Northwest Sportsman Mag - May 2023

Inside: Special Advertising Sections

Inside: Special Advertising Sections

DESTINATION CANADA + DESTINATION GRAYS HARBOR

DESTINATION CANADA + DESTINATION GRAYS HARBOR

Volume 15 • Issue 8

PUBLISHER

James R. Baker

EDITOR

Andy “Had to read that headline like 5 times and then read the article to then understand the headline... so, mission accomplished I guess? xD” Walgamott

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Jason Brooks, Anthony Clements, Scott Haugen, Jeff Holmes, MD Johnson, Randy King, Sara Potter, Buzz Ramsey, Tom Schnell, Dave Workman, Mark Yuasa

EDITORIAL FIELD SUPPORT

Jason Brooks

GENERAL MANAGER

John Rusnak

SALES MANAGER

Paul Yarnold

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Mike Smith, Zachary Wheeler

DESIGNER

Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Kelly 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

Nate Ichtertz holds a nice redtail surfperch he caught while fishing on Oregon’s Winchester Bay with his mom, Sara Potter, and local guides Tim and Cole Abraham. (SARA POTTER)

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and get daily updates at nwsportsmanmag.com.

CONTENTS

ALSO INSIDE

44 2023-24 WASHINGTON

SALMON PLANNER

Now that Washington’s salmon fisheries have been set, the planning begins on where to drop in when. Mark Yuasa offers up the best May through August Chinook, pink and coho bets in the first half of his two-part series.

84 SHORTEN YOUR SEARCH FOR SURFPERCH

Redtail and striped surfperch, those little darlings of the waves and jetties, are an increasingly popular Northwest Coast fishery, but sometimes they can be maddeningly hard to find. MD Johnson, our man on the sands, has some advice.

106 DOWN THE DESCHUTES

May is a great month to fish Northcentral Oregon’s famed Deschutes River for its native redband rainbows, which will be feeding on just about the biggest bugs the Northwest has to offer – salmonflies. Jump aboard with Anthony Clements for an iconic excursion.

123 3 EXPERTS ON KOKANEE DODGERS

MAY-GNUM OPPORTUNITY

From monster smallies and upriver springers, to mountain morels and a coastal trifecta, May and late spring absolutely explode with things to do for Jeff Holmes. He mixes expert advice from a Dworshak Reservoir bass and Clearwater River king guide with hard-earned knowledge he’s picked up in the Blues and Long Beach during myriad mushroom as well as clam, surfperch and bottomfish adventures! (REELTIMEFISHING.COM)

Action trumps all – that much our three kokanee dodger experts can agree on – but there are other important facets too. Tom Schnell picked the brains of Tom Hester, Scott Kaul and Gary Miralles about all things attractor.

VISIT MOSES LAKE

Your Home Base For Adventure

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

© Breanna Singleton

BUZZ RAMSEY Time For

You know Buzz as mainly an angler of salmon fresh from the ocean, but he’s found also success pursuing the landlocked variety in Washington and Idaho. He shares what he’s learned fishing for kokanee with guide Cameron Black on Lake Merwin as well as friends on Gem State reservoirs.

55 NORTHWEST PURSUITS Follow Willamette Springers Upriver

Lower Columbia spring Chinook closures don’t affect the Willamette and its Multnomah Channel, where 71,000 early-season salmon are expected back. Jason details the ins and outs of this months-long fishery featuring lots of water to work.

95 FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG Surfperch Sans The Surf And Sand

Most surfperch fishing is done on ocean beaches, but did you know that coastal bays are another option? Sara and son Nate do! She shares what they learned during a guided trip on Winchester Bay and how she passed that newfound knowledge along to her hubby and his daughter.

101 CHEF IN THE WILD Low-tide Delights

As Northwest natives say, when the tide goes out, the table is set. And so it was when Chef Randy and crew made a stop along a rocky stretch of Oregon’s Central Coast and discovered the motherlode of mussels – fixin’s for his delicious Thai curry recipe!

143 ON TARGET Apply Yourself In May – To Tags And Tinkering

Fall’s big game hunts are months off, but now’s the time to lay the groundwork for success. Dave shares thoughts on applying for special/controlled permits and tinkering with rifle scopes, rings and mounts.

153 GUN DOG Tips For Shed Hunting With Dogs

No doubt about it, Scott’s gun dogs are versatile, and this time of year he likes to use their antler-seeking skills to find headgear Northwest deer and elk have doffed. He shares how to turn your pup into a shed hunter.

(BUZZ RAMSEY)

American shad are making themselves at home in the big metro lake, complicating efforts to boost its salmon runs.

THE EDITOR’S NOTE

There really is good news in Washington’s 2023-24 salmon fisheries, but there’s also really bad. Mark Yuasa covers the positive side starting on page 44 this issue, so it falls to me to make some sense of the negative.

You can’t really call what’s coming up for Skykomish and Snohomish salmon and steelhead anglers a “season,” but here we are. In case you missed my blog ragings, Sky anglers will only be able to count on three days, May 27-29, to catch hatchery summer Chinook and steelhead below the Wallace. Any fishing after that depends on an “evaluation of angler catch and wild Chinook encounters during the first opener,” per a response and explanation from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

It’s staggering news for what is essentially Puget Sound’s version of the Cowlitz – a dual fishery close to the masses, one that’s powered by snappy and usually plentiful hatchery fish and was the focus of a big effort to kickstart a new broodstock steelhead program.

“We’ve taken a lot of hits, but we’ve never taken one like this,” Mark Spada, a longtime local angler and member of the venerable Snohomish Sportsmen’s Club, told me in mid-April.

Spada said the king fishery is extremely popular, with guides often booked every day, and that the fish will bite side-drifted offerings, a tactic usually reserved for steelhead. The heart of the season occurs as snowpack runoff keeps the river relatively cool. Some Chinook are caught in May, but mostly they’re landed in June and to a degree July.

Outside of those three May days, steelheading will be limited to the Sky’s Reiter Ponds stretch – High Bridge to the forks – this season.

WHAT

THE HELL'S

the

deal?

This year’s preseason forecast for the Snohomish River, which the Skykomish feeds into, calls for roughly 7,500 hatchery and 3,400 wild Chinook, with some of latter returning to the Sky’s neighbor, the Snoqualmie. That’s the most of both stocks since 2019, which saw a record-low return of wild kings; this season’s fish are their progeny. In response, WDFW and the Tulalip Tribes agreed to hold “very limited river fisheries” on the ESA-listed fish. Throw in higher expected Canadian and commercial ocean harvests, the state and tribes’ new 10-year Puget Sound Chinook management plan and its 8.3 percent low abundance threshold exploitation rate for the stock, yada, yada, yada, and there are just 133 angler encounters available in what are called “Southern U.S.,” or SUS fisheries – the coast, Puget Sound and Snohomish system – constraining all of them.

How constrained? It amounted to a few hundred more kings chopped off several North Sound marine area quotas, but on the Sky, along with the highly restricted hatchery Chinook and steelhead fishery, there won’t even be a pink salmon season – a stunner for a popular opportunity that brings out the masses in late summer and early fall. Fishing for those snaggle-toothed hunchbacks off of what was known as Humpy Rock along Ben Howard Road back in the day (later on, Toilet Bowl, for its swirl) was my entry into salmon angling back in high school, the Tualco access site below Monroe for my sons.

“I never thought that we’d get to the point where we wouldn’t have a pink salmon season,” said Spada.

You could understand that if there was a conservation concern

Kristin Bishop shows off a nice Skykomish River hatchery summer king caught in 2017. (THEFISHERE.COM)

MORE TO SEE ONLINE

around pinks, but the forecast calls for 642,000 back to the Snohomish system. Speaking of the Snohomish, humpy season there will be delayed a month and a half till September 16, when most will likely have begun to color up and move into the upper mainstem. Spada termed the every-oddyear salmon fishery “really, really important” to local tackle shacks. “They were all gearing up for the pink seasons,” he said.

That was based on initial indications from WDFW, said Spada, who also described a series of shifting state positions on the fisheries during North of Falcon salmon negotiations before the ax – Chinook quota cuts – fell and WDFW laid out its cards. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

And while the coho forecast is good, there won’t be a season on the Sky either and just a monthlong one on the Snohomish, though the latter could be extended by inseason update, depending on king impacts.

Tom Nelson, host of The Outdoor Line on Seattle’s 710 ESPN and a WDFW sportfishing advisor, was warning listeners about the shaky nature of the Sky’s summer Chinook and steelhead seasons before they were set in stone, and afterwards he summarized the situation to me thusly: “Our opportunity is completely untethered from abundance.”

THERE WERE HARBINGERS about all of this and, mea culpa, I should have been much more dialed into the nuances of the 10-year management plan and this year’s North of Falcon. But I guess some things you can’t see or make sense of until they come home to roost on something you can really relate to.

Last September, WDFW worries about Chinook lingering in the low flows of the Skagit and Cascade Rivers led to coho gear tweaks and opener delays. A bait ban wasn’t lifted on either until mid-November because of the possibility that late-spawning kings would bite eggs, etc., meant for coho. An agency spokesman told me it was a tough call and acknowledged impacts to anglers and guides, but also said that without taking action to protect Chinook, it risked the “entire” coho season, long since the most important salmonid fishery on the Skagit system by leaps and bounds.

And what a season 2022 was. Well, at the hatchery on the Cascade. Some 19,792 coho returned, of which 17,614 were surplussed; 16,792 arrived before the bait ban ended.

To the south on the Stillaguamish, coho season was abruptly shut down in early fall due to all two – 2 – of the available Chinook encounters having been met. And the river was kept closed until late November, a week longer than anglers were told it would be, because of the possibility of hooking surprisingly bitey postspawn zombie kings

– which still count as an impact.

Postspawn. That’s just untethered from reality. But when the Stilly did reopen, most coho were either zombies themselves or up in the forks, well above the fishery boundary.

Compounding things is the Stillaguamish “conservation payback” provision in the 10-year plan. Chinook impacts carry over from year to year, so going over one season means having to reduce them in salt- and freshwater fisheries the next, effectively straightjacketing WDFW into extremely conservative management on this highly constraining stock that is also the subject of state and tribal restoration and habitat work. (Leaving impacts on the table in any given season earns a gold star and that’s it.)

There’s no payback principle on the Snohomish system, but it’s easy to see how this year’s restrictions on Skykomish summer Chinook fishing could result in a large surplus at the hatchery in Gold Bar, bringing into question the point of the production program. Sure, it helps southern resident killer whale forage efforts, and trust me, I hate to ask this, but why put out fish if they can’t be harvested in the river of origin?

ESPECIALLY GALLING TO me is what this all means to the Sky’s new integrated summer steelhead broodstock program. I don’t know how many stories I did about WDFW having to shift away from releasing out-of-basin Skamania fish at the behest of federal overseers and forced by a Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit, writing a new hatchery genetic management plan with the tribes, collecting chromers at Sunset Falls and getting sued again by WFC before finally receiving the fed’s approval to release an initial 51,000-plus smolts in May 2021. Those fish will begin returning this season and are a key part of WDFW’s broadly supported Quicksilver Portfolio. I’ve done stories about that one too; the program aims to provide a diversity of steelhead angling options across Pugetropolis and has been funded by the state legislature.

I’m probably dating myself here, but back in my day, kids, the Skykomish was just a summer steelhead fishery, no king retention allowed. So it’s hard to see all the time and energy invested in rebooting the steelhead program get sideswiped by the Chinook management plan and, of course, the low wild forecast. I get that part, I really do, but it’s also so frustrating, given all that’s been lost in recent years, and all that will continue to be lost. Wild Chinook declines are the yin to the yang of surging Lake Washington shad numbers – see The Big Pic – but here’s hope for better future returns and real seasons to get after steelies, kings, pinks and coho on the system I cut my teeth on. –Andy

Walgamott

Here’s Lake Washington’s Next Damn Headache

By Andy Walgamott

Concerns and questions should be growing over the burgeoning American shad population in Lake Washington, where as of mid-April crews had netted a minimum of at least six times as many of the fish as last year.

What’s more, some genetic evidence suggests that unlike the shad that run up the Columbia, Willamette and Umpqua Rivers each spring, the Seattle strain may mostly never leave the lake, spawning and rearing in the system instead, a very rare behavior for the East Coast fish brought to the West Coast in the late 1800s and one that theoretically multiplies their impact and makes control more difficult on the 34-square-mile body of water.

It’s worrisome because while shad don’t prey on salmon smolts, it’s believed they can compete for forage with young Chinook, coho and sockeye, further complicating efforts to boost returns of these far more coveted native Northwest fish.

Ironically, the growth of the lake’s shad population was essentially only discovered because of ongoing tribal and state research around how to reduce smolt predation by nonnative perch and bass, as well as native trout and northern pikeminnows. The loudest alarms in

recent years have blared over illegally introduced walleye and northern pike – guilty as charged – which, to be sure, are problematic if their numbers grow. But catches of those fish have also been low compared to the sudden spike in shad – all of 28 fish in 2015, 2017 and 2018 combined, then 108 in 2021, 215 in 2022 and, so far at least this year, 1,200 by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife alone.

The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and fisheries biologist Eric Warner are heading up the effort to track shad abundance and are actively netting too.

YOU COULD PERHAPS shrug off last decade’s 28 shad as strays from the Columbia or elsewhere that have also turned up in Puget Sound midwater trawls in the past. But now it’s becoming clearer that somehow a stay-at-home shad population has established itself in Lake Washington, and it appears to be widespread in the 22-mile-long, mile-and-a-half-wide water.

“This winter (February-March) we have encountered what I would consider large numbers of shad in the lake. We sampled multiple areas of the lake this winter and shad abundances were high in all areas of the lake we sampled – north end, middle and south end,” said WDFW district

American shad appear to have made themselves at home, their numbers are suddenly booming and they feed on the same stuff as young salmon do.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Joe Short holds an American shad caught on Lake Washington in 2022. This year has seen state and tribal crews net shad from the south end of the lake, where Short was when this photo was taken, to the north end, and places in between, suggestive of a large and widespread population. (WDFW)

fisheries biologist Aaron Bosworth. It frustrates the efforts of Frank Urabeck, the lake’s longtime sockeye booster and angler advocate.

“Always something new working against return of Lake Washington sockeye fisheries,” he lamented last month.

Urabeck, now in his mid-80s, is bulldogging what might be a last-ditch

A single night of gillnetting earlier this year yielded these three totes of shad for WDFW biologists. Shad were brought to the Columbia in the late 1800s by the U.S. Fish Commission, spreading from there and the Sacramento, but it wasn’t until The Dalles Dam drowned Celilo Falls in the late 1950s that their numbers began to build in the region. They now routinely outnumber all Columbia salmon and steelhead runs combined several times over, emblematic of their ability to swamp systems. (WDFW)

wider slate of experiments is planned this year. Urabeck is behind a budget proviso in the state legislature to provide funding for a “demonstration project” to suppress predator fish populations in the watershed. At press time, the Senate proposal set aside $1.4 million for it, the House $700,000, making it likely to pass at some level. The goal of it all is to figure out if it’s feasible to expect a sockeye fishery by 2032.

This year’s higher shad catch could, of course, just be a function of more concerted and better targeted efforts by Muckleshoot and WDFW biologists to understand Lake Washington’s piscivorous fish populations, a preamble to doing something about reducing salmon smolt losses at migratory chokepoints. In 2019, yellow perch and rock bass – another fast-growing nonnative population – were found to be doing “way more damage” than smallmouth or largemouth, at least at select spots in the ship canal. But it also highlights the maddening Whac-A-Mole complexity of this highly altered metro water.

SHAD ARE PLANKTIVORES – they forage on zooplankton, copepods and insect larva – which means they are competing for the same food as young salmon. Most hatchery Chinook and coho smolts – the vast bulk of the basin’s total production for the two species – move through the system fairly rapidly in spring, feeding as they go, but sockeye stick around a year to rear in the lake. Shad and salmon have similar water temperature needs, but shad can also utilize shallower, warmer, more forage-rich sections of the water column, giving them a competitive edge.

effort to bring back the famous fishery he and tens of thousands of other anglers last enjoyed in 2006. In recent years, biologists have found that collecting adult sockeye at the Ballard Locks and bypassing the often too warm and disease-friendly waters of the Lake Washington Ship Canal markedly improves survival rates, which should help increase egg production. Another,

A growing abundance of shad in Lake Washington theoretically could provide a predation buffer for salmon, but only for a narrow window in time because of how they grow – thicker around the middle –rendering them relatively safe at a young age. They’re also known to be higher in thiamine, which can cause issues for fish that eat too many of them. And sexually maturing at three to seven years of age means they consume zooplankton for that many years as well. That lengthy stay at the lunch counter also impacts other organisms in the lake like longfin smelt, which in turn are prey for native rainbow

and cutthroat trout, northern pikeminnow and – in another bizarro Lake Washington mystery – kokanee. Kokanee are landlocked sockeye that also feed on zooplankton, but one guide reported that the bellies of kokes she and clients caught in late winter and again in April were stuffed with smelt.

THE PORTENTS ARE perplexing, but what about the glass-half-full proposition of a potential new shad fishery at the masses’ doorstep? At this point it’s unclear what form that might take. If most shad are spending their entire lives in the lake, like an admittedly small sample of otoliths appears to show, that essentially rules out the most popular and productive ways to catch them – casting or anchor fishing from the bank or a boat as they make their upstream spawning run. But we anglers are a notoriously adaptive bunch and there is a troll fishery practiced in Florida at the extreme south end of their East Coast range. “For some reason, in the St. Johns, they hit best in the middle of the day … They’ll hit a shad dart on a trolling fly line,” writes

John McPhee in The Founding Fish

Who is to know the future, but at this point, given the Muckleshoots’, WDFW’s and state legislature’s interest in boosting survival of Lake Washington salmon, the impetus will be to do something about this before it gets out of hand, like ongoing hammer-down efforts to control northern pike in the Upper Columbia and Lake Roosevelt. Shad are more than willing to multiply. After 150 years of running up the Columbia, in 2023 they comprised 78 percent of all adult salmonids and lampreys counted at Bonneville, with millions more presumed to never venture past the dam.

