Periodically I like to do a book review on outdoor books.

This one is especially fun to do because Stephen Weston is a friend of mine. I first met him years ago when I was conducting seminars at Sierra Trading Post. At that time he worked there, and I got to know him. We hit it off and became friends.

Before long, he started doing cooking seminars while I was doing my seminars. As you probably guessed, I spent a lot of time sampling his dishes. He kept me nourished during a lot of long days of seminars.

Since those days he has become more and more popular for his cooking skills. This summer I attended the Taste of Idaho event in Nampa. Steve was one of the chefs and it appeared to me that he was the one ramrodding the cooking events. They also included kids enrolled in the Nampa School District Culinary Arts Program in the event, which was nice. It appeared he was helping to guide and mentor them and was praising them heavily.

I now see him all over the valley doing demos and seminars, and of course, he has now published a book called “In the Wild Chief.” I finally got my hands on a copy last week and have already read more than half of it. It’s an easy read.

Pretty much every recipe is less than a page. At the bottom of the page is an outdoor tip, such as “Try spraying original Listerine around the campsite to repel mosquitoes.” I didn’t know that.

As you flip a page, in most cases the first page will be a picture. It may be a pic of a camping or cooking scene, but a lot of them are old school pics, which I like looking at.

The format in which it is laid out is unique. Instead of being broken down into chapters, it is grouped into five classes with Class I being the easiest meal to prepare on up to Class V, which are the more difficult meals.

Of course, on the trail you have to travel light, so when applicable he’ll have a heading called HOME, which tells you what has to be done before you leave home. For example, he may say to mix all of the spices in one baggie and the noodles in another. That way instead of carrying four bottles of spices you’re only packing the required 1/4 teaspoon of each spice, etc. Then he may have a heading CAMP, which he will tell you what has to be done in camp.

For the most part, the bulk of the meals appear to be pretty simple to prepare, and yet from past experience of being the official tester at seminars I’ve never had a bad one. I can’t wait to try some of them on some backpacking trips next summer or even on some day hunts this winter.

Or maybe I’ll get bored again about January or February and go on another extreme winter backpacking/ice fishing trip and try out some of them. Naw, I’ll probably just call Steve and take him with me this time. Last time I about froze to death, blew away and starved. Now where did I put Steve’s phone number.

“In the Wild Chef” can be purchased at www.amazon.com/Wild-Chef-Recipes-Base-Summit/dp/1927458277.

I became acquainted with Bri Stacklie, the Minnesota Deer Hunter Association event and publication coordinator, through writing articles for her. She invited me to attend their 2017 Minnesota Governor’s Deer Opener, which sounded like a great event. Who hasn’t heard about the legendary “deer camps” in Minnesota.

I thought it might be fun for the readers out west to hear about a hunting organization/event that took place back east. One thing that I noticed is the excitement in the air the day before deer season.

Here’s what I think is the difference. In Idaho, we have deer, elk, antelope, bear, wolf, bighorn, rocky mountain goat and moose hunting all going on at once so our hunters are all fragmented every which way. In Minnesota, the whole team is on the field at once.

It surprised me but there’s a good bit of public land, too, which opens it up to the common Joe. That’s a good thing. Of course, they don’t have as much as we do out here, but it’s enough so people can go hunting.

But let’s back up and cover the event. I flew into Hibbing, Minnesota, at noon, jumped in a rental car and ran over to Grand Rapids. Then I checked into the Timberlake Lodge where the event was being held.

I got there early, which is the norm for me. They were just getting everything set up so I was able to get the lay of the land. I met Bri in person for the first time and got signed in. They had a big event tent set up outside that housed numerous booths. Cabela’s had a youth archery range set up in there.

Outside, there was a trailer set up by Fish and Game and a cowboy giving horse-drawn rides. Inside they were giving seminars on various topics, such as chronic wasting disease and other topics. Then at 6:30 the banquet started.

Wow, it was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be. I don’t know how many people were there, but it was packed. They had a lot of interesting speakers lined up on up to, including the governor. Most of them began their talk by recalling fond memories as a kid growing up in a deer camp.

The night soon drew to a close, and at 5 a.m. the next morning they served us breakfast and had a room set up for radio interviews. I didn’t count, but there had to have been seven to eight outdoor radio stations interviewing outdoor writers, game wardens, etc. I had five interviews scheduled.

