Outdoors Rec
B1
Saturday, July 24, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
IT’S
SHARK
WEEK
Shark fishing is not for
the weak — or timid
LUKE
OVGARD
CAUGHT OVGARD
elevision’s longest-running annual
summer event turned 33 last week
after completing another successful
run. The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week
started three years before I was born and
is still going strong. It is still well behind
Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and cigarettes
in longevity but adds another point to the
argument that humans love things that can
kill them.
Our collective mythos of sharks is
rooted in our own animal nature, that trace
of wildness in all of us. Maybe this is why
I love shark fishing so much. Nothing else I
catch can kill me if I slip up. Little else can
overpower me with a swipe of its tail and
leave me breathless and aching.
When I mentioned my fascination with
sharks to my friend Dom Porcelli, he made
note of it.
He and his wife, Tracy, were gracious
hosts and allowed me to stay with them as I
continued my #SpeciesQuest.
Dom has caught nearly 1,000 species
of fish, placing him in the top five all time.
As such, I gleaned everything I could from
T
Campfires
banned
in state
parks,
forests
EO Media Group
SALEM — Citing extreme fire
danger and limited firefighting
resources across the West, Oregon
officials have banned campfires in
all state-managed parks and for-
ests east of Interstate 5, including
designated campgrounds.
The ban applies to charcoal
fires, cooking fires, warming
fires, charcoal briquettes, pellet
grills, candles, tiki torches and
other devices that emit flames or
embers.
Portable cooking stoves or pro-
pane lanterns using liquefied or
bottle fuels are allowed, though
propane fire pits are not allowed.
The state prohibition fol-
lows similar decisions that affect
other public land in Northeastern
Oregon.
Campfires are banned on the
Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla and
Malheur national forests. The
Umatilla is closed to all public
entry.
“We are seeing record-low
humidity in much of the state,
and as forest fuels dry out there
is tremendous potential for fire
to establish and spread quickly,”
Oregon State Forester Nancy
Hirsch said in a press release.
“With months of fire season left,
this measure will help us prevent
one of the most common types
of human-caused fires, which
reduces the risk to our communi-
ties and natural resources.”
“Every park visitor can do their
part to protect the landscapes we
all love,” said Lisa Sumption,
director of the Oregon Parks and
Recreation Department. “Help
reduce fire risk by bringing meals
that don’t require heating or
cooking.”
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
This dude snapped Dom’s rod. It was my fault for not loosening the drag more given that it was facing away from the fish. This was the most beautiful shark I’ve
ever caught if that’s any consolation.
him as I tallied some 28 new species on his
boat. After a few productive days chasing
tuna and tilefish, snapper and scad, grouper
and grunts, mahi and more, we set our
sights on sharks, the coldly magnetic kings
of the sea.
biggest fish ever.
We anchored up near a reef, put out
a chum bag, sent half a barracuda to the
briny depths and waited. Soon, the shark
rod started to bounce and then sing the
most beautiful tune I’d ever heard.
Shark Bait
Hooked
The “Shark Bait”, Dom’s boat, was up
to the task. It earned the name when a reef
shark came over the gunwale and took a
bite out of Dom’s foot. Serious reconstruc-
tive surgery later, he still bears a grisly scar
and a healthy respect for the top of the food
chain.
Dom stocked up on bait, and we left in
the predawn dark on Sunday (the last day
of Shark Week) with one goal: to catch my
I grabbed the rod out of the holder and
battled the beast in. I avoid conventional
reels like the plague, it showed, but eventu-
ally, we got it boatside.
We would later identify the 7-footer as a
sandbar shark. Using the National Oceano-
graphic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA)
shark size calculator, put it at 155 pounds.
My biggest fish!
If we’d stopped there, I would’ve been
stoked, but we still had bait, so…
I caught a few live ballyhoo, a popular
baitfish, and we threw one out live on a
lighter rod. It also hooked a small shark that
broke me off after about 10 minutes when it
dove under the boat.
I hit pause on the self-loathing when the
big shark rod started bouncing again.
Dom assumed nurse shark based on
the lack of run, and having caught more
nurses than any other shark, I agreed. It
was absurdly heavy, and lifting it up 70 feet
of water was exhausting even with the less-
than-stellar fight.