In 2021, a science board recommended that a whole lot more research is needed to understand shad impacts in the Columbia, and they also reported that an entirely new life history is being seen there – “mini-shad,” which spend a year or two in the river while the rest of their year-class go to sea. Who knows how a shad population that mostly resides in a lake may differ, but I wonder if we’re not seeing evolution in action? If so, it could be a very unsettling development for native Northwest stocks like Lake Washington’s Chinook, coho and sockeye. NS

Trase Berg had himself a heckuva day on a North Sound lake, catching 20-, 18- and 12-inch trout while fishing with his grandpa Jerry Shepherd and “Fireman Sam” Ingram. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

You might remember Cash Craig and his first deer from our February Big Game Yearbook. Well, here he is again with his first turkey, taken in his first year hunting the supersized upland birds. Cash got it right at first light with a 20-gauge. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

Treven Balodis (left) probably could have gone springer fishing with his guide dad early last month, but wisely decided to give Washington’s youth turkey hunting a go instead with buddy Landon, bagging his first ever gobbler – and a big one to boot! His bird weighed 22 pounds, had a 10-inch beard and set a new Klickitat County record, according to his dad, Steve, whose day was, well, less productive. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

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

Ken Boman’s kiddos like to get afield with their dad! That’s Charlie with a Brewster Pool summer Chinook and Abby with her first razor clam, dug at Roosevelt Beach on the Washington Coast. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

It was a tough early fishery, but Cherish McAbee got it done last month with this nice spring Chinook from the Lower Columbia. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

A little R&D with a very little cutplug worked out quite well for Dennis Schwartz this past winter. “Been killing the kokanee at Merwin testing a new lure from Deadly Venom Tackle,” the Tasmanian Cut Plug, he reported.

(COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

The wind sucked but the fishing did not that day on the Mid-Columbia for Austin Han, here with one of several walleye that fell for a mix of Kit’s Tackle jigs and homemade jigs tipped with nightcrawlers. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

Zayn Resser smiles next to his first springer, caught while back-trolling an M2 FlatFish with his dad Jason.

(COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

Brendan Toy cradles a cover-worthy Hoh River wild winter-run. A US Navy sailor based out of Bremerton at the time, he hit the Olympic Peninsula river on his last fishing trip before being reassigned to San Diego

(COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

MIXED BAG

North Coast Elk Herd Shot Up

A66-year-old man eventually turned himself in after “elk fever” allegedly led him to fire into an Oregon Coast herd near Highway 101, causing the deaths of at least four animals, according to state wildlife managers.

The incident occurred during a January late-season cow hunt on private land in the Nehalem area. Oregon officials say the man had a tag and permission to hunt the area, but in the process of trying to shoot an elk, hit several others.

“The guy came out and stopped at the road, and started shooting,” said the landowner, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I told another hunter, who said the guy shouldn’t have left. He should have called state police and turned himself in.”

The man field-dressed the cow and left the scene, but the landowner, whose name was withheld, called and encouraged him to contact Oregon State Police fish and wildlife troopers. He did so and blamed “elk fever” and also “expressed remorse” about the incident, according to ODFW. The elk was seized, as was his .308 rifle.

Afterwards, troopers observing the herd of 30 elk had to put down a mortally wounded cow, then the next day put down a young bull. They also saw another wounded cow, which ran off into the Nehalem River and is believed to have drowned. While that animal likely went to waste, meat from the two elk euthanized by troopers and the one seized from the man was donated to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Tillamook County Jail.

The man was criminally cited for shooting from a road and unlawful take of antlerless elk and a bull elk.

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

fly fisherman who thought it would be pretty fly to sample closed waters on Oregon’s far South Coast for wild winter steelhead got bit, alright – by the blue peril, a state fish and wildlife trooper.

According to the Oregon State Police’s February newsletter, a Gold Beach-based trooper patrolling the North Fork Chetco spotted a vehicle parked near the tributary,

Awhich is off-limits to protect spawning steelhead, and then observed the angler working the river “for quite some time.”

But after awhile, said fly guy took flight. “Suddenly, the subject grabbed his gear and fled the area, running down stream to the main stem Chetco,” troopers report.

Upon contact, the angler was “initially dishonest,” saying he hadn’t been fishing the North Fork for steelhead, but eventually admitted that he had been.

It was also discovered that he had not

By Andy Walgamott

30 Days For Oregon Poacher

It was straight away to jail for a Southern Oregon man at his late March sentencing for 21 misdemeanor wildlife violations and criminal trespassing.

Along with a month in prison, Albert Lampert, 69, of Glendale also had his hunting privileges suspended for three years, but as part of his five-year probation, he was barred from hunting as well as being afield with a centerfire rifle or with hunters in the woods for half a decade.

The punishments stem from an elk decoy operation that occurred in November 2020 and led to a search warrant of Lampert’s home two months later. While justice was a long time coming, during a three-day late winter jury trial in Douglas County Circuit Court, Lampert was found guilty of charges centered around “hunting while trespassing, hunting during a closed season, and hunting from a roadway,” according to TV news station KEZI.

Lampert also forfeited a rifle and was ordered to pay fines amounting to $2,100. Should he violate his probation, he’ll get six more months of jail, according to the Oregon State Police’s Fish and Wildlife Division.

purchased a combined angling tag, which is required to fish for salmon and steelhead in Oregon, or the new Rogue South Coast Steelhead Validation, which is required to fish those systems for winter-runs. While he did have a resident fishing license, it was determined that he’d only lived in the Beaver State for a month; six months’ residency is required.

He was criminally cited for the license violations and fishing closed waters. Sometimes life’s a Bitch Creek.

Oregon officials say the actions of a 66-year-old man with a late-season cow tag led to the mortal woundings of several other animals, including this young bull. (OSP)

Back-seat Rider A Real Survivor

Asquirming sturgeon saved itself from a serial scofflaw. The fish was found in the back of a vehicle late this past winter after Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police Sergeant Pat Anderson responded to a call about someone keeping the off-limits species at the mouth of the Toutle near Castle Rock.

Upon arrival, the officer saw the lid of a cooler moving and taking a closer look, he saw the tail of a sturgeon sticking out of the container.

After obtaining the name of the vehicle’s owner, Anderson went down to the river and had a chitchat with anglers there, who did not mention anything about catching a sturgeon, according to WDFW Police.

“Finally, after enough talking, Sergeant Anderson brought up the fact there was a fish flopping around in the suspect’s back seat. He didn’t have much to say,” officers posted on Facebook.

The suspect was ticketed for undersized sturgeon and the fish was “rescued” from the confines of the cooler, per WDFW Police, but they will need to remain vigilant against the suspect because he’s allegedly a repeat offender. As Anderson wrote his report, he discovered that the man was cited last June for “multiple violations in the same location for retaining a sturgeon.”

Washington game wardens “rescued” this sturgeon from the cooler of a man who allegedly illegally kept it at the mouth of the Toutle River on the Cowlitz River. (WDFW)

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS

 Now through mid-October: Westport Charterboat Association Weekly Lingcod Derby; charterwestport.com/fishing.html

 Now through Oct. 31: WDFW 2023 Trout Derby, select lakes across Washington; wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/ contests/trout-derby

 May 1-31: May Surf Perch Derby, Oregon Coast between Humbug Mountain and Horsfall Beach; tonyscrabshack.com/perch-derby

 May 4 through quota: Westport Charterboat Association Daily Halibut Derby; info above

 May 12-14: 2023 Pikeminnow Fishing Derby, Wanapum Pool; quincyvalley.org

 May 13: 19th Annual Fishing Derby at Sun Lakes; sunlakesparkresort.com

 May 19-21: Detroit Lake Fishing Derby; detroitlakeoregon.org

 May 20: 20th Surf Perch Derby, Long Beach Peninsula; SurfPerchDerby@gmail.com

 May 20: Brownlee Crappie

Shootout Kayak Fishing

Tournament, facebook.com/ brownleecrappieshootout

 May 20: Lake Stevens

Kokanee Derby, facebook.com/ LakeStevensKokaneeDerby

 May 20-21: CRWAA-LRWC

Gordon Steinmetz Memorial Walleye Classic, Banks Lake; crwaa.profishingtournaments.com

 May 27-29: Huntington Catfish

Derby, Brownlee Reservoir/ Snake River; facebook.com/ groups/926993987464891

 June 2-4: 2023 Annual Mackinaw Derby, Odell Lake; odelllakeresort.com

 June 3-Sept. 10: 2nd Annual Small Mouth Bass Derby, Coquille River system; thepocrd.com

 June 10: Kokanee Power of Oregon Green Peter Derby; kokaneepoweroregon.com/derby

 June 17: Kokanee Power of Oregon Green Peter Kids Fishout; info above

 June 17-18: CRWAA-Ron Sawyer Moses Lake Walleye Classic; see above

 June 24 through quota: Westport Charterboat Association Daily Salmon Derby; info above

By Andy Walgamott

NSIA Set To Hold Classic

It’s been a few years since the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association has been able to hold a Spring Fishing Classic, but their derby is back for 2023 and scheduled for Saturday, May 13.

Now in its 28th edition, the classic features a friendly team spring Chinook fishing competition, prize for the day’s biggest king and much more. Held out of Camp Withycombe not far from the confluence of the Clackamas and Willamette Rivers, it’s a fundraiser for the pro-fish and -fishing organization that uses proceeds to fight for recreational opportunities, hatcheries and conservation measures throughout the Northwest.

NSIA had to cancel its 2020, 2021 and 2022 classics due to Covid precautions and illnesses.

For more, go to nsiafishing.org.

CALENDAR OUTDOOR

MAY

1 2023 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-reward Program fishery begins on Columbia and Snake Rivers – info: pikeminnow.org; Marine 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

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

4 Area 1/tentative Columbia River Subarea halibut opener (Thursday, Sunday fishing through May 21); Area 2 halibut opener (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday fishing through May 23); Areas 3-4 halibut opener (Thursday, Saturday fishing through May 20)

4-14 Tentative final razor clam digs of 2022-23 season scheduled on Washington Coast beaches – info: wdfw.wa.gov

6 ODFW Family Fishing Events, Alton Baker Park, Vernonia Lake – info above; WDFW Clear (Fairchild AFB) and Steel Lakes Kids Fishing Events (registration) – info: wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/contests/youth

6-7 ODFW Archery & Bowhunting Skills Workshop ($, registration), La Pine –info above

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

13

WDFW Youth Fishing Event at American Lake – info above; ODFW Family Fishing Event at Baldwin Pond, Dufur – info above

15 Oregon fall controlled big game permit purchase application deadline

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

20 ODFW Family Fishing Events, Bikini and Powers County Park Ponds, Eckman and Hebo Lakes – info above; ODFW Adult Beginner Fly-fishing Workshop ($, registration), Wizard Falls Hatchery, Camp Sherman – info above; WDFW Meadow Brook Farm (North Bend) Kids Fishing Event (registration) – info: facebook.com/snoqualmievalleydu/

Last day to apply for Washington special hunting permits

Last day to hunt turkeys in Idaho; Puget Sound spot shrimp opener on Areas 4-11 (except Discovery Bay Shrimp District; hours, open days vary)

Washington halibut openers in all open areas (dates vary) – info above

ODFW Access & Habitat program Big Game Raffle Hunts drawing – info: tinyurl.com/4wevpusk; Spot shrimp opener on Discovery Bay, Hood Canal Shrimp Districts (hours, open days vary)

Fishing opens on select Washington streams

Three-day Skykomish River hatchery summer Chinook, steelhead opener

Last day of Oregon, Washington spring turkey season; Last day of Oregon spring bear season

JUNE

Grimes Lake (Central Washington) fishing opener; Area 10 coho, Area 11 hatchery Chinook openers

ODFW Family Fishing Events, Alton Baker Park, Marr Pond, Olalla Reservoir – info above; WDFW Panhandle Lake (Shelton) Kids Fishing Event – info: panhandlecamp.com

Oregon Free Fishing Weekend

Idaho Free Fishing Day; WDFW Spearfish Lake Kids Fishing Event – info above; Washington State Archery Association 3D Championship, Tacoma Sportsmen’s Club – info: wsaa.wildapricot.org

Washington Free Fishing Weekend

16 Columbia River hatchery summer Chinook opener from Astoria-Megler Bridge to Pasco

17 Areas 3-4 Chinook and hatchery coho opener; Oregon Central Coast hatchery coho opener

17-18 Rods and Reels in Need Fish Expo 2023 and Kids Fishing Event, Thurston County Fairgrounds – info: facebook.com/donateyourgear4kids

25 Oregon Coast north of Cape Falcon and Areas 1-2 Chinook and hatchery coho opener

DESTINATION CANADA HUNT • FISH • TRAVEL

Events Calendar

JUNE 11-18

Excellent lake trout & Walleye fishing. For details visit nradventures.com

JULY 9-16

Perfect fishing for the Grand Slam of the Rockies (Lake trout, Pike, walleye, rainbow trout, Bull trout, Arctic Grayling). For details visit nradventures.com

AUGUST 6-13

Prime fly fishing (rainbow trout, bull trout & Arctic Grayling) Excellent pike fishing. For details visit nradventures.com

AUGUST 22-26

6th Annual Charity Fishing Derby For details visit joessalmonlodge.com

NORTH RIVER OUTFITTING

NORTHERN ROCKIES ADVENTURES

WESTVIEW MARINA

JOE’S SALMON LODGE

MILLERS NORTH OUTFITTING

FISHING B.C. — BEYOND THE SALMON

So, you’re planning a B.C. fishing trip? Maybe you’ve already seen or heard the stories of the Province’s bountiful fishing potential. The B.C. coast is renowned for its Salmon fisheries, but the Province’s hidden gems lie in its interior, 20,000 lakes and 466,000 miles of rivers harbor entire ecosystems of fish to catch If the interior is B.C.’s hidden gem, the Northern Rockies and Muskwa Kechika are the crown jewel, being the Province’s largest protected area, covering some 10 percent of B.C’s landmass. For over 40 years, Bush Pilot Urs’ Northern Rockies Adventures has been guiding anglers in B.C.’s remote north, fishing the Province’s most exclusive fly-in fishing destinations. Backcountry fly-in fishing means 6 wild native trophy freshwater species just waiting to be caught. Wild native Rainbow Trout, Bull Trout, Arctic Grayling, Northern Pike, Walleye and Lake Trout make up the Grand Slam of the Northern Rockies. Escape the crowds and fly-in directly to B.C. best freshwater fishing! A haven of freshwater fishing for both Spincasting and Fly Fishing. The best catch rates in the Province backup Northern Rockies Adventure’s prestigious premium fly-in fishing trips. So come on up and catch the Big Fish in the pristine Rocky Mountains, on unforgettable Canadian fly-in Fishing Trip!

Your 2023-24 Salmon Planner

By Mark Yuasa

Now that the dust has settled on the long salmon-seasonsetting process known as North of Falcon, let’s visualize where to get out on the water in 2023-24 and maybe try a new fishery you’ve never explored before.

For more than a decade now, Washington salmon anglers have become more adaptable, as no season mirrors another. In other words, don’t

keep your boat tied up at one place; be willing to move around from location to location to maximize your time on the water, as well as success. Lastly, since several seasons are driven by catch quotas and/or guidelines, it is wise to go on the front end, when a fishery opens, rather than taking a chance on the back end, when an area could close prematurely.

In this first of a two-part series, we’ve got you covered with a boatload of fishing spots that’ll have

you hooting and hollering with excitement from May clear through August. In the June issue, we’ll dive further into options for September through April 2024.

MAY

Salmon anglers in the Puget Sound region will get their first chance to catch migrating kings at the Tulalip Bubble Fishery (Marine Area 8-2) May 26-September 5 (fishing allowed Fridays to noon on Mondays only)

A salmon boat runs upcurrent to make another pass along fishy Jefferson Head, in central Puget Sound. Now that 2023-24’s fisheries have been set, the planning begins for where to drop in when. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

There’s plenty of Chinook, coho and pink fishing to be had in Washington waters over the coming months, and here are best bets. Part I of II

and September 9-24 (fishing allowed on Saturdays and Sundays only). In recent years, these waters not far from the Port of Everett’s big 10th Street Ramp have been fair to good for early summer Chinook in the 10- to 20-pound range.

Most bubble fishermen either troll or jig. For jigging, the type of jig used is usually personal preference, as one rarely outperforms another. The Chinook bite more reactively to whatever flashes in front of their face, so jigs like a P-Line Laser Minnow, Point Wilson Dart, Buzz Bomb, Dungeness Stinger and Crippled Herring are the top choices. Color is also by preference, although favorites are the glow, chartreuse, pearl-white, green-nickel, blue-pearl and blue-gold patterns.

As store-bought jigs come with a barbed treble, anglers are reminded that they’re illegal for salmon in Areas 1 through 13. Only single-pointed barbless hooks and one line with up to two hooks may be used.

Other anglers will troll using

downriggers with a flasher combined with plugs, spoons, and/or a plastic squid. Depth depends, as some fish can be found from the surface down to 90 feet before or at daybreak, but as the sun rises go deeper, to around 125 feet.

JUNE

Once June rolls around, the doors swing wide open, with many salmon anglers heading to coastal ports such as Neah Bay (Area 4) and La Push (Area 3) for the opening of Chinook and hatchery-marked coho retention beginning June 17, followed by Ilwaco (Area 1) and Westport-Ocean Shores (Area 2) on June 24. All four are scheduled to remain open until September 30, or when quotas are met, with species and size restrictions dependent on the marine area. With decent forecasts, the coastwide catch quotas are 39,000 Chinook and 159,600 hatchery-marked coho.

Another option for Seattle-area anglers is to stay close to home, because central Puget Sound (Area

10) opens daily June 1 for a fishery targeting coho only, more than two weeks earlier than 2022. Most of these resident coho average 2 to 4 pounds. Judging from the past few years, success tends to start off slow and takes about one or two weeks to build. Hit the deep-water shipping lanes between Jefferson Head and the Kingston-Apple Tree Point area; the rip currents around the Edmonds oil docks to Richmond Beach; West Point south of Shilshole Bay; and the east side of Bainbridge Island.

Yet another early-summer highlight is southcentral Puget Sound (Area 11), where angling for hatchery-marked Chinook opens June 1. This fishery is managed under two separate summer quotas. You may recall that the June 2022 season was very brief, three days to be exact, but the 2023 quota is a more generous 1,423, up considerably from 580 in 2022 and 431 in 2021. The remaining Area 11 summer quota is 3,379 (2,816 in 2022 and 2,656 in 2021), and that season opens July 1.

FISHING

Because dogfish can be a nuisance in Tacoma-area waters, many anglers prefer to jig. Others deploy downriggers or “meat lines” to troll plugs, spoons or a plastic hoochie squid. If you’re brave enough, send down a whole or cut-plug herring, but be warned, you might be going through a lot of fishing leaders, as dogfish feed heavily on baitfish schools.

