Dave Anderson, Jason Brooks, Matthew Dwonch, Scott Haugen, Jeff Holmes, David Johnson, MD Johnson, Randy King, Sara Potter, Buzz Ramsey, Bob Rees, Troy Rodakowski, Dave Workman, Mark Yuasa
GENERAL MANAGER
John Rusnak
SALES MANAGER
Paul Yarnold
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Janene Mukai, Tom St. Clair
DESIGNERS
Gabrielle Pangilinan, Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Emily Baker
OFFICE MANAGER/COPY EDITOR
Katie Aumann
INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER
Lois Sanborn
WEBMASTER/DIGITAL STRATEGIST
Jon Hines
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@nwsportsmanmag.com
CORRESPONDENCE
Email letters, articles/queries, photos, etc., to awalgamott@media-inc.com, or to the mailing address below.
ON THE COVER
Buzz Ramsey harvested this nice Northcentral Oregon four-point mule deer on public lands on the eighth day of his October 2023 hunt with a 500yard rangefinder-confirmed shot. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
Like us on Facebook, follow us on X and get daily updates at nwsportsmanmag.com.
106 TIME TO MAKE A MEAT RUN
Up and down the Northwest Coast, September is prime for plugging the boat and filling a cooler or two with delicious tuna. Jeff Holmes, our cheerleader for all things albacore – live-baited or trolled, raw, grilled or canned –shares what a day out on the briney blue is like and what to do with your bounty!
38 HUNT BURN SCARS FOR BUCKS
Another active fire year means Oregon big game hunters need to watch the fire map – and look to past years’ perimeters for good spots. Troy Rodakowski has some advice for where to look and more.
67 EARLY NORTHWEST HONKERS
September goose season not only provides a unique early hunt, but a chance to help control resident Canadas. Our waterfowl guru MD Johnson details the here-and-gone season, what WDFW and ODFW managers are saying and tactics for bringing home some geese.
77 GET AN EDGE ON FALL TURKEYS
It’s another of those crossover opportunity-management tool hunts, and fall turkey season has done nothing but expand in Washington and Oregon. David Johnson details how to take advantage of it.
117 SEPTEMBER A COASTAL SALMON SHOW
Bob Rees of The Guide’s Forecast likes what he sees on the Oregon Coast this month – tidewater fall Chinook, nearshore wild coho and more sparkle on the sunset side of the Beaver State.
125 SILVERS ON THE SIDE
She hooks sea-hellions by the seashore … OK, so maybe the editor won’t have a second career writing tongue-twisters, but he can say that many Puget Sound beaches, points, parks and piers offer great access to ocean-returning coho. Mark Yuasa sets you up for shoreline success!
131 THE ART OF SMOKING SALMON
Scrumptious smoked salmon is a treat anytime of year, and fall’s runs provide fodder for making some of your own. Jason Brooks shares tips, tricks and recipes born from a long family tradition of brining and smoking salmon.
159 FALL FOR LATE ALPINE TROUT
The clock is definitely ticking, but there’s still plenty of time to catch hungry ’bows, cutts, brookies and more at high lakes before ice-up. Matthew Dwonch helps load up your backpack for an overnighter into some of September’s most stunning settings for trout.
ON TARGET September’s For Smoothbores And Smallbores 87
Dave W. might not seem like the sort who gets giddy, but it’s September and he’s dusted off his double guns and been practicing with his rimfires for the start of his very favorite season – grouse. He shares top spots, new ammo and more to get you ready too!
COLUMNS
47 BUZZ RAMSEY On Making Long-range Shots
With fewer mule deer on the landscape and controlled tags for the good units tough to come by, Buzz and the boys have worked hard to improve their hunting skills, including long-range shooting. He shares how he’s become confident in making 500-yard shots at game.
55 BECOMING A HUNTER Elevate Your Game With Spot And Stalk Tactics
You can wander around the woods aimlessly in search of deer and elk, or you can try Dave A.’s favorite way to hunt. He details how to be successful at spotting and stalking big game.
61 CHEF IN THE WILD Nordic By Northwest
There’s more than a little Scandinavian blood circulating around the Northwest, including in Chef Randy’s family. He reminisces about his Finnish grandma’s lingonberry-inspired jam and shares a chipped venison recipe inspired by son Cameron’s trip to 2024’s happiest country in the world, Finland.
95 GUN DOG When Sitting Out A Season With An Injury Just Won’t Do
A severely torn rotator cuff couldn’t stop Scott from hunting last season. Learn about the lightweight shotgun that allowed him to move and shoot – even one-handed! – at a variety of upland birds.
143 FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG The River, The Sea And Me
From Southern Oregon’s mountains to the continental shelf off its shores, waters run through Sarah Potter’s world, but there’s only room for one true love in her heart of hearts.
148 NORTHWEST PURSUITS Rowing The Versatile Drift Boat
Fall salmon seasons are a great chance for newbies to get into drift boat fishing, and Jason shares a tutorial that will soon have you making the most of these multifaceted watercraft.
(DAVE WORKMAN)
THE EDITOR’S NOTE
If the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission and I had any sense whatsoever, we’d spend our time and energy on something other than, yes, wolves. Me, because for all the howling I’ve done over the years, I can’t say it’s accomplished a lot, but it sure felt good! The commission because, in all seriousness, there are other species –actually endangered ones – that could use their attention.
I raise this in the wake of the commission’s narrow mid-July vote leaving the status of Evergreen State packs as endangered rather than downlisted to sensitive, as experts at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife had recommended, based on an exhaustive population review, modeling showing negligible risk of future extinction, state listing rules and recovery in significant portions of their range. Instead, commissioners led by Chair Barbara Baker gave more weight to Governor Inslee’s repeated directive not to downlist because of his concerns about the “extraordinarily damaging impacts of climate change on wolf habitat.”
Give me a break. That is simply preposterous. A generalist species, gray wolves – “the planet’s most widespread large land mammals after humans and livestock,”says NationalGeographic.com, and which roam from the Arctic to California’s southern Central Valley, Italy and Spain to Newfoundland – are categorically not threatened by climate continued on page 20
Teanaway Pack wolf. (WDFW)
Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission Chair Barbara Baker. (WDFW)
change in the least. Especially given their “highly adaptable” nature, per a US Fish and Wildlife Service national assessment last February.
AS IF BURNING years of staff time around all that and the vote wasn’t enough, now Chair Baker wants to have a “discussion” about translocating wolves to Western Washington. She claims she’s not actually in favor of the idea but is throwing it out there to show that the citizen oversight panel is “taking to heart the concerns of the people in those areas where (wolves) are concentrated,” she told the ag-world-oriented Capital Press. How thoughtful.
State Representative Joel Kretz (R-Bodie Mountain), who has long sought to share the joy of wolves that attack his constituents’ cattle, sheep, donkeys and more, would love to offload some to the Westside, but with all due respect to a fellow veteran of Washington’s wolf wars, I think it’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. Did the mid1990s’ federal reintroduction into the Northern Rockies not teach us anything? Have we not torn asunder enough bridges between the various camps of wildlife advocates? Do we need to do that now at an even finer local scale? Do we really need to spend any more time or treasure on a species that is well on its way to recovery and has four damn legs of its own and is doing the job for free? No!
But I think the strongest argument against may have been made by former Commissioner Kim Thorburn, who bemoaned Inslee and the commission’s focus on wolves that diverts resources from critters that are urgently in need of attention. “Take, for example, greater sage-grouse and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse that have lost nearly all their remaining habitat to wildfires since 2015. Habitat restoration and recovery is time-intensive and costly, and the department must rely on partners and scraped-together resources to manage their recovery,” she wrote in a letter blasting the governor’s wolf pressure. Thorburn told me that a Lincoln County winter habitat restoration project last May saw her and fellow birders as well as hunters, WDFW staffers and local landowners plant 700 trees and shrubs in a 2020 burn scar, providing “desperately” needed cover for sharptails and other upland birds and wildlife. It won one participating org a $7,500 national habitat prize. I like that kind of big-tent approach best.
I HEAR YOU, Dave Workman, and you can indeed make the argument that the commission should focus more on fish and wildlife that pay the bills, especially now with the arrival of chronic wasting disease in far Eastern Washington, confirmed in a dead whitetail doe found near Spokane (see The Big Pic, page 22). But until there’s a Department of Non-game Organisms, they fall in WDFW’s wheelhouse too. Yet the exasperation of the agency’s endangered species czar Julia Smith was clear when she commented on Baker’s desire to now talk about moving wolves: “We have finite resources for wildlife conservation. If we are serious about the biodiversity crisis then we need to allocate resources to the animals that are going extinct,” she told Capital Press I agree, but in their zeal to cuddle with as many predators as they possibly can, many on this commission have shown they would rather spend the state’s valuable time, money and resources on widely distributed, populous carnivore species of least scientific concern –wolves, cougars and black bears. And for what? So they can win the blue ribbon at the fair for the furriest state in all the land? Most fiscally irresponsible and unnecessary response to climate change? This activist commission has lost the plot. Time to reboot. –Andy Walgamott Editor’s Note, continued from page 19
CWD Arrives In Washington
Hunters and others are being asked to help determine the spread of the fatal deer disease after its discovery in a dead Spokane County whitetail doe.
By Andy Walgamott
It may never be known exactly how chronic wasting disease inevitably came to Washington, but state wildlife officials are mobilizing to better understand how widespread the always-fatal deer family disease is after a dead whitetail doe found north of Spokane tested positive for it.
“Because it’s so hard to detect the disease in animals, we’re really going to be asking for the help of Washington’s communities,” Donny Martorello, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife chief Wildlife Program scientist, told reporters at a CWD news conference early last month, “and a big part of that is going to be submitting samples to help us understand the distribution of this disease and the prevalence of this disease.”
The deer in question was found on private property in the residential Fairwood area, to the west of where northbound US 2 and 395 split, and while shooting restrictions in that immediate vicinity will limit hunting, WDFW will still be leaning on Evergreen State archers, muzzleloaders and riflemen in the months and years to come.
“We do believe we’ve caught it early with our sampling that we’ve done,” Martorello added. “Samples will also help us inform our management options to help reduce the impacts of the disease on deer, elk and moose populations in Washington.”
THE C.W.D. DISCOVERY is an unwanted but not unexpected development, given the disease’s inexorable spread across North
America since first turning up in a captive deer in Colorado in 1967 and in the wild in 1981 in an elk there. Washington now joins 34 other states and five Canadian provinces with confirmed cases. In the Western US, only Oregon, Nevada and Arizona remain CWD-free.
Along with informing other state offices as well as federal, tribal and local officials about the first confirmed case of CWD in Washington, WDFW has opened up its 2021 plan for managing the disease.
“With the detection, now we are implementing chapter 5 of our chronic wasting disease plan,” said Martorello. “It’s the initial emergency response chapter, and we are also following that chapter and forming an incident command system structure.”
In mid-August, a WDFW team gathered to talk about near-term actions. While lethal removal is discussed in the management plan – and has been an active part of Idaho’s treatment of a CWD outbreak between Lewiston and Riggins and now a brand-new one by Bonners Ferry near the Canadian border to reduce deer densities and better assess the disease’s spread in local herds – WDFW hasn’t gotten that far, though containment is one of its priorities.
Asked how CWD could have showed up in Fairwood, which sits on the Little Spokane River next to WDFW’s Waikiki Springs Wildlife Area, when the nearest known disease sources at the time were 100 air miles away in Libby, Montana, and extreme southeast British Columbia, Martorello gave a three-word answer.
“We don’t know,” he said.
The disease can be spread naturally by an infected animal passing it to others through contact with bodily fluids such as snot, spit, blood, pee and poop; by the human movement of live animals from captive herd to captive herd; the dumping of infected carcasses or parts in the outdoors; or the use of doe-in-estrous urines or scents. Shed prions – the malformed proteins that carry the disease – can persist in the environment for years, making CWD a zombie deer disease in more ways than one.
The Fairwood doe was termed “skinny” by WDFW, but that wasn’t necessarily an indication of infection; it could have just been due to winter conditions. The deer was called in by a property owner and WDFW came out February 28 to remove the carcass and take a sample. CWD doesn’t present until late in the disease. It attacks the brain and spine. Symptoms include severe weight loss, poor coordination, lethargy, indifference to humans, and flaccid ears.
As for why it took so long to get test results back, the Washington Animal Disease Laboratory at Washington State University in Pullman does testing in 90-sample batches and it wasn’t until July that enough had been collected to run, WDFW explained.
GOING FORWARD, WDFW will be “strongly encouraging” hunters and roadkill salvagers to submit samples from their animals, and both groups were advised to “anticipate” sampling requirements, though the regional scope of that had yet to be determined as of press time.
state during the October 2022 rifle season. The gland holds concentrations of the misshapen proteins that cause chronic wasting disease, which was confirmed this past summer in a dead whitetail doe found near Spokane.
Dr. Melia DeVivo, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife ungulate researcher, removes lymph nodes from a young whitetail buck at a hunter check station in the northeast corner of the
(WDFW)
Mandatory sampling of harvested deer is required this season in five Idaho units inside and adjacent to that state’s Hells Canyon-area CWD zone. While Washington’s plan speaks to collecting samples in a 10-mile radius – a 314-squaremile area – around a detection, war gaming the plan and looking at other states’ efforts have led WDFW to consider looking further afield than that.
In response to a news conference question from the Spokane SpokesmanReview about why WDFW thinks it caught CWD early, Melia DeVivo, agency ungulate researcher, pointed to ongoing surveillance programs using hunter-harvested deer, opportunities to get salvaged animals tested and opportunistic sampling of roadkilled animals. She estimated CWD prevalence was 2 to 3 percent of the local deer herd, but further testing will help refine that.
The area the infected deer was found is off limits to shooting, per county ordinances, making it “a little more challenging” to collect samples, WDFW acknowledged, but hunting in the rest of
the Mount Spokane Game Management Unit – annually one of the most productive GMUs in Washington despite wrapping one-third of the way around the Lilac City – opens September 1 for archery deer. With muzzleloader, rifle and more bow seasons stretching into mid-December, there will be plenty of opportunity for sportsmen to assist in determining how widespread the problem is. The region also sees lots of roadkill salvaging.
“If it is allowed to spread and become very prevalent in populations, we know from other states that it does have population impacts and you do see a decline in those populations,” DeVivo warned.
In 2021, she told me that a study she did while at the University of Wyoming estimated that CWD shrank the size of one deer herd by 19 percent every year and that in 41 years the population would go extinct.
EVEN BEFORE 2021’S discovery of CWD next door in Idaho, WDFW had boosted its efforts to collect samples for testing. That September, it announced an increased number of game check stations in Northeast Washington and asked those who hunted whitetail in eight GMUs there to stop by them. In 2022, it added a 24-hour
kiosk in Colville for submitting samples and expanded the number of game checks across much of the rest of the Eastside. And last fall, WDFW and the Washington Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers teamed up to offer 100 multiseason tags via drawing for those who got their animal tested. It all may have helped contribute to a record number of hunters stopping by check stations during the last weekend of November 2023’s late whitetail rifle hunt.
In addition to the Colville kiosk, there are also two dropoff stations in Cusick, north of Spokane, where the Kalispel Tribe of Indians is offering chances at $50 gas cards for submitters. Appointments can also be made to have animals checked at WDFW facilities, or you can extract the lymph nodes yourself and mail them to the agency. More info on all of the above options is at wdfw.wa.gov/ species-habitats/diseases/chronic-wasting.
To limit the risk of spreading the disease to new areas, WDFW and many other wildlife agencies only allow hunters to bring back certain parts of their animals from CWD states and provinces. Everyone seems to agree that there is no scientific evidence that the disease can be passed from infected deer, elk or moose to people – a viral Field & Stream story last spring
The infected doe was found on private property in Fairwood near WDFW’s Waikiki Springs Wildlife Area (above). Shooting restrictions will hinder the collection of samples by hunters in that immediate area, but they and others are being called on to help rapidly determine how widespread the CWD outbreak is in the surrounding region. (WDFW)
about two hunters possibly getting it was widely debunked and ultimately taken down – but to further reduce the risk, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not eating the meat of CWD-positive animals. Hunters
and salvagers who submit samples of their harvests can use WDFW’s WILD ID system or their roadkill permit number to check on testing results. If positive, WDFW will contact them to talk about proper disposal, DeVivo said.
THE BOTTOM LINE is that CWD is now confirmed in Washington and hunters are being called upon to help determine how widely distributed it is as WDFW looks to try and contain the disease. It’s not the end of the world for deer hunters – seasons continue in states where CWD has occurred for decades, and testing of harvested animals is more and more readily available. But it also means that sportsmen will need to step up and play an even more critical role in conservation efforts. Northeast Washington is the state’s whitetail heartland, and while the herd there has taken some recent hits in the form of largescale bluetongue dieoffs and habitat loss, as well as is dealing with a growing suite of predators, CWD represents a threat that could permanently decrease it.
“We’re taking this very, very seriously,” WDFW’s Martorello summarized to reporters. So too should hunters. NS
A U.S. Geological Survey map updated August 1, 2024, with the discovery of CWD in Washington highlights the grim, inexorable spread of the disease from a captive deer in Colorado in the 1960s into the wild and farms across United States and Canada in the decades since then. (USGS)
WDFW scientists Donny Martorello and DeVivo (top left and top center) and other state and public health officials spoke to the media about the first discovery of CWD in a Washington deer and the next steps at an early August news conference. (MICROSOFT TEAMS)
A heckuva nice halibut for traveling angler Darrel Smith! He caught the estimated 150-pounder while fishing out of Sitka in early July. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
It was an explosive summer for Northwest sockeye anglers as some of this year’s returns went berserk. Rex Watford got into quality fish at Baker Lake in Washington’s North Cascades. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Jo Jewett only wants to catch the big walleye – “They are way easier to reel in than the small ones,” she said after landing this 22 5-incher at Banks Lake in the northern Columbia Basin in early summer. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Henry Johnson nailed this pretty nice Neah Bay Chinook during his family’s annual trip to the far northwestern tip of Washington in mid-July. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Lily Vraspir took home fourth place in the Renton chapter of Puget Sound Anglers’ mid-June trout derby on Lake Washington with this 3-pound, 10-ounce searun cutthroat. Her dad John puts on the annual derby. “Even with some inclement weather, we had a decent turnout and lots of kids had a great time!” reports Barry Dubnow, who deckhanded on the outing. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
For your shot at winning great fishing and hunting knives from Coast and Kershaw in our Knife Photo Contest, send your full-resolution, original images with all the pertinent details – who’s in the pic; when and where they were; what they caught their fish on/weapon they used to bag the game; and any other details you’d like to reveal (the more, the merrier!) – to awalgamott@media-inc.com or Northwest Sportsman, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. By sending us photos, you affirm you have the right to distribute them for use in our print and Internet publications.
The Upper Columbia is home to the Dalan family for much of July, and Jacob shows why with this quartet of chunky sockeye. “Smile Blades and beads on a 14-inch leader behind a 5-inch Yakima Bait Company Fast Limit dodger hung from a 24-inch bumper and 4 or 6 ounces of lead on a slider gets it done,” tips his dad, David, who was featured in an article earlier this year on how to catch these salmon. (KNIFE
We’ll get, er, strait to the point – Sekiu and Neah Bay were good to Annika Huffman (above), Lisa Huffman and Mitchell Nunnally in July! The ladies were running helmeted anchovies for their Chinook, while Mitchell’s fish – his biggest king yet – bit a setup with local origins, a Flutter King spoon in bloody herring behind a Fury Flasher in bloody perch. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Carissa Nicole Anderson was among the many anglers who enjoyed great fishing off the mouth of the Columbia this summer. She caught this hatchery king off of Long Beach. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
PHOTO CONTEST)
KUDOS
Josh Bryan was recognized this summer as the Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife Division’s 2023 Partner of the Year for the wildlife enforcement decoys he handcrafts to help catch poachers. Bryan, who operates Newberg-based Josh Bryan Taxidermy, began building WEDs for OSP in 2019 and last year made or rebuilt eight – the devices are reportedly shot 80-plus times a year – including three robot decoys. “Josh is a valued partner and we appreciate his work as we protect Oregon’s natural resources,” OSP stated in announcing the award early last month.
JACKASS OF THE MONTH
Afleshy “wild” fowl with fat feet and funky feathers were some of the giveaways that a Florida crew was up to flimflam.
The operator of a hunting preserve and two guides were subbing in farm-raised turkeys for clients who signed up to hunt wild Osceolas, according to Outdoor Life. The alleged fraud was discovered when one sportsman took what he thought was a prize gobbler to his personal taxidermist, who “quickly” deduced that the bird wasn’t what it was being passed off as.
