Update

Sorry for the writer’s block of recent weeks. It wasn’t writer’s block, per se, because I had plenty to write about. It was more a physical writer’s block – things were physically keeping me from having the time, or when time was available, the reserve energy, to actually write my thoughts on paper and post them to this blog.

Still no baby, as of today, but my wife told me that her contractions were uncomfortable last night and kept her up for a good portion of the night. Blissful in my ignorance, I slept through the entire thing. I’ve told myself to get used to the guilty feeling I get every time my wife is up doing something and I sleep through it, because I am nothing if not a very heavy sleeper; but I still feel bad.

I got sick two weeks ago yesterday, and have been sick ever since, with a slight reprieve as the viral portion of my illness subsided and the bacterial portion kicked into high gear. The medications that I take to control my immune system can exacerbate a common cold into bronchitis and even pneumonia quite easily. I am on day 5 of a 6 day antibiotics regimen, so I feel much better now. Two weeks is long enough, as they say (I’m not sure who says that, but whatever).

I went pheasant hunting again last weekend, coughing and hacking my way through the entire mess. I was not happy, but the clients I took with me were really happy and had a great time, so there is that. That, however, has been the extent of my outdoors endeavors since Christmas. Usually at this time of year I find time to go coyote hunting, but it isn’t in the cards this year. I’m just too sick and too busy. Maybe I’ll go in March, but since the baby will be around by then, I doubt it.

April signals the beginning of the really good time to go Sturgeon fishing. The big lunkers will bite all year, and fishing is open in most places all year, but spring and fall seem to be the most productive time of year to fish for them (when the heat of summer and cold of winter have abated). I’ve made it a point to have some of my friends from the west side of the state meet me at the fishing hole, and also to take some folks here from Spokane that I would like to get closer to.

But enough about me… back to happenings and such.

Keep Me From Being... The One The Wolves Pull Down

I hate busybodies. I despise the very concept of a person that would dictate to others how they should live because they think that they’ve found some better way of doing things. Notice I said “dictate” not “suggest.” Suggestions for improvement, or opinions, are one thing – God only knows, I’ve got enough of both. It is when the person chooses to use the force and violence of government to impose their will on another that makes my blood boil.

My most recent experience with this is fraught with misconception, laced with idealism, and completely ignorant of reality, and it has to do with wolves.

Yeah, like howling-at-the-moon wild canines.

First, a bit of history. Men and wolves have a strange relationship. We either love to live with each other, or hate each other’s guts. Case in point, we took wolves into our villages and domesticated them as dogs, and yet, those wolves that decided to stay wild have been a competitor and the bane of our existence since the dawn of civilization. They are stiff competition to natural resources; they kill massive amounts of prey that would otherwise be in the forest for humans to eat. Often times, wolves kill just for the sake of killing, further driving up the competition for resources that have, historically, been much better and more thoroughly used by man. Wolves also kill livestock. Lots of them, and again, often times just for fun.

For these reasons, men and wolves have developed a very contentious relationship, leading to bounties on wolves placed by ranchers who’s livelihoods were being destroyed by thrill-killing predators. Current elite city folk like to pretend that the bounties placed on wolves back in the day were the result of misunderstandings, and prejudices, ignorance, dim-wits, and fear of stories about the “big bad wolf.” This is wrong. The men back then understood fully what they were doing, why they were doing it, and fear and prejudice had nothing to do with it; rather, it was brute survival. The wolves were killing these men’s stock, and destroying their ability to sustain themselves – it was kill or be starved. People and wolves do not coexist well. They never have.

That being said, I do not agree with the idea of extirpating them, as is what occurred. There was the ability back then, as there is now, to reasonably manage the wolf population so that they would not run the wild stocks so low that they had to resort to much more risky livestock killing. Instead, they killed them all, and I think that this was a crime against nature.

That being said, when the concept came about back in the 1990’s to reintroduce wolves into Idaho, where they had be extirpated 70 years earlier, I was not against it. I will admit to some concern at the concept, though, and my concern appeared to be well-founded.