Seek out kings off Tacoma at the Clay Banks at Point Defiance Park or from Owen Beach to the Slag Pile off the Tacoma Yacht Club; the “Flats” outside of Gig Harbor; Dolphin Point and the Fauntleroy Ferry area near the northeast side of Vashon Island; south of the Southworth Ferry Landing; in

Tacoma-area anglers will see a bigger Chinook quota in both the June and summer fisheries, 1,423 and 3,379 hatchery fish, compared to 580 and 2,816 last year. The author’s son Tegan Yuasa holds a nice king caught out of the Point Defiance Marina. (MARK YUASA)

Colvos Passage off the Girl Scout Camp; Apple Tree Cove to Redondo Beach; Point Robinson; and Point Dalco on the south side of Vashon Island.

If Area 11 shuts down prematurely, you can head south of the Narrows Bridges to Deep South Sound (Area 13) spots like Gibson Point and Point Fosdick to target early hatchery kings.

Quick June bites: A short list of other noteworthy spots includes sections of the Cascade and Skagit Rivers, and the Edmonds, Seacrest and Point Defiance Boathouse piers.

JULY

Making decisions on and finding the time to hit all the available salmon

hotspots hits a crescendo in July, but the tips below should help get you headed in the right direction!

One fishery that has stood out for me occurs in Northcentral Washington’s Upper Columbia River, from Rocky Reach Dam to Chelan Falls and as high up as Brewster, all of which opens on July 1. The Upper Columbia summer Chinook forecast of 84,800 in 2023 is up from 56,300 and an actual return of 78,444 in 2022, which was the seventh largest since 1980.

My favorite places to catch summer Chinook are the tailrace of Wanapum Dam, the “bubbles” around the mouths of the Entiat and Chelan Rivers, tailrace of Wells Dam and the Brewster Pool up to city of Bridgeport. The most popular are probably off the Entiat and Chelan. Timing is key, as Chinook or sockeye can be in one location one day, only to move 15 miles upstream the following day. Water levels and flows also affect how the fish bite.

If I had to pick one freshwater area here, it’d be just below Beebe Bridge, better known as Chelan Falls. This is a shallow-water fishery with the bottom being around 25 to 50 feet, so keep the downriggers at home. There is a nice boat launch at Chelan County’s Beebe Bridge Park boat ramp and across the river at Chelan Falls Park. Get on the water before sunrise, because the salmon bite tends to end by 8 a.m. Also keep tabs on the dam fish counts to know where to be on certain days. For a mix of kings and sockeye, head to areas below Rocky Reach and Wells Dams, or up to Brewster.

Closer to the greater Seattle area, be sure to focus your fishing time in northern and central Puget Sound (Areas 9 and 10) and the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Sekiu and Port Angeles (Areas 5 and 6) for hatchery kings.

The summer hatchery-marked Chinook and coho fishery in northern Puget Sound (Area 9) is July 13-15, with a chance to reopen on July 2022 and July 27-29. (The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will assess catches after each three-day fishery to see if additional time can be

FISHING

tacked on.) Fishing will be open Thursdays to Saturdays with a 4,300-Chinook quota (4,700 in 2022 and 2021 and 5,600 in 2020).

(Area 9 salmon anglers should also mark their calendars for coho. Thanks to a larger than expected return, the hatchery coho season is August 1-September 17, while there will be a September 18-31 any-coho season. The nonselective coho fishery hasn’t occurred in several years.)

Look for kings at Midchannel Bank and Point Wilson off Port Townsend; Bush Point, Fort Casey, Lagoon Point and Double Bluff off the west side of Whidbey Island; Point No Point; Possession Bar; Scatchet Head; and Pilot Point south along the northeastern side

of the Kitsap Peninsula.

In central Puget Sound (Area 10), the hatchery Chinook fishery comes alive July 13-August 31, although king retention could close sooner if the 3,566-fish quota is achieved (3,966 in 2022, 3,718 in 2021 and 4,100 in 2020). Seek out kings around Kingston; Jefferson Head; Richmond Beach to the Edmonds oil docks; the east side of Bainbridge Island at Point Monroe to Skiff Point and Yeomalt Point; Allen Bank off Blake Island; West Point south of Shilshole Bay; and Southworth.

In the western Strait of Juan de Fuca, Sekiu-Pillar Point (Area 5) is open July 1-August 15 for hatchery-marked Chinook and coho,

though the Chinook fishery could close sooner if the quota of 3,906 is achieved (3,890 in 2022 and 4,077 in 2021). Put time in at “The Caves,” a long stretch of kelp-lined shoreline near the breakwater off Mason’s Resort in Clallam Bay that heads west toward the Sekiu River mouth; Slip Point Buoy; Mussolini Rock and Little Mussolini Rock; Eagle Point; Kydaka Point; the Slide and Coal Mines areas; and east off Pillar Point.

In the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles (Area 6) waters west of a true north/south line through the No. 2 Buoy immediately east of Ediz Hook open July 1 for hatchery-marked Chinook and coho. The 7,258-Chinook quota in 2023 is

Though they swim 500 plus miles upstream from the mouth of the Columbia, sockeye and Chinook make the Brewster Pool a great place to find salmon in midsummer. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

FISHING

much fatter than 2022’s 6,050 and 2021’s 4,769. The area east of the boundary is open July 1-August 15 for hatchery-marked coho only.

The best Area 6 fishing spots are directly off Ediz Hook in Port Angeles; the humps and Winter Hole in the exposed Strait; Freshwater Bay; and Crescent Bay to the mouth of Whiskey Creek.

The San Juans (Area 7) are open July 13-15 for hatchery-marked Chinook with a quota of 2,181 (1,800 in 2022 and 1,382 in 2021). Additional openings – July 20-22 and July 27-29 – could occur after the initial threeday opener is assessed. Note that the islands are also planned to reopen August 1-31 for hatchery coho only and September 1-30 for nonselective coho fishing, a change from 2022 when the late-summer fishery was directed at fin-clipped silvers only.

Quick July bites: A short list of other noteworthy spots would include Hood Canal (Area 12) south of Point Ayock and Fox Island Pier.

AUGUST

When August rolls around and summer quickly begins to wind down, the focus on where to go and what salmon to catch becomes even more critical. Fishing choices are at their peak, and I’d bank vacation time for pinks, kings and early coho in Puget Sound or to make the trek to the Columbia River mouth at Buoy 10.

A robust pink forecast of 3,950,917 – compared to 2,925,681 in 2021 and 608,388 in 2019 – is predicted

OREGON SALMON SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

The big news out of North of Falcon for Oregon salmon anglers is, of course, the ocean Chinook closure through the end of August for the coast south of Cape Falcon. While California’s king woes and water policies sting ports like Newport and Garibaldi, which catch Sacramento and Klamath Chinook, there are still Beaver State salmon fisheries to look forward to over the coming months. May, June: Along with springers in the Willamette both months, this year’s bigger summer Chinook run should provide decent opportunities on the Columbia from Rainier up to Portland and Bonneville Dam in the back half of June. And don’t overlook Nestucca Bay and river and the McKenzie for kings.

July: Another good Columbia coho forecast should yield plentiful action for fin-clipped fish out of Newport, Astoria, Garibaldi, Winchester Bay, Pacific City and other coastal ports as the salmon feed heavily for their return to the big river.

August: Chinook and coho catches begin to pick up off the North Coast in July, but really spike in August as all those Columbia salmon make their way to and past Buoy 10, Astoria and Rainier.

Buoy 10 is always popular in August as vast numbers of salmon enter the Columbia. This year’s season will be a little different, in that wild Chinook must be released and a couple weekends late in the month will be closed. Dani and boyfriend JP got on the board there in 2022. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

–NWS

TIME

Docking and maneuvering your boat in high winds has never been so easy. Let the Joy Stick do it for you.

GPS position hold and heading hold is included.

8 and 99 Kicker Motors in stock. Call

to arrive this month in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. Pink fishing was very good at times in 2021 and 2019, and this season should be just as productive, if not better.

The trail of bank and boat hotspots leads from Port Townsend near Point Wilson to the west side of Whidbey Island at Fort Casey, Bush Point and Lagoon Point, with stops at Marrowstone Island, Point No Point, Possession Bar, Mukilteo south to Humpy Hollow, Browns Bay, West Point south of Shilshole Bay, Alki Point and Jefferson Head, Lincoln Park in West Seattle, Des Moines, Redondo Beach, Browns and Dash Points, and the Point Defiance Park Boathouse Pier in Tacoma.

There will also be a small Chinook

window of opportunity in inner Elliott Bay on August 4-7 and additional openings may occur. This is a staging area for kings heading back mainly to the Green River. Good places are the Duwamish Head Marker; in front of Todd Shipyard; both the west and east waterways; off Salty’s Restaurant north to the Don Ameri boat launch; and around the Elliott Bay Marina breakwater.

In other positive news, Port Susan and Port Gardner (Area 8-2) will be open August 1-September 24 for all coho and pinks. (If you recall, only the southern half of Area 8-2 was open for hatchery coho in 2022.) The east side of Whidbey Island (Area 8-1) will also be open August 1-September 30 for all coho only.

A decent return of fall Chinook and coho expected to arrive in the Columbia means Buoy 10 – a 20-mile area where the river’s brackish water meets the briny Pacific Ocean – will be fishing central this month, with some twists. This year’s hatchery Chinookonly and usual hatchery coho fishery is August 1-September 4 (except closed August 21-23 and 28-29).

“The Buoy 10 area ranks as one of my top choices to fish each summer,” says Austin Moser, owner of Austin’s Northwest Adventures Guide Service, who makes Astoria his temporary home in late summer.

Big flood tides are the best time to be on the water, as they push in fresh salmon from the ocea. But knowing where to fish when can be intimidating to the uninitiated. Ideal places during an early morning flood include along the Wing Walls, a mess of old fishing cannery pilings just outside the Port of Ilwaco; the Desdemona Sands area located in the middle of the river above and below the Astoria-Megler Bridge; the buoy line just off the town of Astoria above and below the bridge and just off the Port of Astoria Marina; the three long underwater channels above the bridge along Highway 401; the Church Hole off Fort Columbia State Park; and at Fort Stevens State Park on the Oregon side west toward Hammond. Buoy 10 itself isn’t an ideal place to fish, but you can find exciting action for coho there.

Quick August bites: A short list of other noteworthy spots includes Willapa and Bellingham Bays, Baker Lake, the Samish, Puyallup and Green Rivers, and Sinclair Inlet.

Before heading out, be sure to check the regulations for any updates or emergency closures. To find a complete list of Washington’s planned 2023-2024 salmon fisheries, go to wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/ north-falcon/summaries. NS

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

Odd years always come with pink salmon, and 2023 will be no different. Nearly 4 million are expected back to Puget Sound streams, and while there will be no bonus limits in the salt, fishing should still be good through Admiralty Inlet, at Humpy Hollow and elsewhere. Tegan Yuasa and Valentina Shevchenko show off a pair from 2021’s fishery. (MARK YUASA)

Follow Willamette Springers Upriver

NW PURSUITS

By Jason Brooks

ith an estimated 71,000 spring Chinook expected back to one of the largest Lower Columbia tributaries, the Willamette will be one of salmon anglers’ most popular destinations in May. Closures on the

WColumbia push fishermen to the tribs or further up the big river, depending on regulations, but the Willamette is fished practically from the New Year in hopes of finding that first springer, to the end of the official spring Chinook season in June, when summer kings make up the bulk of the runs. If you are still looking for a springer in May, then head to the Willamette.

The headwaters of this 187-mile-long

river form along the crest of the Cascades from near Mount Hood south to Eugene, and the mainstem winds north though a broad, rich-soiled farming valley and past the Oregon state capital of Salem. Eventually, the Willamette finds its way to the concrete skyscrapers of Portland and dumps into the Columbia 101 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, the river offers anglers several different types

Wind waves buffet a boat trolling for spring Chinook. The Willamette and its Multnomah Channel offer shelter from Lower Columbia closures, as well as a long fishery with a lot of water to work. (JASON BROOKS)

of fisheries, hot spots and access for just about every boat type, with some bank angling opportunities as well.

THE SPRINGER FISHERY begins at the mouth of Multnomah Channel, where Sauvie Island splits the Willamette and its confluences with the Columbia. The channel starts near St. Helens in Oregon, right across the Columbia from Ridgefield in Washington. It was here that I first fished with my friend Buzz Ramsey. The plan was to put in at the Port of Ridgefield’s ramp and then head down the Lake River and across the mainstem Columbia to the tip of Sauvie Island. From there we would turn up into the channel’s protected waters and try and catch a spring Chinook.

Trolling is the mainstay during slack and outgoing tides. The channel stills as the flood tide backs up the river, and with the outgoing tide the fish will start to stack up. This is also a suitable time to sit on anchor and let diving plugs or a dropper weight, flasher and cut-plug herring do their job. As the tide changes, incoming fish will push in and if the current is flowing, the anchor fishing will only get better. Once the water slows down again, put the trolling gear back on and go look

for Chinook making their way up the Multnomah Channel.

On our trip, Buzz rigged up tandem Fish Flash flashers and a sliding spreader –both made by Yakima Bait Company – then tipped the sharp hooks with a cut-plug. After snapping a dropper weight onto the slider, it was time to lower the gear down, put the rods in the holders and our hands in our pockets.

I was intrigued by the double Fish Flash setup, and Buzz explained to me that because the channel can be turbid from rain and snow runoff, the two flashers will spin and give off twice as much flash to attract Chinook. Opinions vary about how turbid is too turbid to fish the Willamette, but one longtime angler will start at a reading as high as 12, while others wait for 10 or high single digits. Buzz’s two-attractor trick could be used anywhere water visibility is low.

Further upriver, the Multnomah Channel and mainstem Willamette come back together on the northwest outskirts of Portland. The river is still tidally influenced here, and on up to the falls. Fishing amongst skyscrapers and a concrete jungle might not be one’s idea of a peaceful day on the water, but it is a unique place to fish, kind of like salmon fishing on Seattle’s Elliott Bay. Be aware of other boats including transports and casual boaters who might not understand you are stationary if on anchor.

Trolling is another option, using the same setup as used in the Columbia, along with spoons, spinners and spin baits such as Brad’s Cut Plug, Yakima Bait’s SpinFish and Hawken’s Simon Cut Plug. With any of these lures, think bright – hot orange, chartreuse and pink – and stuff them with canned tuna that has soaked overnight in Pro-Cure Blood Tuna Super Gel. Other scents are herring, garlic and anchovy, but do not overlook adding some bite stimulants such as Monster Bite.

Buzz Ramsey readies a cut-plug herring for the hook. His double Fish Flash setup can help attract salmon in the often off-colored channel, or anywhere visibility is low. (JASON BROOKS)

Best setups for Willamette springers, like elsewhere, will grade away from cut-plug herring to harder baits – wrapped plugs and spinners – as waters warm and season continues. (JASON BROOKS)

If you choose to use a wrapped plug, such as K15 Kwikfish, sprinkle on some SlamOla powder to refresh the herring strip and add some extra enticement to bite.

UPSTREAM OF PORTLANDIA, you’ll find a few scattered bank spots at various parks. This is mostly a plunking game and therefore moving water is a must. The most well-known locations are Meldrum Bar and Clackamette Park, on either side of the mouth of the Clackamas.

Oregon City, where the Clackamas empties into the Willamette, is one of

the more popular stretches to fish. The fish hit a literal wall in the form of famed Willamette Falls and stack up. This is rough and turbulent water, where boaters need to know how to work gear in heavy currents and in crowds, as this is an extremely popular spot for fishing, and for good reason.

As stated last issue, anglers here slowly troll size 3½ Mulkey spinners 24 to 30 inches behind a Pro-Troll, with a 12-ounce cannonball weight 2 feet ahead of the flasher. They also back-troll a Mag Lip or diver and eggs, sand shrimp, prawn or red-

THE CLACK COULD BE BACK

The coming years should see a resurgence of Clackamas River springer fishing, at least if a newer hatchery program using “the healthiest” wild salmon in the entire Willamette watershed pays off. Following federal approvals, broodstock collection began in summer 2021 and plans call for annual releases of up to 1.2 million smolts in three locations on the Clack. The first smolts were set to be released this year and adults should be returning in the next two to three years, boosting a fishery that has fallen on hard times as runs based on an older, out-of-basin stock fell off the cliff. The new program should help with future fisheries on the Willamette too. –NWS

label herring on a 6-foot leader, targeting depths from 10 to 20 feet. A few jig.

There’s a fish ladder at the falls that helps spring Chinook – as well as winter steelhead and coho – get up over the hurdle and continue their journey. Here, the Willamette turns back into the typical Pacific Northwest river, meandering past farm fields and tree-lined banks. Most spring Chinook fishing occurs in this lower stretch, but as with below the falls, you can fish for these salmon with a second rod if you purchase the $28 endorsement.

THE WILLAMETTE RIVER is a unique fishery and May is a great month to get after them, especially closer to the falls, and June can be too. After a day of fishing, don’t be in too much of a hurry to hit the highway, as rush-hour traffic the closer you get to Portland seems to be an all-day event. Another good reason why Buzz and I launched at Ridgefield and crossed the Columbia to fish the calmer waters of the lower Multnomah Channel. NS

A Willamette system angler holds a springer caught in May 2020 while fishing with Kirby Cannon. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

LIGHTWEIGHT.

The lightest 200-hp four stroke on the market

POWERFUL.

2.8L displacement and Variable Camshaft Timing give it the best power-to-weight ratio of any 200-hp four stroke

COMPACT.

Nearly 120 pounds lighter than our four-stroke V6 F200

Nearly 120 pounds lighter than our four-stroke V6 F200

THE F200 IN-LINE FOUR. FORWARD THINKIN

Show the water who’s boss with the F200 In-Line Four. Incredibly light, responsive and fuel efficient, it serves up plenty of muscle to handily propel a variety of boats. On top of that, its 50-amp alternator offers the power to add a range of electronics, and its 26-inch mounting centers and compatibility with either mechanical or digital controls give you the flexibility to easily upgrade your outboard or rigging. Experience legendary Yamaha reliability and the freedom of forward thinking, with the F200 In-Line Four.

Show the water who’s boss with the F200 In-Line Four. Incredibly light, responsive and fuel efficient, it serves up plenty of muscle to handily propel a variety of boats. On top of that, its 50-amp alternator offers the power to add a range of electronics, and its 26-inch mounting centers and compatibility with either mechanical or digital controls give you the flexibility to easily upgrade your outboard or rigging. Experience legendary Yamaha reliability and the freedom of forward thinking, with the F200 In-Line Four.