Photos comparing it with a wild Osceola show the carcass is noticeably fattier and the tail fan doesn’t match. The bird’s stumpy legs were also described as “large and deformed like a domestic breed.” DNA testing done by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission lab determined it to be similar to two different kinds of domesticated turkey.
After game wardens investigated, Larry Collins, who runs the preserve, guides David Mills and Paul Beckham, and another taxidermist named Vernon Flowers, who was allegedly in on the scam, were all charged with organized fraud, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and conspiracy, the magazine reported. Mills posted pics from the faux hunts “in furtherance of the scheme,” an affidavit states, according to Outdoor Life. The quartet allegedly defrauded 10 hunters out of more than $25,000 from spring 2020 through March 2022.
Should justice not be served at a high enough temperature for these four turkeys, I believe Butterball will have some spare feathers for a good tarring later this fall.
By Andy Walgamott
Man Sentenced For Poaching Elk
AWashington Coast resident's term at a Columbia Basin prison will span the next three elk seasons after he killed at least two of the animals outside of 2022’s legal hunts.
In early summer, Randolph “Randy” Cox, 28, of Grays Harbor County was sentenced to 29 months in jail, a $4,000 fine, and a two-year suspension of his hunting privileges that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking to extend to a lifetime ban “based on the egregious nature of the crimes.”
Game wardens say the case began when they were contacted by a hunter on the opening day of the November 2022 Westside rifle elk season. The hunter had stopped to help Cox with his broken-down vehicle when Cox started telling him about an elk he’d illegally killed the day before. When an officer responded to the location, the vehicle was gone, but after giving a description of it to other hunters in the area, one called it in later that day.
Arriving officers found a vehicle full of people without permission to be on the property and who gave varying stories about what they were up to.
According to WDFW, Cox ultimately admitted to firing “indiscriminately at an elk herd,” killing a spike, which was illegal in the three-point-or-better unit, and which had gone to waste. A later search turned up a wasted four-point bull.
Cox was originally charged with felon in possession of a firearm, six gross misdemeanor counts of illegal hunting and wastage, and trespassing. WDFW says it “worked closely” with Grays Harbor County prosecutors on the case and that charges against one more person involved in it are pending.
(OSP)
CALENDAR OUTDOOR
SEPTEMBER
1 Washington bow deer and mourning dove openers; Eastern Washington fall turkey opener; Oregon ruffed and blue grouse and mourning dove openers; Fall turkey opener in Western Oregon and select Northeast Oregon units; Western Oregon quail opener; Steelhead closures begin on mainstem Columbia from The Dalles Dam to Highway 395 bridge
4 Buoy 10 fishery switches to hatchery coho only through end of the year
5 First of added Columbia River subarea all-depth halibut fishing days (others: September 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26 and 29, unless quota filled)
5-11 Hatchery Chinook- and hatchery coho-only retention dates for Lower Columbia between west Puget Island and Warrior Rock
7 Washington bow elk opener; CAST for Kids fishing event on Lake Washington – info: castforkids.org; Tentative Nehalem, Tillamook and Nestucca Basins wild coho openers (Wednesdays, Saturdays only; see regs for limits, open areas)
7-8 Fern Ridge Wildlife Area youth hunt weekend
7-8/12/15 Washington September Canada goose season dates (varies by area)
7-11/15 Oregon September Canada goose season dates (varies by zone)
9 Fern Ridge Wildlife Area fee pheasant hunt opens; CAST For Kids event on Henry Hagg Lake – info above
12-15 Portland Fall RV & Van Show, Portland Expo Center – info: otshows.com
12-30 Salmon fishing closure dates on Lower Columbia between west Puget Island and Warrior Rock
14 Tentative Siletz, Yaquina, Big Elk, Alsea, Drift Creek, Siuslaw, Umpqua, Coos and Coquille Basins wild coho openers (see regs for limits, open areas, dates)
14-15 Oregon youth upland bird hunting weekend at Denman, Klamath, Ladd Marsh, Sauvie Island and White River Wildlife Areas, and Madras and John Day locations; Washington pheasant, quail and partridge youth hunting weekend
15 CAST for Kids fishing event on Banks Lake – info above; Washington statewide forest grouse opener
15-23 Oregon and Washington bandtail pigeon season dates
15-25 High Buck Hunt dates in select Washington Cascades and Olympics wilderness areas, Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
16 Denman and Sauvie Island Wildlife Areas fee pheasant hunt opens
16-20 Washington senior and disabled hunter pheasant hunting week
16-30 Salmon fishing closure dates on Lower Columbia between Warrior Rock and Washington-Oregon border east of McNary Dam
21 Western Washington youth waterfowl hunting day
28 53rd Annual National Hunting & Fishing Day – info: nhfday.org; Washington early muzzleloader deer opener; Eastern Washington youth duck and coot hunting day
28-29 Oregon youth waterfowl hunting weekend; Coquille Valley and EE Wilson Wildlife Areas youth upland bird hunting weekend
30 Last scheduled day of 2024 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Program season – info: pikeminnow.org; EE Wilson Wildlife Area fee pheasant hunt opens
OCTOBER
1 Coho opener on Oregon Coast’s Siltcoos, Tahkenitch and Tenmile Lakes; Scheduled Oregon razor clam opener on Clatsop County beaches north of Tillamook Head continued on page 36
BOBBER WITH A BRAIN JR.
★ New patented EASY to use Bobber With A Brain Jr., ONLY automatic slip bobber in the world that requires no line stopper! You can fish 1 & 2 feet off the bottom automatically any depth, even 50 feet deep and it will not drift in 30 mph wind or jet ski waves!
★ Works in combination with any slip sinker and allows you to fish on and off the bottom at the same time on the same crappie or perch type rig!
★ Sold in three packs on e-bay and website: BobberWithABrian.net or SmartestTackle.com
★ Questions answered by Frank, inventor at Stackle23@msn.com
CALENDAR, continued from page 35
3-6
5
Tacoma Fall RV & Van Show, Tacoma Dome – info above
Western Oregon and most Oregon controlled deer openers; Washington muzzleloader elk opener; Eastern Washington quail and partridge openers
10 Idaho deer and elk rifle openers in many units
12 Oregon pheasant and partridge openers; Eastern Oregon quail opener; Oregon Zone 2 early duck season opener; Oregon Zone 2 snipe opener; Oregon Southwest, High Desert and Blue Mountains, and Mid-Columbia Zones Canada goose openers; Washington general rifle deer season opener; Washington Goose Management Areas 1-5 opener
12-20 Washington early duck season dates
12-27 Oregon Zone 1 early duck season dates
15 Last day of Oregon recreational ocean crab season (bays open year-round)
19 Last day of bottomfish retention off Washington Coast; Eastern Washington pheasant opener
19-27
Northwest Oregon Permit Goose Zone early season dates
23 Washington duck season resumes
26
Eastern Washington rifle elk opener
31 Last day to fish many Washington lowland lakes listed in regulations
UPCOMING AND ONGOING DERBIES
Now through Sept. 15: Bandon Crab Derby, Coquille estuary; tonyscrabshack .com/crab-derby
Now through Oct. 1: 3rd Annual Small Mouth Bass Derby, Coquille River; Coquille River STEP Association (see Facebook)
Now through end of respective fishing seasons: Westport Charterboat Association Lingcod, Halibut, Chinook, Coho and Tuna Derbies; charterwestport.com/fishing.html
Now through Oct. 31: WDFW 2024 Trout Derby, select lakes across Washington; wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/contests/trout-derby
Aug. 31-Sept. 2: 31st Annual Gardiner, Reedsport, Winchester Bay STEP Salmon Derby, Umpqua River estuary; umpquastephatchery.org
Sept. 7: Edmonds Coho Derby, Areas 8-10; edmondscohoderby.com
Sept. 14: Salmon for Soldiers, North Sound; salmonforsoldiers.org
Sept. 21-22: Everett Coho Derby, Areas 8-10 and open nearby rivers; everettcohoderby.com
Oct. 4-5: Alsea Bay Salmon Derby; facebook.com/AlseaSportsmansAssn
Oct. 19: Big Fish Contest, Washington waters; psasnoking.org
October (TBD): King of the Reach Derby, Mid-Columbia’s Hanford Reach; ccawashington.org/kingofthereach
Hunting Burn Scars For Bucks
Another active fire year means Oregon big game hunters need to watch the fire map – and look to past years’ perimeters for good spots.
By Troy Rodakowski
If you are one of the folks who pays attention to the weather, snowpack, rainfall and such, you know this year started off better than most. Ample amounts of spring rain coupled with decent snowpack gave the mountains and valleys an excellent jump-start on forage for animals across the Northwest. Rich vitamins, minerals and sugars provided by spring green-up equates to healthier animals and excellent antler growth. The downside to all that dense forage is that it provides massive amounts of fuel for wildfires to burn across the landscape.
Deer and elk herds across most portions of Oregon continue to be hit-and-miss depending on habitat conditions, elevation and predation. Wildfire management, environmental concerns over the spotted owl and the changes in the Northwest Forest Plan have all decreased desirable deer and elk habitat, at least on federal lands. These and other factors can stress deer and push them out of once very desirable areas. Stressed deer can also become sick deer. These deer can become easy prey to predators or die from a variety of diseases. Decline in
high-quality forage and aspen stands, increased invasive juniper trees and scotch broom, and decreased logging throughout the mountainous regions have all caused deer to suffer, especially throughout the winter months.
Those are all long-term issues and year-to-year conditions can mitigate them to a degree. The bright spot for Oregon is that we had a very good spring for antler growth and excellent forage in most locations with snows showing up in the highest terrain through late May. Reports of very good feed from many biologists and outdoor enthusiasts across the state have been hitting my inbox all summer, often accompanied with some very nice trail camera photos of both deer and elk.
SOME OF THE best places to look for healthy herds and some great headgear are past wildfire burns that have blossomed into a cafeteria of morsels able to sustain animals throughout the summer. The 2020 Holiday Farm Fire near and between Leaburg, Blue River and Cougar Reservoir is shaping up to be prime. Some of the best blacktail genetics and strong elk herds have
A smoke-filtered sun rises over Oregon deer and elk country. Opportunities abound across the state for hunters targeting areas burned by wildfire in recent years and decades. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)
HUNTING
resided here in the past. According to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Christopher Yee in Springfield, “Deer and elk also seemed to survive the snow/ice storm event in early January 2024 with minimal mortality.”
Yee points out that success rates in areas west of the Cascades have been “equivocal to recent years but above long-term averages.” He adds that ODFW believes that recent shifts in the start and end dates of hunting seasons have affected harvest data in a positive way. I can attest to that, having seen some very nice bucks taken by general season rifle hunters in Western Oregon in early November 2023.
Last season, I drew a muzzleloader permit that was moved back due to the extension of the general Westside
rifle hunt. In hindsight, I can honestly say that I would have been better off purchasing the general rifle tag. I missed the rut by about five days, but general season rifle hunters feasted on big rutted bucks.
East of the Cascades, hunters looking to glass canyons for bucks will likely find a decent amount of deer on the edges of the old burns and feeding in open areas during the early morning and right before dusk.
The Dillon Creek Fire in 2023 burned 3,119 acres in Klamath County but in turn has provided some excellent forage for animals here in 2024.
But it’s not just burns doing the heavy lifting, as ODFW has recognized many of the issues deer and elk face.
“In certain Mule Deer Initiative units, ODFW has cooperated on
thousands of acres of juniper removal work, cougar removal, habitat improvement projects etc.,” notes biologist Corey Heath. “Fish and Wildlife also works closely with (the Oregon State Police) on enforcement action plans to address ongoing problem areas.”
State officials have implemented new/existing road closure areas to minimize disturbance/poaching of mule deer, and are improving migration corridors.
“We’ve worked with (the Oregon Department of Transportation) to fence/underpass a portion of U.S. Highway 97,” adds Heath. “ODFW also monitors/disease test sick and dead deer.”
AS OF PRESS time last month, nearly
Deer will be on the move along the edges of clearcuts and old burns early in the morning and near dusk. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)
HUNTING HUNTING
GENERAL OREGON BIG GAME SEASONS*
Western archery deer and elk: August 31-September 29
Western rifle deer: October 5-November 8
Rocky Mountain second rifle elk: November 9-17
West Cascade rifle elk: November 9-19
Coast first rifle elk: November 16-19
Southwest archery deer: November 16-December 8
Coast second rifle elk: November 23-29
Northwest archery deer: November 23-December 15
*Technically, Oregon general “rifle” seasons are actually “any legal weapon” hunts, but archery seasons are bow only.
1.4 million acres had burned in Oregon in 2024, the most of any state in the country thus far this year, and fire season runs into midOctober. Although wildfires are quite depressing, and this and recent years’ burns will affect this fall’s seasons with closures and numerous restrictions, I look to the bright side by using information on past fires as waypoints to find prospective hunting locations for the coming season. Researching these locations will likely increase the odds for future success.
Animals that were once pushed away by flames will slowly filter back to these locations as they seek shelter and fresh food. Hunters will need to keep in mind that deer and elk use of areas pre- and post-burn may be different, given a landscape’s drastic facelift. But overall, because of a greater abundance of shrub species that respond to fire by root sprouting, fires usually stimulate forage species selected by ungulates, so there is an increase in food. There is a host of good websites, pages and apps for tracking current and past fires, and one of them is that of the Oregon State Fire Marshall (osfminfo.org).
Older burns look more like a small forest with plenty of new trees, shrubbery, grasses and broadleaf forbs that big game animals love. Western Cascade burns recover a bit quicker than fires on the Eastside. Small lightning strikes burning 10to 15-plus acres are excellent places to look, as animals will gravitate to the openings in the forest canopy to gorge themselves on the fresh growth. Burn edges where the forest meets the old charred landscape are prime places to look for traveling animals, especially in the morning and evening hours. Isolated small acreage burns are hidden gems that will oftentimes hold animals. In addition, prescribed burns conducted by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to relieve the woods of dense brush and open the forest floor from shade are excellent places to look.
Freshly sprouted plants in this year’s burns and forbs and shrubs taking advantage of more sunlight in older fire scars are magnets for big game animals. The new growth is rich in minerals and sugars that ungulates crave. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)
SOME OLDER BURNS I recommend looking into include:
• The B&B Complex Burn of 2003 that burned 90,769 acres between Mount Jefferson and Mount Washington. This fire burned on both slopes of the Cascade Range, providing hunters with a large expanse of range.
• The Warner Creek Burn near Oakridge, which burned over 9,000 acres in 1991 and has very good regrowth and habitat for animals.
• The Puzzle Burn near Marion Lake that burned 6,340 acres in late 2006. The habitat here is now primed for some very good hunting.
• The Long Draw Burn of 2012 southeast of Lakeview that burned just over 558,000 acres will provide some excellent hunting as regrowth occurs.
• Finally, the Cache Creek Burn of 2012 in Northeast Oregon near the Idaho/Washington border that burned 73,697 acres will be a great place to look for many years to come. NS
Author Troy Rodakowski’s father Terry shows off his 2023 blacktail taken near a good food source. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)
Hunting on public ground, it wasn’t until the eighth day of his 2023 Oregon mule deer season that author Buzz Ramsey finally saw a buck he wanted to shoot –and was confident he could make the 500-yard shot. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
On Making Long-range Shots
My son, nephew and I love to rifle hunt mule deer in the relatively open spaces on the east sides of Oregon and Washington, and at
least one of us has found success doing so each and every year. Some years, all three of us tag out on mostly decent-size bucks, while in other years we struggle to find success.
Last year, when we drew tags for one of the easier-to-get controlled hunt units in Eastern Oregon, was no exception. While son Wade got excited and tagged
a smallish three-point buck opening day, it wasn’t until after eight days of hard hunting, preceded by three days of scouting, that I saw a buck I could and wanted to shoot, which was 500 yards away. Like me, nephew Jeff only saw one decent buck during the 12-day season, but was unable to connect with it, as the
COLUMN
ever-wary deer took off before he could get a shot.
Our success might have been different if we’d had enough points to draw tags for one of the more productive Eastside hunt units, had permission to hunt private ground or if the herds were more abundant. Having chased mule deer
since 1977, I can say with certainty that harvesting a mature buck deer has gotten more difficult, mostly because there are not as many animals as there once were.
BECAUSE OF DECLINING mule deer numbers across the West, we, like many hunters determined to achieve success, have worked
to improve our hunting skills, spent more time scouting in advance of the season, hiked into remote areas to hunt where we might camp for a night or two and have sharpened our long-range shooting.
Prior to 2010, I never considered myself a long-range marksman. Sure, I’d killed my share of deer and elk at 250 to 300 rangefinder yards and one antelope at 379, but had rightfully declined more than a few shot opportunities at game spotted further away. For years I considered my maximum range – on a good day with ideal conditions and a solid rest – to be 300 yards.
What has extended the ethical shooting range for me and other avid rifle hunters is the availability of low-cost rangefinders, more accurate rifles, advancements in rifle scopes, shooting rests, computer programs that provide accurate bulletflight data and hunting shows that make it look easy – providing you have all of the above and combine it with plenty of longrange target practice.
Another factor that has caused serious hunters to hone their long-range skills and make shots they would have not attempted before is the sometimes multi-year span between being drawn for quality hunts due to the rationing of available buck mule deer rifle tags offered by Western states.
You should realize that shots over 300 yards are not consistently doable or ethical unless done under ideal conditions and with real-life experience, which means practicing at the range plenty before making any attempt at harvesting game at long distances.
For me, that meant honing my reloads to achieve better accuracy (groups measuring 1 inch or less at 100 yards), purchasing a new Leupold VX-3 rifle scope with a custom CDS dial calibrated to match the flight of my bullet, practicing long-range target shooting, and verifying that the drop of my bullet absolutely matched the flight path of my CDS dial by hitting targets starting at 800 or 1,000 yards before confirming the bullet’s path on closer targets.
THE CUSTOM CDS turret on my scope was calibrated to perfectly match the flight of my hand loads; all I have to do is dial in the
Like many Northwest hunters, the Ramseys love chasing mule deer in the wide-open spaces east of the Cascades. To be successful sometimes requires shots taken at long distances,making dialing in your accuracy a critical preseason job. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
COLUMN
range by turning the elevation (top) turret, place the crosshairs on the target and pull the trigger. Custom turrets are quick and accurate, providing you don’t alter your load or bullet from those the turret was designed to mirror.
When ordering a custom dial for your CDS-capable Leupold scope, all you need to provide the factory with is the caliber of your cartridge, bullet weight and type, ballistic coefficient, or BC, for your bullet, muzzle velocity, average altitude and temperature, sight height (center of barrel to center of scope) and your sight-in zero, which might be 2 inches high at 100 yards. In fairness, realize that more than a few scope manufacturers offer long-range dial systems like Leupold.
However, you can accomplish the
same result as a CDS dial by inputting the flight data for your cartridge into a ballistic calculator (available via any number of smartphone or computer apps) and dial your standard turret the number of clicks needed to compensate for the drop of your bullet. Remember, you will need to confirm the accuracy of this by shooting your rifle at the range.
For example, prior to getting a custom CDS dial for my compatible Leupold rifle scope for my .338 Remington Ultra Magnum required me to turn my top turret 24 quarter-inch clicks (which equals 6 minutes of scope adjustment) to hit a 500-yard target. Keep in mind that the top turret on most quality rifle scopes is calibrated so that every click adjustment represents 1/4 inch at 100 yards, with
four clicks representing one minute of adjustment. Of course, adjusting your rifle scope this way requires you to keep track of how much you adjusted the turret and remembering to return it to its original setting after firing a shot.
Obviously, it’s a lot quicker and easier to make field adjustments with a scope having a custom dial where all you have to do is dial in the yardage, achieve a rock-solid rest and fire. All new scopes having a CDS dial include a zero stop, which makes turning it back to your sight-in zero quick and easy.
Realize that the maximum range of your rifle should be based on your shooting ability and the amount of downrange energy produced by the cartridge you shoot. For example, most hunters understand it takes a minimum of 1,500 foot-pounds of energy to kill an elk and 1,200 foot-pounds to down a deer. So, even though my .338 RUM will consistently hit 1,000-yard targets, it lacks the energy needed to kill an animal the size of an elk at ranges in excess of 650 yards.
LAST SEASON’S MULE deer hunt in Oregon had been a tough one. Other than the three-pointer Wade harvested on opening day, I’d only seen a couple dinky bucks after seven days of hard hunting. So day eight saw me try a new strategy: Rather than hike in the dark for a few hours to areas where I’d seen few or no deer, I parked alongside the highway and hiked to an open ridge where I might spot deer moving from private ground to public land during the cover of the earlymorning light.
On my third scan of the surrounding terrain I spotted a mature buck paralleling the far side of a steep canyon two ridges over. It was 600 yards away, which is a bit far for me, so I crept downslope as close as I could (and still see the deer) before settling in for a 500-yard shot. With the front end of my rifle supported by my bipod and the butt end held motionless on a big rock, I dialed my scope, settled in on the deer’s shoulder and squeezed the trigger.
