Making the transition: Fishing to hunting

The general moose hunting season opened Wednesday and will continue through Sept. 25 locally. As usual, I’m not ready to get out this early in an attempt to harvest a moose. I’m still in a fishing frame of mind and haven’t made the transition to hunting yet.

I’ve never been a big fan of hunting this early part of the season anyway. While the weather can be very pleasant for pursuing the winter meat supply, as this past week’s sunshine illustrates, the weather is the main reason I don’t like hunting this early.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Sitting in the sunshine while watching a feeding area for the arrival of a bull is quite enjoyable and beats sitting in the rain any day. However, I’ve noticed over time that bugs also like that same sunshine. I mean that same exact sunshine that’s shining on me. Once the bugs notice me, the fun stops and the bug dope/head net/swatting starts happening.

The other weather related problem is the daytime temperature. If you happen to bag your moose in the morning on a sunny day like we’ve been having and you’re in a camp, that meat won’t begin to chill down until 12 to 16 hours later, assuming the overnight temperatures cool down into the low 40’s to upper 30’s. If the day was cloudy and those clouds hang on through the night, the temperatures might not get any lower than mid to upper 40’s or even low 50’s. Given those later temperatures, you’ll want to get your meat out of the backcountry and into a refrigerated meat locker within a day or so or risk loosing the meat to spoilage.

Another problem with this early season hunting is lack of visibility. Unless you’re hunting an open meadow, a power line right-of-way or some other clearing, the leaves make it impossible to see very far if at all. If your favorite hunting haunts are located in a woods setting, good luck seeing that bull. I’ve been in situations where I could hear and smell the moose but couldn’t catch a glimpse of it at all.

I know some folks who use tree stands to get elevated for somewhat improved visibility and scent control, but a tree stand wouldn’t work in many places and is just something else to carry into the woods. If you carried it in, you will eventually need to carry it back out and, in the interim, you should figure some way to secure the stand from possible theft by some less ethical person who might find it while you’re somewhere else.

Of all the moose hunting I’ve done, I have to admit I most enjoyed hunting during the late spike-fork season which used to extend from late November into early December. Unfortunately, that season was eliminated about 11 or 12 years ago because of abuse by hunters, i.e., chasing and harassing moose with snowmachines, shooting other than spike or fork-horned bulls and such. However, when I could hunt during that time, I didn’t worry about bugs, warm temperatures were definitely not a concern, and a little snow on the ground actually greatly improved my ability to see moose from some distance away.

While I’m still in a fishing mode, I plan to take advantage of the fact that most of you have already put your fishing gear away for the year. The silvers are still trickling into our valley river systems and the rainbow and dolly fishing is only going to get better as the weather cools off. Northern pike fishing will also improve significantly as we head into the fall season.

Last week, my wife and I spent three days fishing for cohos at our favorite fishing location. This location is hardly a secret and usually is crowded with boats when the silvers are running. This last trip we only had to contend with one or two other boats on occasion for the prime spot and, in fact, had no competition at all over half the time we fished!

So how did we do?

My wife limited out on silvers all three days, usually within an hour or two. I limited on silvers two days and kept one silver and two lightly colored chums on the third day, again usually within a couple of hours of fishing. While the action wasn’t what I would call “hot,” it was steady and even somewhat predictable.

A couple of times my wife commented on how nothing had happened for an hour or so and that it was time for things to pick up. Without fail, we had two or three fish hanging off the stringer within a half-hour of her comments. Sometimes she scares me with her “intuition.”

As I write this, we’re planning another fishing trip to our favorite location and are discussing checking out a few other spots we haven’t tried before. If things work out, we may fish our way through September too! Don’t worry though, I still plan to make a few trips for moose as well. If I bring the rifle along on a fishing trip, I think that counts as hunting too, don’t you?

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.