Blast & Cast - 2018 Finale

Urban Outcast Music #29 - Feelin' Good Again by Robert Earl Keen

For starters, my apologies for the interruption in service. Neither the blasting nor the casting to be discussed below were going to be my last outing of the year. Yet, the afternoon after the low-key fishing trip saw my back seize up and by the next morning the little man was overjoyed to see that his dad had swore off walking and would be in the crawling club indefinitely. A month and a half of lounging and watching hunting/fishing youtube channels has not cured me but I have figured out a setup that lets me stay horizontal and still see the desktop... Feeling my advanced age has been a humbling experience but now there is no conflict between wanting to be adventuring and the desire to share that adventuring.

The Blasting:
This was a scouting trip to build up enough options for me to serve as a credible guide for at least three days of hunting with my old man and his pack of dogs. Oak and I set out to do a couple new loops in the Desert Wildlife Area on the 2nd of December. Things were surprisingly frosty with many of the little lakes on the route already iced over and devoid of ducks.

It took us a couple hours to get out past the heavily trafficked areas and put up some birds. The first flush was a covey of quail. I'm still abstaining from targeting these little rockets but one of the birds couldn't or wouldn't fly and I got to see flashes of Oak in hot pursuit through the reeds. Oak did his best to get on the board first but that wily bird eventually gave him the slip (alternatively and equally possible - Oak swallowed him).    

The next flush was one of only two roosters for the day but my sprint to get into a shooting position was just a little too slow and we watched him sail away. Pretty slim pickings for 6 miles of walking but after this point there were birds in the air every 20 minutes or so. In total we saw 14 pheasants and 3 quail coveys on most excellent, close range flushes by Oak. Every year I am more proud of how he has mastered these multi-game hunts with zero guidance from his negligent hunting partner. I really let him down this year but I have promised to over compensate next season until he is the one begging for a month on the couch.

No ducks this trip as the canal was oddly empty. Not sure if that was a timing issue between migrations or if we were hunting too close to the public toilet. In the end we covered 15 miles, a record for a bird day but also a symptom of my slacking on cattail busting...

The Casting:

Two fall fishing trips was all I managed this year. The first was the obligatory after-work Queets visit but the river was empty above and below the water as all the locals knew it was pointless. I did hear elk bugling so it was totally worth the visit. The second trip was on the 15th of December to see if the steelhead had arrived on the Skykomish.

  

Nope, no steelhead on the Sky... There were at least 100 fisherfolk trying around the Reiter Hatchery. I started as the furthest position upriver where I could keep on eye on everyone without having to exercise my social skills and never saw a single fish get hooked. I walked downriver to the other end of the crowd to say hi to my relief valve sales guy and then headed out to see if the Wallace River was fairing any better.

Nope, no steelhead on the Wallace... A lot less people but the result was the same. A couple of the truly desperate were trying to catch some zombie salmon. I waded a little ways downstream and collected three lures from snags and practiced waterboarding my phone.

The third and final stop of the day was a visit to a small pullout on the Wallace that I never knew the legal status on. This year I had OnX and could see it was fair game. It was a beautiful little spot with some good runs and only one other fisherman. He was really nice and shared his strategies for wading some tricky water but that jerk waited until I was walking by to hook on the only fish I saw all day. I had run out of time to take advantage but I knew where I was going to be next weekend...