committee. When I traveled and met with each chapter, I shared with them my vision, which included the scholarship. At that point it was just an idea. When I met with the Linn-Benton Chapter, Doogie and Mei Li told me they too were working on a separate scholarship in Nancy’s name. It was at that point we all agreed to use the funds from CCA Oregon and name it after Nancy,” states Hoglund.

He says that recipients will be chosen by a committee and awarded with a $2,500 scholarship funded by CCA Oregon.

“Given the timing, in all likelihood the first recipient will receive the scholarship for

the fall 2025 semester,” states Hoglund.

Nearly in tears after being honored with a standing ovation, Nancy accepted a plaque from Chung and Douglass and thanked them for their service with the organization.

When I spoke with Nancy at the banquet, she explained that her multiple sclerosis had kept her from being able to walk anymore, making traveling for fisheries advocacy more challenging, but that she was continuing in her board position on the South Santiam Watershed Council by Zoom meetings. While Nancy continues to write her own legacy as one of the realest of Northwest fishing women, it was fitting to see chapter president Chung play a part in passing the torch from a legendary advocate for Oregon’s recreational fisheries to the next generation of students who will carry on the same passion in Nancy’s name, who will continue to be newsworthy. NS

MacHugh reacts to learning about the scholarship, which will go to a student studying fisheries at OSU, “with the intent that future biologists follow in Nancy’s footsteps ensuring recreational angling remains at the forefront of decisions made throughout the recipient’s career,” per wording on the plaque. (RANDALL BONNER)

MIXED BAG

Let’s Keep It Real, Ladies

The female fishing community is hurt when egos and the need for likes undercut the foundation being built around the sport, respect for the resource and culture.

By Amanda Wiles

That sudden jolt that goes through you when the alarm goes off at 3 a.m., tossing you out of a deep slumber that you swear you just entered three minutes prior. The confusion and annoyance of why you set your alarm so early before happily remembering – “Oh, yes! Fishing!” Ample layers of clothes and gear all laid out and ready for you and your adventure ahead. All the snacks already loaded in the truck and boat.

They all shout, “It’s fish thirty!”

Off we go into the dark to arrive at whatever river destination we have in store for that day. Excitement builds and I double-check gear in my head as we drive on. Soon we arrive at the boat ramp and prep the raft for launching. I also take the time to properly outfit myself for the weather that day. Then, after the craft hits the water, it’s my job to pull the truck out and check for any forgotten gear one last time. At last, it’s go time – my favorite time of the morning!

The sun is rising, there is a slight fog on the water, birds are singing and everything else is silent except the flow of the river. I love this part of any trip. It’s the time to enjoy the scenery, take in the moment and hope for a productive day on the river. This moment is all the same to many of us outdoorsmen and -women. Whether it be on a sled heading out on the Columbia, a six-pack charter shooting

out of Westport or walking into that special bank spot, we all share a similar moment. A moment of hope. But what that hope consists of is where we all can differ. Is it hope for a quality day of perfecting your craft? An easy day of just enjoying your surroundings and taking in the moment? A day spent learning a new skill to use in the future? Or possibly just to get that one epic photo to post?

AS A WOMAN in this industry, I have noticed how much the female sportsman has evolved and changed throughout the years. Many good and some might say bad changes have affected us all as women of the outdoors. The fishing and hunting community is still a male-dominated one, but over time, more and more females have become involved, creating more opportunities and dreams for women and girls to follow in their footsteps.

Many years ago, my husband asked if I would like to join him on a salmon walk-in trip on Washington’s Humptulips. “Sure!” I said. I loved trout fishing at our family’s lake house, rowing my trusty red rowboat around the lake and using my favorite lure, the Triple Teazer. How much different and harder could this be?

I laugh now writing this statement. He had me in rubber boots, a hoodie and a jacket. I was absolutely frozen to the bone, but didn’t want to show him my discomfort for fear of not being like one of the boys. He showed me where to cast and what to do once I saw my

Author Amanda Wiles’ growth in the Northwest sportfishing world “has come with many setbacks, trials and errors and even unpleasant events simply by being a woman in the outdoors. I will add, however, there are more amazing and happy moments than bad.” (AMANDA WILES)

MIXED BAG

bobber go down. Nothing prepares you for your first king salmon hookup! I had never felt that much adrenaline pumping through my body in all my life.

“Whoa, this is not like a trout!”

I landed the darkest 16-pound king you have ever seen, and I was over the moon about it.

It was all over from there. I lived for the sport and my drive has only grown through the years. But this journey has come with many setbacks, trials and errors and even unpleasant events simply by being a woman in the outdoors. I will add, however, there are more amazing and happy moments than bad.

THIS SPORT IS not for the weak, especially if you make it a major part of your life. In the beginning of learning how to

become the fishy gal I am today, I really had to grow my confidence as an angler. I remember one experience where I was bank fishing at first light with my husband and another friend. Just after light, a gentleman came down to where we were all fishing and started setting up his gear. No biggie, as there was room for all of us. He then proceeded to tell me I needed to stop casting in the direction I was casting so that he could cast the other way. I immediately shut down and stopped fishing. I was so embarrassed, shocked and put off by his rudeness and audacity to feel he could tell me where I could cast.

I quickly learned to stand my ground after that. I had every right to fish how I was fishing in that moment. I never again would let another angler intimi-

Wiles remembers learning to stand her ground on the river rather than be pushed out of the way by male anglers.

(AMANDA WILES)

“There is a place in this community for us ladies. Take up space. Demand respect when respect should be given. Hold your head high and be proud of your accomplishments and growth,” states the author. (AMANDA

date me like that.

Well, except the time I was fishing on the bank down in Oregon on the Umpqua River. At this time, my skills were much better and I was comfortable fishing, just not next to men I didn’t know. My husband and I were fishing as three or four gentlemen headed down to where we were set up. I thought to myself, “Oh great, I’m going to make a fool of myself.”

One of the gentlemen said to me, “You should cast right out there; there are some nice ones out there – go for it!” I just giggled a bit and said, “Oh, I’ll let y’all have a try” for fear of looking like a newb. I walked over to my husband and said, “He tried to tell me where to fish, like he is some sort of professional.” My husband quietly laughed and said, “You do know who that is, right?” Looking back over the man, I was certain I had never met him before and had zero clue who he was. “No,” I replied. “That’s Glenn Hall from your favorite fishing show, Hawg Quest.”

I have never felt so embarrassed on the river in my life. But it is a funny story to tell now, and if you are reading this, Glenn, next time we run into you on the river, I will cast where you tell me to … unless my drift is better. Just kidding … maybe.

All in all, it was another experience to build my confidence and grow as an angler.

WILES)

MIXED BAG

AS THE YEARS went on, my confidence and knowledge grew. Soon I was branching out to different types of fishing and going out with other guides to build my abilities to fish various bodies of water and for other species. This is where I really learned who I wanted to be as a woman in this sport. I’ve had many idols who I look up to and have seen firsthand the type of woman in the sport I did not want to be like.

The first woman that I really looked up to and whom I followed like a hawk was April Vokey. I enjoyed listening to her podcast as I daydreamed of fishing

at my day job. She knew so much, she had perfected her skill and she enjoyed talking to others in the industry about fishing. I was so inspired by her. She was out there doing what she loved and doing it well. I admired how she took it seriously and she wasn’t seeking attention based on how she looked while fishing. It wasn’t for the attention or the ego; it was for the love of the sport and the fish.

It was on that podcast that I heard her interviewing the legend himself, Gary Loomis. Of course I knew of Gary, but listening to his life story on that podcast altered my thought process on

fishing. I was so interested in gear and how everything works after that. It was a major game changer for me and my appreciation for quality products really took a turn.

Learning new ways of fishing and fishing with new people is always eye-opening. Looking back on my first trip to famous Buoy 10, I was beyond excited to fish with a group of women. At that point, I had never fished with any other women. Yes, I’d seen them on the river in passing, but had never been on a boat or bank fished together with any other ladies. My first year was a great experience. I had found my lady tribe! I was blessed to have been placed on a boat with five of the most amazing real and true outdoors ladies I had ever met. Seven years later, I am still in awe of these ladies and feel blessed to call them my friends and fishy gals.

As time continued to move along, so did my passion and desire to be more involved in the community. I participated in many ladies-only fishing tournaments, as well as community events. Our passion later led us to pursue our dream of starting our guide business, which my husband began doing in 2021 on local rivers and the Olympic Peninsula. We enjoy this very much and are so thankful for all our clients and those special moments on the river with them. This is truly a blessing we are so thankful for.

It was also at this point that my views on what was happening in the fishing and hunting community changed.

WE ALL DO it. We all want that victorious fish picture. The explosion of posting adventures and showing off your catch really caught my attention during this time. I always love to share my adventures and accomplishments, but there is always a give and take too. The social media world can be so cruel yet such a great tool for bringing people together. I often use my socials for advertising and setting up group trips. But at what point are we possibly taking it too far?

I quickly have learned that there are people (in my opinion) who love this sport and care about our fisheries. They have

Provocative posts with fish might attract attention, but actually represent a step backward for female anglers as a whole. ”These posts affect more than the person posting them; as a collective group of women, it makes us all look bad and sets us back from being taken seriously in some cases, in my opinion,” Wiles writes. (AMANDA WILES)

MIXED BAG

a devoted appreciation and respect for the fish and the cultural heritage of it all. There are also those who, yes, enjoy the sport, but also use this as a tool to feed the ego. The more likes, the more comments produced by a new or provocative pose for attention is all too alluring for some. I am for everyone expressing themselves and sharing freely, but what are we accomplishing here? Likes, sleazy comments from thirsty men, and followers? The gain might be a boost to the ego, but the loss of respect and being taken seriously in this already-male-driven sport is long-lasting. These posts affect more than the person posting them; as a collective group of women, it makes us all look bad and sets us back from being taken seriously in some cases, in my opinion.

After that very bold statement, I will say that most of the female outdoorsmen I have had the pleasure of hunting or fishing with are true sportsmen and dedicated to their passion. The most amazing conversations and stories have

come from group trips on the boat waiting for a bite to turn on or driving in the woods looking for the next spot to hunt. I am constantly inspired by the ladies of the Pacific Northwest. I would not be where I am today without meeting and befriending these ladies. I enjoy seeing them grow within these sports as well. Female guides, ladies working to get their captain’s license, women starting their own YouTube channels. It’s inspiring, to say the least. I am cheering you all on as we grow this community together and make room for the next generation of little anglers and hunters.

In the past, the traditional father-son outing would be a time that the mother would stay at home. I now see more and more women getting involved so they can teach their children these life skills. I am always happy to have a mother on our raft as they branch out to learn how to fish so as to take those skills and pass them on and share memorable moments with their children. There are

a few things in life that are amazing to witness. One of those is your children utilizing the skills you’ve taught them. Nothing beats that ear-to-ear grin when your child lands a big salmon. It’s the most rewarding feeling and moments as a mother; I will always hold them dear to my heart.

I am so thankful and blessed to have learned so many different skills along the way from so many amazing sportsmen and -women. The water and mountains are where my spirit thrives and where I go to refill my soul. I look forward to the years of growth in the future, for not only myself but us as a community of women – learning more, teaching more, inspiring more and giving back more. There is a place in this community for us ladies. Take up space. Demand respect when respect should be given. Hold your head high and be proud of your accomplishments and growth. Enjoy the moments of trial and error. Feed your soul with what makes your heart sing. NS

Antares 7 Fishing

Boulton Navigator

Boulton Sentinel Pro

Boulton Hook

Antares 8

How

For your shot at winning great fishing and hunting knives from Coast and Kershaw in our Knife Photo Contest, send your full-resolution, original images with all the pertinent details – who’s in the pic; when and where they were; what they caught their fish on/weapon they used to bag the game; and any other details you’d like to reveal (the more, the merrier!) – to awalgamott@media-inc.com or Northwest Sportsman, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for use in our print and Internet publications.

A day on the Lower Columbia led to some bipartisan fall Chinook success for Washington Representative Stephanie McClintock (R-Vancouver) and Oregon Representative Daniel Nguyen (D-Lake Oswego). They were fishing with “guides” Matt Little of Ducks Unlimited (left) and Nello Picinich of Coastal Conservation Association of Washington (right). (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

Cody Bylin and son Gavin were well on their way to a limit of Washington Coast razor clams when they paused for a pic. They were digging at Copalis and Cody’s boss Gary Lundquist sent in the image. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

do you bide the many … long … months until ocean coho return to Puget Sound again? Well, if you’re Eric Schager and coming off a solid silver season, you head out to Kitsap County’s Spencer Lake with a Hyper-Vis-taped Kastmaster to get in on some winter cutthroat and rainbow fishing. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

Mike Bolt’s got himself a pair of keepers – this 52-inch The Dalles Pool sturgeon from January and a very loving wife who “puts up with me cutting up game and fileted fish on our kitchen island.” (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

Cover girl Jo Jewett “put on a clinic” while limiting at the Quincy,Washington, area’s Burke Lake in March, reports dad Brandon. “She baited her hook by herself (purple PowerBait, of course), cast halfway across the lake all by herself (purple fishing pole, of course), set the hook like she was steelhead fishing, and landed all of them like a pro. Once she had her five, she didn’t see the need for any of the rest of us to catch a fish. She put her last one on the stringer and said, ‘Well, I’m ready for breakfast.’” Come on, guys, pick up the pace!

Michael Slate had spent years and years trying to get wife Lila out ice fishing, and it finally happened this January with his purchase of an ice shelter “complete with a heater and interlocking foam floors.” The wait was well worth it, if Lila’s smile and jumbo perch are any indication!

(KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

Tacoma Clowers and his, er, de-cow – we’re totally trademarking that name, BTW – got the job done on this pronghorn last season in Eastern Oregon. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

(KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

The absolute last gasp of the 2023-24 duck season – early February’s youth, vets and active-duty military waterfowl day – saw Carter Rodway doing what he loves to do –bagging quackers. His dad David took him and a buddy out to an Olympia-area hunting club they’re members of.

(KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

Sabrina Little beams over a brace of teal. The 12-year-old was proud to get one of the fastflying ducks on her first shot. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

After 500-plus callouts to help track down poachers, dangerous predators and injured critters, K9 Spencer the Karelian bear dog recently retired from duty. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reported Spencer served for more than 12 years and along with his above field duties, he made “an impact on countless lives by providing people with an opportunity to have a personal experience with KBDs while learning about living with wild animals.” Spencer worked with WDFW Officer Dustin Prater since he was 14 weeks old. “We congratulate K9 Spencer on a distinguished career of public service to the state of Washington and to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police,” game wardens stated on Facebook. “Your retirement is well earned!”

KUDOS

Outfitter, Guide Face Federal Charges

Two Idaho men were expected to appear in federal court just after press deadline after being indicted by a grand jury for alleged Lacey Act violations, providing inaccurate information to the U.S. Forest Service and conducting for-hire activities without a special-use permit.

The charges came down in late February against Jerrod R. Farr, 52, who operates White Cloud Outfitters and is a guide, and Michael T. Scott, 67, a former outfitter and current guide, and claim the two Challis residents illegally sold and guided a bighorn sheep hunt in 2020 in a portion of the Salmon-Challis National Forest that is off limits to commercial operations. Farr is also accused of doing the same thing in 2022 for a donated

mountain lion hunt with hounds.

According to Joshua D. Hurwit, US Attorney for the District of Idaho, Farr also failed to report either hunt when he filed required outfitter activity reports for 2020 and 2022.

Farr and Scott were slated to appear before a US magistrate judge on March 21. Farr faces two Lacey Act violations, two counts of providing inaccurate information and one count of operating without a special-use authorization, while Scott is charged with two Lacey Act violations.