It was a fun event. They were a lively bunch and it sounded like all of the radio hosts were raised in a deer camp. Most of the interviews were live. I was surprised at how many outdoor radio stations Minnesota had. I’m sure there’s more, but I only knew of one here in Idaho and it went under years ago. So the radio interviews were fast and furious and then they scattered.

I then jumped into my rig and headed for the woods to experience a Minnesota deer camp. I was going to hunt with Ed Schmidt, one of the founders of the Minnesota Deer Hunter Association and editor at the MDHA Magazine. His sidekick, Roger Grosslein, was in camp helping out, as well as Javier Serna, editor at the Outdoor News.

I hit camp right at lunch, and Ed whipped us up something to eat right fast, and then we went out to check out our blinds. Roger and I went to check out ours and Ed and Javier went to theirs. My blind was in the woods with about a 40- to 50-yard view. There was 6 inches of snow and tracks seemingly everywhere. It looked promising. We hung a little more cloth on the outside and then headed back to the cabin.

A big limb had fallen off and punctured through the roof of the porch on the cabin. It was stuck pretty good but I was able to whack on it for a bit with a chainsaw and get it out. We then had a big dinner and sat around telling stories. I’ve always heard how cool it was to canoe in northern Minnesota. Javier does it quite a bit and was telling me about it.

The next morning we got up early and hit the blinds. About 10:30 we all met at the cabin for breakfast. Ed makes his own maple syrup. Wow, that stuff is worth dying for. We shot the bull a minute and headed back out to the blinds. It spit either snow, sleet or rain most of the day, and the deer just weren’t moving too much. I knew the weather would be bad so I’d taken my Mossberg Patriot rifle with a Leupold scope and was using Nosler Trophy Grade 250-grain ammo. I knew all three would hold up to the weather.

It soon got dark and we headed back to the cabin. We had a big dinner and then sat around shooting the bull and listening to a Minnesota radio station called The Green Cheese. Great time experiencing Minnesota.

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.

Sometimes writing can be frustrating.

Before I became an outdoor writer, I thought that I was a pretty successful outdoorsman. I think the truth of the matter is, I’m no better or no worse than before — it’s just now that I have to painfully write out in detail an article on how I didn’t harvest any organic meat if I wasn’t successful. And it’s engraved in stone for all to see.

So with that preamble, let’s get into this past week’s elk/deer archery hunt: round one. I was up in the mountains by Atlanta but wasn’t seeing much. I came home, reloaded and was going to head back up after church, but I had not submitted five newspaper articles. Maybe I’d leave at daylight Monday morning. Nope, a magazine editor needed some more pics for an article. I finally got away mid-Monday morning.

Ahh, it felt good to get away. I grabbed an elk tag for an area that I hadn’t hunted in a while.

I recommend always packing a target to camp when archery hunting.

I remember I was antelope hunting over in Colorado some 20-something years ago and two came in. Easy shot. I pulled back and ripped one loose. Whoa! It went 2 feet below it. What the heck. No way I could I have missed at 20 yards. Slowly, I remembered that my bow had taken a bad fall and obviously knocked the pins out of line.

So, with the above said, I shot a few arrows in camp to loosen up and was good to go. I love my new Copper John Smackdown sight and Obsession bow, now to just add elk.

I ran down to a spot where I’d seen a bull’s tracks during spring bear hunting and set up a Montana Decoy. Today, I was using the RMEF cow decoy and a Rocky Mountain Elk bugle. Hmm, no one was home. That night I had a high-profile dinner. Canned Wolf Brand chili over Fritos and a peach, and then I hit the sack. The next morning it was pretty much the same story.

If I’m not seeing game, I move. Elk can’t fly, so they’re going to leave tracks. That afternoon I went down the road five miles to where a buddy had seen elk. I jumped up to the top of the mountain and saw a few deer. I got within 20 yards and had pulled back, but at the last second I noticed a small bush slightly in the way. I took a half of step to clear it and they spooked. Ugh!

I got into skiffs of snow left over from the previous week and set up my decoy and called. Nada, but not the end of the world. With all the wolves, I call in plenty of bulls that slip in and never make a peep. Not so this afternoon, though.

Even though I didn’t call anything in, I went back up the next morning and climbed up top again. Nada. Time to jump, so I broke camp and took off to another spot 30 miles away where I’ve seen a lot of elk.