They made several mistakes long the way. I’ll start from the tippy-top.

First, they didn’t reintroduce native, Idaho wolves. They went north, to the Tundra, and caught some timber wolves, and reintroduced those. The problem here is that what used to be a population of small, 65 to 80 pound wolves, is now a population of 130 pound super-predators (Note the weight - 127 pounds !!!)*. There is a reason that big, Canadian timber wolves never lived in Idaho, and it is because Idaho’s ecosystem wasn’t designed to have them there. The big timber wolves of the north are designed for very cold climates where they are pulling down very large prey like moose and caribou. The smaller, Idaho wolves were designed to hunt deer and young elk, but it was conjected (and backed up with some historical data) that they rarely preyed on mature elk, the way the current lot of wolves is doing.

Second, they reintroduced them, and then kept an eye on their numbers with the attitude that every additional wolf was a good thing, without any concern for the capacity of the ecosystem and the current herds of elk, moose, and deer in Idaho. Wolves remained federally protected (and still are) throughout the process, so there was no method by which they could control overpopulation in an ecosystem that had gotten used to them not being around. What this means is that over the 75 years that no wolves roamed Idaho, the elk and deer herds stayed about the same size, but concentrated into smaller areas as more land got developed and lost to elk and deer, and the animals, themselves, felt much less pressure to move and range away from wolf packs. They also got complacent, because they were only being hunted for 2 months out of the year by humans, and for the remainder of the year by absolutely nothing at all besides the occasional single cougar. So, you have thick population density of animals not used to worrying about wolves being around, and what resulted was a slaughter. Wolf populations soared as gluts of easy-pickings resources were taken, and elk and deer populations suffered horribly. The only method for population control was to live trap and relocate these superpredators, but the problem then became that they eventually ran out of places to relocate. The whole of Idaho is now overpopulated with wolves, and Idaho very seriously needs to do something about it. (Note, Washington isn't far behind. We are starting to have our own problems with wolves and also relocated problem Grizzly bears, also federally protected by people in Washington, DC)

And here is where we get into the busybodies. You see, they have followed the wolf saga from day one, and throughout the whole thing, they have been orgasmic with the concept of fixing that which we screwed up in the first place. In the process, however, they’ve screwed things up even worse than they were to begin with, but are not willing to accept that. Every day, we here in Idaho have to live with livestock losses, the decimation of our elk and deer herds, and the constant depredation of property and beloved family pets brought about by wolves, while they get to live in their ivory towers, 2000 miles away from the action with the smug feeling of satisfaction that they get by thinking that they’ve undone a horrible wrong, when in fact, all they’ve done is create another.

And this is where the elite part comes in, because, from 2,000 miles away, not having experienced on the ground what we are experiencing, and not having to deal with the wolves, themselves, they are calling us ignorant hillbillies that believe in the big bad wolf stories from our childhood that don’t know what we are talking about and that the wolves won’t cause problems. Again, they speak in theory (communism is a great thing!) while we, here in the trenches, speak in reality and actual experience (communism has killed more people than all other forms of evil combined, and makes even Hitler look like a piker in total body count). They ARE causing problems. There is no theory remaining, just actual experience. Idaho has actually created a wolf hunting season, and has released quite a few tags for a tiny harvest of the total wolf population, and the feds have sued to stop it. A legally issued tag by the state can become a liability to anyone that shoots a wolf, because even though Idaho says it is legal, a shooter still risks federal prosecution if they shoot a wolf. Idaho has told the Federal Government that they created a huge problem when they released wolves (against Idaho’s wishes, by the way) and now are saddling Idaho with the burden of handling the problem and not helping. The Feds have basically ignored every complaint.

And so, we are left with a choice. We have a sustainable, population control harvest of wolves, or, we allow things to continue until all livestock, deer, and elk have been killed in the state, and then the wolves starve to death, leaving nothing in their wake. Our Federal government has chosen option 2.

It boggles the mind.