Although I was sure I’d hit the deer, the handsome buck didn’t react at first. After preparing for a second shot, I noticed he had laid down but still had his head up. Given the steep canyons between us (I
The scope on the author’s .338 Remington Ultra Magnum has a custom CDS dial that allows him to dial in the yardage (in this example, 500 yards), put the crosshairs on the target and pull the trigger. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
couldn’t see the bottom), I was taking no chances, so I decided to put a second round through him. All I could see was his head and neck, so I centered the crosshairs on his neck and pulled the trigger.
Upon reaching the deer it was obvious I hadn’t needed to fire that second round, as the buck, given the bullet hole behind his shoulder, wasn’t going anywhere other than into my freezer. Soon Wade arrived, took a few photos and helped me bone out and pack the meat to my pickup. I remember him holding up the filet of neck meat that had a bullet hole in the center and asking if he should trim around it.
“No need,” I replied, thinking about how my Barnes nonlead bullets don’t come apart. In my experience, they ruin very little meat. NS
Editor’s note: Buzz Ramsey is regarded as a sport fishing authority, outdoor writer and proficient lure and fishing rod designer. As such, fishing rod manufacturer Douglas Outdoors has added Buzz to their ambassador pro staff.
It was just after first light on opening morning of 2023 that Wade Ramsey tagged this Eastern Oregon mule deer. (BUZZ RAMSEY)
Elevate Your Game With Spot And Stalk Tactics
BECOMING
A HUNTER
By Dave Anderson
There is a plethora of different big game hunting tactics. The method you use depends on your situation, which can change from day to day, hour to hour or even minute to minute. One of my favorite methods of hunting is spot and stalk. In this article, I am going to go over the basics of spot and stalk, as well as how I go about using this technique.
Spot and stalk, just like any other method of hunting, takes a lot of patience. The most important aspect of this method, in my opinion, is the spotting component. However, for it to be effective, you will need to have the best quality glass that your budget can afford. The better the glass, the better you will be. There is a huge difference in a pair of binoculars that costs $149 versus one that costs $1,000 or even as much as $2,500 to $3,000. The amount of detail and precision that you get from a high-quality pair of binoculars is huge. Think of it like an HD TV; clarity, higher resolution and sharper images are a must when it comes to effective glassing. You are looking for small details, such as a flick of an ear, a wink of an eye, part of an antler or a piece of hide, so you want optics that allow you to decipher and see those small details. These are all things that lower-end optics won’t allow you to see, especially at long distances.
WHEN IT COMES to binoculars, I would recommend at a minimum a 10x42 pair, but I have always been a little fonder of 10x50s. I am currently using Leupold Santiam 10x42 binoculars. When glassing long distances, having a larger-size binocular can come in handy. High-quality binoculars will also give you an advantage during the first and last half hours of light by allowing you to see more details during these lower light
Getting to a vantage point early will put you in a good position to spot far-off game and potentially make a stalk to close the distance for a shot. (DAVE ANDERSON)
COLUMN
times. This is a huge advantage, especially given that deer and elk are more active and move around during these hours. Depending on how far I am packing in or how much gear I am willing to carry, I will also consider bringing a spotting scope along. My current setup is a Leupold SX-5 Santiam HD 27-55x80mm angled spotting scope weighing in at 68.7 ounces, which is a little over 4 pounds. I use it in combination with my Leupold Pro Guide binoculars, and together they weigh a bit over 8 pounds, so I will not always have this setup with me out in the field. The older I get, the less gear and weight I like to pack around. However, there are times when I know I will really want that glass so I can see further. I am sure there are smaller spotting scopes and setups that shave down some weight, but I haven’t reached the point of looking into those yet.
WHEN UTILIZING THE spot and stalk method for hunting, here are some of the tactics I prefer. I like to hike into an area in the dark and get to a vantage point where I have a large area to glass once the sun rises. I pride myself on being one of the first people to drive or hike into an area. Nothing drives me crazier than getting to a trailhead or area to hunt and finding a truck parked there already. Same is true for me seeing headlamps hiking up a mountain ahead of me. I would rather be on top of the mountain early and watch other headlamps walking up. I am a firm believer in the early bird gets the worm.
I typically have a vantage point where I can get a good view of a large area picked out in my head already. If I am hunting a new area, I will use onX to find these vantage points. The digital mapping company has a feature under the Terrain X function that you can utilize by clicking on the binoculars. This feature will show you what areas you can see through binoculars from a particular waypoint. You do have to be an Elite-level member for it. I am just starting to dabble with it, but it can show you good areas to glass from the comfort of home.
Once I have reached my vantage point, I will spend all my time sitting and looking through my binoculars in a grid pattern. I will look up, down and left to right. I am looking behind trees, under trees and in the brush for anything that could resemble the animal I am hunting. Above, I talked about the things to look for – an eye, hoof, antler tip, ear or hide – but I also like to try and imagine myself as a deer or elk and think
about what I would be doing or where I would be if I were one.
SPEAKING OF, SOME things to consider when utilizing the spot and stalk method are game movement throughout the course of a day. During the morning, animals will be on the move much more than during the middle of the day. This is a huge advantage when glassing. Movement is the easiest thing to pick out on the side of the mountain. During the day, you will most likely find animals bedded down, depending on the time of year. If it is extremely cold, the time that animals are on their feet will be increased compared to warm or moderate weather.
Glassing for elk and bears is much easier than glassing for deer. For some reason, it always seems like deer blend in much easier with the surrounding terrain. Maybe I just have an eye for seeing elk, but to me, elk tend to stick out like a sore thumb. Bears
Tools of the trade – along with his trusty binoculars, author Dave Anderson likes to use a spotting scope (below) to pick apart mountainsides for telltale signs of big game: a shiny antler tine, the flick of an ear, part of an animal coat in the sun. (DAVE ANDERSON)
BEST OF BUTCHERS & MEAT PROCESSING
COLUMN
are also easier to find. However, I feel that a spotting scope is a lot more effective than just binoculars when bear hunting. There are a lot of stumps that resemble bears!
ONCE YOU’VE NAILED the spotting component of this method and locate an animal you want to pursue, you begin to utilize the stalking portion. It involves planning and preparation, especially if the animal you are pursuing is a fair distance away.
This is where I really like to utilize onX. I will study my onX if I am not familiar with the area to see what the best route is to get to the animal. I will also add a waypoint for where the deer or elk is immediately before I make a move. This way I know for sure where it is when I begin to stalk it. One thing I am extremely excited to get my hands on is the new Leupold RX-5000 TBR/W, which will give me the ability to remotely drop a pin to my iPhone with onX. It will be a game changer to have the exact location on my app versus guessing.
When stalking an animal, the number one thing that you need to be conscious of is wind direction. If the wind is in your face, you are in the right place. If you feel the wind on the back of your neck, regardless of the species of game you are after, the fun is over.
Once I begin the stalk and am on the move, I will get to an area as quickly as possible. But the closer I get, the more mindful I become of my silhouette and the amount of noise I make. When it comes to elk, I am not nearly as concerned about noise as I am
with deer. Elk are noisy animals and are a bit more forgiving if you step on a stick, but I still do not purposely look to make noise. Once I close the distance even more, I will start employing tactics like walking on the outside of my feet and being mindful about where I am putting my boots.
I HAVE RIFLES that I can shoot 600 to 800 yards, but very seldom will I shoot game at that distance. Just because I have it does not mean I want to use it unless I absolutely have to. When rifle hunting, I will try to close my distance down to at least 100 to 300 yards before setting up for a shot. A lot of that depends on the terrain and whether I am shooting across a canyon. There are some areas in Idaho that I hunt where I usually can’t get any closer than 300 to 400 yards.
Spot and stalk hunting can be very effective and fun. It is by far my favorite way to hunt. I love glassing up game, coming up with a plan and executing it, and notching a tag. I hope some of my tips and techniques for how I utilize this method of hunting help you on future hunts. NS
After spotting this Washington Cascades mule deer during a recent September High Buck Hunt, Stan Weeks put a successful four-hour stalk on it. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
Nordic By Northwest
MCHEF IN THE WILD
eating it primarily on toast in the morning before school.
I was told – but never believed – that my grandma would also put this stuff on her mashed potatoes and “sh*t on a shingle.” What, you might be asking, is SOS? Well, it is a recipe made popular by the US military and consists of chipped beef with cream (the sh*t) served on top of toasted bread (the shingle). Often, like so many other dinners in the service, this dish was served with mashed potatoes. SOS was a staple of many a mess hall at chow time.
put jelly on her chipped beef (honestly, it was more often elk and deer than beef) seemed unfathomable to me. Who would put jam on mashed potatoes and SOS?! Sweet and savory just seemed like a gross combo to my young uncultured brain. Little did I know.
By Randy King
y paternal grandmother would gather orange currants in the summer near her house outside Homedale, Idaho. She would combine the little berries with apricots and make a tart homemade jam. She would pressure can, or “put up,” quite a lot of it each year and distribute the orange goodness to family members. I remember my family getting several jars over the years and
The idea that my grandmother would
FAST FORWARD 35 years and my son Cameron arrived home from a vacation in Finland (a year abroad in Germany and a Finnish girlfriend were involved), and he talked to me about a dish he had eaten at a summer cookout. It was chipped reindeer
During a vacation in Finland, author Randy King’s son Cameron enjoyed a summer cookout featuring chipped reindeer with lingonberry jam. It had our chef recalling his grandma’s currant jam and served as inspiration for this issue’s recipe. (RANDY KING)
COLUMN
Poronkäristys – chipped venison with lingonberries, mashed potatoes and toast. (RANDY
JUST CALL IT PORON-TASTY
Ihave left this dish as close to the Finnish original as I can. I translated the metric measurements into reasonable amounts for us imperial heathens in the USA.
2 pounds deer or elk, sliced super thin (see picture)
½ cup butter
1 yellow onion (diced)
12 ounces of water (I use beer – a light lager or pale ale work great)
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup cream
I know this is a Finnish recipe, but channel your inner Mongolian barbecuer to slice the meat as thin as you can. Peel and slice the onion.
Heat a pan on medium, adding a small
amount of butter – about a tablespoon at a time. Brown the butter in the pan and then add the meat in small portions. If you add too much meat and it starts to boil in the juice, pour off the moisture and reserve for later. Try and brown all the chunks of meat. You will need to do the meat in batches.
When all the meat is done, add the onions and fry lightly in the remaining butter. Add the meat back to the pan. Add the water (or beer) and possible reserved fluids back to the pan.
Simmer on low heat for an hour to an hour and a half, covered. Right before you serve, add the cream and bring the whole mess to a boil.
Serve on mashed potatoes, with a side of buttered sourdough toast and a dollop of lingonberry or currant jam on the top! –RK
The meat should be sliced as thinly as you can. Brown it in butter in batches, taking care to control the moisture to prevent boiling. (RANDY KING)
KING)
COLUMN
with lingonberry jam on mashed potatoes. He raved about it, and the vacation. I asked him if it had been served with toast; he said it was. My brain exploded.
While my son was on holiday, I had been reading a little bit about the Finland/ Northwest states connection. It seems that in the late 1800s, a large number of Finnish folks migrated from the Wisconsin/ Minnesota area to homestead in Oregon. A large number from the homeland came too.
But after a few years in the sagebrush, they up and moved to central Idaho near McCall and Kellogg. So much so that at one point in the early 1900s, up to 40 percent of residents in the McCall area were of Finnish descent. They had Finnish-only churches and schools, Finnish sporting events, Finnish grange halls and other community happenings. Apparently, the pines and snow were more accommodating to Finnish immigrants than the sage and heat. And, honestly, that tracks.
As strange as it might seem, a small segment of my family migrated from the
McCall area to Jordan Valley, Oregon, to run a livery in service of Silver City, Idaho. I still have a 16-gauge that rode “shotgun” on a wagon train from this time. I will never know for sure, but my best guess is that my grandmother was subconsciously passing down a recipe from her Finnish relatives in McCall. And that is why she was eating SOS with currant jam on it.
IN FINLAND, THE dish is called Poronkäristys and it is traditionally served with chipped reindeer over mashed potatoes and with a lingonberry sauce on top. Ever the recipe researcher, I reached out to my only Finnish contact – Terhi, the mother of my son’s long-distance Finnish partner. Terhi notes that the recipe is often eaten on special occasions like midsummer and fall equinox, which this year is September 22.
Essentially, you slice the reindeer meat as thin as you can and brown it. Then you simmer the meat in water or beer with onions, adding cream at the end. You serve it with mashed potatoes and lingonberry
jam. They call this dish “Poronkäristys perunamuusilla ja puolukkasurvoksella.” Please don’t ask me to pronounce that!
Part of me will always wonder if my grandmother’s currant jam was an attempt to recreate lingonberry jam. It’s unanswerable, one of those questions lost to time, death and generations past. But both berries are quite similar in many ways – lingonberries are even called “bog currants” by some.
I’ll never know for sure, but now I wish I’d been braver around the dinner table with Grandma – the woman who would carry her own pie tin for eating off of because “no need to make a plate dirty for me.” The woman who would tell dirty jokes to kids on Christmas. The woman who canned her own food for the winter – the hardship of the Great Depression never really left her mind, causing her to be a hoarder at the end. The woman who put jam on SOS. I wish I could talk with her about it, but as years go by, so do my memories of her. But I will never, ever forget her currant jam. NS
How to take advantage of September’s here-and-gone Canada goose season. Early Honkers
By MD Johnson
To the waterfowl hunter, September … well, September basically means it’s another six long weeks until duck season. But that’s only if said ’fowler doesn’t take advantage of what’s known across the nation, including right here in the Pacific Northwest, as the September goose season.
In Reader’s Digest condensed form, this early honker hunt was offered to the states by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a means by which wildlife managers could attempt to accomplish two objectives. One, to provide an additional opportunity for hunters in general. That was relatively easy enough. The second, though, was and continues to prove a little more challenging – to help stabilize or actually lower many of the country’s burgeoning resident Canada goose populations. You know, the ones defiling golf courses and softball complexes in or on the edge of urban and suburban neighborhoods.
“I’d say that’s pretty much right,” confirms Kyle Spragens, waterfowl program coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Spread out some opportunity early in the season for that resident or local influence population of these geese. And also correct – it was viewed as a tool or a preference to using hunting to try and control the problem of urbanization and development making it harder and harder to get into some of these areas (to hunt). So, yes, those are or were the main drivers (for the season), for sure.”
AS FOR THE season itself, it varies. Some
Sportsmen have their hands full in terms of opportunity this time of year – Gary Lundquist conked these honkers and triploids at Rufus Woods Lake in September 2021 – but the early goose season not only provides a unique hunt, but a chance to help control overpopulated resident Canadas. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
HUNTING
early opportunities run five days; others, it’s two weeks. In places like Arkansas, the season on Canadas opens September 1 and continues through October 15, with a daily limit of five. In Washington, opening and closing dates are geographically based –September 7-12 in Goose Management Areas 1 (Whatcom/Skagit Counties) and 3 (nine other Western Washington counties), and September 7-15 in GMA 2 (Southwest Washington and South Coast). GMA 2 is further divided into two sub-units – Coast and Inland, both with the same dates and daily bag limit of five geese. However and interestingly enough – or at least it’s interesting to me – the daily bag limit on Canadas in Pacific County during this month’s season is 15. That’s a lot of goose to be run through the grinder!
“The bag is higher because it is the
only spot during that time that trying to invoke any influence over what we refer to as the ‘resident dark geese,’ or what some folks call a wusky, would have an impact,” explained Spragens. “So we’re allowing this fullthrottle (approach) in Pacific County during that early season due to some transmitter and observational work showing there’s a high affinity of those birds in Pacific County during that time frame. We’re trying to get harvest rates to go through the roof on those birds.”
For the record, a wusky is a resident dark goose and thought to be a cross between a Western and a dusky. Unlike other members of the dusky subspecies, wuskies don’t migrate to the Copper River delta in Alaska every spring to breed and nest. Rather, they have taken a liking to the Northwest and stay here year-round.
In Eastern Washington’s GMAs 4 and 5, the early goose hunt runs only two days, those being September 7-8. According to Spragens, this discrepancy – two days east of the Cascades, seven to nine days in the west – has to do with the fact that these hunting days count against the federally allowed maximum of 107 waterfowl days, which runs inclusively from September 1 through March 10 of the following year. Eastside goose hunters, he explained, see more value in having additional “goose days” later in the year as opposed to in September, whereas those on the Westside serve as a management tool to control resident Canada populations.
Confused? Don’t be. Get WDFW’s 2024-25 waterfowl regulations and read and study pages 26 through 28. It will make sense.
Resident honkers descend on Oregon’s Multnomah Channel. Unlike later goose seasons along either side of the Lower Columbia, hunters aren’t required to have special permits to participate in the early season. (RICK SWART, ODFW)
HUNTING HUNTING
And then there’s Oregon. In four of Oregon’s five goose zones, the early season opens on September 7, running through the 15th in the Northwest Permit Zone, and the 11th in both the
Southwest Zone and all of the Eastside (two zones), with a daily bag limit of five. There is no September season in the narrow South Coast Zone, which consists of those portions of Coos,
Curry and Douglas Counties west of Highway 101. Simple enough.
Oh, and neither a Northwest Goose Permit (Oregon) or Southwest Washington “goose card” (permit)
KEYS FOR A SIMPLE YET NOT EASY HUNT
It’s my thinking that the early season is as simple as goose hunting gets. Notice I didn’t say “easy,” but rather simple. Simple in the approach and in the gear, both of which are highlighted here:
Scouting: Be it September or January, scouting is the key when it comes to the equation known as success. Find the birds. Watch the birds. Note how many are there and exactly – not almost, but precisely –where they are in the field or resting along the shoreline. Family groups? A goose and gander, along with their spring brood, separated by some distance is the norm now, and you’d be wise to set your handful of decoys accordingly.
Guns and ammo: September, and I’m shooting the same shotgun I shoot for geese all season long, that being a Remington Versa Max fitted with a midrange Mojo Outdoors (mojooutdoors.com) Fatal Choke. For ammunition, remember these aren’t the fully feathered and heavily muscled birds of winter. In September, I’m shooting Hevi-Shot’s Hevi-XII tungsten in No. 4 shot; however, a quality load of No. 2 or 3 steel or layered mix (steel/bismuth or steel/tungsten) will work just fine.
Blinds: If they’re available within effective range of your spread, hide in the tules. It’s quick, easy, effective, and you’re not lugging a 20-pound conglomeration of steel tubing and cordura nylon around. My preference, however, is the same Banded/ Avery Finisher layout blind I’ll use all season and covered with a green/brown hank of anti-aircraft netting or lightly camouflaged with bunchgrass or local stubble. With this, I can set up anywhere and be mobile.
Decoys and spreads: I prefer my fullbody dekes, even during the early season. Twelve, maybe 18, with an emphasis on feeders or belly-down resters. I will set my spread in family groups of three to five, with at least one of the “adult birds” in each group being a head up sentry or watcher.
If you have silhouettes, set silhouettes. Shells? Set shells. Throwing floaters off a sandbar on a lazy little river? Floaters, it is,
but still in broken family groups with the aforementioned distance between groups.
How much distance? Some. A little. A lot. Seven big steps. Ten. Let your scouting tell you what to do. The key here is relaxed and content, with a goodly dose of group here/group there/group over that way.
Calls and calling: Two words – not (and) much. I find early geese similar to February and March Canadas in that they’re relatively quiet – for the most part. A honk to get their attention. Soft subtle clucks and moans and murmurs, if any, as they approach. Decoys doing their job? Let them, and leave that call hanging around your neck be. Over water, Canadas seem (to me) to be more vocal. And if the birds are making a ruckus, so too shall I.
“I’ve been aggressive with early geese and been successful,” callmaker Bill Saunders told me. “And I’ve been quiet and been successful. In the morning when there’s only a few birds moving around, I’ll tend to be less aggressive, but get more so as more birds come off the roost. But it just really depends
on what the birds want. Sometimes I’ll really hit the call to get their attention – to sound like 100 geese – and then when they work, I’ll tone it down and sound more like your four decoys. So both, I guess. I’ll tear it up or I’ll keep it in my pocket.”
Miscellaneous matters: Come September 7, I’ll have, without fail, three things with me when I settle into my layout blind: a Beef Patty, Jalapeno Pepper Jack MRE; a minimum of 2 liters of water on hand, with more in the truck; and, most importantly, a TheraCell butane-fueled mosquito repellent unit. Couple years back, I’d packed the proverbial kitchen sink into my blind bag, but somehow forgot that last one of the Big Three and left the field with five geese but only 6.5 pints of blood left in my system. Never again.