Potential punishments range from up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 for two violations of the act, while the other two charges are punishable by six months in jail and from $5,000 to

MIXED BAG

By Andy Walgamott

CASE UPDATE: Bighorn Reward Boosted

The reward for information on an Eastern Oregon bighorn shot and killed for its head alone last fall has reached $4,500 after the Oregon Wild Sheep Foundation added to the fund.

The ram was illegally shot last November on Bureau of Land Management ground in the Hibbard Creek Road area on Lookout Mountain south of Baker City, where no controlled tags have been available since 2019. We featured the case in this space in January.

“The lack of respect for an animal that represents the beauty, strength and wild lands of Oregon is just sad,” said Kevin Martin, ORWSF president.

His organization’s contribution adds to the standing $2,000 from the Oregon Hunters Association for bighorn poachings, as well as $500 pitched in by the Oregon Wildlife Coalition.

Anyone with info is asked to contact Oregon State Police at (800) 452-7888, dial *OSP (*677) on their smartphone or email TIP@osp.oregon.gov.

$100,000 in fines. The US Attorney’s Office stated that if Farr and/Scott are convicted, sentencing would be determined using federal guidelines and other factors.

Hurwit credited work done by the USFS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game that led to the charges.

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

Read through enough of the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division’s monthly newsletters and you’ll come across some pretty bad excuses from scofflaws, and the February 2024 edition had some gems. People who moved out of state years ago but are still buying resident licenses; waterfowlers setting up goose decoys in a federal recreation area’s off-limits swimming beach so flocks had “something to look at” as they hunkered on either side of the kiddie pool; the guy who claimed his girlfriend hadn’t “made him” get a fishing license yet.

But the biggest eye-roller might have been the guy who knowingly went past a no trespassing sign on private timberlands in Western Oregon and shot a spike blacktail last fall. A witness called it in and when a trooper caught up to the guy, he reportedly “believed he was allowed to trespass since he owned stock in Weyerhaeuser.”

The trooper wasn’t buying that junk bond of an excuse and criminally cited him for criminal trespass–take/ possession of a buck and hunting in violation of criminal trespass.

(WDFW)

CALENDAR OUTDOOR

APRIL

1 New Washington fishing and hunting license year begins; Hatchery spring Chinook fishing opens on Columbia Gorge pools from Bonneville Dam to Washington-Oregon line above McNary Dam; Opening day of spring black bear hunts in select Idaho and all controlled Oregon units

1-7 Washington youth turkey hunting week

3 ODFW Intro To Hunting Clinic ($, registration), Sportsman’s Warehouse, Portland – info: myodfw.com/workshops-and-events

4 Tentative Washington Marine Areas 5-10 halibut opener (fishing open daily through June 30) – info: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/halibut

5 Last scheduled day to fish for spring Chinook on the Lower Columbia (season may close earlier or be extended based on catches and quota)

6 ODFW Youth Turkey Clinics ($, registration), Central Point and Tygh Valley –info above; ODFW Adult Turkey Hunting Workshops ($, registration), Central Point and La Pine – info above; WDFW Kids Fishing Event at Camp Lakeview (Tanwax Lake; registration) – info: wdfw.wa.gov/get-involved/calendar

6-11 Pacific Fishery Management Council West Coast salmon-season-setting meetings – info: pcouncil.org/council-meetings/upcoming-meeting

7 ODFW Adult Turkey Hunting Workshops ($, registration), Central Point and La Pine – info above

8-14 Idaho youth turkey hunting week; Tentative razor clam digs scheduled on select Washington Coast beaches, dependent on marine toxin levels – info: wdfw.wa.gov

11 ODFW Intro To Hunting In Oregon ($, registration), Newport – info above

13-14 Oregon youth turkey hunting weekend; 47th Annual Oregon Knife Show, Lane Events Center, Eugene – info: oregonknifecollectors.com

15 General spring turkey season opener in Idaho, Oregon and Washington; Opening day of black bear hunts in most remaining Idaho units; First day to apply for Washington special hunting permits

18 Last day of wild steelhead catch-and-release fishing on portions of Washington’s Skagit and Sauk Rivers (open Saturdays-Wednesdays only)

20 WDFW Family Fish-In, Longs Pond (Lacey; registration) – info above

22 Fishing or bait opener on select Oregon waters

23 ODFW Intro To Hunting In Oregon ($, registration), Hood River – info above

27 Opening day of lowland lake fishing season in Washington; Start of Washington Trout Derby at select lakes – info: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/contests/trout-derby

30

Last day of Washington late cougar season – quota info: wdfw.wa.gov/ hunting/regulations/big-game/cougar

MAY

1 2024 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program fishery begins on Columbia and Snake Rivers – info: pikeminnow.org; Areas 5-11 and 13 lingcod opener; Proposed Oregon Central Coast seven-day-a-week all-depth spring and Southern Oregon subarea seven-day-a-week halibut openers –info: myodfw.com/pacific-halibut-sport-regulations

2 Tentative Area 1/Columbia River Subarea halibut opener (Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday fishing through May 26); Tentative Area 2 halibut opener (Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday fishing through May 23, plus May 28 and 30); Tentative Areas 3-4 halibut opener (Thursday-Saturday fishing through May 18, plus May 24, 26, 30 and 31) – info on all above

4 Fly Casting Fair, Ballinger Park, Mountlake Terrace, Washington – info: flyfishersinternational.org; WDFW I’m Hooked Free Family Fishing Event, Steel Lake (Federal Way; registration) – info above

15 Oregon fall controlled big game permit purchase application deadline; Last day to apply for Washington special hunting permits

16-18 Anacortes Boat & Yacht Show, Cap Sante Marina, Anacortes – info: anacortesboatandyachtshow.com

On Your Mark, Get Set, Fish!

Washington’s opener will bring out tens of thousands of anglers to lakes across the state in hopes of landing limits and derby fish – and there are trout to be had now too.

By Mark Yuasa

Think of April as one of the most stable months when it comes to fishing.

That added level of stability comes from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s large-scale springtime trout stocking plan, through which anglers can expect in 2024 to find hundreds of lakes across 39 counties busting at the seams with millions of stocked trout.

The hype around this hoopla kicks off with Washington’s lowland lakes trout opener the weekend of April 27-28, when thousands of anglers will try their luck to catch around 14.5 million fish.

“Trout fishing is very popular; 70 percent of our anglers target them, and that makes opening day one of our biggest and most important days for anglers,” says Steve Caromile, WDFW Inland Fish Program manager.

“Our spring weather can be difficult to predict, but the opener always draws a lot of interest and brings people together, and it’s always a great day.”

Boasting one of the largest fishproduction systems in the world, WDFW hatchery personnel – think fleet of Amazon delivery drivers –will be busy trucking an estimated 2.2 million catchable-size trout into selected lakes in the coming weeks.

A while ago, WDFW hatcheries created a cost-effective way to produce larger catchable-size trout in hatcheries, which has received rave reviews in surveys taken during previous openers. These catchablesize trout average 2.5 fish per pound, or 12 to 14 inches apiece.

Top that off with the nearly 143,000 “jumbo” trout measuring more than 14 inches and averaging 1 to 1.5 pounds that are destined for many lakes across the state. Most of the jumbos will be planted in March

Trout anglers work Pine Lake in Sammamish on 2023’s lowland lakes opener. The popular water is just one of hundreds stocked with a range of rainbows for the spring fishing season, which actually kicks off in March on year-round lakes and runs through the fourth-Saturday-in-April opener and well into May before angling slows down. (MARK YUASA)

Along with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s statewide trout derby at some 100 lakes, local organizations have long held fun fishing competitions for kids on the opener. Randy Hart Jr. shows off the nice rainbow his granddaughter Brooklyn caught at the 2023 Eatonville Lions Club’s Annual Kids Derby. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

and April and others will be saved for fall planting.

Taking it up another notch are the almost 1.5 million trout categorized as “put, grow and take” – reared in hatcheries and 2.6 to 10 fish per pound in size – that were stocked in 2023 and should be in the 8- to 12inch range now.

But it doesn’t stop there, as more than 10.6 million trout and kokanee fingerlings and fry planted two years ago will recruit into 2024 fisheries. The majority of them go into Eastern Washington opening-day lakes, which are managed to create decent fry survival.

WDFW TROUT DERBY

It’s not just fish to catch when season opens this month – there are also prizes to land when WDFW’s popular statewide trout derby returns from April 27 through October 31. For nearly a decade now, the derby has

seen close to 50 to 55 percent of the tags on fish turned in for prizes.

“Not a lot is changing for our trout derby this year, and we plan on planting the same lakes as we have in the past,” Caromile says. “It has been very popular with anglers for the last nine years. The generosity of our vendors has made the trout derby a huge success, and something that many anglers look forward to.”

A good amount of money has gone into this event and for 2024, 100 participating businesses donated over 800 prizes worth a total of $41,000. The donations totaled over $42,000 in 2023; $37,000 in 2022; $38,000 in 2021; $39,179 in 2020; $39,091 in 2019; and $38,000 in 2018.

For trout derby details, go to wdfw .wa.gov/fishing/contests/trout-derby.

There are also youth fishing events held throughout the year hosted by WDFW. For more, go to wdfw .wa.gov/fishing/kids/events.html.

THE WORD ON RELEASES

In the Puget Sound region – Island, King, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom Counties – the projected plant is 436,800 catchablesize fish, which should have anglers reeling in lots of fun this season. The additional icing on the cake is 23,175 jumbo-sized trout and 13,000 “put, grow and take” trout on top of more than 5.4 million fingerlings and fry trout planted here in 2023.

“The trout plants are pretty consistent from 2023, and the fish we have going into our regional lakes are nice, quality-sized fish,” says Justin Spinelli, a WDFW Puget Sound regional biologist. “Our fisheries don’t harvest more than half the trout that are stocked in the spring, and anglers in the summer and fall should have plenty of fish to catch.”

From a statewide perspective, WDFW creel checkers on last year’s opening day surveyed 69 lakes with 3,935 anglers counted at 8 a.m., and 3,626 counted at 12 p.m. In all, 2,102 anglers were checked and they kept an average of 1.8 trout per rod and caught and/or released 2.8 fish per rod. A total of 3,819 trout were kept and 2,076 trout were caught and/or released.

Success varies from year to year, but here’s how Westside lakes fared on last April’s opener:

Grays Harbor County: Aberdeen, 1.75 trout kept per angler; Bowers, 2.21; Failor, 3.36; Inez, 1.18; and Sylvia, 0.79;

Jefferson: Sandy Shore, 2.37;

Kitsap: Mission, 1.37; Panther, 2.50; and Wildcat, 2.13;

King: Cottage, 1.93; Geneva, 2.69; Margaret, 1.36; Walker, 0.77; and Wilderness, 1.64;

Klickitat: Horsethief, 2.13; Rowland, 3.24; and Spearfish, 1.98;

Lewis: Carlisle, 0.52; and Mineral, 1.62;

Mason: Devereaux, 3.50; Limerick, 0.67; Tiger, 3.35; and Wooten, 2.32;

Pacific: Black, 0.66; Cases Pond, 1.14; and Western, 0.33;

Pierce: Carney, 0.38; Clear, 2.88; Crescent, 2.68; Ohop, 0.57; Rapjohn,

FISHING

0.57; Silver, 1.67; and Tanwax, 0.83;

San Juan: Cascade, 1.22;

Skagit: Erie, 2.68; Heart, 2.17; McMurray, 2.27; and Sixteen, 0.59;

Snohomish: Howard, 2.22; Ki, 1.35; Martha (Alderwood Manor), 2.96; Serene, 2.50; and Wagner, 4.2;

Thurston: Clear, 3.89; Deep, 0.65; Pattison, 0.0; and Summit, 2.0;

Whatcom: Cain, 2.73; Padden, 0.48; Silver, 1.85; and Toad, 1.27.

The top lakes east of the Cascades on 2023’s opening day were:

Adams County: Warden, 3.09;

Chelan: Wapato, 3.45;

Douglas: Jameson, 2.72;

Grant: Blue, 1.32; Deep, 2.96; and Park, 1.40;

Okanogan: Pearrygin, 1.33;

Pend Oreille: Diamond, 0.83;

Spokane: Badger, 1.50; Clear, 1.95; Fishtrap, 4.47; West Medical, 0.48; and Williams, 0.52;

Stevens: Mudgett, 0.55; Rocky, 1.08; Starvation, 1.20; and Waitts, 2.40.

AVOID OPENER’S MADNESS AND GO NOW!

Don’t want to wait for April 27? Anglers can get ahead of the opening day excitement by targeting yearround lakes that were or are being stocked between March and May. Other lakes will also receive bonus plants in autumn/winter.

The list of lakes includes:

King County: Alice, 3,600 in March to May; Angle, 6,200 in April; Beaver, 6,500 in April; Bitter, 1,500 in May; Boren, 1,500 in May; Desire, 8,000 in April; Deep, 4,000 in May; Dolloff, 2,000 in May; Echo, 1,000 in May; Fenwick, 1,800 in May; Fish, 1,500 in May; Fivemile, 3,200 in May; Green, 10,500 in March to May; Haller, 1,300 in May; Holm, 1,700 in May; Killarney, 2,500 in May; Meridian, 11,800 in March to April; Morton, 5,500 in April; Rattlesnake, 3,500 in March; Sawyer, 3,000 in May; Shadow, 4,300 in May; Spring, 6,800 in April; Star, 3,300 in May; Trout, 1,800 in May; and Twelve, 4,500 in April;

Island: Cranberry, 10,000 in April; and Lone, 3,000 in March;

San Juan: Cascade, 6,000 in March; Egg, 600 in March; and Hummel, 1,000 in March;

Skagit: Clear, 6,000 in April; Grandy, 5,600 in March to May; and Vogler, 1,000 in April;

Snohomish: Ballinger, 7,600 in April; Blackmans, 6,700 in April to May; Cassidy, 3,500 in March; Chain, 1,000 in May; Flowing, 7,400 in April to May; Gissburg North, 1,500 in April to June; Gissburg South, 3,000 in April to June; Goodwin, 6,000 in March; Ketchum, 2,000 in April; Loma, 1,500 in April; Lost, 1,500 in April; Martha (Warm Beach), 3,000 in May; Panther, 1,500 in March; Roesiger, 6,500 in April; Shoecraft, 4,800 in April; Silver, 6,700 in April; and Tye, 3,500 in April to May;

Whatcom: Squalicum, 1,500 in April to June; and Terrell, 2,000 in March.

On top of the springtime plants, a

As

COOS BAY

Y Marina

(541) 888-5501

www.ymarinaboats.com

MADRAS

Madras Marine

www.madrasmarine.com

CHINOOK

Chinook Marine Repair, Inc. (800) 457-9459

www.chinookmarinerepair.com

EDMONDS

Jacobsen’s Marine (206) 789-7474

www.jacobsensmarine.com

EVERETT

Everett Bayside Marine (425) 252-3088

www.baysidemarine.com

MOUNT VERNON

Master Marine Boat Center, Inc. (360) 336-2176

www.mastermarine.com

MOUNT VERNON

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

www.tomnjerrys.net

OLYMPIA

US Marine Sales & Service (800) 455-0818

www.usmarinesales.com

SHELTON

Verle’s Sports Center

(877) 426-0933

total of 23,175 jumbo trout averaging 1 to 1.5 pounds apiece will go into some Puget Sound region lakes for the “Black Friday” fishing event in late November.

For the statewide stocking schedule, go to wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports.

CATCHY OPENING-DAY TIPS

When it comes to trout fishing gear, don’t overthink it and keep things pretty basic. A little know-how will help keep you from burning a hole in your wallet.

A trout rod and reel combo will cost around $50 to $90, and a more expensive setup will set you back about $120 to $200. Fishing rods should be 6 to 7 feet long, and keep it relatively light and limber, in the 4- to 10-pound range. Stick with a medium-sized spinning reel that can hold more than 100 yards of 6- to 8-pound-test fishing line.