I got there, set up camp and climbed up a mountain behind camp. It was thick and steep. As it got dark, I dropped down to camp and got there right as the sun disappeared. A buddy, Josh Connell, drug into camp right after midnight and threw his sleeping bag on the floor of the tent. We were out.

The next morning we got up before daylight and took off for the high country. The plan was to go back a ways and then jump on top and hunt some tough-to-access areas that no one else had hit. Dang, a little too rough of country. No good spots up high.

We went down mid-afternoon and headed to a spot I’d called in numerous bulls before. The week ended with no bulls and me having to run to Cabela’s on Saturday afternoon to take pics of Caden Braun getting outfitted for his elk hunt with “Hunting Dreams.” The next morning before daylight I jumped on a plane to Louisiana to go red fishing. More to come on both topics.

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.

Because we’re into hunting season, I thought it’d be good to cover the items you ought to be carrying in your daypack.

It might just save a few lives. I always say that in an emergency, you never have enough gear, and yet when you’re hiking on a clear sunny day, anything more than 8 ounces is too heavy. So we need to decide on a bare minimum of what we need to carry.

The first rule we have to agree to is that you’re not leaving your truck until you throw on your daypack. I can’t count how many times I’ve pulled over and walked over a nearby hill just to see what was there and wondered where my truck was four hours later. You can have the best equipped pack in the world, but if you don’t carry it, it does you zero good.

Also, make sure your small kids have a whistle and a small pack. Lose your kid out in the mountains even for a few minutes and that will scare the heck out of you.

So let’s get started. I’ll list out the items I recommend and why.

Daypack: For my day hikes, I like a small, lightweight pack. Keep it stocked. If you have to repack it every time you go out, I can guarantee you that you’ll forget at least one key item. That can be a life-threatening mistake. If the pack is too heavy, you’ll end up leaving it in the truck. Can’t do that.

Whistles: You’ll need a whistle if you get hurt. If you yell for help, you’ll wear yourself out, but if you have a whistle, you can alert someone that you’re in trouble with little effort. And don’t let your life depend on some cheap whistle you won at the carnival. I carry a Fox 40.

Poncho: Throw a compactable Gore-Tex raincoat in your pack. Storms can blow up in the mountains fast and if you get wet and the temperature drops 50 degrees you’re in trouble. Especially if you have to spend the night out.

Firestarting gear: Carry waterproof matches and a few cheap lighters. If necessary, you can break one and pour the fuel over wood. Carry two fuel bars to help light damp wood.

Water bottles: I recommend two smaller bottles in case you puncture one. I also like to carry an Aquamira water filter. They’re super lightweight and allow you to drink out of rivers.

First-aid gear: I carry Adventure Medical Kit gear. I like their Moleskin and Blister Medic packages. I also carry some of their adhesive wrap. That way you can tape up bad cuts, sprained ankles, etc.

Duct Tape: You knew I had to throw this in the mix, didn’t you? I’ve had to use it to splint broken tent poles, soles of my boots when they’ve fallen apart and tears in my tent.

As you can see, this is only a handful of items, but in a panic situation they can save your life. Again, never leave your truck without your daypack. One time I was going down a trail only 2 miles, so I figured I could be back at the truck in 45 minutes no matter what blew in. Little did I know that I’d spend the next 23 hours hung on a cliff.

If you get out of your truck, grab your pack.

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 read the first part of Tom Claycomb’s “Flying into the backcountry,” visit XtremeIdaho.com.

The next day we hiked upstream a good ways. Lot of nice holes. I’d ordered a lot of flies from flydealflies.com, which is my go-to fly shop. We weren’t catching any big bulls so I switched from a Wooly Bugger to a Caddis and we got into the cutthroats, a few nice ones.

There were some nice holes and mostly calm waters on this stretch of the river although there was a steep gorge a half mile downstream from camp. We were having a great time fishing. I mean how could we not? It’s the biggest wilderness area in the Lower 48 and we’d flown into the furthest spot in it. It was awesome.

It was 1 1/2 weeks before season, but we were seeing quite a few grouse. At one hole, a few came down to the river right upstream of me and then fed down the bank. I flipped a big black Woolly Bugger on a flat rock right in front of one and it pecked on the fly for a bit. I figured it might turn into an aerial dive bombing disaster if I accidentally ended up hooking it, so I pulled my fly away.

Fredy and Brian decided to fish downstream, but I thought I’d seen one or two good ones feeding so I held tight. I finally netted a couple of nice cutthroats out of the hole. Even on my Rise Fishing Co. 7-weight rod, it bent the tip pretty good and took a few minutes to net.

I lose track of what happened on which day, but one day I had waded in semi-deep against a sheer rock wall. I was fishing with a Caddis fly and a small one hit, it was about 4 to 6 inches long. I had him reeled in but the rock wall behind me jutted out over my head, so I couldn’t hold my rod tip back behind me to be able to net him. He was dangling right in front of me splashing on the surface.

I awkwardly tried two to four times to grab him but couldn’t quite reach him. After a few seconds, a big cutthroat jumped into the middle of the fray. He was right in front of me attacking the fingerling like a frenzied shark. I’ve never seen a trout feeding that aggressively.

He hit it hard once and then twirled around and slammed it so hard that he ripped it off my fly. Wow, that was wild. I’ve never had a trout do that literally right at my fingertips. That was something to see.

We threw our tents right off the river so we’d have easy access to drinking water. After filling our water bottles, Fredy noticed that a bear had done what a bear does in the woods right where we pumped our water, not 20 yards from our tents.

One day while Fredy and Brian were fishing down the river, they’d run right up on top of a bear. And then while in camp one day, Brian told me that I might want to grab my camera right fast. Across the river was a bear standing on his hind legs eating berries out of a bush.

It dropped down on all fours and strolled down the bank until it got even with us and then it started across the river. I was getting some good pictures but Fredy decided he was close enough and waved his arms and spooked him off. I’d liked to see how well he did crossing the river, which we struggled with while crossing. He didn’t seem too worried.

Well, departure day finally arrived and we each had two loads to pack up the 1,000-foot incline. By the time we got out, my lungs were burned from sucking down all the smoke. There was a big fire to the south and north of us. Much worse and the pilot couldn’t have seen the runway enough to be able to drop down and pick us up. But once again, the Forest Service wasn’t even making an attempt to fight them.

I’m not a frequent flier on bush planes, so the take-off seemed a little iffy to me. We taxied to the top of the hill and turned around and punched it. After building up a little speed, we hit a hump and bounced a good foot high. Not much further we hit another hump and bounced a good 2 feet high and then another one.

I thought on the third one when we came down we’d bounce over upside down, but we we were airborne. We shot out into the canyon and took a hard right, our right wing barely clearing the canyon wall by 50 feet.

Wow, what a 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.

If you’re like me, you’re focused on backpacking, flyfishing and the upcoming grouse and archery seasons.

But in the meantime, I keep getting sidetracked by the crappie fishing. Normally I hit them hard in April and May and do good up until June in Oregon. But this year, it’s now the middle of August and it keeps getting better and better. In fact, right now I am doing better than ever.

I have a self-inflicted feeling that as an outdoor writer I ought to write about new topics every week, but that might be the only item that I’m focused on during any given season.

For instance, when I start archery elk hunting, I’m going to be hunting non-stop. So for two to four weeks in a row, that’s my mission. You may not want the same topic four weeks in a row, but I may do it at least two because something exciting happens on every hunt.

So I don’t necessarily bounce to a new topic every week. In the outdoors, you focus on what’s in season. So with that being said, I’m going to do one more crappie article — and the way the season is extending, it may become a yearlong topic!

Last Wednesday, I had a bunch of articles to get in. I got caught up, and then I took off for the lake and launched my boat. By 5 a.m., I was fishing. They’ve moved out from their spawning areas so I was fishing out in probably 15 to 30 feet of water.

To catch them, I flipped a jig toward the bank and retrieved it super slow. I slightly lifted my rod tip and then drop it and reel in the slack slowly. You can’t reel in too slow. Usually this time of year they’re not slamming it, but maybe 15 percent of the time.

More than likely what you’ll notice will be the line just slightly tightening as you lift your rod tip. If that happens, give it a slight twitch to set the hook. Don’t jerk it too hard or you’ll pull it away from him. You don’t want to do that. Just slightly twitching allows him to re-hit if he misses. I had one hit four times before connecting.

Here’s another method that really worked. Usually I’ll put a worm on a hook with a small split shot and flip it off the back of the boat. This time I forgot my worms, but I found a bottle of Berkley Crappie Nibble in the platinum Sparkles flavor, so I tried them. I started getting hits and finally just fished with Crappie Nibbles the rest of the evening.