Oh, one more item – the biggest cooler I own with a bag of ice. It’s vital you cool those birds as quickly as possible, even if it means pausing the hunt to walk one or two back to the rig after each flock. Trust me; it will make all the difference in the world when it comes to mixing up those goose burger tacos. –MDJ
Let the number of birds determine how much calling you do, tip both author MD Johnson (above) and expert waterfowl callmaker Bill Saunders. (JULIE JOHNSON)
HUNTING
is required during the September season. Hunters will, of course, need a federal duck stamp, migratory bird permit and a small game license.
AS FOR POPULATION numbers, it’s a mixed bag.
Said WDFW’s Spragens, “The (Westside) resident geese, the Westerns, are doing just fine because they have so many spots now that they can use as pseudo-refuges. A lot of that ‘what can we control’ is now way beyond our ability to influence because you can’t get into some of these HOA lakes that have started popping up all over the place (to hunt). In general, and to answer the question of ‘how is Washington’s population going?’ it depends on water conditions on the Eastside, which isn’t surprising. The index is typically around 35,000, with the population being more than that. On the Westside, our index is more along the lines of 10,000 to 15,000. It definitely jumps around
with water conditions, particularly on the Eastside.”
To clarify, the index is not an actual population number, but a reference.
From the south side of the Columbia, Brandon Reishus, migratory game bird coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, commented on the Beaver State’s resident Canada population.
“Looks like the past couple years and based on spring breeding numbers, (the population) has actually declined,” said Reishus. “That wasn’t necessarily a surprise. We saw some significant drought, especially in Eastern Oregon during 2021 and 2022 and even into the latter part of 2020, so we had three consecutive years of significant drought. Most of the geese we count during our surveys are on the east side of the Cascades. Our survey doesn’t cover the entire state. All of Southwest Oregon is unsurveyed. All the coastal areas aren’t surveyed. So, while this gives us a snapshot of what the overall
population (probably) looks like, it may not be applicable to all regions.”
Reishus added, “We did see a drop, though. Typically, we’ll average (maybe) an index of 45,000 birds in the spring. That’s an index, and not a statewide estimate. And then the last two years, we’ve been closer to 30,000, which is as low as we’ve ever seen. So three years of drought wasn’t good for production. And while we can’t say for certain if it’s had a population-level impact – but it may have – there’s the emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza on the landscape. We know we saw Canada goose mortality from that, especially three summers ago now. That may be playing a role and compounding that drought effect.”
CURIOUS, I ASKED both states’ waterfowl managers about participation during the September season. Do ’fowlers play, or are they busy chasing salmon and catching up on homeowner projects prior to the deer and duck openers?
Johnson will use a small spread of full-body decoys on prescouted pastures and about a dozen floaters and silhouettes apiece when he’s working waters. (JULIE JOHNSON)
HUNTING
“It’s been a mixed bag,” said WDFW’s Spragens. “It really depends on which area we’re talking about, but I’m pretty sure it’s in the 5,000 to 7,000 range of hunters taking advantage of (the season) across the state.”
Added ODFW’s Reishus, “The federal harvest estimate – when folks send in goose tails or do the journal surveys – tells us when that harvest or effort occurred. If it’s in September, it’s obviously geared toward that (early) season or possibly the short youth waterfowl hunt. And it’s not an insignificant portion of the harvest, and while I don’t have the exact number in front of me, it’s 10 percent or more. That’s significant, if you look at the overall season length.”
AS FOR THE whens and wheres, the former is pretty simple, comparatively speaking, if you’ve been reading along and paying attention. Opening day is September 7 in both Washington
and Oregon, and given that it’s late summer, it’s likely going to still be warm, perhaps 85 degrees warm. Imagine, then, wearing a long-sleeved down jacket underneath a heavy Carhartt coat and chest waders, and then running a marathon. Even a short marathon. That’s often a Canada goose in September.
My point? More times than not, if there’s going to be any type of a flight, it’s going to be early, while temperatures are still cool – or as cool as they’re going to be for the day. Unlike January, the daily caloric requirements for September Canadas isn’t all that much. A little short grass. A grasshopper. Some coontail or eelgrass; not much at all. Mainly, these birds loaf. They sit. They sleep. If, then, I’m planning a hunt on September 7, which I am, I’m set up and ready at legal shooting, which in Western Washington on the opener is 0600.
Given that the early season is a
CUMBERLAND’S NORTHWEST TRAPPERS SUPPLY
Hide Tan Formula has been used successfully by thousands of hunters and trappers across the U.S. and Canada. No more waiting several months for tanning. Now, you can tan your own hides and furs at home in less than a week, at a fraction of the normal cost. Our Hide Formula tans deer hides either hair-on for a rug or mount, or hair-off for buckskin leather. Tans all fur skins – muskrat, mink, beaver, fox, coyote, raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, etc. It also applies to bear, elk, moose, cowhide, sheep and even snakeskin. Hide Tan Formula is premixed and ready to use and produces a soft, supple Indian-style tan in five to seven days.
One 8-ounce bottle will tan one deer hide in two medium-sized fur skins. Bear, elk, moose and caribou require three to six bottles. Complete instructions are included. You’ll be amazed how easy it is!
Tanned hides and furs are great to decorate your home or camp and also to sell for extra income. Tanned hides and furs are in demand by black powder enthusiasts, American Indian traders, fly tyers, country trading posts and many crafters. Our products are proudly produced and bottled in the U.S. for over 20 years.
Available at Cumberland’s Northwest Trappers Supply in Owatonna, Minnesota.
Call (507) 451-7607 or email trapper@nwtrappers.com. nwtrappers.com
public land/private land opportunity, including state wildlife management areas and some national refuges, there are a lot of options, but I focus on two different scenarios – pasture grass, and loafing water. Often, September Canadas will leave a night roost and, balled up in their small family groups (adults and young-of-the-year birds), cruise a short distance to a short grass pasture or recently cut hay or grain field, grab a quick bite, and jump to a midmorning water-based loafing spot where they’ll spend the day. That said, if I’m ambitious and don’t mind an early start, I’m setting a small full-body spread in a prescouted pasture field. If instead I’m working on banker’s hours, I’ll pack 12 floaters and the same number of Big Al’s (bigalsdecoys. com) silhouettes to a farm pond, a pasture slough or a quiet little tidal backwater around about 0900, settle in, pour a cup of coffee, and either wait or take a nap. Or both. NS
Remote, Comfortable & Affordable
Our remote Alaskan fishing lodge is situated on the upper stretches of the beautiful Egegik River. You’ll watch some of Alaska’s most stunning sunrises, complete with a distant, active volcano. We are a fishing camp specializing in coho fishing, brown bear viewing, and flyout fishing adventures to even more remote destinations in the Last Frontier.
Coho Fishing The Egegik River
The Egegik River is touted by many experienced anglers as the best silver salmon stream in all of Alaska. Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River was the first fishing lodge to become established on the breathtaking Egegik River, and is less than a 5 minute boat ride from some of the best fishing holes on the entire river.
Now Booking for 2025 Coho Fishing Trips
Included in your fishing trip:
• 6 days fishing/5 nights stay in camp
• Experienced, fully guided fishing.
• Comfortable cabins furnished with beds, cozy comforters & bedding.
• Home cooked meals, snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages.
• Transportation from the lodge to prime fishing holes on the Egegik River.
• Freezing and vacuum sealing of your fish, up to 50 lbs., per angler.
$4,850per person Includes round trip charter from King Salmon. Call for more details.
Get An Edge On Fall Turkeys
Understanding habitat transitions is critical to patterning and bagging the Northwest’s biggest upland birds this time of year.
By David Johnson
Fortune favors Northwest fall turkey hunters who do their scouting. Knowing where turkeys are before you hunt is always a good idea any time, of course, but it is possible for a spring hunter in good turkey country to walk and call until a “surprise” gobbler responds. But come fall, turkeys are mostly interested in roosting, feeding and staying alive. The mating habits that make turkeys vulnerable to calling in the spring are not part of the fall mix. Knowing where the turkeys are and how they use their habitat dramatically increases your odds of filling a tag. A very effective method of starting the process is to cover ground until you spot turkeys feeding in an opening. But there’s much more to patterning a group of turkeys than seeing them in one place one afternoon.
Whether you are scouting before or during the season – which kicks off August 30 in Idaho and September 1 in Eastern Washington, Western Oregon and portions of Northeast Oregon – a key to setting up on birds for a successful shot is understanding how turkeys move through the woods and fields as they go about their day. The edges between different
Author David Johnson with a turkey taken in the Blue Mountains. It had fed through open trees to get to cold-doped insects on a bare hillside. (STEVE JOHNSON)
HUNTING
kinds of habitat – the transition between woods and fields, between brushy areas and open areas, or dense thickets and less brushy closedcanopy forests – play a big role in where turkeys travel.
TURKEYS HAVE TWO fundamental habitat requirements in the fall: They need places to roost safely off the ground, and places to feed. Seasonal changes in food availability mean the turkeys are likely to be in different places than they were in the spring. By late summer and early fall, the nutritional value and palatability of many plants are in decline, and in some areas a scarcity of water may also influence turkey movements. The roosting and feeding areas of turkeys in the fall are often fairly far apart, especially east of the Cascades, and that requires them to move through lots of habitat over the
course of a day.
They try to move as efficiently as possible, which for turkeys means steering clear of places where ambush hunters like bobcats and coyotes can get close to them. Turkeys also have short legs and wide feet. Though they can move through thick brush at surprising speed in an emergency, generally they tend to want to travel where the going is easier and they can see danger coming in any direction. Where thick habitat meets thinner habitat, turkeys favor walking through the thinner stuff.
The first step in patterning a group of turkeys is just to notice habitat transitions where you are hunting. Sometimes this is pretty simple. If you notice turkeys feeding in a pasture, consider where those turkeys might be roosting at night. Ideal roosting trees have sturdy limbs well off the ground and will allow for a short fly-
down in the morning to an opening that is clear of brush heavy enough to hide ambush predators. In Douglas fir forests, trees next to a clearcut, natural opening or burn afford the easiest and safest access.
In other words, roosting trees themselves are often in an edge habitat, where mature trees occur next to at least a large enough open space for the birds to fly down to in the morning.
NEXT, CONSIDER WHAT sort of habitat features between the field and the roosting area the turkeys will use and which they will avoid. For example, if you are hunting a Westside pasture and there is a giant patch of blackberries along part of the edge of the field, you can bet that the turkeys will walk around one end or the other of it rather than through it to get to and from the woods.
In dry areas east of the Cascades, hens will lead their flocks to open areas to feed on insects. (DAVID JOHNSON)
HUNTING HUNTING
TOP FALL TURKEY UNITS
In Oregon, top turkey hunting areas mean different things to different hunters. For example, in 2022, the top fall success rates west of the Cascades were the Melrose (58 percent) and Stott Mountain (56 percent) units. They are great places to hunt – but only if you have access to private ground. In Melrose, 91 percent of birds were taken on private land; in Stott, 94 percent were.
For Westside hunters focused on public land, hunting in the Rogue Unit might be a better bet. Even though the hunter success rate was only 35 percent, 64 percent of those birds came from public land. In other words, there are places for national forest and BLM hunters to run into birds in the woods and mountains east of Medford, Ashland and Shady Cove.
In Eastern Oregon, hunters might take a look at the Wenaha Unit, where 80 percent of birds came from public land and the success rate was 58 percent, or the Imnaha Unit, where those figures were 70 and 58 percent, respectively.
As for Washington, it makes sense to head east for fall turkeys, given that only units on the sunrise side of the Cascades are open this time of year. The top three units and their hunter success rates in fall 2023 were: P10 Northeast, 62 percent success rate with 11 hunter days per kill; P15 Southeast, 67 percent success with 17 hunter days per kill; and P20 North Central, 31 percent success with 16 hunter days per kill. All of these units have a mix of habitats and all have at least some public-land turkeys.
BUT YOU DON’T necessarily have to stick to national forests or refuges or state wildlife areas to get your bird. A high percentage of Northwest turkeys live on private land, and though it’s never easy to get permission to hunt it, many landowners are far more welcoming of turkey hunters than they are of deer or elk hunters. Generally, people who give permission to turkey hunters have been annoyed by a group of turkeys that has taken up residence on their place. Keep in mind that these landowners want the turkeys killed. Fall’s either-sex season is a great time to solidify a relationship with a landowner if you put aside thoughts of a trophy on your first hunt and demonstrate to the landowner that you can kill turkeys efficiently. Hunt safely, and knock down hens if you have to, and the landowner will invite you back for a spring gobbler hunt. –DJ
On the other hand, if there is a finger of the woods that juts into the field and the brush in the woods is not heavy, the turkeys may access the field by moving through this finger of trees every day. That’s because the trees give them some cover from the eyes of distant predators, but the turkeys can see around them and see into the field before they enter it.
It’s not unusual for a group of turkeys to “browse” on their way to a field where they will do most of their feeding for the day. Westside oak and Eastside ponderosa open stands are especially attractive to turkeys, because turkeys eat acorns and will scratch through pine duff for both pine seeds and any insects living there. For turkeys, ”fields” can mean bare hillsides, as long as there are lots of insects on that hillside.
If you know turkeys are using a
strip of open woods to get to a field, set up at the base of one of the larger trees in stands leading to the field in either the morning or late afternoon before the turkeys come from or go to roost. This will give you a shot in a place where the habitat essentially funnels the birds into gun range for you.
Or if there is a dirt road (either a private stock road or a closed Forest Service/fire road) that cuts through heavy brush at the edge of the field, the turkeys may well walk right down the road when they enter or leave the field. The edge of such roads can provide a great ambush spot for hunters.
Turkeys are far less shy about using dirt roads for travel than big game like deer are. For deer, being in the open is to be exposed. For turkeys, being in the open makes them feel safer from predators, because turkeys have
These bare areas in open pine stands are caused by turkeys scratching for food. If the scratchings are extensive, it’s likely a large group of turkeys filter through here each day. (DAVID JOHNSON)
HUNTING
excellent vision. If they can see danger coming, they can run or fly from it.
If there is a ditch or creek along the edge of the field and the road has a bridge or culvert crossing, an undisturbed group of birds will almost certainly cross the creek at the bridge or culvert. If there is a creek bottom that is not too brushy leading to the field, the turkeys will often move through that bottom in parallel to the creek on their way to the field.
IF YOU KNOW turkeys are using a field to feed, there are basically two ways of confirming where the turkeys are entering the field: You can check for sign (tracks and J-shaped droppings) in likely places along the perimeter of the field or you can simply watch the birds when you find them already in the field and let them tell you.
Irrigated fields tend to attract birds in the fall as the surrounding countryside becomes drier. But the same can be true for natural openings deep in the woods if there is a spring seep or flooding by a beaver that is keeping grasses and forbs green.
However, in the dry country of the Blue Mountains and the northern tier of counties in Eastern Washington state, turkeys will also focus on feeding on drier hillsides and openings. In these places, the lead boss hens bring large groups of birds to the openings early in the morning for the rich protein that cold-doped insects provide. This protein source is critical to the previous spring’s poults, which need lots of protein to grow fast enough to make it through the coming winter.
Ideal habitat is composed of roosting trees, a path through open woods to a dry hillside, and then a downhill walk to a wetter area (natural opening near a creek or a man-made pasture). As long as the food holds out and the birds aren’t too harassed, the boss hen will lead the flock along roughly the same path each day.
Find the path the turkeys prefer, set up on the edge of cover they pass by, and you’ll fill your tag. NS
Steve Johnson, the author’s brother, took this hen on private land in Coastal Oregon. Though not a large bird, the landowners were happy to have tags filled because the flock of turkeys had been in their garden. Meeting landowners’ needs is a good way to get invited back for a spring hunt. (DAVID JOHNSON)
September’s For Smoothbores And Smallbores
ON TARGET
By Dave Workman
It has been a long, dry spell for us wingshooters, but with September comes not only the opening of mourning dove season, but also grouse hunting, and if you haven’t already limbered up your
shotgun, time’s up!
And this is just the opening round. As late summer rolls over into autumn and more upland bird (chukar, quail, Hungarian partridge and pheasant) and waterfowl seasons kick in, your smoothbores will get a workout.
Let’s not forget about shooting grouse with .22-caliber rimfire rifles and pistols
either. I have already been busy in that department, making sure my Ruger 10/22 is zeroed close enough to shoot holes in bottle caps at 20 to 25 yards. My Ruger MK IV with its bull barrel and adjustable rear sight is ready to rock again this fall, putting birds in the cooler as it did on last season’s opener. More about that in a moment.
Author Dave Workman has dusted off his smoothbores in preparation for this fall’s upland bird hunting. He’s a fan of double guns, and he savors September in the High Lonesome. (DAVE WORKMAN)
COLUMN
Apex has tungstenbased shotshells for upland bird hunting and a relatively new selection of tungsten ammo for waterfowl. (APEX)
be on store shelves by now. The company says these are “handcrafted ‘duplex’ loads” containing “premium, zinc-coated S3 steel pellets with ultra-high density tungsten super shot,” resulting in a payload that knocks ’em down. They’re available in 12and 20-gauge.
Do not overlook lead shotshells from Remington, Winchester and Federal either, and all three companies offer a wide range of steel and other nontoxic options. I use them all, and have never had a problem with any particular brand.
For most wingshooting endeavors, I stick with No. 5, 6 or 7½ shot. Each of those shot sizes is capable of bringing down the upland birds I prefer to hunt. If quail is the game, I go with 7½, but No. 6 seems to be universally lethal for grouse, chukar and pheasants, all in 2¾-inch shells. If you consult the ballistics notes on each box of shells, you will find the payload generally leaves the muzzle at between 1,300 and 1,400 feet per second.
NEW BIRD LOADS
Apex Ammunition has a line of ultra-highdensity tungsten super shot, or TSS, loads for upland bird hunting in areas where nontoxic shot is required. Take my word for it, nontoxic shot clobbers grouse, ringnecks and other upland birds with extreme prejudice, as I have experienced several times over the past several years.
According to Apex literature, “At 18.1 g/ cc density, Apex TSS is denser than lead (11.34 g/cc), bismuth (9.8 g/cc), copper (8.8 g/cc), or steel (7.84 g/cc), allowing the
use of smaller-sized TSS pellets and more of them per payload. The result? More pellets on target and greater knockdown power at longer ranges.”
Apex Upland Bird is available in 3-inch 12- and 20-gauge loads. Upland 28-gauge 2¾-inch and .410-bore 2½- and 3-inch loads are available upon request, the company says. Check apexmunition.com.
Over the summer, Apex also announced Waterfowl TSS-S3 steel-blend shotshells were beginning to ship, so they ought to
Upland birds are fast, but they’re not that fast! (Doves, on the other hand, travel at warp speed and I decided long ago most of them are simply bulletproof, which is why I stick to bigger upland fowl.)
GET OUT YOUR CALENDAR
Let’s do a little run-through just so we’re all on the same page. You will find waterfowl and dove seasons listed on pages 20-21 of the 2024 Washington Game Bird and Small Game hunting regulations pamphlet. The general opener is October 12.
However, Canada goose hunting is open September 7-12 in Goose Management Areas 1 and 3, and September 7-15 in GMA 2. It is open September 7-8 in GMAs 4 (northeast counties) and 5 (southeast counties/Whitman, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin). See page 28 of the regs pamphlet.
Upland bird hunting seasons are listed on page 34 of the Washington regs. Grouse hunting runs September 15-January 15, 2025. The general Westside pheasant season runs September 21-November 30, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and in Eastern Washington October 19-January 20. Consult page 64 of the regs for legal hunting hours.
California quail runs September 21-November 30, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
WHERE TO GO FOR EARLY GROUSE
Iadmit to being a grouse fanatic, but frankly, this is a bird which makes great table fare and offers challenging hunting.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 2023 harvest report, the top 10 grouseproducing counties were:
Okanogan 7,555
Grays Harbor 3,601
Stevens 3,212
Lewis 2,939
Ferry 2,403
Mason 2,313
Honorable mentions: Pend Oreille, Kittitas and Cowlitz Counties all produced more than 1,200 grouse last fall.
I always hit the opener, and maybe missed one somewhere back along the line, but ever since (and even when) I was attending college at the University of Washington, I never intentionally missed the opener. For my money, the best grouse hunting comes early in the season
when one finds them still moving around in larger coveys, and the shooting can actually get pretty fast and furious.
Later in the season, most grouse are taken incidentally by deer and elk hunters (it’s a great time to be packing a .22 pistol!), so it is during the weeks from the opener to mid-October when I think grouse hunting peaks on its own merits.
Forest grouse will be found in mixed hardwood and conifer woods, and around vine maple, old crabapple thickets, and along riparian areas where there is plenty of moisture, and good bug crops.