COOS BAY Y Marina (541) 888-5501

www.ymarinaboats.com

EUGENE Maxxum Marine (541) 686-3572

www.maxxummarine.com

MADRAS Madras Marine (541) 475-2476

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

PASCO Northwest Marine and Sport (509) 545-5586

www.nwmarineandsport.com

SHELTON Verle’s Sports Center (877) 426-0933 www.verles.com

BEST OF CHARTERS

ALASKA FISH ON CHARTERS

ALASKA WIDE OPEN CHARTERS

ALL ABOARD YACHT CHARTERS (MV DISCOVERY)

ALEUT DANCE CHARTERS

BARANOF FISHING EXCURSIONS

CRABBY’S CHARTERS

FISH FINDER CHARTERS

HOWE’S FISHING

J AND J CHARTER SERVICE

BEST OF CHARTERS

ALASKA & CANADA SMALL SHIP CRUISES & LUXURY YACHT CHARTERS

Discovery’s small ship cruises are designed for those who want to experience Alaska’s stunning scenery and wildlife up close and personal. Our cruise itineraries combine whale watching and wildlife viewing with some of the most magnificent fjords & glaciers of Alaska’s Inside Passage.

With a passionate owner operator, no set schedule & small group sizes you will see and do more! The beauty of Discovery’s cruises is that we have no set schedule. We have time. Time to linger longer with wildlife, an early morning paddle in a quiet bay, a skiff ride after dinner to photograph an iceberg at sunset or view whales, bears, eagles, seals and other wildlife. There are many more advantages of a small group size (6-12 guests), as opposed to the so called ‘small cruise ships’ that carry 20-80 passengers.

A CULINARY ADVENTURE FOR THE SENSES

Discovery’s Chef prepares the food onboard, including the fresh catch from the day. Always fresh and delicious. EXPERIENCE THE THRILL OF FISHING FOR SALMON AND HALIBUT IN ALASKA’S PRISTINE WATERS.

Any fisherman coming to Alaska would be hard pressed not to want to cast in a line. On Discovery’s cruises you have that chance without having to spend a week at a fishing lodge. We even provide the bait and salt water fishing gear.

BEST OF CHARTERS

PLEASE CALL FISH FINDER CHARTERS at 907-254-4868 to book your next Ketchikan

Ketchikan Fishing Charters

Capt. Colby Slanaker has expert knowledge and years of experience when it comes to navigating the waters of Ketchikan and catching all five species of Alaska Salmon, halibut, lingcod, pacific cod, rockfish, and crab.

Based out of Ketchikan, Alaska only an hour and 40 minute direct flight from Seattle, a prime location for anglers looking to catch their fill of Halibut and Salmon. Our charter service offers a thrilling Guided Fishing Trip for anglers that are looking for heart pumping Salmon & Halibut Fishing.

Please take some time to view our website where you can find more info about us and fishing packages.

Our brand new lodge and the boat are booked 100% private to your group only.

May-gnum Opportunity

By Jeff Holmes

Many of us have a favorite month in the outdoors; for me it’s May, and it’s not even close. I value all other months greatly – early fall, the super-long days of June – but May features a mega-span of cool things to do, green landscapes to do them on, and lengthening and warming days resplendent with spring smells and the sounds of birds. I won’t have the time to pursue all of these outdoor activities, but throughout the month of May and into June, my thoughts will turn to spring Chinook, prime trout fishing, prime smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing, halibut and deepwater lingcod days, turkey hunting, razor clams and surfperch, Palouse and Walla Walla Rivers channel catfish, topwater brown trout, picking morel mushrooms and harvesting the amazing and abundant rainbows of Lake Roosevelt.

It took me 40 years, but I have finally (mostly) accepted that there’s just more cool stuff to do during May than time and resources will allow. So while the struggle is real, I try to plan and focus my May activities so I don’t try to do too much and so I involve friends and family in what I consider

From monster smallies and upriver springers, to mountain morels and a coastal trifecta, this month absolutely blooms with things to do.

Humans share in common with smallmouth bass a passion for the delicious red meat of kokanee. The millions of kokes in Idaho’s 55-mile-long Dworshak Reservoir provide a massive prey base that has led the impoundment’s smallies to be the largest caught in the world for many years. This one was reported at 7 1/2 pounds. (REELTIMEFISHING.COM)

to be some of the most awesome outdoor times of the year.

Usually, I travel to fish multiple zones of the Columbia for springers, but this year I intend to constrain my Chinook fishing mostly to Idaho’s Clearwater River. While in Clearwater Country, I also plan to fish for the world’s biggest smallmouth bass in Dworshak Reservoir. In the nearby Blue Mountains of Southeast Washington, I plan to pick riches of morels until walking becomes difficult. Finally, I hope to follow up a couple of successful April bottomfishing and razor clamming trips with the final May dig at Long Beach and more Ilwaco rockfish and lings. The short write-ups that follow detail things I think are really cool to do in May, and there’s plenty of room and resources to encourage your participation.

CLEARWATER SPRINGERS

Some of the most epic spring Chinook fishing I’ve enjoyed is during May on the Clearwater. When the first big waves of springers hit the SnakeClearwater confluence and fishing erupts in Lewiston, the fishing can be as fast as it ever gets for fish that

are still grotesquely loaded with fat after charging straight to Idaho from the Pacific in about a month. As May progresses and spring gives way to early summer, the fish remain in good shape, and angler effort moves upstream. The Clearwater is a splendid place to be in late spring, and I look forward to a day or two on the river this May.

“It’s looking to be another good run of spring Chinook to the Clearwater this May and June,” says Reel Time Fishing’s (reeltimefishing.com) Travis Wendt, a Clearwater springer guru based in Lewiston.

If you’ve never been to Idaho’s Panhandle during May, it is a sublime landscape brimming with brilliant greens, blossoms and rushing rivers, some of which attract returning adult spring Chinook.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s preseason quota of 2,700 fish means there will be seven-day-aweek fishing and a one-fish limit on the mainstem Clearwater, and a fourday-a-week fishery and one-fish limit on the North Fork, Wendt reports.

“Springer season has always been one of my favorites, from catching the greatest-eating salmon in our rivers, to

the start of our nice warmer weather to the sounds and smells of late spring … the atmosphere is what provides a great fishing experience,” says Wendt. “That’s one of many reasons springer season always gets more talk and buzz than any other salmon return on the Clearwater, and another is the extremely excellent quality of their flesh even this far upstream.”

“I believe with the higher snowpack and later winter again this year, we are going to see another late runoff, or longer runoff depending on how fast it warms up between now and mid-May,” says Wendt. “Currently, the river is well below average flow for April, which could possibly mean heavy runoff in May and June, like we experienced last year when in early June the Clearwater hit nearrecord flows for a brief moment.”

“What did this do to the fishing?” he asks. “Well, high muddy flows seemed to hit every weekend when the most anglers would be on the water. By Monday it would drop and clean up some, making fishing a little easier, and by Wednesday or Thursday the river was back into shape. Then we’d have a hot day or a heavy mountain rain and by

The Clearwater is set for a really good run of hatchery spring Chinook, and fishing should be good from mid-May until the closure sometime likely in June. The river is one of the easiest and prettiest places to catch a springer in the Northwest. (REELTIMEFISHING.COM)

FISHING

Saturday morning the river would be washed out again. What this did was extend our season because it lowered the catch rates. Last season we were able to fish springers well into July.”

“The reason I bring this up,” continues Wendt, “is because conditions are looking to be about the same for this season, setting us up for late runoff and possible heavy runoff during the prime of the season. We can’t get as unlucky with weekends as we were last year, and I am hopeful for excellent May fishing. If we have normal runoff with good fishing conditions, I’d expect the season to last two and a half to three weeks starting when the fish actually show up (May 12th-ish). But if we see this heavy runoff, I’d expect fishing conditions to go in and out of favorable and extend the season some, maybe getting us an extra couple weeks.”

“There are areas to fish during high runoff periods that will produce results. The North Fork of the Clearwater below Dworshak Dam will always be clean and fishable both from boat and shore. There are also some spots around Pink House that will fish when the main (Clearwater) is high and muddy where you can get into the clean North Fork water. Exercise caution when running the river at high flows, as there will be logs and debris floating down the river you will have to avoid.”

“As for my fishing approaches and techniques, I will probably start out in the hog line near the train bridge in Lewiston,” says Wendt. “This spot is good early on, when the first push of fish are just showing up. This is an anchor fishery and very popular and very easy. I will run a variety of setups, and my favorite is wrapped Kwikfish. I will run my upriver rods on 8- to 10-ounce cannonball droppers, and my downriver rods I will reach bottom with a size 50 Jet Diver. The dropper lines I run fairly tight to the boat, and the diver rods I can get back out away from the boat. Another effective setup is cut-plug herring. You can run these

both on the Jet Diver or droppers as well. You can run a triangle flasher in front of the herring, or you can run the herring without a flasher.”

“After the initial push of fish move through the train bridge area, I will move up into our back-trolling water,” says Wendt. “Here I will back-troll Kwikfish and roe. I run my roe behind a size 50 diver with a Spin-N-Glo or Corky. I also back-bounce eggs in the deeper holes if the water is right, but that requires great skill as a captain to hold the boat correctly and not let the current push you around.”

“If you are a bank angler, there are spots along the Clearwater where you can fish effectively,” he adds. “Look for long runs of calm water near the bank where you can get to by throwing your gear out. If the water is super high, most fish will be traveling up the bank. If it’s low, they will be running further out into the current. Plunking is the best method during high water using tuna balls, roe or even plugs.”

The Clearwater is one of the most reliable and beautiful places to catch springers in May, and runoff and spring storm conditions will likely dictate catch rates. But even if you

travel to Clearwater Country in May or June and the river blows out, the surrounding landscapes offer excellent turkey, bear and morel hunting; lots of public land; and prime fishing time for the world’s largest smallmouth ...

DWORSHAK BASS

One of the great travesties against salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest was the construction of Dworshak Dam and the creation of the reservoir of the same name. Dworshak Dam was built in the narrow canyon where the North Fork Clearwater dumps into the mainstem Clearwater at Orofino, east of Lewiston. Standing 717 feet high, Dworshak was not equipped with fish ladders, so access to vast coldwater spawning habitat was completely lost in 1972, replaced by a 55-mile reservoir. In that same year, state fisheries managers stocked the reservoir with kokanee, and smallmouth bass ended up in the reservoir a short time later.

Known for decades as a special fishery for kokanee and smallmouth with decent trout fishing, Dworshak is in a prime cycle right now. Nowhere in the world is producing bigger

Research on Dworshak Reservoir smallmouth from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game shows the clear correspondence between bass growth during kokanee boom (bottom) and bust (top) years. (IDFG)

(REELTIMEFISHING.COM)

smallies than this forested, largely unpopulated reservoir, with fish pushing 10 pounds caught recently, along with many 6- to 8-pounders. Kokanee populations are booming, and so are the lake’s kokaneegobbling trophy smallmouth.

I’ve fished Dworshak several times throughout my life, covering all of the reservoir except the portion immediately above the dam. My trips have always been wonderful and in summer and with abundant smallmouth to catch, but as Reel Time Fishing’s Wendt and other Dworshak experts know, May or even earlier is prime time for prespawn and spawning female bass. This year, in late April or early May, I will join Wendt and will fulfill a fishing goal by making time for an early-season trip to Dworshak.

“Fishing for monster bass on Dworshak is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do in the spring,” says Wendt. “Dworshak bass are unique because they grow faster and bigger than most anywhere else in the

country. The past few years we have had an explosion of kokanee in the reservoir, millions of them. When there are this many kokanee, they don’t get very big and become easy prey for the smallmouth. As a result, the bass the past couple of years have also exploded in size and numbers of big fish. There were many 8-pound-plus bass landed in the reservoir in 2022, and even a few in the 9-pound range, and I expect those numbers to continue to increase this year. The kokanee population is still very large, and these fish are still gorging themselves into fatness. The catch-and-release record for Idaho was broken twice last year, once in May with a 23.5-incher and again in December with a 23.75-incher. I expect the weight record [9.72 pounds] to be broken this year, as well as the catchand-release record.”

“You can find willing smallmouth year-round on Dworshak, but it takes a great amount of time and electronics to find them in the winter months. There is about a three-week period in

the spring where you will find these big fish on or building their nests, where they can be targeted in water of less than 15 feet and as shallow as 2 feet.”

“During this time I run soft plastics such as the Z-Man TRD Bugz or their Finesse TRD with a Ned rig,” says Wendt. “Swimbaits also work, and some days crankbaits as well as tubes will spark their interest.”

“Dworshak is all about covering water, picking out a spot that looks fishy, and giving it a try. If it doesn’t work, try another spot that is a little different until you find the type of structure they are in. Dworshak can be a tough reservoir to get the big fish out of, but simply put in your time and eventually you will get it dialed in.”

“Another great thing about Dworshak is that it does not lack quantity of bass. What we see after the spawn is the big fish go back to their deep holes, but the smaller fish still hang out in the shallower water. June through August you can catch 100-plus bass a day just working the shoreline. Most fish will

Travis Wendt is one of several guides who book trips to chase Dworshak’s obese smallmouth. Look at the proportions of his mid-May 2022 fish! At 23 1/2 inches long, it was Idaho’s catch-and-release state record for much of last year.

FISHING

be 10 to 14 inches, but this provides a great day of catching for a family outing. Once in a while you will find a 3- to 6-pound fish willing to play in the summer in shallower water.”

“In the summer you can get bit on any type of soft plastic (Senkos, tubes, creatures, bugs, etc.), but one of the most effective setups I’ve found is

drop-shotting with a kokanee-looking fluke or small swimbait. Summertime shallow-water bass are hungry and easy to catch. But if you want to try your hand at the big fish, move your fishing out into much deeper water (greater than 30 feet deep), and target points and ledges. Use your electronics to find these spots, and

look for schools of kokanee. Large swimbaits, drop-shot minnows and vertical jigs imitating kokanee work best when the big fish go deep.”

As good as the fishing is, the stunning setting really caps it off.

“Dworshak is a very special place; not only does it provide a world-class bass fishery, but the scenery here

Like October is for many Northwest sportsmen, May is also a beautiful month to spend time in the outdoors, a midpoint between the heat and drought of summer and cold, moist conditions of winter. (REELTIMEFISHING.COM)

is unbelievable,” says Wendt. “The reservoir is forested from the dam to the headwaters, with epic creeks flowing in every couple of miles where you can target trout, or if you want to split the day up you can also target kokanee. The reservoir is very long, roughly 55 miles from the dam to the moving waters of the North

Fork of the Clearwater. The reservoir provides almost innumerable good bass fishing spots, and even when it may seem crowded on some days on a portion of the lake, there are always nearby spots to find that are out of the way of others. The Corps of Engineers has 80 boat-access-only camping sites, some of which I utilize almost every

summer. Some sites have toilets, others do not, but all have fire rings, tent spots and picnic tables. If you time your camping trip around the 1st of July, the reservoir will be at its fullest, making it easier to access these sites. If boat-in tent camping isn’t your thing, you have state park options – Dent Acres and Freeman Creek. Both have

full-service campsites, boat ramps and docks to leave your boat floating overnight if you’d like.”

Dworshak has very limited services, is home to relatively few boat launches and is a giant body of water that deserves respect. But with that disclaimer behind me, Dworshak and its vast boat-in camping opportunities are amazing, though surely not worth the loss of such vast and irreplaceable salmon and B-run steelhead habitat. If you go, you’ll likely have the run of the lake in May, including its many campsites. Booking a trip with Wendt, his colleague Toby Wyatt or another guide is a great way to ease the learning process.

KIDS AND MORELS

May in the Pacific Northwest offers some of the continent’s best morel mushroom hunting, and I am hooked. I can pick morels solo for a couple days before I am crippled or before I start missing people and want to show off my morels. But I admit that I love picking even more when I introduce friends and family to the sport, especially kids. I look forward to May days in the mountains this spring with kids hollering out “I found one!” and shrieking over finding old elk bones or

Burns are not just good for morels the year after a wildfire. They continue to produce but do decline over time. These beautiful little fire morels popped up the year after 2021’s massive Lick Creek fire on the northeast side of Washington’s Blue Mountains. Picking will again be excellent this May and continuing into June on these burned landscapes. Morels can be found many places outside of burned areas too. (JEFF HOLMES)

a good crop of morels in advance to assure kids’ success. Luckily, that’s pretty easy to do!

Picking in 2022 was amazing across the Northwest, including in my favorite spots. In 2021, the biggest combined wildfire event in Washington’s Blue Mountains in our lifetime burned a combined 124,000 acres of Lick Creek, Tucannon and other state game management units. For comparison, to illustrate the scope of these burns, 2005’s School Fire south of Pomeroy burned 52,000 acres. It was the largest wildfire in the Lower 48 that year. But 2021’s fire felt personal. Some of my favorite spots in the woods are no more, though some survived. In 2022 I found morels galore and expect to pick just as many this year.

jumping a grouse. Getting kids outside and disconnected from technology and in touch with nature feels great, and morel picking is something that’s really easy to get kids tuned into. To engage them, it’s critical that you find

I’ll focus on old firs – especially grand firs – that morels favor as good starting points. I’ll look for filtered light with good cover, swales on hillsides and conifer-needle litter. I will definitely stay below 4,000 feet in April and stick to places that warm early. Four thousand to 5,000 feet

Bag in hand, Mila George, 8, of Kennewick, and Will Holmes, 3, of Cody, Wyoming, get ready to help plunder a steep hillside in the Blues last late spring. Will’s dad and I filled most of a 5-gallon bucket over only an hour while these two conducted a funeral for a chipmunk dug from the ground by a Brittany spaniel. Allegedly, I ran over the grave backing out of the Umatilla National Forest dispersed campsite. (JEFF HOLLMES)

OREGON FLORENCE

Y Marina

(541) 590-3313

www.ymarinaboats.com

PORTLAND

Sportcraft Marina, Inc.

(503) 656-6484

www.sportcraftmarina.com

WASHINGTON

CHINOOK

Chinook Marine Repair, Inc.

(800) 457-9459

(360) 777-8361

www.chinookmarinerepair.com

EVERETT

Boat Country (425) 259-6126

www.boatcountry.com

MOUNT VERNON

Tom-n-Jerry’s Boat Center, Inc.

(360) 466-9955

www.tomnjerrys.net

PASCO Northwest Marine and Sport

(509) 545-5586

www.nwmarineandsport.com

TACOMA

Tacoma Boat Sales & Service

(253) 301-4013

www.tacomaboatsales.com

FISHING

of elevation in May in the Blues is usually perfect, though last year was later due to heavy snowpack and a cool spring, the same pattern we are experiencing this year. Most years, my best picking in the Blues occurs in mid-May, extending well into June depending on weather.

A major key to finding a good crop of fresh morels is timing and remembering that morels emerge at lower elevations in the early season and progressively emerge throughout spring at higher elevations. Explore with a series of short walks in likely looking spots. If you find no morels or tiny morels, go lower. Conversely, if you are running into degrading, spore-covered morels, go higher.

