Northwest Sportsman Magazine - August 2021 by Media Index Publishing Group

FISHING • HUNTING • NEWS

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Sportsman Northwest

Your LOCAL Hunting & Fishing Resource

Volume 13 • Issue 11 PUBLISHER James R. Baker

Your Complete Hunting, Boating, Fishing and Repair Destination Since 1948.

ALUMAWELD STRYKER

EDITOR Andy Walgamott THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS Dave Anderson, Jason Brooks, Scott Haugen, Sara Ichtertz, Tobey Ishii-Anderson, MD Johnson, Randy King, Buzz Ramsey, Troy Rodakowski, Dave Workman, Mike Wright, Mark Yuasa EDITORIAL FIELD SUPPORT Jason Brooks GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak SALES MANAGER Paul Yarnold ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mamie Griffin, Jim Klark, Kelley Miller, Mike Smith DESIGNER Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker OFFICE MANAGER Katie Aumann INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER Lois Sanborn WEBMASTER/DIGITAL STRATEGIST Jon Hines

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DIGITAL ASSISTANT Jon Ekse 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 Retired Southwest Washington district fisheries biologist John Weinheimer holds a nice Chinook he caught at Buoy 10 during 2019’s season. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

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CONTENTS VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 11

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ALSO INSIDE 65

PACKING A JETTY PACK With a big run forecast for Buoy 10, our local salmon slayer MD Johnson has begun putting his gear together to fish off the Columbia’s North Jetty. From top lures and tackle to how to keep your catch cool, Johnson details what goes in his pack and why.

107 THE GUIDE’S LIFE Even after 30 years, 2,500 trips and one very notable grounding, skipper Keith Robbins considers himself to be “the luckiest guy to walk this Earth.” Mark Yuasa profiles the Seattle fishing guide (and restaurateur/bar owner) known for the rare charter trips he runs.

HERE COME THE PINKS!

116 ASCEND TO TROUT HEAVEN In the heights of Idaho’s Panhandle are a good number of alpine lakes to fish during summer’s dog days. Mike Wright scouts out some of the better waters and shares the Department of Fish and Game’s stocking strategy.

While there aren’t bonus limits on pink salmon this year in Puget Sound proper, the snappy species still represents a great opportunity for anglers to get out on the water and do some catching instead of just fishing. Mark Yuasa sets us up for success on the salt!

139 START EARLY FOR BRUINS The August black bear opener may not be well attended by Westside hunters, but there are bruins to be taken and perhaps nobody knows that better than Troy Rodakowski. He shares tips and tactics for tagging out this month. 147 SET YOURSELF UP FOR BIG GAME SUCCESS With deer and elk seasons right around the corner, former hunting guide Dave Anderson is anxiously getting ready for season. Along with digital scouting, he shares the all-day strategy and “small details that have helped me be successful in notching quite a few tags.”

(MARK YUASA)

155 THE DOWNLOPE ON OREGON PRONGHORNS Mention antelope hunting and Oregon and your first thought is probably glassing the vast Sagebrush Sea, but Troy Rodakowski knows speed goats aren’t all out on the desert flats. He shares the state’s two other types of pronghorns and where to find all of them this very dry season.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Go to nwsportsmanmag.com for details. NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Avenue South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Periodical Postage Paid at Seattle, WA and at additional mail offices. (USPS 025-251) POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Northwest Sportsman, 14240 Interurban Ave South, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Annual subscriptions are $29.95 (12 issues), 2-year subscription are $49.95 (24 issues). Send check or money order to Media Index Publishing Group, or call (206) 382-9220 with VISA or M/C. Back issues may be ordered at Media Index Publishing Group offices at the cost of $5 plus shipping. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2021 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A.

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Catch King And Coho Limits At Buoy 10

Coho don’t have the drawing power of Chinook at Buoy 10, but with this year’s huge silver forecast, Buzz shares his and guide Chris Vertopoulos’s best advice for filling out your two-salmon limit at the mouth of the Columbia.

(ANDY WALGAMOTT)

COLUMNS 75

FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG The Friend And Fish Of A Lifetime It was a long, long time ago that Sara caught her best friend, sister Jenny, but it wasn’t until this summer that her sibling was really interested in fishing. That changed on one of guide David Johnson’s famed “Fish Like A Girl Adventures,” a trip that yielded great sturgeon catches and a new PB for Sara.

NORTHWEST PURSUITS Best Humpy Rivers If it’s an odd-numbered year – and last we checked 2021 is – it’s time to hit the rivers for humpies! Jason has best bets and gear advice for the Skagit down through the Nisqually and over to Hoodsport as pilot pinks of this year’s 3-million-fish run arrive.

125 CHEF IN THE WILD On Mud Bugs And Gumbo One of summer’s pleasures is wading up a stream and searching for crayfish – catch enough and they can make a good appetizer or an ingredient for a hearty gumbo! The latter was on the mind of Chef Randy as he shares his hungry teenage son’s recipe featuring fresh-caught crawdads, white-meated game and much more. 163 ON TARGET START Prepping For ‘Wascally Wabbits’ Rabbit hunting kicks off in September in Washington, and this is one small game species that’s often overlooked – but not by eagle-eyed Dave! He also shares news on this season’s Federal Duck Stamp winners and takes a peek at a new ground blind from Browning. 175 GUN DOG Quality Food Matters Increased early morning drive and quicker recovery after hunts and intense workouts are just a couple of the obvious changes that Scott has noticed in his gun dogs after only a few days of switching them to a high-quality food. What kind of kibble is he feeding them anyway?!?

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THE BIG PIC

Zen Of Fishing Between all the casts, bobber watching and occasional bites, don’t forget to take time to soak in the beauty of the world while on the water. Tobey Ishii-Anderson has an appreciation for “the euphoria” of it all – even the ones that get away.

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THE EDITOR’S NOTE Saving Lake Washington sockeye

PHOTOS FROM THE FIELD ’Nooks, ’bows, ’buts ’n s’more

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It feels like another life ago, but the last Lake Washington sockeye fisheries in 2006 and, here, 2004 bring back fond memories for the editor. (RYLEY FEE)

THEEDITOR’SNOTE

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he Snake River isn’t the only place in the Northwest that fishery managers were trucking heat-sensitive sockeye around toowarm waters this summer. State, tribal and utility biologists last month began capturing up to 300 of the salmon at Seattle’s Ballard Locks and transporting them directly to a hatchery on Lake Washington’s Cedar River, bypassing the deadly ship canal. “We’re going to see if we can get better survival rates by catching them at the locks and holding them in the hatchery ponds, rather than letting them hang out in Lake Washington for the summer,” Aaron Bosworth, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife district biologist, told me in mid-July as he prepped for the project. The experiment by WDFW, the Muckleshoot Tribe and Seattle Public Utilities was described as a “last-ditch effort to save and restore the Cedar River sockeye run to harvestable numbers” in a late June letter to Governor Jay Inslee from the local Cedar River Council. There hasn’t been a sport fishery on the lake since 2006 and one analysis showed the stock essentially winking out if nothing’s done. The council also asked Inslee to reconfirm his support for restoring the run and to possibly “(encourage) key parties to pursue specific projects and supporting State funding of some of the recovery actions.” In February, Muckleshoot and WDFW leaders penned an oped in The Seattle Times calling for the region to save Lake Washington’s “treasured” sockeye.

THE PROBLEM BIOLOGISTS are trying to get around is the Lake Washington Ship Canal’s twin scourges of high water temperatures in the relatively shallow manmade channel between Puget Sound and the main lake during the sockeye migration, and the low dissolved oxygen levels the fish encounter while transiting it. nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

Northwest Sportsman 23

“Water quality conditions in the Lake Washington Ship Canal during key migration periods can block or delay passage, lead to increased susceptibility to predators, parasites and infectious diseases, affect reproduction, and sometimes directly result in fish kills,” states a King County Department of Natural Resources paper. (Some dead fish were observed during late June’s hellwave.) Prespawn mortality has risen sharply in recent years, with 77 percent of 2018’s 32,103 sockeye going missing between the locks and the Cedar. It’s hardly the only problem for the salmon. Sockeye fry face an increasing predator suite of native and invasive species as they rear in the lake and exit the canal. Then there are the harbor seals that lurk below the locks as adult sockeye return from June into August. An acoustic device designed to scare the pinnipeds away from the choke point showed some initial positive results last summer, and in July observers saw no seals immediately around it, but they also reported as many as nine nearby – and one inside the fish ladder.

CAPTURING AND TRANSPORTING the sockeye from locks to hatchery is just the start of the experiment. “Then we have to keep them alive until the spawning period, which is typically in mid-October, so about three months,” Bosworth said. It’s an interesting effort and if it proves successful, salmon lovers, managers, policy makers and others will have some things to mull. On the one hand, Lake Washington sockeye face some of the absolute strongest headwinds of all Northwest fish stocks. Is it time to throw in the towel? On the other, giving up on salmon is antithetical to my nature and the region’s identity, so I appreciate this test to see if something, anything, can be done to boost fish numbers. Meanwhile, I’ll do my part and eradicate some more perch. –Andy Walgamott

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Northwest Sportsman 25

Author Tobey Ishii-Anderson fishes an Idaho trout stream. She writes that the zen of angling has led her to “no longer get my knickers in a knot” when she loses a fish, and to appreciate it as well. (PAUL ISHII) 28 Northwest Sportsman

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PICTURE

Zen Of Fishing Between all the casts, the bobber watching and occasional bites, don’t forget to take time to soak in the beauty of the world all around you. By Tobey Ishii-Anderson

hrough the years, all the time I had been teaching overseas, I heard from my brother about the beautiful rivers of the Northwest. Fishing by wading or drift boat on the Sol Duc, Hoh or Selway was a longtime dream of mine, but I never imagined the beauty. It was during my first drift boat trip on the Hoh that I experienced it in person. The air was so fresh you could cut it with a fillet knife. The rocks were tumbled smooth by the cold, clear water. A family of otters entertained herons on the bank.

I was hypnotized. Then, a sudden bout of excited yelling. “Fish on, Tobey! You’ve got a big one! Rod tip up! No slack! Keep the line tight! Pull over to the left! No, no, your left!” I was getting this in stereo, as my brother Paul on one side of the drift boat and our guide, Mike Z, from the other side were both instructing me. I snapped out of my nature euphoria. “I’m trying,” I cried. “Do or do not, there is no try!” Paul quoted his mentor, Yoda. The line became slack. “Oh, too bad, Tobey. Never mind, you

gave it a good go.” But I really knew what was in the minds of those guys: “You blew it!”

THAT WAS AN early hint of how serious learning to fish would be. I understood what it was like to be a padawan in the Jedi temple. I had to focus, to learn to fish. I first had to enroll in a language school to learn how to converse in Fishanese, in which my brother is fluent. At the beginning level I learned to cast, tie tippet to leader to line, use the clinch knot, open and close the bail, and jig and strip the line. Still, I worried; would I pass the test to

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Northwest Sportsman 29

PICTURE

be eligible for the next level? At each trip, my skills at catching fish increased. My eyes were riveted on the orange bobber, bouncing up and down. Is it a fish pulling on it or is it just the current of the river? A burning, glazed look was hidden behind the polarized lenses. I suffered bobberitis. Have I checked the depth? It’s all about the depth! How about the lures? Keep on changing them. My frozen fingers, cramped with cold, barely got the tippet into the eye of the dash-gummed lure “guaranteed to catch the Big One,” according to the outfitter shop. I had nearly perfected the jigging wrist

An angler enjoys a quiet end-of-the-day moment at a Northcentral Washington lake. (PAUL ISHII)

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movement when I developed a medical condition called the Flicking Syndrome. My wrist was in a brace for a month.

OVER TIME, THROUGH avid determination, I have caught plenty of magnificent salmon, steelhead and cutthroat in these rivers. There’s nothing like the feeling of having a 20-pound salmon tugging on your line – even better when it’s in the net! My husband, who is a fishing widower, claimed he needed to do an intervention for my fishing obsession after he found me holed up in my “fishing room” wearing the magnaviewer/headlamp combo cap at three in the morning. I just needed one more Royal Coachman!

In the ripples of its river, a beautiful cutthroat caught on a beadhead nymph seems to meld into the rocks and waters. (PAUL ISHII)

PICTURE

As a stream flows by, logs crackle in a campfire ring. (PAUL ISHII)

Recently, on an overcast, drizzling morning, when I was drifting along on the Hoh River, I took my sight off the bobber to rub my eyes, and there was a loud barking sound. It was a herd of elk crossing the river in the rain. Some of these huge animals had elaborate tangled antlers. They helped the little ones cross the river. Later that day, I saw an eagle hovering over our drift boat, when suddenly it swooped down and grasped a salmon with its talons. Another National Geographic moment.

AT THAT INSTANT I started to think. How much was I missing by not looking up, not taking a glance away from the orange bobber? How many views of the majestic Olympic Mountains have I not seen because I didn’t want to miss a riffle?

“There’s nothing like the feeling of having a 20-pound salmon tugging on your line,” writes Ishii-Anderson, above. “Even better when it’s in the net!” (PAUL ISHII)

But a pair of “National Geographic moments” led her to look up from the water and enjoy the places fishing takes her and the sights she witnesses in the wild. (PAUL ISHII) 32 Northwest Sportsman

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Maybe the fish need a rest. Maybe I should take a breather. Maybe I should relax, enjoy the scenery. The feeling of losing a fish is a downer, but I have made a vow. I will no longer get my knickers in a knot. I will turn the frustration into appreciation. I will look at the bright side: That fish that got away will get bigger. I will always remember those salmon and steelhead that I have caught, and there will, most likely, be more. But now, it’s time to practice the Zen of Fishing: To appreciate the art of not catching that fish; of seeing the beauty; soaking in the clear, cold air; and enjoying the euphoria. NS Editor’s note: Tobey Ishii-Anderson is a fly fishing, rock climbing, storytelling grandma.

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READER PHOTOS Score: Son, two; Dad, zero. Wyatt Lundquist shows off one of a pair of beautiful spring Chinook he caught on the Sol Duc River in June and his father didn’t. “All I can say to that is I must have done a great job at teaching him, LOL,” pa Gary says. (FISHING

Chad Huffman and cuz John Nunnally show off near-twin halibut caught in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

PHOTO CONTEST)

Who’s rockin’ Banks Lake bass from the bank? Terry Moore, that’s who! (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

All-around North Sound sportsman Chad Smith enjoyed some good fishing for smallmouth bass in early spring. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

Rylee Chmela joined the kayak attack squadron for some trout angling at Leaburg Reservoir on Oregon’s McKenzie River. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

For your shot at winning great fishing and hunting products from Northwest Sportsman and Coast, respectively, 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, 14240 Interurban Ave S, Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for use in our print and Internet publications.

nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

Northwest Sportsman 37

READER PHOTOS

Have you hugged a steelhead today? Jake Petosa has! He caught this winterrun on the Cowlitz. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

Zoe Ross again put on a fireworks show of her own at the lake she likes to camp at over the Fourth of July. Her big catch there last year won one of our monthly photo contests, and last month she landed this rainbow all by herself after making the cast too – plus, she outfished dad Jacob. “I think it’s time to upgrade from the button casting rod to a spinning ultralight rod because she fought this trout on 4-pound-test mainline and did extremely well,” he says. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

“Talk about a memorable and exciting fishing trip!” The weight of Dylan von Melville’s Rufus Woods rainbow not only matched his age, 10, but was bigger than any his grandpa, Len von Melville, had ever landed let alone seen caught. He reports that the lad is now hooked on angling, as is his neighbor’s daughter Mia, who joined their excursion with guide Austin Moser. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

This 34-inch-long lingcod gave Iylee Belisle a pretty good fight after it bit her yellow twin-tailed grub near Deception Pass, between Washington’s Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands. Dad Nic beams beside her. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Watch out, Buzz Ramsey! Raiden Smith is racking up the tally on his steelhead punch card this year. Here he poses with his third and proud father Dylan, who “can’t be more pleased with his 5-year-old son and how he is really taking to the sport.” (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

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Northwest Sportsman 39

READER PHOTOS An egg-and-shrimp combo “did the job” on a mess of landlocked salmon for Marvin Holder at one of his favorite lakes. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

Chad Zoller and his dad Mark enjoyed a fantastic run down the Snake River below Hells Canyon Dam, putting together quite a stringer of smallmouth and trout. “It was basically a cast to the bank with the spinner would pick up a bass and a cast to the fast water in the middle was a trout,” Chad reports. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST) Ralph Penass shows off a couple nice spring rainbows from Sprague Lake, one of Eastern Washington’s better trout waters. The fish bit a mix of Wedding Rings and plugs for Penass and buddy Jerry Han. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

Spring turkey season brought with it a lot of company in the woods, but along with exploring new country and enjoying time off work, Samantha Gaudette was able to notch her tag with this gobbler. (COAST HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST)

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You’re never too old to catch your first fish! Jacinta Arboleda, 91, caught this rainbow near The Dalles while fishing with daughter Bertha Logsdon. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

Northwest Sportsman 41

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WINNERS!

Keevin Collier is the winner of our monthly Fishing Photo Contest, thanks to this shot of son Kayson, aka Little Crappie Killa, and his Willamette River crappie. It wins him gear from various tackle manufacturers!

Deception pass Marina MOORAGE: Call for availability Jerry Han is our monthly Coast Hunting Photo Contest winner, thanks to this pic of sons Austin and Corbin and their double on Klickitat gobblers. It wins him a knife and light from Coast!

FUEL DOCK: Non Ethanol (90) octane) gasoline & Diesel

STORE: Groceries, bait, tackle, charts, For your shot at winning a Coast knife and light, as well as fishing products from various manufacturers, send your photos and pertinent (who, what, when, where) details to awalgamott@media-inc.com or Northwest Sportsman, 14240 Interurban Ave S., Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for our print or Internet publications.

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Northwest Sportsman 43

MIXED BAG

WDFW Officers’ Tip Leads To Big Penalties For BC Crabber

fter Washington fish and wildlife officers baited the crab trap, per se, with intel they shared with Canadian authorities, a British Columbia man crawled right in and got pinched with penalties amounting to nearly $10,000 USD. Laird Goddyn was found guilty in a provincial court in early summer of violating Canadian fishing laws after coming in 85 Dungeness over the limit in mid-2018. He was sentenced to pay a fine of $7,500 CAD, banned from holding fishing licenses for five years and told he would have to pay $4,638 CAD in fees to get his boat out of storage. While a hit to Goddyn’s wallet and good work by officers, the overall resolution is also vexing because of prosecutors’ decisions.

THE CASE AGAINST him began in late April 2018 half a mile south of the international border during a US Border Patrol inspection of his boat, described as a 21-foot Bayliner. Officers were suspicious, given the commercial crab pots aboard, mud stains indicating gear being actively worked and the number of crabs he had, according to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police post on Facebook at the time. There were no sport, tribal or commercial seasons open in Washington waters. When WDFW officers responded to the scene, they picked “about 50” mostly undersized and female crabs out of various

compartments of Goddyn’s boat, and learned that he was allegedly crabbing commercially in Washington waters to fulfill crab orders from his countrymen. Poachers and those servicing the black market steal Dungeness from law-abiding crabbers and harm long-term management of the resource. On top of that, selling crabs under the table exposes customers to uninspected shellfish, which can have serious health consequences. “He admitted that he had made two previous trips into US waters to harvest crab for his commercial operation,” WDFW reported on social media. Along with passing that intel along to Canadian authorities, Washington officers also seized Goddyn’s boat and deposited him at the Peace Arch.

Then in late June 2018, when the “harvester of interest” – now aboard a new boat – pulled into a marina near White Rock, the first town north of the border, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers found Goddyn with 89 Dungeness, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, more than 21 times the BC daily limit of four. All the crabs were released and for the second time in just over two months, Goddyn had his boat – this one also described as a 21-foot Bayliner – seized, along with his cell phones, DFO reported. But despite a long investigation, search warrants and witness interviews, he ended up being charged by BC with crab possession violations rather than commercial sales ones, per a local newspaper. Meanwhile, following their April 2018

One of two Bayliners seized from Laird Goddyn in the span of just two and a half months in 2018 after violating Washington and British Columbia crabbing regulations. (WDFW)

JACKASS OF THE MONTH

sually we highlight fish and wildlife poachers as our Jackass of the Month, but for August it’s all about the slob who was apparently using Oregon’s South Umpqua as his personal junk removal system. That is, until a pair of Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division troopers stopped by for a chat. Garbage that they found by or in the river “included used tires, a mattress that submerged downstream, chairs, plywood, an old fiberglass boat, drywall and other home building items,” OSP reported in its May monthly newsletter. After the man admitted being responsible for letting the crap “slide, or be pushed” into the South Umqua, he was cited for offensive littering in or within 300 feet of a waterway and second-degree water pollution, and promised troopers he’d yard it all out of the river before his court date. Still, here’s hoping the judge gives him a real trash talking-to.

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Northwest Sportsman 45

MIXED BAG contact with Goddyn, Washington wardens and Border Patrol officers swept the bay and pulled 22 commercial pots that matched those that had been found aboard his boat and which appeared to have been freshly baited, WDFW Police reported. They released around 80 crabs from the traps.

AT THE TIME, WDFW officers said that Washington charges against Goddyn would be referred to the Whatcom County Prosecutor’s Office, but late this June a spokeswoman said they’d been dismissed. Becky Bennett called it “an unfortunate reality in our line of work.” “We work with prosecutors on education of the work we do to help see more cases across the finish line, but the conflicting and large level of other case loads paired with the difficulty explaining complex natural resource issues makes it hard,” Bennett said. No doubt that counties across the land have far more personal and property crimes to prosecute than they ever have the resources to deal with – an aggravating reality for Northwest sportsmen who do it right and want to see fish and wildlife populations as well as wildlands protected from poachers – but illegal crabbing along the Washington-British Columbia border is at least getting more attention these days. Earlier this year, Canadian fishery and Coast Guard officials pulled a “record” 337 crab pots from BC’s side of Boundary Bay during a five-day operation during a closed season, including a mile-long groundline with 21 pots attached and designed to be recovered by GPS and grappling hooks to evade detection by authorities. A similar setup was being used in Similk Bay near Deception Pass in midsummer 2019 until WDFW officers yarded it out of the salt and released 176 legal-sized crabs from six pots. Charges were sent to Skagit County prosecutors, who might have a better follow-through record than their neighbors just up I-5. In 2017, three Anacortes men – Ricky Guttormson, James Montour and Logan Eby – received jail time of 30 days, 10 days and two days, respectively, and were ordered to pay legal fees or pay fines for their part in an unlicensed commercial crabbing operation, according to a Skagit Valley Herald article. 46 Northwest Sportsman

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Couple Fined For Illegal Crab Sales

Hermiston couple who thought they could get around prohibitions on selling sport-caught crab commercially by offering it for free but with an $11/pound suggested donation ended up paying a hefty price for their scheme. Gerald and Shawna Wilson posted the offer on Facebook and while at least 11 people took them up on it, it also caught the attention of Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division troopers after a tipster informed the Turn In Poachers hotline (800-452-7888). Their investigation determined the Wilsons were selling cooked or live crab on social media, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. For Lincoln County District Attorney Kenneth Park, who charged the Wilsons with criminal negligence, it boils down to consumers knowing that their crabs come from safe sources and were handled correctly. The Wilsons were sentenced in late spring to pay $1,200 in restitution, another $100 each into the TIP reward fund and they can’t buy fishing or shellfishing licenses for three years, an outcome the coastal prosecutor considered to be a “good resolution.”

KUDOS

Washington’s Spokane River and its dwindling wild redband rainbow trout population and degrading shorelines are getting on-the-water protection from state game wardens a whole lot sooner than they otherwise would have been, thanks to a local fly shop expediting the acquisition of a raft earlier this (WDFW) summer. Covid product shortages were putting a bind in Department of Fish and Wildlife officers’ search for a way to get on top of the poaching, littering and vandalism occurring along the banks of the river that flows through the Lilac City, so knowing his agency had worked with Silver Bow Fly Shop in the past, Officer Dave Spurbeck stopped in for a chat. Bo Brand, guide and sales floor manager, was on hand and knew that a raft was being shipped to the Spokane Valley shop, so he “arranged to expedite its arrival and hold it for WDFW rather than putting it on the sales floor,” said spokeswoman Staci Lehman. “We’ve all been fishing on the river and working on the river for years and, honestly, the more help we can get out there, the more eyes on the river, the better the fishing will be,” said Brand. “When Dave approached us about it, we knew we wanted to help, to make conditions better for everyone.” Montana Raft Frames also built a trailer for the raft, which splashed into the Spokane for the first time on June 16. Silver Bow and Trout Unlimited’s Spokane Falls chapter have also used funds from a fly fishing film festival to erect signs explaining angling regs on the river.

Reward For Info On Wolf Poaching

hat’s believed to have been the breeding female of a Northeast Washington wolf pack was shot and killed earlier this spring and a hefty reward for information leading to a conviction is on offer. State wildlife managers said the Wedge Pack adult was found on May 26 after staffers responded to a report of a dead wolf in the area of Sheep Creek, in far northern Stevens County. The animal had died of a gunshot wound. The area it was found has seen chronic livestock depredations over the years and while some wolves have been removed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife in response, that a new pack moved in is unsurprising given the habitat and forage there. It was at least the 12th poached in the state since 2010. An initial $7,500 reward from Washington-based Conservation Northwest was eventually matched by out-of-state environmental groups. Anyone with info is asked to contact WDFW at (360) 902-2928, report it online at the agency’s violations page, or text WDFWTIP to 847411.

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Tuna Tourney Time – Salmon Derbies Too

By Andy Walgamott

UPCOMING EVENTS*  Now through end of various seasons:

Team Long Shot celebrates their 2019 Oregon Tuna Classic victory out of Garibaldi. This year’s event is set for August 28-29. (OREGONTUNACLASSIC.COM)

f it’s midsummer in the Northwest, it’s albacore fishing competition time, as well as the heart of salmon derby season. This month sees not only the Washington Tuna Classic out of Westport but a return to the eighth month of the Oregon Tuna Classic. (Last year’s was moved into late September.) While big money is up for grabs – $6,000 for the top-placed team in the latter derby – event organizers also collect anglers’ catches and cash donations to benefit local banks. Needy families have benefitted from the tens of thousands of pounds of nutritious and tasty albacore since the early 2000s. They also put on a Big Fish Friday the day before the main event, a chance to dial in the tuna schools and win a side pot. For more info on the Washington Tuna Classic, go to missionoutdoors.org/wtc; for the Oregon Tuna Classic, check out oregontunaclassic.org.

BUT IF SALMON’S more your flavor, head to Northcentral Washington or the South Sound. That’s where three Northwest Fishing Derby Series-affiliated events take place this month, and entry into any of ’em gives you a shot at winning the drawing for the final grand prize boat – a KingFisher 2025 Escape HT package worth $75,000. One of the trio is also celebrating its silver anniversary with a big pot of greenbacks: $2,500 is on tap for the firstplace finisher at the 25th Annual Gig Harbor Puget Sound Anglers Salmon Derby, with

$1,000 for second and $500 for third. But take note of that raffle grand prize choice too – a Lowrance fishfinder or five days at a remote Alaska fishing camp. The Brewster Salmon Derby is also back this year, and with a new organizer – the local chamber of commerce. It’s home to the famed King of the Pool grand prize, $2,000 for whoever brings in the largest summer Chinook, and there’s $1,500 and $550 for the biggest caught by an adult and kid aged 9 to 14, respectively. For dates, more details and links, see nwfishingderbyseries.com.

IN CASE YOU missed it last issue, the Buoy 10 Salmon Challenge returns later this month as well. The Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association fundraiser features tens of thousands of dollars worth of prizes and giveaways – “virtually no one will go home empty handed,” say organizers. If you’re looking to win the team competition, you might just take the advice Buzz Ramsey serves up in his column on page 55. For more info, go to nsiafishing.org/ buoy-10-salmon-challenge. And speaking of Buoy 10, the Lipstick Salmon Slayers Tournament is back in town and hoping to build on last year’s turnout of 119 angling gals on the water. Top prizes are $4,000, $2,000 and $1,000 for those whose salmon weigh closest to three mystery weights between 2 and 65 pounds. For more, see lipsticksalmonslayer.com.

Westport Charterboat Association Fishing Derby; charterwestport.com  Now through Oct. 31: WDFW 2021 Trout Derby, select lakes across Washington; wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/ contests/trout-derby  Aug. 13-14: Washington Tuna Classic, Westport; missionoutdoors.org/wtc  Aug. 14: Lipstick Salmon Slayers Tournament, Astoria; lipsticksalmonslayer.com  Aug. 14: Odell Lake Kokanee Derby; kokaneepoweroregon.com  Aug. 20: 21st Annual Buoy 10 Salmon Challenge, Astoria; nsiafishing.org  Aug. 27-28: Oregon Tuna Classic, Garibaldi; oregontunaclassic.org * Covid-19 restrictions have eased, but always confirm events before attending.

NORTHWEST FISHING DERBY SERIES EVENTS*  Aug. 6-8: Brewster Salmon Derby  Aug. 7: South King County Puget Sound Anglers Derby  Aug. 14: Gig Harbor Puget Sound Anglers Derby  Aug. 21: Salmon For Soldiers  Sept. 11: Edmonds Coho Derby  Sept. 17-19: Resurrection Derby  Sept. 25-26: Everett Coho Derby * See nwfishingderbyseries.com for more.

nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

Northwest Sportsman 49

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OUTDOOR

CALENDAR*

AUGUST

Fall bear season opens across Oregon, Washington; Columbia River from Tongue Point/Rocky Point line upstream to Highway 395 bridge in Pasco opens for Chinook and hatchery coho; Steelhead closures begin on mainstem Columbia below The Dalles Dam and in lower Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis 1, 7, 8 ODFW Basic Shotgun Skills Workshops ($, register), Portland Gun Club – info: myodfw.com/workshops-and-events 1-10 Buoy 10 section of Columbia opens for hatchery Chinook, hatchery coho only 6-9 Series of significant minus tides on coastal, Puget Sound waters

11 14

Buoy 10 opens for any Chinook, hatchery coho

Take a Warrior Fishing event on Lake Washington at Renton (registration) – info: castforkids.org; CAST for Kids event on Yaquina Bay at Newport (registration) – info: castforkids.org 19 Crabbing opens in Washington’s Marine Area 7 North (Boundary Bay, Georgia Strait) 19-23 Series of significant minus tides on coastal, Puget Sound waters 28 Oregon bow deer and elk hunt opens 30 Idaho bow deer and elk hunt opens in many units

SEPTEMBER 1

Washington cougar, deer (bow), dove and various small game openers; Fall turkey opener in most Eastern Washington units; Fall turkey opener in select Northcentral Oregon units; Oregon statewide grouse, dove openers; Western Oregon California and mountain quail opener; Northeast Oregon steelhead opener; Steelhead closures begin on mainstem Columbia from The Dalles Dam to Highway 395 bridge 4 CAST for Kids event at Clear Lake (Spokane, registration) – info: see above 6 Last scheduled day Buoy 10 open for Chinook retention 7 Buoy 10 hatchery coho limit increases to three a day 10-12 Oregon Central, South Coast nonselective ocean coho opener and following Fridays through Sundays through Sept. 30 or until 14,000-fish quota met 11 Washington bow elk hunt opens; CAST for Kids event on Lake Washington (Renton, registration) – info: see above 11-12 Fern Ridge Wildlife Area youth upland bird hunt weekend; ODFW Adult Pheasant Hunting Workshops ($, register), Sauvie Island Wildlife Area – info: see above 12 CAST for Kids event on Hagg Lake (registration) – info: see above 13 Opening of fee pheasant hunting at Fern Ridge Wildlife Area 15 New date Washington statewide grouse opener 15-23 Bandtail pigeon season in Oregon, Washington 15-25 High Buck Hunt in several Washington Cascades and Olympics wilderness areas, Lake Chelan National Recreation Area 16-19 2021 Seattle Boats Afloat Show, South Lake Union – info: boatsafloatshow.com; 37th Annual Portland Fall RV & Van Show, Expo Center – info: otshows.com 18-19 Denman, Klamath, Ladd Marsh and Sauvie Island Wildlife Areas and Madras and John Day youth upland bird hunting weekend; ODFW Adult, Ladies Pheasant Hunting Workshops ($, register), Monmouth – info: see above; Washington youth pheasant and Eastside youth quail and partridge hunting weekend 20 Opening of fee pheasant hunting at Denman, Sauvie Island Wildlife Areas 20-24 Washington senior and disabled hunter pheasant hunting week 25 Washington statewide muzzleloader deer hunt opens; Western Washington youth duck and coot hunting day 25-26 Coquille Valley, EE Wilson, Irrigon and White River Wildlife Areas youth upland bird hunting weekend 27 Opening of fee pheasant hunting at EE Wilson Wildlife Area * Covid-19 restrictions have eased, but always confirm events before attending. nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

Northwest Sportsman 51

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COLUMN

Catch King And Coho Limits At Buoy 10 I

t’s no secret that most anglers are after Chinook when fishing Buoy 10 and they don’t even try filling their coho limit BUZZ after everyone on RAMSEY board has their one king. Sure, if they happen to catch a fin-clipped coho along the way to their Chinook limit, well, that’s regarded as a bonus by many. If someone hooks a second coho, their rod is often passed off to a friend so as to not spoil everyone’s chance for a fat Chinook. But with this season’s coho return expected to surpass 1.5 million at Buoy 10, I’m thinking that more than a few anglers won’t be rushing back to the dock until achieving their two-salmon limit – either one Chinook and one hatchery coho, or two hatchery coho. In fact, they might appreciate those good-eating coho enough to visit Buoy 10 again on or after September 7, when the limit is scheduled to go to three clipped silvers per day. I remember fishing the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association’s Buoy 10 Salmon Challenge tournament some years ago, when the only way to possibly win – not unlike this year – was for angler teams to catch a limit of Chinook and coho. As luck would have it, we sat down on a pod of Chinook and had our limit of those by 8 a.m. With our Chinook bag filled, it was coho we then targeted. What I did was switch to smaller divers, so the fast-moving coho couldn’t get as much leverage against them, rigged our rods with a combination of herring and brightly colored mediumsize spinners, and fished shallower water and/or positioned our lines higher in the

Guide Chris Vertopoulos rebaits after landing a triple on Buoy 10 hatchery coho. At this fishery, these salmon may not have the drawing power Chinook do, but with a big forecast, they should help fill out anglers’ two-salmon limits. (CHRISVSGUIDESERVICE.COM)

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Northwest Sportsman 55

COLUMN While coho can attack just about any spinner size or color, shown here are some of author Buzz Ramsey’s favorites for Buoy 10. There are times, especially when trolling the upper estuary, when the right color spinner might produce better than bait, especially when it comes to actually landing fish. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

water column. One trick I used that day was to rig a pink worm in combination with my herring. And while we hooked more than enough coho to tag out, we lost most, so we were unable to fill our coho limit during that tournament.