I find blue grouse at the higher elevations, such as the upper Cispus River drainage in east Lewis County, Government Meadows north of Mount Rainier, Stampede Pass dividing King and Kittitas Counties, the ridges north of Leavenworth and the ridge line dividing Okanogan and Chelan Counties. Hunt the ridges north and west of Conconully in Okanogan County, and the high country around Bonaparte Lake. Over in Ferry County, you should find grouse up toward Sherman Pass, and in Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties, just about anywhere there is a gravel road!
Toward the coast, in Grays Harbor and Mason Counties, hit the aforementioned lowland forests where you find maple, alder, hemlock and fir timber stands. Same goes in Lewis and Skamania Counties, though do not overlook the high-country berry fields in either of those counties.
Early in the season, one can dress lighter, but wear good boots, take along plenty of water, and maybe some bug dope, because even in the fall, mosquitoes are still bothersome.
Workman hunts the high ridges for blue grouse. This one he collected in one of the more productive Washington areas, according to last year’s harvest report. (DAVE WORKMAN)
Time of day? Early mornings and late afternoons will find grouse along gravel road edges, picking up pea gravel, but don’t think they’re not available throughout the day. They can explode from cover unexpectedly, and on a couple of occasions – including opening weekend last year – I’ve had grouse literally walk right through my camp! I didn’t shoot them; I have a soft spot for birds that stupid! –DW
SHORTY SERIES
The Short & Compact Line of Silencers.
MAX SERIES
The Maximum Performance Line of Silencers.
X SERIES
The Premium and Compact Line of Silencers.
• Free flow design.
• Built using Additive Manufacturing with Aerospace Grade materials giving you the toughest and most high-tech silencers on the market.
• Available in Rifle, Pistol and Rimfire.
• Customize with 4 different 3D textures and 4 color options.
Jaguar Camo
in Western Washington, and October 5-January 20 in Eastern Washington. You can hunt mountain quail September 21-November 30 in Western Washington, but there is no season on the Eastside. Chukar and partridge hunting opens October 5, with the gray partridge season closing January 20 and chukar closing January 31 in Eastern Washington.
See the Outdoor Calendar on page 35 for Oregon bird season dates.
I always have more than one copy of the regulations, one for my desk and the other in my truck, either in the console or above the visor. One pamphlet never seems to survive an entire season.
REMEMBER RIMFIRES!
I took a bit of guff last year in an online grouse hunting forum for acknowledging I’ve killed grouse with a pistol. Among the purists, this is tantamount to blasphemy, but my compadres online at HuntingWashington have long shared my penchant for popping thunder chickens with a .22-caliber rifle or pistol.
Besides, tell me which is really more “sporting” – trying to conk grouse with a
single projectile or unleashing a spread of shot, one or more of which has a high likelihood of connecting?
Let’s be blunt: A grouse peppered with No. 6 or 7½ shot is no more or less dead than one popped in the head with a 40-grain RNL bullet fired from a smallbore rifle. As noted earlier, hitting grouse with a rimfire takes a bit of patience and a steady hand because if you want to prevent damage to the meat, the head shot is essential.
It’s not that difficult, provided you can level your sights or crosshairs on a target about the size of a bottlecap. That’s exactly what I’ve done in the past, and did so in preparation for this article. The cap of a plastic water bottle is somewhere between the size of a nickel and a quarter. I used my scope-sighted Ruger 10/22 to punch holes in the cap of an empty trash bottle at a good 20 yards, in front of witnesses. The scope is a Bushnell 1.75-4x32, and it has been dead-on for the decades I’ve owned that little rifle.
Why a bottlecap? It’s about the size of a grouse noggin, and the head shot leaves every bit of meat undamaged. One
needn’t chew carefully worrying about a shot pellet cracking a tooth sometime this fall or winter.
As for the pistol, my pal Roy Huntington at American Handgunner came up with a nifty trick back in 2023 that works with deadly efficiency. He built a small die that allows a person to file off the blunt nose of a .22-caliber bullet. That flat surface just whacks ’em, and it will work equally well against rabbits.
Since I hunt primarily the higher ridges for blue (dusky/sooty) grouse, I prefer No. 6 shot (high- or low-base) for these big fool hens, and they can be a remarkably stupid lot. Last year on the opener, I left camp and within 15 minutes, I encountered about a half-dozen of them just ba-dooping along an old logging road. One of them flew onto a low tree limb about 10 feet above my head and I dropped that sucker with a shot from my MK IV. For the remainder of the day, I hunted with my 20-gauge Franchi O/U, putting two more in the bag by the afternoon.
AND ABOUT BUNNIES
I come from a long line of folks who never hunted cottontail rabbits or snowshoe hares until after the first frost. The season runs from September 1 to March 15, 2025, leaving plenty of time to put a rabbit or two in the cooler.
But here’s a little caveat, with details found on page 33 of this year’s regs pamphlet. Ever hear of rabbit hemorrhagic disease? It’s contagious and often fatal in rabbits, and is classified as a “foreign animal disease.” According to the advisory, it is not known to infect humans or dogs. In 2021, it showed up in Oregon and Idaho. It hasn’t shown up in wild Evergreen State rabbits yet, just some domestics, but forewarned is forearmed.
I always carry a pair of black nitride gloves in my daypack, and invariably put them on when cleaning any game animal, especially a rabbit. Once the cleaning is done, the gloves get put in the trash, or in the nearest campfire! Bury or burn the innards and cool the meat ASAP. Same with birds.
Wash your knife thoroughly, and you might even smear the blade with a few drops of alcohol-based hand rub. NS
Here’s a close-up of a bottlecap the author punctured with a 40-grain lead bullet launched from his scoped Ruger 10/22 off a steady rest at just over 20 yards. If you can duplicate this shot, you can pop grouse in the head this fall! (DAVE WORKMAN)
When Sitting Out A Season With An Injury Just Won’t Do
Iwrite about gun dogs in this column, but this one’s for the bird hunters who might be experiencing what I am, physically speaking. And it starts with a hunt.
RATHER THAN HEAD through the middle of a dew-laden meadow, a buddy and I walked the edges. A creek trickled down one side of the field. Hardwoods adorned in fall colors painted the hills on the opposite side.
The first rooster erupted and my buddy dropped it. Fifty yards up the creek, his shorthairs stuck another point. A ringneck flushed over the stream where a payload of 11/4-ounce No. 5s from my little double hit the mark.
The dogs continued up the creek. I followed, still holding the fresh rooster in my hand. A few more steps and the dogs were on point. When a rooster erupted through tall willows, frantically cackling, I raised the shotgun with one hand, followed it through the brush then dropped it when it lined out in a small opening. The one-handed shot wasn’t planned, but it was necessary. Three weeks prior, I incurred a severe tear to my left rotator cuff. I shoot right-handed and raising my left arm above my shoulder was impossible, and painful. I knew going into this hunt, as did my buddy, it would set the tone for the rest of the season. That’s why he let me borrow his Benelli 828 U. “It’s super light and if this doesn’t work, I don’t know what gun will,” he said.
The moment I touched the little 20-gauge, I liked it. The sleek, low-profile design felt like it was custom built for me. It was so comfortable to grip, light to shoulder and fast to swing that I couldn’t wait to shoot it.
A severely torn rotator cuff couldn’t stop author Scott Haugen from hunting last season. Thanks to a lightweight shotgun that allowed him to move and shoot, he had some great upland hunts, including this one for Hungarian partridge. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
GUN DOG
By Scott Haugen
If an injury threatens to take away the upcoming season, like it did for the author, consider investing in gear that helps. Haugen found Benelli’s 828 U to be perfect for the job. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
A week beforehand, I had taken my standby semiauto 20-gauge out to shoot a few clays. I struggled as my shoulder was too weak and sore to hold up the gun. But thanks to the lightweight, ergonomic fit of the 828 U, my fall outlook had just gotten brighter.
THAT AFTERNOON, WE targeted Hungarian partridge. The flats we hunted were tucked into the bottom of giant granite peaks jutting into the sky. The rock-covered mountains surrounded us and screamed Western hunting action. I was thankful for being able to shoot a gun that allowed me to keep going.
As the sun dipped below the towering mountains, we worked into a slight breeze. Grasshoppers blanketed the tops of the tall grass we hunted. They were especially thick along the brushy edges, at the bottom of the mountains. These high-
protein food sources are the focus of many upland birds in the fall. Once the first hard freeze hits, the grasshoppers are gone, and birds know it. We inspected the crops of the first brace of Huns. Both were full of grasshoppers. The rest of the evening was spent scouring the edges of the grass and brush line. Hun numbers were good, the shooting even better.
Growing up in the Northwest, the allure of upland bird hunting fascinated me. Pheasants were first introduced into the continental U.S. in the 1880s less than an hour from where I grew up. Shooting a limit of roosters on my way home from high school in the late 1970s and early ’80s was common. Ringnecks thrived in the Willamette Valley then. We used to have them in our backyard. Sadly, they’re all gone now.
WIELDING THE 828 with comfort and shooting it with instant accuracy, my
confidence grew. I picked up one for myself, just in time to head for the mountains in search of chukar.
Every chukar hunter knows the best action happens at the top. Approached from above, chukars hold in rocks and when they flush, it’s most often downhill. Though the fast swinging and shooting action would test my shoulder, it was also the best position for me to be in; shooting downhill was the least painful position, and shooting uphill, the worst.
The hardest part of chukar hunting is the ascent. It’s not an endeavor meant for weak legs and hunters carrying extra pounds. The more fit you are, the more prime habitat you can reach and the more gratifying and productive the overall experience will be.
Once at the top, it’s downhill from there. Working your way down a ridge may take half the day. Zigzagging back and forth, letting your dogs work the wind, is
CUMBERLAND’S NORTHWEST TRAPPERS SUPPLY
Hide Tan Formula has been used successfully by thousands of hunters and trappers across the U.S. and Canada. No more waiting several months for tanning. Now, you can tan your own hides and furs at home in less than a week, at a fraction of the normal cost. Our Hide Formula tans deer hides either hair-on for a rug or mount, or hair-off for buckskin leather. Tans all fur skins – muskrat, mink, beaver, fox, coyote, raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, etc. It also applies to bear, elk, moose, cowhide, sheep and even snakeskin. Hide Tan Formula is premixed and ready to use and produces a soft, supple Indian-style tan in five to seven days.
One 8-ounce bottle will tan one deer hide in two medium-sized fur skins. Bear, elk, moose and caribou require three to six bottles. Complete instructions are included. You’ll be amazed how easy it is!
Tanned hides and furs are great to decorate your home or camp and also to sell for extra income. Tanned hides and furs are in demand by black powder enthusiasts, American Indian traders, fly tyers, country trading posts and many crafters. Our products are proudly produced and bottled in the U.S. for over 20 years.
Available at Cumberland’s Northwest Trappers Supply in Owatonna, Minnesota. Call (507) 451-7607 or email trapper@nwtrappers.com. nwtrappers.com
Cumberland’s Northwest Trappers Supply, Inc.
Over 50 Years Of Service To The Trap & Fur Industry
Cumberland’s Northwest Trappers Supply is your one-stop trapping supply headquarters, featuring one of the largest inventories in the U.S. We are factory direct distributors on all brands of traps and equipment which allows us to offer competitive prices. Give us a try. Our fast, friendly service will keep you coming back. Request A Catalog Or Place An Order
you
Haugen grew up hunting ringnecks in his Willamette Valley backyard. Today, travel and time are required to shoot a good rooster in Oregon and much of the Northwest, something he didn’t want to miss out on because of a shoulder injury. He traveled out of state on this hunt last season. (SCOTT HAUGEN)
a great way to tackle razor-topped ridges. Sometimes there are flats or rolling hills on top, and often chukars thrive in them. Gentle habitats give you a mental boost, knowing you can hunt them all day long if needed.
Last season saw a good chukar hatch throughout much of their range in the Northwest. This made for fast action on multiple hunts. My first shot with the 828 U at a fast-flying chukar dropped it in the rocks. I rushed and missed the second shot.
The next covey the dog pointed held tight. This time I made a conscious effort to slow down. My first shot came quick, folding a partridge in a cloud of feathers. I had more time on the second shot, pulling the trigger just as a chukar headed straight away. Another hit.
THE INSTANT I tore my rotator cuff, I knew it was bad. “You have a hole the size of a quarter and nothing will fix it but surgery,” the doctor told me after looking at the MRI.
When he told me I’d need an operation within a year’s time, I smiled and replied, “So you’re telling me I can hunt this fall and winter, and get surgery after the season?”
He looked over his wire-rimmed glasses, no smile on his face, shook his head and scoffed. “Yeah, just let the pain be your guide and realize there are things you simply won’t be able to do, like raise your arm above your shoulder.”
That was all I needed to hear.
The other guns I tried shooting early in the season after my injury were too much to handle. Benelli’s 828 U gave me hope. Not only was it an instant fit, but it
just plain dropped birds. I’m not much of a target shooter. Nor am I a gun writer. My experiences as a full-time writer come with hunting and killing. The more birds I shoot in a range of conditions and situations, the more I learn about the gear I’m using.
Even when my shoulder heals, I see myself continuing to shoot the Benelli 828 U. Though it’s light and easy to maneuver, the recoil is slight. It’s simply a shotgun that performs and feels great doing so. This gun kept me hunting, and I’m glad because I couldn’t imagine my dogs having to miss a single day, let alone a whole season. NS
Editor’s note: Watch author Scott Haugen’s basic puppy training videos and learn more about his many books at scotthaugen.com. Follow his adventures on Instagram and Facebook.
CONNECTICUT
Connor’s and O’Brien Marina Pawcatuck, CT connorsandobrien.com
Defender Industries Inc. Waterford, CT defender.com
O’Hara’s Landing Salisbury, CT oharaslanding.com
MASSACHUSETTS
It’s a glorious sunrise, viewed in fast forward thanks to the power of your 250 ProXS. Because you need to get there while the fish are still eating breakfast. Learn more at mercurymarine.com or visit your local dealer, today.
Captain Bub’s Marine Inc. Lakeville, MA captainbubsmarine.com
Doug Russell Marine Worcester, MA WorcesterBoating.com
Essex Marina LLC. Essex, MA essexmarinallc.com
McLellan Brothers Inc. Everett, MA mclellanbrosinc.com
Action Marine & Watersports Inc. Holyoke, MA actionmarineholyoke.com
Bill’s Outboard Motor Service Hingham, MA billsoutboard.com
Merrimac Marine Supply Methuen, MA merrimacmarine.com
Obsession Boats East Falmouth, MA capecodboatcenter.com
Portside Marine Danvers, MA portsidemarine.us
Riverfront Marine Sports Inc. Salisbury, MA riverfrontmarine.com
South Attleboro Marine North Attleboro, MA www.sammarine.com
Billington Cove Marina Inc. Wakefield, RI bcoveyc.com
Jamestown Distributors Bristol, RI jamestowndistributors.com BUT AT
Nauset Marine-Orleans Orleans, MA nausetmarine.com
Wareham Boat Yard W. Wareham, MA wareham-boatyard-marina.com
DESTINATION ALASKA
DESTINATION ALASKA
Remote, Comfortable & Affordable
Our remote Alaskan fishing lodge is situated on the upper stretches of the beautiful Egegik River. You’ll watch some of Alaska’s most stunning sunrises, complete with a distant, active volcano. We are a fishing camp specializing in coho fishing, brown bear viewing, and flyout fishing adventures to even more remote destinations in the Last Frontier.
Coho Fishing The Egegik River
The Egegik River is touted by many experienced anglers as the best silver salmon stream in all of Alaska. Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River was the first fishing lodge to become established on the breathtaking Egegik River, and is less than a 5 minute boat ride from some of the best fishing holes on the entire river.
Now Booking for 2025 Coho Fishing Trips
Included in your fishing trip:
• 6 days fishing/5 nights stay in camp
• Experienced, fully guided fishing.
• Comfortable cabins furnished with beds, cozy comforters & bedding.
• Home cooked meals, snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages.
• Transportation from the lodge to prime fishing holes on the Egegik River.
• Freezing and vacuum sealing of your fish, up to 50 lbs., per angler.
$4,850per person Includes round trip charter from King Salmon. Call for more details.
For me, one of the most remarkable parts of a day of tuna fishing off the Northwest Coast is the ability of deckhands to loin tuna at 30 knots on the run back into the harbor. At a measly $4 a fish, there is a scarcely a better value in the outdoors, a fact that is dramatically emphasized for anyone who has done this nasty, greasy work themselves. Albacore give back approximately 60 percent of their live weight in boneless loins and bellies! (BILL CHESER, ANGLERSEDGESPORTFISHING.COM)
Make A Meat Run
September is prime time off the Northwest Coast for plugging the boat and filling a cooler or two with delicious albacore, and here’s how it all goes down.
Story
and
captions by Jeff Holmes
September is inarguably the best albacore tuna month and offers the best chance to fill up your freezer with boneless loins of fish so big, tasty and exotic that they eclipse all other Pacific Northwest gamefish for crowd-pleasing appeal when barbecued, canned, served seared and rare from the pan, sliced thin and raw and then dipped in soy and wasabi, or marinated in citrus and accompanied by fresh veggies and fruits in ceviche or Filipino kinilaw.
This month also offers a chance to find out firsthand that the tropics and some of the crystal-bluest water you’ve ever seen come shockingly close to Northwest shores every year, putting albacore and rare pelagic neotropical fish within an easy run of West Coast ports from Alaska south. If you want to see and feel evidence that salmonids are the Glass Joe to the albacore’s Iron Mike, go to your nearest Northwest fishing port this September, and go tuna fishing.
My favorite harbor is Westport, but all of Washington and Oregon’s fishing ports offer opportunities to pursue albacore, and excellent charter operators exist in all of them. Westport is my favorite because it’s easy to get to, offers great fishing, and features live bait, which is the surest and most fun way to put a ton of tuna on the boat in short order.
ALBACORE SHOW UP off our coasts in early summer and draw nearer to the coastline as summer progresses into early autumn. This year, they showed very early – late June. Fishing, as always, got progressively better throughout the month of July, but required some long runs of 60-plus miles offshore to get into big schools of tuna. By midAugust, however, subtropical currents were already delivering big schools of migratory Pacific albacore within 40 miles of shore; in September and even October, weather willing, they may come closer. I have caught them 27 miles offshore with Mark Coleman’s All Rivers and Saltwater Charters (allriversguideservice.com). September is the peak of tuna fishing in the Northwest and the best time to learn what many of us know firsthand about these mouth-breathing brutes: The albacore tuna is our hardest-fighting gamefish with the highest yield of boneless filets of any fish that swims in salt- or freshwater.
Although albacore tuna fisheries dominate our commercial catches these days, the numbers of Northwest sport anglers who chase tuna lag well behind those in our ranks who focus on trout, salmon, steelhead, and even warmwater fish. I know several Northwest angling icons who have never fished for albacore or who have only done so for the first time recently. Even Buzz Ramsey landed his first Northwest albacore during
FISHING
the summer of 2024!
There are many reasons why tuna lag in popularity, including the challenge and cost of getting to the albacore grounds. This is probably the single biggest limiting factor in popularizing Northwest tuna fishing, but with so many “express,” one-day charters operating out of Westport and other Northwest ports and such huge and lucrative catches to take home, tuna fishing is easy and costefficient these days. Still, distractions like hunting seasons, school starting, fall salmon fishing and football games don’t help to popularize September albacore angling.
It’s common aboard Anglers Edge Sportfishing’s FV Bone to see a celebratory shot like this of anglers standing amidst a deck full of albacore after a triumphant final bait stop. It’s such a great feeling to plug the boat and head for the harbor, knowing that the freezer and pantry will be full of frozen and canned loins.
(BILL CHESER, ANGLERSEDGESPORTFISHING.COM)
arrive in midsummer when subtropical currents of 60-plus-degree water push against the Northwest Coast. They feed on squid and baitfish like sardines and sauries, hunting in predatory packs that can range from several fish to several thousand, always moving, always with their mouths open to pass water past their gills.
When it comes to speed and slashing power through a school of baitfish, Chinook are junior high sprint champions, and albacore are Olympians. Their complex and perfectly evolved circulatory system regulates their body temperature, which increases their muscle efficiency. Their high metabolism, high blood pressure, huge volume of blood, and high levels of hemoglobin help them increase oxygen absorption. These specialized adaptations enable tuna to swim an eye-popping 50 mph and to cover tens of thousands of miles annually. Their torpedo-shaped bodies and famously long pectoral fins propel them through the water at a cruising speed of 20 mph, and they range widely in the water column, chasing feed from the surface to well over 1,000 feet in depth.
Another overlooked obstacle to the popularizing of tuna fishing is the albacore’s absence from most of our narratives about the species we think of as our Northwest fish and wildlife. Everyone in the Northwest with any clue about the natural world knows something about the life cycle and cultural significance of salmon and steelhead. It’s hard-wired in most of us to take an interest. We don’t know much about albacore, even most of us who like to fish for them.
