The Columbia is a big daunting river that flows over 1,900 kilometres from its source in Columbia Lake in the Rocky Mountain Trench through British Columbia, into Washington and Oregon before finally gushing into the Pacific near Astoria on Oregon’s coast at a rate of  7,500 cubic metres per second. This river of superlatives once hosted the most important anadromous salmon runs, including some of the biggest chinook salmon, on the west coast of North America until the 1900s. That’s when governments undertook the harnessing of the Columbia with behemoth projects like the Grand Coulee Dam, the Bonneville Dam and BC’s own Mica Dam north of Revelstoke–one of the largest earthfill dams in the world–plus 11 other mainstream water retention structures.

Don Freschi holding a typical Columbia River rainbow. Look at those perfect markings!

Want another superlative? Well, how about this one? The Columbia also offers some of the best rainbow trout fishing this side of daydreams. Particularly just upstream and down from the city of Trail, BC. Though open the year round, late April and early May before the flood gates are opened upstream are a time of steady action for bigger rainbows. Come mid-June when the high waters recede once more, fly hatches start with everything from the big Golden Stonefly to diminutive midges. For fly fishing addicts like Trail’s Don Freschi (sfotf.ca) and guide Dwayne d’Andrea (kootenayflyfishing.com) it’s bigwater fly fishing at its very finest, bar none. For spring fishing, they sweep the tail-outs and riffles between Trail and the Canada/US border using sink tip lines and weighted sculpin, stonefly nymph and Wooly Bugger patterns. The fish are typically around they three to five pound mark with the pot luck of a ten pounder or bigger thrown in for good measure. Record for Columbia rainbows is in excess of 20 pounds. They’re sleek, clean and beautifully marked fish with plenty of shoulder and spunk.

After the spates subside, they switch to floating lines and dry flies for fabulous topwater action, starting with flying black ant patterns for the first few weeks followed by a variety of stone, caddis and mayfly dressings for the rest of the summer. But bear in mind that it’s big water with only limited runs where wading is an option. A boat and heavy water boating experience are the keys to the best fishing.

It’s not exclusively fly fishing water, however. Some of the deeper holes

Gary Crombie with a typical 'bow taken while spin fishing the waters upstream from Trail.

 downstream of Trail offer good spin fishing for rainbows, but the stretch just upstream is perhaps even better suited for this style of fishing. Guide Gary Crombie (www.powerraft.com) primarily works this area, drifting Colorado spinner rigs baited with a small chunk of nightcrawler through the back eddies of the scalloped shoreline. It’s effective fishing with steady action on rainbows in the two to three pound class, though bigger fish are present as well.

Surprisingly, it hasn’t always been this way. Until a little more than two decades ago, the Columbia was little more than a massive dump into which both industry and municipalities dumped their raw refuse. With the river degenerating rapidly into an embarrassing environmental disaster, a massive cleanup was undertaken and, combined with proper wastewater treatment facilities, the Columbia responded quickly. Today, it runs clear and clean, truly a monument to those who tackled the problem and brought about the collective shift in attitudes.

The fish? Well, British Columbia doesn’t actually stock the river, yet rainbows stocked on the Washington side as well as trout from the Arrow Lakes upstream have moved in to populate these waters. There’s yet another untold story–walleye. Lots of walleye. The fish moved in from stocking operations in the US and now offer excellent fishing year round. During my visit, one angler apparently netted a fish of nine and a half pounds.

There you have it. The Columbia River at Trail–great fishing, warm and friendly people and incredible scenery. Check it out.

It was just like Alan Davy stated in his recent Outdoor Canada article “The  Silent Treatment.”

“Once you get a gobble, you’ve got a turkey hunt. But when it seems as though every tom in the woods has his beak tied in a knot, you’ve got a turkey-hunt challenge instead.”

It was the second half of April and the hills surrounding Trail, BC, had already started greening under the warm spring sun. And the fist evening of my trip had provided plenty of promise and anticipation of a successful hunt. After checking into the hotel, I’d taken a quick run out to the property where I normally hunt in the ridges east of town to make a courtesy call on the landowner and, sure enough, in the last glow of evening, I could hear a couple of toms egging each other on mercilessly in preparation for roosting. This was going to be a cinch. All I had to do was get there before first light, set up in the meadow uphill from the roost tree and wait for things to start happening in the first blue grey light of day.

