It’s not every day that your pig runs away. If it were, then a person would presumably know just what to do. But since pigs don’t run away every day, it is difficult to put your finger on the precise course of action once that occasion does come rolling around.
That day came ‘round for me recently when my newly-purchased and prized breeding boar, built with the size and temperament of Falcor, the white dragon-dog from ‘The Neverending Story’ took off on an unannounced sojourn.
I should add that the boar comes equipped with a sizeable set of protruding tusks and two handfuls of man jewels that are borderline barnyard pornographic. It’s a look that is hard to define, but as former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart infamously remarked, “I know it when I see it.”
A scrambled concoction of my CSI and backwoods tracking skills allowed me to track the escaped beast’s first movements. To be exact, I found four hoof prints before the trail ran dry. My Law & Order: Livestock Unit skills led me to believe that the hog had been scared by a combination of figurative shock from overhead lightning and the literal shock of a one-joule electric wire around his pen.
The wire is supposed to keep pigs away from the fence. In this case, it seems to have sent the behemoth hurtling right through the hot wire, hog panel, fence and all.
In a panic I called the Humane Society. Surprisingly, they had found a pig. Disappointingly, it wasn’t my pig.
In even more of a panic I crashed through the brush on the perimeters of the property like farmer Tommy Lee Jones looking for the fugitive Harrison “Hog” Ford. I stopped and listened for the sound of crashing swine in the distance. I heard nothing. I saw nothing. I lapped the property once, twice, three times a lady. I walked the railroad tracks and spoke with railroad men, all to no avail.
Eventually, I went home to my lonely, lovesick sow and cursed our luck. She was due to come into heat in a manner of days and now she was abandoned by a fickle male answering his call to the wild.
In the dog days of summer the heat can keep us up, and if we’re lucky the rain can put us to sleep. If Bert and Ernie are to be believed, some folks choose to count sheep jumping fences until they find slumber.
That thought cracks like real lightning in my mind and wakes me with the furor of a midnight freight train on a northbound track.
Summer turns to fall. A moment of rest turns to distress and animals are breaching the fences. A dream turns to nightmare in a flash, and a terrifying, friendly beast lurks in the bushes.
FISHIN'
A substantial shift in the weather has changed the fishing scene in the Pacific Northwest. Rivers have picked up their pace and volume while turning chalky with a fresh wave of sediment and sluff.
The rainwater runoff has cooled rivers and brought an end to the summer long fish-boil that tormented salmon, steelhead and sturgeon in the region. In light of the recent cool down the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in conjunction with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife, has lifted the emergency moratorium on sturgeon fishing in the Columbia River Basin.
That change of policy took effect on Sept. 1, meaning anglers can now catch and release sturgeon above and below Bonneville Dam. There are currently no fisheries open for sturgeon retention.
More than 80 large sturgeon died in the Columbia River back in July due to the elevated water temperatures.
“The extreme conditions that was (sic) subjecting sturgeon to stress have passed,” explained Guy Norman, region manager for the WDFW, in a press release. “We believe it’s safe to reopen fishing in areas of the river closed since mid-July.”
Washington fish managers also lifted more than a dozen hoot-owl restrictions and closures on rivers around the state on Wednesday. In Southwest Washington, the hoot-owl and closure restrictions on the Nisqually, East Fork Lewis and Washougal rivers were both lifted.
Fish officials in Oregon also lifted hoot-owl restrictions around the state, and re-opened the lower Willamette River and a portion of the Clackamas River to trout, salmon, steelhead and sturgeon fishing.
“Our biologists in the field are reporting that water temperatures in most places are back to within the seasonal averages for this time of year,” said Mike Gauvin, ODFW recreational fisheries manage, in a news release.
Elsewhere, the fishing has been so good that the waters have been closed up early. The final 16-mile stretch of the lower Columbia River, known as Buoy 10, was closed off to Chinook harvest last Friday after record catch rates gobbled up the remainder of the quota.
