The Golden Days of Fall; Fishing and Hunting

If you hunt or fish the golden days of fall are upon us. It won't last long; get out there amongst 'em and get your share!

September, October and November are the golden days of fall in the Mid-Columbia and eastern Oregon/Washington. The "gold" is not only the golden days with comfortably cool weather and long days of sunshine, but also the "gold" of the wild bounty that awaits the angler or hunter. The hunting seasons have started and the fish runs have begun. Steel head and salmon are passing Bonneville, The Dalles Dam and the John Day Dam by the thousands and congregating off the mouths of the Klickitat and the Deschutes as they rest to complete their spawning journey. Those great game fish also run up those two rivers as they search their way up the mighty Columbia for their own special waters and spawning grounds.

There are multitudes of favored sport fishing areas where one can view the armadas of sport and guide boats collected while traveling the highways along the shores of the Columbia. Collections of boats can be seen off the mouth of the Klickitat, in the waters just below and above The Dalles Dam, further upriver a horde of boats gathers off the mouth of the Deschutes, then below the John Day Dam as well as above the Dam and again off the mouth of the John Day River.

All of these boats are manned by hopeful fishermen plying the waters with their favored lures; spinners, crank baits, jigs and cured baits hoping to latch onto a 50 pound salmon or a 25 pound steel head.

In the hills and plains of the Mid-Columbia some lucky hunters are looking for bighorn sheep or pronghorn antelope. Grouse hunters are slinking through the woods and bird hunters are chasing upland birds over excited bird dogs. Shotgunners are seeking to collect a limit of those gray jet propelled doves and archers are afoot looking for deer and elk.

It is the Golden Days of Fall in the Mid-Columbia. It won't last long; join the gold rush! Book a trip with Rivers Bend Outfitters today.

There is a Wolf at the door #4

Actually there are wolves at the door. More than anyone really knows for sure. Exactly how many are in Oregon and Washington is up for grabs. These wolves have dribbled over from Idaho and Montana and will continue to do so until the social levels of wolf populations in Oregon and Washington become high enough to discourage further encroachment.

If and when Oregon's ODF&W develop rules and regulations for management of wolves that the USF&W (for the U.S. Government) find acceptable and can defend from endless lawsuits by various animal rights and other preservationists will any real management begin. Whew! Seems long and complicated, huh. It is more than that. Just think, it took a Congressional action to create what wolf hunter that is now allowed. Once Oregon's population attains the required level of breeding pairs of wolves and other esoteric rules there is still the animals rights groups to satisfy or defeat in the courts of the land before any real management controls can begin.

Most hunters believe that just opening a hunting season on wolves will hold wolf numbers in check. Just won't happen! British Columbia and Alaska have found that this is a management plan that won't work. It is a start, nonetheless. Alaska knows that hunters are generally not as smart as the wolves they pursue and the only real answer for overall control of excess wolf populations is by aerial shooting, trapping and poisoning. And that is fact, not supposition. Not animal right's advocates theories and not hunter's hopes or wants...just plain facts. Most of today's urban populations are out of touch with reality in the wild outdoors. As a result, many, if not most of them will find those control efforts distasteful, if not downright disgusting. But necessary to really control the wolf population.

The ever expanding wolf population must be managed and part of that management will be population control. If we are to maintain the overall deer, antelope and elk populations that we have worked so hard to re-establish over the past century, then a rational attitude must prevail. Fact: wolves are voracious and are seriously depleting wild herds. Fact: they also pose a danger to wild grazers (and possibly to domestic grazing animals as well) by passing biological infections.

Somewhere in this long blog I said that wolves are romantic creatures and appeal to the general public. The answers to solving the problem of too many wolves will be long in resolution. Lets hope that the animal rights and wildlife preservationist groups will not "cut their nose off to spite their face." If they persist in stopping any wolf management long enough that the elk, deer, antelope and other prey species populations are so depleted that hunting is eradicated we will all suffer. For the wild populations of prey species will become so sparse that the only place the public can view them will be in a wildlife park not in the wilds where they once were abundant. Wouldn't that be a shame?