Hunting and Fishing Report: Thankfully Bartering for a Perfect Thanksgiving Feast

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n order to procure the centerpiece of my Thanksgiving meal I conducted a series of inspired barnyard trades.

First, I rented out my greasy bearded buck goat for a little breeding action out Salkum way. His urine soaked goat-tee is a real doe-killer and he is a hot commodity. But then my high-priced sire came down with a boo-boo on his foot so I had to trek back out east of Ethel, where the wild things roam, in order to do a little hoof maintenance. The friendly farmer then tried to pay me for making the drive out. I tried to refuse payment on the logical grounds that the goat is, in fact, my animal and I am responsible for his care.

My new farmer friend steadfastly insisted and shoved a crisp $20 bill into my hand, saying, “I’ve got this all planned out.”

The plan goes like this; He paid me for the goat breeding service, delivery, and maintenance. In return I got a fully-dressed 45-pound turkey in a garbage bag just in time for the Thanksgiving feast. In return I will send a weaner pig to be named later to Salkum once said pig exists, sometime in early 2016.

“I prefer to barter as often as possible,” explained my newly-acquired farming friend. “Everything is just easier that way.”

As near as I can tell the trade is perfect. When I have turkey all I want to do is eat it and when I have weaner pigs all I want to do is get rid of them. Like they — er, I — say, a big bird in the oven is worth a little pig in the pen.

The barter economy fits in perfectly with the holiday season, although monstrosities like Black Friday may camouflage that fact. From turkey trades to gift exchanges to potluck dinners and communal gatherings, the holidays are all about finding common ground with friends, family and strangers. It is a time for mutually beneficial transactions and interactions alike.

While our modern reality may not readily reveal this truth, at least our fairy-tale stylized revisionist history tries to remind us. The moralized oral tradition which forms the foundation of Thanksgiving for school children, delightfully, if inaccurately, hams up this concept of communal gathering on common ground. While children make cutout-finger-turkeys from brightly colored construction paper, they are regaled with tales of pilgrims merrily breaking bread with Native Americans in order to quell each sides’ misgivings with the other. Thanksgiving was an opportunity to both feed each other and to figuratively bury the hatchet.

The reality that followed this inaugural feast was brutal and far from beneficial to the ingenious people at that table and those spread across the continent, but the idealized legend that grew from that gathering still holds many admirable, humanizing lessons.

In a land that worships at the altar of economic freedom and seeks to feed the insatiable hunger of the beast called Capitalism with gifts of obscene profit, compounding quarterly earnings and hostile takeovers, it is a no small miracle that the accepted Thanksgiving story has not morphed into a more market-friendly tale. One can easily imagine a Thanksgiving creation story in which the pilgrims’ New World Blanket Company fleeces the naive Natives in a bulk blanket deal conducted over rounds of fire water. Those hefty profits would thus “prove” the pilgrims business-minded superiority over their new hunting, gathering and trade inclined neighbors.

On this day dedicated to giving thanks, I am grateful that our national conscience, at the very least, pays lip service to the value of fair trade, communal gatherings and symbiotic relationships, even if our everyday reality celebrates greed and bettering one’s own position at the ultimate, if indirect expense of our friends, family and neighbors.

I am thankful for my gargantuan turkey, my lucky buck, my pregnant pig, barter minded neighbors, and all well told tales, be the tall, fairy, or true in nature. Happy feasting to all of you, my dear and dutiful readers.

 

FISHIN’

Turkey day is here and opportunities for putting tasty trout on your post-holiday plate are only a few helpings of pie away. This week Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife crews are busy stocking thousands of “catchable size” rainbow trout in select Washington lakes and ponds. The vast majority of those waters receiving trout deposits are in southwest Washington. Fort Borst Park Pond, South County Park Pond, Kress Lake, Klineline Pond, Battleground Lake and Rowland Lake will all receive 2,000 rainbows each. Lakes like Offut, Long, and Spencer will receive trout as well.

Those lakes will be closed from Nov. 23-26 in order to facilitate stocking efforts and to allow the fish an acclimation period. Then, the day after Thanksgiving, while crazed masses battle for shopping bargains, tryptophan glazed anglers will be allowed to leisurely cast a line for tasty rainbows averaging more than a foot in length and about one and half pounds each.

Along the Lewis River in the Swift Reservoir the trout season has recently been extended by a month. That fishery, which was originally scheduled to end on Nov. 31, will now run through the end of December. Last May the WDFW planted almost 52,000 “catchable size” hatchery rainbows into the reservoir but prolonged drought conditions made the boat launch unusable and curtailed much of the angling effort. A recent survey indicated that there are still plenty of trout to catch along with landlocked coho and Chinook. Rising reservoir levels have also put the boat launch back in commission. The daily limit for trout is ten fish, but all bull trout and steelhead must be released.

River fishing has been hit and miss, mostly miss, lately because of the rains and their accompanying runoff. However, the cold weather has dried things up a bit and turned the channels a clearer shade of brown, meaning there’s still a chance to hook a hungry salmonid.

On the Cowlitz River the majority of the effort has come from bank anglers clustered around the hatcheries. A few fall Chinook have been hooked near the barrier dam while summer-run steelhead and sea-run cutthroats have been found near the trout hatchery. Last week at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator a total of 1,346 coho adults (751 jacks), 163 adult fall Chinook (8 jacks), 89 summer-run steelhead and 18 cutthroat trout were recovered in five days of operation. River flow at Mayfield Dam on Monday was reported at 14,900 cubic feet per second.

On the Coweeman River the WDFW reported light angling effort last week with no documented success for steelhead.

The Kalama River has had an slight uptick in effort this week with anglers hooking a “mix of coho and steelhead,” according to a WDFW creel sample.

On the Lewis River the fishing varies depending on which branch you take. On the East Fork, where all salmon must be released, bank anglers were reportedly “catching some coho and steelhead.” The steelhead were predominantly unclipped though. On the North Fork it was mostly quiet with “light” effort and catch reported.

Taking a look outside of southwest Washington, the Hoh River on the west end of the Olympic Peninsula has been shuttered to fishing until Dec. 1. The closure only applies to Hoh waters outside of the Olympic National Park however. A disappointing return of coho prompted the WDFW to apply the closure on Nov. 24, and the Hoh Tribe also suspended their fishing operations until the end of the month. On Dec. 1 anglers will again be permitted to harvest steelhead and other game fish.

 

HUNTIN’

The arrival of the holiday season signals to hunters that the time is slipping away and the majority of their prized fall hunting season has gone the way of the dodo. Just last week, for instance, we saw the end of modern elk-season as well as the beginning and end of late black-tailed buck season.

This week Nov. 25 is the date circled for most hunters. On that date bow and muzzleloader hunters will be allowed in the woods for both black-tailed deer and elk.

The late season turkey hunt began on Nov. 20 and will run through Dec. 15, so if you missed out on your Thanksgiving gobbler you still have time to bag a bird for Christmas. That eastern Washington hunt will take place in GMU’s 105-154, and 162-186.



 

CRABBIN’

Like an oil sheen on the surface of the Pacific Ocean the scourge of domoic acid continues to shape-shift. Most recently the WDFW has acted to delay the opening of Washington’s commercial crabbing season along the south coast. That move coincides with similar actions taken by Oregon and California.

Earlier this month the WDFW’s coastal shellfish manager, Dan Ayres, indicated in an email that the domoic acid toxins were only impacting clams and that crabs were likely in the clear for harvest and consumption. A few days after that assertion though Willapa Bay was closed to all recreational crabbing and just last week came the decision to suspend commercial crabbing.

In an email this week Ayres attempted to explain what happened in the interim. According to parts of a “sneak-preview” press release forwarded by Ayres, “Recent tests indicate crab caught along Washington’s ocean coast are safe to each, but shellfish managers decided to conduct additional testing before opening the commercial fishery.”