In four weeks of targeting Chinook around Buoy 10 the WDFW estimates that at least 35,000 Chinook were caught and bonked.
“This year’s Buoy 10 chinook fishery got off to a fast start and just kept picking up speed,” said Norman, in a separate press release. “We had hoped to keep the chinook fishery open through Labor Day, but the mounting catch reached the harvest guideline sooner than expected.”
Anglers are still permitted to target and keep clipped coho and clipped summer steelhead at Buoy 10, which extends upriver to the Rocky Point/Tongue Point. Chinook are still legal for harvest upriver from the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line all the way up to Warrior Rock.
“This fall season will continue to provide good fishing for chinook in the Columbia River upstream to the Hanford Reach,” noted Norman. “If the Buoy 10 fishery is any indication, it should be a great year for salmon fishing.”
The week leading up to the end of the Chinook harvest was possibly the largest single-week haul on record, with almost 18,300 Chinook kept. The mortality rate for released salmon has been 19 percent, according to the WDFW.
Anglers who prefer to head out to sea rather than chase the kings upriver will be able to keep two Chinook per day in Marine Area 1 off of Ilwaco. That rule change went into effect on Aug. 29. Anglers were already allowed two Chinook in Marine Area 2 off of Westport.
“We have enough chinook remaining under the guideline to allow anglers two chinook per day off Ilwaco without much risk of having to close early," explained Doug Milward, ocean salmon manager for the WDFW, in a press release.
As of Aug. 30 anglers off Ilwaco had brought in about 50 percent of the allotted 15,750 Chinook salmon. Last week boat anglers averaged 1.25 salmon per rod in Marine Area 1, while 829 anglers scrambled the North Jetty and brought in 101 Chinook and 947 coho, edging their floating cohorts with 1.26 fish per rod.
A slow coho bite has prompted fishery managers to open up the coho harvest to all fish, clipped or unclipped beginning Sept. 4.
"With so much of the coho catch quota remaining this late in the season, we can allow anglers to keep both hatchery and wild coho without exceeding our conservation objectives for wild salmon," said Milward, in another press release.
All four ocean salmon fisheries in Washington are slated to run through Sep. 30.
Back up on the Columbia last week some 18,201 angler trips were undertaken on the lower river. That effort brought in 6,931 adult Chinook (258 released) and 368 coho (59 released). The cumulative catch for August totaled 9,080 adult Chinook, which is the second highest total for August in the modern dam era.
Stormy weather depressed the final efforts of August a bit but everyone seems to have found their rain gear and efforts appear to be increasing again. Last week anglers fishing Buoy 10 led the way, averaging 2.63 fall Chinook and 3.96 coho per boat. Up in the Columbia gorge boat anglers brought in 2.67 fall Chinook per boat while anglers between Vancouver and Cathlamet averaged 1.03 fall Chinook per boat.
On the tributary scene efforts have been hit and miss and the waters have been a bit murky.
The Cowlitz and Kalama rivers were both reported as “milky white” by the WDFW earlier this week and there was no report of angling success.
At the Cowlitz Salmon hatchery separator last week Tacoma Power collected 334 summer-run steelhead, 278 spring Chinook adults, 73 fall Chinook adults and one coho. Those fish workers also went about releasing 271 spring Chinook adults and 25 jacks into the Cispus River, as well as 72 fall Chinook adults, 11 jacks, one coho adult and one cutthroat into the Tilton River.
The state is continuing to monitor the food oil spill in Winlock that resulted from a fire at a warehouse. That spill wound up in Olequa Creek, which run into the Cowlitz, and has killed at least 100,000 fish so far.
On the Wind River the few boat anglers that were sampled reportedly “did well” for steelhead, although about half of the catch was non-hatchery origin, necessitating its release.