Generally, most pickable public land in the Blues is over 4,000 feet, and it seems the first week of May is a good time to start looking, depending on snowpack and how chilly spring is. Moving around, covering ground and checking different exposures is key. Nothing requires an outdoorsperson to slow down and focus on the microenvironments of the woods like mushroom hunting, and it can become addicting. These beautiful, brainy, honeycomby ’shrooms sell for $30 a pound, sometimes much more. On national forest lands in the Blues, a permit is required for commercial harvest, or if you plan to recreationally pick more than 5 gallons in Washington (1 gallon in Oregon).

Whether you labor for hours or find them quickly, the minute you find one, stop. Slow down. Look all around. There are likely more, and perhaps many more. One little clump of freshly emerged morels likely means there are more around. Pick them and comb the area. Morels often grow along and under fallen logs. Check logs in areas you are already finding them. Search, search, search until your ability to find morels improves – and it will.

Finding success and heading home with bags or buckets of morels feels amazing. These days when I return home with my prized fungi, I sort

my morels into grades, but I sort one fewer grade than I used to. I leave the crumbling, buggy, dark, inky mushrooms in the woods. If a morel has a smell different from the freshies you find, just leave it to release spores. Inky morels don’t taste great and foul the goodness of your freshies.

Oh, and regarding ensuring you are allowing mushrooms to release spores by only picking into a mesh bag so spores can release as you comb the woods: Such lengths are totally unnecessary and myth-based. Similarly, it’s not necessary to neatly slice each mushroom from the earth. You can uproot them all without significant if any consequence, but the downfall to not using a knife is introducing dirt and debris into your beautiful picked mushrooms.

RAZOR CLAMS, SURFPERCH & BOTTOMFISH

I make trips to the ocean to dig razor clams all fall through spring unless domoic acid levels force shellfish managers to close seasons, as was the case for part of this season. However, with all Washington razor clam beaches again open (Oregon’s remain closed at press time), acid levels very low and the daily limit raised from a generous 15 to a whopping 20, I won’t be able to resist another May trip with some surfperch fishing and a day of bottomfishing on the side.

Washington’s last digs of the season, scheduled for May 4-14, will occur during a series of early morning minus tides, and family and I will replicate the awesome trips we took in April to Mocrocks, Copalis Beach and – my favorite place to dig and

Clam bags will hang heavy this month on the Washington Coast as shellfish managers have increased the limit from 15 to 20 clams per dig day through the end of season at midmonth. Digging razors on early morning low tides, followed by redfin surfperch fishing is one of the coolest and most interactive experiences sportsmen can have with the ocean in the Northwest without use of a boat. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

FISHING

to hang out with family – the Long Beach Peninsula and Ilwaco. April and May digs offer the easiest, most enjoyable clamming of the year. Generally speaking, the weather is good, digs are in the morning with no need for a lantern, and the surfperch fishing is fantastic after the digs as low tide gives way to high, erasing thousands of holes scooped by clam diggers and availing the riches of the beach to feeding redfin surfperch.

There are three really good pieces of news when it comes to getting started razor clamming at Long Beach or the other three large beaches where these tasty bivalves live in Washington: 1) The state Department of Fish and Wildlife maybe doesn’t do anything better than it manages razor clams; 2) razor clamming is really easy to be successful at and really fun; and 3) they are big and numerous right now after closures due to high domoic acid levels, which the Department of Health tests for before every dig.

Clam stocks are high, and conditions are excellent to easily extract jacked-up limits of 20 clams per digger. Indeed, there is no natural bounty in the Evergreen State that is so easy to procure and that is so delicious and so available to people of all ages and fitness and ability levels, and there is no better time than springtime morning digs.

Many a seasoned clammer has learned how to dig razors through a combination of using WDFW’s comprehensive and extremely useful online razor clam information (wdfw .wa.gov/fishing/basics/diggingrazor-clams) and trial and error on the beach. WDFW has for years provided the most comprehensive and useful online resources on the internet for everything from understanding regulations to digging techniques to finding clams to cooking them. Pulling 20 of these big, briny, rich-tasting clams out of the sand is not hard, and you can literally just go do it.

There is debate about whether to

use a clam shovel or a clam gun, but for beginners the choice is obvious unless you’re being directly instructed by a clam shovel expert. A clam gun is a PVC or metal tube about 6 inches in diameter and with a handle and an air release hole. It’s your best choice. The Dennis Company in Long Beach and Jack’s Country Store further up the peninsula in Ocean Park stock plenty. The stainless steel ones are spendy but worth it, but cheapo PVC clam guns turn up limits too. Along with a clam gun (or a clam shovel), it’s a good idea to buy one of the mesh clam bags that clip onto your waist, but you will see plenty of diggers with buckets and other lessthan-ideal clam-holding receptacles that are prone to be set down and knocked over by waves.

Once on the beach, head toward the surf watching the beach closely for shows, which is where a clam’s siphon spits water from the saturated beach sand upward. Watching other diggers’ efforts helps, especially if you see them producing clams. Be careful anytime you turn your back to the ocean, but one must to be in prime position for extracting a clam. Face dry land and center your clam gun on a show with the gun at a slight angle leaning toward the surf. Push and twist the gun to dig it deep into the sand, stopping if you feel or hear crunching; repositioning and feathering the gun downward usually helps to recenter the clam for extraction. Once the gun is as deep as it will go, put your finger over the air hole in the handle and lift with the legs to extract a tube of sand. If the clam isn’t in the tube, it’s in the hole. Time to hit the deck and dig in the sand like you were a kid. The clams are surprisingly fast, and digging them out of the holes by hand when needed is really fun.

As for the fishing I’ll do on and around dig days on Long Beach in May, I’ll start my three mornings on the beach by digging clams on morning one, followed immediately

by grabbing an old steelhead spinning setup with a 3-ounce pyramid weight and three hooks tied onto the main line above the sinker, baited with small chunks of the tough neck tips of the razors. I’ll fish right where I will have just dug, heaving my offering into the surf and holding my 10-foot rod aloft to feel for the savage little bites of these 1- to 3-pound fish.

As I set the hook and feel the weight of a fish, I’ll wait 10 to 20 seconds to reel in the hopes I’ll connect with a double or even triple. Then I’ll drag my fish onto a dry portion of beach and unhook it/them and attach to long stringer tied to my waist. Then I’ll head back to the surf and repeat this action. Surfperch can turn a little mushy unless iced immediately and eaten fresh. In this manner they are delicious, but I will also freeze some, removing their guts and gills before doing so. I will then extract these perch throughout the year to make a mellow fish stock to serve as the base for razor clam and salmon chowders.

The other fishing I’ll do will occur on morning two and is much easier and merely requires jumping aboard a boat with Sea Breeze Charters (washingtoncoastfishing.com) for a morning of rockfish and lingcod action with this highly regarded outfit. I’ll reconnect with family after the morning on the ocean and will fry fresh lingcod, yellowtail rockfish and razor clams.

On morning three, I’ll dig limits again with family and will stockpile some more perch for future chowders after the dig. As I write this article, I sit amongst the mess of a living room full of buckets, clam guns, surfperchin’ rods, rain gear and boots. Even before the May digs, I’ll make another run to the ocean, also Long Beach, to dig and fish for perch and bottomfish. Yes, the harvesting of seafood is extremely lucrative, but another draw is the peace and tranquility of Long Beach and Ilwaco in the springtime. This is a great family trip. NS

David Shea has worked at Washington Coast Real Estate for 19+ years, serving all of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties. David is experienced in all types of real estate: residential, commercial, and vacant land. Over the last couple of decades, his knowledge has helped many people and businesses accomplish their real estate goals. Whether you are looking at the beaches, in the Harbor, or east county, he’s the broker to call! Broker Lic# 77524 / Office Lic# 7880

360-268-0977 office 360-970-3024 cell davidshea13@yahoo.com

Washington Coast Real Estate 251 N. Montesano St • Westport, WA 98595 www.wacoastre.com

Shorten Your Perch Search

These little darlings of the waves and jetties are an increasingly popular fishery, but sometimes can be maddeningly hard to find. Here’s help.

By M.D. Johnson

Ihave a friend, surprisingly enough to those who know me. His name is … well, maybe it’s Ted. Ted’s a good guy. A great guy. An educated man who puts his family, as he should, on the top rung of his priority ladder.

Ted’s an outdoorsman; angler, and hunter of various things. A woodsman. A do-it-yourselfer, but not mechanically inclined in the least. A good driver who remembers to turn the blinkers off after changing lanes on the interstate. He buys Girl Scout cookies every year, advocates for fish, wildlife and habitat, and is kind to kittens and (most) people.

What he is not is a surfperch fisherman. Time and time … and time again, he’s bested on the beach, walking back to the rig with his nowusual hang-dog look. Grumbling

about how surfperch are stupid, and – I quote – how the Oregon Coast must be “utterly devoid of surfperch, if such a thing exists?”

Well, Ted, let me see if I can’t help you a bit, shall we? Now I’ve never been accused of being the sharpest tool in the proverbial shed, but dammit, son, I can call a mallard duck, fool a goose and, almost 10 times outta 10, catch a surfperch when I make the trip west to the Long Beach Peninsula. Or Tokeland. Or Westport. The Oregon Coast is just as lousy with spots. So let’s take a few minutes here, and see if we can’t get you started in the right direction.

KNOW

THINE

FOE – OR, THE WHAT

Along the West Coast, there swim several species of surfperch; however, it is but three with which anglers (such as Ted) primarily concern themselves.

Pile perch are the little guys milling around in the boat basins. They, according to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife literature, can grow to 17 inches and weigh more than 4 pounds; however, the state record (1981) came in at 3.5 pounds, a respectable perch in anyone’s book.

The striped surfperch is a handsome devil, wearing shades of copper, gold, orange and blue. Here again according to the WDFW, we have a fish measuring up to 16 inches and weighing in excess of 2 pounds. I’ve caught striped surfperch while targeting the next member of the family, and have, on occasion, done quite well on them using the same tackle and techniques as I do for … Redtail surfperch. Or just redtails. Or sea perch. Or perch. These are the guys I focus my efforts on. Beautifully silver, with the namesake red tails

A long rod, good beach, sturdy bait and rising tide are among the prerequisites for surfperch fishing on the Northwest Coast. There are plenty of opportunities from Neah Bay to Brookings, but finding schools of these nomadic waverunners is the key. (JULIA JOHNSON)

Spring might be the best time of year to fish for redtails and striped surfperch, and jetties at the mouths of various bays offer a, er, perch to angle from. Just be wary of waves and know that the rocky structures are built to aid navigation in and out of harbors, not provide any creature comforts. (JULIA JOHNSON)

and lightly tinged fins – sometimes they’re called pinkfins – these are, to me, the saltwater version of a panfish I grew up with, the white crappie, and darn near as good to eat. Sixteen inches and 4.5 pounds, though the Washington record (1996, Kalaloch) is “just” 4.05 pounds. Poor angler was short-changed, I reckon.

The surfperch clan is nomadic, traveling in schools up and down, here and there, eating the things surfperch eat, which includes marine invertebrates like sandworms and kelp worms, sandshrimp, tiny crabs,

little fish, their own offspring (born alive and in miniature), parts of razor clams – note: remember this one, for it’s important! – and small shellfish. The largest redtail I’ve ever personally seen weighed almost 3 pounds and was caught by my granddaughter, Adrionna, on a mooching rig baited with an 8-inch anchovy fished for silvers off the North Jetty. Interesting.

VARIABLE 1 – THE WHERE

Ted, as I may have mentioned in a brief text the other morning, I believe part of your trouble with surfperch lies in

the fact they’re not everywhere. The Long Beach Peninsula, for example, is 28 miles long; however, you’re not going to find redtails in every one of those 147,840 feet of beach. They’re there. They’re not. They come; they go. Remember the words “school” and “nomadic.”

So where are they? Well, the North Jetty at the mouth of the Columbia, ocean side, is a good place to start. Here, wave action churns the water against the jetty, creating the saltwater version of an all-youcan-eat Sizzler buffet. Head north, and the huge rocks off the popular hangout known as Beards Hollow is another one. Between the two, I’ve always thought the sloping sands of Benson Beach west of and accessed from Fort Canby Park Road inside the state campgrounds would be ideal; definitely worth investigation.

It’s once you hit the peninsula’s beach from Seaview north to Leadbetter Point that things begin to get a little more challenging. Again, perch aren’t going to be everywhere, and where they are at 10 o’clock is where they’re not at 11 o’clock. The best surfperch anglers either have a list of traditional holes, or, because the beach changes twice daily every day, they go at low tide, find the deeper holes/troughs/cuts/pools, drop a pin and return as the flood tide begins. More on timing in a moment.

Further north, I’m partial to the Tokeland area, particularly the stretch of sand south of wellnamed Washaway Beach and north of the Shoalwater Bay tribal lands. Continuing on to Westport, the small finger jetties above the boat basin have proved productive for both redtails and striped perch, as has the big jetty. Remember, though, perch are where you find them. They move; you move.

VARIABLE 2 – THE WHEN

I’m not going to say it’s impossible to catch surfperch on a falling tide, but I will say that you’re going to have better luck on the flood tide. Indeed, regardless of whether you’re standing

on the rocks, the sand or in the surf, I feel safe in saying your most productive fishing is going to be on an incoming tide. Or high slack. Or just after the turn. You want to follow the water in, not chase the water out.

Why? The same reason ducks fly into a tidal marsh on the flood – food. Access to once-dry geography via water sets the table. Ducks know this. Fish know this. There are exceptions, I’m sure, but this is a pretty darn good general rule of thumb when the topic turns around to surfperch.

Now, let’s circle back to that earlier mention of razor clams. WDFW schedules and confirms

Just because there’s surf and sand doesn’t mean there’s surfperch. For starters, the fish are nomadic, here and gone, but finding troughs and other dips during a low tide could help produce biters later as the flood moves up the beach. (BEN

a May morning clam tide/dig on Long Beach. Thousands of people descend on said beach. Sadly, some clams are located, half-dug and then lost. Buckets overturn. Mesh bags spill. Modified gallon milk jugs modify further. And, despite efforts by WDFW to remind folks of the mandate to “keep the first 15 [20 through the end of the 2023 spring season] clams they dig, regardless of size or condition,” a small percentage of unkind enthusiasts – note: that’s as nice as I get on the matter – insist on not retaining those shellfish broken, cracked, cut or otherwise imperfect to their eye. Shame…

What does this mean to the perch angler? Well, given the above situation, we have another veritable seafood smorgasbord. Find a stretch of beach with plenty of people –shouldn’t be tough! – and some deviation in bottom structure (easy to see at low tide/digging time) and then go back once the water starts coming in. Doesn’t always work, but it’s a good strategy if you don’t have an initial game plan.

THINE LINE AND SUCH

Since being introduced to surfperch – thanks, Julie! – in ’93, I’ve seen anglers walk to the water carrying a huge variety of fishing gear. Trout rods to telephone poles with a wagon wheel reel; I haven’t seen it all, but I’ve seen … well, enough. This said, I reckon anything you 1) own or can borrow that 2) holds string, 3) gets the bait of choice into the surf and 4) assists in the retrieval of said perch that bit said bait, well, I can’t argue with that, now can I?

My surfperch gear, whether I’m fishing from the rocks or the sand, is the same gear I use when hunting September silvers from the North Jetty. The first is an 8-foot-6 Okuma SST Series medium-heavy rod matched to an Abu Garcia 5500 Series baitcaster, the latter spooled with 20-pound Cabela’s Ripcord braid. The second is also an 8-foot-6 stick, this one a Lamiglas spinning rod mated to a Pfleuger President 35 spinning reel filled with 20-pound braid.

As for the contents of my tackle pack, I try – though sometimes fail –to keep things simple; thus, that pack includes:

Spool of 10- to 15-pound monofilament;

Selection of quality snap swivels; 5mm beads;

Size 6 baitholder hooks;

Two-pack of Danielson pretied crappie rigs;

Various bank-style sinkers – 1 to 3 ounces;

Three-quarter- and 1-ounce egg style

HOWARD)

sinkers; Needlenose pliers/braid cutters; 2-ounce slip bobbers, beads, bobber stops; Old school snap stringer; Deep-pocket mesh razor clam bag

BAITS: REAL, OR IMAGINARY?

When it comes to surfperch, I’m a bait guy. Yes, I know there’s been plenty written and demonstrated on YouTube about using hard baits, e.g. spinners and small crankbaits, along with twistertail grubs on leadheads in the surf; however, I’ve tried them all and have yet to enjoy success. Maybe I’m just not trying hard enough, but if bait works, then it’s bait for me. What bait?

Clam necks: Talk to 100 surfperch anglers about bait, and I’m going to guess 90 of them will mention razor clam necks. For whatever reason –or perhaps for the razor-clam-dig scenario presented above – clam necks are a tremendous choice. And not only do perch seem to love them, but clam necks stay on the hook indefinitely.

Sandshrimp: The problematic little pinkish-orange critters, I think, are

even more productive than clam necks; in fact, I’m of the opinion they’re by and large the best bait you can use. However, sandshrimp 1) can be a bit expensive if you’re buying them rather than pumping your own, and 2) they’re relatively fragile and a challenge to keep on the hook. Now, Mustad does make what they call a “live bait/liver hook” that resembles a long-shanked safety pin which can help, as can the popular Atlas-Mike’s Magic Thread and other stretchy string, but both require time and don’t change the fact sandshrimp are pretty delicate.

Cocktail shrimp: I’d love to take credit for this one, but it comes from a young man we watched catch perch after perch off the North Jetty. Cocktail shrimp, which are reasonably inexpensive, soaked in garlic Smelly Jelly. That’s all; nothing magical. Threaded on a short shank baitholder hook, and they both foil short-strikers and reduce the need to constantly rebait dramatically.

Nightcrawlers: I don’t know under what circumstances a redtail surfperch and your common everyday ’crawler

would have occasion to cross paths, but I do know they – the worms –seem to work extremely well, and they’re cheap. Pick ’em out of your lawn after dark.

Sandworms: Also known as pile worms and/or kelp worms, these fearsome-looking critters make for topnotch perch bait, if you can find them. I’ve collected some, albeit hit-or-miss, in and around the mussel-covered rocks at Beards Hollow on the Long Beach Peninsula. I’ve also uncovered a few – again, sporadically – while raking steamer clams on Willapa. I have watched a handful of YouTube “influencers” demonstrating the proper way of digging sandworms; however, most are from Australia, and I’m not sure how Aussie worms compare to U.S. worms. Probably they drink more.

Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Sandworms: Here’s where I make my one and only “live bait” exception, and that’s with these, especially in the interestingly named camo color pattern. Typically, I’ll use the 2-inch version; however, if the 6-incher is all I can find, they can easily be cut down to size. Like clam necks, these rubbery multilegged plastics stay on the hook extraordinarily well, and catch perch like gangbusters. Hypocrite though I may be, I’m never without at least one pack of Saltwater Sandworms.

