Outdoors
Rec
B
Saturday, November 20, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Thankful for public lands
BRAD
TRUMBO
UPLAND PURSUITS
N
ovember is a special
month. Not only because
it’s like an extension
of October in the Walla Walla
Valley, or that the late season big
game hunts are open.
Rather, November offers a time
of reflection as winter approaches
and we gather with friends and
family to give thanks. Given my
love for fall, I spend many cool
evenings reflecting on the outdoor
opportunities I have been afforded
over the years, and the magnif-
icence of our nation’s natural
resources.
One extraordinary September
evening a decade ago, 12 hours to
the southeast of Waitsburg, I stood
amid the roar of the Madison
River in Yellowstone National
Park. The sun had settled peace-
fully behind the western peaks
while the cool humidity of fall
sank into the river bottom. A soft,
white haze began to form about
10 feet off the water as the cool air
from above fought to smother the
moderately warmer temperature
and moisture rising from the river.
To my left was a house-sized
granite boulder with a massive
log jam against the upstream side.
Twilight cast a dense glare across
the river surface, but climbing up
and standing atop the boulder, I
could peer down and see a few
very large mountain whitefish in
the eddy on the downstream side.
They darted swiftly in and out of
the flow, nabbing a bedtime snack.
There was a glorious seam
near a gravel bar across the cur-
rent that was too tempting not to
fish. A tiny Adams fly was des-
tined to be picked up by a feisty
rainbow or brown trout. Preparing
to cast, I stripped out a fair piece
of line and began loading the rod
with short “false casts.” Glancing
Brad Trumbo/Contributed Photo
Ali Fitzgerald watches a bison between casts on the Madison River in Yellowstone.
left, the sight of my little blonde
bride, Ali, waist deep in the cur-
rent, laying out a dry fly brought
a smile.
I stood momentarily entranced
in the scene, but my revelry
began to fade with the faint sound
of a cow elk mewing, and then
another, and yet another. Spotting
movement behind Ali, I gawked
awestruck for minutes as the dark
evergreens under the fading light
began to writhe with elk. Big,
tawny bulls with rich, molasses
manes, raghorns, cows and calves
maneuvered among the trees on
the opposite river bank. They
slowly fed and drank directly
opposite us as we remained
stone still. I felt a fleeting sense
belonging, as if welcomed into
their world. We were just part of
the woodwork.
Daylight vanished with my rod
held at my side. I drank in every
precious moment of that scene as
the final shred of visibility faded
around a couple fly fishermen,
engulfed by the ambient tumbling
river and the screams of rutting
bulls. We climbed from the chill
of the river, stripped out of our
waders, and fired up the heat in
our rig as we returned to our West
Yellowstone hotel. That trip was
noteworthy for a number of rea-
sons, all of which are owed their
own story, but fishing that eve-
ning hatch with my wife on the
Madison will remain one of my
fondest memories of Yellowstone.
Recalling that moment on
the Madison conjures another
elk story, only this one occurred
closer to home. It was modern
firearm deer season and I had
packed into the Wenaha, spiked a
camp, and hunted the high ridges
with my buddy, Marvin, in hopes
of spotting a good mule deer buck
and making a move. It was frigid
for October and spitting snow.
The Eagle Caps appeared as two
small, snow-covered hummocks
to the southeast. The atmosphere
lit up around the peaks, pink as
cotton candy from the few strag-
gling rays of sun clutching the
See, Thankful/Page B2
Becoming a better shot with a pistol Free fishing for the two
days after Thanksgiving
TOM
CLAYCOMB
EO Media Group
BASE CAMP
’ve owned a pistol since I
was in the seventh grade.
You’d think that I’d be a
decent shot with one but ... I’m
not.
Last week my wife Katy
took a shooting class with Kerry
LaFramboise, who owns Watch-
men’s Tactical Training, and now
she’s gone hog wild and has the
shooting bug.
In the meantime, I was testing
a Mantis X10 Elite Shooting
Performance System. It is a
great tool to help you learn how
to shoot better. I don’t have
room to cover it in this article
but you can read about it in an
article at https://gunpowder-
magazine.com/product-review-
the-mantis-x10-elite-shooting-
performance-system/.
We stopped by Stockpile
Defense to talk to Tim, who
knows quite a bit about the
Mantis X10. In talking he asked
me what method I used to shoot
a pistol. I told him the push and
pull method. He told me that
worked but you have a tendency
to pull your aim off toward your
off hand, and that he uses the
Crush method.
Let’s see if I can ade-
quately explain this method
of shooting. You grasp the
pistol with both hands just like
normal but instead of locking
in your elbows you squeeze the
pistol and push upward with
your elbows, thereby causing a
squeezing effect on your grip
which is where the term Crush
comes from.
We then went out on the
prairie and practiced shooting.
Any time you try a new method
or skill, your proficiency will
drop at first but if it is indeed
a better method then you will
I
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
Katy Claycomb has become a pistol shooting aficionado.
soon rise to a higher level than
you had before.
I learned this truth years
ago. I used to play a lot of vol-
leyball (I never was any good
but I played a lot). I could take
a course at a local junior col-
lege for $18. We played for two
hours and then had instruction
for one hour.
It was a great deal. I took
the class probably three times.
In fact, the college finally told
me that I had to declare a major
since all I’d taken was volley-
ball. I told them to cork it, I’d
already done the college deal, I
just wanted to learn how to play
volleyball.
One night the instructor
came in all excited. He had
been to a camp and learned
a new method to spike called
the Hammer Spike. He told us
that we had probably become
proficient at how we currently
spiked but if we’d learn how
to do the Hammer Spike that
we’d rise to a new level. At first
our proficiency would drop
but eventually we’d rise to a
new level. I’ve found this bit of
advice to apply when learning
any new skill.
So, while Katy and I were
shooting I started practicing the
Crush hold. I’m going to switch
over and stick with this method.
Sometimes it’s fun to just
go out and blast plastic bot-
tles filled with water and have
a good time. But I think when
you shoot you actually ought
to always practice and try to
improve your skills. I don’t
want to sound like some drill
sergeant but we can’t ever think
that we’ve reached the pinnacle.
See, Pistol/Page B2
If you’d like to supplement
your Thanksgiving leftovers with
some fresh trout, bass or crappie,
you won’t need to buy a fishing
license for the first two days after
the holiday. Fishing is free in
Oregon on Friday, Nov. 26 and
Saturday, Nov. 27.
So are clamming and crabbing,
if you happen to be at the coast.
Oregon residents and nonres-
idents don’t need a license or tag
(including a combined angling tag
or Columbia River Basin endorse-
ment or two-rod validation) on
either of those two days.
All other regulations do apply,
including daily bag limits and size
restrictions.
For the past several years,
Oregon has made the two days
after Thanksgiving one of the
annual Free Fishing Weekends,
as part of the #OptOutside move-
ment, which encourages people
to get outdoors. Oregon State
Parks also waive parking fees for
day-use entry on “Green Friday,”
Nov. 26.
To look for good fishing spots,
check the weekly Recreation
Report at https://myodfw.com/
recreation-report.
Local options include trout
fishing on the Wallowa River, with
fish up to 18 inches, and angling
for steelhead on the Snake River
just below Hells Canyon Dam.
Other options:
• The water level in Malheur
Reservoir, south of Baker City, is
very low, but fishing for rainbow
trout has been excellent recently,
according to the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
• Wallowa Lake has continued
to produce trout, and fishing pres-
sure is very light, according to the
most recent Recreation Report.
Trout will have switched to more
natural food and anglers should
consider using natural baits or
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald, File
Terry Foersterling, right, with a yellow
perch at Phillips Reservoir on Tuesday
morning, Aug. 17, 2021. Terry and his
brother, Fred, also of Baker City, are
frequent anglers at the reservoir about
17 miles southwest of Baker City.
artificial lures that closely mimic
what the fish are feeding on.
• With cooling water, fishing
for trout, steelhead and coho
salmon has slowed significantly
on the Grande Ronde River. Look
for fish in slow tailouts where they
can conserve energy. When the
flows bump, the best fishing can
be found after the peak as flows
recede.
The regulations for the coho
harvest on the Grande Ronde are:
Open through Nov. 30, or until
further notice, from the Ore-
gon-Washington border upstream
to the Wildcat Bridge, approxi-
mately seven miles upstream from
Troy. The bag limit for adult coho
salmon (longer than 20 inches)
will be two. For jack coho salmon
(20 inches or shorter) the bag limit
will be five, with two daily limits
in possession.
With a diverse makeup of fish
species that anglers may encounter
this year, anglers are encouraged
to brush up on their fish identifica-
tion skills and to release any fish
that they are unsure of the species.