WHILE YOU CAN run across coho anywhere within the Buoy 10 management zone, one reliable destination is at the western boundary. As a reference, the buoy with number 10 stamped on it is located midchannel west of the entrance to Ilwaco’s harbor. This area fishes best for mostly coho when there is a tide exchange of 8 feet or more (that is, the number of feet from low to high tide listed in your tide book or phone app). From low slack through the much of the flood tide is when this area can produce fast action. If you arrive at low tide or just after, when there is little or no current, try forward trolling. Once the tide starts to move in, you should begin holding (backtrolling) into the current and allow the 56 Northwest Sportsman

AUGUST 2021 | nwsportsmanmag.com

flooding ocean water to move fresh fish into your trailing gear. The idea is to hold your position (facing west) as salmon move into the Columbia with the incoming tide. Note that low tide at Buoy 10 may not match the time listed in your tide book or phone app and could, in fact, occur an hour or more after the listed time. It just takes that long for the flooding ocean water to slow, stop and reverse the massive flow of the Columbia. Arriving too early can sometimes mean the water near Buoy 10 will be fast-moving, rough and unpleasant. If this happens to you, try heading to calmer waters and wait an hour or more for the flood tide to calm things down. During times of big tidal exchanges, this area can produce a frenzy of action for hundreds of boats, all lined up to greet the swarm of fish being funneled into the river by the large incoming tide. Keep in mind that most fish near the Buoy 10 marker will be found near the surface, which means you may only have to let your gear out 15 to 20 feet on your linecounter reels, which equates to eight

to 10 line pulls (distance from reel to first rod guide) off non-linecounter reels.

THE MIDESTUARY CAN produce coho too, with fish being funneled into the north and south channels adjacent to Desdemona Sands. Although coho can be found at all depths, they will often accumulate in shallow water; that is, less than 20 feet deep. The Washington side of Desdemona Sands can be a good place to target them. And while you might find them hugging bottom or along current edges when currents are strong, when tides are soft or flooding they can be most numerous in the upper half of the water column. The bigger the tide, the farther it will push fish into the estuary – all the way to or past the Astoria-Megler Bridge. Keep in mind that during the first half of August, feeding coho that flood in with a big tide can retreat back into the ocean as the tide ebbs. During the latter half of the month and in September, coho that get pushed into the Columbia’s mouth will likely commit to their river journey

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Northwest Sportsman 57

COLUMN

If you’re trying for coho with herring or anchovy, try adding a scent-filled pink worm, like this 4-inch PowerBait worm, to the top hook of your mooching leader. Just let the worm hang straight back alongside your bait – coho really go for the combo. (BUZZ RAMSEY) and allow big tides to push them to and above the bridge. A strategy you might try during this time frame is to troll/back-troll near the western boundary during the first half of the flood before turning around and trolling east, going with the flooding water all the way to and above the bridge. It’s during big high tide sequences that a mob of coho can be found in the upper estuary several hours before and after high tide. I remember fishing with guide Bob Rees (503-812-9036) a few years back, when we caught limits of coho trolling

fresh anchovies in the shallow water of Desdemona Sands on the high tide. Knowing the coho would ride the flooding tide into the shallows near – within 100 yards – the Astoria-Megler Bridge, Rees navigated us into 8 to 12 feet of water. There, we trolled anchovies rigged on a 60inch leader behind a spreader and with an 18-inch dropper line to 3 ounces of weight. Action was fast and the fight was fun, given the small weight and no-flasher setup.

COHO CAN BE aggressive biters, but what really fires them up is fast-moving baits

and lures. For this reason, brightly colored spinners are popular when trolling and might put more fish in the box compared to bait. Don’t misunderstand; bait often yields more bites, but when it comes to actually landing fish, spinners can get the job done a lot quicker than bait, especially in the upper half of the estuary. I had an interesting conversation with fishing guide Chris Vertopoulos (503-3491377), a regular at Buoy 10, while chasing spot shrimp with him in Hood Canal earlier this year. And while our coho strategies were similar, Vertopoulos laid out his thoughts on targeting coho, as follows: 1) Coho will often be found near the surface, usually within 20 feet of it. 2) They can be found holding in shallow water too, meaning water less than 20 feet deep. 3) Troll faster for coho than when targeting Chinook. 4) If fishing shallower water or near the surface, you can go with a lighter sinker or smaller diver size that doesn’t pull as hard.

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COLUMN Ali Chenoweth and Wade Ramsey show off a silver caught during 2017’s season at the mouth of the Columbia. Some of the best water for these snappy salmon is at Buoy 10 itself and upstream at Desdemona Sands and near the AstoriaMegler Bridge. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

5) Small- to medium-sized spinners work particularly well for coho. Try brightcolored blades rigged in combination with a pink squid. Pink candy-back blades work especially well. 6) One of Vertopoulos’s most productive setups is to rig a small spinner blade above his herring or anchovy. He attaches these to his leader with a plastic clevis positioned above two or three plastic beads. So as to not interrupt the spin of his herring or anchovy, he sometimes uses a bobber stop to hold his beads and spinner blade a few inches above his bait. 7) And he doesn’t always use flashers, but when he does, he uses a Pro-Troll when tides are soft and a Fish Flash on days when big tides make currents strong. NS Editor’s note: Buzz Ramsey is regarded as a trout, steelhead and salmon sport fishing authority and proficient lure and fishing rod designer. He has been honored into the Hall of Fame for the Association of Northwest Steelheaders and the national Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.

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HUNTING FISHING Laden down with heavy packs, extra rods, burlap sacks and much more, author MD Johnson (right) and another angler head for the Columbia River’s North Jetty to do some salmon fishing. (JULIA JOHNSON)

Packing A Jetty Pack With a big run forecast for Buoy 10, here’s what one salmon slayer will be bringing with him onto the Columbia’s North Jetty. By MD Johnson

see him, and more often than I’d like to admit. And I envy the guy; I truly do. He’s the one walking out onto the North Jetty in late August, searching for salmon, I would imagine. He has with him one fish pole culminating in a pink Mepps

Flying C, a landing net (maybe) and a very, very small backpack. Or no backpack. Small shoulder bag. Or, yes, a fanny pack. Hello, 1991. But I do. I envy this guy. He’s not weighed down with a huge honkin’ pack, four fish poles, net, bait bucket, and blah, blah, blah. Yes, sir. That’s

me. I’m that guy. The “I wonder why my back hurts” at the end of the day guy. It’s true. I’ve offered kids cash money to haul my backpack off the jetty and back to the rig. Funny, but I’ve never had a single one take me up on it. Still, and like many of you, I’m assuming, I do subscribe to the nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

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FISHING A closer look at the contents of Johnson’s jetty pack. While weighing 23 pounds when fully packed, it also covers all the basics – and then some – an angler needs while casting for coho and Chinook at the mouth of the big river. (JULIA JOHNSON)

philosophy of ’tis better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. And that, friends, is why my jetty pack weighs what it does, which is – well, we’ll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, let’s delve deep inside this so-called jetty pack, and take an in-depth look at what I hump out onto the rocks at the mouth of the Columbia River once the annual silver run – I know you’ve seen this before, but it’s predicted to be in the neighborhood of 1.6 million coho – gets underway.

THE PACK So, like almost all of the outdoor products I’ve tried and genuinely like and use religiously, my jetty pack is no longer available. Mine, should you be wondering, is a Traverse X-Brand from Alps Outdoorz. You can get something close today – either the Hybrid X or 66 Northwest Sportsman

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the Traverse EPS – and I’m sure either one would work just fine. Truth of the matter is, any pack that 1) will contain all your stuff, and 2) is comfortable enough to hump the 3-mile roundtrip to and from the jetty will work. What I do like about my Traverse X, which is also a feature of both the EPS and the Hybrid, is the drop-down detachable pocket. Designed to secure a gunstock or bow to the pack, the pocket holds four rod handles perfectly, while the trio of body straps on the pack proper let me buckle everything down tight. What’s this mean? It means I have both hands free to – ready? – carry more stuff.

RODS, REELS, STRING A trip to the jetty for me translates into, among other things, four rod/ reel combinations. Could I get away with one? Probably, but it would be

a pain in the butt switching back and forth between bobbers and hard baits. And, let’s not forget, if I take just one rod and break said rod – which I’ve done out there on the rocks – I’m done for the day. Capiche? I pack the rods; Julie has her own gear stowed away in a Tenzing Model 2220, along with incidentals, which often are spelled f-o-o-d. Typically, I pack two baitcasting outfits rigged with bobbers or side planers, and two spinning rods for spinners and spoons. These include: Shakespeare Wild Series 8-foot6 medium-heavy rod and Bass Pro Extreme EX4000 spinning reel – I know little about the reel, only that I got it for a great price at a garage sale. It’s gold, looks way cool and works incredibly well; Shakespeare Ugly Stik Lite 8-foot6 medium action with a Pfleuger Trion GX-7 spinning reel; Shakespeare Ugly Stik 9-foot medium-heavy baitcaster with an Ambassadeur 5500S Series levelwind; And an Okuma Celilo 8-foot6 heavy action with an older Ambassadeur 5000 levelwind or a Lamiglas MBC 86MH (medium heavy) baitcasting rod with an Ambassadeur 5500C3 levelwind. All are spooled with 30-pound-test Berkley X9 braid, with either a 25- or 30-pound monofilament backing.

PACK CONTENTS So, because I’m anal retentive, OCD or something anyway, my jetty pack is divided into sections or compartments; that is, main compartment, small main, left side, right side, and left and right hip pockets. Just as I do with my turkey vest, I keep each item in its rightful place in its respective compartment. That way, I (should) know where everything is at any given time. Key word – should. That said, let’s begin. In the main compartment is a plastic tray for bobber or side planer gear. Here we’ll find: Two-ounce Danielson Easy Drifter bobbers (two) – they’re cheap and

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The author, here tying on a new rig, says he subscribes to the philosophy, “’tis better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it” in explaining why he brings so much gear onto the jetty. Note that the Army Corps of Engineers structure is not made for fishing, rather shipping in and out of the Columbia, so safety is paramount. (JULIA JOHNSON)

cast well; Selection of 1- and 1½-ounce beaded sinkers – the 1½-ounce model is as big as I go; 3/0 and 4/0 slip-style mooching rigs – I tie my own preseason with red hooks; Hot Shot side planers (two) – experimented with them last year, and I’m sold; Barrel swivels – buy quality not quantity, and don’t lose fish; 5mm beads – orange, red, green, it doesn’t matter; Bobber stops – two packs of fluorescent green, as you’ll lose one; 68 Northwest Sportsman

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Small lock-blade knife – inexpensive, with no sentimental value; Clippers – for cutting monofilament and my fingernails when I get bored; And surgical scissors – they make cutting braid easy. Also in the main compartment is a second tray, this one containing hard baits to include: Mepps Syclops Spoons in rainbow trout, hot pink, chartreuse, fire tiger, blue and silver – of those patterns, rainbow trout is by far my favorite. In fact, we have a saying on the jetty, “sun’s out, rainbow trout.” It works, at least for us it does;

Mepps Flying C – the quintessential North Jetty coho spinner, and in pink, of course. I’ll have hot pink, orange and chartreuse; Mepps Long Cast – as the name implies, you can heave this spinner a country mile. In pink, chartreuse and the now infamous rainbow trout; Rotator 2.5 jigs from Squidlures. com – hot pink; Rooster Tail spinners – blue body/ pink blade, pink body/silver blade and green body/silver blade; Mepps Little Wolf Spoons in ¾-ounce models – fire tiger and the GLO Series; And Quiver spoons – go with 1 ounce. Rounding out the main compartment: Spool of 30-pound-test mono – for tying mooching rigs and leaders; Rags – can’t ever have enough rags; Bang! Garlic spray – used it during sturgeon season and I’m a believer; Baby wipes – to complement the toilet paper below; Baseball cap – it’s not sunny often out there, but when it is …; First aid kit – basic but gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing it’s there; MRE #16, chicken burrito bowl – don’t knock it till you’ve tried it; And assorted snacks – Red Vines, Hostess powdered donuts and Trail Mix. Moving onto the small main compartment atop the main pack: 50-pack Brad’s 4/0 octopus hooks – for on-the-rocks mooching rigs; Needle-nose pliers – literally, a thousand uses; Toilet paper – duh! Hemostats – you just never know when you might have to clamp an artery; 12-foot tape measure – for determining minimum size qualifications; Pens (three) – because “I didn’t have a pen on me” won’t fly with Captain Dan Chadwick and his fellow local Washington game wardens; Gerber Multi-tool – I actually have two in the pack;

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FISHING HUNTING Johnson’s wife Julie holds the payoff for packing all that gear. Chinook and coho will bite big spinners or bait under a bobber hucked off the jetty. If the silver forecast comes true, fishing could be pretty good well into September, when the limit increases to three hatchery coho a day. (MD JOHNSON)

the bag, i.e., whose is whose Smoked oysters – same story; six years old. But just in case; Opposite, the right side zippered pocket harbors: Maui Jim sunglasses – the glare off the water can be brutal; Rag wool gloves – even in August, mornings can be damp and chilly; Jersey gloves – they’re 99 cents, if I lose them, I’m not upset; Buff AquaGloves and Arm Sleeves (buffusa.com) – two words: jetty flies; Priest – no, not that kind, though it might help, given the jetty flies, fishstealing raccoons and upset tummies; rather, a wooden fish bonker; Butter knife – for scaling fish prior to filleting; Rapala fillet knife – for filleting fish following the aforementioned scaling; And 25 feet of ¼-inch rope – assists in lowering fish bags to the water for continued wetting.

THAT’S ONE PACKED PACK!

MRE Accessories Pack – a little bit of everything comes in very handy at times; Antacids – quiets the tummy after mini-mart breakfast burritos; And burlap bags, aka Stinky Fish Bags (two) – these are strapped underneath the pack and are used (hopefully) to hold fish during the day and transport them off the jetty. Note that jetty raccoons, of which there are many, are not stymied by something as simple as a burlap bag. They will gnaw a hole in said bag and spirit your salmon away, without so much as 70 Northwest Sportsman

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moving the burlap one iota. How do I know? Let’s just quickly move on. The left side narrow zippered pocket/pouch contains: Water and Gatorade – hydration is important, especially on the rocks. Make sure to drink plenty, and alternate back and forth between water and electrolytes. Watch the high-sugar energy drinks; they don’t do much but empty your wallet In the left hip pouch: 5-Hour Energy – I know, hypocrite! In my defense, this one’s six years old Hole punch – for marking fish in

OK, so that’s a lot of stuff. How much stuff? Out of a morbid sense of curiosity, I hung the fully loaded pack on a scale, and, after the needle stopped bouncing, she read just a shade over 23 pounds. Not bad, but when you consider I’m also carrying an Igloo Playmate cooler with anchovies and ice, as well as a long-handled net large enough to ensnare an aircraft carrier. And then there’s the return trip with, if the stars have indeed aligned, four fat silvers – me and Julie’s limit – well, it’s plenty enough to hump any distance. Still, it’s lighter than my wildland line pack, lighter than three dozen weighted keel mallard decoys and a whole hell of a lot lighter than an industrial drum sander. Don’t ask. Maybe this August and September, I’ll try on that other guy’s pants. Just once. Head out with just a spinning outfit, two Flying Cs (pink and chartreuse) and a pair of rainbow trout Syclops spoons. Oh, and some water. And a Stinky Fish Bag. But I’ll stop there. Ah, maybe some powdered donuts. And a ball hat. And … NS

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COLUMN

The Friend And The Fish Of A Lifetime T

he layers in one’s life are so very complex. Great depth develops as these intertwining FOR THE LOVE layers continue to OF THE TUG stack up and build. As By Sara Ichtertz life flies by, it’s almost overwhelming if we stop and think about all the components that make us who we are – relationships, places, moments both good and bad. They are always building, always coming and always going, forcing us to grow. Out of all these moments, layers and growth, there are few people who have impacted my life in a positive way more so than Mother Nature has. I honestly am a “four quarters” kind of person when it comes to relationships more so than 100 pennies. Kind to all, inspirational to some, yet always guarded to those outside of my four quarters. That is me; I cannot help it. There is one amazing relationship in my life that has stood the test of time. Firmly intertwined in my life’s layers, this girl not only is a part of them but we also grew together and continue to grow to this day. With one wild adventure after another, we became inseparable. The events in life can go from high and bright just to turn around and seem as if the darkness will never end. So to have a bosom friend whose role in your life is not only significant but constant throughout so very many chapters is a beautiful thing. We went from a couple of carefree girls to these women, these sisters, by choice.