USE THE K.Y.R.S. PRINCIPLE

One of the many reasons I love surfperch fishing is that it’s simple. The gear is simple. The bait is simple. And the fishing methods are – you guessed it – simple, too. There’s no back-trolling. No boon-doggling or bobber doggin’. No planer boards. No $22 flashers, 16-ounce cannonball sinkers or downriggers. No … well, I think you get my point.

Surfperch, and I’m using one of three riggings, all – you guessed it! –simple.

Carolina rig: My mainline goes through a 1-ounce egg sinker, followed by a 5mm bead and a snap swivel. A size 6 baitholder hook on an 18- to 24-inch, 10-pound

A great thing about this fishery is how little specialized gear is required. A two- or threehook leader, durable bait of some sort and a 1- to 5-ounce lead at the bottom will get you started off the beach, while you’ve probably already got all the float fishing gear needed to suspend bait under a bobber off the jetty. (MD JOHNSON)

monofilament lead, bait of choice, and I’m fishing. If I’m feeling adventurous, I’ll peg (toothpick) a size 10 fire tiger or chartreuse Lil’ Corky about 6 inches above the bait; this both holds the bait higher in the water column, and, at least in my mind, serves as a visual attractant. Cast, let the water move the bait, and retrieve slowly.

Bottom/high-low rig: This one’s even simpler. A 1- to 2-ounce bank sinker – note: I’m not partial to pyramids, as I want my bait to move and not stick – gets snap-swiveled to the tag end. I tie droppers at 12 and 18 inches above, fasten one each size 6 snelled baitholders to said droppers, bait up and fish. I’ve always called this one a bottom rig; however, the influencers now refer to it as a high-low rig. To each his or her own. Here, the aforementioned pretied crappie rig –same 1- to 2-ounce bank sinker – can be substituted.

Slip bobbers: My brother-in-law

tried this as a joke from the North Jetty a couple years back, and damn if it didn’t work incredibly well. Again, simple. Bobber stop; tiny bead; bigger bead; 2-ounce Danielson or Beau Mac slip bobber; 5mm bead; 1-ounce egg sinker; 5mm bead; snap swivel; 24-inch 10-pound leader; size 6 baitholder; bait. This one’s like fishing for bluegills, only in a really, really, really big farm pond. True, you’re going to need some reasonably calm water to do this, unless you want to constantly chase your bait and retrieve it from the rocks, but it works. I’ve done this using sandshrimp on a safety-pin hook, both above Tokeland and at Westport, with good results. And experiment with your depth –10 feet, 15, 8 – until you find fish.

TWO FINAL NOTES

First, most surf anglers targeting perch try to heave their bait to Hawaii and beyond, not realizing the number

of fish swimming 50 feet and in from where they’re standing. Remember, surfperch are nomadic, and they’re called surfperch for a reason. The rolling water means food, and food means fish. And often, that fish/food combination is closer rather than farther. Heave away, if you must, Ted, but try it close before you begin questioning the existence of these fine-eating fish.

And most importantly, be careful in the surf. Or on the North Jetty. Any jetty anywhere, for that matter. You get sucked into the Pacific while wearing chest waders, and it’s likely not going to be a happy ending. Weather’s crummy and the surf’s rough? There’s always another day. Watch for logs and other flotsam. Never – or at least try awfully hard not to – fish alone, and if you must fish alone, let someone know where you are and when (you think) you’ll be back. Only takes a minute. NS

Clam bits and sandshrimp are among the best live baits, given they’re what perch are actively seeking out in the surf, but author MD Johnson is partial to Berkley’s Gulp! Saltwater Sandworms in camo. “These rubbery multi-legged plastics stay on the hook extraordinarily well, and catch perch like gangbusters,” he tips. (MD JOHNSON)

Surfperch Sans The Surf, Sand

FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG

By Sara Potter

Pursuing new fish in my slice of countryside has always been exciting and exhilarating. The anticipation of pursuing a fish I have never met before just does it for me!

It’s true, no fish compares to steelhead for this fisher; however, finding a new beauty to pursue once steelhead have concluded their winter run is only natural. Pouring a fair amount of passion into the beach, I connected with some little beauties that take surfing seriously. Having zero direct guidance (just a bit of reading) to fix our approach, I was proud and blown away to find pinkfin surfperch like we did. But what about finding the same fish in a new way? The perch provide just such a rad gift – same fish, two totally different ballgames!

AS MY LOVE for tugs grew, I learned that these family-fun fish leave the surf once a year, making their way into the bays of the Oregon Coast to spawn and feed. These are the only fish I have encountered that give live birth, so it makes sense that they come into calmer waters to give those babies a kiddy pool to gain the strength that surely is needed for a life in the pounding surf.

Timing is everything in fishing and in life, it seems. Years passed without a chance to pursue these little fish on lighter gear, but thanks to an invite from my buddy Tim Abraham of Winchester Bay Charters, son Nathaniel and I were off.

The bank fisher in me knew it was a good time to embrace the boat fishery, as my then-boyfriend/now-husband Ben had himself a boat he was and is quite fond of.

Guide Cole Abraham drops anchor at first light, a good time to fish for surfperch from a boat on Oregon Coast bays in spring. (SARA POTTER)

This would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn a fishery from my guide buddy and then turn around and try it without his guidance. This fishery is low-stress, action-packed fun, and had I not immediately used that newfound knowledge with my own gear, it could have been lost. It wasn’t, and I was able to share it with my love and his eager-to-fish 14-year-old daughter Brooklyn.

RISE AND SLAY is definitely a factor when these surfperch are in the bay. As long as the tides are moving, the earlier the better. These fish spend the majority of their lives surfing about in the waves, chomping away while the rise and fall of the tide churns up the sandy seafloor. So it makes sense that they would bite as the flood comes into the bay. They prefer action to bite, and I whole-heartedly understand that! Everybody loves some live action, even the fish.

Lighter rods, live bait, round sinkers instead of pyramids, big Gulp! worms and shrimp flies – there were some simple adjustments to surfperch beach riggings I’ve used, even though there was still quite a bit of similarity. The thrill is in the bite and that first wind-down of connection for me, so of course the lighter, the better! I want to feel it all! Perching in the bay allowed just that.

It is amazing how much action these fish provide. Whether with a professional or with my family, they do not disappoint. Nate and I got beyond our fill, limiting out with Tim and his son Cole in time for breakfast. One bite after another, singles and doubles. Double rods, double fish! It was quite the show, an action-packed experience for my boy and I. We caught that early-light bite and made the most of it!

Nate Ichtertz holds a beautiful pinkfin, also known as a redtail, he caught early one morning off a boat. Most surfperch fishing is done from oceanside beaches, but bays can provide a good option. (SARA POTTER)

UNION GAP Demo Rides Always Available!

Mercury 150xl 4s, Cockpit Side Wall Rod Holders (3), Forward In-floor Storage Compartment, Hydraulic Steering W/ Tilt Helm, Shock Absorber Seating, Stainless Prop, Trailer, Galvanized Tandem Spring Suspension W/brakes, Upgraded Fish Seats (helm & Passenger), Plus More.

Mercury Pro XS 200HP, AirRide pedestal upgrade, ProRide seat upgrade, Hydraulic steering with tilt helm, Mercury SmartCraft gauge upgrade, SportTop with walkway curtain, Stainless prop, Travel cover, Washdown system, Wheel upgrade, Plus More.

One of our most popular Lund models with something to offer everyone. Getting into a new 19 foot Lund is easy and affordable with packages starting at under $49,000.

Yamaha F200XB V6 4-Stroke, Sport Top w/Full Canvas Enclosure, Helm Controls w/Trim Tabs, In-Floor Fishbox, Washdown System, & Much More! LIMITED SUPPLY !

Thunder

Alexis Pro Mercury 250 HP, Mercury 9.9 EFI Pro Series Kicker, Raised Bow Rails, Net Holder, Alaskan Bulkhead, Suspension Seating, Wash Down Plus much more

Yamaha 200hp 4-stroke, Partial Hard Top with Gullwing Door, Washdown, Dual Wipers, Boarding Ladder, Suspension Seats, Rear Bench to Bed Seats, and More. VERY LIMITED SUPPLY for 2023.

2023 Lund 2025 Impact XS

2023 North River 21 Seahawk

2023 Weldcraft 210 Revolution

Jet 24

2023 Thunderjet 200 Luxor

2023 Lund 1875 Impact XS

Benjamin, on the other hand, isn’t what I would call the earliest of risers, so no, we weren’t there for the sunrise when I returned with him and his daughter. But we were there when the tide was still sucking hard and the three of us found a sweet little pocket of fish. Seeing Brooklyn light up with massive joy once we got the fish to bite warmed my heart. She was so excited to be catching herself some beauties, and that was exactly why I love sharing the passion of fishing. I just kept baiting (one small sand shrimp per hook, hooked through their body cavity with a half hitch around their tails) and getting rigs back down in that somewhat shallow water, and there they’d be, one or two surfperch at a time.

Brooklyn was amazed and smiled so big as she fought and caught the most fish she had ever encountered, as well as her biggest yet. The river momma in me, of course, loved that more than anything. It was a special day that I will never forget. Those are the moments we all should live for. Sharing what you love with others makes you richer than any amount of money, and I love that about fishermen. Bringing great joy to your own heart through others’ success and joy is where it’s at.

THE STUBBORN WOMAN in me is always a bit reluctant to say yes to a guide’s invite, but this fishery and friend helped me to see that it’s OK to say yes, as the personal growth I gained as a fisherman to that unique fishery was instant. I was able to pay it forward while that newly acquired knowledge was fresh in my head. Paying it forward to a girl who dreamed of fish was special, but to bring her and her dad closer together, allowing him to see and feel that joy with his daughter, was beautiful and I hope they know how much that day meant to me.

But most of all, I hope that day is special to their hearts and forever with them. Always learn. Always share. Always care. My heart is on the river and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS

Using her newfound knowledge about how to catch surfperch from a boat, author Sara Potter put her then-boyfriend/now husband Ben Potter and his daughter Brooklyn into a good bite. (SARA POTTER)

Low-tide Delights

L“Touristing” around the beach and basalt rocks, we ogled starfish, we whipped bull kelp at each other, we drew hearts on the sand, and we chased little crabs under rocks. It was good, clean fun.

CHEF IN THE WILD

By Randy King

ow tide was on my right as we drove south down the PCH along Oregon’s Central Coast. Headed from Newport to Waldport, I could see more rocks than I thought was normal protruding out of the ocean. As my family jovially chatted around me, enjoying the view, my instincts as “vacation dad” took over. I pulled us off the side of the highway onto a marked beach access area and we decided to go tidepooling.

Eventually, I started to pontificate about all the shellfish and food that this tide pool could provide. I couldn’t help but notice the staggering amount of blackshelled mussels sticking to the rocks. It was a baffling amount of easy-to-harvest food at our fingertips. My kids, no longer impressed with my vast knowledge of wild game and wild foods, ignored me.

I was a little confused, honestly. It

seemed like the easy Highway 101 access and short walk down to these little buggers would cause them to be overharvested. But they are not, the bag limit is reasonable and the season is long – year-round. I still wonder how overharvest is not an issue. At least with clams you have to dig!

Pushing those thoughts aside, I remembered that I still had a valid shellfish license. While the kids harassed a crab, I started looking for our dinner.

SO THERE I was, ruining the blade on my pocket knife removing small/medium-sized mussels off the rocks. I was very proud of

As Northwest natives say, when the tide goes out, the table is set – in this case, with mussels. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

THAI CURRY MUSSELS

Curry is found all across Southeast Asia. Most agree that it was first made by, not surprisingly, Indians using ginger, turmeric and garlic. Archeological evidence points to the existence of curry up to 2,500 years ago, making it a delicious blast from the past. The word “curry” itself is an Anglicized version of the Tamil word kari. (I looked it up; kari literally just means curry.) The flavors and methods of curry have since spread all over the planet, to the point that my favorite English dish is a curry.

Making a green curry can be a relatively complex process that involves roasting peppers and toasting spices. Or you can just buy premade paste at an Asian market. The paste is never, ever going to be as good as doing the work yourself and making green chili curry, but will do in most cases. It’s like how salsa from the store is never as good as homemade, but sometimes you still want store-bought salsa.

Here’s my Thai green curry mussel recipe:

½ yellow onion, sliced thin

1 tablespoon butter

1 lime, cut in half

½ cup Thai Green Chili Paste

1 can (13.5 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

Salt and pepper

2 pounds cleaned and rinsed mussels

Green onion

Cilantro

Add the sliced yellow onion and butter to a pan large enough to hold all 2 pounds of the mussels. Heat the pan on medium high and cook butter and onions until the onions are translucent, about four to five minutes. Add the lime to the pan, cut side down, and let cook a minute. You want a little bit of brown to form. Next add the chili paste and stir it into the onions and lime. This will “develop” the flavors a little. Cook

the paste for about one more minute. Now add the coconut milk and stir it in. Allow the coconut milk time to mix completely with the other ingredients. Taste the mix – season with salt and pepper if needed. Add more chili paste if needed.

Next add the cleaned and rinsed mussels to the pan and turn heat to medium. Stir to coat the shells with the sauce. Cover the pan and let the curry mix return to a boil. When almost all of the shells are open, the dish is about done. Check for shells that do not open when tapped lightly. Toss out all the shells that do not open on their own or with a light tap.

Stir the sauce around to make sure it soaks into all the little hunks of meaty goodness in the shells.

I love this dish with some bread to soak up the sauce, and rice would be a good option too.

For more wild game recipes, see chefrandyking.com. –RK

Thai green chili paste and coconut milk mussels. (RANDY KING)

RUSTLING MUSSELS

If you’ve never collected, cleaned or cooked mussels, here are some pointers I’ve discovered:

Harvesting: A pro tip I learned later is to use leather gloves for harvesting mussels. With gloves on you can just twist and pull the bivalves free of the rocks they are stuck to. I wish I had known this before ruining my knife. Now I know, and that is good.

Transporting: Keeping your shellfish cool, no matter the species, is best practice. Immediately after harvest place the shellfish in a cooler with ice. The cool temperatures will stop most of them from dying and allow you to transport them for several days, if needed. Do not let them sit in melted ice water, if possible. Drain standing water from the cooler as needed.

Cleaning: A quick scrub in freshwater is always advisable with mussels. Getting the last bits of barnacle, sand and seaweed off the outside of the shells is best practice. While you only eat the inside contents, whatever is on the outside of the shell is what seasons the dish first!

Debearding: Mussels attach themselves to rocks via a sticky tether, or “beard.” These beards are not, to quote Alton Brown, “good eats.” They are best removed right before cooking. I have found that mussels tend to not like hunks being forcibly removed from

their body. I am not sure if debearding kills them, but they don’t like it. Dead boys: When harvesting mussels, sometimes you end up with some that are not as fresh as they could be. Dead ones, even. These need to be removed from the batch before cooking or they could potentially spoil the dish. If the shell is open and does not close when touched, the mussel is probably dead and needs to be tossed out. Look closely at every single shellfish you eat.

Unfortunately, I have had firsthand experience messing this process up. Two things have happened to me. Thing one: I cooked a mussel that was full of sand and rocks, and it ruined the whole dish. Thing two: I cooked a spoiled mussel, and it ruined the whole dish.

Cooking: Cooking mussels is like cooking a clam. When the shell opens from the heat, they are probably cooked just right. Simmer/steam them until all the shells you can see are open. A gentle tap on the shells and a bit of a stir will help you sort through the batch. If most are open but some “refuse” to do so, just toss those out. It is not worth prying open a sandfilled shell in your dish. Better to just get rid of it. And remember, salt, pepper and fat are all your friends. –RK

myself as I loaded the small bag into the cooler in our rig. Well, until I told my wife we had to call a hotline to triple check if the mussels I wanted to eat were edible. I mean, there hadn’t been any warning signs at the access site, but she was, to say the least, skeptical.

“If you catch a fish in the river at home, do you need to call a hotline?” she asked.

“I don’t need to call a hotline,” I said, closing the trunk of our Ford Explorer.

“What about when you shoot a deer?”

“I do not,” I replied.

“What happens if you eat them … and they are bad?” she asked.

At this point I started to look sheepish. “Well, we could die …”

“You,” she interjected.

“I could die, or … or I could come down with paralytic shellfish poisoning.”

At this point, I could tell I had lost her on the idea of feeding these blackrock-clinging bivalves to my family that evening. No matter how many times I explained that we were safe, the very idea that paralytic shellfish poisoning was a thing shut her off to the idea of feeding her babies mussels. Never mind that just the day before we’d eaten clam chowder I made from clams I’d dug in Alsea Bay. I just never told her I’d called the hotline number that day. I was bound and determined to eat them.

The idea that you must call a number – 800-448-2474, by the way – to find out if your potential dinner is going to kill you or not is objectively hilarious.

Don’t get me wrong, I am very very grateful for the hotline. I have on several of our trips to the coast not dug shellfish due to warnings. But at no point while eating an Idaho rabbit have I ever pondered whether or not the tingling in my lips was from paralytic Leporidae poisoning or the green chili I added to the stew. Call the hotline.

BACK IN OUR yurt at an Oregon State Park campground, I found myself making green curry and coconut milk mussels. I chuckled to myself about the silliness of it all. I had only taken about a pound off the side of a low rock.

They were wonderful, and I ate them all by myself. NS

It takes muscles to pull mussels, and given the sharpness of their sometimes barnacle-encrusted shells, good gloves are advisable. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

Down The

Deschutes

By Anthony Clements

Several years back, my good friend Eddy invited me on a camping and fishing trip along Northcentral Oregon’s beautiful Deschutes. We have since made it an annual adventure with friends. Every year I come back to enjoy the serene beauty of the basalt cliffs and sunsets on the beautiful river.

Anglers come from all around for late spring’s salmonfly hatch on the Deschutes, the ultimate fly fishing experience that the Northwest has to offer. They drift the river in pontoons, boats and rafts. We start at the Warm Springs Reservation and load the drift boats with all of our camping gear, meticulously balancing it for the fiveday excursion. We always hit our trip before Memorial Day Weekend so we can have a fire, since after the holiday the burn ban goes into effect. If you have a campfire, it must be contained.

DRY FLIES AND nymph patterns are the most effective this time of the year and it’s best to match the stoneand salmonflies that are hatching. These are enormous bugs reaching 3 inches long. The trout sit close to the shorelines gorging themselves on the bugs that fall carelessly into the river.

