Normally, my crappie fishing in Idaho is over by the end of May, and after the first week of June, it’s over near Oregon. But for whatever reason, last year it kept getting better and better until I quit fishing in September to go bowhunting.

I wonder if that will be the case this year?

This year has been the best of my life, discounting the first three trips which were a wash-out. On the fourth trip I caught 176. My daughter and I caught 213, Ron and I caught 235, Cris and I… lost count.

Last weekend, I only got 55 but I got there late and only got to fish four hours. And, they have been getting progressively smaller the last three trips. The first couple of trips I was catching the largest crappie I ever have.

I’d like to go again, but I have to prepare for my seminars at The Great Northwest Outdoor Expo, so I guess I better hang around. Plus, there’s supposed to be a bit of wind so maybe I’ll go Monday.

The catching format is pretty much the same. Except that you won’t catch any with a bobber right by the bank, though in the late evening it seems like they’ve moved up closer. I’ll throw my jig up within a foot of the bank and then slowly retrieve it. The way that I’m catching most of them is to slowly lift the rod tip and then take a crank or two and repeat all the way back to the boat.

I’ll get a lot of hits after the jig gets 5 feet from the bank but I also get quite a few hits near the boat. You could say yes, but they’ve followed it to the boat and then they are hitting. I don’t think so. I think they’re out feeding, suspended up higher in the water column.

If it is super windy and you’re really blowing, you may think that you ought to use a heavier jig but I still recommend using a light jig. I’ve got four to five rods with me rigged up with different sized jigs and consistently do better on the light jigs.

Red/white tube jigs continue to produce the best for me. But then it’s like my brother always says.

Eddy: What’d you catch the fish on?

Me: Red/white jigs.

Eddy: What were you using?

Me: Only red/white jigs.

Eddy: Well no wonder you caught them on red/white jigs, that’s all you used.

But they continue to produce for me so I’m sure not changing!

I’ve been using Cabela’s jigs the last two trips but am having a lot of trouble removing them. Of course you use barbed hooks so you don’t lose fish but still, you want to be able to remove them without damaging the fish. Maybe I’ll hit them with some fine Emory cloth and see if that helps. The last few trips I’m throwing back over 100 fish so you sure don’t want to damage that many fish.

Now you may have to search around to find them but when you find them, you should be able to anchor and fish for an hour or two. To locate them, I troll semi-slow with a Rattlin’ Trap or a jig. Once I catch one, I anchor and fish. Crappie are schooling fish so if you catch one, there should be more.

The trouble is, I’m about ready to start backpacking into the backcountry to flyfish. What’s a guy to do? Idaho just offers us too many outdoor opportunities. Whichever route you go, have fun.

Father’s Day is just around the corner and sometimes it can be hard to figure out what to buy your dad. Even though my dad has been dead for quite a few years, I think back to how hard it was to figure out what to buy him. All he’d ever give me for suggestions were leather gloves to work on the farm.

Seems like he didn’t want or need much. Or maybe I just wasn’t creative enough. Or maybe there are just a lot more cool items on the market nowadays for the outdoorsy dad. Either way, I’m going to throw out some suggestions to help you pick your dad some cool gifts this Father’s Day.

Are my motives pure or am I just hoping that my wife and daughters read this article and buy me some of the cool items on this list? I’m going to list out some smaller, cheaper items on up to more expensive ones.

• Smith Consumer Products stone to sharpen his knife. Get the 6-inch diamond orange stone.
• MyTopo Maps. Order a map of his favorite hunting or fishing area.
• Flies. Ask your local fly shop what works in your locale.
• Crappie jigs. I like the Mister Twister red/white tube jigs.
• Buck Knives makes some cool looking Elk Handled Marshmallow roasting rods.
• Buck Knives Fishing Nippers to cut your fishing line.
• Lodge Dutch oven. Not only would he like one, you’d like for him to have one because of the great food he’ll make.
• Brownells Magna-Tip Adjustable Torque Wrench to tighten down his scopes.
• Carhartt clothing. As you know, they make some tough work clothes but they also have an outdoor line. Check out their base layer offering.
• Irish Setter Traveler Chukka Boots.
• Wasp Talon Bowfishing arrows. Bowfishing season is here, and I know I’m always losing arrows.
• Backpack. This is a specific item, so ask him which pack he would like.
• Sunscreen for fishing and hiking. I use Blue Lizard products.
• Water filters. I like the Aquamira Frontier straw.
• Adventure Medical Kits. I love their Moleskin patches for hiking.
• Heybo fishing shirts. I love their fishing shirts, and they’re cool looking.
• Check out some of the First Tactical pants or shooting gloves. I use their gloves to bowfish with.
• Hiking socks. If he doesn’t have any good hiking socks, he’ll love you. I use Browning hiking socks.
• OTIS gun cleaning gear. They have a lot of little items you could buy.
• COAST rechargeable flashlights. Batteries are expensive so I love these.
• Outdoor books. I have a knife sharpening and survival book on Amazon Kindle.

OK, here’s a chance to win the best son/daughter award by buying him one of the following items:

• Riton USA Scope.
• A Weston meat grinder or sausage stuffer. Or I received a Weston juicer and love it. I make smoothies two to three times per week.
• Crosman airgun. Check out the Steel Eagle. Airguns are super popular now. If you’re at the Great Northwest Outdoor Expo from June 29 to July 1, I’ll be conducting three airgun seminars and we’ll have a drawing for an airgun.
• Center Point Aspen recurve bow for bowfishing.
• Pellet grill made by Camp Chef. I love mine.
• Supplies International gun cases. I use their rifle and pistol cases for flying.
• Diamond Blade knives. They offer a big selection.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.

According to our old buddy Jack Sweet, morel mushrooms are the second best fungi in the world. Second only to the truffle in England. I’ve always heard about truffles but I’ve never tasted one. However, if they’re better than a morel, then they must be good.

If you wonder why I get so excited about morels, then you’ve never eaten one. They are the best food in the world. If I blindfolded you and fed you one, you’d think that you were eating the most tender, delicious chicken fried steak that you’d ever eaten but only better.

After college, I’d taken a job in Nebraska and my boss was from Iowa. He’d take a week’s vacation every year and go home to mushroom hunt. I thought he needed to get a life — until he took me mushroom hunting. In the Midwest, they come out in the middle of April. Out here, they don’t come out until the first week or so of May.

We went down by the Platte River and before the morning was done, we’d found a half sack of them (the old brown paper sacks). He showed me how to process them. They’re fragile so you gently rinse them under the faucet. Then you slice them in half lengthwise and place in a bowl with some salt water. The salt will kill any bugs in hiding.

My boss said you had to let them soak overnight but I can’t wait that long anymore so I always eat a batch right away. Pull out however many you want to eat and set on a plate to drain for a few minutes. Get a bowl and crack two eggs in it and mix in a little milk.

Pour some flour on a plate and sprinkle in some salt and pepper. Dip the morels in the egg batter and then roll in flour and then throw them into a medium hot skillet of grease. A lot of people sprinkle on salt and pepper but I use Tony Chachere’s seasoning. I like to use a Lodge cast iron skillet. They heat more evenly.

Fry to a golden brown and then remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Eat immediately. Cook more than you think that you will eat!

If you’re lucky and pick more than you can eat in a couple of days, you can freeze them or dry them, which is a lot better. You can dry them with a fruit dryer or the commercial pickers dry them on racks in the sun.

One big advantage we have out West over pickers in the Midwest is that we have forest fires. Last year’s burns are magical. You’ll find a million mushrooms in old burns. So go by your local Forest Service office and ask them where the burns were last year and get up to the mountains and see if you can’t find some.

I was up filling my bear bait station last Thursday and found 1 1/2 dozen mushrooms so as you read this article, they should be out in full force by now. Hope you find a bunch. But what’s a guy to do? I also caught 235 crappie Saturday. How do I not go back and hit them again muy pronto?

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

I’m ready for spring. How can you not be if you’re an outdoorsman? Whistle pig hunting, turkey hunting, bear hunting, mushroom picking and crappie fishing is all right around the corner. It’s almost here.

But for now, the weather just keeps teasing us. One day it’s warm and sunny, then the next day it’s cool and rainy. But spring can’t be held back much longer, can it? Any day it is coming. And then when it hits, it’ll be all-out outdoor activities from daylight to dark. By the end of May, we’ll be worn to a frazzle. But it’ll be a good frazzle.

I love spring. Not that this winter has been bad, but after a long hard winter when all seems cold, barren and hopeless, suddenly spring hits. New life abounds. Elk and deer are having their young, trees are budding and green grass is popping out where days ago there were only snow drifts. Then it’s Easter, which is the epitome of new life.