IN MY EARLY 30s, I discovered I was a fisher. In this discovery I fell head over heels for the river and her fish. For many runs I fished every moment I was able, and I do mean just about every free moment.

Jenny West, a sister of author Sara Ichtertz, smiles as she fights her first sturgeon, a fish hooked on the Lower Columbia near Astoria in early summer. (SARA ICHTERTZ)

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Jenny and Sara at age 16. (SARA ICHTERTZ) I changed; I gave all of me to the river to try and figure out how to fish it. Once I did figure it out, I was totally gone! Only remnants of the garden-growing momma that I was were left behind. Massive growth took place, but there was some loss as well. In giving so much time to the water and the fish, I gave very little to those who mattered most to me, aside from my children. I was indeed a selfish fisherman. Babes in tow as a mother, but fishing, yes. I remember Jenny saying to me one day, “Well, should I book an appointment to see my best friend?” I hated that moment because before the fish, my four quarters were all that mattered and one of them, my oldest dearest friend, was hurting because I was a steehead-addicted woman. In realizing this, I adjusted things along with the river; I am making time for those who I truly treasure. The thing is, though, that I love fishing! I love a handful of people and I am much happier when I am able to have it all – both my people and the fish. A healthy balance to it all is what I desire. Jenny never took a huge interest in coming down to the river with me, but she always listened to me and my fish tales. 76 Northwest Sportsman

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She has always allowed all her girls to go on adventures with me too and I love that. Being a mother of four, from a teenage son down to 3-year-old twin Scorpio girls, Jenny finds comfort in her family, her home, her yard, her life. I admire that about her. She has also helped me and supported me with every seminar and event I have basically ever done. She just had not embraced the adventure and tug of it all. Still, I knew the day would come that we would indeed fish together. How this tale amazingly unfolded confirms and reminds me that this is our one life and we can chase that fish of a lifetime all we want, but if it’s done without the ones we love, then we will probably never truly find what we are looking for.

THE STARS ALIGNED for the two of us and David Johnson’s “Fish Like a Girl Adventures” once more brought adventure and joy into my life. The Tillamook-based fishing guide’s dream of bringing ladies together on the water has made so many beautiful moments in my life and I am thankful for each one. This adventure, however, was different. It was the first time

in me and Jenny’s 25 years of friendship that we were able to escape, just the two of us. This adventure allowed us moms to get out on the road and travel to the northernmost part of the state in pursuit of my favorite fish away from home. Even though the destination was excellent, it was the journey of it all that I treasure. To be able to embrace the oldest city this side of the Rocky Mountains and chase those most incredible creatures with my girl, how could it not be amazing? The truth is, it was amazing! When we arrived at our wonderful rustic little inn, we just really felt like we had made it. The Riverwalk Inn has this rustic charm, marinafront balconies and sunrises that are one of a kind. I love being on the water and these rooms are by far the closest to the water I have ever been! Everything about the Riverwalk Inn is perfect for the eager fisherman, or even if you just are looking to experience this historically treasured town of Astoria. I find it so fitting that gentle giants – massive prehistoric fish – live alongside the oldest town in the Pacific Northwest. Both are special and both have a piece of my heart, and I absolutely loved watching Jenny give a piece or two of her heart to that place, those fish and that adventure. I loved for her to be able to say yes to adventure. It is so important to live while we still can, creating moments worth looking back upon. Some things in life are simply unforgettable and Jenny’s first time fishing – aside from a handful of trout – is guaranteed one of those moments!

CATCH-AND-RELEASE STURGEON FISHING out of Astoria seems to be a somewhat overlooked fishery, as it is the only fishing I have ever done up north where there isn’t a soul in sight. Though occurring on the same waters, it’s nothing along the lines of the madness of Buoy 10. It’s very peaceful and low-key when it comes to the boat launches and overall number of people on the water. That makes me like it a whole lot more – and then there are those magnificent creatures we pursue! The night before Jenny’s big day we could hardly settle ourselves to sleep. I knew she would rock it, but because sturgeon are not your average fish at all,

COLUMN

Night settles on Astoria’s West Mooring Basin and the AstoriaMegler Bridge, as seen from Riverwalk Inn, where the author and her sister stayed before their estuary sturgeon adventure. (SARA ICHTERTZ)

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I gave her a bit of a rundown as we sat on our balcony overlooking all the boats in the marina. Though you really must experience it to understand, I knew Jenny’s first fish was going to be massive with a badass fight behind it, and only once they submit can you think about landing these fish. So I felt I should give her a little guidance so she was as ready as possible. I told her to reel her way down to the edge of the boat. Lowering your rod without reeling will produce a belly in your line and is the one way I have seen these massive fish come undone. Let your reel be the leader as you work your rod. Keep tension no matter what. I explained to her how they might run and run and all you can do is try to turn that fish around and never give up! It had been three years since I had encountered a sturgeon and in getting her ready, I felt even more excited than ever! While it was a coffee-free morning for us, the sunrise did far more for me than caffeine ever could. We watched the sun rise over the mighty Columbia and then we were off. The weather was not at all

COLUMN what I have experienced in the past. We did luck out and miss our record-breaking Southern Oregon heatwave but, wow, the sun was hot and the river was still. Never had I ever seen David’s sturgeon grounds look so like glass, but he stealthily worked his way to a place I have seen before, a place I love. Catching the tide just right, we settled in and the water began to go out. I hold David in high regard as a fisherman and guide. He loves the fish, not just the dollar. He is willing to go chase giants just to chase them, to connect with a part of nature that feels almost out of this world but is real! Not many guides embrace this rad fishery, as I didn’t see a single one. Maybe it was because sturgeon retention season was over? I am not sure, but I am thankful David still loves the fish after all these years of guiding. His knowledge of the species and waters of his fisheries are most impressive; he usually gives a biology lesson and history lesson or two. His laughter is strong and true, just like him. His help connecting

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us with such creatures, literally battling them as the leap out of the river like a steelhead on steroids, is worth more than a harvest to me. I hope he knows how much his passion means to me; it does not go unnoticed. Being able to check those fish out and send them swimming gives me instant gratification and is by far my favorite North Coast fishery.

HAVING ALL THE rods out always brings a giddy smile to my face – David’s too. As we eagerly waited, Jenny decided that she didn’t want the first fish, which fellow angler Kimberly, who joined us, and I wanted her to have, as she thought it might be best to watch and do a little learning. That was perfect too, as Kimberly is no stranger to these fish. No sooner had we discussed it, there it was: our first bite of the day. In that salty water, feeding like they do there, they really hammer the bait. The G.Loomis 1265 E6X paired with the Tekota 500 by Shimano takes that aggressive bite

beautifully, instantly loading the rod and the fight is on! I think Jenny made the right call as she watched Kimberly fight the first fish. These grounds hold the biggest lower river sturgeon I have ever seen, and Kim’s first fish was no baby. She had a solid 5-footer to the side of the boat. We were on the board. The excitement of the first bite had David and I checking bait and getting the rods back out as the tide dropped and the giants were biting. Same rod, second fish! It was Jenny’s time to see what all my fussing has been about over the past seven years! She got that rod right where it needed to be and fought her first big fish like she had fought one before. Their sure strength had my sweet little friend cussing as if she was foulmouthed Sara! Considering Jenny had never truly fought a fish, only reeling in a handful of trout, she really was a natural. Soon her massive fish finally had had enough and I will never forget Jenny landing her first big fish! It was another 5-foot giant and I am not sure if Jenny was

COLUMN

Guide David Johnson, host of “Fish Like a Girl Adventures,” releases one of 14 diamondsides caught by the ladies into the glass-like waters of the Lower Columbia. (SARA ICHTERTZ) more blown away by the strength of the fish or how amazing they look – armored to the max, yet with cute whiskers and toothless sucker mouths. Sturgeon truly are a species that is one-of-a-kind!

THE BITES WERE in good supply and I think we had six to the boat when I hooked her. When I set the hook on this fish, I knew it was not quite like the rest. The instant thrashing was followed by a run that no matter the pressure I put on my rod, she would not turn. No, she leaped out of the water and just kept on swimming. We had to get off anchor and chase us down this monster. 82 Northwest Sportsman

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Without a doubt this battle was the longest fish fight of my life. It’s not just reeling up a sheet of plywood off the ocean floor. No, they are mad, they are strong and they give me the shakes like no other. I honestly have no idea how long it took for us to get a good look at my fish. She was indeed huge, well over the 6-footer David and I caught together three years ago. We don’t bring oversized sturgeon on the boat and seeing this handsome lady, I knew I had to embrace it: I was going to jump into the river once again. Kimberly had told us at dinner the night before that it was a bucket list moment for

her. She wanted to get out in the river with a fish like I have done in years past with a few other incredible ladies. Why not? You only live once and this massive beauty was my fish of a lifetime – and my friend of a lifetime was right there with me! I really wanted to check her out and have my moment with this every-bit-of-8-feet sturgeon, so in we went! The fear I feel before I jump out of that boat is real! How deep the mud may be, I never know! I love the fact that I just naturally want to get in that water, though. I am a chicken, yet some of the biggest risks with an instant reward in life have come out of me genuinely loving the fish. Once I had my feet firmly on the ground, the sturgeon decided I was way too scary, and she was out of there, instantly heading for our anchor buoy. I was shaking like never before. Come back, girl! Do not even get tangled up in that rope! Despite a serious case of the shakes, I turned her once more and brought her to me. It’s pretty wild to think I could land such a giant and have her submit fully to me. I removed the hook, which was barely in her sweet little lip. Gaining a good grip on her mouth, I flipped her upright to check her out. She was calm for a moment and on her high fin she had a perfect heart. Wishing I could capture the moment somewhere besides in my heart, she had other plans and thrashed her massive self right away from me! The absolute mayhem that took place as I screamed for Jenny trying to wrangle my monster back while David laughed hysterically will live on in my heart forever.

I DID MANAGE to get her back! I honestly was amazed as I thought she was a goner! Guess my childhood tadpole hunting paid off, or someone upstairs knew how much that moment meant to me. Either way, we shared that incredible fish and those hilarious, heart-pounding moments. I have a genuine love for everybody I fished with that day, and I realize that that probably has a lot to do with why the day shined so bright. I was semi-toasted after that girl, but the fish did not stop biting and the three of us ladies brought 14 sturgeon to the boat that day! Jenny and I shared a best friend double and the fact

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With a handling assist from friend Kimberly, Sara kisses her largest sturgeon yet. (SARA ICHTERTZ)

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that we had that much action by lunch was amazing! Jenny hung right in there too! She really did love it and she wants to go again. The personal growth that took place for her was needed, even though she might not have known it. I’m thankful that David can help make such things happen, providing an opportunity for all of us to experience our own personal growth on these trips. I am not sure if Jenny realizes how much this adventure meant to me and how proud I was to see her embrace something new. I have traveled many a mile solo in search of that fish and I truly believe it only came together because I was sharing this joy with someone I have loved most all of my life. That is why. Happiness does not come cheap and yet it does not cost a thing. Create memories with the ones who matter most, and your fish of a lifetime just might be waiting for you. You will be amazed at all you will walk away with, even when it is catch and release. My heart is on the river and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS

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FISHING

Here Come The Pinks! With nearly 3 million of the odd-year salmon forecast back to Puget Sound, here’s how and where to catch them. By Mark Yuasa

’ve spun a great number of herring over the past 45-plus years, and have a sneaking suspicion about the August timeframe. Those positive rod-bending vibes point to an anticipated 2,925,681 pink salmon that’ll be surging through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Hood Canal and Puget Sound. “We expect anglers should have some really good opportunities for pinks throughout Puget Sound,” says Mark Baltzell, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife salmon manager. “Pinks are relatively easy to catch from shore or boat in local marine waterways. Plus, it’s an ideal way to introduce beginners or those new to fishing.” WDFW officials say that even if their 2021 forecasts are off by 30 or 40 percent, anglers should be able to find good fishing and still leave adequate numbers to spawn and produce 2023’s run. Pink populations began to increase in 2001, when runs surged to well above 3 million. The largest return occurred in 2009 at 10-plus million, followed by 6-plus million in 2011 and 8-plus million in 2013, before

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FISHING dipping to 4 million in 2015. In the summer of 2015, pinks ran head-on into an extreme summer drought coupled with blistering water temperatures in rivers. To make matters worse, flooding the following fall and winter scoured spawning beds and wiped out many juvenile fish. Those that survived then migrated into unfriendly conditions dealt by

“The Blob” in the Pacific Ocean. This led to the pink forecast tanking in 2017 to 1.1 million, which was less than 82 percent of the historical 10-year average, and a paltry actual return of about 511,000. “In 2019 we did bounce back to a run size of 2.9 million pinks (608,388 was the forecast), (but) it was below the 10-year average of 4 million,”

Pink anglers line the Whidbey Island shoreline near the Keystone Ferry dock during 2015’s season. Buzz Bombs and other lead jigs are good bets for catching these fish from the edge of Puget Sound. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

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Mickey Agha, a WDFW biologist, said when salmon forecasts came out in late February. “The fry output may play a larger role in the return (for 2021).”

PINKS ARE MORE prolific than their Chinook and coho counterparts. They spawn in lower river sections and their fry don’t spend much time in their freshwater environment,

therefore avoiding heavy predation, and they easily adapt to different spawning locations. In total, pinks spend about 1½ years in the ocean and feed and grow at a fast rate before returning as 2-year-old fish. Pinks are the most abundant salmon species, and due to their unique two-year life cycle, returns

are quite large in odd-numbered years, although a few migrate on even-numbered years. For several decades not many pinks were found in South Sound river systems like the Green and Nisqually, but in 2001 returns blossomed exponentially. By 2009 more than 3.3 million returned to the Green alone. Pink forecasts are based off fry

production, and a breakdown shows the Nooksack is expecting 240,000 (24,476 in 2019); Skagit, 927,300 (114,769); Stillaguamish, 51,607 (47,929); Snohomish, 555,929 (128,362); Green, 397,732 (141,130); Puyallup, 358,368 (47,905); Nisqually, 184,636 (25,380); South Puget Sound tribs, 142 (143); Hood Canal, 174,244 (70,675); and Strait

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FISHING

Chris Anderson of Des Moines and his son smile over their catch of pinks. When caught in the saltchuck, these fish are at their prime in terms of taste, but be sure to bleed and gut them fast to get the optimal quality out of their delicate meat. (MARK YUASA)

of Juan de Fuca tribs, 35,723 (7,629). Pinks are the smallest of the North Pacific’s salmon species, weighing between 3 and 6 pounds and with an average length of 20 to 25 inches. The official state record for a saltwater pink was caught by Jeff Bergman at Possession Bar on August 25, 2001, and weighed 11.56 pounds. The largest in freshwater was caught by Adam Stewart in the Stillaguamish River on October 11, 2007, and weighed 15.40 pounds. Pinks can be distinguished by large dark oval spots on their back and tail fin. In freshwater the male pinks develop a distinct hump on their 90 Northwest Sportsman

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back, which is why they’re known as “humpies.” For Puget Sound marine areas, the fishery peaks in mid-August, although they started appearing in catches in early summer. In southern Puget Sound, the last week of August and early September are best.

WHEN TARGETING PINKS, the color of choice is hot pink, whether it be a lure, spoon, jig or fly, as the color resembles plankton or krill, which is part of their main diet. Stick with smaller-sized mini squids or small spoons tied behind a short 13- to 16-inch leader to a

white-colored dodger or silver flasher. Another method is to use a smaller 8-inch Pro-Troll flasher with a slightly longer leader of 15 to 20 inches. Those looking at a bait option should try a red-label “firecrackersize” cut-plug herring. Be sure to lace it with Pro-Cure, Smelly Jelly or Mike’s Gel Scent in anise or herring flavor. From boat or shore, casting a Buzz Bomb or Point Wilson-type jig works. The jig will sink at a rate of about a foot per second. Once you feel it go slack, reel up rather than set the hook hard, as pinks have soft jawlines. Other lures include a pink Rotator trailed behind a small pink plastic “hoochie” squid. Let it flutter down to the desired depth and then slowly retrieve from shore or a boat. A stout 8- to 9-foot salmon or trout rod (6- to 10-pound line) with a levelwind or spinning reel will do the trick. Stick to a lighter fishing line of 8- to 12-pound test. A 6- or 7-weight fly rod with a sinking line does the job for those who prefer to cast a size 4 pink Flashabou Comet fly. From a boat, downriggers are effective to get to the right depths. Another option is to attach a 6- to 8-ounce banana-shaped lead weight or trolling diver a few feet ahead of the dodger or flasher and let out no more than 30 to 50 feet of line. The most productive times are early mornings and evenings just before sunset, but pinks readily bite all day long. Most congregate just below the surface to as deep as 80 to 125 feet, and they’ll go deeper on bright, sunny days. An important factor to keep in mind when fishing from a boat is to troll fairly slowly, from 1.5 to 2.0 mph, depending on current, tide and wind. Whatever tactic you use, make sure to have lots of gear in the water, as double, triple or quadruple hookups aren’t uncommon. Once you hook a fish, be sure to circle around to stay on top of the school of pinks. Pinks like to stay close to the shoreline to avoid strong currents, making them easily accessible to bank

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anglers. Around an hour before and right after flood and slack tides are the optimal times to catch pinks. You can often spot pinks by looking for fish jumping or finning on the surface, or taking notice of other fishermen reeling them in nearby. As the school nears, get ready.

