A fishing trip and shooting session makes for a great day

My first column appeared in the Frontiersman 16 years ago tomorrow. This means I’m beginning my 17th year with this column. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed them enough that another sixteen years’ worth might happen!

I finally just took a day off and did what I wanted to do. Tuesday, I managed to fit a shooting session, a fishing trip, and a fuel run all in the same long day.

John Moses Browning, the genius American gun inventor, invented what eventually became the Winchester Low Wall 1885 falling-block, single-shot rifle back in the late 1870’s. This was a modified version of his 1885 Winchester High-Wall rifle, invented around the same time. The High-Wall was intended to be an even better large blackpowder cartridge rifle than either the Sharps or the Remington Rolling Block rifles of the times.

It was!

The Low-Wall was developed to chamber smaller cartridges than the huge buffalo cartridges the High-Wall could shoot. Both models have survived to this day, manufactured over the years by Winchester, U.S. Repeating Arms, and Browning, plus numerous Italian gun companies, and are popular with shooters enamored with a single-shot, falling-block style of rifle. I have two: one is an Italian High-Wall in 348 Winchester caliber and the other is a Browning model 78 in 30-06 caliber. Both are modern versions of John Browning’s original creation.

I recently acquired a U.S. Repeating Arms version of the Low-Wall in 22 rimfire caliber. The gun was used but in nearly new condition and came minus the rear sight but with bases attached for a modern scope. I removed the bases and ordered a globe-style front sight and a tang sight for the rifle. I wanted it to look more authentic for the 1880’s time frame.

That’s the gun I took to the USSA range, near Talkeetna, in the afternoon and sighted in at 25 and 50 yards. Now that rimfire ammo is plentiful, I had no qualms about shooting almost 100 rounds of ammo while checking function and adjusting sights. It was fun!

My next stop was Susitna Landing to do a little bank fishing and see about catching a silver salmon. The day had been “hot and dusty,” so I visited with Marilyn for a while until things started to cool off in the early evening. After setting up on a point and getting my line in the water, I just enjoyed the sunshine, the scenery, and the sounds of the river flowing by. I really wasn’t too concerned about catching a fish.

Over the next couple of hours, I got some good bumps but nothing where I could set the hook. I was about to call it a day when the last bump lasted long enough that I could jerk the line. At first, I figured I had pulled the bait away, until the line started moving out into the current and a modest tug-of-war began.

I reeled in the fish, almost losing it once, only to discover it was a fat, 16-inch rainbow trout. I seldom harvest wild trout but this one was going home to become dinner. I hadn’t been fishing in a while and it was a pleasant surprise to be taking home dinner for the next day. The fish tasted really good, too!

After loading up all my gear, forgetting to put my lunch cooler back in the truck and having to backtrack several miles to retrieve it, I was headed to Palmer for fuel. We do most of our shopping at Fred Meyer and value the fuel points we accumulate. This was the last day I could use our June points for fuel and we still had a dollar off per gallon sitting in the computer.

I got there about 11:15 p.m. and proceeded to pump 35 gallons of diesel into my truck tank and the 60-gallon tank I have in the truck bed. I hate leaving any significant amount of fuel points unredeemed and have both 15 and 30-gallon fuel tanks at home to store extra gas and diesel fuel for the busy driving months.

Frank Rue, a former Commissioner of Fish and Game, had an opinion piece in this past Tuesday’s Anchorage Daily News. He states that he hopes the Stand for Salmon ballot initiative passes and he explains why. I agree with his perspective totally and he expressed better than I could why I’ll be voting to support this initiative. The legislature dropped the ball on this and the initiative is the backup. Read his opinion.