I knew it was a little too early to hit the whistle pigs, but I got antsy and had to go check them out Monday. I’ve been seeing a few for the last month but hoped they might be out in full force because it was a nice sunny day.

First I stopped by the feedlot and tried to pick up a few pigeons and Eurasian doves. There weren’t many pigeons around. I probably shot six to eight, but there were quite a few doves. But the doves were spooky. There weren’t many doves around the barns or feedlot but there were a bunch down in the trees in the draw.

I barely shot one or two doves and they got wary. I like hunting down there with my airgun. For today, I’d taken my Benjamin Marauder and Steel Eagle. I met Kelly with Adaptive Graphx at the Idaho Sports Show the other day and had him deck out my Steel Eagle, and my “Don’t Tread on Me” boning knife. That elevated a regular break-action airgun and plain old boning knife to a new level of cool. Now I can miss in style!

But back to hunting. The doves were thick in the trees up in the draws out from the feedlot. But they were spooky so I pulled out my shotgun and whacked a few. They really got jumpy then. I shot a few more pigeons and then decided to go check out the whistle pigs.

I have a spot not far from the feedlot where I can normally get in some good shooting so I circled by there. Coming out that morning there’d been quite a few, 1 to 2 feet off the highway, but oddly enough I didn’t see any out in the pastures.

I got to my spot and sighted in my airguns again to make sure they were dialed in tight. Then I pulled out the .22. I’d gotten some of the new CCI Mini-Mag .22 LR SHP ammo at the SHOT Show to test out on whistle pigs.

Wow, I got the scope tuned in and was getting some good groups. I’ve got a .22 that is tricked out with a Brownell’s barrel, Timney trigger and a scope out of the Leupold custom shop. It’s a shooter, but not all .22 ammo is created equal. In fact, about 90 percent of it varies wildly. I think I’m going to like this new CCI ammo.

When shooting whistle pigs, you may shoot 400 to 500 shots in a good day, so while you may be tempted to buy cheap ammo,it’s fun to have some ammo that you can count on to get a good group.

Well, everything was sighted in and it was now time to start hunting. Unfortunately, there were only a few whistle pigs out today. I shot for not even an hour and then headed home to catch up on articles.

It’d been a fun relaxing day. Got to shoot a few guns, get outdoors and even pick up some doves to make some poppers out of tonight.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

Last week was Part I of a two-part series on a Texas hog hunt. We closed as we were about to take Tony Schumacher out for an evening hog hunt, so we’ll pick up there.

At about 5:30 p.m., Dan ran down and threw out some corn by a pond. We slammed down dinner, and then Dan, Clint, Tony and I headed to blind 115. Bill, Murray and Summer went hunting with pistols.

We set up a few hundred yards away and were waiting on the Slow Glow to illuminate. It’s an ingenious invention. Here’s how it works — it is an LED light and is motion-activated. When an animal comes in, it slowly illuminates and is at full power in two minutes.

We held tight for a couple hours, and then Clint and Dan slipped down to see what was going on. They returned with the report. A big group of hogs must have come in right after Dan baited the hole because there was not one kernel of corn left. We then hit a couple other spots, but Tony had to leave before midnight because of three school kids he had to get lined up the next morning.

As usual, I’ll lose track of the sequence of events, especially because the Slow Glow guys had me up until 3 every morning! One group of hogs were coming in at the high blind and they wanted me to use a rifle there. So I carried a 30-06 Mossberg Patriot Revere tipped off with a Leupold 3Xi 4-14×50 and loaded up with Hornady 165-grain SST.

By the time we climbed up in the blind, they were already feeding. They spooked but soon came back. I took my time and then I touched off a round. The hog didn’t run far.

After that it was a flurry of fast-paced stalks. They had some unique tricks. They’d throw corn along the edge of a pond. That way cows and deer couldn’t eat it. When hogs come in feeding, they make a ton of noise snorkeling for the corn. It sounds like an army of carp feeding.

We had one secluded pond and when we stalked in, they had already fed and were laid up 50 yards away sleeping. We could hear them over there grunting. Ugh, I wish we had brought Bill’s Fox Pro with the hog calls.

The next night we snuck in on the same spot and there were 30 hogs feeding. But it’s hard to sneak in on 60 eyeballs without them seeing you so they busted us and took off, nearly trampling a poor raccoon in the process.

