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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2019)
B Friday, October 11, 2019 The Observer & Baker City Herald RECREATION REPORT Discounted camping at some state parks in Octo- ber, November The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) will offer discounted rates for electrical and full-hookup RV campsites at selected state parks during October and November. Camp- ers can use the code FallFun19 at oregonstateparks.re- serveamerica.com to receive a $7 discount off the nightly RV campsite rate, bring- ing the current rate from $24-34 down to $17-27. The discount is available at: • Bullards Beach • Champoeg State Heritage Area • Detroit Lake State Recreation Area • Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area • Farewell Bend State Recreation Area • Fort Stevens State Park • Humbug Moun- tain State Park • Joseph H. Stew- art State Recreation Area • L.L. Stub Stewart Memorial State Park • Prineville Reser- voir State Park • South Beach State Park FISHING FORECAST ANTHONY LAKE Received a fall stocking of rainbow trout the last week of September. Fishing has been good with fi shing from fl oating devices most pro- ductive. HAINES POND Will receive a fall stocking of rainbow trout in mid October. THIEF VALLEY RESERVOIR The reservoir is at 6 percent of capacity. To allow anglers to make use of fi sh that will be lost due to low water level, bag and size limits have been lifted and fi sh may be captured by hand, dip net or angling. These temporary rules are in effect Sept. 11 through Oct. 15, 2019. Best fi shing access is near the dam. GRANDE RONDE RIVER With cooler weather trout fi shing has picked up. Biolo- gists have received recent reports of success with large stonefl y patterns. WALLOWA LAKE The crowds have left, but trout and kokanee are still available to the determined angler. Expect natural baits to be successful as stocked trout have been in the lake long enough to key in on food items in the lake. Submitted photo Fischer Schluessler with the billy goat he killed in September in the Elkhorn Mountains near Baker City. Schluessler, 14, traveled from his home near Detroit, Michigan, for the once-in-a-lifetime hunt. M ICHIGAN & M OUNTAIN G OATS ■ Fischer Schluessler traveled from his home near Detroit to hunt goats in the Elkhorns near Baker City By Jayson Jacoby Baker City Herald Fischer Schluessler trav- eled most of the way across America to hunt mountain goats in Baker County. And that was the easy part of the journey. Airplanes were involved. No rocky ridges to climb. Fischer, who’s 14, lives in Sterling Heights, Michigan, about 40 miles north of Detroit. He’s hunted whitetail deer in the comparatively gentle terrain of his home state. But going after cliff-dwell- ing goats in a towering range such as the Elkhorns, home to Oregon’s largest goat herd — well that is quite another matter. “It’s a lot different from here,” said Fischer, who had a memorable, and successful, goat hunt in the Elkhorns in September. “I was surprised by how steep it was.” Michigan’s highest point, Mount Arvon, is 1,979 above sea level. Only a sliver of Baker County — in the northeast corner along the Snake River — is lower. Baker City is at about 3,400 feet. And the prime goat habitat Submitted photo Fischer Schluessler, right, scans the steep slopes of the Elkhorn Mountains for goats along with one of his guides, Dusty McGrorty. mainly lies above 7,000 feet. Fischer wasn’t devoid of experience among the great peaks of the West, however. A family vacation this summer to the Tetons of Wyoming served as a sort of training trip. The relative scarcity of oxygen in Baker County’s high country in no way de- tracted from the experience, said Fischer’s father, John Schluessler. “It was beautiful,” John said of the hunt that culmi- nated with Fischer bagging a trophy billy. “We just had a blast.” The “we” in this case included not just father and son. Fischer’s sister, Sage, who’s 13, came along. And so did Harvey Schluessler — John’s father and Fischer and Sage’s grandpa. “It was a great, positive experience for my family,” John said in a phone in- terview from Michigan. “It was everything I could have hoped for.” Like other mountain goat hunters in Oregon, Fischer bucked considerable odds in drawing a once-in-a-lifetime tag. The state issued just 24 goat tags this year. Two of those were for non- Oregonians — and only one of those was for a hunt in the Elkhorns, where more than 350 goats gambol. In 2018, the last year for which statistics are available, 834 non-residents applied for the hunt for which Fischer drew the tag this year. See Goats/Page 2B Submitted photo Fischer Schluessler’s mountain goat hunt was a family affair. He traveled to Baker County with his sister, Sage, and their father, John. John’s father, Harvey, also accompanied the group.