Large numbers of native redside rainbows will not disappoint any eager angler willing to put in the work and cover ground. It is not uncommon to catch a dozen-plus trout in a day. Although risky, casting under trees is always a good bet to get a fatty to smash your dry fly. Opportunistic trout lurk there in hopes that an unlucky bug drops from the overhanging limbs.

If you choose to nymph fish and

The month of May is a great time to fish the famed Northcentral Oregon river for redband rainbows.

As the Deschutes flows below basalt bluffs on its way to the Columbia, the river provides excellent spring fishing for native redband rainbows. (BOB WICK, BLM)

FISHING

use a strike indicator, be sure to work seams by casting upstream and letting the current take your pattern downstream until you see your bobber sink. When I nymph, I constantly adjust my float depending on the depth of water I am fishing. I generally will fish two nymphs 18 to 24 inches apart, with a very small split shot in between the flies.

My rod of choice is a 5-weight. I fish nothing fancy when it comes to my fly rods. One is an Okuma and the other

A very popular waterway, the Deschutes also comes with restrictions not seen on most other Northwest streams. All boaters are required to acquire a pass, which are available in limited quantities, and anglers can only fish from the bank. (ANTHONY CLEMENTS)

TROLLING MOTOR MOUNT

The #MK02 Trolling Motor Mount accommodates some Minn-Kota, Garmin, and Lowrance bow mount trolling motor’s installation in any of the LeeLock Quick Change Bases. Simply slide your Motor Mount on the base and lock it in with the pin. The #MK-02 Motor Mount will fit in the LeeLock #QB-01 Quick Change Base, the #QBR-01 Quick Change Bow Roller Base or either of the bases that are sold with the Large Anchor Can Assemblies (#LCA-02 and #LCA-03

LEELOCK CRAB CRACKER

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

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

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

FISHING

is a Reddington four-piece rod. It all comes down to personal preference, but a 5-weight is a great size rod for trout on this river. They average 7 to 14 inches, with many more in the 15to 20-inch range, and bigger.

I will always have a dry fly rod and a nymph rod with me when hiking the shores. I carry both setups so I can adjust to the different fishing spots I come across. With 3,500 fish per mile in the 50-mile stretch below Pelton Dam, which is just above the US 26 bridge at Warm Springs, and 1,700 fish per mile downstream of that, the Deschutes is a blue-ribbon fly fishing destination for beginners and seasoned veterans alike.

THERE ARE MANY campgrounds along the banks of the river. The drift we make starts at Warm Springs and we take out at Trout Creek. We drift down the first day approximately 4 to 5 miles, find a good area to camp, and then set up camp. Keep in mind this can be a very busy time of year

This time of year trout are keying in on hatches of ginormous salmonflies, as well as stoneflies. Many of the fish run 7 to 14 inches, but redbands – a unique inland type of stay-at-home steelhead –can stretch the tape to 15 and even 20 inches. (ANTHONY CLEMENTS)

on the river. Pit and vault toilets can be found at all established Bureau of Land Management campsites.

Be sure to get your required boater pass if you float the river (search for “Lower Deschutes River Boater Pass” at recreation.gov). Fishermen who hike in do not need to acquire a permit. Also be sure to note that the west side of the river is the Warm Springs Reservation and a pass available through the tribe is required to fish their banks of the river. By law, fishing on the Deschutes cannot be done from a boat, so you must wade the riffles or fish from the banks on the river. Most of our fishing is done while hiking along the river after we’ve set up camp.

Be cautious on this river. It is very common to run into rattlesnakes. One year we saw a total of eight rattlesnakes, if I recall correctly, just in our five-day trip.

Usually after setting up camp, I throw out my collapsible crawdad

HUNTING FISHING

traps. It’s always nice to enjoy a crawfish and trout dinner one of the nights at camp. The daily limit is two trout per day, and they can only be

between 10 and 13 inches.

Come enjoy the peace and tranquility of floating or hiking this beautiful scenic river, but please

Snowpack runoff may be heavier than usual this season, but not much can match the camaraderie of fish camp set in this wild canyon as the world greens up, arrowleaf balsamroot blooms and trout bite. (ANTHONY CLEMENTS)

Time For Kokanee

Iknow, there is a lot of fishing going on right now, but if you haven’t chased kokanee salmon before (or it’s been a very long time), this might be the year to try your luck. After all, these mostly easy-to-catch landlocked salmon are pretty scrappy for their size and their brilliant-colored, oil-filled flesh is delicious – no matter how you don’t overcook or smoke it.

In mid-March of this year, I joined Addicted Fishing pro and celebrity fishing guide Cameron Black of Gone Catchin’ Guide Service (360-921-5079) for a day on Lake Merwin. As you might know, the reservoir is located behind the first of three dams on Southwest Washington’s North Fork Lewis River. We launched at Speelyai Bay Park, which is a 30-minute drive up the river/lake east of Woodland, along I-5.

Because you need a boat to be successful at kokanee fishing and the fact that it’s mostly fast fishing (on Merwin, the daily limit is 10 fish per person), Black’s guiding operation attracts a lot of families, teams where parents, sons and daughters can enjoy an action-packed day catching kokanee from his 26-foot power boat.

My trip with friends was about sharing an outdoor outing, reliving past fishing and hunting adventures, getting to know Black better and making new memories while reeling in limits of fat kokanee.

THE GUIDE USES a variety of small lures to catch kokanee, all fished in combination with a Brad’s Kokanee Dodger. And although the Brad’s dodgers are what we used earlier this year, Black reports equal luck while trolling Arrow Flash Dodgers produced by Poulsen Cascade. What these and other small dodgers provide when pulled through the water is flash and vibration that attracts fish. In addition, they impart a pulsating, alluring action

Yes, Buzz Ramsey fishes for kokanee too! You know him as mainly an angler of salmon fresh from the ocean, but he’s found success pursuing landlocked sockeye in Washington and Idaho waters. This nice one bit for him at Anderson Ranch Reservoir, outside Boise, last year. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

BUZZ RAMSEY

into the lures rigged on a leader behind them. The shorter the leader, the faster the action produced.

Kokanee can be finicky about the exact pulsating action they will strike, so using the right leader length is important, as is your trolling speed. According to Black, the most productive trolling speed on Merwin is generally between 1 and 1.3 mph, with 1.3 being the speed that most often produces best.

Unlike trout and other species of salmon, kokanee do not feed on larger forage like minnows. Instead, they are filter feeders and their gill rakers allow them to consume smaller forage like zooplankton, insects and freshwater shrimp. The popular theory is that kokanee strike vibrating lures that have just the right pulsating

action out of excited aggression.

As the number of fish we caught started to pile up that day, we noticed the majority were coming on the silver/ red-head-colored Spin-N-Glo with both trailing hooks tipped with shoepeg corn. This was no surprise to Black, as it’s been his top-producing color in recent years. However, because kokanee can be picky about what they will and won’t bite, he makes it a regular practice to keep a variety of different baits in the water. Our two-rod license allowed us to have eight lines trailing out behind his boat.

WITH MERWIN’S CLEAR water, Black had us position our lures 150 feet back while trolling. He told us that because the fish are boat-shy, it’s important to get the lines

out at least 100 feet, especially during the early season when the fish are foraging near the surface. Interestingly, he likes having all the lines out the same distance from the boat, rather than staggered at different distances, like is often done when chasing trout. According to Black, having the flashers and trailing bait close together seems to better coax the always finicky kokanee into biting.

Given that our trip was in mid-March, the kokanee we caught averaged 10 to 12 inches in length. Of course, their size will increase as the season progresses, with Merwin fish reaching 14 to 15 inches by late July or August, before they migrate into their parent stream to spawn.

And while kokanee average 10 to 15 inches on many lakes and reservoirs

Fishing guide Cameron Black has a big, comfortable boat capable of hosting up to six anglers. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

What caught the most kokanee on the author’s March trip with Black was a size 12 Spin-N-Glo lure rigged 10 to 12 inches behind a dodger. A few bit a Brad’s Kokanee Cut Plug too, which, due to its built-in action, was rigged 14 to 18 inches behind the dodger. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

In addition to employing dodgers to attract kokanee and impart the needed pulsating action into his trailing lures, some anglers use two Fish Flash flashers rigged off a halibut spreader and attached at the end of a downrigger cable (between line release and downrigger

throughout the Pacific Northwest, they do grow bigger on some lakes under the right conditions. For example, Lake Roosevelt can produce fish up to 25 inches. In 2010, Oregon’s Wallowa Lake produced a worldrecord kokanee that measured 27¾ inches and pulled the scale down to 9.67 pounds. Growth rates are tied to a lake’s kokanee population; the fewer fish in a year class, the bigger individuals tend to get.

LAST YEAR, I traveled to Idaho during the

third week of July and chased kokanee with friends Mitch and Shirley Sanchotena on Payette Lake, and Lucky Peak and Anderson Ranch Reservoirs. Being later in the season, the kokanee we caught averaged 17 to 20 inches in length and fought especially well for fish of that size.

Because kokanee prefer 50-degree water, the fish were running deeper in the water column than compared to my March trip on Merwin. For this reason, we used downriggers to get deeper and found

ball) to draw fish into their gear. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

Mitch and Shirley Sanchotena show off a kokanee caught while trolling one of several Idaho lakes and reservoirs with the author during the third week of July last year. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

The tackle Ramsey used on Merwin was pretty standard, consisting of 8-foot light-action trolling rods equipped with linecounter baitcasting reels, 30-pound superline and 12-pound fluorocarbon leaders. While you can use lighter gear for these soft-mouthed fish, having tried it, Black is not convinced doing so will increase your rate of success. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

Most commercially offered kokanee trolling lures, as well as those that anglers rig themselves, are tied with two single hooks snelled in tandem. To maximize their effectiveness, each hook is tipped with shoepeg corn or a maggot. A Berkley Gulp! maggot is a good alternative to the real thing. Adding scent like Rooster Tail Scent Spray or Pro-Cure in the shrimp or bloody tuna flavor can trigger strikes too. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

success running our lures 35 feet down. Because the fish were running deeper and they didn’t seem to spook from our boat, we ran our lines back 20 feet or so from our downrigger release clips.

And while we mostly used ’riggers to target the fish-producing depth, we ran a few lines deep by attaching 2-ounce trolling sinkers 3 feet ahead of our dodgers. To keep these lines from tangling with

those attached to our downriggers, we ran them 70 to 100 feet behind the boat. Since kokanee are known to just follow lures and not strike them, one trick Mitch uses when trolling is to momentarily speed up and then cut his boat speed. Doing this often produces bonus strikes from following fish. Our rigging was similar to what we used while fishing with Black, as we trolled

Fast Limit, Kokabow and Simon Dodgers in combination with Spin-N-Glo Kokanee Rigs, which feature a mini squid in their makeup. We tipped both trailing hooks with a Gulp! Maggot and/or shoepeg corn. Our trolling speed averaged 1.3 mph. NS

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

3 Experts On Kokanee Dodgers

Action trumps

attractors.

By Tom Schnell

When it comes to kokanee fishing, what is the most important component? Dodger? Lure? Color? Leader length? Depth? Speed? Scent? Something else?

This debate can bring on many opinions and stories. At any one time any and all of these factors play a role. But if there is one that stands out, it may be the dodger. Ask any hardcore kokanee angler about their dodger collection and they will produce a myriad of different-sized, -shaped and -colored attractors, of which they will confess that they have their chosen few they like to fish. So how does one go about choosing the right dodger to fish?

I was able to reach out to two of the Pacific Northwest’s top kokanee dodger manufacturers and distributors – Tom Hester, owner and operator of Poulsen Cascade Tackle/ Arrow Flash (poulsencascadetackle .com), and Scott Kaul, owner and operator of Brad’s Killer Fishing Gear (bradskillerfishinggear.com) – along with Gary Miralles, former owner of Shasta Tackle, and talk to them about kokanee dodgers and the most important things about the attractors.

ALL ABOUT THAT ACTION

Tom Hester Action is the most important thing. You want as wide of wash on the action as possible without it

flipping or rolling over. You want that dodger to kick like a mule.

Scott Kaul There are no guarantees when it comes to kokanee

fishing, or fishing in general, for that matter.

But for me the most important thing is action. If there was one component to the

all, but there are other important facets to these

Having a wide variety of different kokanee dodgers can be important. Understanding the action each one produces at different speeds will dramatically improve your chances of success. (TOM SCHNELL)

Tom Hester Scott Kaul

overall setup for kokanee fishing that is the most important, I would say it is the dodger, since the dodger provides action, color and vibration.

The vibration provided by the dodger is important because a fish senses its surroundings by its lateral line. (The lateral line is a system of organs on a fish that is used to detect vibration, movement and pressure changes in the surrounding water.)

The vibration imitated by the dodger is picked up by the kokanee, which then draws them into your presentation.

From there, action takes over.

The action provided by the dodger is critical. Action is key. Fish are attracted more to the action of the dodger than to the color. Once they get to your dodger, then they will hone in on the lure. The lure often just adds additional action to entice the fish to hit the bait, usually either corn or maggots.

Gary Miralles The

Sling Blade is my preferred dodger because it can be manipulated (bent) to run slow or fast. Plus, depending on how and where you bend it, you can create a totally different action to your presentation.

COLOR IMPORTANT, TO A DEGREE

Kaul Does color matter? Yes, but color does not trump action. The action of the dodger is what draws the fish into your setup. From there, color becomes important, but again it is not the color that originally draws them in; it’s the action. Some generalities, in my opinion, are to use dark colors on dark days and bright colors on bright days. If it is overcast, then I will usually start off running a copper or half-chrome/ half-copper finish. If it is sunny, then usually silver and sometimes gold.

As far as adding color to the dodger, the three primary colors I like are pink, orange and chartreuse. In cooler water situations, like wintertime or when running deeper when fish are on a thermocline, I will add in purple and blue, as they show up better the deeper you go. Pay attention to what the fish are telling you. That will even change throughout the day.

Hester When it comes to metal color, my starting color is gold. Gold can be seen under a broader spectrum of conditions than most other metals. Copper gives off a different look under low light and turbid conditions, so it is a good color for dark, overcast days or in turbid water. On brighter days, try silver deeper and nickel shallower.

As far as painted colors, color is important, but not as important as the action imparted by the dodger. I start off with pink and then go from there. If fishing deeper, I may even go with purple. Our gold with UV Moon Glow is a great producer as well.

One controversy regarding UV is that kokanee do not see pure UV light like we do. What they do see is the brightening of the color from the UV. Some fish do see pure UV light, but salmonids, of which kokanee are, do not except for when they are smolts. This helps the smolts see their

Different colors of dodgers, like those in silver/chrome, gold/brass or copper, will perform differently under various conditions. Light intensity, water clarity, waves and other factors impacting how much light is penetrating the water column can determine what color to go with. (TOM SCHNELL)

Gary Miralles

food source better. As they mature, their eyes change and they no longer see the pure UV light like when they were juvenile fish.

WEIGHTY MATTERS

Kaul Dodger size and weight matter also. Size comes back to action. Larger and wider dodgers tend to give off more action. Many of the slimmer dodgers can be bent to give them more or less action. We have both light and heavy dodgers in our lineup. I really like the heavy ones for long lining, as I can put them out 150 to 200 feet behind the boat and not have to use any additional weight. Just the weight of the dodger will take them down 10 to 12 feet.

Both size dodgers have their application. Just pay attention to what action they are transmitting at the speed you are trolling. Speaking of size, the size of the bait (lure) behind the dodger really does matter. Too large of bait behind too small of dodger will kill the action. The weight of the bait will not allow the dodger

to transmit the action to the bait as it should.

Hester The Arrow Flash has an interesting history to it. It originally started off as an Uncle Elmer Lake Troll blade that we decided to punch a hole in the other end and make it into a salmon wobbler. Knowing that it performed well in slower water for salmon, I knew it would work as a kokanee dodger but just never had the time to test it out.

One day I asked Jeremy Jahn with Kokaneekid Fishing if he would be willing to try it out, as he was using our Cousin Carl Lake Troll for kokanee at Odell Lake. He reluctantly said yes and the next day he called me from the lake saying that we had a winner here. Most of the fish he had caught were from using the new Arrow Flash dodger. We still make it here in the US. The metal is sourced here, it is stamped and painted here, and even the hardware is all US-made.

When it comes to metal, we use either brass or copper, as they are very similar in properties to each other. They are both denser than steel and give us the weight-to-area ratio that works well to keep the action going. There is a sweet spot between being too light and being too heavy. We then plate them with either silver,

nickel or gold if we are not running them in their natural color of brass or copper. Each metal gives off a different color flash in the water. Take silver, for example. Silver has a much brighter light-reflecting quality to it than nickel. Silver will retain its brightness much deeper than nickel and also in turbid water. Nickel almost shows up as black when it goes deeper in the water, as it does not reflect light like silver does. The same goes when comparing gold and brass. Now, you don’t always want a lot of flash, especially on bright days and in the top 10 to 20 feet of water. Too much flash can actually scare the fish.

TERMINAL ZONE

Hester As important as color is on the dodger, what is more important is what is on the business end. The dodger attracts the kokanee in, but it is the lure attached to it that the fish will focus on. This is where color matters. They will either hear the hydro-sonic wavelength or see the flash of the dodger and then come in to check it out, where they will then see the bite-size lure behind it. Make sure to match the color to what the fish are wanting and be willing to change it around, as it can change daily and even hourly. This is where having the right action is critical. I like as much

Some lures, like the Brad’s Kokanee Cut Plug, will produce their own action and can act almost like a second dodger. (TOM SCHNELL)

Matching the correct lure with the correct dodger action can make the difference between catching fish and going home frustrated. Here, a Brad’s Kokanee Dodger paired with a Dutch Fork Custom Lure Kokanee spinner produced this kokanee. (TOM SCHNELL)

CONNECTICUT

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE

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

kick as possible being imparted to the business end, whether it be a spoon, spinner or hoochie. With more action happening on the business end, it also means that they are more likely to get hooked as well.

Miralles Early season, I like to use a smaller presentation and typically use smaller baits, like small Wedding Rings, Kok-A-Nuts or micro hoochies. I usually run the glow series early until the sun is up, then I switch out to the UV patterns. Pink and orange are often my first choices.

Color comes into play as you drop down. Water is like a prism. Shallow: run red and orange. Middepth: chartreuse and green. Deep: blue and purple. Glow comes into play in low light and deep water. Silver on sunny days while copper and gold, or bright painted colors, on dark days.

Late in the season, as the fish mature, action is the key. Fish more aggressive baits like spoons, such as Hum Dingers and Cripplures, along with Wiggle Hoochies. Use larger dodgers and increase your speed at times. Running shorter setbacks can work as well. Ball trolls and attractors can also be beneficial. The larger fish will often be paired up and sitting near the bottom or around structure.