We were doing multiple stalks each night. Hunting with a Slow Glow is great. It allows you to hunt 24 hours a day and you actually have to play the wind just like on a normal stalk. If you sneak in behind the light you can get super close, which provides for an intense hunt.

The next day it was all or nothing with the Benjamin Pioneer Airbow. I told Clint I had to get a hog with it. For broadheads, I was using a Wasp hammer. It’s a stout broadhead and would penetrate a hog.

We went back to blind 115, which is the one we took Tony to. This time we were going to play it a little different. We set up an Ameristep Throwdown blind across the pond under a willow tree. We further concealed the blind with brush. Then we sprinkled corn along the pond.

We went back to camp and ate dinner and then headed back to hunt. We slipped into the blind before dark because we weren’t sure if they were coming in early. The sun started dropping and the shadows grew longer. Before long it was dark and still no hogs.

Then we heard a hog or two squeal off in the brush across the county road. Then another one or two grunting. This time we had brought Bill’s Fox Pro. Clint turned on the feeding hog sounds and not two minutes later hogs started pouring over the dam of the pond and scurrying in to feed.

Clint filmed them a minute and pretty soon gave the thumbs up. There was a big boar in back I wanted but there were always two or three other hogs feeding in front of him. Finally, a shot presented itself.

I touched the trigger and an arrow arced out at 440 feet per second. It hit him so hard that he flipped over. Pretty soon he flipped into the pond and was thrashing around. We waited a minute to let him bleed out but surprisingly he jumped up and took off. We went over to check out things. The arrow had passed through and stuck on the dam. Wow, talk about some power.

There was a good blood trail. Should be an easy track.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

I met Bill Olson, editor of Texas Outdoor Journal, at the Dallas Safari Convention & Expo years ago. One thing led to another, and we’ve become friends. I write a monthly column for him. So when he called and asked if I wanted to go on a Texas hog hunt with him, of course the answer was yes.

The plan was to fly into Austin and he’d pick me up at the airport. I have a niece and nephew in Austin so that would work great. I got to meet them for coffee.

I hugged them bye and we took off for the Reveille Ranch near Burnet, Texas. There we met up with Murray and Clint Choate, owners of Slow Glow. Right off I liked them. They were some gung-ho hog hunters. The plan was to grab a bite in town and then head to the ranch and get situated. Those plans were soon thrown out the window and Clint started drawing up a night hog hunt. Forget the group hugs and getting comfortable the first evening.

They explained to us how their product worked. Murray is an inventor and to help his hog hunting addiction be more successful, he invented an LED motion-activated system.

Here’s how it works — it is pointed toward a feeding area. When hogs come in it starts slowly illuminating over a two-minute period. If it fired up right away the hogs would spook, so it lights up slowly so they don’t even know it is getting lighter.

It sounded unique. Now to go test it out. They were sure excited to show it to us. At the first stalk, Clint was to shoot one with his bow. Great, maybe I could get multiple articles on hog hunting with the Benjamin Pioneer airbow, the Mossberg Patriot Revere rifle, archery and pistol hunting. That’d make it a productive albeit busy hunt.

We drove down a pasture road and soon parked and unloaded to begin our stalk. As we came over a rise, you could see the eerie green glow of the Slow Glow at full power. Great, that meant we had hogs on the spot (or it could just be coons, deer or cows).

As we got closer, you could hear hogs grunting, squealing and rooting around. Clint nocked an arrow and his dad ran the camera. I didn’t have very high hopes of getting close enough for a shot because there were four of us. We lined up behind each other and stalked in behind the light.

Oh my gosh, there was a good group of hogs fading in and out of the light. There was at least one good-sized boar. When a little pig would get too close, the boar would root them with his snout and send them flying. They’d squeal and hustle off only to be back in a few seconds sneaking in for another bite of corn.

At 11 paces, we stopped. The boar was in back of a couple of sows. We waited a bit and then a shooting lane cleared. Clint drew back, then another hog moved in the field of shot. After what seemed like an eternity, the lane opened and Clint threaded in an arrow. We could see the illuminated nock zip in and strike home.

At the sound of the bow, snapping hogs squealed and shot off every which way. We walked to where the hogs had been and picked up the arrow. Something was wrong! There was no blood. Upon closer inspection we could see that the expandable broadhead had some hair/fat on it but it had been driven back into the shaft. We finally figured it out. The arrow had hit the hard shoulder plate and bounced off.

