Unmuzzled at area shoot

Let’s talk a little bit about fishing and then do a short wrapup of the Alaska Territorial Muzzleloading Shoot from a couple of weeks ago.

If you’ve read Andy Couch’s column, you know that Andy is seeing “spotty” numbers of coho around the Valley. He also reported strong showings for both pinks and chums at specific locations. While it’s still early, the coho runs should be starting to show in decent numbers if the returns are “normal” for the year. That isn’t happening yet.

I talked by phone with Pat Shields, the Commercial Fisheries Division (CFD) area management biologist in Soldotna, earlier this week. Shields told me that all indicators he’s seen so far — things like commercial fisheries harvest reports, weir count tallies and anecdotal stories from folks out on the various rivers of Cook Inlet — suggest to him that the coho returns are strong and appear to be continuing that way. As I mentioned earlier, Couch, a sport fishing guide here in the Valley, is seeing a different picture.

To their credit, CFD managers have managed a robust Cook Inlet sockeye return in a manner to try to move more Northern District fish through the Central District drift gillnet commercial fishery than we’ve seen in recent years. Have enough sockeye returned north to suggest the management approach worked? It’s still too early to know. However, the way the sockeye commercial fishery is managed from now to the end of the commercial fishing season will make or break our Northern District coho returns because of the mixed stock nature of fish movements in Cook Inlet.

After yet another year of poor king salmon runs, a poor showing by coho will likely cause several sport fishing-oriented businesses to disappear. Our local economy could take another serious, multi-million dollar hit. I heard a comment today in a sporting goods store that a lot of private boats are for sale because of the poor salmon fishing locally in recent years. Let’s hope the coho returns are strong and that the commercial coho harvest is managed in a manner as prescribed and clearly stated in the Northern District coho management plan — coho are to be managed for the benefit of sport and sport-guided anglers.

Now, let’s talk black powder! The turnout for participants at this year’s territorial was down, with only 18 adults competing. The good news is that six youth shooters also participated, for a total of 24 shooters during the four-day competition. Most of the folks were from the Valley or Anchorage, but a few travelled from farther away to shoot as well.

I shot on the line next to Jim and Sandy Dress from Anchor Point and watched as Sandy shot a very nice 25-yard crow target as part of one of the aggregates she participated in. I know her husband, Jim, asked the scorekeepers if he could have Sandy’s crow target after the match was completed so he could have it framed for her, it was that good.

Tyler Kelly, one of the youth shooters, took third place in the pistol aggregate after placing either second or third in the three matches comprising the aggregate score. He accomplished this feat while competing against a couple of national-class shooters and three other adults. This isn’t very surprising, though, since Tyler was the Sub-Junior National Champion at the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA) matches a couple of years ago. The kid knows how to shoot.

Sandra Thomas claimed the glory in the primitive aggregate, beating a couple of accomplished male competitors, among others. In addition to shooting various targets, competitors tried to split a round ball projectile on an ax blade to break two clay pigeons; throw a tomahawk and a knife; and make a fire using flint, steel and traditional tinder. This isn’t the first time in my muzzleloading experience where a lady ended up being the territorial or even state “mountain man” champion.

So how did I do, you might ask? First, I learned I can no longer see open sights without the aid of a diopter on my glasses lens. Then I wasn’t shooting my old standby target rifle nearly as well as I had hoped I would. Then I discovered nobody in their right mind shoots a 50-90 caliber black powder cartridge rifle in competition. The recoil is nasty.

And finally, I learned that one gun I had did not qualify because the sights were wrong. I still won a couple of medals.

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