THERE ARE TONS of places to fish for pink salmon, from the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Neah Bay clear into the depths of southern Puget Sound. Check the WDFW regulation pamphlet for what marine waterways are open or closed. “When I think about pinks, I think about places like Deception Pass, which is a popular beach fishery and the main highway for the 900,000plus pinks returning the Skagit River,” said Baltzell, the state manager. “There are lots of beach locations in Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet); Humpy Hollow in Area 8-2; and Browns Point, as well as many other pier locations.” Excellent shoreline spots include the Mukilteo Lighthouse shoreline and just north at the new ferry pier; Edmonds Pier; Lincoln Park in West Seattle; Carkeek Park; Alki Point; Golden Gardens; Redondo Beach; Dash Point State Park pier and shoreline; Fort Casey, Keystone, Bush Point and Lagoon Point off the west side of Whidbey Island; Point Wilson and Fort Flagler State Park near Port Townsend; Point No Point; Possession Point Bait House; Picnic Point in Edmonds; and Point Defiance Park Boathouse and Les Davis Pier in Tacoma.

TAKING CARE OF your catch is vital and pinks are tasty, especially when smoked or grilled. When summer temperatures are very warm, the flesh can break down and become mushy. Once you catch a pink, immediately bleed it out by cutting the gills and then clean and gut your catch. Then get them on ice in a cooler. To see when and where the best pink fishing is occurring, simply track WDFW’s latest creel checks at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports/creel. NS 94 Northwest Sportsman

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COLUMN

Best Humpy Rivers I NW PURSUITS By Jason Brooks

f you ever needed a reason to go salmon fishing this summer and fall, here are about 2.9 million of ’em. Pinks are returning in their odd-year cycle and that means it is time to

go catch some fish! Some Puget Sound anglers don’t get excited over pinks, but for me they are a lot of fun to catch and a great way to get new fishermen into some salmon. And while many think of August as the time to target them in the saltwater and September in the rivers, some runs are already surging into their natal streams this month and wise Northwest sportsmen will make that angling transition as well. Here is a quick rundown of top rivers and techniques to catch some pinks.

STARTING UP NORTH, the Skagit will be one of the best places to intercept pinks this year, thanks to its largest single-river run projection of 927,300 fish. The river starts way up in the Cascades of British Columbia and shortly after it runs south across the border, it turns into Ross Lake in the North Cascades National Park complex. Below the dewatered Gorge Dam stretch, it turns back into a raging river and flows towards Puget Sound. On its way, the Skagit passes Mount Vernon, which is a popular place to fish from the shore, thanks to good bank access at and above town. Pinks turn quickly once they leave saltwater, as well as tend to spawn fairly low in Puget Sound rivers – at least compared to rapids-navigating Chinook, sockeye and coho – so anglers target them lower in the systems. The Skagit is where I first heard about pink salmon fishing. Back when I was still growing up in the Lake Chelan valley, my longtime hunting partner told me of a fly fishing trip he had just taken with his dad. They hired a guide and fished the Skagit, hooking and reeling in pinks, one after the

A salmon angler gets ready to carry out a heavy haul of humpies caught on a Puget Sound river in a past season. This year’s return should make for great fishing from the Skagit down through the Nisqually and over to Hoodsport. (JASON BROOKS)

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COLUMN Fishermen line the lower Puyallup, a river that not only offers solid numbers of odd-year pinks but Chinook and coho as well, a fact that can make for crowding. Also note the closed days and waters to accommodate tribal fisheries in August and September. (JASON BROOKS)

other. He kept one of the flies and gave it to me. It was a simple pattern tied on a size 1 streamer hook with a silver tinsel and pink marabou body and a silver bead near the eye of the hook. He told me they swung them through the runs, hooking so many fish that they tore up several flies through the day. I have yet to sling a fly on the Skagit, but maybe this will be the year to venture up there with the drift boat and float this scenic waterway.

THE SNOHOMISH SYSTEM is known for its large pink salmon, both in terms of numbers and actual size of fish. With a projected return of 555,929 pinks this year, the daily limit is up to four salmon (a bag that includes hatchery coho), but the mainstem also doesn’t open until the third week of August. This river goes up towards Highway 2 for several miles and then splits, becoming the Skykomish and the Snoqualmie Rivers. The Sky opens August 30 for pinks, but

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while the Sno has opened for the species in past years, it’s not expected to at all this season. Both the Snohomish and the Skykomish offer great fishing from a small boat or sled. Plus there is bank access and some incredible scenery on the Skykomish portion. With this many pinks coming back to these rivers, it will be worth your while to drive across the Highway 2 trestle spanning the sloughs east of Everett and find a place to fish as you head up into the

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COLUMN Cascade Mountains.

THE CLOSEST RIVER to the largest city in the entire Northwest is the Green. It is known as the Duwamish where it actually flows through Seattle, but once you get above tidal influence, the river is called the Green and is so designated in the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations. I point this out because you will need a map and the regs to understand where you can fish for pinks. While confusing, it is worth it once you get it figured out, as 397,732 pinks are expected to return this year. The Green has some really good bank access, as well as boating access. For those with small power boats, the lower waterway is a good place to intercept fish. King County Metro Parks has several options, as do cities such as Tukwila, Auburn and others. A quick internet search will give you a list of parks that have bank access. Again, doublecheck the regulations with the stretch of river you plan on fishing.

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If you drift the upper Green, one thing to remember is the log jam near Black Diamond. It is dangerous and you cannot float through it. But just upstream near Highway 18 is a take-out, as well as good bank access.

THE PUYALLUP’S PROBABLY the most popular river of all of them, and it opens August 16. The reason why is because it normally sees one of the biggest pink runs, though this year a “mere” 358,368 are expected back. However, there’s also a decent Chinook forecast of 17,835 and a really good coho prediction of 40,851. This makes the Puyallup a great place to catch an array of salmon and you should use gear ready to handle the hard-fighting Chinook and smaller pinks. Another reason why the Puyallup is so popular is because of the bank access. From the confluence of the Carbon River near Orting all the way down to the tidal waters along River Road, there are places to stand in the river and catch a fish.

Because of this popularity, it can be a bit of a combat fishery, and some stretches are also unfortunately not family-friendly. Also check the regulations for gear restrictions and closed days on the lower river, as WDFW has an agreement with the Puyallup and Muckleshoot Tribes following a few run-ins on the river that caused tensions. It’s kinda sad, as this is my home river and just minutes from my house. My boys grew up catching pinks in the Puyallup, learning how to cast and reel in fish. Now, my 15-year-old son Ryan and I venture down to a stretch that is still somewhat unknown, walking nearly a mile to get away from the crowds to fish this river, but only once or twice a year. You can find good stretches with good people, but it might take some research. Be aware of the high population of homeless in the area (think “outside toilet” and watch your step), and also be sure to not leave any valuables in your car. Parking areas are well known and unfortunately can also be targets for thieves.

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COLUMN While drift fishing Lil’ Corkies and Dick Nites are popular ways to fish for humpies in rivers, a pink squid on a lead jig can work wonders on the salmon as they work their way up through tidally influenced stretches. (BEN HOWARD)

THE NISQUALLY IS another river that used to get an incredible run of pinks, but for some reason the numbers have dropped off, despite some serious estuary restoration work that’s been done. Nearly 185,000 pinks are coming back this year and like the Puyallup to the north, the Nisqually also sees a good run of Chinook. This river opens the earliest of all Puget Sound fall salmon streams, July 1, though that is a bit early for the pinks. Chinook will be in the system, as will tribal fishermen, so be sure to check the net schedule. And if you plan on fishing the lower river, check the tides as well. There are a few other rivers in Puget 102 Northwest Sportsman

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Sound that get pinks back, but one area that isn’t a river but fishes like one is Hoodsport. You can bank fish at the hatchery and as long as you stay out of the “no boat zone,” you can cast while floating on Hood Canal. The hatchery here supplements the wild run but only by 5,009 fish this year. Still, the total run for the area is 174,244, so it is worth your while to give it a try.

AS FOR CATCHING pinks, it all depends on water conditions. Rivers range from clear – the Skagit and Green – to murky glacial-silt flows – the Puyallup. For the former, you can back-bounce a small Dick Nite, which accounted for the former state record on the

Skykomish back in 2001. You can also drift fish the spoon on a dropper leader, allowing the lure to flutter. Of course pink is the obvious color of choice, but try chartreuse, silver and red, and half-and-half as well. In the latter waters, drift fishing is more effective. A small drift bobber such as a size 14 Lil’ Corky, Puff Ball, Cheater or Cha Cha Pill in bright colors such as rocket red, chartreuse, fluorescent orange or pink are most popular. Trail it with a size 1/0 or 1 red Gamakatsu octopus hook, and be sure to pinch the barbs if required. For leaders in clear water, downsize to 8-pound XXX Izorline, but if fishing the Puyallup or Nisqually – where you have your best chances at hooking into a Chinook while fishing for pinks – upsize to 12-pound test. Also on the Puyallup, where the water has near-zero visibility, anglers often add cerise-colored yarn, which shows up well in the off-colored water. Leader length will vary but 36 inches is a good starting point. Slinkies work well for drift fishing, as these weights slide over the rocks easily and you can add scent to them if you choose. Krill or shrimp scent in ProCure Super Gel works well for pinks, which eat krill in the ocean as part of their diet. Twitching jigs is another great way to catch pinks. It works in the salt and rivers, especially tidally influenced waters such as the Duwamish, lower Puyallup and Snohomish, and at Hoodsport. Downsize the jigs to ¼ ounce and, again, pink is the top color, but orange and red work well too. Use your standard twitching rod and look for deep water or schools of pinks. Pinks often cruise along near the surface in tidal and slack waters but are very wary. Cast way out in front of them and then twitch towards the fish. This is also a popular way to fish British Columbia’s Fraser River delta – watch the news for word on whether U.S. residents will be able to head north for some salmon fishing this year.

DON’T LET THE reputation of pinks get in your way of going out and catching some. Take a new angler along and have some fun. It will be another two years before we get the chance at these feisty fish, so make the best of it. Just be sure to double-check WDFW’s regs and seasons before casting a line. NS

COLUMN

THOUGHTS ON FISHING FOR PINKS IN A WARM RIVER

can’t say that I have reached zen hookless fly fishing master copacetic status – that’s a buttload more meditation and holistic consciousness away for this Coug – but with water temperatures running in the less-thansalmon-friendly mid-60-degree range on Washington’s Duwamish-Green River in late August 2019, I tried to be mindful of how long I played pinks, and I’ll do so again this season. Two summers ago, I will admit that that statement was only partially true on the first day I hit the river after returning from a long vacation in Northeast Washington. I lost track of how many humpies I hooked in a 40-minute midday sesh that brought back memories of a preposterous 2001 outing on the Snohomish. “Amy! Bring the boys down! We will slay!” I texted my wife. Then I googled a nearby U.S. Geological Survey stream gauge and saw how warm the water really was and started thinking that maybe I didn’t need to play fish that I was catching and releasing that long. NOT THAT I was. I mean, I am all business with pinks down there on the banks of the muddy DGR. I’m using a converted plunking rod and reel, .99-cent humpy jig and super-stout mainline. After all, the faster you bring a fish in or it successfully throws the hook, the faster you can take another cast for ’em. They were beautiful pinks in 2019 too. Silver-bright bucks and hens. Fat, fat, fat. Studs and egg wagons. Fish that really helped rebuild a run crushed by The Blob. I’ll admit another thing: I don’t know that I ever – ever – considered water temp effects on salmon health before 2015 hit Columbia sockeye hard and a quarter million died. That paradigm-shifting summer also saw the arrival of so-called hoot owl fishing regulations in the Northwest for the first time ever, limiting angling to morning. They were back on again in Oregon following late June’s unprecedented, record-breaking heatwave and ongoing moderate to exceptional drought. During

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The editor fights a pink on the DuwamishGreen during late August 2019, a time of elevated water temps on the Seattlearea river that had him rethinking his relationship with the fish. (ANDY WALGAMOTT) the worst of the heatwave, the western Olympic Peninsula’s Bogachiel River got up to an incredible 78 degrees on the same day the Forks area hit 110. Water temps above 68 are dangerous to deadly for salmonids. Advice from a fisheries biologist I sent a message to about my moral dilemma of whether to fish for pinks in 66-degree water: Don’t. But at the same time, they allowed that the river was open for retention of pinks because there was a harvestable surplus of them, and that assumes some loss from catch-and-release mortality. SO THIS YEAR, in the mental battle between conserving the resource for the future of the ecosystem and angling, and the saying on my Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association T-shirt – “The tug is the drug” – I’ll opt for the former with a good dash of the latter. When I’m fishing the lower ends of typically warmer non-glacial rivers such as the DGR, Snohomish-Skykomish and Stilly, I’ll pinch my barb, and if the hook bends out to an angle that would be intolerable if I was fishing for Chinook, coho, steelhead

or other species for the table, so be it. I’ll give hooked pinks a head turn or four to show me their stuff, then purposefully slacken the line or change its angle in hopes the hook pulls out. Less stress equals higher survival to the spawning gravel – more important than ever as warming ratchets up over the long term. Maybe if I was more enlightened, I would just stay off the rivers all together till they cool back into the 50s. Or just clip the hook off at the bend in the shank and count coup with every line pull – I actually enjoyed watching pinks at my feet slash and take swipes at my twitched jig, pulling it away from some, letting others take it. But I have a ways to go to attain that level of coexistence and harmony with the salmonverse, as it’s very, very difficult to turn your back on a river full of snappy fish. Om mani padme hu – there’s one! Pinks are also just fun, and fishing for them has given me a deep, abiding love of this unloved, scoffed-at species and what it represents. And anyway, soon enough I’ll get bored with them and turn to coho out in the cool waters of Puget Sound and we can all go on our merry ways. –Andy Walgamott

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HUNTING FISHING

Longtime Seattle fishing guide and restaurateur/bar owner Keith Robbins stands aboard his 23-foot Grady White. They can be seen on central Puget Sound waters with clients mooching the depths for kings and fly fishing the shallows for sea-run cutthroat, both rare techniques for the local charter fleet. (A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

The Guide’s Life Even after 30 years and 2,500 trips, Seattle-based charter skipper Keith Robbins considers himself ‘the luckiest guy to walk this Earth.’ By Mark Yuasa

t started off like many summer mornings of a fishing time long ago. The salty air had a distinct pungent smell and seagulls cackled above the railroad trestle near the Ballard Locks Ship Canal, as we gingerly walked down the steep staircase covered with bamboo thicket bordering a rundown house on prime Seattle waterfront property. It was here on a slippery old floating dock tilting precariously into the water that I met Seattle native Keith Robbins, owner of A Spot Tail Salmon Guide (seattlefishingcharter.com), for the mid-July king salmon opener. Quite a fitting place, located a few doorsteps away from where the

venerable Ballard Bait House once sold live herring from a net pen during the fishing heyday of the 1970s and ’80s. After boarding his 23-foot Grady White boat, we slowly motored by the bait house’s tattered net pen before throttling past Ray’s Boathouse, another landmark now known for serving up kitschy seafood with spectacular waterfront views. But from the 1930s to the ’70s, Ray’s stood among 22 other longforgotten boathouses on Shilshole Bay and Elliott Bay hawking fishing tackle, bait, gas and more than 2,600 rental boats to salmon-hungry fishermen. During those long-forgotten summers you could literally walk across the bays filled with rental boats. In his younger days, Robbins and

his dad Burton would rent boats at Ray’s and fish off nearby piers. He was lucky enough to witness the tail end of Puget Sound’s fishing golden days, a time when you could plunk for steelhead below the Ballard Locks, salmon seasons were year-round affairs and catching a king wasn’t like today’s comparison of winning the lottery. “I’d go fishing a lot with my father and brother (Darryl) when I was a kid and this had a big influence on who I am now,” Robbins said. “I was so young I could barely hold the rod in my hands.” On many days each summer as a teenager, Robbins’ mom Norita would drop him off at the Golden Gardens fishing pier. “I’d be there all day, fishing off the nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

Northwest Sportsman 107

FISHING dock, exploring the area and then she’d pick me up many hours later,” Robbins said. “You can’t do stuff like that now with kids.”