Wow! Big boars are as tough as you hear. I made up my mind then that I favored my Wasp broadheads for the airbow. It appeared to me that with the 2-inch wide expandable broadhead that it’s just too likely to hit a bone and deflect or slow/stop it.

The next night, eight-time NHRA Champion (drag racer) Tony Schumacher showed up to hunt with us. We had a great time taking him while Bill and Murray took his girlfriend, Summer Penland, with them on a pistol hog hunt.

Tony was going to use his AR but Clint and I talked him into using my airbow. Tony shot it a few times in camp and got comfortable with it. His girlfriend then shot it freehand and got a Robin Hood. Everyone was impressed with the Pioneer airbow.

Well, we are out of room for this week. Next week, we’ll see how the hunts went.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

Recently, I was down in Texas conducting seminars at the Dallas Safari Club Convention and Expo. On Monday and Tuesday, I duck hunted in East Texas with Charles Allen, the owner of Knives of Alaska and Diamond Blades. Then I was going to be crow hunting in North Texas on Friday and Saturday.

I had Wednesday free so I called my brother, and he lined us up a striper fishing trip on Lake Texoma with Striper Express owned by Bill Carey, who has guided on the lake for decades. His son Chris was going to guide us.

The day was predicted to be cold and windy, but rain was predicted for the rest of the week. Normally the guides have you meet them at daylight but Chris said he’d been catching them midmorning so we met him at the boat house at 10 a.m.

Chris is a young gung-ho guide, which is what you want. Some days anyone can catch fish, but on a high percentage of the days you have to pull all stops and hit it hard. That’s fishing.

Chris told us a few of the lures that had been working for him and asked us which ones we wanted to start with. I’m a big believer in everyone using something different lures at first to find out what they’re hitting on.

I started out with some of my big Mister Twister plastics. Because of the wind, we all slapped on a big Road Runner and then tipped them off with different colored plastics. He had a bottle of Chartreuse paint that we dipped the tails in.

Because of the high winds, we used some heavy Road Runners so we could get to the bottom because that’s where the fish were hanging out. A Road Runner is basically a fancy jig. They have a spinner on them to further attract fish and a bucktail. You then slap a plastic on them. I don’t remember now but I think we were using 4- to 6-inch tails.

Chris instructed us that the fish were on the bottom and biting super soft. He said to cast out and count to 10 before we started retrieving. That size jig was dropping about 3 feet per second. He said it wouldn’t hurt twice per retrieve to hit the release momentarily to ensure that we stayed on bottom.

It was cold, and as the day progressed it got windier and windier. That makes it tough for a captain to hold the boat in a good fishing position for everyone. As usual, I forget the exact sequence of events, but we started getting into them pretty fast. Wow, I love catching stripers. I always forget how great fighters that they are. When they hit, it’s like an 18-wheeler drove by and snagged your line. They fight hard until they’re netted.

Chris was right: You had to reel super slow or you just didn’t get a hit. I don’t think that you could retrieve too slow. If you felt a bump, set the hook. Of course fishing like this on bottom, you sometimes hung a piece of Texas, which is a nice way of saying you snagged the bottom.

You’re allowed to keep two fish over 20 inches and five under 20. We had a tough time catching any small fish. We only caught three, the rest were over 20. As the day closed, Chris informed us that we’d netted right at 41 fish. What a great day we had.

I was glad I’d packed extra clothes because when the wind whipped up it’d gotten extra cool. Plus, it’s always colder on the water. In fact, let’s take a second and go over that.

In the days before refrigeration in the theaters in London, they put a block of ice on the stage and ran a fan over it to help cool the theater. When you’re on the downwind side of a lake, the same thing is happening to you. So always carry extra clothes and a wind breaker when going out on a fishing trip.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

A couple of weeks ago, I had some seminars at the Dallas Safari Club Convention and Expo. While down there, Charles Allen, the owner of Diamond Blades and Knives of Alaska asked me to go duck hunting with him. He has a ranch in East Texas and has been inviting me for years. Finally I had a few free days, so we lined up a hunt. One of his guides, Jordan, was going to be hunting with us. I met him while fishing up in Alaska a year ago.

I arrived at his ranch on Monday afternoon. We jumped on 4-wheelers, and Charles took me out to look at his ranch. He has some flooded timber, which as you know is the perfect set-up for mallards. When we rode in, we jumped 300 mallards. We were pumped and couldn’t wait to hunt the next morning. We threw out our decoys, then he showed me how he’d built a dam with a let-out gate so he could control the water level.