PACIFIC ALBACORE BEGIN their famously long migration from the Asian mainland to our inshore waters every spring. They
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 19-mile-wide schools have been seen at sea during the migration. Out of Westport in September and October, I have observed schools of albacore feeding on the surface that stretched as far as the eye could see in all directions of the boat. These kinds of spectacles will at times be available for viewing this September out of Northwest ports. I have my fingers crossed that this kind of conspicuous biomass of albacore will be in evidence when friends and I rent out the whole boat in late September to fish with Captain Mitch Coleman aboard F/V Bone, owned by Bill Cheser of Anglers Edge Sportfishing (anglersedgesportfishing.com).
Albacore feed in Northwest waters into autumn until devastating winter storms slash our coasts and send tuna back across the ocean, migrating toward warmer waters in the Western
FISHING
Pacific for the winter and early spring. As they range throughout tropical and subtropical waters in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, albacore are among the most targeted species by commercial fleets from many nations. Still, these fast-growing pelagic fish are reportedly doing very well at this point and are above target levels set by NOAA and international fisheries managers. Commercial albacore fisheries are also lower impact than most due to a relatively limited bycatch. In a time when many fisheries around the globe are struggling or on the point of collapse, albacore are abundant. Some of our more prominent albacore sport
September is a fine time to bring significant others and kids who have proven their sea legs on shorter runs into the ocean. Despite typically calm waters, it’s not fun to take loved ones to the tuna grounds and watch them turn green while you and others reel in their fish as they cling to rails longing for land. Scopolamine patches and acupressure wristbands outperform Dramamine and ginger. Perhaps the best way to assure a good time on the ocean is to eat light and sleep well the night before and to avoid a heavy breakfast. Bringing plenty of non-alcoholic fluids and snacks also helps. (BILL CHESER, ANGLERSEDGESPORTFISHING.COM)
year because of the incredibly lucrative catches possible on overnight trips. A friend of mine from Kennewick took home 26 tuna last year on an overnight trip! These fish average 18 pounds and return about 60 percent of their total weight in loins, so he ended up with more than 250 pounds of tuna loins, plus fatty bellies that are excellent canned and also excellent stuffed in Super Baits for salmon fishing. I want a score like this next year, but will still favor express trips since they yield tremendous and at times overwhelming catches of albacore. I’ve left one-day trips consistently with 60 to 85 pounds of loins and bellies, and since there are never guarantees in fishing, I like the risk management of a one-day trip over a two-day overnighter. Still, the possibility of 250 pounds in loins to deal with has me intrigued!
fishers, like Westport tuna godfather Mark Coleman, have even invested in commercial boats to pursue these 50 mph meat rockets.
ONLY IN RECENT decades have albacore come so close to shore, making day trips possible for recreational anglers and for charter captains with smaller vessels. Overnight trips were the rule in the past and still are today for larger boats with bunks and for some express captains choosing to make longer-thanusual runs on reports of hot fishing. While I favor express-style trips and do not relish spending the night on a boat, I plan to switch things up next
IF YOU’VE NEVER been albacore fishing out of a Northwest port, first, know that all ports offer excellent opportunities, from Neah Bay to Brookings. Not all ports offer live bait, however, and fishing live anchovies over ravenous schools of albacore is as fun as it gets. Live anchovies can at times be found in various ports, but are reliably found in Westport, Ilwaco and Astoria. Don’t let the absence of live bait dissuade you from booking a trip, but all serious Northwest anglers should at some point feel the power and resulting adrenaline as a slashing albacore grabs a live anchovy at 20 to 30 mph and then sprints to 50 mph as you engage the drag and drive a small, live-bait hook deep into an albacore’s mouth.
I’ve fished with several charter outfits in Washington and Oregon for albacore, and all those experiences were excellent. Still, I have a decided bias for fishing with Mark Coleman and his excellent captains with All Rivers and Saltwater Charters and with Captain Mitch Coleman of Anglers Edge Sportfishing. Why? They are cool dudes with a passion for albacore angling, and they’ve shown me some of my best ever days
FISHING
of fishing, especially for tuna. If you were to book a trip with either of these outfits this September, here’s what a day of express-style albacore angling would look like: September typically offers the calmest waters of the year with the fewest cancellations, rivaled only by August. That said, expect a charter to call a night or two ahead of time to give the go ahead and the meet-
up time at the boat, usually about 30 minutes before first light. Anglers show up to stow their lunches and drinks, meet their fellow fishermen and get a much needed tutorial from the captain on how to fish for and land tuna. Fishing tuna like they are salmon inevitably results in snappedoff fish and burned thumbs when anglers try to “thumb” spools like they might with a Chinook or coho.
Once the tutorial ends and darkness yields to the blue-black first light of the day, the captain eases his boat next to the bait dock and takes on a couple of huge scoops of wriggling anchovies into the boat’s bait tank. Fully gassed with holds and coolers stuffed with salted commercial fishing ice, and with the bait tank stuffed and alive, the captain leaves the harbor and crosses the bar with the tuna grounds in his sights.
Express-style trips are typically run in boats from 28 to 24 feet propelled by twin or triple outboards. When seas are calm, these boats cruise to the grounds at approximately 30 knots, making for short runs and potentially short days when the tuna are close and cooperative, which is often the case in September.
Nearing the tuna grounds, the captains scan the horizon for birds and for tuna feeding on the surface, asking anglers to do the same. If upon arrival to the grounds conspicuous tuna activity is spotted on the surface, the day might start with a “bait stop,” which is where the captain cuts the engines and glides to a stop. As the boat glides, deckhands dispense live-bait rods to anglers, each with a squirming anchovy wriggling on a small, strong live-bait hook tied to a top shot of 25-pound fluorocarbon tied to a spool of 30-pound braid. Sometimes a small chunk of pencil lead in surgical tubing is used to get the baits a little deeper and away from the boat a little faster, but sometimes it’s just the hook and anchovy. Anglers are instructed to go to the rail and face into the wind and to deploy their free-spooled anchovy into the cobalt-blue subtropical currents at the edge of the continental shelf.
Anglers watch line peel out of their reels at a couple miles per hour, hoping that those anchovies will be swiftly gobbled and that line will start speeding off of spools, indicating that a tuna has grabbed the bait. After a slow count to three or five, anglers push forward the progressive drag to
Plugging
FISHING
set the hook – no rod lifting required or desired. Once the hook drives home and the fish knows it’s hooked, the fight is on. The hope is that most or all anglers will soon be hooked up on hard-fighting tuna, which dive deep and fight in big looping circles as anglers work them toward the surface. The dream – which I have once experienced – is that this first bait stop will not end and that it will lead to arm-burning successive action that plugs the boat and ends the day. But more often than not, arrival at the tuna grounds begins by trolling cedar plugs, plugs and other troll gear to locate tuna. Once a fish or three strikes and while an angler reels in the troll fish, the deckhands and anglers set up a bait stop, again hoping to hook fish after fish on live bait until the fish holds are plugged with tuna. If not, it’s a troll/bait stop,
troll/bait stop show until the boat can hold no more tuna. Great days feature very little trolling and lots of action-packed, arm-burning live-bait fishing. Anglers must work together, going over and under each other, avoiding bloody decks of boated tuna as controlled chaos ensues.
ONCE LOADED WITH landed albacore, the captain charts a course for the harbor, and the deckhand goes to work butchering tuna and filling bags with loins and putting them on ice for an absurdly cheap $4 a fish. A volunteer angler or two usually helps with the bagging and icing, and by the time the boat returns to port, all of the fish are loined, bagged, iced and ready for anglers to transfer to their coolers. Some anglers choose to turn in their tuna to a fish processor for packing or canning, but most take their fish
home. When I take mine home, I’m always sure to eat a little fresh, to carefully freeze the choicest top loins and maybe some bottom loins, and to reserve the trim and many loins for pressure canning. Home-canned tuna makes the best tuna fish sandwiches you will ever eat, and annually I put a lot of canned tuna up for devouring throughout the year and to give as gifts to family and friends deserving of this canned excellence.
Albacore is such a versatile and meaty fish, and many options exist for enjoying it. Mark Coleman’s commercial website (colemanfish.com/recipes) has some dynamite recipes and extension services at Washington State University (extension.wsu.edu/graysharbor) and Oregon State University (extension .oregonstate.edu) offer excellent canning resources. Just search the sites for “tuna canning.” NS
The mild weather and calm waters of the September tuna grounds combine with abundant albacore that have put on pounds since their arrival in early summer. The harvest opportunities are fantastic at the end of summer, and the aesthetic of battling these powerful and beautiful fish is awesome anytime you can make your way to the tuna grounds once albacore show up. Their dramatic metallic coloration, long sail-like fins, cartoonish tuna faces and muscular bodies make them an exotic oddity, but nonetheless, a fixture of Northwest angling. (BILL CHESER, ANGLERSEDGESPORTFISHING.COM)
The lightest 200-hp four stroke on
2.8L displacement and Variable Camshaft
Timing give it the best power-to-weight ratio of any 200-hp four stroke
Nearly 120 pounds lighter than our four-stroke V6 F200
mounting centers and compatibility with either mechanical or digital controls give you the flexibility to easily upgrade your outboard or rigging. Experience legendary Yamaha reliability and the freedom of forward thinking, with the F200 In-Line Four.
Nearly 120 pounds lighter than our four-stroke V6 F200 Show the water who’s boss with the F200 In-Line Four. Incredibly light, responsive and fuel efficient, it serves up plenty of muscle to handily propel a variety of boats. On top of that, its 50-amp alternator offers the power to add a range of electronics, and its 26-inch mounting centers and compatibility with either mechanical or digital controls give you the flexibility to easily upgrade your outboard or rigging. Experience legendary Yamaha reliability and the freedom of forward thinking, with the F200 In-Line Four.
COOS BAY Y Marina (541) 888-5501 www.ymarinaboats.com
Master Marine Boat Center, Inc. (360) 336-2176 www.mastermarine.com
MOUNT VERNON
Tom-n-Jerry’s Boat Center, Inc. (360) 466-9955 www.tomnjerrys.net
OLYMPIA US Marine Sales & Service (800) 455-0818 www.usmarinesales.com
SHELTON
Verle’s Sports Center (877) 426-0933 www.verles.com
September A Coastal Salmon Show
Your monthly Oregon fishing outlook provided by The Guide’s Forecast.
By Bob Rees
September is really when fishing in Oregon is peaking. There are so many options to choose from, but we’ll highlight a few of our favorites for this month’s outlook.
One of the reasons September is such a great option is the return of adult coho and Chinook back to their freshwater habitats. This gives more anglers access to these magnificent fish, although until the first fall rains drop, the best access will be from a boat, most often in a coastal estuary or larger river system.
Starting with the north Oregon Coast, anglers often depart the famed Buoy 10 fishery in search of Chinook either further upriver on the Columbia, or south along the coastline, where returns of fish to 40 pounds are often encountered. Tillamook Bay used to be the crown jewel of the North Coast, but the Siletz has been the shining star in recent years. The Siletz has escaped the poor returns many other coastal fall Chinook runs have suffered, and good bets are to troll tidewater with 360-degree flashers or herring, with some anglers still anchor fishing on the stronger tide exchanges.
This system has staying power, likely producing bright, robust fish well into October, if history repeats itself. Anglers can also target fall Chinook in the bay itself, but most prefer the extensive tidewater reach for the ease of fishing. There’s no
reason why this won’t be a highlight again this season, and with wild coho also an option in the basin starting September 14, it could prove to be the shining star of fall fisheries on the
Central Coast. Be sure to check the dates and limits for coastal systems on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website (myodfw.com) under regulation updates.
Author Bob Rees shows off a wild coho caught out of Newport. It’s typically one of if not the strongest September producer, but don’t overlook Depoe or Winchester Bays. (BOB REES)
ALSO ALONG THE coast, and sticking with the salmon theme, ocean anglers have another year of incredible opportunity for wild coho. These well-fed specimens will readily take a bait or plastic trolled just under the surface. Anglers would still be wise to pursue these highquality fish at first light in the ocean.
All ports typically produce good catches, but Garibaldi and Newport are often fan favorites. The quota this year is a maximum of 25,000 adults, which is likely to take anglers well into September. Coho can often be found in nearshore waters close to the mouths of estuaries they exited just a few years prior and are returning to this fall.
Ocean Chinook will also remain open through the month of October and although returns to most estuaries have been challenging in recent years, there should still be fair opportunity in most central and northern bays and rivers.
As a general rule, it’s best to target Chinook in the ocean at first light and also the second half of the incoming tide. When the tide turns, adult salmon will often scurry into their natal estuaries to await the next rain freshet. It’s the most popular time of year for fall Chinook anglers seeking high-quality fish.
FINALLY,
WITH SEPTEMBER often providing the nicest weather month for offshore anglers, tuna will be a highlight, with live bait often coming on strong for anglers to take advantage of highvolume catches. Most tuna schools will remain 20 to 40 miles offshore and although they will likely still respond to trolled tuna clones, cedar plugs and swimbaits, if you have a live well and the proper equipment, live anchovies released into a school of responsive albacore will provide an experience like none other in the Pacific Northwest.
Halibut, lingcod and Dungeness crab are also great September options, as fish and shellfish try to put on pounds before the leaner winter months. NS
Editor’s note: For more information, visit TheGuidesForecast.com.
Silvers On The Side FISHING
Many of the beaches, points, parks and piers lining Puget Sound offer salmon anglers good access to ocean-returning coho.
By Mark Yuasa
The one thing you can bank on right now is going to the banks across Puget Sound!No, this isn’t about any financial institution handing out silver currency, but rather the many saltwater shoreline fishing options anglers can cash in for coho, commonly referred to as silvers for their shiny-bright bodies.
These silvers started to arrive in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound late last month and are expected to peak throughout September and October. Silvers, which average 4 to 15 pounds with some exceeding 20-plus pounds, bring excitement to anglers for their leaping abilities and erratic zigging and zagging across the water’s surface when hooked.
Puget Sound coho returns to certain river systems have gradually made a comeback in recent years compared to the downtrend of more than a decade ago. Much of that
was brought on by drought issues, warm water conditions in rivers and the Blob in the Pacific Ocean, which created poor survival rates for their offspring in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
By 2020, 2021 and 2022, Puget Sound wild and hatchery silver forecasts began to rebound and inched upward, creating more respectable fisheries in recent years. And this year’s forecast is for 722,134 overall coho. That compares to 760,029 in 2023; 666,317 in 2022; 614,948 in 2021; and 504,604 in 2020.
GET READY TO RUMBLE
Back in June and July, anglers encountered a decent number of resident coho in Marine Area 10 (the waters off Seattle and Bremerton). Some of those fish have since grown larger and will meet up with their larger migratory cousins during the late-summer and fall marine fisheries.
The front end of this silver-lined train has already made its way into the Strait of Juan de Fuca between
Area 5 (Sekiu-Pillar Point) and Area 6 (Port Angeles). As these silvers turn the corner off Port Townsend at the northwestern entrance to Admiralty Inlet and migrate into Puget Sound, shore-bound anglers can regularly catch them along the migration path. Silvers are known to travel in shallow water well within casting range of the many public beaches and piers.
The fishing techniques and essentials from the shoreline are like low-hanging fruit, and the reward can be a silver (not an apple) tugging on the end of your fishing line. On many days, you’ll have ample solitude and elbow room to cast along the more than 2,500 miles of diverse innersound shoreline.
Spending time along the beach or shoreline is a wonderful opportunity for family and friends without a boat to easily partake in a saltwater salmon fishery. And when the fish aren’t biting, be sure take in the beautiful sandy and cobblestone beaches, do a little beachcombing, listen to the
Puget Sound abounds with beaches anglers can fish from as ocean-returning coho steam towards the Skagit, Snohomish, Duwamish, Puyallup and other rivers and streams. The better spots typically stick out into the inland sea or are close to tributary mouths. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
FISHING
sound of waves splashing the shore, watch wildlife or enjoy the salty scent of the blowing sea breeze.
TOP COHO SHORELINES/PIERS
Point Wilson in Fort Worden State Park: The beach off the lighthouse at Port Townsend is the turning point for silvers heading into Puget Sound, and fish like to use it as a stopping point before migrating south. What makes Point Wilson a standout is the steep dropoff located just a stone’s throw (more like a jig or bait cast) away from the prime spots to catch silvers. To the south is Fort Flagler State Park on Marrowstone Island and you can find good prospects around the Marrowstone Point Lighthouse.
Western and eastern shorelines of Whidbey Island: There’s a plethora of shoreline fishing opportunities on all sides of Washington’s largest island. The top locations include Fort Casey, Lagoon and Bush Points, the Bait Box Hole just north of Possession Point, and West and North Beaches at Deception Pass State Park.
Point No Point on the Kitsap Peninsula: If I had to choose one spot in northern Puget Sound, it’d have to be Point No Point at Hansville. This expansive sandy shoreline offers ample public access, and the steep dropoff is an easy cast to the prime fishing grounds where hungry silvers feed on baitfish schools stacked up in the area. Runners-up include Browns
Bay, Salsbury Point, Edmonds Marina Pier, Mukilteo Lighthouse and the Mukilteo Ferry Landing public pier. Richmond Beach and Golden Gardens: There’s definitely a silver lining around the greater Seattle area when it comes to beach access to catch silvers! On an incoming tide, my two favorite spots are Richmond Beach and Meadow Point Beach to the south at Golden Gardens. Each has a lower gradient
shoreline, so your optimum time to fish is near the end of an incoming tide. Other notable Central Sound spots include the Seacrest Pier in West Seattle, West Point at Discovery Park, Carkeek Park, and Lincoln Park and Alki Point Lighthouse in West Seattle.
Browns Point Lighthouse Park and Dash Point State Park: These two spots are ground zero during odd-numbered years for pink salmon, but silvers will
The herring in the belly of this Richmond Beach silver speaks to why the editor overloaded his bank fishing tackle box (below) with chrome Buzz Bombs. But the diamond jigs are far from the only option, as anglers also fish various baits under a float, and toss spinners and spoons such as Krocodiles. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
HUNTING FISHING
Boat anglers have a definite advantage for coho, but Eric Schager does pretty well off the beach for South Sound fish. “In fact, it’s harder for me in a boat to catch one, lol,” he says. When the fish get lockjawed, he keeps changing spinner colors until finding something that works. (KNIFE PHOTO CONTEST)
lurk in the same areas. The dropoffs provide a good resting spot for fish heading into Commencement Bay and all other migration points to the south. Look for baitfish being picked off by hungry silvers. Other notable South Sound spots include Dolphin Point off the east side of Vashon Island; Blake Island State Park; Three Tree Point; Point Robinson Lighthouse, Point Beals and KVI Beach on Vashon Island; and the Southworth and Manchester areas. There’s also a good number of piers, including Des Moines, Les Davis, Point Defiance
Boathouse and Redondo.
Wherever you plant your feet, be courteous and respectful around private shorelines. With a little homework, you’ll be amazed at the numerous public beach accesses to explore across Puget Sound, from Port Townsend to Mukilteo and Edmonds, and from Seattle south to Tacoma and even as far as Olympia.
HOW TO CATCH COHO FROM SHORE
As for a rod and reel setup, stick with an 8½- to 10½-foot medium-weight, soft-action salmon rod. A spinning reel will allow you to cast further from shore, although some prefer to use a levelwind reel.
An incoming tide is usually the optimum time to fish and seems to push the silvers within casting distance. Ideally, make sure you’ve got your line in the water the two hours leading up to high tide change, and keep on fishing during the two hours after.
The most popular way to catch silvers from the shore or pier is by casting and retrieving a metal jig. The weight of the lure depends on how far you need to cast out from shore, as some beaches have a gradual dropoff while other locations will quickly fall off to depths of 100 feet or more just a short cast from where you’re standing. Also keep in mind that snagging the bottom is common, as is tangling up with seaweed, so don’t let your jig fall too far to the bottom. Be sure to keep a variety of jig weights of 2 to 4 ounces in your tackle box.
Sometimes with silvers you can sight cast to them by seeing where they’re
COASTAL COHO COVE OPTION
Those without a boat can participate in another fun coho-only fishery at the Westport Boat Basin, which is open through January 31. The best action occurs in September and October as coho raised in the marina’s hatchery net pens return. Most silvers caught around the basin originate from the net pens, but you’ll find some dip-ins bound for nearby rivers. The 2024 net pen coho forecast is 3,255 and the hatchery coho forecast for Grays Harbor, including the Humptulips and Chehalis Rivers, is 68,200.
