Outdoors
Rec
B
Saturday, September 25, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Bullish
about
bullheads
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
A brown bullhead catfi sh hooked in Florida.
are highly invasive — particu-
larly in Oregon — where they
displace the native sculpins that
fi ll a similar ecological niche but
reach only a fraction of the size of
the bullheads.
Though I spent plenty of
summer nights fi shing for bull-
heads in my home waters, it was
always because there was nothing
better available. It was also more
LUKE
of a social event than serious
OVGARD
fi shing. We’d make a small fi re on
CAUGHT OVGARD
the gravel or muddy bank, soak
A juvenile yellow catfi sh.
some worms, roast some marsh-
Few fi sh are as overlooked and mallows with friends and kill
maligned as the bullhead catfi sh. every one of the invasive mud-
These diminutive slimeballs rep- cats we caught to save its weight
resent a total of seven species
in native fi shes. Some of my
concentrated in a native range
friends ate them, but that’s a mis-
primarily within the Southeastern take I only made once or twice. In
United States: black bullhead,
the less-than-pristine waters we
brown bullhead, fl at bullhead,
always caught them, they tasted
snail bullhead, spotted bullhead,
muddy, the meat often covered in
white catfi sh and yellow bullhead. parasites.
I grew up catching brown and
It wasn’t until I was 30 years
yellow bullhead in Oregon, but I
old, fi shing in Florida this year,
found the other, less widely intro- that I realized some people not
duced species over the years.
only seriously pursue them, but
Blacks came fi rst in Utah and
actually prize them.
then again in Texas. Whites came
Prize
fi rst from Washington, D.C., and
then California, Illinois and Ala-
Mudcats, cat-fesh, bullheads,
bama. Spotteds came from Flori-
slimers and a host of other local
da’s panhandle. Finally, fl ats and
A bullhead catfi sh.
snails came from North Carolina names all off er valid table fare
across much of their native range.
to complete my set, and I sort of
Though they can tolerate an array head in Miami’s primarily salt-
forgot about them afterward.
After all, they’ve been intro-
of water conditions and even
water canals), they thrive in other
duced far outside their range and
salinities (I’ve caught brown bull- areas, too.
Celebrating the
diminutive
catfish
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
Though most farmed catfi sh
you’ll see at the store is channel
catfi sh, many parts of the Amer-
ican Midwest and South have
small, wild-caught catfi sh indus-
tries, which often sell bullheads
along with the larger channels,
fl atheads and blues. In most
states, it’s illegal to sell sport-
caught fi sh, but commercial
fi shing licenses open up many
doors and many more wallets.
In fact, according to the aqua-
culture tracking site, IntraFish,
America’s eighth-favorite seafood
to consume is catfi sh.
While traveling through the
South — particularly Mississippi,
where per capita catfi sh consump-
tion is the highest in the U.S. —
you can fi nd catfi sh almost every-
where. Every diner and American
restaurant off ers catfi sh, many
boasting “All You Can Eat Cat-
fi sh” on a certain day of the week.
See, Catfi sh/Page B2
Best day of the year?
Deer hunting season
starting Oct. 2
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
The Super Bowl?
Just another football
game.
Halloween?
No need to don a cos-
tume to load up on empty
calories.
For no small number of
people, Saturday, Oct. 2,
2021, is the date circled on
their calendar.
And though you won’t
fi nd the opening day of
buck deer hunting season
on most lists of offi cial holi-
days, it’s no less a milestone
for hunters.
The arrival of the season
is the culmination of a con-
siderable amount of anxiety
for many.
They waited for weeks
this spring for the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife (ODFW) to
announce the results of the
computer lottery that deter-
mines who gets to hunt
and who has to wait until
next year.
Or the year after.
And those who drew
the coveted tag then had to
wait through the summer,
through scouting trips and
the frustration of seeing a
great buck weeks too early,
for Oct. 2 to get here.
The wait is almost over.
And although the eff ects
of the devastating winter of
2016-17, when hundreds of
deer died in Northeastern
Oregon, still linger in some
places, deer numbers have
risen in others.
The season that opens
Oct. 2 continues through
Oct. 13 in most units east of
the Cascades.
Following are forecasts
from around the region
based on deer counts from
the spring of 2021 con-
ducted by ODFW biologists:
Beulah, Sumpter,
Keating, Pine Creek,
Lookout Mt. units
Over-winter survival was
fair in Baker County with
an average fawn ratio of
30 per 100 adults counted
in the spring. Animals will
be the most active early
in the morning and late in
the afternoon when tem-
peratures cool off . Hunters
should concentrate their
eff orts in areas of good
forage near north slopes that
provide good bedding cover.
The Beulah unit is still
recovering from the winter
of 2016-17 with a fawn
ratio of 24/100 adults. The
buck ratio is 14/100 does,
which is just below the
buck management objective
of 15/100 does. As a result,
tag numbers will remain at
lower levels into the future
to allow population to
recover. With last year’s tag
cuts, hunter success was
35%, which was down 10%
from the previous year.
There will be a few more
yearling bucks available for
harvest this year, but only a
small increase.
Tag numbers for the
Sumpter, Lookout Moun-
tain, Pine Creek and
Keating units, which were
cut by 50% in 2017 fol-
lowing the hard winter,
remain at those levels four
years later.
Sumpter’s 2021 tag allo-
cation is 825. Lookout
Mountain is at 161, Pine
Creek at 193 and Keating
at 275. Beulah, which had
a 40% cut in tags for 2017,
has 1,155 tags this year,
slightly fewer than the
1,188 in 2017.
Murderers Creek,
Northside, Desolation,
West Beulah units
Deer populations remain
below management objec-
tives in all units. Buck
ratios were below man-
agement objective in all
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
This buck in a Baker City backyard won’t be available to hunters when the season starts Oct. 2, but they’ll
be looking for this sort of animal out in the woods and sage country.
units. Spring fawn ratios
were lower than desired but
higher than last year. With
slightly better fawn ratio
expect a few more yearling
bucks available for harvest
this year.
Last year, archery and
rifl e hunters had below
average success for
Northside and Desolation
but above average for Mur-
derers Creek. Similar or
slightly better results are
expected this year.
Deer hunters should
look for areas where fi re
has occurred in past fi ve
to 15 years as deer tend
to favor vegetation that
occurs following fi res. The
Shake Table fi re on Aldrich
Mountain, Canyon Creek
Complex, and the Mon-
ument Rock burns are
starting to show signs of
increasing deer and may be
a good place to fi nd a buck.
Heppner, Fossil,
East Biggs, southern
Columbia Basin units
Last year deer sur-
vival was much better
with a mild winter and
decent spring conditions.
Mule deer numbers in
all of the units should be
slightly improved over
last year.
See, Deer/Page B2