On a side note, I don’t think that the antis have a clue how much the hunters do to enhance habitat for the game that we hunt. Because of superb management, we have more game now than when America was discovered. Think about that for a minute. Even with all of the cities, highways and concrete, the deer hunting is better now. That’s amazing. It’s because we manage our game, environment and habitat.

That night, we sat up a while shooting the bull and having a good time for a while. Charles has a lot of good stories all the way from bighorn hunts in Alaska to his African hunts. I could listen to his stories forever. But being older and wiser, I finally went to bed and left the storytelling to the young men. The next morning, we jumped up, slammed down some coffee and rolls and headed out.

We hid the 4-wheelers and waded across the flooded woods and hid in the edge. Charles told us that at first we could be out on the edge of the woods, but as soon as the sun peeked out, we’d have to get concealed better.

Charles and I set up about 75 yards down from the other young men. Brian let us know it was now legal shooting time and not 20 seconds later a group of mallards dropped down like manna from above. Charles and I lucked out and were in front of where the ducks were flying in from.

We were dropping ducks pretty regularly. I didn’t know how far our shots would be so I’d grabbed some Kent 4-shot. We were mostly shooting mallards but did pick up some wood ducks and gadwalls.

Two small flocks dropped in and did the perfect mallard cupping drop, but they dropped right between us and the other group of guys so I couldn’t shoot. Ugh, I could have dropped six easily. Finally, about mid-morning the ducks stopped flying so we headed back to the lodge to clean birds.

Wow, between all of us we had a pile of birds. We’d had a great morning. I had a weekly knife product review due for AmmoLand Shooting Sports News and wanted to test out the Diamond Blade Pinnacle II for that review, so we cleaned the ducks with it. It worked great.

I wanted to do some crow hunting after the duck hunt, but the electronic call I had just gotten didn’t have the remote control included so we took pictures and cleaned ducks and the day finally came to a close.

Charles has a walk-in cooler so I took some aged ducks and my brother made a French cassoulet dish out of them. If you need a new duck recipe, my brother Eddy publishes an outdoor cooking YouTube on RonSpomerOutdoors. You should be able to view this recipe soon. So as we close, go out and smoke a few ducks and test out Eddy’s recipe. It was good.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

I love crow hunting. It surprises me the lack of people who participate in this sport.

They are a super-smart bird. In fact, I think they are the smartest bird out there. You hear all kinds of rumors like, if five people go into a brush pile and only four come out, then the crows know one is still in there. It is said that you must do this two to three times before you confuse them.

While I don’t know if the old wives’ tale above is true, I do know that they are smart and hard to hunt. And yet, if you do a proper set-up, you can put the hurt on them. I’ve never been in a spot where you shoot hundreds per day like you hear about in some of the spots back East or down South. But still I’ve had some fun hunts and gotten into enough shooting to make it worthwhile.

The first thing is to do a proper set-up. When you start calling and they start coming in, if they see you, they’ll scatter. At the moment I’m down in Texas crow hunting, so I’ll tell you how I’m doing it here.

I like to find a super thick clump of cedar trees and hide in them. The ultimate is to only have an open spot above you. You want it so when you can see them that they’re in shooting range. Otherwise, they’ll see you as soon as you see them and scatter.

Camo up good, including a face net. Step back in the shadows so you don’t stand out. It doesn’t always work out, but it’s best to hide in a stand of shorter trees because they will come flying in over the top. If the trees are super tall, they might be out of range.

Using an electronic call is the ticket for multiple reasons. First off, it is hands-free. Second, all of the recorded calls I’ve used have a whole flock (a flock of crows is called a murder) of crows calling at once. On a hand call, there’s only one crow calling. And thirdly, you can place the call a little ways away from you so they’re not focused right on you when they come in.

Usually when I set up to call, I’ll start off with a hawk call or maybe an owl. They are both mortal enemies to crows, so that gets them excited. Crows love to get in on a fight or free food. So I’ll hit the hawk whistle for a few seconds and then start calling.

Sometimes they’ll come in silent, but 95 percent of the time you’ll hear them cawing as they come in so you can be ready. I’ve noticed a lot of times they’ll come in and do a wide circle of you first. I’ve always been tempted if there are more than two of us hunting to hide one guy out 40 yards. I think they’d get half the shooting.