Boat basin anglers use spinners, sometimes with hoochie skirts, and bait such as a cut-plug herring, anchovy or salmon eggs under a float. Note that the ban on twitching jigs, swim jigs and casting jigs – lures in which “the weight is molded directly to the hook” – that was instituted in 2023 returns this season.
There’s also a fishing derby that runs September 15-October 31. Entry is free. –MY
jumping, but if you can’t see them on the surface, simply cast as far out as you can. Then reel in the slack line, lift your rod quickly and let the jig flutter back down, reel in more line and lift again, and repeat until the jig is retrieved to your feet. More often than not, a silver will grab the jig as it’s fluttering down. Often on the drop your line will go “slack,” so always be ready to quickly set the hook.
Another widely used method is float fishing with a cut-plug herring attached on a 4- to 5-foot leader with a barbless tandem 2/0-3/0-hook setup and about 5 to 6 feet underneath a 1to 2-ounce sliding bobber or float with the right sinker size.
With bait, gently cast it out so you don’t rip the herring from your hooks. Most anglers like to brine their herring or anchovy to toughen them up, which in turn extends the life of the bait. Adding scent to your bait and even a jig will add more enticement for a fish to grab it.
Fly fishing is another method, and most will cast with a 6- or 7-weight rod on a floating line with a sink tip looped on the end, or an intermediate sinking line with a weighted fly. Cast as far out as you can and strip it back in quickly. Always start with a pink Clouser Minnow, leech, popper or Egg Hareball Leech, then move to colors like purple, chartreuse, pink/white, red/ white, black and blue/white. Stick with something resembling the baitfish they’re feeding on.
Only single-point barbless hooks are allowed for saltwater salmon.
Other beach essentials include polarized sunglasses – vital for sighting fish against the water reflection –pliers, a beach-style rod holder and a cooler with plenty of ice.
Check the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website (wdfw .wa.gov) for any emergency regulation changes and updates. NS
Editor’s note: Mark Yuasa is a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife communications manager and longtime local fishing and outdoor writer.
DESTINATION Grays HArbor, WA
Gateway to the pacific ocean & the Olympic Peninsula
The Art Of Smoking Salmon
Here's how to make tasty, simple treats out of your fall catches.
By Jason Brooks
Smoked salmon has always been a treat ever since I was young. My father used an old metal refrigerator and a hot plate for his fish smoking. The appliance was airtight except for some holes he had drilled into it, with a modified cover to adjust the amount of smoke to be released, as well as to dissipate the heat. The wood was either alder or apple, both of which were readily available. Wire racks that once held
milk, cheese and other cold stored groceries were now the resting places for thick slabs of Chinook. Through years of trials and some failures, he had perfected the smoking process, with the fish coming out still moist but also firm and holding a smoke flavor accented by sugar and salt.
Moving to Western Washington and learning to fish, the rivers stuffed my freezer with steelhead and salmon. This eventually led me to search for my own ways to smoke the fish like my father did. He had long
since gotten rid of the old home-built smoker, and along with it the details it takes to perfect the smoked fish had faded away. My first smoker was a Little Chief, which I still have today, though it rarely gets used. These small aluminum smokers work great but are for smoking fish and meats only; my quest also included smoking hams, ribs and other cuts of meat.
Upgrading to a vault-style smoker that uses compressed wood pucks, I thought about how it was basically the refrigerator that my father had used as
Scrumptious smoked salmon is a treat anytime of year, and fall’s usually plentiful runs of Chinook, coho and more provide a good chance to try your hand at making some of your own. (JASON BROOKS)
FISHING
a makeshift smoker, and it allowed me to perfect my salmon smoking recipe. Currently, I use a pellet grill, mostly out of convenience, as the pellets are more cost-effective than those wood pucks. These days, the Little Chief smoker is stored in my shed while the grill is always on my back deck. Regardless of which style of smoker you use, be sure to learn how it heats in different weather conditions.
WHEN YOU START to look at the different ways to smoke salmon, the process can become a bit overwhelming. But once you get the basics down and then figure out what is ideal for your own tastes, the smoking of salmon can open up a whole new world of wood types, brines, fish and even dishes made with the leftovers. It is an everevolving process, as once you finally create the perfect brine, something new will come along or you will learn a technique from a friend.
The first thing to realize is that smoking fish is not preserving fish like canning is. Smoked salmon does
have a shelf life, but how you smoke it, the brine used and even the quality of fish can extend the stability from three to eight weeks, per the USDA. Native Americans did use this method to preserve fish but not for months on end, like one would think. Then there’s completely dried fish with the consistency of jerky and heavily salted – it’ll last a long time, but it isn’t the goal for most who prefer smoked fish.
Fish quality is important. You often hear anglers say, “That one will smoke up fine” when keeping a turned or spawned fish. A good rule of thumb is if you will not eat it raw, such as in sushi, then you should not smoke it. Smoking fish does not cover up bad fish, but instead accentuates the flavor of the oil-rich flesh. Another saying is “garbage in, garbage out.” It is important to start with fresh fish full of oil, with oceancaught fish smoking up the best.
Fresh does not necessarily mean not previously frozen, but the quality of the fish when it was caught. Salmon does freeze well, especially
if vacuum packed, and will take to smoking just fine after being kept in a freezer. Any fish that shows signs of freezer burn should not be smoked; again, if you would not eat it as sushi, then it is not to be smoked either. Be sure to puncture a hole in the vacuum bag prior to it thawing out, as the pressure created once thawed can crush the fish’s flesh.
A fish that has recently entered freshwater will also smoke up well if it is still full of oil. The same goes for spring Chinook or sockeye, which tend to have high oil content; anglers who catch them a bit further from the salt can still smoke the fish with good results. Red or bright-orange flesh will tell you if it is smoking quality.
The reason it is so important to use fresh or high-oil-content fish is that smoking fish is more of a drying process, where moisture is removed by low heat, leaving the oil behind. The more oil the fish has, the “moister” the smoked fish will be at the end of the process. If you use a subpar fish that is close to the spawning grounds or one
The basic ingredients for smoked salmon include fresh or frozen filets, brown sugar, noniodized salt and spices like garlic and allspice. (JASON BROOKS)
FISHING
that has traveled a long way upriver and used up the fat and oil reserves, the fish will not taste as good as a fresh or high-oil-content salmon filet. Same goes for steelhead; if you smoke up a spent fish that is heading back downriver, do not expect that kelt to turn out as good as a summer-run fresh from the ocean.
BEFORE SMOKING A fish, you must
prepare it with a brine. There are two types of brines, one a wet brine, the other a dry. A wet brine uses water, along with salt, sugar and other ingredients to soak the fish. One of the earliest brines was sea water and sugar, which might be where the wet brine originated. A dry brine is more of a rub that draws the moisture out of the fish and starts preserving and drying before you put it on the
BASIC SMOKED SALMON
Here’s a simple starter dry brine recipe for smoking Chinook, coho, steelhead and more:
10 pounds of salmon or steelhead filets
2 cups of dark brown sugar
¼ cup coarse kosher salt
2 tablespoons ground clove or ground allspice
Mix the ingredients together and place fish filets into a glass dish (a Pyrex baking dish works great). Liberally cover the fish with the dry brine and cover. Place into a refrigerator for 48 hours, making sure to stir the fish and brine every 12 hours. Remove fish from
brine and place onto smoking racks (for a very sweet and salty fish, do not rinse it). Let fish sit at room temperature for six hours. Then slow smoke on the lowest heat possible for two to three hours, remove smoke/wood chips and continue to dry the fish on low heat for up to 12 hours, depending on air temperature and moisture. The key is to slowly dry the fish on low heat so no oils rise to the top of the fish. Remove fish from smoker and keep in a container in the fridge until it is time to serve it to your friends and family, but make sure you eat it within a week, which should be no problem once you give this recipe a try! –JB
smoker. Both work well and just as with which wood types and brine ingredients to use, you will get different opinions on each. Try both and see which one you like best. Brines are what preserve the fish and add flavors, but they can also be closely guarded secrets. Do not make the mistake of asking a commercial fish processor or a chef what brine they use, as it is considered very rude, and most will not tell you anyway. Instead, learn the basics and produce your own, though there are some good commercial brines you can buy. The base is salt and sugar, but from there just about anything can be used. It is best to keep things simple as you start out – just be sure to write down the ingredients and amounts as you experiment.
A BASIC STARTER brine is 2 cups of brown sugar to ¼ cup of salt. This brine can be used with water as a wet brine, using enough water to cover the fish, or as a stand-alone dry brine. The reason brown sugar is preferred over white or refined sugar is because brown sugar is sugar with
One key to remember with smoked salmon is that smoke is actually only applied for the first two to three hours of the smoking process itself. Afterwards, the wood chips or pellets are removed from the smoker or grill and low heat continues to finish the fish. (JASON BROOKS)
FISHING
molasses, making it super sweet. When it comes to salt, be sure to use noniodized or sea salt, pickling salt or Kosher salt, all of which do not have iodine. Being a natural preservative, salt helps dry the fish, but it should be used sparingly – as the fish dries, the salt concentrates.
Some brines can be extraordinarily complex, with most using a variety of herbs and spices. Some call for apple
or orange juice, but be careful with those, as they contain acids that can start the cold cooking process – same with lemon or any citrus. Wine is another ingredient to be careful with and use with caution, as the alcohol and acids in it can cook the fish while it is in the brine.
Regardless of what you decide to put in your brine, always use a plastic or glass container. Never use a metal
EASY SALMON PARTY DIP
Leftover salmon, especially smoked salmon, makes for a great dip for the upcoming holiday party season. Often I look through the fridge and realize I only have one piece of fish left and need to make it go a long way. So here is a simple, quick and easy recipe to make a salmon dip from a piece or two of either leftover cooked salmon or a piece of smoked salmon that you might find vacuum sealed in the back of the freezer. This recipe works well with fish that has been overcooked or overdried during the smoking process. It starts with a cream cheese base and goes from there.
1 cup cooked salmon or smoked salmon
1 tablespoon liquid smoke (do not use liquid smoke if you are using smoked salmon)
1 16-ounce container of whipped cream cheese
2 tablespoons dill weed
1 tablespoon garlic powder
Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Put in a glass serving dish and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least two hours before serving, as the smoke, dill and garlic flavors will blend with the salmon and cream cheese. Serve with crackers. –JB
container to brine your fish in, as it can react with acids and salts, not only causing a bad metallic taste, but lead to a chemical reaction.
WITH YOUR FILET, start by either cutting 1-inch-thick strips across the meat or make cuts into the whole filet every few inches so the brine can penetrate the flesh. Smaller filets such as sockeye and kokanee do not need to be sliced into thin strips. Most anglers toss the bellies and collars of salmon away, but these are the best parts of the fish to smoke. High in oil and fat content, these cuts are also the perfect size for the brine and a wonderful way to extend the use of the fish you catch.
After cutting, put the fish on the brine and let it sit for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. I have left fish in the brine for up to four days; if it stays cold, it will continue to brine the fish and once the flesh absorbs the sugars, salts and spices, it will not take on any more. The idea is to infuse the fish with the brine.
After the brining you can lightly rinse the fish to remove any excessive salt and sugar, as well as some of the solids used in the brine, like cinnamon or other spices. Then it is time to let the meat rest, which is best done on the smoking racks in the smoker or on a kitchen counter. Do this for a few hours until you see a glaze form on the flesh. This is called the pellicle, and it gives the fish that golden-brown look, as well as helps with the final brining process.
One friend of mine lets his fish sit in the smoker for 24 hours before applying any smoke or heat, though this is not recommended by the USDA. If your smoker needs to heat up, like a pellet grill, then it is best to let the fish remain on the rack in the kitchen while the smoker heats up.
SMOKE THE FISH, low and slow, for an hour or two, then remove the smoke if you can and keep the low heat on the fish. Now it is time for the drying
Have some overdry smoked salmon laying around, or cooked a filet too long? Adding it to whipped cream cheese and a selection of herbs will spruce it right back up. (JASON BROOKS)
FISHING
process to occur and as the fish dries, you can increase the temperature until it is dried to your desired liking and food safety standards.
It can be hard to remove the smoke with a pellet grill, but there is usually a setting for less smoke; be sure to crack open a vent to release the heat. For smokers that use wood chips, remove the chips and let the heat source dry the fish. The overall idea is to add just enough smoke to flavor the fish, but too much smoke can overwhelm the final product.
Smoke does not preserve the flesh, but it does kill bacteria and adds flavor. An article by the USDA titled “Keeping In-Demand Smoked Salmon Safe to Eat” states that “pathogenic microbes such as Listeria monocytogenes can live at refrigerator temperatures.” The study was to figure out an optimal combination of temperature and concentrations of salt and smoke compounds to reduce or eliminate this
microbial contamination. Back to the Native Americans who used smoked salmon to extend the life of the fish for food. They learned that the smoke killed bacteria, which is why it is used in the process of making leather and buckskin as well.
THERE ARE METHODS of cold smoking fish using the antibacterial benefits of smoke to completely dry it into jerky, but that is a different product than what most anglers are looking for. Smoking the fish with low heat is more of a way to remove moisture than it is to actually cook the fish. A proper smoked salmon filet is a dried filet, but too low of heat can hinder the killing of the bacteria as well as promote mold growth.
Too much heat and you are not drying the fish but cooking it. The main problem with this is back to those oils that make the fish so tasty and moist in the first place. When
the fat and oil in the fish reaches an elevated temperature, it separates from the flesh and rises, coagulating on top. This is the white “goo” you will find if you use too much heat. One way to save the fish is to remove this white stuff by wiping it off with a paper towel. But you are also removing the fats that are healthy as well as improve the taste of the fish.
With enough trial and error, you will learn how your smoker heats up and dissipates the smoke as well as how to control the temperature. When it comes to the smoking process, the motto “go low and slow” is a good rule to live by. Patience is needed as well, as there are a lot of variables that will affect how long it takes to smoke the fish. The USDA recommends fish reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit to be safe to eat, while an article by Oregon State University titled “Smoking Fish at Home –Safely” suggests fish needs to reach an
OREGON
CULVER
Culver Marine (541) 546-3354 www.culvermarine.com
FLORENCE Y Marina (541) 590-3313 www.ymarinaboats.com
PORTLAND Sportcraft Marina, Inc. (503) 656-6484 www.sportcraftmarina.com
WASHINGTON
CHINOOK
Chinook Marine Repair, Inc. (800) 457-9459 (360) 777-8361 www.chinookmarinerepair.com
MOUNT VERNON
Tom-n-Jerry’s Boat Center, Inc. (360) 466-9955 www.tomnjerrys.net
TACOMA
Tacoma Boat Sales & Service (253) 301-4013 www.tacomaboatsales.com
FISHING
internal temperature of 150 degrees – “preferably 160°” – for 30 minutes. Getting there should take a few hours and allow the water and moisture to evaporate and dry the filet.
Start the smoking process with an exceptionally low heat, the lowest your smoker will go and still create smoke with the wood. With so many different smokers on the market, each one will be different. Some anglers also make their own smokers and smokehouses that can be used for fish as well as other wild game. With a quick internet search you can find commercially made smokers or plans on how to build one for yourself.
AS FOR WOOD, chips tend to smoke well but sometimes burn too hot and the charcoal can give off a bad taste. Chunks burn slowly, but you must keep a heat source on them, or they tend to burn out and you will need to start the process all over again.
Pellets and pellet grills are becoming extremely popular and after years of using different smokers, it is the pellet grill that I now use the most. This is because the electronic controls are adjustable, and it is self-feeding, so there is no worry about it running out of wood or the wood pellets turning to charcoal. If you find your smoker getting too hot, you will need to vent it; another tip is to put a bowl of water inside the smoker. Though you are trying to remove the water from the fish, the high humidity of the water bowl evaporating while smoke fills the smoker will slow the drying process and keep those oils in place.
Which types of wood to use is, well, a hot debate amongst salmon smoking enthusiasts. Alder tends to be at the top of the list in the Northwest, but this might be because it is so prevalent in this region. It is also a hardwood but not as hard as fruit trees like apple and cherry, which come in a close second
and third for best types of wood to smoke fish. All these hardwoods have a slow burn to them, which is more important than their individual flavors. Hotter-burning wood like mesquite and hickory should be used for barbecuing and not smoking fish – again, this is a slow process using low heat.
ONCE YOU LEARN to smoke salmon with a basic brine, it is time to start exploring the flavors of various spices. Salmon and steelhead take on spices well, but also with their high oil content the fish is delicious when smoked lightly and dried with low heat. If you make too much smoked fish, you can freeze it, but keep in mind that freezing will concentrate salts. If you know you will be freezing smoked fish, use less salt. Same goes if you pressure can it – use less salt in the brine.
Most smoked salmon doesn’t last that long and can be used in a variety of dishes or eaten all by itself. NS
The River, The Sea And Me
FOR THE LOVE OF THE TUG
By Sara Potter
Water. The life source of our very existence, water covers roughly 71 percent of our planet. The most beautiful of places, things and moments in my life have been brought to me by way of water. It amazes me, though, that the greatest of these joys in life have been found on this tiniest percentage of it. Slightly more than 3 percent of the planet’s water is fresh, leaving the other 96 percent salt, mostly in the oceans, and so I realize why the rivers and creeks have always felt like such a special, rare gift to me. It’s because they are.
Exploring the ocean beyond the bar versus exploring a river miles above its brackish state is truly like night and day. The environment. The gear. The approach. Just so very different.
WHEN I THINK of how the ocean is fished today, I can’t help but wonder what it was like in the days before radar, GPS, fishfinders, plot charters, etc. As God intended, I have no idea about those days, but what I have noticed in my decade of dabbling over the bar is that there isn’t a whole lot to the fishing itself.
Though the power of the ocean stands alone, the fishing is quite simple and boats give you a pretty good chance of landing your fish. But in all honesty, the boat is almost as intimidating as the sea to me. I have zero desire to ever run a boat – zero! For so many, though, they love their boats and appreciate the ocean and what they have learned from it. Having total understanding of the ocean’s power and how it works, along with the right
From Southern Oregon’s mountains to the continental shelf off its shores, waters run through it, but it is those rivers and streams tucked away back in the woods and canyons that author and angler Sara Potter feels the most confident and at home on. (SARA POTTER)
COLUMN
equipment, many a fisher knows the bounty of the ocean is obtainable. With a few buddy boats to sound off of and the gear and gizmos to make it happen out on the big blue, one can catch an early-morning limit quite easily, making it all seem so simple. But it’s not. There is an extreme amount of pressure that one must take on when deciding to bring others onto the ocean to fish. Crossing the bar with other people’s lives literally in
your hands is a lot. Honestly, it stresses me out for them, even though I am not them. While I am able to feel joy on the ocean, I am never relaxed. It is not my comfort zone, yet I have so much respect for any captain who takes on such a huge responsibility, allowing so many of us to not only learn some of our ocean’s fisheries and bring home a harvest, but to get to experience some of the ocean’s one-of-a-kind gifts. In the colors of the Pacific, you will meet
creatures that grace us with their presence as they come up for air and possibly a little play. Dolphins by the hundreds, family after family of whales, the occasional pod of orcas. Such incredible sights! These beings are the ocean’s and the ocean’s alone, and if I didn’t have captains capable of chasing fish offshore, my heart wouldn’t know such gifts. Coveted coordinates, delightful depth finders, lots of lead, a killer crew, a fishy skipper, a roaring boat full of horsepower, a radio for reporting back and forth with your buddy boats. No matter how far out to sea you are, these details not only help; they are damn near required.
THE RIVER, ON the other hand, is none of those things. One can set out alone and accomplish so very much. When it comes to the ocean, nature is 100 percent in charge; that massive body of water will test you! I love how the river allows you to test yourself. What you give to the river is entirely up to you and the tests and challenges you put before yourself allow you this beautiful understanding that is very personal, even intimate. No one else is needed, and the bonds you are able to create with nature on the river just fit me far better.
Though rivers change, there are parts of her that remain the same. You are able to truly get to know one rock, one tree, one shelf, and need no gadgets or gizmos to dial in a fishery. The more time you give to the river, the more you will know. Your heart knows when you arrived in precisely the right timing – not a gizmo, your heart. It’s personal and I love it. The environment is not fixed – not one vast sameness of the sea. You are able to walk about and call all of your own shots. Only the gear on your back and a rod or two are needed for you to rise and slay. Footsteps might be heard as we walk across the cobblestone, but there will be no motor, no extra noise – just you and the roar or trickle of the stream you step foot on. Even though it can be shared with those we love, it isn’t necessary. It’s a personal relationship with you and the river. Maybe that has something to do with why I am able to give my heart to her.
The challenges are endless when it comes to the river. Your rigging, so much different from the bulk of the ocean’s gear.
While she prefers the solidity of rocks underfoot, the love of the tug will also see Potter venture over the bar with capable captains and the safety of buddy boats to get in on the sea’s harvest. (SARA POTTER)
UNION GAP Demo Rides Always Available!
