There may be a silver lining in COVID’s cloud — the allure of the outdoors.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reports the sale of 163,000 fishing and hunting documents last year to apparent first-time license holders. “Apparent” because records were only checked back to 2016.
It’s an unusual uptick in sales, which have been in a slow decline.
Even better, 8,550 were youth licenses.
The trend has been repeated nationwide, said Jeff Boechler, the department’s watershed manager in Clackamas. Boechler reported the figures to this past week’s meeting of local fish leaders.
“I think people were tired of being trapped indoors,” he said. (Hopefully that includes 8,550 smartphone addicts.)
“They said their reasons were that the outdoors is healthy, safe and provides them time to relieve stress,” Boechler said.
As if on cue comes an interesting wrap of last week’s Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show.
Trey Carskadon, spokesman for OT Shows, said attendance was down, but the show planned for that by enacting safety standards, social distancing and controlled ticket sales.
What wasn’t anticipated, Carskadon said, were the sales. “They were out the roof,” he said. “Nearly every vendor said they’ve never seen it so good.” From boats (most floor models were sold at the show) to record sales by Beaverton optics giant Leupold, attendees came to buy, Carskadon said.
One reason may have been wider aisles, which allowed the public room to interact with vendors without being shoved along by crowded narrower passages.
Whatever the reasons, outdoors in the Pacific Northwest is not always cloudy.
Go fish: And the icing on the good news? It’s spring! Time to quit wishing.
By mid-April, summer and fall salmon seasons will be set, with an unusually healthy run of coho predicted to catch the attention of anglers up and down the coast and Columbia River.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has resumed publishing the trout-stocking schedule on its Web site. April and May are excellent months to get out fishing since lakes and ponds are still cool enough for cold-water loving rainbow trout.
However, the Willamette Zone stocking schedule is still a work in progress. Accurate weekly stocking information for the valley is in the department’s Recreation Report, published at midweek.
At the fish leaders meeting, Peter Stevens, the department’s metropolitan district fish biologist, said the department will begin promoting more warmwater fishing opportunities in the Portland area, including the Tualatin River and Henry Hagg Lake, near Forest Grove.
Hagg Lake is a year-round fishery with excellent spring trout prospects followed by several species of warmwater fish throughout the summer and early fall.
Stevens will work with the Oregon Bass and Panfish Club, an excellent source of information about warmwater fishing and a partner in many department programs. Information is available online from the club’s Web site. Club members meet remotely each month and record their programs about fishing opportunities around the region.
Herb Doumitt, club spokesman, said members will help Stevens capture audio and video segments of fishing at Hagg Lake each month of the year.
Then they may move to the Tualatin River.
Molalla incursion: Stevens also announced the disturbing invasion of the lower Molalla River by smallmouth bass.
The Molalla has historically been home to salmon and steelhead, but agriculture and urban development have warmed the water and attracted smallmouth from the Willamette River.
Biologists believe there’s no way to eradicate the bass, especially since there’s limited access to the river.
Razors lose their edge: It’s unlikely coast-wide razor clam closures will be lifted any time soon.
Biologists say an unusual combination of algal blooms, poor ocean conditions and diminished winter food resulted in record high levels of domoic acid in December and January tests of razors.
The coast closed last November and tests continue to show toxic levels.
The acid typically dissipates in spring and summer, but with levels this high there’s no assurance of a reopening any time soon.
Archery elk tags: Oregon may move to controlled tags for bowhunters next year in most of the prime habitat for Rocky Mountain elk.
The changes also call for bowhunters to choose between east and west general season tags.
Biologists will make the proposals to the state Fish and Wildlife Commission in June and have asked for comments by April 15 to be emailed to odfw.wildlifeinfo@state.or.us.
Testimony will also be taken during the June commission meeting.
– Bill Monroe for The Oregonian/OregonLive
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