On the main line, attach one or two No. 9 egg sinkers with a rubber bumper, then tie on a small barrel swivel. The length of leader is the most important factor; avoid the storebought, pretied 12-inch leaders, which are way too short. Leaders should be

3- to 8-pound test and 18 to 30 inches long. For hooks, think small and use an egg or worm hook in a size 8 or 10 or try a No. 14 or 16 treble.

There are myriad bait options for catching trout, but old-school choices include worms, maggots, salmon eggs and scented marshmallows. There’s been a huge switch to soft dough baits like Berkley PowerBait, which comes in all sorts of colors and varieties of egg, maggot and worm shapes. Get creative with the moldable dough bait and shape it into a square, triangle, small egg-shaped ball or whatever else pops up in your mind.

Various fly patterns also work well, and many prefer a black or black and olive Woolly Bugger in a size 8 or 10 attached to a 5- or 6-foot leader. Troll it weightless close to the surface.

From a boat you can troll a gang flasher setup with a worm, maggot or salmon egg laced with a tiny piece of scented dough bait or small spoon like a Dick Nite, Yakima Bait Triple Teazer or Luhr Jensen Super Duper.

Bank anglers often cast out a bobber with their presentation sitting just below the surface in 3 to 6 feet of water. Others adjust their bobber up

the line to send their bait deeper so it hangs a few feet off the bottom.

A pro tip to know is that most recently stocked trout tend to school near the surface, and many congregate right around where the hatchery truck placed them in the lake and usually within yards of the shoreline, boat ramps and docks.

Planted trout stay just under the surface in 3 to 5 feet of water before they acclimate to their new surroundings and then eventually spread out and move to deeper areas of the lake.

MUST-HAVES

A fishing license is required (youth under age 15 fish for free), as well as a Discover Pass. For information, go to wdfw.wa.gov. WDFW has an excellent fishing resource website where you can get additional tips. For lowland lakes info, go to wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/ washington and for the agency’s Weekender Report, go to wdfw .wa.gov/places-to-go/weekender. NS

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

Kayden and Parker Wiles and mom Amanda smile over trout limits the boys caught at a south Puget Sound lake on last year’s opening weekend. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

Opening-day Alternatives

Rather not fish with half of Spokane County? Try these three Channeled Scablands options for big rainbows and browns, and tucked-away spinyrays.

By Jeff Holmes

The Inland Northwest offers some fantastic stillwater trout opportunities, and all of those lakes and reservoirs become available by the fourth Saturday in April, when many lakes across the state of

Washington open for angling. Broad opportunities for excellent trout angling exist in Eastern Washington, North Idaho, Northwest Montana and Northeast Oregon, but no cluster of lakes draws anglers in late April like those situated around Spokane and elsewhere in Eastern Washing-

ton. Opening-day lakes stuffed to the gills with trout attract casual and serious anglers alike the way a Woolly Bugger or a perfect little glob of PowerBait attracts trout. The likes of Williams, Badger, Fishtrap, Clear, West Medical and Fish Lakes, among many others, will draw thousands of

A hungry trout rises on an unlucky insect that fell into the water. (GREG SHINE, BLM)

anglers from around the state seeking trout on the April 27 opener. A few will seek bass, panfish and other spinyray species in the still-chilly waters of other lakes opening for action on that hallowed Saturday.

Once again for 2024, lakes around Spokane and the greater whole of Eastern Washington and the greater Inland Northwest will be dotted by every manner of floating craft: from float tubes and 8-foot Livingstons to 26-foot jet boats and party-barge pontoons. These anglers will troll a plethora of different flashers, lures, flies and baits, and many will leave with limits of small rainbows, browns, tiger trout, cutthroats and brookies, plus maybe some holdovers, triploids and broodstockers. Still fishermen will dangle or float off the bottom god-awful concoctions of flavored mallows, corn, and dough and live baits, much of it stuff that only hatchery trout would fall for.

FISHING IS NOT all that will happen on this most epic of angling occasions, however. Kids will fall in lakes. Impatient motorists will honk and shout as inexperienced trailer backer-inners struggle to set their boats free. Small

boats and canoes will capsize. There will be fights. Drunks in 30-year-old speedboats will zig-zag between crafts jammed with anglers and gear. Hooks will be sunk in human flesh. Slobs will litter cheese mallows, nightcrawler containers, sour-cream-andonion chip bags, empties, chew cans, dirty diapers and more. Yes, opening day can be a nightmarish orgy of boorish and ignorant behaviors and a people-watching spectacle to behold, but somehow, amongst all of the insanity, perfect moments will occur.

Opening day is the most important angling event in our state, period. Many children will catch their first fish; so will some adults. Other kids will cement their relationship with the sport after big catches and fun. Families will watch ospreys, just arrived back from their migration from Mexico and Central America, hurtle themselves toward the water in power dives, sometimes rising from the lake’s surface dripping water and clutching squirming trout. Turkeys will gobble in the early mornings and in the evenings above many lakeshores. Turtles will be caught by kids fishing worms under red and

white bobbers. Parents will spend time with children they don’t get to see enough. Pictures will be taken of smiling kids holding stringers. Those pictures, and others of friends and families enjoying the outdoors, will adorn fridges and walls, as well as people’s memories, for the rest of their lives.

How many of us got hooked on fishing as kids based on our opening day triumphs, when lakes were brimming with trout that did not discern between natural food and rainbow-colored PowerBait or a chunk of worm or a Super Duper dragged behind Cowbell flashers? Opening day is a big deal, and even some more serious anglers who are typically in search of bigger fish will take out a boatload of kids or will engage in the nostalgia themselves. For some of us who have been there and done that, however, opening day at a popular trout lake is not always the ideal aesthetic experience.

But the big crowds at the opening lakes offer a bright side for those willing to seek alternatives. Lakes that are open year-round or those that opened March 1 offer smaller

While there are Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife access sites on two of the three lakes featured in this article by author Jeff Holmes – Amber (above) and Rock (middle) – to get to Bonnie (right) requires motoring or paddling a mile up the outlet stream. (WDFW)

crowds and, in many cases, better fishing. Whether you stay close to the action around Spokane by hitting Rock, Bonnie or Amber Lakes … or you make the longer but accessible drive to largely deserted Priest Lake to fish for easy-to-nab shallow-water Mackinaw (see my story on page 103) … or you dream up your own alternative to the opening-day scene … think about leaving some room on the crowded opening waters for the kids and casual fairweather folk. The reward will be more solitude, probably bigger fish and less chance of being T-boned by a drunk in a 1962 fiberglass boat powered by a giant motor with no cowling.

AMBER LAKE

Amber Lake is managed for quality fishing opportunity for rainbows and cutthroats under selective-gear regulations and is open from March 1 through November 30. Thanks to its unimproved boat ramp (best suited to cartoppers), ban on internal combustion engines and proximity to fish factories like Williams, Badger and Fishtrap, the lake should be relatively uncrowded. During 17 years

of my life living in Cheney, I spent hundreds of hours on Amber, bobbing around in a float tube or getting blown around in a drift boat. This fishing was and is fantastic, and wildlife abounds here. I’ve seen otters, a bobcat, elk, deer, raccoons, beavers and muskrats, as well as many bird species at this special little lake sitting in a coulee between the Cheney basalt formation and Palouse dunes.

Amber is not a fly-fishing-only lake, but the vast majority who chase rainbows and cutthroats at this selective-gear fishery, located 12 miles southwest of Cheney, do so with fly rod in hand. The elitist minority of the fly crowd might hold their noses a little higher than they should if they see you casting or trolling lures, but don’t let it bother you. Just follow the rules: use a single barbless hook only, leave the bait at home and keep no more than one fish (18-inch minimum).

Barring high winds, a visitor to Amber will usually see a strong contingent of anglers still fishing around the launch and to its right, at the shallow, weedy southwest end near the prominent windmill perched on a small basalt bluff above the lake,

several hundred yards right of the public access. They watch strike indicators with chironomids (midge pupae) suspended beneath them. As the chironomids hatch, they move slowly upward in the water column until they reach the surface film and, ultimately, the surface, where adult midges emerge from their pupae, leaving their spent exoskeletons, or shucks, on the water’s surface. Anglers imitate the midge hatch in all of its stages, with a minority of anglers focusing most of their efforts on scoring fish on dry flies. Most times during spring, anglers will see shucks all over the water, a sign that midges are what’s for dinner, but the lake also offers a callibaetis mayfly hatch that provides some dry fly opportunities. Trout can even be targeted on large floating damsel and dragonfly imitations. Generally, though, the fish eat subsurface, and other popular menu items include water boatmen, damselfly nymphs and leeches.

Anglers in pontoons, float tubes and small boats also troll using a wide variety of Woolly Buggers, Carey Specials, Woolly Worms, leech and damselfly nymph imitations, and

Muddler Minnows. Whether dragged behind a full-sink fly line, leaded line or a sinker, trolling flies is a great option for terminal tackle anglers too, and so is their standard assortment of trout lures, fitted with a single barbless hook. Triple Teazers, Needlefish and other fluttering spoons work great, as do small Kwikfish and FlatFish.

My choice here is definitely to use fly gear, and I recommend a fullsink line, a little tippet and one of the above streamers for reliable action and an easy introduction into the fly game. Plus you’ll get fewer looks of dismay from the faces of fly fishermen framed under Filson hats.

Amber is managed to produce big catches of chunky fish for fly anglers eager to catch and release large

numbers. As such, trout fishing can be excellent, but it can also be tough, especially in the wind during weather changes. Even in tough conditions, catching fish is usually not difficult. Amber is a great place to escape the Jet Ski crowd and the dangers of opening-day anglers who launch all manner of motorized craft with minimal launching and boat-handling experience. You won’t hear a boat motor unless someone comes way too close with an electric, an unlikely event.

ROCK LAKE

I’ve featured Rock Lake’s robust fisheries many times over the years, but the lake really shines in winter and spring for its big rainbows and browns. Because it is almost 7 miles

long and almost 400 feet deep, its water remains much colder much longer into the season than most lakes, extending good trout fishing into the summer. Provided there hasn’t been significant precipitation and the lake’s water clarity is good, which it usually is on opening weekend, anglers at Rock will catch the highest quality trout in the Spokane area outside of Lake Roosevelt, where you will very seldom catch a brown trout. The rustic launch can attract a crowd on opening day during nice weather, but with your fellow anglers spread out over 7 miles, you’ll be alone most of your time on the water.

Abandon the PowerBait at Rock, and grab a casting or trolling rod. If you intend to cast to rocky structure

Bruce Heiner shows off a very good reason to skip the openingday waters and head to year-round Rock in late April. The former WDFW habitat engineer caught this nice German brown on a past opener at the long, skinny Channeled Scablands lake. (WDFW)

along the lake’s steep dropoffs, ledges and its scarce flats, fit your casting or spinning reel with 10-pound braid or fluorocarbon, affix a monofilament or fluoro leader and tie on something meaty. Both the large browns and rainbows are extremely piscivorous at Rock: they eat fish. Suckers, sculpins, carp, other trout and crawdads make up much of the diet of the lake’s biggest fish. All manner of plugs, swimbaits, spinners and spoons work well in late April.

Everything from Rebel Wee Craws up to 8-inch swimbaits or Jointed Rapalas will take both species. Take a large assortment of dark and earthy-colored spinners (size 3 or 4), sinking and floating minnows, and shallow- and medium-running cranks like Rapala Shad Raps and Bomber Model As in trout and crawdad finishes.

A key to triggering bites at Rock is not to stagnate on a specific lure or lure type. Make casts – lots of them. Cover lots of water. Focus on underwater structure along the lake’s shoreline. Plan to get stuck – a lot –and to have to unstick lures. Trout sometimes suspend, especially rainbows, away from structure and the lake’s edge, but far more fish, especially browns, orient to the shoreline.

As such, trollers should also focus on the shorelines, watching their electronics and the water around them for sudden changes in

depth. Rock is notoriously windy and dangerous, and its high cliff walls preclude exiting the lake in the event of a wreck. Boats should be run full speed only in the lake’s very center. Trollers utilize downriggers, leaded line, diving cranks, weighted offerings and even surface planers to run lures close to shore while running the boat a distance away to avoid spooking fish. All manner of trolling offerings work, including large flies like Woolly Buggers, crawdad imitations and Bunny Leeches. Rapalas, Apex Lures, banana plugs, spinner rigs, spoons and other meaty trolling lures are the best bets for hardware-oriented anglers.

I’ve logged at least 200 days on the water at Rock in my life, many of those days dedicating all my efforts to fly fishing with fast-sinking fly lines and medium to large streamers. Over time I learned that large lures focused on shorelines reveal a larger class of browns, but I’ve landed scores of brown trout between 18 and 27 inches on fly rods at Rock and many hundreds of rainbows. Moreover, I’ve enjoyed much faster fishing trolling flies compared to casting or dragging hardware. The same tutorial for getting started with full-sink lines at Amber will do nicely for your efforts at Rock.

In my considerable experience with lots of experimenting, dull brown and dull olive Woolly Buggers

and Bunny Leeches yield the most strikes, with black flies trailing a close third. If you happen to see one of the worst fishing shows ever filmed, featuring Rock Lake in 2023, do not do what they do: trolling in circles in the middle of the lake catching tiny, recently stocked trout and marveling at that class of fish. Those little fish are out getting fat on little invertebrates and get eaten by the much larger trout along the shorelines. Troll your flies and lures near shoreline structure and near the scarce shallow-water flats on the lake. Cast your lures and flies in the same places. As always, be careful at Rock and beware underwater pinnacles and outjutting points and ledges.

BONNIE LAKE

Rock Creek starts on Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge and drains south through Chapman Lake, then further south through Bonnie Lake, then Rock Lake and further yet through the Channeled Scablands to its confluence with the Palouse River. Of these three lakes, Chapman has historically been the easiest to access until a rhinestone cowboy who married into a family shut off access to the lake, my favorite lake of all time and home to kokanee and trophy smallmouth and largemouth bass. Thanks to the dogged and heroic efforts of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Chris Donley and the recent

WDFW fishing calendar graphs agree that April and May are the best times of the year to hit Amber and Rock (left) for rainbows, while this month is tops for Bonnie crappie. (WDFW)

transfer of 530 acres from the state Department of Natural Resources, WDFW is about to punch in a road and a new launch in the next couple years, availing access once again to a lake so special that I sometimes still dream about it.

Bonnie Lake, however, has always been one of the most difficult-to-ac-

cess waters in the area, yet also one of the most rewarding. The lake is home to confirmed 10-pound bass and big perch and crappie. Accessible only at Hole-in-the-Ground via a 1-mile upstream paddle or motor in a small boat on Rock Creek, anglers glide through a cow pasture and wetland before arriving at Bonnie’s shallow south end. Just

EASING INTO FLY FISHING

Although I fish all manner of tackle for a variety of species and take great joy in applying a diversity of tactics, some of the best and simplest angling of my life has been with a fly rod. Whether wading wild rivers and creeks in summer and autumn or fishing some of the West’s best stillwater trout lakes with both floating and sinking lines, fly fishing can be awesome, pure and deadly effective. For those heading out this April and May to trout fish and also thinking about getting into flyfishing streams and rivers in the future, trolling full-sink fly lines and simple streamers and leeches is a fantastic introduction to the sport and a sure way to regularly outfish lure and bait fishers. Fly fishing with full-sink lines is awesome at opening-day waters or any pond or reservoir with a good population of trout, including Amber and Rock Lakes.

YOU DON’T HAVE to break the bank on rods and reels, and specialty fly shops will be happy to help you get started with an inexpensive moderate-fast to fast-action 9-foot 5- or 6-weight rod matched with a low-cost medium- to large-arbor reel with a spare spool and an ability to order more. Spare spools enable an angler to have full-sink lines, floating lines, sink tip lines, etc. Some dacron backing, leaders and tippet, and flies are all that is needed to get started.