*Take some time to read the website "Wolf Clash." Especially if you are from New York, or back east somewhere and you think the "re-introduction" of these non-native super-predators was a great, noble thing. Then, shut the hell up.

Outdoor Update

Jeez, I’ve been so busy lately, it is hard to say where I should begin. Alphabetically, I guess, so let’s start with fishing:

I haven’t been back out since my last trip where I thought I fried the injection pump on my boat. Turns out the pump isn’t fried like I thought – it still works fine. It seems as though the main reservoirs lost pressure somehow and stopped supplying oil to the small, engine mounted reserve reservoir, until it ran dry. There is another problem, too – there should have been an alarm horn that sounded to warn me of this. It didn’t. I am waiting for it to warm up enough so I can roll up my sleeves and find out what is going on here, and also if my engine is blown up.

Crossing fingers…

My friend hit Lake Roosevelt last weekend (I didn’t go, see pheasant hunting below) which is the Columbia River impounded behind the Grand Coulee Dam . He caught a 14 lb walleye. Damn nice.

Hunting went a little better. I did not get my elk. We found almost 200 head in two different herds, but they were outside the boundaries that my tag allowed for harvest. They never came into our unit. However, bird hunting has been a different story. My Dad and I went out three days before Christmas after a good snowfall and shot 27 birds in one day. 13 california quail, one pheasant, one ruffed grouse, 7 chukar partridge, and 5 hungarian partridge (does that add up to 27?). In a new personal best, I shot all 13 quail with one shot. They were packed up densely in the new fallen snow, and when they got up, I picked a buck out of the middle of the flock and slapped the trigger. 13 came down in total. My dog went nuts – she overloaded… so many birds, dad! It was a mistake – I’d never had anything like that happen to me before. I’ve shot multiples with one shot before, but never more than three or four. It is a good thing Dad was with me because the limit for one person is 10 (hopefully WDFW isn’t monitoring this page…) :)

I went out last weekend to a game preserve with a bunch of clients and took them pheasant hunting (on the company’s dime – gosh I love my job!). We shot quite a few pheasants, and Dutchess performed admirably. I got a lot of comments on what a good dog she is. Again, I trained her myself, so there is a point of pride there. That dog has done wonders for my career – clients become very loyal when you develop a friendship with them beyond work, and when you have funny hunting stories to tell… well, more the better!

Made up one of the salmon fillets that I caught on the Hanford Reach in October, with a homemade pesto and parmesan crust. It was delicious.

Made pheasant leg soup again. I just had it for lunch today.

Bird season is now closed. So is all big game. Next season coming up is spring black bear, spring turkey, and spring king salmon on the Clearwater river in Idaho. All in April and May.

As a note to those of you who do not live on the Pacific Coast, these King Salmon are actually born in freshwater, migrate to saltwater, and then come back into fresh water to spawn after about 5 years or so in the ocean. The amazing thing about them is that in the Clearwater, where I am catching them, they are over 400 river miles from the saltwater, and have swam over 8 massive dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers (link is to Lower Granite Dam, the last one on the Snake River before they swim into the Clearwater) just to get there. Even more astounding is that many of them are only HALFWAY to their spawning grounds. The Redfish Lake sockeye travel almost 1000 river miles to spawn (986 miles, if memory serves). Their spawning ground are just outside of Boise, Idaho. Look at a map. Find the mouth of the Columbia on the Washington/Oregon border. Now, find Boise, Idaho. Now, consider that the rivers don’t draw a straight line between the two, more of a squared off right angle… well, you get the picture. It is simply amazing.

The next big thing coming is March. White Sturgeon fishing. These prehistoric monsters have been known to grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 2,200 pounds. There are stories of the old method of catching them – using horse teams to drag them out – and losing entire horse teams because the fish pulled them off of the slippery rocks and into the river. They live in the Columbia, Snake, and Salmon rivers around here. Nowadays, the average size is 5-6 feet, and a really big one will be 12 or 13 feet long. They fight like crazy, and are the best eating of any fish I’ve ever eaten. I’ll start after them in March. Try to remember the camera this time, huh Goob?

Snake River Update

Grrr! I went up the Snake again on Thursday of last week. We had a great time. We saw bighorn sheep, deer, turkeys, and a bunch of different birds, including bald eagles. Unfortunately, I left the camera and the beer at home. I suck.

Caught zero fish. Every other boat on the river caught the hell out of them. I suck again.

But I’m learning. I’ll get better. I will also remember my camera.

Had a little boat malfunction – the oil injection pump went tits up, stopped working. This is a bad thing. The engine stopped about 3 miles from the launch. Really bad. It didn’t seize, so I feel lucky, but I think I’ll have some mechanic work to do to get it fixed.

Recipe - Pheasant Leg Soup

This is really the only way I’ve ever eaten pheasant legs and liked them. They are too stringy otherwise. This is a recipe of my own making that I made last night and it was the bomb…

SOUP RECIPE

6 pheasant legs (bone-in) and the ribs and breast bones left over from filleting 3 breasts. Fill a 5-quart stock pot almost full of water and throw the legs and breast bones in. Boil for 2 hours. Take bones/meat out, and pull meat off bones (pick it off into small pieces like shredded beef). Remove tendons in legs (kind of like fish bones). I usually like to do this the day before so I can let the stock sit overnight to cool (in a refrigerator, of course) and then spoon off the coagulated fat on the surface to reduce the fat in the recipe, but this isn’t necessary. The stock will be very clear and watery, but that’s okay, it will broth up really nicely in the next step…

Chop:

One half of a fist-sized onion
3 sticks of celery (I like to remove the strings, too)
2-3 big carrots
3-4 green onions
A half a head of cabbage
6 cloves of garlic

Measure:

2 tbsp salt (I actually just salt to taste as I’m cooking, but estimate that this is how much I add to get the taste right)
1/8 to ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (you can always add more, but can’t take it out!!!)
1.5 tbsp crushed rosemary
1 tbsp marjoram
½ tbsp basil
A couple pinches of thyme
½ tbsp hot sauce of your choice (again, go easy, you can always add more)
A bag of egg noodles (15 ounce, iirc)

Then –

Bring your stock to a boil. Add the salt, pepper, rosemary, marjoram, basil, thyme, and hot sauce. Then, dump in onion, celery, carrots, green onions, and garlic. Do not add the cabbage yet. Add your meat if you haven’t already, and boil/simmer the whole mess for an hour (and a half?) until the carrots are tender. You can literally just walk away, it doesn’t need to be stirred or anything. Add salt if necessary to taste. Then, dump in the egg noodles and boil them until they are done (maybe 12 to 15 minutes?). Take the whole mess off of the heat, then add the cabbage, put the lid back on the pot, and call the family up for dinner. By the time they get there, the cabbage will have cooked.

I know these long cooking times are intimidating, but remember, the stock can be made days in advance (that takes the longest) and the soup, itself, more or less cooks itself once you bring it all to a boil, because you can walk away – it won’t burn or scorch or nothing.

Reading a River - Part 1

As I learn to navigate the shallow, rocky, and swift water in the Snake River Canyon (the deepest rivers gorge in North America, by the way. Suck it, Grand Canyon!) I learn more and more about reading shallow moving water.

Quick history – I’ve been on the Columbia and Snake Rivers my entire life, skiing, fishing, and just generally enjoying them. I’ve run boats in sizes ranging from 6 foot paddle boats up to a 53 foot, twin-screw monster, all on inland waters of the Columbia and Snake River system. I’ve locked through dams, run shallow canals to the Chain Lakes off the Coeur d’Alene River through which most people wouldn’t dream of taking a power boat, and pretty much run boats non-stop since I was old enough to sit in Dad’s lap and steer. I think that I am a damned good boat operator.