HOOKED ON MOOCHING

Fishing with his dad Burton and brother Darryl in his younger days “had a big influence on who I am now,” Robbins says. “I was so young I could barely hold the rod in my hands.” (A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

Robbins purchased his first boat in 1976 for $300 while attending Queen Anne High School, and kept it stored on the drydock at Ray’s Boathouse. “I started going out for salmon a lot and, back then, Ray’s was a vibrant fishing community with oldtimers hanging out and shooting the breeze,” Robbins recalled. “Since then, I’ve owned about 10 boats and vividly remember all the good times we had as a fishing family.” Such memorable family excursions included summer fishing trips to British Columbia, where they mooched for salmon and never trolled. “I’m pretty sure it’s what got me hooked on what appears like a simple way to fish,” he said. “On the other hand, mooching is very

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FISHING complicated and a less understood way of catching salmon.” “Mooching” – developed by Japanese-American fishermen on Elliott Bay in the 1920s – is a salmon technique requiring an angler to constantly drop their line down and reel up, causing the bait to spin and attract fish. Robbins’ career in the local charter fishing industry began as a deckhand from 1989 to 1992 on the Silver Doll at Ballard Salmon Charters, owned by Mark Narruhn. “It was a fun hobby and great part-time summer job, although I didn’t get paid much,” Robbins said. “Mark taught me a bunch of stuff on how to catch fish and I still use many of them today.” Robbins ventured off to start his own charter fishing business in 1992 at Shilshole Bay. “People thought I was nuts when I charged $180 to take two people

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out for a day of fishing,” Robbins said with a laugh. “I was so busy and it was surprising since we had no internet. It was mainly word of mouth and local hotels would send clients my way.” Smaller six-pack charters, especially those whose skippers mooched, were a rarity in the 1990s around the Seattle-Edmonds area. “I like my customers to be connected to their rod, and feel the bite and tug once the fish is hooked,” he said. “The majority of Puget Sound guides troll with downriggers. Trolling is a very effective method, but can be boring at times for the clients.” In 1993, Robbins’ charter business was so good he invested in a bigger Grady White boat from Jacobsen’s Marine, at the time located in Ballard. Shortly after, Robbins took it to another level by adding saltwater fly fishing in 1994. Throughout the years, he’s also hired some young deckhands who

eventually went on to run successful charter services of their own, guys like Justin Wong, owner of A Cut Plug Charters (seattlesalmonfishing. com) in Shilshole Bay. It’s hard to believe, but Robbins “real job” didn’t begin as a full-time charter operator. When he was 18 years old, Robbins worked at the Turbulent Turtle Restaurant, now the site of Un Bien on Seaview Avenue NW, and a stone’s throw away from Ray’s. He’d work all night and then dash across the street to fish before going to bed in the morning. In 1987 he opened up his first bar, called Watertown, in downtown Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. Then in 1990, he owned bars with catchy names like Romper Room, Hula Hula and Tini Bigs at 1st and Denny Way near the Seattle Center. He operated Tini Bigs for almost three decades before the building was demolished for an upscale apartment.

FISHING HUNTING Robbins then relocated Hula Hula in 2017 to where it currently stands just off Olive Way and Denny Way on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

A GUIDE’S MEMORABLE FISHING TALES One of Robbins’ most momentous and cringey guided trips occurred in early September 2009 with Don Wakamatsu – the former Seattle Mariners baseball manager – who had a break between a series with the Anaheim Angels (you can read the story at bit.ly/2TIC0Ha). While in a fog bank on the northeast side of the Kitsap Peninsula, Robbins ran his boat aground. As they waited for the incoming tide to refloat them, Robbins told Wakamatsu to cast his light 6-weight fly rod from the shoreline. “I ended up catching that (17.2-pound) king on a red-andwhite Clouser fly,” Wakamatsu said. “This [fish] was taking line out, and it took me almost to the end of the backing. One more run and it would have taken my fly line with him.” An hour later they managed to “Went from my worst day guiding to one of the best, or at least the most memorable,” says the skipper about running his boat aground in the fog with former Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, who then proceeded to catch the biggest Chinook on a fly in Puget Sound that Robbins has ever heard of. It bit a Clouser baitfish imitation and went 17.2 pounds. (A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

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refloat the boat, and Wakamatsu even made it back to the ballpark in time for the game. Another “fish tale” happened in mid-August 2005 with former Seattle Mariners catcher Dan Wilson, his son Eli and two other relatives (read the story at bit.ly/3irtwi1). “Fishing was very good, and Eli already caught a couple nice kings,” Robbins recalled. “On every drop he’d say, ‘I got one!’ At one point while fighting a fish, he let go of the rod and it went into the water.” In the meantime, Dan was letting out line and caught Eli’s main line; they ended up getting the rod back – along with a 15-pound king. “Once I saw that happen, I thanked God we had a great catcher on the boat,” Robbins joked. A novel could be written on Robbins’ “fishing tales,” but the last one has true meaning and involved his girlfriend when she first moved in. Robbins had just refinished the floors of his house in the Magnolia neighborhood. “I told her I have two rules,” he

said with a smirk. “You can’t wear shoes in the house, and don’t ever question me about how much time I spend fishing. Within a week, she was wearing shoes in the house, but she’s never given me any grief about how much time I spend on the water.” Robbins’ devotion to fishing includes time spent on a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Puget Sound sportfishing advisory board, and he was influential in implementing the first and only salmon catch-and-release fishery and fly fishing areas in Puget Sound. Fishing runs in Robbins’ veins, and when he’s not plying the waters of Puget Sound chasing salmon or sea-run cutthroat, you can find him in Montana, Mexico or the Bahamas. His favorite annual trip is to the Florida Keys to cast his Sage fly rod into the crystal-blue water for tarpon and other fish species. “No, I don’t golf,” Robbins said with a chuckle. “I even fish when I’m on vacation and my days off. It’s my passion.”

FISHING HUNTING “This is my 30th year guiding, and while it is hard work, both the reward and creating a good experience for people is what I relish the most. Plus, I get paid to do what I love most,” says Robbins, here with a hatchery Chinook from last summer. (A SPOT TAIL SALMON GUIDE)

LOOKING AHEAD AND BACK Through his fishing charter, restaurant/ bar ventures and as a charity auctioneer, he’s earned a time-honored perch that’s a rarity in Seattle’s current modern tech-savvy environment. “This is my 30th year guiding, and while it is hard work, both the reward and creating a good experience for

people is what I relish the most. Plus, I get paid to do what I love most,” Robbins said. “Many of my clients have been heads of industries and corporations or celebrities. They’re enamored by what I do and some of them have even told me they’d rather have my job.” “I’ve always known this is a cool

job, but many don’t realize what goes into running a charter business,” he said. “You need to keep clients happy, be a great talker, work long hours and tie endless amounts of fishing leaders.” In three decades spent guiding more than 2,500 trips, Robbins says there were only two clients he’d never take out again. “That’s a pretty good statistic considering I get people from all walks of life,” he said. “I think the most frustrating thing is when clients ask me, ‘How many fish are we going to catch?’ It tells me they haven’t spent a lot of time fishing.” Gazing out on the horizon at the fishing fleet off Point No Point on our trip – where Robbins caught the only keeper hatchery king – he reflected about life and the endless summers. “I’m the luckiest guy to walk this Earth, and if I ever had to go seek counseling for my addiction, they’d blame my father for my passion of fishing. Thanks, Dad.” NS

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Ascend To Trou

Well-named Hidden Lake, tucked away in far northern Idaho, is one of dozens of mountain lakes that host good fishing in summer. Hidden is stocked every other year by biologists, most recently in 2020 with 4,700 rainbows. (DAVID TAYLOR, FLICKR, CC BY 2.0) 116 Northwest Sportsman

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FISHING

out Heaven

In the heights of Idaho’s Panhandle are a good number of alpine lakes to fish during summer’s dog days.

By Mike Wright

s fishing season transitions into the dog days of summer, the avid stillwater trout angler is in a bit of a quandary concerning destinations. Weeks and weeks of heat have increased weed growth in many of the lower elevation lakes to the point of making it difficult to find unobstructed open water, and when you do find some, many of the fish have developed a slight case of lockjaw due to the increased water temperature. Added to these woes is the fact that in many of the easy-access lowelevation lakes there is a noticeable decline in the number of trout available to the angler. Stocking of these lakes usually takes place in March, April or May, so by the later part of July and early August, most of these fish have ended up on someone’s dinner table or fallen victim to ospreys, eagles or a host of other predators. Since the survival rate for trout planted in late summer is very poor, the stocking program generally ends in late spring or early summer at the latest. All these factors combine to make trout fishing in low-elevation lakes in late summer a rather grim prospect. However, there is an option for those anglers who don’t want to put away their fishing gear and wait for the cooler temperatures of early fall.

THERE ARE OVER 3,700 alpine lakes in the Gem State, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and a large number of them are stocked with trout. Most of these waters are in remote, mountainous areas, only accessible by foot or horseback, but there are a small number of lakes that can be reached by motorcycle, ATV or in some cases by car. The fish in these lakes have a very short growing season, so they tend to be very aggressive and will attack anything they perceive to be food. These lakes also tend to nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

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FISHING Author Mike Wright counts Queen and Copper Lakes as among the easier-to-reach alpine waters in the Panhandle, but others require a bit more effort – although the rewards just might be greater. (MIKE WRIGHT)

receive very light fishing pressure, so the trout are not particularly leadershy and are not easily spooked. Most of the same strategies used in fishing lowland lakes will also work well in high waters. If downed timber is present in a mountain lake, chances are very good it will act as a magnet to attract insects and thus is a good place to find hungry trout. However, if there is no wood, dead vegetation or other obvious structure available, it would be a good strategy to work a fly, lure or bait close to the shoreline. Often trout will cruise close to the edges or around the drop-offs. There really isn’t a need for long-distance casting. It is also not a bad idea to include a float tube with your fishing equipment when visiting a highaltitude body of water. There are times when casting from the bank can present a problem, so it would be easier to be in the water and fish back 118 Northwest Sportsman

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toward the shore. For the avid dry fly fisherman, it is very rare to have much surface action on mountain waters. For that reason, small nymphs such as Pheasant Tails, Princes and gold-ribbed Hare’s Ears, as well as downsized leeches and Woolly Buggers, will prove to be far more effective. Hardware anglers will find that the more flash and movement on their lure, the more successful they will be. For anyone using bait, worms, PowerBait, corn and marshmallows are always good choices.

ONE THING TO remember about alpine lakes is that spring comes late and winter arrives early, so the fish have a rather short amount of time to gain weight. That means there is probably not much need to have a taxidermist on speed dial. Still, that doesn’t mean bigger ones can’t be found. In 1993, bull trout were stocked in two Panhandle lakes,

Roman Nose No. 1 and Upper Glidden. This was done to reduce brook trout abundance and improve their size. It was found that this program worked and brookie size improved significantly. However, since hatchery bull trout are not readily available (among other reasons), the program was discontinued. At Lake Estelle, brown trout were stocked in 1992 and still present in 2008. Unfortunately, surveys since then have not found any browns in the lake. According to Andy Dux, IDFG regional fisheries manager, there are no current plans to revive these stocking programs either, and, unfortunately, these larger species have apparently died off. Another stocking program that has been studied to improve the size of the trout in alpine lakes was the use of triploid cutthroat. Since the triploiding process renders fish incapable of reproducing, they do not lose weight in the spawning process, as is fairly

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FISHING common with diploids. In addition, triploids can’t interbreed with native trout, thus maintaining pure genes. Although there will be more studies on the triploid cutthroat program, the first indications have not been encouraging. Growth rates between triploids and diploids have not shown an appreciable difference and the life expectancies of both seem to be nearly identical. This study will be going on for some time, but at the present time it looks as though this program will not increase the size of the cutthroat in high lakes.

A 2008 REPORT by then regional manager Jim Fredericks, fishery biologist Ryan Hardy and fisheries technician David Ayers looked at 51 alpine lakes in the Panhandle Region that were being stocked on a two-

year cycle. They investigated how long it took for cutthroat to reach a length of 250 millimeters, just under 10 inches. It was found that in lakes where stocking was significantly reduced, the amount of time required to reach that measurement was also rather dramatically reduced – by over a year and a half. IDFG instituted a policy that, along with other factors, took into consideration the elevation of the lake and reduced the number of fish stocked in higher waters. Followup studies seem to indicate that this program is working fairly well. Since the food pantry in many of these alpine lakes is a little bare, having a little less competition for resources seems to help increase the size of the fish. There have been some refinements to this program, but for the most part

it is still in place. In addition, rainbows have been added to the stocking plan. This will not make a major difference in catch size, but since rainbows have a little longer life expectancy, it does make it possible to catch somewhat larger fish in a number of the higher elevation lakes. At one time, some of the more remote lakes in the Panhandle district were stocked with golden trout and grayling. Although there has not been additional stocking for some time, there still may be a possibility of catching one of these more exotic species.

FISHING MOUNTAIN LAKES was found to be the second most popular Idaho angling activity, according to a 2017 IDFG survey. Only river and stream fishing ranked higher. There are probably few people who would disagree with these

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findings, especially considering the outstanding scenery, cooler temperatures and the availability of eager-to-bite fish. The mountains of the Idaho Panhandle can provide all three of these appealing attributes, plus they host an ample supply of ripe, delicious huckleberries to help fuel your trip. These high, forested ridgelines have long provided outstanding opportunities for a wide variety of outdoor activities and IDFG has worked very hard to ensure that anglers willing to sweat their way uphill have the opportunity of enjoying a very rewarding endeavor. The fish always seem to be hungry and are very cooperative, no matter what enticement is offered to them. They may not be in contention to set a new state record – a catch-andrelease record might not be a stretch, however – but they are strong and healthy and will put up an excellent fight. While a number of these lakes require long, strenuous hikes to reach their shores, others such as Antelope, Elsie and East Roman Nose have logging roads almost to the edge of the shores. Others such as Spruce, Queen and Copper Lakes can be reached via a short, leisurely walk. It might be helpful to pick up a map at the Bonners Ferry Ranger Station (208-267-5561). And it would be wise to check with IDFG’s Coeur d’Alene office (208-769-1414), since there are some lakes that are not stocked and have no natural reproduction. After all, it might be a bit embarrassing to spend the day fishing a lake that contained no fish. NS

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COLUMN

One of summer’s pleasures is wading into a stream and searching for crayfish – catch enough and they can make a good appetizer or ingredient for gumbo. (RANDY KING)

On Mud Bugs And Gumbo T he summer heat sends me to swim the river a few times each year. I am looking to cool off, CHEF IN but also for rocks that THE WILD might hide crawfish By Randy King underneath. I’ll snorkel in a few feet of slow-moving water; the quiet of snorkeling is simply rejuvenating. The water has a strange effect on vision. It makes what are actually little crawfish look like underwater super predators, something capable of taking off a hand – and not just the tip of a finger. Indeed, the adrenaline rush of grabbing

a little water cockroach and not getting hurt is the fun part about snorkeling for crawdads. You get to be active and you get that little bit of fear. One wrong move and you are pinched. (It was only later in life that I started wearing gloves to catch them. Even then, a solid grab on a gloved finger is no fun.) Tactically speaking, the best method to gather crawdads that I have found is to work your way upstream. Start by slowly lifting rocks into the current, allowing the water to push the debris downstream and away from your field of view. Look for movement and the lobsterlike bodies of crawdads. Slowly slide your (gloved!) hand

into the water and get within a few inches of the crawdad. Quickly thrust your hand down and grab the mud bug. This can become quite the sport. Make it a contest with the kids or a buddy. I think of it as a poor man’s lobster dive, with a lot more mosquitos. Crawdads are never really the “main” part of my dish, so after I gather about 20 or so – I simply get too sunburned to keep going – I can start to plan a meal.

