Moving through one season into the next

As we slide further into this late fall/early winter season, most folks have already packed away both their fishing and hunting gear. They may have even started looking toward and planning for the 2016 season, in spite of the fact there are still a few fishing and late season hunting opportunities available. I suspect some diehard anglers are already checking their icefishing equipment and are eagerly awaiting the onset of freeze-up and the thickening of lake ice to begin that activity.

Now is the time to winterize your boat and possibly your ATV, if you haven’t already done so. It’s time to clean up lures, sharpen hooks, wipe off rods and reels, dry out tents, regrease boots, and clean camping gear from your last fishing or hunting adventure. It’s also time to start planning winter activities like snowmachining trips, snowshoe hikes, the aforementioned icefishing excursions, skiing trips, and whatever else “floats your boat,” as my uncle used to say.

Drawing permit applications for the 2016 season will start being accepted next month. Several drawing permit hunts require one or more of the hunter education certifications in order to even apply. I believe, if you plan to hunt big game anywhere in Alaska with a bow and arrow beginning in 2016, you will be required to have the bow hunter education certification card in your possession along with your hunting license.

One thing you should look into during this in-between time of outdoor inactivity is getting your hunter education certification, whether it be the basic version, the bow hunter course, or the muzzleloader training.

I will be involved in teaching a muzzleloader course with two other hunter education instructors Saturday, and a basic hunter education course in two weeks with two other volunteer instructors. There aren’t a lot of courses still remaining to be taught this calendar year, so you might want to check into signing up for whichever course you need to apply for that special drawing hunt.

I picked up my Polaris six-wheeler and have it at my house. I have yet to unload it off the trailer and start the engine break-in period with some local off-road trips, but I hope to get some hours on it over the next week or so. I’ve started assembling a tool box, just in case, and I bought a set of larger ratchet tie-down straps for it. I brought my best tie-down straps from my other trailer when I went to get the 6x6 and the technician telling me the “do’s and don’t” suggested I might want to use heavier-duty two-inch wide straps, just to be safe. My other straps were “marginal.” Hey, he’s been there and done that, so who am I to argue!

There’s still a lot of little set-up things I need to do, both to the trailer and the six-wheeler, but that’s half the fun of owning one of these machines. In fact, I sometimes think I enjoy the setting-up of new outdoor equipment, whether it is a new firearm or this six-wheeler and its hauling trailer, as much as the actual use of the equipment.

For instance, the factory skid plate on this six-wheeler might pass muster in the Lower 48 but I’ve been told it’s sadly lacking for running Alaskan trails. I’ve found a plastics company in Wasilla that can replace my skid plate with a piece of half-inch thick HDPV (or whatever alphabet combination fits) that protects a much larger area underneath and won’t cost me a second mortgage on my house! The replacement skid plate will better protect the machine’s drive train and will also make life much easier if I get high-centered on a log or a rock. A simple push and the machine will slide off the high-center point.

How do I know that?

My friend who bought the same machine a few years ago added this same plastic skid plate to his machine and has slide it off a few high-centers with ease.

A couple of other “add-ons” I’m planning are a snowplow for driveway clearing and a three-sided rack on the dump bed. The snowplow set-up will be nice if we get much snow and it will also give me a reason to keep the machine running well into the winter months. The rack, when properly designed, will give me a place to mount a “handi-man” style jack and a spare tire. I love customizing my outdoor stuff!

Howard Delo, a retired fisheries biologist, writes a weekly outdoors column for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. This column is the writer’s and does not necessariy reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications.