Tabla de contenidos para December/January 2022-23 en Game & Fish West

If you ask 10 top whitetail hunting experts for their advice on punching a late-season tag, you’ll invariably hear “hunt the food” from a majority of them. They will claim that applies to both getting that last doe for the freezer or grounding a trophy buck. Admittedly, it sounds like solid counsel and is often applicable to general, late-season hunt scenarios. However, it is very limited in real-world applicability. In areas where most folks hunt—places that have been overhunted—it doesn’t apply. It’s also limited advice that, at best, doesn’t tell the full tale. Or at worse, applies only in those special circumstances where you’re hunting an area that saw limited hunting pressure during deer season (especially during gun seasons) and has been managed so standing agricultural food sources are still…

Until you’ve experienced it, nothing can prepare you for the whirling, spinning, mind-blowing cacophony of hundreds or thousands of snow geese over your spread. It’s intense. You might get pooped on. You’ll get amped when the first handful lights in the spread, but don’t shoot just yet. More are coming. Just hang on a little bit longer. “Wait … wait … let ’em land … wait,” urged Keaton Kelso, hoarsely giving us instructions. He was quiet enough to not spook the geese on the ground but emphatic in expressing that trigger time was nigh. “They’re still coming. Wait … some more of them will come down and bring in the rest.” Finally, thankfully, we and Keaton’s quivering Labrador retriever were given relief. At the command of “Take ’em!” we unloaded…

Wigeon aren’t a species you can say, “Go here every year and you’ll shoot limits.” They can move with storms, hunting pressure, changing water conditions, food and seasons. However, bays along the Washington and Oregon coasts are typically prime locations. These states, along with California, also offer hunting opportunities on refuge lands. Oregon’s Summer Lake and Klamath Marsh are good early-season wigeon spots. Utah’s Great Salt Lake and Nevada’s Lahontan and Ruby valleys, along with Humboldt Sink, are also worth checking out.…

Landing a winter steelhead is an accomplishment by any angler’s standards. Connecting with them consistently throughout the season is mastery of the sport. To reach this level, you need to understand steelhead and their rivers. In order to zero-in on a spot where you can connect with a winter steelhead this season, first, you must find a river with fish. Next, you need to identify the fishable flows. Finally, you must employ the right technique. With a migratory life cycle that reaches the shores of Japan, many unknowns remain in our understanding of North American winter steelhead. For eons, ocean-going rainbow trout have returned to the coastal rivers of their birth to lay their eggs. These runs now number from a few hundred to a few thousand steelhead, with a…

When Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists stocked yellow perch into Lake Cascade in 2003, they laid the foundation for what would become one of the best perch fisheries on the planet. Just over a decade later, state and world records were falling to the giant perch the reservoir produced. Fish weighing more than 2 pounds–a rarity almost anywhere else–became common. Now 20 years into this grand experiment, Lake Cascade, located in the scenic mountains of central Idaho approximately 75 miles north of Boise on State Highway 55, attracts anglers from around the world as a destination for trophy perch. Ice Team member and avid ice-angler Don Cox knows Cascade well. With family in the area, Cox has been targeting big perch on Cascade for several years, and makes…

The COVID pandemic stressed the supply chain in almost every industry, with the bass-boat market being no exception. Add to the fact that during the pandemic lockdown, demand for new and used boats soared from participants new to the sport, as well as existing anglers with added time on their hands wanting to upgrade their bass rigs. The lack of new boat inventory caused consumers to try to fill the demand from the used-boat market, driving up the prices for used boats as well. Brian Hughes is a senior sales associate for Fun-N-Sun Boats, with two locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The Hurst, Texas, location is the largest bass-boat dealership in the country for boats 20-feet and longer, and is the largest Skeeter dealer in the U.S. He explains…

Snow goose hunting is a lot of work, but when things work out right, the shooting is fast-paced and furious. Up your odds for having a banner day by bringing good gear and enlisting the help of an expert or two. Most importantly, put safety first when a flock descends. SHOOT IN YOUR LANE: This should be a no-brainer, but it’s critical to remember and emphasize to your hunting party. You’re likely hunting from the ground or chairs. Everyone should know their shooting lane and stay in it. No swinging hard left or right, no crossovers to “help with the one getting away” or anything like that. Shoot in your lane and be safe. RELIABLE GEAR: Snow goose hunting requires a lot of decoys, a shotgun that can hold up…

