Spring’s a busy time for outdoors enthusiasts

I seem to be putting a lot of reminders at the beginning of each column anymore.

This weekend is Easter Sunday. Celebrate the holiday with your family; enjoy the Easter egg hunts and the colored eggs, the chocolate bunnies and the Easter baskets, but don’t forget the true reason for the celebration — the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the most important Christian holiday of the year.

Please keep that in mind while you enjoy the secular weekend activities.

My next reminder extends to the following weekend. The Great Alaska Sportsman’s Show begins on April 8 and runs through the 11th at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. While this isn’t the first outdoor show of the season, it is by far the largest, attracting venders and show-goers from around the state.

Attending the show this year will be a balancing act. I got called for jury duty in April and I normally try to avoid going to the sportsman’s show on the weekend because of the crowds. Here’s hoping I won’t be picked for any major trials coming up and I’ll be free to attend the show either Thursday or Friday.

Now that we’re into early April, several things are happening. Obviously, the first is breakup.

Along with that comes trying to fit the last few icefishing trips of the winter in before the ice becomes too dangerously thin. I’ll also spend some time getting ready for the king salmon fishing season and prepping my riverboat for the coming year. I need to go through my king salmon lures and sharpen or replace hooks, make sure the fishing reels are clean and properly lubricated, the line is still usable and that the rods are all in good shape.

One other piece of equipment that needs a check is my hooligan dip net. My wife and I usually get our hooligan from the Susitna River rather than driving all the way south of Anchorage to the Twentymile River area. While the saltwater areas have fish earlier, we’ve found that right around Memorial Day the hooligan are running where we can access them in the Susitna River. We’ve also learned that either the fish are there or they’re not. When they’re not, we at least have fun looking.

While we’re talking dipnetting, here’s another item. The Legislature will be finishing its session sometime in mid-April. Representative Bill Stoltz has introduced a bill (HB 266) which would give salmon dipnetting an elevated priority over sports and commercial fishing in times of resource shortages, somewhat similar to the priority subsistence fishing currently enjoys.

If you support this legislation, you should contact your legislators or, better yet, all the legislators, and let them know you support this bill and want to see it passed this session. There is a push in Juneau to try to get this bill turned into law, so now’s the time to voice your support.

For those of you unhappy with the Board of Fisheries’ recently adopted definition of a subsistence way of life and its continued classification of the Chitna dipnet fishery as a personal use fishery, this legislation, if passed, would provide the priority protection that was being sought by reclassifying the Chitna fishery as subsistence. If you don’t speak up now, you can’t complain if this bill dies for lack of support.

For those of you who applied for a drawing hunt permit, Fish and Game initially said the drawing results would be available in mid-March. Then I heard the results were supposed to be available the end of March. The last I heard was maybe sometime in early April. I haven’t looked recently, but I also haven’t heard anybody talking about the permits they drew. Hopefully, the results will be out soon.

While we’re talking hunting, don’t forget about the spring black bear baiting season coming up. Under Alaska law, if you operate a bear baiting site you must hold a bear baiting certification issued by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The certification course runs for a couple of hours and you will learn, among other things, how to tell the difference between a black and a brown bear and what the regulations require for bait site cleanup.

I know Fish and Game just completed a baiting certification course at the Mat-Su Outdoorsman Show this past weekend. I think Sportsman’s Warehouse has a course scheduled within the next day or two. If you’re needing a certification to hunt this spring, call Sportsman’s Warehouse and/or Fish and Game for their schedules to learn if any other certification classes will be presented out here in the Valley this spring.

While we’re talking certificates and training courses, don’t forget to enroll in a hunter education class and a recreational boating safety class. Certain of the drawing permit hunts require one or more hunter education certifications in order to participate.

All 49 of the other states require a hunter education certification if you are planning a spring turkey hunt or maybe a hog hunt Outside. The boating safety class will teach you good things about boat operations and may save you some money on your boat insurance with proof of successful completion. It might even save your life.

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.