All recreational crab fishing in Washington, besides Willapa Bay but including Puget Sound, is currently open.

“We’re taking extra precautions due to the high volume of crab typically caught within the first weeks of the commercial opening,” said Ayres. “We want people to feel confident that the crab they buy is safe to eat.”

The commercial crab fishery was slated to open on Dec. 1, but the WDFW will have to review additional tests conducted by the Department of Health before setting a new opening date. The area closed to commercial crabbing extends from the Columbia River up to Klipsan Beach on the Long Beach Peninsula. Ayres expressed optimism that commercial crabbing could be back on track by mid-December. Similarly, all recreational clam digs have previously been suspended until at least mid-December, but in the words of Ayres, “Your guess is as good as mine” as to when, and if, they will actually open.

Consumption of domoic acid contaminated shellfish can cause illness or death in humans. Cooking or freezing the toxin does not reduce its toxicity.

 

SNOWIN’

Renowned Morton-White Pass roundballer Kaleb Poquette reported a frigid blanketing of snow in the east Lewis County hills on Tuesday morning and a smattering of reports of snow as low as 900 feet came in from around western Washington as well. Those flakes have given snow enthusiasts hope for a new round of slope openings this weekend.

Last week Mt. Baker won the race to open first and they enjoyed their singular status all weekend. This week they have four new inches of the white stuff which pushed their season totals to 35-inches of packed snow at the base and 63-inches of pack at the summit. The mountain is operating under normal weekday and weekend operations.

At White Pass four inches of snow piled up between Monday night and Tuesday morning. That new snow put the total snowpack at seven inches for the base and 22-inches at the top. An opening later this week was listed as “possible” on Tuesday.

Mt. Hood Meadows received three inches of new snow early in the week. That puts their base pack at 11-inches with a 26” base halfway up the slopes. According to their website operators at Meadows are, “Setting our sights on a Thanksgiving weekend operation. Stay tuned!”

Crystal Mountain was open mid-week with limited runs as snow fell and more on the way. By Tuesday they had four new inches of snow and base pack of six inches with 20 inches stacked up on top.

Snoqualmie Summit experienced light snow conditions in the early week. They have yet to open any trails and have not given any indication of when that might happen.

Stevens Pass has possibly the worst accumulation of the bunch so far with only five inches of pack at the base and 18-inches at the summit. In the early week they received a pittance of two inches of new snow and no trails or lifts were scheduled for opening.

 

WILDLIFERS

The largest fire in the history of the Olympic National Park has finally been extinguished. The Paradise Valley Fire burnt for more than six months before a deluge of rain finally put it out on Nov. 18.

Those rain storms, which dropped a few inches of rain here in southwest Washington, dropped more than two feet of rain in the well drained western hills of the Olympic Mountains. The fire, which as of the last official tally back in September had burnt 2,795 acres of old growth rain forest, burnt along the Queets River. The fire was started by lightning back in May.

Looking over at North-Central Washington, the US Fish and Wildlife in conjunction with the WDFW have recently confirmed the existence of a new wolf pack. This new pack, named the Loup Loup Pack, are known to be ranging areas of the Methow Valley around the towns of Twisp and Omak.

A batch of independent wolf sightings in the area led the WDFW and the USDA Wildlife Services to survey the area and confirm the presence of new wolves.

The gray wolf is considered endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act as well as by the state of Washington.

If the scent of roasting turkey has you looking all the way forward to Christmas already then you should pick up a Christmas Tree harvest permit for the Gifford Pinchot national Forest. Those permits are for sale by the USDA and they cost only $5 each. Up to five permits are allowed per household and trees up to 12-feet tall are allowed for harvest.

Permits can be purchased at the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District in Randle or at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Amboy. Private vendors with Christmas tree permits include Fischer’s Market in Randle, Blanton’s Market in Packwood and Kalama Spirits and Tobacco in Kalama.