Effort on Drano Lake has begun to flip over to fall Chinook. Catch rates are improving for Chinook and holding steady for steelhead, with hatchery fish now making up about half of the steely catch. Boat anglers in Bonneville Pool have been “doing well” for fall Chinook, especially at the mouth of Drano Lake.
HUNTIN’
The long anticipated arrival of deer season is upon us. September 1 marked the start of archery season in most areas of Washington and put white-tail, black-tail, and mule deer on high-alert.
As noted snake wrangler and Mariners pitching prospect Tyler Pike quipped on Twitter that morning, “Welcome hunting season! You’ve been missed!”
That sentiment is shared ten thousand times over by camo-clad hunters with an itchy trigger finger and no professional baseball career to tend to.
The weather has even cooperated to coordinate a successful trip into the woods. The pitter-patter of rain and the rip of wind through the trees create a cluttered ambient noise in an otherwise still and silent setting. The sound of wetted nature allows hunters to move about undetected while the wet and cold keeps the uncommitted yahoos at bay.
The precipitation also decreased the risk of fire in the backwoods, and that is as important as anything.
A smorgasbord of other backwoods inhabitants went on the open game list with the turning of the calendar page. That list includes forest grouse, crows, mourning doves, bobcats, fox, raccoons, rabbits, hare, coyotes and cougars. Canada goose season is now open in Area 2B as well.
CRABBIN'
A change in season and a change in ocean conditions have led to the reopening of crab fishing along Washington’s north coast.
Both recreational and commercial efforts for Dungeness crab are back underway from Point Chehalis to the Queets River now that levels of domoic acid have receded and crabs are once again safe for consumption.
The southern coast, from Point Chehalis to the Columbia River is still closed to crabbing. Updated listings of crabbing closures can be found on the Department of Health shellfish safety webpage.
In Puget Sound most areas will close to crabbing on Labor Day, as originally scheduled. Only two crabbing areas, 7-North and 7-South, near the San Juan Islands will remain open.
All crabs harvested after Sept. 7 must be recorded on a winter catch card, while summer catch cards must be sent in to the WDFW by Oct. 1. Sport fishers who neglect to return their catch cards will face a ten dollar fine when purchasing their next license.
"Catch reports play a major role in determining how much crab is still available for harvest during the winter season," said Rich Childers, the WDFW's shellfish policy lead, in a press release. "It's important that we receive reports from everyone licensed to fish for crab in Puget Sound - whether or not they caught crab this year."
Childers also said that he expects the WDFW to announce winter crab seasons for Puget Sound in early October, once the summer catch has been tallied.
WILDFIRES
Cooler temperatures and persistent rain have helped firefighters make gains on wildfires in eastern and western Washington, although authorities insist that we are not out of the burning woods yet.
On Wednesday a total of 29 wildfires were still burning in Washington.
The Okanogan Complex fire, which last week became the largest wildfire in Washington’s history at no less than 280,267 acres, has shrunk considerably to 147,979 acres . The North Star fire on the Colville Indian Reservation is now the largest current fire in the state, coming in at 205,331 acres as of Wednesday.
The Alder Lake wildfire near Mineral in Lewis County held steady over the weekend at 275 acres. That fire, which was sparked by lightning, is estimated by the DNR to be at about 15 percent containment.
WILDLIFERS
The WDFW is seeking to fill three positions on their Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Recreational Anglers Board.
The role of the board is to guide the WDFW on the implementation of the Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Pilot Endorsement Program. That program requires anglers fishing for salmonids on the Columbia River or its tributaries to pay extra for their license. The WDFW says they use that money for managing fisheries, law enforcement, data collection and monitoring.
Board members are also tasked with communicating with the general public. Applicants should have at least a general understanding of Columbia River fishing rules as well the desire and skill to speak with anglers and organizations with vastly differing viewpoints.
The endorsement program, which was approved in 2009, is set to expire in 2016, although the WDFW has stated its desire to extend the program.
Additional information can be found on the WDFW website, or by calling (509) 754-4624 ext. 224.