These feathers on the ground are as close as I got this year. Note the white fringe typical of the western Merriam's turkey.

An infallible plan in theory. Problem was there were no tell-tale lumps on the branches of the big, old poplar in the pre-dawn darkness the next morning. Nor in any of the surrounding trees. No turkey talk, no flop-flop of turkeys coming off the roost, just the laughter of robins and, as daylight flooded the ridge, the sound of flickers hammering their staccato greeting on powerline towers. From there on, the turkey hunt turned into Davy’s challenge. I travelled the powerline right of way, trying for a shock gobble with blasts from my peafowl call and later switched to cutts using a a diaphragm for volume. The latter triggered a distant gobble from just inside an off-limits property, but a gobble is a gobble and, with any kind of luck, I’d be able to sweet-talk the tom into range. Knowing that the birds sometimes come in like road runners, I hastily set up two decoys–two hens and a jake–and then hunkered in against the base of a pine, face camo pulled down. Not ideal, but a workable setup nonetheless. Switching to a slate call, I imitated the sound of a small content flock to reassure the tom and give him something to home in on. Good plan, except the tom must have been travelling with a flock of his own because the next time I heard him, he was even farther inside the off-limits property.

That was the last time I heard a tom turkey gobble for the next two days. Peafowl shock calls resulted in stony silence, crow calls did the same and my very best cutting hen call went completely ignored. Not that the toms had left the county. No they were there alright, thumbing their beaks. One dashed across the road on my way back to Trail for some lunch. Another came sneaking across an open field as I suited up for the afternoon hunt on the other side of the road. Both of us in the wide open without a hiding place in sight. At 50 yards, the bird stopped, took a good look at me and turned tail.

So what happened? Why did the birds develop a severe case of apparent lock jaw. Well Alan Davey suggests there are three reasons why they shut down. One is that the birds might be in the thick of their breeding season and the toms are being kept busy; another is that toms that have been recently trounced by a dominant bird are reluctant to call; the presence of predators might also silence them as does hunting pressure; wind, rain and snow will dampen their enthusiasm; and last but not least, in heavily hunted areas, some toms have learned that there’s a lot to be gained by sneaking in without so much as a whisper. I’m guessing that, while the hens might have been especially broody, the buffeting winds and cooler weather  that rolled in through the high mountain passes early in the week may have had something to do with it.

Of course, that’s just a touch of bad luck since I’ve hunted the area of Trail for several years now both at the beginning of the season and at the end and, this year aside,  regularly encounter enough birds to keep things interesting. Talking to the landowners in the immediate area where I hunt, they estimate that even with a slightly heavier winter kill than normal there are nevertheless upwards of 80 birds on the property and that’s more than enough to make for a good hunt. Provided the toms don’t have lockjaw.

Setting up a hunt in the area takes a bit of research. Conservation Officers in the area are one source of information, sporting goods dealers  and members of the Trail Wildlife Association can also get you pointed in the right direction. You’ll find the people in the area warm, exceptionally friendly and always willing to help. Some of the better turkey habitat lies between Trail and Castlegar, but you’ll need to do some footwork because the best turkey country is farmland where permission is necessary–some farmers gladly let you hunt, others don’t want you to step foot on their property. The spring season lasts roughly from mid April to mid May with a second season in October. BC residents currently hunt by virtue of their basic hunting permit, no specific tags needed yet.

Despite buffetting winds that pressed off the broad expanse of the

Youngsters from the area of Castlegar were able to participate in the release, and they got wholeheartedly into the spirit of the event.

Columbia River below the Hugh Keenleyside Dam just upstream from Castlegar, BC, on April 22, a steady procession of youngsters gingerly wound their way to the water’s edge toting red pails brimming with precious cargo. By day’s end, a total of 4,000 juvenile white sturgeon–each of them barely 10 months old and eight inches snout to tail–had been released in the river as part of the Upper Columbia White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative. All told, during the course of the week’s events unfolding in different communties along the Columbia between Revelstoke and the Canada/US border, 12,000 of the fish raised at BC’s Kootenay Trout Hatchery were released in a program that not only returned the ancient fish to their historic range but also fostered a sense of ownership and responsibility in tomorrow’s generations.