The sun started dropping, so I ran up and slapped up a tent and whipped out dinner. OK, I opened two cans of tamales and then hit the sack.

The next morning I was up before daylight, broke camp and whipped out breakfast. This morning I caught more on my LFTL jigs than on the Crappie Nibbles. It seemed like most of them were hanging 20 feet out from rocky structures. Fishing finally slowed down about noon so I headed in.

Now to end on a strange note. I was out in the middle of nowhere by myself. While cooking breakfast, a guy walked into camp and told me he was from New York and sightseeing in a rental car. He had a flat tire and asked if he could get a ride to town. I told him sure, but I’d be fishing until noon. He said he’d be waiting.

So when I got back, I checked on him. The Enterprise rental didn’t have a spare, only a can of Goop and an air compressor. He’d filled it up but said the Goop was leaking out. It must have sealed because it was now holding air. I told him I wasn’t in a hurry and could follow him slowly to town, which was two hours away.

After an hour of dirt and gravel roads, we made it to a blacktop. A kid had passed us on a motorcycle earlier and was stopped ahead. We pulled over to check the tire and the kid took off his helmet. Turns out it was a young girl. She looked disoriented so I asked her if she was OK. She said, “No, actually I’m not.” So I offered to give her a ride to town.

Turns out she had took off from Idaho on dirt roads and ended up lost way back in the boonies in Oregon. We’d seen her back a good ways. Then she stopped at a crossroad, then she turned and followed us, eventually passing us and stopping at the blacktop not knowing which way to go.

Maybe I’ll start a search and rescue operation. Unique ending to a great 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.

I was going to be in North Texas for a week, so I thought I’d line up a striper fishing trip.

I’d met Bill Carey, owner of Striper Express, at the Dallas Safari Club Convention and Expo years ago, so I gave him a call. One thing led to another and I was soon lined up to fish with his son Chris.

On this trip, Bob Fleming and my brother Eddy would also be going. The guides down there use a deep boat that safely allows you to stand, cast and fight big fish. Chris’ boat had a deep-hulled Falcon pushed with a 300-horsepower Yamaha. While following a school, the guides have remote-controlled trolling motors that can be controlled anywhere on the boat.

Their administrative assistant called me the day before to verify our trip and fill me in on last-minute details. She told me to be there at 6 a.m. However, she also said her guides were like racehorses, and more than likely they would be there loaded up early and ready to blow out of the gates. So instead, we hit the dock at 5:40 a.m., threw our gear on the boat and cruised out of the marina by 5:45 in the dark.

We were fishing on Lake Texoma, which was formed by damming up the Red River that separates Texas and Oklahoma. It is a big lake. Stripers were introduced years ago and took hold like a duck to water.

Temperatures had been scorching hot and water temperatures were up in the 80s, and by 10:30 a.m., the fishing had been dying down. But shortly after daylight, we were at his secret spot. The plan was to hit them fast and furious when they moved in along the shore. He had been smoking them there the last few days.

We started off using a 3/4-ounce jig tipped off with chartreuse Sassy Shads. We sat there for 10 to 15 minutes and then here they came. Their main prey are shad so where ever there is shad, there are stripers. 

It’s always a rush when they’re schooling on top. You’ll flip out top water lures, and I’ve had three hits on one retrieve. Once, my lure was flipping in the air like a volleyball before one finally got hooked. This morning there were a few rises but most of the feeding was right below the surface, so we stuck with our Sassy Shads.

We hooked a few but they moved out fast. I don’t know if they moved down the shoreline or back out deep, but we lost them. If they’re surfacing, then of course they’re easier to follow.

Unfortunately, like many fishing excursions, you know what happens when a school of fish is by a fleet of boats clustered together. This instance was no different. It got dry fast, so we took off across the lake to a different spot. This time we pulled into a rocky bank and there were already 15 boats there. And they were catching fish.

When you pull up to a school, you don’t want to blow into the middle. Circle in, kill your motor and do your final approach with the trolling motor. If you blow into a school, you’ll spook them and they’ll go down.

These fish were moving along pretty fast, but we were able to keep up with them for a bit and hooked a few. Of course, everyone likes taking fresh pics but as a general rule, when you get into them and it’s hot and fast, you better be catching all you can and then take pics later. It can shut down just as fast as it started.