For spring stillwater trolling, a fast-sinking fly line is a necessity. Investing in a sinking-line setup positions an angler to add other sink rate lines and floating lines of spare spools and experiment during the summer and other times of the year. A full-sink line on

a 6-weight rod with a crummy reel and spare spools was my gateway to an obsession fishing rivers around the West with dry flies, nymphs and streamers.

I recommend this path.

Full-sink lines come in a variety of sink rates for fishing different depths. Good ones are not cheap but are worth their weight in gold on the water. Sink rates are measured in inches per second, or ips. Each manufacturer refers to the rate of sink a little differently. Some call the rate “type,” and others call it “deep” and so forth. Regardless of what the sink rate is called, the numbers that follow it always reference the ips. An example would be Type III, which sinks at approximately 3 ips, or Deep 6, which sinks at approximately 6 ips. The only line that usually doesn’t get a number designation are really slow-sinking lines called intermediate sinking lines. Intermediate lines are usually a translucent or opaque color and have the slowest sink rate of 1.5 ips. Honestly, a newcomer does not need these and should look for lines that sink fast. The fastest sinking line on the market currently is Rio’s Deep 7, which sinks at a speedy rate of 7 to 8 ips. The Deep 7 or even the Deep 6 are go-to lines for us in the Inland Northwest.

NO NEED TO get fancy with flies when starting out, especially since longtime fly anglers, like me, have fly boxes stuffed with all manner of fancy stillwater patterns but usually have a $1 brown, black or olive Woolly Bugger tied on their tippet (monofilament or fluorocarbon leader material). Along with Woolly Buggers, other go-to patterns for new and seasoned fly anglers

before reaching the lake, on the lefthand shoreline, an impressive natural arch looms above the creek. The rocks below the arch and everywhere along the lake’s private shorelines are prime tick and rattlesnake habitat; stay in your boat. A large, public island sits halfway up the lake.

Bonnie’s relative inaccessibility

include Mohair and Bunny Leeches, and Muddler Minnows. Mack’s Smile Blade

Fly, essentially a Woolly Bugger fronted by a Smile Blade and bead, is another good choice for a beginning selection of trout streamers that work everywhere. I learned using simple knots like loop-toloop connections and double surgeon’s knots and improved cinch knots. These three knots are easy as pie to learn on YouTube.

It might be tempting to buy gear online or at Cabela’s or some big box store, but I highly suggest working with a local fly shop to get started. Spend a little money on lower-end gear while getting solid advice and tutorials from pros. Explain your objectives for getting into the sport at a low price point and for buying the best and fastest full-sink lines you can find. Explain you want to troll stillwaters for trout and that this may lead you to get deeper into the sport and to return for more gear and advice. In Spokane, try Silver Bow Fly Shop (silverbowflyshop.com), Northwest Outfitters in Coeur d’Alene (nwoutfitters.com), and for anglers in Western Washington headed east, try The Avid Angler (avidangle.com) in the Seattle area. If you live elsewhere, look for your nearest locally owned fly shop. –JH

does not make it a stocking candidate. The fishery here is for spinyrays, and, as Donley reports, the lake’s jumbo-sized perch, crappie and bass begin to turn on at the end of April.

“As water temperatures warm, the fishing gets better, but good catches are very possible in April. It really starts to turn on around the time of the opener. People should fish early and late; those are the best times for big perch and crappie,” the state manager-angler says.

Focus efforts on the lake’s bottom, and bring two good anchors or a trolling motor with spot lock to cope with midday winds. Try a range of depths between 10 and 30 feet

throughout the day during the early season, and try a variety of colors of jigged and drop-shotted plastics and baits. Experiment shallower as well, especially as temps warm, and especially early and late in the day. A range of crappie jigs in combinations of chartreuse, red, white and yellow are standard for perch and crappie.

Spring, hungry trout and the Northwest’s plentiful lakes present a great chance to get into fly fishing, and it’s not all a bunch of casting, hopping from rock to rock and high-dollar gear. (PAUL ISHII)

Special Advertising FocUS Northwest Fly Fishing

YOUR

PREMIER FLY FISHING

GUIDE SERVICE GUIDE SERVICE

Embark on an unforgettable angling adventure with Tread Waters, where passion meets purpose! Specializing in double hand spey rods, our expert guides ensure an exhilarating experience on the majestic Skagit and Sauk Rivers.

Guide/Owner: Jordan Young-Treadway

Empowering Diversity

Tread Waters is committed to promoting diversity within the sport of fly fishing. We celebrate and welcome anglers from all backgrounds, ensuring everyone feels represented and valued.

Conservation Champions

At Tread Waters, we believe in giving back to the rivers we love. Our team is dedicated to responsible angling and conservation efforts, striving to preserve and protect these precious ecosystems for generations to come.

Join us for an unforgettable journey through crystal-clear waters, where every cast tells a story and every catch leaves a lasting memory.

Book your adventure with Tread Waters today and experience the thrill of fly fishing like never before!

Baited Swedish Pimples, Teardrop Tungsten jigs and micro-jigs, and spoons are good starting points. As fish move shallower during the mornings and evenings and as water temps rise, Beetle Spins, fly gear and all manner of small offerings become viable panfish lures at Bonnie.

Crappie are more likely to orient to underwater structure and cliff walls, and perch can be found on and below shelves near the lake’s shallow areas. They can also be found together and are likely to be encountered shallower and shallower throughout spring until early summer returns fish to deep water during the day. Much of Bonnie is surrounded by 200foot basalt cliffs, so identifying likely spinyray water is not difficult, especially with electronics. The south and north ends offer the best panfishing, and a few small bays along its length

offer good opportunities as well.

Accessing the lake is tough in a big boat, as well as unnecessary. This is a classic paddle for families and other recreationists, and kayaks and canoes are the preferred mode of transit. Small- and even medium-sized boats can also negotiate the creek to reach the lake during the early season when there is enough water, but the “launch” at the bridge at Hole-inthe-Ground on Belsby Road is rustic and makes the dreaded Rock Lake launch seem plush. It’s best to stick to cartoppers, paddle craft and small trailers. Once on the lake, especially south and north of the island, watch out for big winds and potential whitecaps. Winds tend to lie down on all the Cheney-area lakes in the evenings. Bonnie is no exception.

Bass topping 10 pounds – a true rarity in the Spokane area – have been

caught from Bonnie in the past, probably due to light pressure and abundant feed. Late April is prime time to target prespawn largemouth, which begin in April to seek out warm water bays in preparation for their spawn in May. These fish dine heavily on the lake’s abundant crawdads, perch and minnows. Look for bass sneaking in shallow towards the warmest waters; fish a variety of depths inside of 12 feet to locate fish. In late April, big females will seek out solar-heated shallow water in the lake’s shallowest areas. Keep offerings slow. A number of popular bass baits will take fish, but especially good options, depending on depth, include white and chartreuse willow-leaf spinnerbaits, fished slowly; crawdad-imitating plastics; unweighted 5-inch Senkos in greens and browns; and shallow- through deep-running cranks in crawdad finishes. NS

A wide variety of simple streamer flies trolled slowly (from .6 to 1.4 mph) will at times outperform all other offerings including bait. While author Jeff Holmes prefers unweighted flies for stillwater fishing, cone-and beadheaded flies work well in lakes and work even better in rivers. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

Fishing Spots For Oregon Kids

If you live west of the Cascades, there are lots of places to go catch trout and bass, and here are some of the best.

By Troy Rodakowski

When my daughter was born, I knew my life would change. I knew I’d have to focus on being a father and set a few things on the back burner while doing so. But one of the best parts was that I might have a new fishing and hunting buddy for my outings across the Willamette Valley and Western Oregon. Luckily, my daughter Reese took to the outdoors like it was second nature to her. I’d like to think that it was in her DNA, but I’m sure that exposing her to the outdoors at a very young age had a lot to do with it.

I remember the first time I took her fishing with me. Reese was in diapers and could barely walk, but she was so interested in the fishing poles, lures and bait. The first fish she was able to touch and hold was a bright-yellow crappie and since that day she has been literally hooked on the sport. Now 7 years old, she begs me to take her and I happily do every chance I get. It’s very important for our younger generations to understand the outdoors, nature, the circle of life and where their food really comes from.

WE HAVE FOUND several great kidfriendly places to fish over the last few years. Reese loves to keep and

Troy Rodakowski is happy his daughter Reese has taken to trout fishing like a duck to water, and there are plenty of places across Western Oregon for them to chase stocker rainbows this time of year. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)

eat most of her fish, so the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Trout Stocking Schedule (myodfw .com/fishing) always comes in handy.

There are several bodies of water near our home in Junction City and one of our favorites is the Junction City Pond, which recently reopened following work to improve access and fishing spots. If you pick the right day, you can find a nice place along the shoreline without much competition.

We’ve had some of our best luck there during the work week and we usually bobber fish with green PowerBait on an egg hook and a 1- or 2-ounce split shot to get it down to where the fish are suspended. There have also been a few times that small Mepps and Rooster Tail spinners have worked wonders.

OTHER TOP PICKS for kids include the Alton Baker Pond and Canoe Canal, located in Eugene’s Alton Baker Park,

on the north side of the Willamette and west side of I-5 by Autzen Stadium. Some of the same tactics that work at Junction City Pond work here as well and it’s only a 15-minute drive from our home.

Not too far away to the north, the E.E. Wilson Pond is regularly stocked and we have fished here early in the spring when the water isn’t too warm. This pond is located off Highway 99W between Corvallis and Monmouth and about half a mile from the parking lot. My recommendation is sticking to a bobber and bait here, since the pond isn’t that large for lots of casting, but it does have some fishing piers to stand on.

Growing up, the family of a friend of mine owned a house south of Florence on Woahink Lake, which has a good variety of fish, including stocked trout, largemouth bass and perch. About 15 percent of Woahink borders Honeyman State Park and

includes some good access for anglers. The remainder of the 820-acre lake is mostly private, so I recommend launching a boat from the north end’s day-use area, off of Highway 101.

Cottage Grove’s Row River Nature Park is a 15-acre site with six ponds that fish very similarly to other small waters stocked regularly with trout. There are more secluded sites here and benches to sit on in a few areas. These ponds are regularly stocked in late winter and early spring with rainbows and it’s a great place to take a beginner and have a picnic.

On the east side of the Willamette Valley is 8-acre Sunnyside Pond in Sunnyside County Park, about 7 miles east of Sweet Home. It is stocked with rainbow trout and also has largemouth, bluegill and white crappie.

Waverly Lake in Albany has restrooms and picnic facilities, and during the summer months they offer paddle boat rentals. There is a paved trail around the entire lake, with access for disabled anglers as well. Anglers can find rainbow trout, blue catfish, crappie, brown trout and largemouth bass here.

And Hartman Pond in the Columbia Gorge features spring trout and year-round warmwater fishing. It is great for anglers without a boat and a solid day trip for young fishers. From I-84, take the Benson State Park exit.

BUT THERE’S MORE to April and May angling opportunities than just stocker trout. Spring is a great time to get a kid hooked on bass. As waters begin to warm more and more, they will begin their aggressive prespawn bite and there is nothing quite like seeing a youngster fight a feisty largemouth.

A great place to find a good bass bite is Cottage Grove Reservoir, which has four day-use parks open from midMay through September. Boating to some of the better locations will give you a great advantage, but there is excellent access around the lake to throw crankbaits and rubber worms. Once the water temperature warms into the 50s, bass will become more

Popular Junction City Pond, near the eponymous southern Willamette Valley town, was recently upgraded, thanks to a $155,000 state grant. Improvements include new paths, nine shoreline fishing enhancements, which are described as “boulder clusters and ADA-compliant cantilevered fishing platforms,” and metal benches and picnic tables. (ODFW)

Just as Reese’s dad Troy (above) knows, there’s much more to spring fishing than rainbows. Bass as well as crappie and other warmwater species make for willing biters. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)

active and aggressive as the spawning season progresses.

Not far to the south, the Umpqua River is loaded with smallmouth bass and not only are they fun to catch, but make for some really good eating. My daughter loves fish, so we try to make at least one trip a year down to the Umpqua Valley. You can use natural bait in the mainstem Umpqua but not in tributaries (except in the tidewater zone). Beginning in 2016, ODFW removed all size and daily limits for bass in both the mainstem and South Umpqua, but fishing guide Todd Harrington is among many anglers who practice catch-and-release, and some of those bass top 20 inches.

NO MATTER WHERE you go this spring and summer in Western Oregon to wet a line or two, you will find that the memories are the ones that will live on for a lifetime. I know that I’m looking forward to making many more moments with my daughter that she can cherish and pass onto her friends and others as she grows up. NS

OREGON

CULVER

Culver Marine (541) 546-3354

www.culvermarine.com

FLORENCE

Y Marina

(541) 590-3313

www.ymarinaboats.com

PORTLAND Sportcraft Marina, Inc. (503) 656-6484

www.sportcraftmarina.com

WASHINGTON

CHINOOK

Chinook Marine Repair, Inc. (800) 457-9459 (360) 777-8361

www.chinookmarinerepair.com

MOUNT VERNON

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

www.tomnjerrys.net

TACOMA

Tacoma Boat Sales & Service (253) 301-4013

www.tacomaboatsales.com

Fishing For Trout With Kiddos

Make no mistake, although our two sons are now grown men, they still like to chase trout with “Dad.” Every year at about this time, I start assembling our gear for the upcoming season. While filling reels with fresh line and rigging the terminal end of each, I find myself thinking about our next family trip and a few of our

long-ago adventures.

You see, those early days of fishing with our then-young boys are some of my favorite outdoor memories. For example, Blake was so excited upon landing his first trout that he wasn’t the least bit interested in releasing it, even though I’d earlier explained he must unless it measured over 14 inches (the minimum legal-tokeep trout length on the Klickitat River). The answer to this dilemma was to tell Blake the fish wanted to go back and see his mom. Our young son could relate to

this explanation and happily and quickly (much to my relief) released the trout.

I remember later having casting lessons in our yard. But even though they were only 3 years old, Blake and his younger brother Wade caught on to casting their little push-button reels pretty quick.

We outfitted both boys with spincast(push-button) style reels and short fishing rods the first several years. You see, closedface spincast and closed-face spinning reels are less prone to line tangles compared to open-face spinning reels or baitcasters. It

Author Buzz Ramsey’s wife Maggie poses with their sons Wade and Blake and friend Chazz as they show off a quick limit of trout caught while trolling Washington’s Horsethief Lake back in 1997. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

BUZZ RAMSEY

was when they were 5 or 6 years old that we switched them over to longer rods (5 to 6 feet long) and standard spinning reels.

And while we took our boys along when chasing salmon and steelhead, many of our early adventures were for trout. After all, success comes pretty fast on lakes freshly stocked with willing-to-bite fish. Of course, as a parent, it’s your job to dress them warm and take plenty of food and other items along to occupy their time should the catching turn out to be slow.

For trout, we mostly employ two fishing methods: plunking/still-fishing PowerBait and trolling. As mentioned, trout are pretty easy to catch compared to spring Chinook and summer steelhead. Much of this is thanks to state fish and wildlife agencies that stock millions of hungry trout into hundreds of lakes, which likely includes one near your home.

Finding out where fish are planted is as

easy as checking out the stocking schedule for a lake near you. They’re posted on state fish and wildlife websites (idfg.idaho.gov; myodfw.com; wdfw.wa.gov). More than a few lakes – and especially the popular ones – are stocked more than once during the spring season. It’s also a good idea to obtain a fishing regulation booklet that will list the lakes open to fishing and cover any possible fishing restrictions.