Doug Crawley, manager of BC’s Kootenay Trout Hatchery, holds one of the 4,000 juvenile sturgeon released into the Columbia River on Earth Day, 2009.

Once abundant through most of the Columbia River’s 1,900 kilometre circuitous route to the sea, sturgeon numbers plunged to a low of only 4,200 fish (1,000 of these in the Canadian portion of the river) in the span of the last century, a decline that coincided with the proliferation of dams along the river. Worse yet, almost no juvenile sturgeon were to be found, prompting the creation of the Upper Columbia White Sturgeon Recovery Intiative made up of both Canadian and American stakeholders in 2000. Since then, the organization has released between 10,000 and 13,000 young sturgeon in the Canadian portion of the river while additional releases are carried out in the US. All of the fish have marked skutes or plates coded to the year of release and have implanted transponders to monitor their movements up and down the river.

“That must be neat to see,” I ventured to Crawley.

“You bet it is,” he shot back, a smile spreading across his face.

There are not many men you meet in the course of a lifetime who can truly be called gentlemen in every sense of the word. Men who respect your opinions, honour your dreams and listen carefully to your words to understand the thoughts they convey. Men who are upright in their dealings with their comrades and treat all with a quiet dignity.

Len Rich was every bit a gentleman and more. Best known in eastern Canada as a wonderful writer about things outdoors, as a guide and lodge owner and as a mentor to all, Len passed away on April 13 following a short but courageous run-in with cancer. Though his words are stilled and his easy-going manner are just a memory, the world has been a better place because he lived in it.

So long, good friend. We’ll miss you.

Forget about the daffodils, the budding magnolias and the birds. I saw my first real sign of spring on BC’s Lower Mainland today — a big black Conservation Officer Service pickup truck headed through North Vancouver with one of those blue cylindrical live bear traps in tow. Guess the bruins are out of hibernation and straight into people’s garbage. Right on sched. Between the people who take absolutely no responsibility for the way they store their garbage and the self acclaimed nature lovers who leave out tidbits for the poor hungry bears, COs throughout the region and in fact the province, have their hands full every spring catching and transplanting problem bears. There wouldn’t be a problem if there was no food for the bears to find. And if we stopped encroaching on their habitat.

For many big game hunters across western Canada, taking part in the draws for limited entry licences is an annual spring rituals. For the government agencies that set and issue these permits it’s an opportunity to micro manage game populations of a specific area by providing access to a pre-determined number of hunters. For hunters who take part in the draws and manage to score on one of the limited permits, it provides the promise of better than average success ratios, sometimes on above average animals. Here’s a rundown of the upcoming draws. In some cases, the web links provided were not yet updated when this report was prepared, so check them periodically for 2009 specifics. And, if you do take part, good luck to you.

British Columbia

Information on the LEH draws come available during the first week of May and application forms will be available from most licence vendors at that time or download from the government website. Deadline for applications is mid June. You’ll find details for the draw timetable as well as specific species permits at  http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/wildlife/hunting/resident/leh.html#Synopsis.

Alberta

The big game hunt draw booklets are issued in late May and application forms are available in early June with a deadline for all draws toward the end of that month.  Get details on the draw dates as well as draw application proceedures at http://www.mywildalberta.com/Hunting/HuntingDraws.aspx.

Saskatchewan

Information on the draws should come available shortly and paper application forms will be available  at licence vendors such as sporting goods stores as of early May. Online applications can be made at a substantially lower price. Deadline for applications is the end of May. For applications and details, go to https://secure.gov.sk.ca/biggame/default.asp.

Manitoba

This one is now closed. Info usually comes available in early March with a deadline during the first week of April. For future reference, check it out at http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/draw09.html.

My hunting partner took this fine longbeard near Trail, BC, during the 2007 season.