Day was just beginning to tinge the eastern sky a reddish orange as I made the final adjustments to the spike-grass covering the Aquapod skiff and settled inside the hull, my Remington across the gunwales. In front of me, 18 mixed puddler decoys rocked in the cool coastal breeze, which was slight just then, but would pick up with the tide change. So, too, would the morning flight. Or so I hoped. My first cup of coffee was interrupted by the sharp sound of pinions cutting the air behind me. There was a flicker of movement to my left as a dozen wigeons cut the edge of my sheet-water puddle and spun into the wind. I hardly had time to put my hands on the autoloader before a big, white-capped…

Davidson River Outfitters (DRO), located in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest, carries a full line of gear, apparel, tackle and fly-tying materials (davidsonflyfishing.com). More than a dozen experienced guides fish a variety of surrounding waters within two hours of the DRO headquarters, and they can be booked for half, full or multiple days of wade- or float-fishing trips. The best trout fishing generally occurs from October through Christmas and then again from mid-February through June, according to DRO owner Kevin Howell. The most successful fly casters use dry flies in the spring and dry-dropper setups in the summer. They fish streamers and nymphs the rest of the year. January and February are usually the slowest trout-catching months due to the cold weather. August is also normally slow because water temperatures…

Shane’s first deer rifle was a Remington Model 700 in .243 that his father passed down to him. It wasn’t particularly pretty with its plain stock and blued steel that now shone silver. But man, it was a tack driver. Shane had taken several deer and coyotes with it, and it had never failed him. One night in early December, with the upcoming holiday on his mind, Shane found his father watching a football game. “I know what I want for Christmas,” he pronounced. “One minute, bud. Steelers have the ball with three seconds left,” his father said, leaning toward the TV. Shane looked just in time to see a kick … and a football sailing wide right. The kicker fell to his knees in agony while the Bills players…

Not all that long ago, when a hunter was considering a new riflescope, magnification was the only real concern. However, the riflescope has since evolved. It’s no longer just a magnifying tube with an “X” in the center. Modern scopes are marvelous optical sighting devices. Now things like objective lens diameter, exposed target turrets, click adjustment value, zero stops, illuminated reticles and trajectory- and wind-compensating reticles are all popular considerations when selecting a riflescope. Some modern options even have an integrated rangefinder or an interface with a separate rangefinder, and then provide you with a shooting solution. All these things matter when choosing a riflescope. However, in trying to pick the newest, best, brightest and smartest scope, some other key features often get overlooked. Below are five things you should…

It’s been called the only tax we’re happy to pay, the excise fee that each of us shells out every time we buy a new gun or the ammunition to feed it. Because this federal tax—it is 11 percent on most long guns and all ammunition, 10 percent on pistols and revolvers—isn’t displayed on price tags or sales receipts, it’s easy to overlook. But this revenue, which is collected by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and then redistributed annually to state fish-and-game agencies to be used for everything from wildlife management to hunter education materials to land acquisition, is the engine for most of our wildlife successes in America, and can be credited for creating the shooting and hunting culture that most readers of this column belong to. This…

We launched at 9 o’clock in the morning with a hint of breeze to push us downriver. At the end of the second set of rapids, we slid the drift boat into an eddy. I cast the float-and-fly combination into slack water while my buddy on the oars back-ferried to gain time. The bite ticked the line as bronze scales flashed below the surface. Moments later, I lifted my prize—a 13-inch smallmouth that was not nearly as happy to see me as I was to see it. The next was 16 1/2 inches and the third was 14 inches—great fish for a river where 90 percent of the bass are 9 inches or smaller. Winter is big-fish time, but it is a finesse fishery that requires a focus on fundamentals.…

My wife, Rosie, made a dozen or so casts to a rock-strewn run before hooking up with a stout 15-inch rainbow. Her fish shot upstream through the pool toward a couple of large boulders as guide Debbie Gillespie looked on and readied her net. Seconds later another ’bow sucked in my nymph as the current swept it through the waist-deep riffle by a large rock. It, too, took off upstream, heading toward the women until I snubbed it. The trout leaped skyward. I turned the fish and continued the battle in the smaller pool closer to my position while watching the catch and release above me. Gillespie then headed downstream to put a net under my fish, a beautiful twin of the rainbow Rosie had just caught. Rosie and I…

The Savage Model 110 bolt-action rifle has been serving hunters for more than 60 years. It’s gone through numerous changes during that time, including changes in its manufacturer’s ownership, and has been offered in hundreds of variations and chamberings. The 110’s original reputation was one of affordability, retailing for 20 percent to 30 percent less than competing bolt-action rifles in its early years. It quickly gained esteem for accuracy as well, and these two qualities combined earned the 110 high marks for value. During the last two decades, Savage has advanced the 110 by including smart, new design features while continuing to offer its flagship rifle at reasonable prices. One of the latest variations, the Ultralite, is a great example of the company’s penchant for providing hunters with rifles having…