AS YOU MAY already know, PowerBait (sometimes referred to as dough or trout bait) is a prepared formula developed by scientists and introduced to the market after conducting extensive tests on real fish. It really works; so good, in fact, that it has surpassed worms as the most popular bait used by trout enthusiasts. It comes in jars and feels a lot like Play-Doh, so using it might bring back some of your early childhood memories.

And while there are similar products available, in my opinion, none are as effective as those marketed under the Berkley label.

Rigging up simple: Thread your main line (extending from your rod tip) through the hole in a ½- to ¾-ounce oval egg sinker, thread a 4mm plastic bead on your line and attach the end to a size 10 barrel swivel. Then attach a 20- to 30-inch leader to the other end of your swivel, complete with size 16 treble hook. It’s then that you mold a dime-size ball of PowerBait (Berkley’s Gulp! trout bait works too) around your hook and cast the works into a lake recently stocked with trout.

Fundamental to success when using the dough is to use enough of the buoyant bait to float your hook above bottom so cruising trout can quickly find it. Doing this will make your offering much more effective than a nonbuoyant offering lying

Here are some of the items you might need for still-fishing. At a minimum, your gear should include a few different colors of PowerBait, ½-ounce oval egg sinkers, small 3- or 4mm plastic beads, size 10 swivels, 6-pound-test monofilament leader, size 16 treble hooks and a pair of needle-nose pliers for cutting line and removing hooks. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

sculpin tubes and jigs generate bites from creating subtle flashes and movements from the jig’s innovative pectoral fins

opening the fins by dropping the jig only a few inches keeps you in the zone and stimulates strikes

columbiarivertackle.com

The Ramseys took the hooks off the lures their boys used the first few trips for fear of getting hooked – a 2- or 3-year-old is likely to swing their rods around wildly when trying to mimic your casting while paying no attention to who might be standing or sitting next to them. Their sons also started with closed-face reels before moving up to spinning reels and, for trolling, levelwind baitcasters. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

on the bottom that might take fish an hour or more to find.

To ensure their bait will float above bottom, many anglers add a Lil’ Corky single egg imitation to their rigging. It’s easy; simply thread a small Corky onto your leader above your hook. A size 14 Corky, the smallest, is what works and its buoyancy will allow you to step up to a size 12 or 14 treble hook.

Still-fishing means just what it says: cast out and allow your outfit to sink to the bottom and wait until a fish bites, at which time you will need to set the hook. In case you are a parent who hasn’t fished before, setting the hook is the motion of pulling back on your rod tip such that the hook will become embedded in the fish’s mouth or lip.

It’s important to leave a little slack in your line after casting into the lake so trout can swim and swallow your bait without feeling the resistance of a taut line, and the reason I suggest using a free-sliding/ oval egg sinker rather than a fixed weight. What you or your young angler should do when seeing the slack in your line begin to tighten up is to set the hook!

WHILE WE SOMETIMES plunk PowerBait from shore or an anchored boat, trolling for trout was and is what we most often do. Which method we employ just depends on what the trout are responding to best at the time. In case you are a person who has never fished before, trolling is the process of propelling a boat along with rigged fishing lines trailing out behind your craft 40 to 70 feet.

Trolling can offer an advantage over still-fishing when fish are scattered over a wide area. You can cover a lot of water while slowly maneuvering your craft around the lake.

How fast you troll and how deep you run your lines can influence your rate of success. This time of year, a lot of fish can be found cruising near the surface, especially during the low-light periods of morning, evening or when overcast. Trout will generally go deeper during the middle of the day, which is due to them not having eyelids. After all, the only way they can control the amount of light entering their eyes is by location, so they will often be found deeper in the water column when

the sun is bright.

What lures you troll can make a difference in how fast you go. While most lures are designed to be trolled at speeds of 3/4 to 11/2 mph, some – such as the small F-4- or F-5-size FlatFish – work best when trolled at 1/2 mph.

Trout are known to sometimes follow rather than instantly strike lures trolled along at a constant and predictable speed, as they expect prey to react in some way when approached. You can duplicate this fleeing response, which might trigger a strike, by trolling your boat in a zigzag fashion. Doing this means the rods rigged with lures extending on the outside of your turn will speed up while the lures attached to the rods on the inside of your maneuver will slow down. Another way to duplicate this is to momentarily speed up and slow down your boat. You should realize, however, that slow is generally the

Although the F-5 FlatFish worked then and still does, the Ramseys have had good luck while trolling other plugs too. A favorite of theirs is a size 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0 Mag Lip, with the metallic gold/red “top” being a good one. Here, Wade shows off a trout he caught while trolling a 3.0 Mag Lip at Rowland Lake in the Columbia Gorge. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

most productive speed when after trout.

I remember our boys being so excited about hooking a fish that they reeled way too fast, which often resulted in the hook pulling out, even though the drag on the reel was set correctly. Reeling nonstop when using a spinning reel can place a lot of twist in the line, even when using swivels, which can cause the line to become unruly and possibly spring off the reel spool. Not good. To counter this, I remember reminding our boys how smart trout were, and that they might try reeling a little slower the next time.

Keeping our trips short, fun and productive was the secret to keeping the boys interested while on the water. Oh yeah, and we took along plenty of food and warm clothes. To ensure fishing success, we planned our first trip on the opening day of trout season or right after the lake had been stocked with a fresh load of hungry trout. Again, to get the straight scoop on where the fish were planted and how many, keep tabs on the stocking schedule on your state fisheries department’s website. NS

Editor’s note: Buzz Ramsey is regarded as a sport fishing authority, outdoor writer and proficient lure and fishing rod designer. As such, fishing rod manufacturer Douglas Outdoors has added Buzz to their ambassador pro staff.

Rigging up for trolling could include many of these products. You can also increase your success rate by adding scent to your lure or tipping the hook with a small scent-filled bait like PowerBait or Gulp! Keep in mind that too big a tip can alter/spoil the action of spoons, so keep those tips especially small as compared to tipping plugs or spinners. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

The skeg is made of anodized 5052 aluminum. The size is 8 3/4 inches high by 10 inches wide and it’s 3/16 inch thick. The anodization keeps the aluminum from corroding in fresh- and saltwater. The LeeLock Magnum Skeg is available to fit most Minn Kota and MotorGuide (pictured) motors. It comes with clear PVC-coated stainless steel hose clamps. Call 360-380-1864 or write info@ leelock.com if you have any questions about fit.

OREGON

EUGENE

Maxxum Marine

(541) 686-3572

www.maxxummarine.com

PORTLAND

Sportcraft Marina

(503) 656-6484

sportcraftmarina.com

WASHINGTON

EVERETT

Performance Marine

(425) 258-9292

perform-marine.com

MOUNT VERNON

Master Marine Boat Center, Inc.

(360) 336-2176

mastermarine.com

SHELTON

Verle’s Sports Center

(877) 426-0933

verles.com

It’s not the ministry of Mackinaw that it was in decades of yore, but Priest Lake is still a destination for these char, and springtime offers a chance to fish the North Idaho getaway without summer’s crowds. (IDFG)

Make Mine A Mack

By Jeff Holmes

For a while, I got pretty obsessed with figuring out how to catch Macks in a small boat with no downriggers. To summarize my research, it was easy, and April and May are a great time to get after them.

First, I needlessly let out 10 colors of leaded line (a chore) with a heavy trolling weight and drug chartreuse and other gaudily colored FlatFish and

Blasé about rainbows? Idaho’s Priest and a pair of Northwest Washington lakes serve up lakers and more.

Kwikfish tipped with nightcrawlers or wrapped with pikeminnow meat. This approach yielded fish, but I learned that dropping heavy cannonballs on braided line and trolling a variety of plugs worked far better and was easier.

Then I saw a fishing show on Priest Lake where upsized drop-shotting techniques produced impressive results. So I started drop-shotting known Mack hangouts on Priest Lake and later using Minn Kota Spot-

Lock, and the results were excellent. I wasn’t good enough like the guy on TV to catch trophy Macks, but I caught a tremendous number from 16 inches to 10 pounds. I can’t admit to being a fan of their flesh but can attest to the value of fertilizing heirloom tomatoes with the flesh of these overpopulated alien predators.

Since I abandoned my Priest Lake Mackinaw obsession, the population at Northeast Washington’s Deer Lake’s

has blown up. Home to lakers since I can remember, just like nearby opening-day water Loon Lake, Deer’s Mack population has led to liberalized regulations and opportunities to catch these toothy char closer to Spokane than Priest.

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a wilder experience in one of the most beautiful settings in the Inland Northwest, Priest Lake’s changing lake trout population is shallow and hungry during springtime. Fish have grown smaller and more numerous as the prey base has changed. One need not own a big boat with 300 feet of downrigger cable to fish Priest, whose fish seek shallower haunts during winter and spring before sun and warmth drive them to great depths for the summer. And

with fish keying less on kokanee and more on exotic mysis shrimp, other invertebrates and northern pikeminnows, these food sources and lakers can be found shallow throughout the spring. You’ll need an Idaho license, of course, and a stable, 14-foot or larger boat for all but the calmest days.

Prior to Memorial Day, this huge and popular lake at the base of the Idaho Selkirks is nearly devoid of people. Hundreds of cabins sit unoccupied. Boat-in camps on the lake’s islands are all open, even on weekends. There are no Jet Skis, nor water skiers. Spending April and May days at Priest can feel like being in an exotic locale somewhere in remote Canada. Rugged, snowy peaks stand sentinel over the 19-mile lake, which is dotted by timbered islands overrun

by whitetails. Shorelines are marked by large bays and rocky points, and lake depths cascade toward 400 feet. Wolves and elk and moose struggle for survival in the hills around the lake. Cougars come low for the winter to be with the whitetail herd. Many of those deer will leave the mainland to escape predation or for whatever reasons and will end up starving on islands like Kalispell, where the browse line is as high as deer can stand on hind legs. Bald eagles, which nest on Kalispell Island and at other points on the lake, tear at deer carcasses and watch fishing boats for the caught and released lakers with ruptured swim bladders they leave in their wakes.

These lake trout are exceptional as far as lake trout go. After the foolish introduction of mysis shrimp into Priest

Trolling, jigging and drop-shotting over known laker gathering areas on Priest is a good bet. With that last technique, you’ll obviously want to go much heavier than you would for bass; use 1- to 4-ounce cannonballs, tips the author. (IDFG)

and the resulting crash of the kokanee population, lake trout began to grow smaller and more numerous. They now target the mysis shrimp, which adds to their table fare. The fish are delicate and oily with a deep-orange flesh from consuming shrimp. Most fish are small, averaging between 16 and 24 inches, but even a small laker is a meaty proposition. And with a six-fish limit, the potential for a haul from this overpopulated fishery is high. Much larger fish exist, and specimens reaching 40 pounds are still very occasionally caught, but much less frequently than in the past. The larger fish, those topping 10 pounds, tend to be more piscivorous than the lake’s average fish, which eat mostly invertebrates. These bigger fish focus on the available forage, which is still sometimes kokanee,

but more often these days it’s northern pikeminnow, peamouth chub, suckers and other nongame fish.

FOR A NEWCOMER fishing from, say, a small open boat, here’s some solid advice: Be careful. Priest is nothing to play around with. Sudden mountain storms influence the weather on the lake, and boat-capsizing waves develop regularly. Fish smart and be content to make a camp and sit back and relax with a cold or warm beverage next to a fire if the wind kicks up. When conditions are safe, however, get after it. Trolling, jigging and drop-shotting are all excellent methods. Leaded line, heavy weights or downriggers will all produce fish, and excellent offerings include Kwikfish, FlatFish, fluttering spoons, baited flies (pikeminnow

is best; nightcrawlers work) behind flashers, and more. Gaudy green, chartreuse, yellow and orange are all good color choices.

Good medium-action bass fishing, walleye jigging or light steelhead fishing combos work well for drop-shotting and jigging, and braided, no-stretch lines are a necessity. Berkley Power Grubs, Gulp! Minnows and other fluorescent or glow-in-the-dark plastics on either jig heads or hooks, tipped with bait, take fish. So do Crippled Herrings, Buzz Bombs and all manner of vertical jigging gear. Big blade baits might be fun to try. Typical little dropshot weights won’t do; get some 1- to 4-ounce cannonball weights.

Priest Lake lakers can be found in spring from 30 feet to well over 100 feet, depending on locale and time of

day. They descend in the heat of summer to 200 to 300 feet, making spring the time to nab them. Good electronics readily reveal lake trout, which are usually on the bottom, but they also suspend periodically. A reliable fishfinder is a key to success. Rocky points, humps and dropoffs around the lake hold fish.

Some of the most popular spots include the following: Cavanaugh Bay and Rocky Point; Fourmile Island’s “Mack Alley,” the area between Fourmile and Bartoo Island; the northern point of Bartoo; Papoose Island; depth transitions and humps around Kalispell Island’s north and east shores, including “The Hump”; Indian Creek Bay and Pinto Point; and the Twin Islands. Fish will be shallower early and late in the day, especially early. Be sure to be able to distinguish lakers from bull trout; bull trout, which are federally listed, must be released, and I’ve caught them here. Fish-n-Map Co.’s Priest Lake map is a big help for

newcomers, as are good electronics.

DEER LAKE MACKS are abundant, reports from WDFW and fellow anglers suggest (I have yet to fish it), and it also holds some really nice rainbows. Deer is also home to excellent bass fishing later in the year. For those targeting Macks, I suspect my advice for Priest would analogize here. Prospecting with electronics and a deepwater drop-shotting rig would be fun, and I would start on the deep points on the lake’s southern shore.

As noted, nearby Loon has lakers too, and – more impressively – a mother and son both broke the world record for tiger trout in back-to-back years recently at Loon. Cathy Clegg broke her son’s year-old record of 24 pounds by 3 pounds in 2022 by dangling a nightcrawler off of the family’s dock. Don’t expect to catch a 27.42-pound tiger trout, but do know that Deer and Loon offer trophy trout options close to Spokane. NS

A number of lakes in Northeast Washington host Mackinaw, which can grow quite big, as do the tiger trout at Loon Lake, which has produced two world records – for two members of the same family! (CATHY CLEGG VIA WDFW)

DESTINATION ALASKA

Remote, Comfortable & Affordable

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

Coho Fishing The Egegik River

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

DESTINATION ALASKA

THE PREMIER SPORTING GOODS STORE ON PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND FOR ALL YOUR FISHING, HUNTING, AND CAMPING NEEDS!

KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF WILL LET YOU KNOW WHERE, WHEN AND HOW!

DESTINATION ALASKA

2024 GobblerSpring Preview

Oregon’s

upland game bird

biologist and

Washington’s

NWTF state chapter president share thoughts on how this season shapes up.

By M.D. Johnson

Can you feel it? It’s in the air – and no, it’s not the pollen, but that might explain the incessant sneezing, runny noses and itchy eyes. No, I’m talking about spring. And what comes with spring? Turkey season!

For many of you reading this month’s issue of Northwest Sportsman, you’re but a week away from April 15 and the traditional start of Washington and Oregon’s general spring hunt. By now, you should have all your scouting done and Plans A, B, C and D all in place. Your shotgun should be patterned, clothes laid out, calls run and ready, and your turkey vest packed, unloaded and repacked no fewer than four times. Theoretically, your boots have been on the proverbial ground, so what we’re about to tell you should, again theoretically, be old news because you’ve been there and done that, and you’ve seen what you need to see firsthand; however, and as we do each spring around about this time, let’s give a listen to what those in the know have to say about how turkey hunters should fare afield this season.

OREGON

Loyal readers will recognize the name Mikal Cline as it pertains to Pacific Northwest turkeys and turkey hunting. Cline is, as she has been for the past six years now, the upland game bird coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, a position that oversees many species of feathered fowl, including the Beaver State’s ample population of the nation’s largest game bird, the wild turkey.