One thing I’ve never really done, though, up until this Spring, is run in fast-moving shallow water. I’ve run moving water on the Hanford Reach and below dams, including Lower Granite and Bonneville, but it was deep. I’ve run shallow water all over the place, but it was typically pretty still. I can read a lake or river pretty well given the topography around it (steep shorelines typically mean deep water off shore, flat shorelines mean shallow water. Rocky shorelines mean rocky bottom, and so forth) but I’ve never run water that you have to actually read the water itself to see what is going on beneath. It is a trip.

The first thing that I learned about a river is that it will speak to you in three ways:

1.) In Vees. You can see vee-shaped formations in the current. Vees pointing downstream mean that the water at the center of the vee is moving faster than the water at the edges, because of obstructions at the edges. This means that a downstream vee shows you the location of the deeper channel, and is typically a safe zone that you want to aim for (typically, but not always). Vees pointing upstream are always created by obstructions. There is a rock or stump or something under there. Avoid upstream vees at all costs.

2.) In hydraulics. Hydraulics are often times mis-read as rocks or obstructions. The way to tell the difference is that a hydraulic is not constant. It will “flicker” in and out, and possibly even move around a bit. Rocks, on the other hand, are solid, steady, and never move. Hydraulics are caused by water flow, as it moves quickly around the odd shapes of the river bed, and even sometimes, obstructions. Usually, the obstructions creating the hydraulics are deep enough that you won’t hit them if you skate over the top, but be careful. Hydraulics are there for a reason, and they are trying to tell you something. They can be very hard to interpret.

3.) In the surrounding topography. I discussed this above, but I failed to mention that the overall shape of the river also means something here. The outside of a river bend is deepest (usually) whereas the inside of a river bend can be very shallow as the slower water there deposits silt, and the faster water outside digs it out.

I’m not claiming that you will be able to go run a river with these three things in mind. Don’t do it. I’ve been doing it since this spring, as often as possible, and I still don’t think I am very good at it.

That being said, there are some things about vees that I want to elaborate on.

1.) A downstream vee is often the “safest” route through a rapid as it relates to missing obstructions, but can be the swiftest, most turbulent, roughest part of the river. Sometimes you can read the vee and hang to the edge of the channel where the water is moving more slowly and is not as rough and get a smoother, more fuel-efficient trip through the rapid. Remember, though, that the reason that the water is moving more slowly on the edge is because of friction – caused by either obstructions in the water, or by the bottom itself, meaning that the water is shallower there than in the channel.

2.) A rapid that is hard to read can often be made easier by “connecting the dots” between obvious upstream vees. Remember, all you have to do is not hit the rock. It doesn’t matter how close you get to it if you don’t hit it, and if it has a clear upstream vee, whereas other areas in the rapid are not so clear, go to where you know for sure where the obstruction is and squeak through there, rather than risking an unclear section of river.

3.) The rock causing an upstream vee is normally upstream of the vee, itself, by quite a ways. Look for clear humps in the river in front of the vee, and there is your rock. You can often times motor directly over the vee, itself, without hitting a rock, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you can clearly see the rock.

Navigating the Snake River - Hell's Canyon Addition‏

In my ever-broadening quest to enhance my outdoor experience, I recently (this spring) bought an aluminum jet boat. I decided to do this for a couple of reasons.

First, my wife got very tired of me using our ski boat for hunting and fishing. It worked fine for most hunting and fishing that I wanted to do, but I was always worried. The carpets in the ski boat were prone to mud, blood, and dog hairs – all of which were brought on board during a good waterfowl hunt or on a hunt to one of the many really good pheasant hunting locations on the Snake River that are only accessible via boat. Also, fish scales, slime, and blood were degrading the carpets and upholstery, no matter how careful I was. Also, no matter how careful, I almost always inadvertently left behind a hook or two, which really suck to find with bare feet the next summer. Finally, the fiberglass hull was taking a beating from being beached on the rocky shores of my hunting sites. All of this added up to the decision that I needed to get another boat for hunting and fishing, and leave the ski boat for skiing.