If they’re too far, just like duck hunting don’t shoot or you’ll just scare them off. Two things will mess you up. One: If you shoot and miss, you’ll bugger up the set. The second deal is if you’re not concealed well. If they come in and see you, they’re going to book it.

Another thing that will help your shooting is to use decoys. I use the Mojo Crow decoy, which has the fluttering wings to draw attention. They come with a small pole to set them on, but it’d work better if they were more elevated. They have a hole in back in which you could tie a string and tie them up on a limb. I haven’t tried that yet but I think it’d work better.

Another scenario that I’ve nearly always had crows come in is when I’m set up right at daylight calling coyotes. They hear the squalling rabbit call and come in, but I’ve also noticed that they like the waggler-type of electronic decoys. So I’d suggest using one of them, too. I use a semi-auto 12-gauge and Aquila 6-shot on this hunt. They aren’t an exceptionally hard birds to kill but they are a big bird.

Crows are not good neighbors. They harass all manner of wildlife and eat the eggs and tear up the nests of a lot of the birds that we like to hunt and are not good on agriculture. So you’re doing the environment a big favor if you help thin them out.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

To the normal person, winter is a dark, dreary season, but not to us outdoorsmen.

Not only are all the hunting seasons going on around the country, but ice fishing is coming, too. But we’re not going to talk about our outdoor activities today. Strangely enough, we’re going to talk about indoor activities.

January kicks off the show season. Things are a little slow in January, February and March, or at least as slow as they get for us outdoorsmen, so it’s the only time that shows can be slipped in.

There is no way in one short article that I can list all of the shows across the country. Plus, I don’t know them all. But here’s some that I’m excited about.

The Dallas Safari Club Convention and Expo is the first big show of the year, and it is being held from Jan. 4 to 7. If you’re attending, stop by and introduce yourself. I’ll be conducting “Glassing for Big Game” and “Knife Sharpening/Choosing the Proper Knife seminars” on the Jan. 6.

Then from Jan. 11 to 13, the ATA Trade Show will be in Indianapolis. It’s the largest archery show in the country, the Archery equivalent of the SHOT Show. I am signed up to go to it, but I may be held up in Texas duck, crow and varmint hunting.

Then the mother of all shows, The SHOT Show, is Jan. 22 to 26 in Las Vegas. All the outdoor manufacturers, outdoor celebrities, writers and anything related to the outdoors will be attending in full force. It is so massive I don’t even know how to describe it.

People from all over the world attend and nearly every gun, knife, call, camo, outdoor clothing and backpack manufacturer will have a booth there covering more than 630,000 square feet. All the new 2018 products will be rolled out then.

There is literally no way that you could hit every booth. My calendar is filled up from daylight to dark and I’ll have a list of 30 to 50 other companies I’ll try to squeeze in somehow. Writers will be invited to breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I think the companies are smart to put on these events. You have to eat, so if they host a meal they have your undivided attention to give their presentation.

One big attraction is on Monday before the show actually starts. They have Media Day at the Range. You get to shoot all of the new ammo, guns, crossbows and Crosman/Benjamin airguns. How do you not like that? They changed the format a couple years ago. Now the media is by invite only in the morning and the manufacturers/buyers take over in the afternoon. Even though it hurt the media, I think this was a smart move. It allows the people actually buying the product to test it out.

Then on Tuesday the doors open, and there’s panic in the disco! I’m hitting all the booths I can to work deals, meet my sponsors and meet new people. Like I say, I have to hit it hard from daylight to dark. We’re so tired by the end of the day that Katy wants to just grab a Big Mac and go to bed.

Then the next big show is the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3. There will be guides from all over the world, and if you’re wanting to book a safari, this is the place to go.

There will also be a lot of higher-end outdoor manufacturers. You can see some unbelievably beautiful guns, hold a $157,000 shotgun and see a lot of handmade knives. You will see unbelievable mounts. Whole scenes are set up.

If you attend, stop by and see me. Ron Spomer and I will be conducting seminars on Friday and Saturday. There will be a full schedule of seminars to choose from and like the DSC, there’ll be more booths and seminars than you’ll be able to attend.

We’re out of room to get into all of the state shows. Then what about the local gun shows? I love hitting them. There’s always something I can’t live without. You’ll find unique items from new guns on down to old knives and traps.

Have a merry Christmas!

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.