Northwest Sportsman Statewide status, Mikal. How are turkeys doing in Oregon?

Mikal Cline Statewide, our birds continue to be on the increase. We don’t survey our (turkey population), other than harvest surveys, for the most part; however, we can look at things like the breeding bird survey. And looking at that, they’re (wild turkeys) still on an exponential growth curve.

NWS Where across the state, Mikal, are the turkey populations doing extremely well, perhaps even to the point of being problematic?

MC [Laughing] We do have some “hot spots” and some developing hot spots.

The feathers of an Eastern Washington gobbler fan out in a kaleidoscope of color. The supersized upland birds represent the Northwest’s first major hunt of the year. (BRIAN LYNN)

And, of course, some of the places where turkeys are increasing (in number) aren’t places where I would ever send a hunter because there’s just not great places to hunt there.

That said, turkeys continue to do very well in the John Day Valley and in those units that surround the valley, to the point where we’ve instituted a “beardless turkey permit” in the wintertime in an attempt to help private landowners deal with their wintering turkey issues. Everything we’ve done there to try and balance our turkey population with the landowner tolerance level doesn’t seem to have had much effect. There’s still lots and lots of turkeys that appear to be very productive and have a high survival rate.

There’s Elgin in the northeast corner (of the state) and the surrounding area. We see a lot of birds coming down to winter around Elgin, and then go back up into the hills in the springtime. I think our new Minam (wildlife area) acquisition should be interesting as far as turkey hunting goes.

Author’s note: The town of Minam is located to the east and slightly north of Elgin along Highway 82. The recent land buy Cline refers to is the partnership between ODFW, Manulife Timber and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, along with the U.S. Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Forestry, that opened some 15,573 acres to public access along and above the Minam River. And it has turkeys, too!

MC On the Westside and throughout the Willamette Valley and down into the Rogue and Umpqua, turkeys are doing really well. And of course, (that) oak country between Roseburg and Medford is just great turkey country, and those populations are still doing really well.

NWS Conversely, Mikal, are there any places throughout the state where

Spring turkey season in the Northwest begins as early as April 1, thanks to a special weeklong youth hunt in Washington. Oregon and Idaho also offer opportunities for young gobbler gunners before the general season begins. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

you’d like to see the birds doing better? Maybe they’re just holding their own, or even backsliding a bit?

MC Not that I can think of, to be honest. There are places where I would say the birds are holding their own, but maybe not on the increase. And those would be places like the forest north of Burns (Malheur National Forest),

where sometimes the winters are –well, things can get a little marginal for the birds in that country.

Down in the Klamath country. In the past, we’ve transplanted a lot of birds down there, but we haven’t been able to do that for several years now, thanks to avian influenza. So maybe it’s just a little on the marginal

side, habitat-wise, and there’s not much we can do about that.

But in general, no, there aren’t a lot of places where I’d say “Boy, I wish we had a whole bunch more turkeys.”

Author’s note: Maybe, Cline continued, you could add the White River Wildlife Area. It just gets hunted really hard, and so there’s always room for more turkeys up in the Hood Unit.

NWS So, Western Washington has a stable population of the eastern subspecies of wild turkey, along with the Merriam’s and Rios on the Eastside. Now, I’ve heard tell of a population, albeit tiny, of easterns around Vernonia northwest of Portland. Fact or fiction?

MC Not that I’m aware of. I don’t think we have (hardly any) turkeys in that country. Maybe we did at one time, but it’s not somewhere I’d ever send anyone to go turkey hunting. I don’t think there’s any credence to that (rumor). It’s possible there are some domestic birds or there used to be birds persisting up in that country, but for the most part, the birds have died out in that country.

WASHINGTON

Across the Columbia River to the north of Cline’s Salem headquarters, we find Russ McDonald, who has for the past eight years served as the Washington State chapter president for the National Wild Turkey Federation. A native Minnesotan, McDonald, who also today holds title to the president’s seat of the organization’s Enumclaw chapter, discovered the Pacific Northwest by way of the U.S. Navy. “The military brought me out to the West Coast,” he says with a chuckle. “When I got out in ’92, I was stationed in California and stayed down in California for 18 years. I moved up here (Washington) for a job with the Forest Service.”

Like Cline, McDonald is a busy man, especially this time of year, when a young man’s fancy turns not

Past spring turkey cover girl Carly Benson continued her successful ways on the gobbler grounds last year, bagging this tom. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

to love, but longbeards. We caught up with McDonald early in March in between his responsibilities for the Forest Service – “Fourteen years now,” he says – and gearing up for April 15, and he told us damn near everything he knows about the status of wild turkeys in the Evergreen State.

NWS Statewide, Russ, how are the birds doing in Washington? I know that’s difficult, what with three subspecies and the Cascade Range, but overall how they doing?

Russ McDonald I just got back from Nashville (and the annual NWTF National Convention), and we were

discussing how our population in Washington is flourishing. It’s doing pretty good. Compared to other states, even though their turkey populations might be much larger than Washington’s, we’re doing pretty good. Our numbers aren’t going down.

NWS And why might that be? Why would Washington’s population of wild turkeys be doing so well?

RM I wish I knew. While I was in Nashville, I asked some of the top (NWTF) biologists, including Michael Chamberlain – (Dr. Chamberlain, PhD, is a Terrell Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and

Management at the University of Georgia, and a regular speaker at everything NWTF) – and asked him specifically about the Southeastern U.S., where their birds are taking a dip. They’re trying to figure out why, and I suggested he come out West and research why our turkey populations are doing so well. So, I really can’t answer that.

We’ve had some mild winters; that could be a contributing factor. But I believe the birds here in the Pacific Northwest are truly different from those elsewhere in the country. The habitat is totally different. These birds are built to survive.

NWS Turkey populations, Russ, are doing well throughout Washington, especially on the Eastside, but is there somewhere they’re doing exceptionally well?

RM The northeast corner above Spokane and Davenport. The northeast above Interstate 90. And it has a lot to do with the agriculture in that area. Wintertime, and the birds drop down into those hay and wheat fields, and (unfortunately) that’s why they become “nuisance birds.” Once they learn about that food source, they’re not going to stray very far from it, even in the springtime. You go out there, if we have a little bit colder weather, and see 1,000 turkeys in one of those fields.

NWS Conversely, are there any parts of Washington where the turkey population isn’t doing as well?

Struggling a bit? The Blue Mountains?

RM Actually, those birds down in the Blues aren’t doing too bad. Those are Rio Grandes, and they’re doing well. There are pockets here and there (where they aren’t as numerous), and the wildfires down there are working to move birds around. True, wildfires are (often) bad, but if there’s a “good burn” that goes through an area that just takes the top off, the duff, it helps to regenerate and renew the growth underneath and can actually make the habitat better.

Mike Bolt and his uncle Steve enjoyed a good opener in 2023. While many birds were still kegged up in their winter flocks, covering a little ground put them on this duo. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

NWS The eastern subspecies, Russ, on the Westside? Holding their own, are they?

RM I talk to a lot of guys who get the Washington Slam, and while easterns are flourishing like the birds are in the northeast corner (of

the state), it’s a sustaining population. They’re there.

Author’s note: The Washington Slam, aka the Washington Mini-Slam, consists of a hunter harvesting all three subspecies of wild turkey found in the

TOP GOBBLER UNITS

Oregon: The Melrose Unit to the west of Roseburg served up the state’s largest spring turkey harvest in 2022, the most recent year stats were available for, with 465, though the knock is that 86 percent of those came off of private land. But for four of the other top six units – Rogue (370), Applegate (348), White River (361) and Evans Creek (304) – public land produced half the harvest, roughly speaking. Sled Springs and Mt. Emily had a good balance between public land harvest and birds per hunter too.

Washington: As Russ McDonald noted in the main story, it’s all about the units pinwheeling out from Spokane. Huckleberry, 49 Degrees North, Mount Spokane, Cheney and Roosevelt all yielded 300-plus birds apiece in 2022, again the most recent year for harvest figures; the largest concentrations of public land are in the first three units. The rest of the northeast corner, which has more state and federal ground, is not too shabby, nor is the western Blues, units throughout Klickitat County and the Teanaway.

Accessible farms, ranches, timberlands: For Oregon, check out the Access & Habitat Program (dfw.state.or.us/lands/AH) and for Washington, see the Private Lands Hunting Access program (privatelands.wdfw.wa.gov/private_lands). –NWS

state (eastern, Merriam’s, and Rio Grande), either in a single season or over the course of several seasons. The subspecies are defined by the county in which the bird is taken (see the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife turkey regulations pamphlet for specifics), and the hunter is awarded a pin in recognition of the achievement.

AS MCDONALD AND Cline will tell you, turkeys – and I damn near hate myself for saying this – are where you find them. Fortunately for Washington and Oregon gobbler fanatics, these incredible “big game birds” can be found almost statewide, and almost without exception, where there are healthy populations, they’re really really healthy. Just ask Farmer Brown, the guy who has 257 birds roosting in his hay barn every evening. Find him! He’ll likely be more than happy to let you chase ’em around. NS

Turkey Tutorial

NW PURSUITS

By Jason Brooks

With the skyline barely visible, I sat with my back against a tree and a long piece of burlap stretched out as a makeshift blind in front of me. We had made sure to get to our hiding spot well before the sun came up. Placing the decoys in the dark was easy to do, as our ambush point was along an abandoned logging road. Clover sprouted along the edges of the two-track, which ran right below a ridgeline where roost trees were full of sleeping turkeys.

As the sun began to light up the sky, the birds started chattering amongst themselves. At first it was a single gobble and then another. But within minutes, the quiet predawn morning turned into a chorus of turkeys. Hens yelped and toms added gobbles to the ruckus.

The moment turkeys start preparing to come off the roost will get any hunter excited. Yet turkey hunting seems to belong to a niche group, much like those who chase elk with bows and bugle tubes. If you’re looking to add another hunting season to your calendar, spring turkey offers excitement at a time of year when most opportunities are still months away.

IF YOU’VE NEVER hunted turkeys, it can be a bit frustrating, as there is a lot to learn. Before assuming turkeys are dumb, you need to distinguish “yard birds” from actual wild turkeys. The term yard bird refers to turkeys that are accustomed to people and hobby farms, often feeding in yards and roosting in hay barns. These birds are not what a turkey hunter is after and are

much like the “pet” deer that the neighbor leaves apples out for and lazily sleeps under the maple tree. No hunter would consider shooting one of those deer as actual hunting, and the same goes for the turkey hunter. Neither would a true turkey hunter shoot a bird out of the roost. The term turkey hunting means just that, to hunt the bird on their terms, and this is what makes pursuing them such a challenge.

There are three basic ways to hunt turkeys and all of them work; you can also mix and match the techniques while you hunt. The most common way is to find an area where turkeys feed and then set up decoys and call the birds to you. It is a thrilling way to hunt turkeys, as you get to sit back and take it all in while trying to fool an old tom to within shotgun range.

Another way to hunt turkeys is to ambush them, which is similar to placing decoys at a feeding area and calling birds to you, except that you find where they are roosting and feeding and try to set up between those two areas. This works well if you only have one decoy or even no decoys. It is also a great technique if birds are roosting on public land but feeding on private land that you cannot hunt, requiring you to intercept them before they cross the fence line.

The last and hardest way to hunt turkeys is to “run and gun,” which means sneaking through the forest and stalking turkeys. Often this is done at midday when the birds head for cover after filling their gullet and getting a crop full of gravel. The run and gun is often mixed with the ambush, where you find turkeys, close the distance and then quickly throw up a decoy set and call them in the rest of the way.

BEFORE YOU CAN hunt turkeys, you need

A turkey hunter sets up decoys well before first light. The faux fowl are used to draw gobblers to a good shooting lane and hold their attention for any last-minute adjustments on the part of the shooter. (JASON BROOKS)

to find them, and scouting can make a significant difference when it comes to success. Knowing the daily schedule and habits of turkeys will lead to more birds. The knowns are that turkeys roost at night, which means finding the roosting trees.

A few years ago while hunting in Idaho, we came upon a roosting tree that was used during the frosty winter months. It was a tall ponderosa with more than a foot of turkey poop all around the base of the tree. It was obvious turkeys used the pine nightly for months on end. Most roosting trees are on ridgelines and are tall enough that the strong branches can hold the heavy birds – sometimes, multiple turkeys roost on one branch – as well as keep them warm and safe.

Once the morning light starts to illuminate the skyline, turkeys will wake up and become very vocal. By finding a ridgeline with roosting trees, you can hike into the area in the dark and listen for birds.

Most turkeys prefer to leave the roost by flying towards the ground on the uphill side, as it is a shorter flight and is easier to land on than trying to land downhill.

Once they are out of the roost, turkeys will call to each other to flock up for the day. The first order of business after flocking up is to feed. Turkeys are fast on their feet and prefer to walk or run over flying, so once they come down from the trees, it is rare that they will fly unless it is to get away from danger. Look for small, open grassy areas near the roosting ridgeline, as this is where the birds will head. If your tactic is to ambush, then set up on a likely travel route, but if you plan to use decoys and call them to you, be sure to have the decoys out before the birds come off the roost.

CALLING TURKEYS TO

you is the ultimate spring hunt thrill. Like any other hunt where you “talk” to the animals you are pursuing, enticing a mature tom to you is why turkey

hunting is becoming so popular. Unlike calling in elk, where hunters bugle and challenge the bull, or rattling in a mature whitetail by sounding like two smaller bucks fighting over a receptive doe, turkey calling is all about the ladies and trying to entice the tom to come closer. This is the opposite of what really happens in the wild, where toms gobble at hens that reply and then go to the tom. Since we cannot close the distance to the tom without them taking notice and running off, we need to sound like a hen that can’t find him or has another male turkey with her but is interested in the more dominant tom. This is where using jake and receptive hen decoys can really bring in mature toms

Hens prefer to flock together, especially when feeding. Learn what yelp, cluck, purr, kee-kee, cackle, putt and cut calls are used for. When calling it is a good idea to start with a purr. This is because it allows the caller to start soft and then work in other calls. The

Birds can be ambushed between their roost tree and where they’re foraging. Scouting will suss out both locations. (JASON BROOKS)

To defeat the super-sharp eyesight of turkeys, you’ll want to wear camouflage that matches the surroundings and stay as still as possible. (JASON BROOKS)

around and letting them see you, it is the quickest way to scare off birds. When in doubt, mimic other hens that you can hear.

keeps their attention while you move into final position for the shot.

The kee-kee is used by young birds to help locate each other. The putt is the call that you must worry about because it sounds like a cluck and is easily made when you are excited. The problem is that the putt is the danger call and puts all the birds on high alert. Other than moving

Decoy placement is important and you must keep several things in mind, such as branches that might block your aim, which direction the turkeys will approach from, and not to scare away the turkeys you are trying to bring in. Some hunters like to use a real turkey fan and put it on a tom decoy, which is good if you want to bring in the most mature tom in the area. Using a jake next to a receptive hen – which looks like a hen sitting right on the ground – often brings toms running in to push the jake off purr signifies a turkey that’s content and relaxed and is often used in conjunction with a cluck, which means “I am right here, and all is good.” It’s often used by feeding hens, along with a cackle and even a yelp, though the yelp is more of a “Hey, where is everyone, I am right here” call.

DECOYS ARE BENEFICIAL when it comes to bringing a big tom to you, as they do several things. Of course, turkeys being a flocking bird, the use of decoys creates a flock for the tom to come to and join in. But unless you are using a lot of decoys – which is not necessary; this is not duck hunting – the use of decoys is often used to draw the tom to the shooting spot. That means the devices not only pull a bird into a shooting lane, but

before he can breed her and allow them to breed the receptive hen instead.