SPEAKING OF, GUMBO is the everyman’s everyman food. It can be, and often is, just about any combination of ingredients, from oysters and crawfish, to chicken and nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

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COLUMN

Noah’s gumbo, with andouille sausage, okra and crawdad, among other ingredients. (RANDY KING)

NOAH’S GUMBO

espite being a chef, my gumbomaking experience is limited, but for some reason my 19-year-old son Noah took a shine to the process and has “perfected” his recipe. Warning, this recipe creates a metric crap-ton of gumbo. It’s enough for a party or even to fill up multiple teenage boys. Even better, generally speaking, the dish knocks it out of the park. It’s also a recipe you want to prepare for, rather than one you can assemble while the rest of it is cooking. And you will need a 12-quart stock pot or something similar, or you can cut the recipe in half for a smaller portion size. The Roux 1 cup canola oil 1 cup all-purpose flour Add the oil to the bottom of a large stock pot. Heat until nearly smoking. Add the flour in small batches. Stir nearly constantly until the flour reaches the color of milk

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chocolate. Gumbo Base I 12 4-ounce andouille sausages, diced 1 white onion, diced 3 green bell peppers, diced 12 stocks celery, diced 12 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped 1 bunch green onion, sliced 2 12-ounce bags of frozen okra Next add the sausages and white onion to the roux. Let cook for five minutes, until the onion is translucent. Then add the remaining vegetables. Gumbo Base II 2 32-ounce cartons of low sodium chicken stock 4 bay leaves ½ cup “Cajun seasoning” 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper 1 tablespoon gumbo filé seasoning ¼ cup Slap Ya Mama seasoning 6 ounces of tabasco (half of a 12-ounce

bottle) 3 drops liquid smoke When the veggies are all “hot,” add the ingredients above. Bring to a boil, then turn to low heat. Stir frequently. Meat 1 pound cooked white meat – grouse, wild turkey, quail, chicken – pulled 1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp 20-ish crawdads When the “base” for the gumbo is ready, it is time to add the meat. The nice part about gumbo is that the meat can be just about anything you want, from leftover taco meat to shrimp and crawdads. Have fun, experiment and use up leftovers. Add the white meat first, then the seafood. When the crawdads are red all over, remove the pot from the stove and let stand for five minutes. Serve with white rice. Enjoy! For more wild game recipes, see chefrandyking.com. –RK

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COLUMN

Kiran Walgamott shows off a crawdad he captured on a Western Oregon creek that he biked to. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

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sausage. A few vegetables, a few scraps of meat and a little love can make gumbo that is not only satisfying but also delicious. The history of gumbo is hotly debated. But a few things are known and can be credited. First is the roux that is used in the cooking. Roux is a combination of flour and butter that is used as a thickener in cooking. The addition of roux has a clear French origin since it is one of the classic thickening methods from French cuisine. Second is the addition of filé – ground sassafras leaves. The credit for this food product is often Choctaw in origin, as sassafras is a New World cuisine item. Third is okra, a West African plant. Combining those all together you get perfect Southern cooking, a blend of New and Old World and Africa. The funny part about those three items is that they are all thickeners to some degree. Gumbo “purists” will argue that okra gumbo does not need roux and that the addition of filé will ruin a dish. Honestly, it is very hard to be a purist with a dish

created around three different culinary traditions. In this instance I typically toss tradition out the window and go with what tastes good. And that – for me and many others – is a combination of all three in a dish. Roux, filé and okra grace my gumbo and it is better for it. Another interesting note about gumbo is that it is often associated with hunting camp and male cooks. Doing research, it is hard to pinpoint why the dish has these implications, but it is often dependent on the success of a hunt. I think, as with many game dishes, the addition of a braised meat that is “tough” often helps. The dish even has a “build” connotation, as if it is not a recipe but something under construction. Tomato is also a sore subject for gumbo nuts. Some argue that it has no place in the dish, others the opposite. This issue’s recipe does not have tomato, mostly because its author does not like tomatoes all that much. It is not some statement or purity test on the gumbo. NS

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HUNTING

Start Early For Bruins August’s opener may not be well attended by Westside hunters, but there are black bears to be taken, and here’s how.

Remote clearcuts can provide good black bear hunting when fall season opens, but sometimes it pays to scout closer to farmed areas, which bruins may raid due to poor berry crops or other lack of wild forage. (COAST HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST)

By Troy Rodakowski

t was a last-minute hunt. I didn’t plan to head out on opening day in Oregon, which happens to be August 1. But a good friend of mine persuaded me to go and I offered to take him to a Weyerhaeuser lease in the Alsea Unit. We had seen bears there before and it was rich with berries and had good creeks with water, so I was semioptimistic. But it was also opening day and I honestly wasn’t expecting too much. It was warm and I knew that the evening would be good to see bears moving about. The aroma of early August danced across my nostrils, delivering the

sweet smell of blackberries as we hiked into the location. After a short discussion we decided to split up. I would head up higher to some fringe timber while my partner slowly walked a lower road near large patches of berries. No more than two minutes after we split up, I was being motioned back over: My buddy had already spotted a bruin in the middle of a patch, filling its face. I threw up my field glasses and whispered, “Huge bear.” It was only about 110 yards away with the wind in our favor, but it was gorging on berries so we could only see the top half of the bear and needed to make sure it wasn’t a sow with cubs. Just then the wind changed and

we were in trouble. The tan-faced and jet-black bear stood up to catch the wind current and it was then I could tell that it was a nice boar. He spun so fast that the blackberry patch boiled with movement. He headed up the hill through the tall grass at lightning speed, but I knew he’d stop and look back to see what smelled funny. I would be ready for him. He stopped about 280 yards away, showing only his head and neck. I put the crosshairs right on the top and touched off a round. The dust plume behind the bear told me that I had missed and he accelerated over the ridge. It was a hasty shot that I should have connected on. nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

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After checking for blood, it became clear that this big old bruin had been living amongst these brambles for a long time. Fresh scat and tracks were everywhere and it was then that I told myself to never miss another opening day of fall black bear. I had messed up, period. That was a shot I have made numerous times offhand with the .308 and 165-grain Hornady BTSPs. Being a responsible hunter is important. Heck, I could have smoked that bear in the berry

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patch when he stood up to get our wind. He was only 110 yards away, but we hadn’t yet identified him as a boar, and that’s another part of being a responsible hunter. The moral of the story is do the right thing and be prepared for a bear that is on the move. This just makes me look forward to this coming fall season – especially since I know that that boar is still in the area.

FALL BEAR POINTERS Secluded clearcuts a few miles from nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

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HUNTING main roads are great and early mornings as well as afternoons, after the sun has warmed the ground, are good times to glass the landscape for black bears. During the middle of the day bruins will travel in old-growth timber or deciduous stands where they feel safe to move about. Finding a good vantage point and using rabbit distress calls, fawn bleats, calf calls or others can entice a bear to come into view. Use these calls sparingly while listening and watching through your optics. Most shot opportunities presented in these scenarios will be at fairly close range. With success rates near or below 5 percent for Western Oregon units, bear hunters will have to be patient and persistent to find their quarry. Where feed is the most plentiful is where coastal and Cascade bruins will hang out, but many biologists have also reminded me that with our current drought conditions,

water will be tougher to find. Dry conditions may also impact the berry crop, reducing how long it’s available on the branch for bears, putting more stress on them as well. That means hunting earlier in the season this year may be to your advantage. I highly recommend hiking into clearcuts bisected by creek drainages by using old grass-covered roads as your choice of travel. They are not only quiet but bears will seek out these locations to move as well. Tornup logs and root wads with scratch marks will show a bear has been working nearby. In addition, orchards, vineyards and other agricultural lands hold various delicacies that bears salivate over during the fall. I have heard of bears digging under vineyard fencing to get to the grapes. In fact, one producer had to keep filling in various holes on a regular basis until the grapes were all gone.

MEMORIES THAT LAST A LIFETIME

These bears will be somewhat tougher to observe during daylight hours due to the higher frequency of human activity, as harvest equipment, pickers and such keep the animals away during legal shooting hours. But these places are also irresistible to hungry bears, so focusing on the travel routes and production edges both early and late in the day from a good vantage point can pay dividends in these situations. Whether you’re watching clearcuts or other habitat, remember again to be patient before pulling the trigger on a bear since many sows have very small cubs that are sometimes hard to spot in the taller grass or other vegetation. And as a final reminder, there is mandatory reporting of all harvested bears within 10 days of the kill at Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offices. For more information, go to myodfw.com/articles/huntingbear-oregon. NS

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HUNTING “Moral of my story is get out to your hunting grounds early. Stay all day and put in the time and work. Pack plenty of water, take a lunch and delicious snacks,” counsels Dave Anderson, here glassing from a comfortable position. (DAVE ANDERSON)

Set Yourself Up For Success With fall seasons right around the corner, here’s how a former guide prepares to hunt big game and the all-day strategy he follows. By Dave Anderson

unting season is just around the corner, so now is the time to really start thinking about things you can do to not only prepare but also set yourself apart from others to succeed at notching tags this upcoming season. Hunting camp means something different to each of us. As much as I dearly love the camaraderie with family and friends, in addition to

the good food, my focus and what consumes my mind is notching a tag and being successful on a hunt. My ultimate goal is to fill my tag so I can provide my family with the cleanest protein available. I have a busy life that seems to get busier every year, so having months to scout and check out new areas gets tougher. I have gone blindly into a hunting unit and still found success. It is our job to be a detective and find the clues that will end up with a deer

or elk in our crosshairs or bow sight.

THERE ARE MANY tools that we can utilize to help us to be successful, especially when we have limited time to scout. We are so lucky these days to have Google Earth, onX maps, Basemap and Gohunt to look at new areas. These tools allow you to get a feel for the landscape, terrain, forest cover or lack thereof and land ownershp, among other elements, without having boots on the ground. nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2021

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HUNTING FISHING new areas, but even when you are out hiking around and trying to decipher public versus private land. It lets you know for sure that you are on a public parcel, whether that be Forest Service, BLM or state.

AS MUCH AS I love to stay up late and

Focus on seeing parts of deer or elk, as it’s less likely you’ll see an entire animal, at least in areas with thicker cover. The dark eye and nose and light gray throat patch on this mule deer gave it away to the editor during a 2019 hunt. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)

I personally love onX maps and use it as my main hunting app on my phone. My favorite part is that it shows you lines and game management units, as well as public access and

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landowner names. This is huge. There are so many chunks of public land that people pass up since they are not clearly marked, so having apps like onX is great not only for checking out

have a great time with my family and friends, I try to get to bed early during my hunts. Sleep is a premium when you are out hiking all day. That’s right, I said all day. Very seldom will you see my truck back in camp during the day. My alarm clock goes off early, sometimes as early as 3:30 a.m. Most of the time I will be one of the first trucks to pull out of camp. I want to be in the area that I plan to hunt early. Sometimes I may just sit in the truck and enjoy my coffee, but more times than not I strap on a headlamp and start hiking in the dark.

IT IS CRUCIAL to get to a good vantage point where you can utilize your

HUNTING most important tool – optics. When it comes to binoculars, I carry a Leupold Santiam BX5 in 10x42. Sometimes I’ll carry my spotting scope and sometimes I don’t. It all depends on how much weight I want to carry or if I think the spotter will be beneficial. Being at a decent vantage point at first light is a huge advantage. You can pick up movement and find something to make a move on quickly. Staying put for an hour after first light is not a bad move, especially if you are hunting in a high-pressure area. You will often see game busted out by other hunters. You can use other hunters in an area to act like a bird dog. Another tip is to move in small distances and glass 5 feet one way or the other. Each time you move you get a different vantage point. You are searching in a grid pattern. The smallest thing can give away an animal. Look for ears, antlers, eyes, hide, light butt patch or any small movement.

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AFTER I GET what I want out of an area,

ANOTHER TIP TO be successful – hunt

I am on the move, always conscious of my wind. You will always see a wind puffer in my bino harness. Just as with tuna fishing, when the wind is in your face, you are in the right place. I will work dark timber, where deer or elk bed midday. One of the best things you can do is take a step and glass; do this at turtle speed. Remember to be conscious of where your feet are landing, walk on the outsides of your feet and stay as quiet as a church mouse. Each time you take a step glass the entire area ahead of you and out to the sides. You would be amazed at how many times you will walk up on an animal laying in its bed not having a clue you are there. When I used to guide in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, my clients would think I was nuts taking my sweet time and glassing so much. Of course, that was until we had a deer or elk on the ground.

all day! I cannot tell you how many times we have taken game at 1 in the afternoon. My wife shot her mule deer last year at 1:30 p.m. My good friend thought I was joking when he asked what my plan was for the afternoon. I let him know we were taking care of Kristina’s buck and I would see him at camp. He replied with a “Laugh out Loud – Whatever!” The look on his face was priceless when I dropped the tailgate of the truck. And don’t be afraid to go back to an area you harvested an animal the day before. The group of deer my wife got her buck with had a couple other legal bucks. I told my buddy to get there early the next morning and walk up the ridge in the dark. Sure enough, I got a text an hour after shooting light that he had a buck down! Moral of my story is get out to your hunting grounds early. Stay all

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HUNTING FISHING While many hunters are back in camp for the day by noon, staying out or even heading back afield well before last light can pay dividends. Kristina Anderson, the author’s wife, harvested this nice buck in early afternoon last season. (DAVE ANDERSON)

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day and put in the time and work. Pack plenty of water, take a lunch and delicious snacks. Oh, and do not be afraid to take a midday snooze. Mountain naps are the absolute best, and it is always good to recharge those batteries. More deer and elk have been shot on the mountain than back in camp. There is a bit of luck involved with all this stuff, but these small details have helped me be successful in notching quite a few tags. I can also tell you that there is almost always a reward when hard work is involved. Get in the steep and nasty, but be mindful of your fitness level, as you can easily get yourself into trouble if you get into a situation that you are not prepared to get out of, especially if you have a 200-pluspound animal on the ground. Best of luck to you all this upcoming season. I am chomping at the bit to get out there and put some boots on the ground! NS

HUNTING

The Downlope On Oregon Pronghorns Drought conditions will drive open-country herds to water sources, but don’t overlook hunting timbered areas. By Troy Rodakowski

ruly amazing animals, pronghorn antelope live in some of the harshest desert country the Northwest has to offer. Speed goats endure the hottest of summer heat and very cold winters while surviving on sage, grasses and small herbaceous plants found throughout the Oregon

Outback. And with their blazing speed and the keenest of eyesight, they are a challenge for any hunter willing to spend some time trying to get close enough for a shot. I remember the first time tagging along on an Oregon pronghorn hunt, memories that easily flood back as they are permanently etched into my mind. I was 12 years old, hanging with the

big boys and sleeping under the stars. I’ll never forget the smell of freshly perked campfire coffee blending with the crisp frosty morning desert breeze that gradually gives way to radiating sunbeams, Indian paintbrush and blooming greasewood, as well as sweaty stalks and belly crawls through the sage to try and close the distance on these majestic animals while avoiding

Glassing for antelope is key to putting together a good plan and learning travel routes to and from their watering and feed sites. But in this year of extreme drought in Central and Eastern Oregon, be sure not to camp on top of springs and other critical water sources. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)

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HUNTING This timbered setting may be what you consider to be more like mule deer and elk country, but Bryce Purtzer of Canby shows off why pine and juniper forests shouldn’t be overlooked for pronghorn. The winner of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 2020 premium antelope hunt tag took his buck in the Interstate Unit and it sported a final Boone and Crockett net score of 80 2/8 inches. (BRYCE PURTZER VIA ODFW)

their razor-sharp eyes. In the years since, how many pairs of socks have I sweated through and soaked camo T-shirts have I changed after pursuing antelope? More than I can recall. It’s all just a part of pronghorn hunting.

THIS YEAR I was blessed and fortunate enough to draw my third pronghorn tag ever for the state of Oregon. I’m more than excited, as this one is a black powder hunt. You see, I have never harvested one with a muzzleloader and hopefully this will be my year. We are already planning our trip and making sure to scout for next month’s opener. Though that may find us lying for hours on oven-baked shale ledges, we usually seem to find something worth looking at through our glass. It’s a long process scouring the desert that these ’lopes call home. This year water will be at even more of a premium than most seasons, as 156 Northwest Sportsman

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Oregon is experiencing one of the worst, if not the worst, droughts on record. Much of the central core of the state is in exceptional or extreme drought, the two driest categories. “We anticipate a very dry year in the desert, which may shift pronghorn distribution somewhat compared to a more ‘typical’ year,” advises Corey Heath, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist in Bend. This holds true for most of the eastern portion of the state too. Also, remember to not camp near water holes, as animals rely on them heavily during late summer and early fall. Oregon pronghorn numbers have soared to over 12,000 in recent years, though recent drought conditions and increased predator issues are inhibiting growth rates to a degree. In early September, bucks will establish territories and gather does for breeding. Dominant bucks want

to maintain their territories and will be on guard to chase subordinates away. When the morning desert echoes with dominant bucks snortwheezing, cattle and antelope decoys can work well for trying to stalk closer to individual or small groups of antelope. Just make sure to always use caution when using decoys, as they may also attract other hunters. Watering holes, creeks, seeps and the like are great places to ambush one. However, spot-and-stalk tactics also work well; use desert contours to hide your profile. Regardless of whatever method(s) you use, patience is the key to bagging a good goat.