Second, I decided after a few trips up Hell’s Canyon on friend’s boats that I totally wanted in on that action, because it is truly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, and without a doubt is the most awesome boating experience I’ve ever taken part in. To navigate the often shallow, rapid, treacherous waters and class 4 rapids, you need a jet boat – a prop wouldn’t last past the first day of beating off rocks and the bottom.

My wife, God love her, insisted that I get a fishing boat. A nice, big, safe one with high sides and plenty of horsepower, too, so it was safe for me and our eventual family. Yes, you totally read that right. My wife insisted that I get a fishing boat. I love that woman so much.

The only problem was money. A good Hell’s Canyon jet boat is expensive. Brand-spanking new, you are talking in the 60K to 100K range. No kidding. They are also fuel hogs. One day of fishing up Hell’s Canyon can cost 300 to 400 bucks in fuel. Even an old, used, early 90’s jet boat is still in the 20K range. So, I searched for alternatives.

I found my alternative in what is called a “sport jet.” This is a boat powered by an outboard power head, that is mounted inboard and attached to a jet pump. They are smaller, cheaper, and way more fuel efficient than the big automotive V8 powered jets, and can still accomplish everything that I need it to do (for now).

Hell’s Canyon is something like 150 river miles. The rapids start even before you enter the canyon, just south of Clarkston and Asotin. However, none of the rapids are big enough (for most of the year, anyway) to really justify the big, 20 plus foot, 450 horsepower jet boats that people use down there, until the last 30 to 50 miles or so before the dam, where all the big class 4 rapids are. I do not think that I would attempt to take my small 18 foot, 200 horsepower sport jet up waterspout, Bernard Creek, Granite Creek, or Wildsheep rapids. Could it do it? Probably, under the right conditions and water flows, but I don’t think I will ever want to, for a couple of reasons.

1.) There isn’t any better fishing above these rapids than there is below. In fact, the further upstream you go, the less fish will be in the river, as you lose a certain amount of fish at every tributary you pass.

2.) The amount of time it takes to get to these rapids from the bottom end of the canyon is prohibitive. You are talking a trip of about 100 river miles to get there. Cost of fuel, and time on the river, this doesn’t make sense, especially since I’d be motoring right past the best fishing water to get there, meaning that the only reason to go would be to run the rapids.

3.) Learning to run these big rapids is a process that takes time and effort. I plan to spend my time and effort learning to run the lower rapids, and can’t really figure out how learning to run the upper rapids would really benefit me at all.

4.) it is dangerous as hell. Watch this video of a boat running Granite Creek Rapids. See how he goes right up against the far shore, literally so close that people in the boat could touch the rock wall? That is because that is literally the only way through there. There are boulders everywhere in that rapid. Testament to that is the way he came back down. Notice how he flipped around in the rapid, motored out away from the far shore, and then flipped back downstream to run it out? That is because downstream of the only channel in the rapid deep enough to allow a power boat to pass, there is another rock that you have to maneuver around, against the river’s current. Granite Creek is the one spot on the river where everyone, even the drunkest, stupidest people around, stop to put on life jackets before tackling it. If you go through these rapids, you have to be ready to lose your boat. Period. If you touch a rock, even light enough to do no damage to your boat, the current will overtop the gunnels instantly, and roll the boat out from under you.

So, I plan to spend my time in the lower rapids, some of which are still class III, which is still pretty gnarly. Next time I go up, which will be next week, I’ll take a video camera and try to post some videos. I expect I’ll see bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, and a bunch of other stuff like turkeys and pheasants and eagles. I also plan on catching fish, but that is just a bonus.

To date, I’ve run my boat from Clarkston all the way to Cache Creek, which is considered the entry point to Hell’s Canyon (you need a permit to go past that point and into the scenic portion of the river). Even getting there, you have to negotiate a bunch of shallow rapids, some are class III at high flows, and even at low flow have standing pressure waves of 6 feet or better. I went up in mid-november with a guy that knows the river, and he took me up past Imnaha all the way to Dug bar, and I think I’m good to try that on my next trip. Wish me luck.