Last spring, we had set up on an abandoned logging road right below a ridge with roosting trees. The road through the clearcut allowed any turkey sitting in those trees to look down and see our decoys, which we’d placed well before first light. Two hen decoys were right in the middle of the road, which was overgrown with grass, and positioned to look like they were feeding. A third hen was placed looking to our left, which is where we had put the jake decoy. This made it look like the hen was looking at the jake as it approached the group of hens.

As soon as the toms came off the roost, we let out some purrs and a few clucks and three toms ran as fast as they could at us. We thought they would stop at the first two hens, but instead they ran right past the decoys and us and right up to the jake. All three toms began kicking at the jake decoy, which held their attention while we adjusted to make the shot. We held our fire so as not to shoot the decoy, but the two younger toms knew something was not right and started to walk off. Letting out a yelp from the box call was all it took for the biggest gobbler to turn towards the hens and strut, which allowed for a shot at 16 yards. Decoy placement is important when it comes to drawing the birds within range and concealing your movement while you aim.

TURKEYS HAVE INCREDIBLE eyesight and

it is the biggest obstacle to overcome when hunting them. Unlike other prey we pursue, these birds do not use their sense of smell to alert them to danger, so you don’t have to worry about a breeze ruining the hunt, but you must stay concealed. Good camouflage and minimizing movement are critical.

Some hunters use a blind when they can hunt a single productive location. For most hunters on public land, a full blind isn’t an option, but you can make an impromptu one by using a long piece of camo fabric or burlap. Another option is to sit with your back against a tree trunk and use overhanging branches to conceal yourself.

A turkey’s hearing is surprisingly good, but unlike predators or even bull elk, they often do not key in on the exact location of the sound once they see decoys.

Your standard shotgun will work just

Ground blinds are great, but in a pinch, backing up against the trunk of a tree with lots of low branches is a good way to conceal yourself. (JASON BROOKS)

Tens of thousands of hunters across the Northwest have experienced the excitement that is spring turkey season. And compared to deer and elk hunting, it offers a relatively high success rate and a long season. (JASON BROOKS)

fine for turkey hunting, as long as you make a few adjustments. The chokes used for turkeys are extra full, so if you are a waterfowl hunter, the tight choke you use for geese will work. But it is best to pick up a choke designed specifically for turkey hunting. These often extend out past the barrel and are ported like a muzzle break. This is needed because you should use turkey-specific loads. These loads are “hot,” meaning they are shooting at high velocity and use heavy shot such as tungsten super shot, or TSS, loads. Several companies such as Verdict Ammunition do extensive load and shot testing to produce the best shotshells, which is why TSS loads are expensive but well worth it.

ONCE YOU GIVE turkey hunting a try, spring will take on a whole new meaning. It takes a season or two to get it all figured out, but soon enough you will be practicing your calling, buying decoys and patterning turkey loads. Each predawn day will bring a loud ruckus of gobbles and yelps with the excitement of a turkey hunt. NS

Last-minute Tom Tips: Where To Go, Camo, Guns

ON TARGET

By Dave Workman

Spring turkey hunting across the Northwest opens – or should I say ignites? – April 15, and for the following six weeks or so, the traditional hot spots will be busy.

Washington’s season runs through May 31, and between now and then, any trek into the forests where longbeards lurk could have you suddenly stumbling upon one or more camo-clad folks toting shotguns and maybe even a bird or two. Do your scouting right now. Practice with your calls. Pattern your shotgun, even if you did it last year. Clean it and make sure the action is lubricated.

THE EVERGREEN STATE is home to three subspecies of wild turkeys – Merriam’s, Rio Grande and eastern – and by chance the spring bag limit is also three. However, as noted in the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife regulations pamphlet, “Only 2 turkeys may be killed in Eastern Washington, except 3 may be killed in Spokane County. Only 1 may be killed in Kittitas or Yakima counties. One turkey may be killed per year in Western Washington outside of Klickitat County. Two turkeys may be killed in Klickitat County.” Got all of that?

Want a translation? If you have the time and inclination, you can travel to some of the most beautiful country in the state and bring law and order to a big tom. Indeed, you can go to several places over the next

Better believe Logan Braaten is ready for spring turkey season! Here he is with one of his 2023 gobblers. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

several weeks. All it takes is time and fuel.

For Merriam’s, look hard in Spokane, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan, Chelan, Kittitas, Yakima, Klickitat and Skamania Counties. Anytime I travel to the northeast counties, I typically see birds in healthy numbers around Chewelah and all the way up into the Little Pend Oreille game range.

But over the years, I’ve known people who hunt faithfully in central Kittitas County east of Highway 97 around Liberty and up into the ridges north of there. Last fall, I drove past what seemed like herds of turkeys while heading up the Teanaway River drainage and my guess is they will not have strayed very far. Another spot I’ve consistently seen turkeys is along South Cle Elum Ridge.

Rio Grande turkeys have taken hold in Asotin, Garfield, Columbia, Walla Walla, Whitman and Lincoln Counties. There’s a lot of private land down in the Blue Mountains foothills, but public land is also available.

Check out the Hunting Access on Private

Land section on WDFW’s website. Also, visit the section on Private Land Hunting Access. There must be close to a hundred options for consideration all over the state, but in the southeast, pay attention to those spots specifically in those counties mentioned above.

Check out the back cover of the regulations pamphlet for more information.

Eastern turkeys are found in Western Washington, an ironic twist of geography and habitat preference that has made my head spin for years. You’ll find them in Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Pacific, Grays Harbor, Mason, Thurston and Lewis Counties. They’ve taken to the lowland evergreen forest areas like natives, but hunting them can be a challenge because of the heavier brushy spring conditions.

A guy named Dan Blatt, who was a game biologist for WDFW years ago, is largely responsible for all of this turkey opportunity. I was fortunate enough to have observed the launch of this turkey program back in the 1980s and can say

CUMBERLAND’S NORTHWEST TRAPPERS SUPPLY

Hide Tan Formula has been used successfully by thousands of hunters and trappers across the U.S. and Canada. No more waiting several months for tanning. Now, you can tan your own hides and furs at home in less than a week, at a fraction of the normal cost. Our Hide Formula tans deer hides either hair-on for a rug or mount, or hair-off for buckskin leather. Tans all fur skins – muskrat, mink, beaver, fox, coyote, raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, etc. It also applies to bear, elk, moose, cowhide, sheep and even snakeskin. Hide Tan Formula is premixed and ready to use and produces a soft, supple Indian-style tan in five to seven days.

One 8-ounce bottle will tan one deer hide in two medium-sized fur skins. Bear, elk, moose and caribou require three to six bottles. Complete instructions are included. You’ll be amazed how easy it is!

Tanned hides and furs are great to decorate your home or camp and also to sell for extra income. Tanned hides and furs are in demand by black powder enthusiasts, American Indian traders, fly tyers, country trading posts and many crafters. Our products are proudly produced and bottled in the U.S. for over 20 years.

Available at Cumberland’s Northwest Trappers Supply in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Call (507) 451-7607 or email trapper@nwtrappers.com. nwtrappers.com

without fear of contradiction that it has been a winner for hunters in need of some spring opportunity, and a stroke of genius.

WHAT ABOUT CAMO? Realtree, Mossy Oak or some other camo, especially if you mix them up for a broken pattern that might best create the impression of heavy brush, works pretty well. Over the years, I’ve seen people wear pants with one pattern, a shirt with another, a vest or jacket with a different pattern such as World War II camo, and a face mask and cap or hat in camo as well. Just avoid red or blue, including any kerchief.

Throw it in the washing machine and rinse twice. Get the “new” off and hang it outside so the wind might get at it. Wear it around the house a few days if it’s new, just to break it in. The more you can disappear into the background, the better your chances, though I have had turkeys walk right in front of me at times, as if they were oblivious to my proximity.

Now let’s talk shotguns and shells for

a minute. It’s legal to hunt with No. 4 shot or smaller (i.e. No. 5, 6 or even 7½), but I’d stick with No. 6, and it’s been my observation most guys hunt with 2¾- or 3-inch shells. I’m not sure you get much of an advantage with 3½-inch shells, other than a slightly larger payload and maybe a little more range. But on the other hand, you’ve got more recoil.

A payload of No. 6s will deliver the goods on anything I’ve ever used that shot size on, including big blue grouse, pheasants and chukars – even clay birds!

Chokes? Extra-full seems to dominate in the choke arena, and far be it from me to argue about this. I’ve got a Mossberg semiauto full-camo Model 935 that can handle 3½-inch shells, but I cannot remember having ever loaded it with the longer 12-gauge shells in the spring.

What about pump guns? Well, they’re the workhorse smoothbores in my humble opinion, and they are right at home on a spring turkey hunt. If I didn’t have the Model 935, I would throw a 20inch vent-rib barrel (I have one) on my Mossberg 500 pumpgun, which is a triedand-true bird killer. Since it has a black finish, I’d wrap it up in various swatches of different camouflage and load up with

3-inch Magnum 6s, find a comfortable tree to lean against and just wait.

I’ve never seen a pump-action shotgun let anybody down and there are both Remingtons and Mossbergs in my home, so there have been plenty of opportunities.

AND THIS BRINGS us around to a couple of new shotgun options from Winchester, both pump guns, which recently got my attention. If I were shopping for a new turkey gun, I’d have a hell of a time walking away from either.

Winchester’s SXP Universal Hunter is available in 12- or 20-gauge models, with 24-, 26- or 28-inch barrel choices (I’d go with either the 24- or 26-inch barrels). They are built for tough duty and feature a Mossy Oak DNA camo finish.

The SXP Hunter has an aluminum alloy receiver, comes with three Invector-Plus choke tubes, has a TruGlo fiber optic sight and in 12-gauge it’s offered with either the 3½- or 3-inch chamber, while the 20-gauge version is offered with the 3-inch chamber, which is hard chrome-plated in every model. They feature a reversible cross-bolt safety, back-bored technology and they come with an Inflex Technology recoil pad.

Then there is the SXP NWTF Turkey

Hunter, available in 12-gauge 3½-inch or 20-gauge 3-inch models, both with 24inch barrels. This gun has a synthetic stock with a textured grip, it is back-bored and chambers and bores are all hard chromeplated. They’re supplied with Invectorplus extra-full turkey choke tubes for the tightest pattern.

The barrel is topped with a fiber optic sight. This model also features a crossbolt safety, and the action is built around a rotary bolt with four lugs for a solid lockup.

THERE’S ALSO A new entry from Stoeger for 2024, and it’s a beaut. Stoeger has built a new turkey gun around the proven M3500 semiauto platform and calls it the M3500 Predator/Turkey model. Chambered for the 3½-inch 12-gauge round, it features an Inertia Driven system, capable of cycling the heaviest magnum turkey loads, and it also handles buckshot for coyotes and other vermin. The gun is finished with Mossy Oak Overwatch camo and has a SteadyGrip stock.

The M3500 Turkey comes with two Mojo specialty chokes (one for predators and one for turkey hunting), a paracord sling, and it wears a 24-inch barrel topped by a Red Bar front sight. NS

Stoeger’s crossover M3500 Predator/Turkey

12-gauge semiauto is chambered for 3½-inch shotshells. (STOEGER)

BRB, I’m Off To The WMA

CHEF IN THE WILD

By Randy King

In the distance, we heard a gobble, then another. Then another. It was go time!

I ran and placed the decoys in a shooting lane, setting them up to provide a provocative scene. The young jake was strutting, the hen was “assuming the position” and another hen was looking off into the distance. Was she maybe even blushing a little? In all, this felt wrong (but somehow right?) the more I thought about it. I tried not to think about it.

I explained to the youngest of my boys, Jordan, that I was going to call the tom turkey in with the sound of a female turkey that wanted to make babies. Then, when the tom saw the skinny little jake decoy by

the hen, he was gonna get mad and kick the jake’s butt. At that point, we would shoot him in the face and eat tom.

Jordan, never one to hide his opinion, surmised, “We are picking a fight about a girl, then murdering the bird that shows up?”

Yes, all while said tom is thinking he is going to get lucky with said hen. Objectively, this is a little messed up.

WE HEARD ANOTHER gobble, so I called ever so lightly so as to keep the tom’s attention. He was getting closer.

Then the strangest thing happened. A young man and his – I would assume – wife rode past my decoys on their mountain bikes, those nice electric-pedal combos that are all the rage now. They even stopped for just a second to admire my decoy scene. Then they looked around

frantically as I waved to them about 25 yards away. Apparently, our camouflage was working pretty well.

I heard the gobbler putt-putt-putting off into the distance. Hunt over, spoiled by fellow users of a multiuse area …

WMAs have never really been a place I frequent as a sportsman. I know that they are supposed to stand for wildlife management area, but all too often I find them to be wildlife mitigated areas. Almost any time I hunt or fish in one, I have a poor success rate. The turkeys are too smart for me. The deer are too nocturnal. The ducks spook too easy. The fish steal my bait. Basically, I am bad at hunting and fishing, and WMAs reinforce this mindset.

True, I usually manage to have an encounter with the game I propose to

State wildlife management areas offer a convenient, close-to-home place to hunt turkeys for author Randy King, although can be challenging, given the multiple recreational uses they host. (RANDY KING)

Wild turkey carnitas with homemade Japanese-style barbecue sauce, green onion, orange peel slivers and dabs of Sriracha. (RANDY KING)

FAR EAST MEETS SOUTH OF THE BORDER IN TURKEY CARNITAS

Japanese barbecue was all the rage a few years back. And for good reason: It is tasty with that umami savory note (more on umami in a second).

Fast forward to 2024 and you can buy Bachan’s and other brands of Japanese barbecue sauce at Kroger, so it’s not exactly a secret. But damn, does it taste good. This issue’s recipe uses a homemade version of the Bachan’s sauce, which I modified from the ingredient statement on the back of the empty sauce bottle I found in my refrigerator – kids! It is super easy to make and will last about a month without any worry.

I used turkey breast meat for this recipe, as well as my Instant Pot, but a Crock-Pot would work just as good.

ROUGHLY SPEAKING, UMAMI means “delicious savory taste” or “essence of deliciousness” in Japanese, and its taste is often described as “the meaty, savory

deliciousness that deepens flavor.” The first distillation of the flavor came from Dr. Kikunae Ikeda in Japan. Unfortunately, it took nearly a century to figure out we had receptors in our mouths for the flavor! Before 2002, most folks thought that we only had four basic taste buds: sweet, bitter, sour, salty.

Just because we didn’t have a name for the taste receptor does not mean that every culture around the world did not already use the flavor. Soy sauce, Parmesan cheese, cured meats, mushrooms, ripe tomatoes, fermented vegetables and aged meat all have umami. And understanding that we all have receptors for the flavor means we can now concentrate efforts to enhance the umami in foods. According to ajinomoto.com, technically “umami is the taste of glutamate, an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of protein.” Basically, we are hardwired to like the flavor of the building blocks of protein.

The Japanese barbecue sauce recipe below is a great umami “bomb,” as a friend of mine used to say. He would spike traditionally umami-free things – think classic French bistro items – with soy sauce just to see what would happen. Usually, it was delicious.

JAPANESE BARBECUE SAUCE

11/2 cups soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

¼ cup mirin (rice wine)

¼ cup tomato paste

1 tablespoon grated ginger

2 green onions (roots removed, sliced)

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Place everything in a blender. Combine for about a minute. It will seem like forever, but what you are doing is turning the little chunks of ginger, garlic and green onion

COLUMN

into little specks. This makes the whole sauce a lot smoother.

This sauce can be stored for a month in the fridge. I use it on grilled meats –pork chops, chicken, salmon, etc. It is just dang tasty.