2024 Duckworth Pac Pro 24’
This boat was ordered with a long list of options. Please contact us and we will email you a detailed build and pricing sheet on this boat. (Because this is a 2024 model, we are not allowed to advertise our price per Manufacturer guidelines).
Newly Redesigned
2024 North River 228 Pursuit New model for 2024. Mercury 300 XL Pro XS Motor, Hydraulic Steering System, Boarding Ladder, welded 2 step with welded grab handle vertical (starboard), Deluxe Top Gun canvas folding top with side and back drop curtains, storage boot and bag, wash down with spigot, hose, thru-hull pick up and valve, Plus lots more. Call, text or email for current pricing and availability.
2024 Lund 1775 Adventure Sport
Complete wood-free construction, Mercury 90HP Motor, New consoles, backlit switches, Tilt Steering, Pro Ride Seats, Redesigned port side tackle storage, 2-tier center rod locker, livewell, Multifunction Gauges, Bunk Trailer Galvanized, Wheel Upgrade, Top Hider, Sport Top.
2024 Duckworth 20 Advantage Tiller
20’6” length x 93# Beam, 34” Sides, 72” Bottom, Tapering deadrise: Bow: 28* Forward: 23* Transom 14*, 42 Gallon Fuel Tank, .125 Side and .190 Bottom. Call, text or email for current pricing and availability.
2024 Thunder Jet 22’ Chinook
Mercury 175HP motor, Kicker Control At Helm, Quick Connect Kicker Fuel Supply, Hydraulic Steering W/ Tilt Helm, Starboard Transom Door, Requires Hydraulic Steering, Bow Access Plate, Forward In-floor Rod Storage, Full Hardtop, LED Interior Lights & Drop Curtain, Basic Anglers Package.
2024 North River Seahawk 21’
Rigid Top Frame (RTF) top upgrade with top trays transom Boarding Ladder and Door, in floor fish box with drain and valve, factory Installed washdown system, and pairs well with engines in the 200-250 horsepower range. Call, text or email for current pricing and availability.
COLUMN
So detailed, delicate and delicious – possibilities galore without the need of spreaders, bumpers, flashers, a massive lead. None of that, and I like it!
Figuring out how to fish a hole correctly takes time; trial and error leads the way, without a doubt. Once you do figure out how to fish her spots just right, the glory that is felt within the bite is beautiful. Winding down and feeling that undeniable tug of life sets my soul ablaze. The battle in itself is a wild ride on the banks of the river and there are zero guarantees that you will land your fish. The rocks, the currents, the beyond-mad fish, your own feet! All you can do is give it your best in hopes that all these elements don’t kick your ass and instead you are able to grasp onto the creatures that bring out the craziest of adrenaline in the most beautiful of places.
THE BAR AND the ocean’s power are undeniable. They can never be taken lightly and one should always practice caution and care when embracing them. Though some will get to know the ocean well, I realize I will never be one of them. I do have a love for the tug, though, so I will always dibble and dabble out over the bar with a couple of excellent captains. The most massive body of water planet Earth has is amazing. I respect it, appreciating the gifts and the bounty it provides.
However, I know my heart is on the river for a reason. I know it fits my soul for a reason and I couldn’t ever replace the gifts the river has brought not only into my life, but out in me. Through tests and time, the joys and empowerment the river has shared with me are endless. Only the river and her beautiful environment helped me realize I was far more capable than I ever knew. Little by little, I not only learned so much about the river, but I learned so much about myself. That’s the type of challenge in life I enjoy the most – the ones that bring out the best in you as you learn about them. When you find things in life that allow such gifts, embrace them. My heart is on the river and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS
Once Potter was comfortable slaying solo, it opened up a world of possibilities and drew her closer to the river and its bounties. That inner strength contrasts with the more collective effort required to fish the sea. (SARA POTTER)
Rowing The Versatile Drift Boat
NW PURSUITS
By Jason Brooks
We were sitting at a table at By the Bay Café in Sekiu a few years ago when I noticed a car towing a drift boat go by. Turning to my fishing partners at the end of our day of late coho fishing, I said, “There goes that drift boat; guess they made it back.” It was the same boat we had seen several hours before while out fishing. The anglers used the outgoing tide to take them to the fishing grounds, but that meant they also had to wait for tide change to row back to the harbor. It is not recommended to row in the saltwater, but drift boats can have a small motor mounted easily on the stern and they are a stable platform for nearshore crabbing and bay fishing. This goes to show their versatility –from rivers and lakes to saltwater, just about every kind of fishing in the Pacific Northwest can be done in a drift boat.
Nothing beats floating down a river in a drift boat. There is no loud jet pump droning out conversations or worry of motor problems. The sound of water dripping off the oars and rope sliding through the anchor pulleys is about the only noise you will hear coming from the boat. Then there is lazily floating along at the speed of the current and fishing in tranquility. But there is an “art” to rowing a drift boat, which can also be life or death, depending on the water conditions.
Several years ago, a friend of mine and I hit a coastal river for winter steelhead, and we invited a guy along who I knew liked to fish a lot but did not get much of a chance with a hectic work schedule. This trip was to be a way of relaxing on a river and enjoying the day. As we made our way around a corner, a log jam came into view, but it was far enough away that at first it was of little concern. Continuing to cast our lines hoping for a steelhead to bite, the log jam came up faster than we anticipated. As we neared the jam it was evident that the boat was out of position and likely going to flip if we hit the logs. Turning to the rower and suggesting it would be a suitable time to start rowing hard, he yelled back to me, “I am rowing!” Gazing past the rower I could see the expression
Fall salmon seasons are a great chance to get into drift boat fishing. With a little know-how and practice on the sticks, these versatile watercraft make a great platform for tapping into all kinds of fisheries. (JASON BROOKS)
It will seem counterintuitive at first, but aiming the bow at what you’re trying to avoid and then rowing backwards to avoid it is a critical concept in learning to row and navigate a drift boat downstream. (JASON BROOKS)
on the face of my dear friend, and editor of this magazine, Andy Walgamott, the hardworking guy invited for a day of steelhead fishing. It was a look of both surprise and haste to get ready for an exit into the river. Somehow at the last second, the boat’s bow pulled away from the log jam and the current took us to shore. A drift boat can be deadly if you do not know how to row or if you are not paying attention, but it is also low-maintenance, quiet and versatile for many water conditions.
DRIFT BOATS ARE designed to ride over the water with an upturned bow and stern and no keel, or middle line, to catch the current. Some boats have a tunnel hull that provides more lift, while others are the standard rocker-style bottom. Aluminum boats need a coating on the bottom to help glide over rocks that tend to drag on the bare metal. Knowing how drift boat design helps in how it rows will assist the new rower maneuvering the boat. Since there is no keel, it takes a bit of practice to learn how to row the boat.
The first step to rowing a drift boat is
to set up the boat correctly. This means it will draft high in the water, is balanced and easy to row. When you have two anglers sitting up front, it is best to store gear behind the rower and out of the way. Keep other obstructions away from the oars, oar locks and anchor rope. Rods can be stored in side gunnel trays and/or a bracket that is often mounted next to the rower.
Anchor ropes can be a problem and get in the way, so never tie a knot at the end of one. It is better to lose a rope than to have the anchor catch on something like a log or boulder that will not give and then the boat turns into a diving plug fast. There are various rope cleats and locks to secure the line, but my favorite is the one by LeeLock Anchor Systems that drops down when you let go of the rope and locks it into place.
BALANCED OARS MAKE a stark difference on the arms and shoulders. Years ago, I purchased a used drift boat, and the oars were not balanced. It did not take long to add the counterbalance weights. Oar locks are also especially important. Some are simple brass and others have swivels.
Either way, keep them lubed up and be sure the cotter pin is inserted. Check the oars before each use for cracks and the paddle for a snug fit.
Learning to row takes a lot of practice and the only way to practice is to float rivers. But before you head down any class IV stretches, it is best to take the boat out to a lake a few times. A drift boat makes for a perfect fly-fishing platform and it is also good for trolling, as it can be pushed easily with an electric motor. This is what makes these watercraft so versatile. While on a lake, learn to push-pull the oars to spin the boat, which is simply pulling one oar and pushing the other one, so the blades are going in opposite directions. This causes the boat to spin, or yaw, on its axis, which is something you will want to be able to do on the river if you need to maneuver the boat quickly. After you spend some time on still waters, it is time to hit the river.
FLOATING A RIVER can be intimidating at first, but with time it is a lot of fun. Start with a low-gradient river that does not have boulder gardens, back eddies, drops
Drastically improve performance and steering of bow-mounted electric trolling motors with the LeeLock Magnum Skeg. The use of bow-mounted electric trolling motors for salmon trolling is a game changer. Not only does this skeg improve performance, it makes bow-mounted electric trolling motors much more efficient. Your batteries will run longer on a charge. The LeeLock Magnum Skeg can be a vital part of your trolling motor system!
The skeg is made of anodized 5052 aluminum. The size is 8 3/4 inches high by 10 inches wide and it’s 3/16 inch thick. The anodization keeps the aluminum from corroding in fresh- and saltwater. The LeeLock Magnum Skeg is available to fit most Minn Kota and MotorGuide (pictured) motors. It comes with clear PVC-coated stainless steel hose clamps. Call 360-380-1864 or write info@ leelock.com if you have any questions about fit.
No doubt about it, rough water is ahead no matter where you put in. Sometimes the best option is to just get out on the shallow or upstream side of the boat and walk it around the problem before things go south. (JASON BROOKS)
or lowhead dams. Eventually you will get the understanding of reading water.
The golden rule to rowing a drift boat is to point the bow of the boat at the hazard and row backwards, pulling your boat away from the hazard and using the hydraulics of the river to float around it. Learn to spin the boat with the “push-pull” of the oars, pulling with one oar while pushing with the other, that I talked about above, as this will allow you to steer it quickly.
Reading the water is key to rowing a drift boat. Inside seams tend to be slower water, and you can slip over to them to slow the boat’s speed if you want to fish a hole or run. If you are in shallow water, setting up on the seam or the faster side of it can help you get through a rapid where otherwise the boat would hang up. Knowing the hydraulics of a river is the biggest part of how you float down it, and the rower must keep in mind where the fish will be holding as well.
Last month, we decided to float down a river for summer steelhead. When fishing
COLUMN
As the rower, it will take time on the oars to pick up all the nuances of side-drifting, bobber dogging and plugging, and you may not get in as much fishing as your crew. But the success of the day can not only be measured in filets (below), but smiles, the experience and becoming a better, more well-rounded Northwest sportsman. (JASON BROOKS)
this same river in winter, the flows are around 2,000 cubic feet per second, but on this hot summer day it was running 257 cfs. This meant we had to float right where the fish would be sitting. To fish properly we often had to drop anchor and get out of the boat, walk down to the hole and fish it first. In stretches we wanted to keep moving through, we cast our lines out so that they floated downstream ahead of us before our boat reached the fish. This technique also allows the rower to fish, as they often miss the opportunity to catch anything since they have their hands on the oars all the time. Learning to fish out in front of the boat works well for float fishing, but sometimes pulling bait divers and plugs work best.
SPEAKING OF, PULLING plugs and bait divers is a bit of an art. Knowing where the fish are holding is key, as is water depth and speed. One cold winter day, we made our way to a stretch of river with trees overhanging the bank and a large root wad at the end of the run. This is where the fish were holding, so we slowly backed the boat down the river while the rod tips jiggled and let us know the bait divers were working. The inside rod violently pulled down and the rower gave some quick backstrokes of the oars,
COLUMN
using the boat to set the hook. This is where someone who knows how to row can really make a difference when pulling bait divers or plugs.
Bobber dogging is a technique made for anglers fishing from a drift boat, but the rower needs to set up just right or else the gear will get pulled away from the fish. Most bobber dogging is done in long runs and the idea is to keep the bait or bead near the bottom the entire time by using a long top shot of monofilament line with a bobber or float that drags the drift setup. The rower needs to keep pace with the float even as the boat is offset from and not in the same water flow as the gear. This means the rower needs to either speed up the boat or slow it down, depending on where the floats are moving downriver. Unlike a jet sled, where the motor needs to be in water deep enough to protect the kicker prop, the drift boat can be in much shallower water. This allows anglers to use the bobber dogging technique in smaller rivers and when flows are low, another
advantage to the versatile drift boat.
KNOWING YOUR LIMITATIONS is one of the most important rules when it comes to using a drift boat. Much like when we almost met our demise on that cold winter’s day at the log jam, recognizing hazards is key when it comes to floating a river or fishing the salt. A drift boat is designed to use the flow of the river, which also means it can be sucked into a back eddy or boil, or flip in a fast rapid. Even shallow water, where anglers think they are in no danger, can cause injuries and worse.
One time we were making our way over to the bank in soft water, but I decided to stand up and make one more cast. This was when we hit a rock, and though we were moving at slow speed and in only about 6 inches of water, I was thrown forward and tossed out of the boat. My pride was hurt more than anything and when my fishing friends stopped laughing, I grabbed my dry bag out of the back and changed into some new clothes. But it showed me how
quickly a person can be thrown out of the boat. Again, luckily we were in shallow water, but rocks can be anywhere.
There are often times when anglers will need to get out of a drift boat, the most common being in shallow water to help push the boat along. Always have your crew get out on the upriver side of the boat. This is because the boat will become lighter, and since it is designed to float over the water, the boat will no longer be held by the rocks and can push an angler over if they get out on the downstream side. A broken ankle or worse can happen quickly when a several-hundred-pound boat is being pushed against a person.
Bottom line, respecting the boat and the river will allow you to maximize the use of your drift boat. They’re extremely versatile, so if you are thinking of owning just one boat in the Pacific Northwest, it should be a drift boat. From trout lakes to coastal rivers and even Puget Sound crabbing, a drift boat can do it all. Just make sure you learn how to row it first. NS
Bighorn, Shoshone,
Fall For Late Alpine Trout
By Matthew Dwonch
When temperatures start to drop, bugles ring out and the aspens go gold, many outdoorsy folks put down the fly rod in favor of archery equipment. There’s nothing like chasing screaming bulls through the timber, but for those who want to extend their fly fishing season an extra month or two, the high country provides plenty of
opportunity. The alpine zone turns especially beautiful in September too.
Mountain lakes are typically seen as a summer specialty, but these hotspots of alpine life often remain open into midfall and beyond. Most backpacking trips require at least a few miles of foot travel, so it suits you to be wellprepared. Along with some common sense, this article should get you ready for a late-season fly fishing adventure.
WHAT TO PACK
There’s still plenty of time to catch hungry fish at high lakes before ice-up, and here’s how.
Trip preparation should start with the most basic of human needs and progress from there. In other words, your choice of tent for an overnighter is a whole lot more important than your choice of fly rod, although a bad choice on either can cause frustration. It is critical to have a reliable tent in the backcountry, especially during September, when inclement weather
September will find many Northwest sportsmen donning camo and grabbing their bugles to bow hunt for elk in the heights, but early fall is also still prime time to backpack into the region’s myriad alpine lakes to fish for trout. (MATTHEW DWONCH)
FISHING
is more likely. I roll with an REI HalfDome 2 Plus tent, which has served me well for many years. If you’re looking for something a little fancier, Kuiu has some solid offerings.
For summer applications, a 30-degree sleeping bag is almost always appropriate. However, I have seen nights in early September dip into the low teens. Even with warm clothing, sleep was scarce on these nights. For late summer and early fall, a 15-degree bag is your best bet. Nemo and Klymit make light, backpackerfriendly sleeping bags, with some varieties rated down to 0 degrees.
When it comes to finding the right pack, consider two things: durability and space. I use an Outdoorsman’s hunting pack for all my fishing backpacking trips. The extra space added for hauling meat out of the backcountry allows me to pack a wide selection of flies and tackle that would get left at home with more conventional packs. If you are looking for something without camo, Osprey, Eberlestock and Stone Glacier are all fine options.
This is by no means an exhaustive
list of gear required for a late-season backpacking trip, but if you’ve made it this far, I assume you already know that. Also vital to your success is a water filter, satellite phone, mini stove, sleeping pad, pillow and plenty of freeze-dried food. But for now, let’s get to the fun of fishing.
TACKLE AND TACTICS
One of the many draws of fly fishing mountain lakes during fall is the conspicuous absence of human beings. By September, most summer backpackers are either relaxing at home or being outwitted by elk. Due to the lack of fishing pressure, fish are often aggressive and more than willing to take dry flies off the surface. One fly almost always gets eaten without hesitation: the black ant. It’s a simple thing, but its cleverness is in its utility. Ants are hardy bugs and won’t disappear with a couple of cold nights. Fish in mountain lakes will often be fooled by a standard size 18 black ant. But if this pattern isn’t producing, ants come in many flavors up here, so it’s smart to include green
and red ants in your arsenal. Also productive on top of the water during early September are hopper patterns. Once the freeze hits, the backcountry fish are less likely to be fooled by these oversized bugs, but until then it’s always worth throwing a hopper in hopes of that irreplicable topwater strike.
Ants and hoppers aren’t exactly groundbreaking suggestions, I know, but they almost always get the job done on high-mountain lakes. Attractors are also a must-have when packing for your late-season adventure. The Royal Wulff has given me several days in the backcountry I won’t soon forget. I once bounced from lake to lake in a secluded basin, catching rainbow trout to my heart’s content on a solitary tattered Royal Wulff pattern.
As with any body of water, there is more happening under the water than above in alpine lakes. Expect dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs, water boatmen, tadpoles and minnows to still be active. When it gets cooler in the fall, fish often retreat to the floor of the lake, offering a great opportunity to throw
Cutthroat, rainbow, brook, brown, tiger and golden trout and triploid varieties thereof are stocked in high lakes, typically on a three-year cycle. Some grow to respectable sizes. (MATTHEW DWONCH)
FISHING
various wet patterns. My favorite is a size 10 olive-green damselfly nymph stripped slowly towards the shore. Woolly Buggers are a classic lake necessity, but be aware of the size and species of fish in your chosen water. Cutthroats are less prone to attack buggers than other species.
When it comes to stationary wet flies, there is one fly that dominates the competition on mountain lakes. A size 16 chartreuse Copper John is certain to tempt even the snobbiest of trout into a bite. Dangled about 4 feet under the surface with a size 20 Zebra Midge dropper, it is truly a deadly fly.
Variety is key when it comes to choosing flies for a backcountry
trip. Alpine lakes have limited food resources, which causes fish to focus on a single food source, depending on time of year. Make sure you are ready to adjust to these food restrictions and you will likely be successful.
Your hardware selection should follow the ongoing theme of simplicity with variety. When I started backpacking into mountain lakes, I bought a 5-weight Fenwick Nighthawk four-piece rod. The rod has been dependable, durable and perfect for backpacking. It’s almost imperative to invest in a four-piece rod before you start backpacking into the alpine. Twopiece rods are clunky and always find a way to break outside of their cases
on long hiking excursions. A 4-weight rod may be more appropriate for some lakes, but I’ve seen enough big fish in mountain lakes to stick with the 5-weight.
For most applications, 5x leaders and tippet are sufficient. If truly giant fish are cruising, I will sometimes switch to 4x, while especially shy fish will see 6x thrown their way. For those who don’t mind adding a little extra weight to their packs, bringing along a spare reel with a sinking-tip line is a great idea. A sink tip allows you to throw Woolly Buggers and leech patterns into deeper holes, hopefully coaxing out larger fish.
LOCATION
A lot goes into choosing the location of an alpine lake adventure. It’s difficult to get an exact idea of what you’re getting into if you’ve never been to the lake, but there are a few ways to choose wisely. First, narrow your search to a handful of locations. Then, study each on Google Earth. Look for lakes with plenty of surrounding vegetation, whether that be trees or shrubs. These lakes support more life than sparsely vegetated waters, and thus almost always grow bigger fish. Finally, look for lakes with a deep blue hue rather than a greenish or light blue coloration. Dark blue lakes are deeper and therefore won’t freeze solid in winter.
Idaho, Oregon and Washington all have online stocking records for high lakes. State officials typically stock fish in mountain waters once every three years. If you are looking for big fish, plan on waiting until the third year after stocking to visit.
HIT THE TRAIL!
As fall arrives in the heights, fish will be feeding up for the long winter that sees most lakes iced over. Along with the usual surface-oriented ant and hopper patterns, a well-stocked fly box will include Woolly Buggers, Copper
Whether it’s your first time backpacking in to fly fish or your thousandth, know that the alpine late season will provide you with plenty of wonderful opportunities at cutthroat, rainbows, brook and even the rare golden trout. While bowhunting is certainly a worthy pursuit, mountain trout can be an excellent September escape. NS
Johns, Zebra Midges and damselfly nymphs. (MATTHEW DWONCH)