With the above said, you don’t want to spend a lot of time digging lures out of a deeply hooked fish. A buddy’s uncle invented a device he calls the OUT Tool built by Quarrow. Check them out. Unhooking a 10- to 15-pound striper can get dangerous when the fishing is hot and heavy. The OUT Tool would also be good for getting the hook out of a catfish after he has swallowed it. It pries open the fish’s mouth, and then you can pull the hook out with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

Now the fish were getting tough to locate. We hit some humps, but by now the weather was hot. All the other guides had headed back to the dock, but Chris kept trying. We picked up a few more, but it got tough.

Well, then it was finally time to head in and clean our fish. We’d thrown 20 in the box, so it’d been a fun trip. If you’re down in that neck of the woods, give Striperexpress.com a call 903-786-4477.

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 don’t consider myself a hardcore backpacker by any means. But to be able to get back into the cool backcountry for the ultimate fishing and hunting trip, you either have to backpack, pack in on horses or have a bush plane drop you off. Today we’re going to talk about the backpacking option.

I started teaching backpacking seminars a few years ago. Anymore, the attendees want to discuss what gear they’ll need 75 percent of the time and only talk about actual backpacking 25 percent, so I’ll do the same in this article.

More than likely, if you’re thinking about backpacking, you already have an idea of where you want to go. But if you’re new to the state and don’t have an idea, then grab a Forest Service map or talk to your local game warden to discover a spot to go. Then buy a MyTopo map that will give you in-depth details of your area.

Next, you need to decide what you’re wanting to do — hunt, fish, climb mountains or just take pictures. That will determine what specific gear you’ll need to pack. For this article, I’m going to cover some of the gear you’ll need for summer and mild weather camping. For elk hunting and extreme winter backpacking, you’ll need more extreme gear.

I don’t have space to cover every necessary or handy item, but here’s a general list of stuff I pack.

• I’m old school and still use a frame pack, but all the youngsters use internal frame packs. They do fit more snug to your body and don’t sway as much, which is safer on tight trails.

• For hikes out of camp.

• For horse/plane trips, check out the Paha Que Rendezvous, and for backpacking check out the Alps Mountaineering Taurus 2.

• Check out what Alps Mountaineering has to offer.

• Due to weight, I only carry one. But it’d be nice to have one to put on the inside of your tent and one under your tent.

• You’ll have mice around camp trying to eat your food.

• Waterproof matches or a magnesium striker. I also throw in two or three cheap Bic lighters. Break them and pour over wet wood. You also will want some fire starting material for when things are wet.

• I use Aquamira filtered straws or bottles. That way I can drink out of the rivers.

• To heat water for coffee and my Mountain House meals.

• OK, I collect motel coffee packs all year.

• You’ll want a water bottle so you can pour sterilized water in it for when you’re hiking through dry country. Check out the collapsible Hydrapaks.

• I use Irish Setter boots and have numerous models. Their Vapr Trek series are super lightweight. I also take a pair of river sandals for wading creeks and being around camp. It’s good to have two pairs of footwear.

• I exclusively use Adventure Medical Kit gear. In an emergency, you never have enough. But because of weight restrictions, I at least carry their duct tape, moleskin, adhesive wrap and Band-Aids. Also, next time you’re at the doctor, get a prescription for Bactroban or Mupirocin.

• I use a Coast HP7R, which is rechargeable. Take two flashlights in case one dies.

• If you use a lot of electronics such as a cellphone, flashlights and cameras, you might want to consider a Bushnell Solar Charging unit.

• , which is a waterproof/dustproof protective case for your cellphone. Even though I won’t have cellphone reception in the backcountry, I do like to have it to film videos and take pictures
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• For meals, you have to check out the gourmet selection of Mountain House camping meals. They’re easy to heat up and tasty.

• I cook over a fire, but if it is raining or there are fire restrictions, then you want a Jetboil Flash backpacking stove.

• I like zip-off nylon pants. They dry easy. OK, you have to be cool in your pics so check out the Heybo line of shirts. Get some good hiking socks like SPG offers.

• There are just too many wolves, bears, cougars and moose not to carry a pistol. Plus, they’re good for signaling in case you get hurt.