SHREDDED TURKEY MEAT

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 lobe of turkey (one breast), cut into 2-inch-thick strips

1 cup Japanese barbecue sauce (see above)

1 large orange, cut into quarters

Heat a large cast iron or heavy-bottomed pan on medium for three minutes. Add the sesame oil and then brown the turkey meat (do so in batches, if need be, to avoid crowding). When all the meat is brown, add the sauce to the pan and bring to a simmer.

Next, add all the ingredients to either an Instant Pot or Crock-Pot. Cook in the Instant Pot for 20 minutes, until the

meat is able to be shredded. Cook in the Crock-Pot about three or four hours, or until the meat can be shredded. The orange will give the whole thing a citrus twang that is awesome.

Shred the meat with a fork, keeping it in the sauce until ready to serve.

TURKEY TACOS

Flour or corn tortillas (heated)

Shredded turkey meat (see above)

Sliced green onion

Diced jalapeños

Chopped cilantro

Sriracha sauce, to taste (optional)

Orange zest

For the orange zest, either use a zester or for strips as pictured on the previous page, use a potato peeler. Then slice the “peel” into thin ribbons. Either way works great.

Add about 3 ounces of meat to each tortilla and garnish as you see fit. Then enjoy! -RK

bring home, but almost never do I achieve the “bring home” part at WMAs.

THIS PAST YEAR’S youth season for turkeys with Jordan was a case in point. But all things considered, I think WMAs are important for all hunters, especially youth hunters. WMA hunts teach valuable skills, like “getting away from people is good for hunting.” There’s also “hike farther, hunt better” and “how to be as frustrated with turkey hunting like most adults.”

But mostly, WMAs provide access; access a youth might not otherwise have. Access that is critical in creating a young sportsman. With all the soccer practices and piano recitals happening, sometimes the weekend is booked up with events. A WMA might be the only place a young hunter can get to and back from in an afternoon or morning. I might poohpooh them as an adult, but with the busy life my kids live, I use WMAs all the time.

Sometimes, just to get out of the house and take the gun for a walk. NS

The Perfect Solution For Wiping And Packing Out When Enjoying Nature.

Say goodbye to awkward squatting and fumbling with TP and hello to a hassle-free bathroom break in the great outdoors. These nitrile gloves come with an attached cotton pad, providing a convenient and hygienic way to wipe. Potty Gloves ensure a clean and comfortable experience.

Tools Of The Trade

By Scott Haugen

Last season, the handheld remote control for my electronic dog collars died. I’d had it for nine years. It was right at the start of a day of duck hunting too. The weather was bad – bad for communicating with my dogs, but great for duck hunting. It was raining hard, blowing 20 mph, with gusts up to 35.

Since I couldn’t communicate with Echo or Kona via the beeping of their

e-collars like we usually did, I had to rely on whistles and hand signals. The wind was too strong for the dogs to hear my whistles most of the time, and hollering at them was out of the question – something I despise doing anyway. Blowing brush, tall grass and big waves on the water made guiding them to blind retrieves with hand signals even more difficult.

We shot three limits of ducks that day but it was the most frustrating day of hunting I’d ever had with my dogs. It made me realize how valuable our line of communication is with an e-collar, and

how much my dogs rely on me to convey information to them. It was frustrating for them too.

Rarely do I have to shock my dogs. But I beep them many times a day when hunting. When on a blind retrieve, one beep stops my dogs and gets them looking at me for direction. Two beeps pulls them off their current path and refocuses their attention on me so I can redirect them. And a continuous beeping signals them to immediately return to me – this is in case of potential encounters with a porcupine, crossing a road or any other possible life-

Spending a little more money on key pieces of gear can make hunting with gun dogs more efficient, avoid spendy vet bills and in some cases, potentially save their lives. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

GUN DOGGIN’ 101

threatening dangers they may encounter.

Fortunately, I had an extra remote control for my collars at home, so we were back to hunting as normal the following day. But had I been forced to order a new remote and wait a week, I doubt I’d have even gone hunting; that’s how frustrating it was not being able to communicate with my dogs. For this reason, having an extra remote control, along with parts for my e-collars, is a must in the gear department.

CABLE CUTTERS ARE

another tool I carry. Predator trappers often set wire snares in upland bird and waterfowl habitats. Sometimes the snares are pulled during hunting season, sometimes they’re not, and

sometimes they’re accidentally overlooked and left out. They’re deadly to dogs.

Last season, a buddy who was chukar hunting came upon two snares set for coyotes. His stomach turned knowing how close his dogs had come to them. He was lucky. Another guy I met last year wasn’t so lucky. Both of his dogs were killed within minutes of one another when they got entangled in snares. He didn’t have cable cutters. He could have saved one dog if he had been prepared for such a disaster.

Wire cutters won’t do it. Invest in cable cutters and take them with you on hunts, training sessions and walks. Snares, electrical fencing wire, even tangled barbed and smooth wire can cause injury

or death to a dog, and cable cutters can be a lifesaver.

A multitool is another piece of gear to keep on you at all times. Some hunters carry forceps or small needle-nose pliers for removing thorns, cacti and other impediments. I like something stronger that I can perform other tasks with, and a multitool will do it.

FOR LONG-HAIRED DOGS,

a fine-toothed brush is a good tool to have. With our climate shift has come a dramatic increase in weed and grass seeds, and some can be deadly to a dog. Last summer, both of my dogs got foxtail seeds lodged in their feet. It was ugly, required surgery, and cost them training and hunting time. I now carry a brush and remove seeds from my dogs multiple times a day when training and hunting. When I notice seeds, I stop and brush them on the spot.

There’s always the need for a knife. I used to skimp on small gas station specials, but I got tired of them opening in my pockets and on my duck call and training lanyards when bending over or digging them out of a pack. They’d also rust and turn dull fast. I kept upgrading and finally found the one I’m sticking with. It’s not cheap, but Benchmade’s OM is tops. Closed, the tiny knife is less than 3.5 inches long and weighs only 1.5 ounces. The mechanism on this double-action, out-the-front, or OTF, knife is fairly tight to open and has a safety feature so the blade will pop off the tracks if deployed into an object, and it’s easy to reset by retracting the blade. With the OM, you get the benefit of quick, one-handed access when your dog needs immediate attention. It’s sharp, fast to operate, convenient and incredibly durable.

WE ALL KNOW the power of money, and so will your dog, indirectly speaking, when they receive medical aid. Having an emergency fund set aside for your dog is smart and is less painful on the budget when the time comes to pay a lofty vet bill.

Start by asking yourself, “What’s my dog worth and how much am I willing to spend to save it?” When Kona was 3 years old, he got stomach twist. My wife Tiffany rushed him to the vet hospital, where they said we had less than five minutes to

Predator snares are often made of strong cable or strands of braided wire. They’re deadly on dogs and having cable cutters is the best remedy. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

Cacti can be a big problem on many hunts throughout the West, and being able to efficiently remove spines is a must in order to keep the hunt going and your dog safe. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

decide to save him or put him under. He was on the operating table in minutes. The bill came to $5,000, a no-brainer for us.

At about the same time, a buddy in California put his 11-year-old dog under due to stomach twist when the vet quoted him a starting price of $10,000 for the surgery.

Last hunting season I spent over $1,500 on emergency vet bills and medications for my dogs. That’s just part of being a dog owner, but if you’re not prepared, it can rock your world, and there’s never a convenient time to deal with such misfortunes.

GETTING CARRIED AWAY with all the dog gear and tools available is easy. But the tools I’ve touched on are must-have items that will not only make a difference in a hunt or training session, but can save your dog’s life. NS

Editor’s note: Scott Haugen is a full-time writer. See his puppy training videos and learn more about his many books at scotthaugen.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

Play The Game To Win The Tag(s)

BECOMING A HUNTER

By Dave Anderson

Depending on what state you are planning to hunt in this fall, the time to apply for certain hunts may have come and gone. However, for most of us in the Pacific Northwest, the application deadline will be here before you know it. In Washington, the great news is that as long as you want to throw money at it, you can apply for multiple different species, including deer, elk,

bighorn sheep and moose. There are also several different buck, bull and antlerless quality tags/hunts that you can apply for and potentially draw.

Before I moved back to Idaho, I applied for everything I could. For the most part, I was dang lucky and would draw one or two special tags a year. But for a lot of folks, the process can be extremely frustrating. Why should you keep throwing money into something and applying year in and year out when you never get drawn?

SOME THINGS TO pay attention to are the draw odds and how many people applied for a particular hunt. There are a lot of resources and websites that show you both. GoHunt, Huntin’ Fool and Eastman’s Tag Hub are a few of the popular websites that not only give you the odds, but also how many points you may need to increase your chances or have the best odds when it comes to certain hunts.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people complain about never drawing, claiming they have no luck or that applying

Just as with the lottery, you’re not going to draw a special permit/ controlled tag every time you put in, but then again, you’ll never win one if you don’t play the game. Julio Cabrera did in 2021 and bagged this nice five-by-six bull in Northeast Oregon. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)

Cross-referencing the available limited-entry hunts with online tools and mapping will help you make better choices about what to put in for. Author Dave Anderson admits he’s screwed up in the past and put in for a hunt dominated by private land, but with extra legwork, he and his wife ultimately got it to work out. (WDFW)

for these hunts is a waste of money. Often, these are also the same people who complain about how many people are out in the field on all the general season opportunities. My response to that: Just like with any lottery, Powerball or Mega Millions, it is a proven fact that you will not win if you don’t buy a ticket!

There are some things to consider when it comes to these special draw hunts that you should keep in mind. Sometimes, you can find some excellent opportunities in areas that may not be your No. 1 choice. The first year I applied for a Washington quality elk tag, I ended up being selected, but it wasn’t my first choice. After I’d drawn it, I ended up calling the buddy who’d recommended I apply for the tag. We developed a game plan and did a lot of preseason prep work, including setting out trail cameras and scouting different areas. We immediately had bulls on our cameras. All in all, we came up with 27 different branch-antlered bulls on five cameras. These areas that we hunted were overlooked by others and we didn’t see a single other elk hunter leading up to the hunt or during the season. Although my hunt was very short-lived – I shot an

awesome six-by-seven on my opening morning – I would not say that this was the greatest unit with the biggest trophy quality, but we did see a lot of great bulls between 300 and 340 inches.

IDAHO, ON THE other hand, is far different from Washington. They are a true lottery. Idaho’s system for controlled hunts allows you to apply for elk, deer and pronghorn (you can apply for all three), but if you choose to apply for moose, sheep or goat, you can only pick one and cannot apply for elk, deer or pronghorn. (FYI, if you are looking to hunt the general season as a nonresident, your ship has sailed, unless you are lucky enough to pick up a leftover tag; those are typically available on a first-come, first-served basis in late August.)

One of the things I love most about Idaho is the fact that there are no points, and your chance of drawing is just as good as the next person. They also have a second drawing after everyone has hit the deadline to purchase their tags. This is another game that we love to play, and we have hit pay dirt on applying during the second drawing. Odds are slim to none, but again, if you don’t play, you won’t win.

I ALWAYS URGE folks to step out of their comfort zone and check out new areas. If you are overrun with people in the areas you hunt, get out and find somewhere without as many other hunters. I also encourage people to branch out and check out other states. It does take time to get to know new areas, but I have been extremely lucky stepping foot in new areas and notching a tag in the first day or two.

There are some folks willing to help others out in new areas through social media, connections or other friends.

However, for the most part, most people are very secretive and unwilling to help others. I totally understand and have some areas I keep very private and would not tell many people about. Getting involved in outdoor events and joining groups within organizations like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Mule Deer Foundation and The Foundation for Wildlife Management are ways to meet other like-minded individuals who may help out.

MY NO. 1 recommendation when looking at applying for different hunts is to make sure to do ample research before applying. Some hunts warn you if an area has a lot of private land and very little public ground, so unless you know someone or have a family member in the unit, or you have knocked on some doors, I recommend staying away from those tags/hunts.

I accidentally applied for one of these tags several years ago and found out it was a private-land-only tag and more of a depredation-type hunt. I didn’t realize that until a week before the season, so I jumped on my onX app, found some land and started calling local ranchers who had hay operations in the area. After giving one of the ranchers a rundown on my situation, he agreed to give my wife and I access to his land. We drove over after work one night – about a five-hour drive from where we lived – got in a short nap and met the landowner the next morning. We also hooked him up with some salmon and

CUMBERLAND’S NORTHWEST TRAPPERS SUPPLY

Hide Tan Formula has been used successfully by thousands of hunters and trappers across the U.S. and Canada. No more waiting several months for tanning. Now, you can tan your own hides and furs at home in less than a week, at a fraction of the normal cost. Our Hide Formula tans deer hides either hair-on for a rug or mount, or hair-off for buckskin leather. Tans all fur skins – muskrat, mink, beaver, fox, coyote, raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, etc. It also applies to bear, elk, moose, cowhide, sheep and even snakeskin. Hide Tan Formula is premixed and ready to use and produces a soft, supple Indian-style tan in five to seven days.

One 8-ounce bottle will tan one deer hide in two medium-sized fur skins. Bear, elk, moose and caribou require three to six bottles. Complete instructions are included. You’ll be amazed how easy it is!

Tanned hides and furs are great to decorate your home or camp and also to sell for extra income. Tanned hides and furs are in demand by black powder enthusiasts, American Indian traders, fly tyers, country trading posts and many crafters. Our products are proudly produced and bottled in the U.S. for over 20 years.

Available at Cumberland’s Northwest Trappers Supply in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Call (507) 451-7607 or email trapper@nwtrappers.com. nwtrappers.com

Cumberland’s

If you’re looking to boost the odds of filling your freezer, maybe luck into a trophy, hunt prime times with far less competition, help out state wildlife managers with overpopulated herds, or just be more supportive of wildlife conservation, putting in for the draw is the way to go. (ODFW)

halibut for allowing us to hunt his land. Even though he thought we were going to have a tough go notching our tags, we were able to successfully fill them both by midmorning. This happened to be a second deer permit that we’d drawn and even though we made the mistake of not reading all the details before applying, it still worked out for us in the end. That is not always the case, and that’s why I definitely recommend doing your research and reading all the details regarding the different hunts you can apply for.

AT THE TIME of this writing, Oregon controlled hunts are open for application. Washington’s special permits and Idaho’s controlled hunts have yet to be published, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start doing some brainstorming. Start exploring different areas and opportunities through GoHunt and get an idea of hunts and odds from years past. Just remember: You must play the game to win. If you don’t pay and apply, you will not have a chance at any of these special hunts! NS

Connor’s and O’Brien Marina Pawcatuck, CT connorsandobrien.com

Defender Industries Inc. Waterford, CT defender.com O’Hara’s Landing Salisbury, CT oharaslanding.com

MASSACHUSETTS

Action Marine & Watersports Inc. Holyoke, MA actionmarineholyoke.com

Bill’s Outboard Motor Service Hingham, MA billsoutboard.com

Captain Bub’s Marine Inc. Lakeville, MA captainbubsmarine.com

Doug Russell Marine Worcester, MA WorcesterBoating.com

Essex Marina LLC. Essex, MA essexmarinallc.com

McLellan Brothers Inc. Everett, MA mclellanbrosinc.com

Merrimac Marine Supply Methuen, MA merrimacmarine.com

Nauset Marine-Orleans Orleans, MA nausetmarine.com

Obsession Boats East Falmouth, MA capecodboatcenter.com

Portside Marine Danvers, MA portsidemarine.us

Riverfront Marine Sports Inc. Salisbury, MA riverfrontmarine.com

South Attleboro Marine North Attleboro, MA www.sammarine.com

Wareham Boat Yard W. Wareham, MA wareham-boatyard-marina.com

Dover Marine Dover, NH dovermarine.com

Winnisquam Marine Belmont, NH winnisquammarine.com

RHODE ISLAND

Billington Cove Marina Inc. Wakefield, RI bcoveyc.com

Jamestown Distributors Bristol, RI jamestowndistributors.com