MIND THE GAP

Hester Because I want as much action as possible being transmitted to the business end of the rigging, I like leader length of 8 to 12 inches. Much longer and you are not getting the full impact from the action of the dodger. I also like stiffer leaders too, anywhere from 12- to 14-pound test. Shorter and stiffer leader both help the dodger to really transmit that mulekick action to the presentation, which makes the fish hit it aggressively.

Kaul Regarding leader length, leader length is absolutely critical. It can make or break your day. There is a direct correlation between the leader length and the action of the dodger. I run my leaders as short as 8 inches and rarely over 15 inches behind my dodger to my lure. Most of my leaders are in the 10- to 12-inch range.

In the spring and in colder water where the fish may be more sluggish, I will run longer leaders so as to not impart as much action, as the fish tend not to be as aggressive. As the water warms up and we get closer to the fish spawning, I will run shorter leaders, as they become more aggressive.

Even with our Kokanee Cut Plugs that impart their own action, I will run them between 8 and 15 inches. The Kokanee Cut Plug acts almost like a second dodger. We have seen underwater footage where the kokanee hones in on the bait after being attracted by the dodger and lure, so to me it really does come down to the action of the dodger. The

One of the most important factors in matching the lure to the dodger is leader length. Test the dodger/ lure combination to make sure the leader is providing the action from the dodger to the lure that the fish want. The length behind this Arrow Flash dodger produced the results that one should look for. (TOM SCHNELL)

dodger is what gives your lure the action it needs to entice the kokanee to hit it, so the first thing I will change out is the leader length.

Rarely will I go all in, though. If I find that they are wanting a 10inch leader and I am running five rods, I will change three out to 10inch leaders, then I will run one at 8 inches and another between 12 and 15 inches. I do this because you never know when the fish may change their minds. If you are not mixing it up, you will never know what you could be missing. These fish can be finicky at times.

Miralles Water temperature can also come into play early. If the warmest water temp is under 50 degrees, I like to troll 1 mile per hour and will run my lures a greater distance back from the dodger than normal. With

a normal setback on baits with no action, like hoochies and Kok-ANuts, I run (a leader) one and a half to two times the length of the dodger. In super-cold conditions, the setback is three times. This will present a more subtle action to less active fish. In early season, work the shallow water areas in search of warmer water temperatures. Finding 2- or 3-degree differences in water temperature will often make the day successful.

SPEED AND ITS LIMITS

Hester Regarding speed, let the fish tell you how fast to troll. Optimum speed for me is between 1.5 to 1.6 mph. Anything over 2 mph and the dodger (Arrow Flash) will start to flip. It will troll much slower; I just like as much kick as possible. The best thing to do is to put it beside the boat while you are trolling and watch the dodger to see what speed is optimum for the maximum action that it is imparting. Kaul Too many people focus on the exact speed to troll instead of how their gear is working. They miss too many opportunities because they are too focused on the speed. Speed can be important, but for me the action of the dodger is more important than the exact speed.

Let’s face it, kokanee fishing is an active sport. To be most successful it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it situation. There are times when you put a rod out and it has that exact action you are looking for and you just know it is going to get bit. Speed will impact the action of the dodger and what is important is to troll at a speed that imparts the right amount of action based on the dodger you are using. If you are not sure what speed to troll, you can do several different things. Even when I am using downriggers, I have one rod set up as a long-line rod to see what speed I need to be trolling at. I want to see how the dodger is working based on the thump of the rod.

Another method I use is to troll in either an S or figure-8 pattern and to see what rod is being hit. If the outside rod in the turn gets hit,

it means I need to speed up and give my presentation more action; if the inside rod, I need to slow down and possibly lessen the action.

Another factor that can impact the speed that you are trolling at is current. Most people don’t think about lakes having currents, but they do. For example, if you are fishing a reservoir and they are drawing it down, there will be some type of current. When you have even the slightest of current and you are trolling at the same ground speed, you will be going faster in the water one way and then slower the opposite way. That is why it is so important to watch the action of your dodger and not necessarily the speed at which you are going.

TIPS & TRICKS

Hester My final piece of advice is do not get stuck pulling the same thing around all day if it is not working. Be willing to switch things around to what the fish want.

Kaul One trick I have learned kokanee fishing is when you have a fish hit but not stick, throw the boat into neutral briefly to let the dodgers start to sink, then kick it into gear and speed up just temporarily. I have found that it helps draw in a ton of strikes. Kokanee swim in schools, so there are usually multiple ones chasing your bait. Kokanee will chase a bait for a long time and that change in speed will often stimulate a strike response in them. I have found that on some days 75 percent of the time this method gets me another opportunity for a hookup.

Another trick I have found is to put two dodgers in tandem. Sometimes the extra action provided by the two dodgers is what the kokanee are looking for. It gives a different action and sets off different vibrations than just running a single dodger.

One thing I have learned is there is no one absolute in fishing, period. Otherwise, it would be called catching and not fishing. There is a trend where everyone is looking for that magic bullet, especially the weekend

One advantage of Sling Blade-style dodgers is that they can be bent and shaped to adjust to varying fishing conditions. Here are two older Shasta Tackle Sling Blades that have been refurbished with Hyper-Vis Tape and bent, giving them more action at slower speeds. (TOM SCHNELL)

warriors. There is no magic bullet when it comes to fishing. There are too many variables to consider when fishing. To name a few: water temperature, water color, time of the year, rain, barometer changes, sunlight, wind, cloud cover, water current, etc. One of the most critical things I have found in fishing is to never try and tell the fish what they want. Try different things and let the fish tell you what they want. The key is to pay attention to what the fish are telling you as to what they want and then give it to them.

My final piece of advice is to never stop learning. Once you stop learning, you will start going backwards. I am constantly learning new things from watching and talking with others. Miralles Always start off the day with a variety of baits and colors to find the most productive ones and then move in that direction. If the bite shuts off on one technique, then switch and continue to switch out until you find another productive pattern.

BRINGING IT ALL HOME

After I spoke with Tom, Scott and Gary, it is very apparent to me that dodger action is everything. It also explains why sometimes a certain dodger setup will outperform others. Adjust your speed, leader length and color based on the current fishing condition. If it is not working, change it up. Do not be afraid of trying different setups until you find the one the fish want and then be ready to change it when it no longer produces. Great advice from three very experienced kokanee fishermen.

Tight lines and fish on! NS

Editor’s notes: This is part three in author Tom Schnell’s spring-summer series on fishing for kokanee. In February and March he covered fishery basics and rods. Later this season he will talk lures. Schnell is an avid outdoorsman who lives with his wife Rhonna in Central Oregon. He is a past board member of Kokanee Power of Oregon and a past local Ducks Unlimited and Oregon Hunters Association president.

Matching lures: NEW Kokanee Krill, Beaded Spinners, Super Squids, Spin Bugs Only the finest fluorescent (“UV”) materials used. Tandem Gamakatsu hooks.

OREGON MEDFORD CRATER CHAINSAW

1321 North Riverside (541) 772-7538

www.craterchainsaw.net

MOLLALA

MOLALLA ACE HARDWARE 107 Robbins St (503) 829-2022

www.acehardware.com/store-details/15718

SEASIDE SEASIDE ACE HARDWARE

39 S Holladay Dr (503) 738-3053

www.acehardware.com/store-details/15488

ST. HELENS

ST. HELENS ACE HARDWARE

155 S. Columbia River Hwy (503) 366-1363

www.acehardware.com/store-details/17641

WASHINGTON

BATTLE GROUND BATTLE GROUND ACE HARDWARE

1605 W Main St (360) 702-0123

www.acehardware.com/store-details/15918

WHITE SALMON WHITE SALMON ACE HARDWARE 250 E Jewett Blvd (509) 493-8586

www.acehardware.com/store-details/16413

WOODLAND

WOODLAND ACE HARDWARE

1355 Lewis River Rd (360) 225-6526

www.acehardware.com/store-details/14789

BEST OF ALASKA LODGES/CHARTERS

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.

Now Booking for 2023 Coho Fishing Trips

Included in your fishing trip:

• 5 days fishing/5 nights stay in camp

• Experienced, fully guided fishing.

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

• Home cooked meals, snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages.

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

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

details.

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!

Apply Yourself In May – To Tags, Tinkering

ON TARGET

By Dave Workman

While a lot of people are still spending time in the field looking to clobber a spring turkey, others who have their eyes permanently affixed to the fall hunting seasons need to get busy if they want a chance at snagging a special tag or scoring a single- or multiple-species permit via the raffle route.

Spring turkey season runs to the end of this month in Washington and Oregon, and with milder weather, longer daylight hours and a fair number of longbeards still strutting their stuff, there is no reason to stick the shotgun back in the closet.

But if you’re a permit application junkie, this is your month to get busy. The deadline in Oregon is May 15, while in Washington it’s May 24. Beaver State draw results are posted by June 12 and to Evergreen State hunters’ WILD account in mid-June.

In Washington, here are the application types, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife website:

• Deer, elk, and turkey: You must purchase a hunting license prior to submitting a purchased special hunt permit application.

• Deer and elk: In addition to a hunting license, you must purchase a transport tag (selecting a weapon type and location) before you submit a purchased special hunt permit application.

• Mountain goat, moose, or bighorn sheep: You do not need to purchase a hunting license prior to submitting a special hunt permit application for these species. If you are drawn, you will be required to purchase a license before you receive your special hunt permit.

If you need help, call (360) 902-2464.

I know people who put in applications

It’s time to apply for special hunting permits, including for once-in-a-lifetime species like Washington bull moose and Oregon bighorn rams. (COAST PHOTO CONTEST)

every year. Sometimes they score a permit, most times they don’t, depending upon the species and the unit. This is no game for the impatient, or the easily discouraged.

However, three times I’ve put in for permits, twice here in Washington and once about six years ago in Wyoming, and I scored each time. Beat that with a stick!

Maybe I should play the lottery.

As for the raffles, Oregon’s purchase deadline is 10 a.m. May 26, while in Washington it’s July 15. According to WDFW, “Proceeds from the sale of singlespecies raffle tickets will be used for the management and benefit of that species. Proceeds from the sale of multiple species raffle tickets will be used for general game management.”

As with any other raffle, there is no limit on the number of tickets a person may purchase, the agency says. Residents and nonresidents are eligible to purchase tickets.

Just know that refunds are not available on raffle ticket purchases. The “once in a lifetime” harvest restriction is also waived for auction and raffle hunts. Winners of deer and elk raffles may purchase an additional deer or elk license/tag for the general hunting season if they choose.

Here’s the kicker: If you are selected, any legal weapon may be used during your raffle hunt.

According to WDFW, “One winner and two alternates will be drawn for each hunt. Each winner must be eligible to purchase a hunting license and will be issued the appropriate license and tag at no cost.”

The drawing is done by computer, and keep your phone handy because if you’re a lucky winner, you’ll be notified by a call by mid-August.

IT’S ‘TINKER’ TIME

Years ago, I used to get a laugh from watching people wait until a few days before the season opener to make repairs or add a new scope, or even buy a new gun that must be zeroed.

Some years ago, I did spend a nice midday over in Whitman County helping a high school kid zero her rifle while her dad helped my hunting partner hang a buck in a nearby barn. Her rifle, a boltaction Savage, was purchased with a scope already mounted and she couldn’t seem to get consistent results. One look through the scope told the tale. It had

been mounted with the crosshairs tilted rather than straight vertical and horizontal.

I loosened the rings, gently rotated the scope to bring the crosshairs into proper alignment and carefully retightened. I had the rifle zeroed at 100 yards with four shots. Later that day, if I recall correctly, she plugged a nice buck.

I’ve made it a habit to never start seriously messing with my hunting rifle anytime after June. Repairs need to happen now so you will have the next couple of months with long daylight hours to rezero the rifle, make sure everything is working properly, and pick the right ammunition.

This is a reminder to check your rifle in the off-season so if there is something haywire, you will have enough time to deal with the problem so it doesn’t muck up your hunting plans.

Always zero your gun at the range with the same ammunition you’re taking on the hunt. Practice with this particular load to see where a bullet goes out of a cold barrel and never shoot when your barrel is too hot to touch with a bare hand. My advice is to never fire more than three shots during the same string. Fire, eject the empty, leave the action open, wait a

Get your tinkering with scopes, rings and mounts done now, so you can spend the next couple of warm months at the range, making sure your rifle is zeroed, like author Dave Workman is doing here. (DAVE WORKMAN)

NRA CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR CHRISTOPHER CUNIO

CLASSES OFFERED

GUN SAFETY SEMINAR NRA seminar introduces new gun owners to gun safety fundamentals

RUN YOUR GUN One on one firearms coaching with Christopher

RANGE SAFETY OFFICER NRA Range Safety Officer (RSO) Certification

NRA EDDIE EAGLE GUNSAFE® PROGRAM

NEW GUN OWNER The NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting course

PREPARE TO CONCEAL NRA Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) Certification

FIREARMS IN THE HOME NRA Personal Protection In the Home Certification

FIREARMS OUTSIDE THE HOME NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home Certification

LONG GUN NRA Basic Rifle for basic and skill based learning with a long gun

BASIC SHOTGUN Basic shotgun for basic and skill-based learning with a shotgun

BOOK ONLINE AT WWW.C2FFST.COM

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

minute or two and fire again. If your two shots strike close together, say within 1.5 inches of one another, you’re there. A third shot a minute or two later to confirm is all you’ll need.

On opening morning, or anytime after that during the season, you will be making a cold-bore shot and you may get only one, so make it count!

If you’re buying new ammunition, get two or three boxes of the same load; that is, make sure the bullet weight and type (i.e. roundnose, spitzer, polymer tip, etc.) is the same in each box.

In my case, I hunt with my own handloads, so that problem is eliminated. I run a 165-grain boattail in my .308, a 180-grain boattail in my .30-06 and a 150-grain boattail in my .300 Savage.

This fall I just might hunt with my .257 Roberts, which is zeroed with 100-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips ahead of IMR 4895, and I’ve toppled a couple of nice bucks with that rifle. But it was invariably zeroed to shoot 2.5 inches high at 100 yards by mid-August. NS

If you can do this by the end of June, put the rifle away carefully after cleaning, and you’ll be able to do it again on opening day! (DAVE WORKMAN)

Tips For Shed Hunting With Dogs

In early March I took my dogs into the forest of Western Oregon, searching for blacktail deer sheds. A recent snowstorm and heavy rains had knocked down all the ferns along the ridge we worked, likely covering any antlers that may have dropped. There were also lots of downed trees and branches that blocked and altered game trails. There were few deer tracks on the trails, too, which wasn’t normal compared to past years.

We then headed to a south-facing slope and hunted for sheds in a small, 4-acre meadow where we’d found them before. There wasn’t a single shed to be found there, either. I think the bad weather was to blame, forcing deer into cover during the time they were dropping their antlers.

Due to the cold weather early in the spring, grass growth is not what it usually is by this time. Shorter grass means a better chance of locating sheds, both by sight and smell. Work your dog in open fields early in the month, because as sunlight hours increase and temperatures rise, the grass in those areas will quickly grow tall and make it tough for a dog to find any sheds.

Likewise, work the forest where ferns and other undergrowth are slow to prosper. Search for game trails that are well used, and know that last year’s trails could have changed due to fallen trees, landslides, flooding and other natural events.

MAKE IT

FUN

for your dog when you’re shed hunting together. If there’s no creek or algae-free ponds where you’re searching for antlers, take water for the dogs. Take frequent breaks, especially if it’s hot and

Dogs can learn to recognize old, sun-bleached sheds by sight and contrasting colors, something they can see from great distances. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

GUN DOGGIN’ 101

By Scott Haugen

Hunters, bring in your green hides to Centralia Fur and Hide and let us turn it into a hair-on hide, or some light gold leather. We will also trade a deer, or an elk hide for a pair of pigskin work gloves.

Phone: 360-736-3663

Toll Free: 877-736-2525

sales@furandhide.com www.furandhide.com

Centralia Fur & Hide Inc. 2012 Gallagher Road Centralia, WA 98531 USA

“Thank you so much for your support over the last 47 years!”

Even elk sheds can be found and retrieved by your dog. Big antlers dropped in brushy country can be hard to retrieve, so if you lose sight of your dog for a while, make sure it’s not struggling to bring you a large elk shed. (SCOTT

you’re working steep country. Be sure to check your dog’s feet to make sure there are no split pads or toenails.

Also, toss a couple sheds into your backpack without your dog knowing. Handle the sheds with rubber gloves so the scent from your hands doesn’t get on the antlers. If you don’t have any sheds, consider sawing them off the skull plate of deer you’ve shot in recent years. If the antlers are a few years old or have been hanging outside, scuff them up with abrasive paper. This will reveal fresh scent that your dog will pick up on in the woods.

If you’ve not found any sheds and your dog is getting tired or restless, have it sit. Walk out of sight and toss the sheds from your pack to a place where the dog can find them. Go back and get the dog and work into the wind. Set the dog up for success. This is training and it rewards your dog for working hard and doing the right thing. Just make sure and use the latex gloves, for you want your dog

locating the antlers due to their natural scent, not the smell of your hands or even boot tracks.

The same can be done with white, bleached-out antlers. These old sheds won’t contain scent, but dogs will learn to find them by sight. The contrasting colors and shapes of old deer and elk antlers are some things you can teach your dog to look for, recognize and retrieve. This is easier to achieve in open areas than in brushy ones. Mule deer sheds will be easier for dogs to locate than whitetail sheds, simply due to the brushy habitat whitetails live in. Again, if you’re not finding sheds, placing bleached ones far away in an opening and guiding your dog to them is a great way to teach and reward them for working hard.

IF SHED HUNTING on a publicly owned big game wintering ground, make sure it’s open to access. Some states have time restrictions in place for when sheds can be hunted in certain areas. This is to allow

the animals time to begin their spring migration to higher elevations and with the hard winter in some Western states, it could be delayed this spring.

If training a pup to hunt for sheds, don’t let it chew on them. They can mouth it and lick it for a couple minutes, but no longer. You want them wanting more and knowing it’s not OK to find a shed in the woods, lay down and start chewing it. Sheds are not chew toys.

With summer just around the corner, take advantage of the final weeks of spring to get your dog out shed hunting. It’s another great way to spend time in the woods with your favorite hunting companion, and you might be surprised at what they find. 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.

HAUGEN)

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 Northwest Trappers Supply is your one-stop trapping supply headquarters, featuring one of the largest inventories in the U.S. We are factory direct distributors on all brands of traps and equipment which allows us to offer competitive prices. Give us a try. Our fast, friendly service will keep you coming back.

Over 50 Years Of Service To The Trap & Fur Industry

If you get in the area, visit our store!