When we saw it, and it clearly wasn’t a
nurse shark, we expected it to take off on a
See, Shark/Page B6
Pampered, not primitive
TOM
CLAYCOMB
BASE CAMP
K, the last two columns
I’ve written about how
to camp on a budget,
but I know there’s a percentage
of you out there that won’t even
camp, much less on a budget! So
this week I’ll cater to you. After
wrapping up the Professional
Outdoor Media Association
Convention in Tennessee I flew
home, grabbed Katy and ran
over to the Silvies Valley Ranch
near Seneca.
If you like golf, you’ll love
Silvies. They do something
unique in that they use pack
goats as caddies. I’m not a
golfer so my description of their
courses would not do them jus-
tice. I’m told that it’s in the top
20 golf courses in America. But
if you want to golf and the rest of
the family has no desire to golf
don’t despair. They offer other
activities. Here’s some of the
activities that we did.
I took a two-hour tour of
the ranch by four-wheeler. It’s
always fun to four-wheel but
especially when someone is
telling you the history of Sil-
vies Valley from the days of
the French trappers on up until
present ties.
On the ranch there are still
four log cabins from early home-
steaders. We got to explore one.
It was interesting to see how they
had stuck cloth into the cracks
between the logs, covered it with
mud and then tacked on slats to
hold the chink in.
O
GUN RANGES
I was pleasantly surprised
by how nice the ranges were.
They have pistol, rifle and black
powder ranges. They have
air guns at the pistol and rifle
ranges. Air guns have basi-
cally no recoil or report so
they’re great for starting out new
shooters.
At the pistol range one fun
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
After sleeping in this cabin I may never get Katy into a tent again.
option was a .50 caliber, which
kicked like the proverbial mule.
They also had a lot of .22’s
which Katy enjoyed shooting.
We then dropped down to
the black powder range. I’ve
hunted a lot with black pow-
ders but had never shot a flint-
lock. The igniting system is
where they differ. When you pull
the trigger, the hammer drops
striking and igniting the powder
on the flashpan. There is a slight
delay between when you pull the
trigger and the powder ignites
the charge in the chamber.
Even though I knew this and
our instructor Tygh repeatedly
warned me, I still couldn’t help
moving before it shot.
I took some Powerbelt bul-
lets which are made right in
little ole Nampa, Idaho, and are
the finest black powder bul-
lets on the market. I wish that
we’d of had a couple of hours to
shoot and compare their accu-
racy as compared to the balls we
shot. To really compare you’d
need two rifles because a round
ball requires a different twist
in the rifling as compared to a
Powerbelt.
But out of all of the shooting
that we did, the highlight was
getting to shoot an original
.45-70 black powder 1886 Win-
chester and a rolling block .45-70
black powder. Both shot actual
blackpowder in brass. This is
where our modern .45-70 got its
name. It was a .45 caliber and
used 70 grains of black powder.
One other fun gun was a Hatsun
Blitz which is a CO2 airgun
which can shoot full auto.
After the Louisiana Purchase
the French trapped 200,000 bea-
vers out of the valley, which
caused some ecological prob-
lems. The spring melt blew out
the dams which in turn dried up
the creeks for much of the year.
Silvies has made some dams to
mimic the beaver dams. Now
the creeks flow year-round and
willows are growing along the
creeks, which provides browse
for the deer and elk. It’s hard to
believe but what 15 years ago
was dried up sage country is
now lush drainages. The natural
grasses have come back and by
mid-June are halfway up to your
thigh. I found this interesting.
Which brings up fishing.
They have also have two stocked
ponds, but I mainly hit the
creeks. I only had a couple of
hours one afternoon to fish.
It started raining right when
I threw my first fly so it was
impossible to read the river or
fish effectively. As we left the
ranch and headed north, I saw
more creeks so I’ve got to go
back and hit it again sometime
(or they offer ice fishing on their
lakes).
They serve breakfast, lunch
and a six-course dinner but I’ve
got to skip the description of the
meals and talk about the bread.
They served sourdough bread
at every meal which was awe-
some so I took their sourdough
class. It was awesome. I was the
only one in class so I bombarded
the instructor Jeff Campbell
with questions. He taught me the
mechanics or maybe I should say
the chemistry of sourdough. We
enjoyed one of his one-pound
cinnamon rolls and had a good
time. I could write an article on
the sourdough class.
Well, time doesn’t permit me
to cover how nice it was to have
our own hot tub right outside of
our bedroom or the spa and mas-
sages which they offer. They also
have mountain bikes and horse-
back riding but it wasn’t offered
when we were there.
So, if your version of camping
is in a Holiday Inn, why not ele-
vate it to a new level and hit Sil-
vies Resort and Retreats?