MANY PRONGHORN ARE now finding secluded habitat in sparse pine or juniper forests. In fact, some of the largest bucks have been found in many of these hidden locations. While mule deer hunting a pine draw

years ago, I remember seeing one of the largest antelope bucks I have ever had the pleasure of watching. He had to be almost 18 inches, with great mass and awesome diggers. I thought to myself, “What a smart goat!” The buck had a small group of does with him as they worked down the draw to water at a nearby creek. I can almost guarantee this buck spent many seasons here and very likely died of old age. So don’t forget to look to some of these sparsely timbered locations when scouting out a new area. You will be surprised how many pronghorn live in terrain with a good amount of trees for cover. These so-called timberlopes are one of three types of pronghorn found in Oregon. They make their home in ponderosa and juniper forests, typically in the westernmost sections of their range, like the Fort Rock, Silver Lake, Klamath, Paulina, Grizzly and Interstate Units. The more typical desert goats thrive in vast lands of rolling sage, rock bluffs and patches of mahogany surrounded by lunar fields of dusty desert. The third type of antelope found here is the aglandelope that frequent pastures of alfalfa, grass, grain and hay fields. Many of these herds are found near Arlington, Grass Valley, Burns, Lakeview, Moro, Heppner, Summer Lake and Pendleton. Refine your searches to locations with good feed and a nearby water source. Large expanses of Central and Eastern Oregon seemingly have no water, but surprisingly there is a decent amount of liquid throughout much of this region where “the deer and antelope play.” Look to Google Earth, topo maps and hydrologic mapping to find hidden locations with water. While Oregon pronghorn hunting is by controlled tag, units with some of the best chances for success include Steens, Malheur River, Ochoco, Owyhee, East Fort Rock-Silver Lake and Beulah. But those near the Columbia Gorge have shown increases in recent seasons as antelope continue to expand their range. NS 158 Northwest Sportsman

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COLUMN Rabbit hunting kicks off in September in Washington, and this is one small game species that’s often overlooked. Check the game regs for hunting hours, stock up on .22-caliber ammo and get ready to head out! (DAVE WORKMAN)

Start Prepping For ‘Wascally Wabbits’ W

hile I’m not keen on the Eve rgre e n State’s grouse opener being pushed back to September 15 this year, ON TARGET I’m not going to spend By Dave Workman my time blubbering about it. (I’ve already whined, grumbled, ranted and screamed to no avail.) Call me “Fudd” if you want, but ol’ Elmer had the right idea. Go after those “wascally wabbits” while scouting for grouse. Cottontails and snowshoes open September 1 in Washington and are huntable year-round in Oregon. There’s no better time for improving your marksmanship with a .22-caliber rimfire rifle or pistol than right now. And as

you read this, that might be exactly what I’m doing down at the range or up on some ridgetop shooting at small pop cans, rubber targets or plastic quart jugs, the latter approximating the size of a cottontail. Believe it or not, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has a rather informative page devoted to the state’s lagomorphs titled “Living with wildlife: Rabbits.” It’s found by clicking on the “Species & Habitats” link at wdfw.wa.gov. You’ll find all kinds of useful information, including feeding habits, nest sites and shelter, and a full treatise on rabbit species found in Washington. Most important to this discussion is how the Eastern cottontail “was introduced to several areas in Washington as a game animal beginning in the 1930s.” The

narrative adds, “It is commonly seen along roads, brushy fencerows, and blackberry thickets in and around areas where it has been introduced.” Is that all one needs to know about rabbits? Well, no. Finding them is one thing. Shooting them can be a whole ’nother matter!

RIMFIRE MADNESS Way back when I was a youngster tagging along with my dad and grandpa, we were hunting on an old road along the top of what they called Muck Creek Hill north of Johnson’s Corner along Highway 7, southeast of today’s Joint Base Lewis McChord. I witnessed what will always be for me the most remarkable rifle shot I ever saw. My dad rested his Winchester Model

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69A bolt-action rifle with iron sights on a fencepost and hit a cottontail on the hop at maybe 20 to 25 yards, with a neck shot. Boy, was he a deadeye hero or what! The rifle is today mine, it’s not for sale, and on a good day I can still hit bottle caps with it using a rest. But because I’m now officially an old guy, I cheat. I use a Ruger 10/22 with a 1.75-4x32mm Bushnell Trophy scope, and I’m pretty certain Dad and Grandpa would approve. Champion produces a DuraSeal selfsealing rubber facsimile of a prairie dog or big squirrel. I’ve never seen a rabbit target made of the stuff, but since this thing is smaller, if you can hit it consistently, you’ll clobber a bunny. My rifle is zeroed to 25 yards, and I will use either 40-grain roundnose lead bullets or 36-grain plated hollowpoints. A rabbit (or grouse) on the receiving end is not going anywhere! Both rounds clock more than 1,200 feet per second at the muzzle and shoot flat. I have killed a fair amount of small game with either, including raccoons considerably larger than cottontails.

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Now, if you want to really test your abilities, try a handgun. A few years ago, when Ruger introduced the MK IV pistol, which can be easily stripped down (far easier than older models that make some people crazy!), I quickly got one for a test, and eventually bought it. My gun is the Target Model with a 5½-inch bull barrel, adjustable rear sight and high-profile front blade sight. It is remarkably accurate, and will digest every brand of rimfire ammunition on the shelf without a hiccup. When I bought the pistol, I acquired a Triple K holster with the Ruger emblem stamped into the leather (available at Ruger.com under “Accessories”) and it goes along with me in the fall. I also acquired two additional spare 10-round magazines (the pistol comes with two), giving me plenty of firepower just in case the rabbits go on a rampage. My recommendation is to practice making headshots, so as not to damage the edible meat. A bullet to the noggin puts a cottontail in the cooler, no questions asked. Incidentally, rabbit season continues through the winter, not closing till March

COLUMN

Richard Clifton’s acrylic painting of a single lesser scaup drake is this season’s Federal Duck Stamp. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plows almost all stamp revenues back into buying and protecting waterfowl habitat. (USFWS)

USFWS CHOOSES LESSER SCAUP PAINTING FOR DUCK STAMP

regg Powers at Ducks Unlimited tipped me that the 2021-22 Federal Duck Stamp went on sale June 25, and it’s a beauty. The stamps cost $25 and raise about $40 million for conservation each year. They are valid from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, Powers noted. This year’s winner is an acrylic painting of a single lesser scaup by Richard Clifton of Milford, Delaware, and is copyrighted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Purchased by millions of waterfowl hunters, wildlife enthusiasts and stamp collectors every year,” Powers wrote, “duck stamps provide critical funding to purchase and protect wetlands and associated habitat for ducks, geese and other wildlife species.” “The Federal Duck Stamp is one of the many ways hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts contribute to conserving

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and protecting America’s waterfowl and wetlands. Whether you’re an avid waterfowl hunter, a birder, conservation enthusiast or a collector, you should support this vital program by purchasing a Duck Stamp,” said Ducks Unlimited CEO Adam Putnam. “Of every dollar spent on a Federal Duck Stamp, 98 cents of the purchase is used by our friends at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire and protect waterfowl habitat.” Ducks Unlimited reported that a pair of hooded mergansers, painted by 18-yearold Margaret McMullen of Kansas, “will grace the 2021-22 Junior Duck Stamp, which raises funds to educate and engage our nation’s youth in wildlife and wetlands conservation and outdoor recreation.” More than 3,000 junior duck stamps are sold annually for $5 each to help promote conservation education through art, according to the DU press release. The Migratory Bird Hunting and

Conservation Stamp dates back to 1934, and has been called the “Duck Stamp” for as long as anyone can remember. According to DU, the program has raised more than $1 billion to help acquire and protect more than 6 million acres of habitat in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Waterfowl hunters age 16 and older are required to purchase and carry the Duck Stamp while hunting. When I was a kid, I remember the old Washington hunting license had a space on the back for attaching the Duck Stamp. Incidentally, as noted by DU, these stamps “also provide free admission to national wildlife refuges that are open to the public.” They are sold at post offices and at many NWRs and sporting goods stores, so they’re available now pretty much everywhere. Electronic versions of the Duck Stamp can also be purchased online, DU noted. –DW

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COLUMN The author was quick to purchase a Ruger MK IV .22-caliber pistol when they first appeared five years ago. It’s a very accurate sidearm, and now’s the time for perfecting your skills with a rimfire if small game hunting is your intent. If you can consistently drill small targets like this can, you’ll have no trouble putting bunnies in the cooler. (DAVE WORKMAN)

16 in Washington, so this is an opportunity with lots of time to spare.

CLEANING, CARING There’s one thing we haven’t discussed, and that’s how to care for your kill. Go to the nearest auto parts store, pick up a box of rubber gloves (I prefer the black industrial-grade Nitrile gloves) and carry several pairs in your hunting vest or jacket. Always put on a pair of these before cleaning a rabbit or hare. As noted on WDFW’s website, “Rabbits, hares, voles, muskrats, nutrias, and beavers are some of the species that can be infected with the bacterial disease tularemia. Tularemia can be acquired through ingesting undercooked

BLIND LUCK

s I was preparing this month’s column, I got word that Browning Camping & Hunting Blinds has introduced a new blind it calls The Eclipse, part of a new series of pop-up blinds “designed to meet the specific needs of ground hunters across a broad range of environments and hunting styles,” the company said in a news release. Let’s look at this thing. It features “silent operation,” thanks to the “QuickConnect” magnetic door system. Browning designed this blind with magnets sewn into the door seams, allowing hunters to silently open and close the blind while entering or exiting. It’s got a Silent-Trac window system with split upper and lower windows that can be raised or lowered, and a 360-degree viewing area, so you can see front, rear and both sides. According to Browning’s press release, the Eclipse is constructed of 600D polyester fabric with a blacked-out interior backing to maximize concealment. It also features aluminum hubs with engineered tips and pins, and strong fiberglass poles for sturdy support and reliable function in any climate. There are also four interior gear pockets for easy access to binoculars, calls, rangefinders and other essentials, a bow hanger, brush-in loops, stakes with tie-downs and a shoulder carry bag. The Browning Eclipse is available in two camo patterns: Realtree Excape and Mossy Oak Country DNA. For more, see browningcamping.com. –DW

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Browning’s new Eclipse ground blind – here in Realtree Excape – caught the eye of longtime Northwest hunter Dave Workman, and it might do well to hide you from deer, turkeys and other game. (BROWNING)

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COLUMN The Ruger 10/22 – despite being erroneously branded a “semiautomatic assault rifle” by an anti-gun initiative in 2018 – is a great choice for the small game hunter. This one is topped with a 1.75-4x Bushnell scope. (DAVE WORKMAN)

When Workman bought the MK IV test gun, he acquired a Triple K holster with the Ruger emblem stamped into the leather. It fits comfortably on a belt and keeps the pistol handy for a chance shot at a cottontail or, in the higher elevations, a snowshoe hare. (DAVE WORKMAN)

rabbit meat or handling a dead or sick animal. Anyone handling a rabbit or hare should wear rubber gloves and wash his or her hands well when finished.” Immediately after the kill – especially early in the season – dress your rabbit by removing the innards. A small hunting knife or pocketknife will do the job. If possible, get the hide off and bag the bunny in a gallon plastic baggie. Stick it in a cooler (I have one in my truck specifically for game, plus another for carrying my lunch, water and soda). Be sure you’ve got a bag or block of ice to cool the game meat quickly. Keep the lid closed. 170 Northwest Sportsman

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BON APPÉTIT! Rabbit can be a tasty treat, or an overcooked, dried-out train wreck. It’s up to you and your skills as a chef. If you overcook it, you may as well eat your leather boot. Undercooking it, as noted above, has its own troubles. The good news is that there are game cookbooks galore, and one of my hunting pals even cooked up some rabbit fajitas some years ago. For any small game meat I cook, I rub it with some spices first – even if just a bit of salt and pepper or a bit of seasoning salt – and then you can fry, roast, bake or barbecue, and even smoke it. NS

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COLUMN Increased early morning drive and quicker recovery after hunts and intense workouts are just a couple of the obvious changes that author Scott Haugen has noticed in his dogs after only a few days of switching them to a high-quality food. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

Quality Food Matters I

“

f you don’t see results within 30 days, return for a full refund,” read the ad placed in a magazine by a leading dog food GUN DOGGIN’ 101 maker. I read it again. By Scott Haugen Then once more. I thought it was a misprint. If I don’t notice a change in my dogs within three days of changing food, something’s not right.

Last February I started feeding my two hunting dogs NutriSource’s new Element series. I’d been feeding standard NutriSource food for 2½ years, and it had an immediate impact in their performance and quality of life.

LET ME BETTER set the stage. Oregon’s late goose season was in full swing, the dogs and I were covering miles of hill country a week in search of deer antler sheds, and on

warm days, water training took place one to two days a week. On average my dogs were working five days a week. My 4-year-old male pudelpointer, Kona, weighs 62 pounds during hunting season. He’s lean, has drive and will work hard in the field at whatever he’s doing. He’s from an elite bloodline and is the best all-around dog I’ve ever hunted with. After three meals of Element I noticed two changes in Kona. First, his drive and stamina were

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COLUMN Since switching to NutriSource’s line of Element food, Echo, Haugen’s 7-year old pudelpointer, has experienced an impressive change in her quality of life, in many ways. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

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more intense each morning of the hunt. I don’t feed my dogs the morning of a hunt for fear of potential stomach twist (see my April 2021 column) or indigestion. Second, Kona didn’t beg for food when he awoke, meaning the Element he ate the night prior held him over and allowed him to perform at top level all morning. I especially noticed a marked difference in Echo, my 7-year-old female pudelpointer, after only two meals. I didn’t tell my family I’d made the food switch to Element. After Echo’s second meal, my wife Tiffany remarked, “Echo’s really getting around good this evening; did you give her something?” I told her about the food switch. AS WITH MANY aging female hunting dogs, Echo’s recovery time after intense workouts and hard hunts found her moving a bit slower and stiffer in the evenings. After only the third feeding of Element her soreness and stiffness appeared gone. Totally gone. We’d tried many things to help relieve Echo’s joint pain and muscle soreness after hard days afield, including CBDs and multiple

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COLUMN anti-inflammatories. Nothing worked. But once the Element kicked in, it instantly changed her quality of life. The big test came on a morning when Echo covered 7 1/2 miles in rugged, brushy hills in search of shed antlers, followed by an intense water workout in the afternoon. Echo ate dinner at 6 that night; usually she’s down for the count after that. Two hours later I woke her to go potty. She sprang up, ran outside, grabbed her favorite ball to fetch and sprinted into our training field. I don’t train after dinner, but she wanted to. Bad. At 4 the next morning Echo bolted from her kennel, hopping with joy as I put her collars on, then she immediately loaded into the truck for a morning goose hunt. It was raining and cold and Echo performed flawlessly with more energy than I’d seen in years, and she didn’t eat breakfast until 11 a.m. All of this happened on day five of switching Echo’s diet to Element. That afternoon we bumper trained. Echo slept well. The next day was intended for rest. At 7 a.m. I took her outside to potty

and go on a casual 30-minute morning walk to alleviate any stiffness. Again she immediately grabbed her ball, and what followed was a 45-minute intense workout session like we’d never had before breakfast. Echo’s life and routine forever changed, all because of her new food. I COULD GO on about what makes Element so special, but I’d rather focus on observed dog performance over the following five months. Suffice it to say that Element has three times the protein of most foods (up to 90 percent animal protein) and it supports nitrogen and ammonia utilization, meaning there is no extra gas or diarrhea that can occur with highprotein diets. In other words, it’s good for the gut, too. Bottom line, it’s far superior in overall quality when compared to much of what most hunters feed their dogs. But NutriSource doesn’t have the huge advertising dollars that big companies do, so you may have never heard of it. Those who look at a price tag before

reading the label and especially neglect studying serving guidelines, will miss the whole point of food like this. Yes, it looks pricey, but meal for meal, it could actually cost less than what you’re currently feeding your dog. I shared with a hunting buddy that Kona eats a cup of Element for breakfast and another cup for dinner and Echo, who weighs 46 pounds, eats ¾ cup of food, twice daily. “I could never do that; my dog eats 3 cups each meal,” he said, totally missing the point. “First of all, your dog is at least 10 pounds overweight,” I jolted him. “Not only is she fat, she’s slow and moves like she’s 12 years old.” His overweight Lab was only 2. The next time I saw my buddy I brought him a bag of Element. “Feed her this for five days, as directed – no table scraps, no treats, nothing but this food – then call me with a report,” I insisted. Three days later my buddy called. “She’s

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like a different dog, already!” he said. “I had no idea dog food could make so much of a difference, and it actually costs less.” He got it! I wish more hunters did. Nonhunters often pamper their dogs with high-end food that many gun dog owners think are pricey, or are skeptical of. The biggest disappointment I’ve seen when it comes to hunting dogs are large companies selling low-quality, unhealthy food for cheap, and hunters regularly buying it. Just like the food we eat, the food our dogs eat greatly impacts how they feel, act, their weight, even their lifespan.

OF COURSE, THERE are other quality foods out there, you just have to do the research and find them. Talking with local feed store and pet supplies owners helped me more than anything. Dani Wright of McKenzie Feed & Pet Supplies (mckenziefeed.com) in Springfield was a huge help. Many of a dog’s problems can be fixed by a change in diet, and making the move to a high-quality food can do it, fast. Read labels, educate yourself on dog foods, and keep your dog lean and in top shape. The result will be a happy dog that moves and performs beyond a level you may have never thought possible. A healthy gut, teeth, gums and coat are icings on the cake, as a quality diet means more days afield and more years with your best hunting partner. NS Editor’s note: To watch Scott Haugen’s series of puppy training videos, visit scotthaugen.com. Follow Scott on Instagram and Facebook.

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Northwest Sportsman Magazine - August 2021

Articles inside

ASCEND TO TROUT HEAVEN

SET YOURSELF UP FOR BIG GAME SUCCESS

THE GUIDE’S LIFE