The neighbours are nervous. For the past few days, they’ve been trying to pinpoint the source of all the turkey talk in this suburban enclave and I think they suspect it’s coming from our house. You see, turkey season is upon us in the west and I’m about 10 days away from a combo trout fishing and turkey hunting trip in the area of Trail, BC. Plenty of birds around again this year, I hear, and I’m getting real itchy to be out there at the crack of dawn, talking a longbeard down out of its roost tree. I’m in the process of breaking in a new diaphragm call–I really favour the dome type calls, easy to use and sound just great–and need to fine tune my yelps and clucks. Also made some perfections on my pot call design using jatoba wood for the pot and crystal glass in place of the traditional slate (get glass, crystal, aluminum and, of course, slate disks from http://brooksidegamecalls.com). Just need to get into the groove again and I’ll have every tom in the country sounding off; at least that’s the way it plays out in my pre-hunt dreams.

Decoy or the real thing? Either way, allowing rifles for turkey is a recipe for disaster.

And speaking of turkey hunting, I’m wondering what it will take to get the BC government to come to its senses regarding the use rifles, especially centrefire rifles, for wild turkey. This is utterly irresponsible considering that most turkey hunters use decoys in combination with calling to attract the birds. I’ve seen a tom crippled by yahoos shooting from the road at birds 200 yards away; I’ve talked to dedicated hunters who have had bullets whizzing around their heads; and I’ve had landowners tell me that they will not allow hunters on their land because of run-ins with road hunters armed with rifles. Last year, I watched a couple of guys in a dualy pickup drive slowly up and down the farm road. Thankfully, I was set up quite a ways back from the road and the decoys were out of sight. Later that morning, when I got back to the Jeep, they stopped to talk to me, announcing proudly that they had no idea what turkeys looked like but that they had a flat shooting 17-calibre centrefire rifle that would reach out to 300 yards if needed. That, my friends, is a recipe for disaster. MoE needs to understand that and put a stop to it before something happens.

So computers were supposed to make our lives a whole lot easier. And British Columbia’s provincial bureaucrats figured they’d do us a huge favour by offering the freshwater fishing permits online as of this year. Sounded good, but it just didn’t work out that way. By end of March, with the expiry date on last year’s non-tidal fishing licences upon them and unresolved “technical difficulties” with the Freshwater E-Licencing System still unresolved, the Ministry of Environment announced that anglers could fish unlicenced from April 8 through 17.

MoE decided back in September of 2007 to make the switch from the traditional system of paper licences to a “modern, user-friendly” system of vending the permits which would allow anglers to purchase their permits and individual tags over the Internet. Anglers without access to the Internet would still be able to get their e-licences through participating sporting goods stores taking part in the programme. Enthusiasm on the part of the sporting goods stores has been mixed because the stores maintain the system substantially diminishes traffic of anglers through their facilities. More information about the system as well as updates on the implementation of the e-licence system is available at http://www.fishing.gov.bc.ca/.

Tidal water licences which are a Fisheries & Oceans Canada jurisdiction have been available online for a couple years now. Place to go to find out more is http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/licence-permis/index-eng.htm.

With the advent of a spring we thought would never come, I got news last week that the first coho has been caught in the BC Mainland’s Capilano River. Granted, the fish barely tipped the scales at a pound and a half, but it was, without question an inriver fish. Size-wise, that’s typical of these early run fish that storm upstream through April and May ahead of the low water conditions that develop come June when they cinch down the flow over the Cleveland Dam  eight kilometres upstream. Because these fish come in so early, they miss out on five months of feeding and growing through the summer months.

Ok, now while I’m honour bound not to reveal the run where the fish hit, I can tell you it was somewhere below the Upper Levels Highway bridge. I can also divulge that it stole three ghost shrimp off the angler’s hook before he actually twigged to the fact that the small coho was dining out on his tab. True, they can be sneaky sometimes, but this one took the foam float under each time.

Look for the inriver Cap coho fishing to pick up on the lower runs over the next couple of weeks. May is typically prime time, but by then the word is out and anglers from around the Lower Mainland converge on the river, and the fish enter a state of shock. So the quandry is whether to fish early when there are fewer fish and fewer anglers or later when there are more fish and many more anglers. My druthers are to go early.