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 went crappie fishing early this spring a couple of times because I didn’t want to miss the run when it got hot. Then I was off on other adventures for a few weeks and then hit them again. I was afraid that I’d missed the peak run but not so. We’re still doing good. In fact, we did the best this weekend that we’ve done so far this year.

I had to work half the day Saturday, so at about 2 p.m. my buddy Ron Spomer circled by and we headed off to my secret crappie spot. There was not one boat in sight. That doesn’t happen very often anywhere, much less while crappie fishing.

We unloaded and pushed the boat out from the dock 20 feet. I was hooking up and Ron started catching a few. Wow, talk about fast action. We spent a while catching fish and then headed upstream to my spot.

It was a little slow starting, but then we finally figured it out. OK, Ron figured it out and I followed suit.

Here’s what was working for us. We tied on a small jig and put a real small split shot about 6 inches above the jig and then put on a plastic jig. It seemed like black/white was working great but white was too.

They were out from the edge about 20 feet near rocky embankments. We’d flip our jigs up near the shore and very slowly lift our rods as we pulled it in. Almost at a snail pace. The line would start getting tight and then we’d start reeling. Other than seeing the line go taut, you wouldn’t have known that a fish was toying with your jig.

We had very few actually hit our rigs other than a few catfish and a couple of decent bass. Near the end, I hooked on a worm and dropped it over the edge to the bottom to try to hang a catfish. At first I wasn’t doing much other than losing bait, but the last 15 minutes I started picking up some nice crappie.

I don’t know what the deal was, I probably lost four for every one that I boated. They’re called papermouths due to their soft mouths. If you horse them too much, you’ll rip their lips off, but today was ridiculous. I even started netting them at the end so I wouldn’t lose them.

The catfish started hitting at the end, so I guess they were moving in at dusk to start feeding. I like catching them sometimes but don’t really like to eat them much anymore. But, one of these nights I’m going to go build a big fire on the river and catfish until I fall asleep, which will probably be sometime before midnight.

Gear is pretty simple for crappie. I like a light rod and smaller spinning reel so they can put up a better fight. For lures, I like a small jig and Lake Fork Trophy Lures plastics. Take a few different colors because you never know which color will be the hit of the day. Take some small split shots so you can get down towards the bottom and you’ll be set.

Although, if you can’t find them, I like to troll pretty slow with a Cotton Cordell’s Rattlin Trap. When one hits, then I know that I’m in a school and I stop and jig. If you get into a school, anchor off and fish until they quit biting.

If you get lucky and get a cooler full, they’ll stay a lot fresher if you vacuum pack them when you freeze them. I just got a Caso vacuum machine and it is working great for me. Happy fishing!

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 know that I’ve said it at least a million times lately, but the spring time is magical in Idaho. Especially after a long winter like we just endured — Snow Armageddon — which makes us that much more excited about it. But even without a bad winter, I think spring is still impossible to beat.

Think about it. There’s bear hunting, turkey hunting, crappie fishing and mushroom hunting. Then on top of that, I’ve been doing a lot of Eurasian dove and pigeon hunting on our feedlot. But despite all of those activities, my most favorite activity is whistle pig hunting.

What’s not to like about whistle pig hunting? You’ll get 400 to 500 shots on a good day, so it’s great practice, it’s a low-key hunt so you can bang around and be loud, and you don’t have to get up real early. Then, on top of that, it’s good for the environment.

You can use a .22, which up until a few years ago, was economical to shoot. Because of the high price of .22 ammo, I started experimenting with air rifles. They’re a great option. They’re not as loud as a .22 or a .223 so the whistle pigs pop back up out of their holes faster. Plus, if you’re taking a kid, air rifles don’t ricochet like a .22 so they’re safer if the kid makes a mistake.

I’d recommend buying a .22 caliber air rifle. They have a lot more killing power than a .177. I’m sure the .25 is even better but I have nearly all .22s and the pellets are more readily available. I’m testing three new ones right now: the Umarex Octane, Ruger Targis Hunter and the Walther Terrus. They are all three sweet rifles, and I am having fun sighting them in and shooting them.

All three of them are break action barrels, which is nice because you don’t have to carry an air tank like you do with a PCP. A break action can be powered either by a spring or nitro piston.

Since most of the game that you will be hunting is small, I’d recommend using at least a 3-9x scope, and for sure you want an adjustable objective. That way you can set it for 15 yards, 30 yards, 100 yards, etc., and have a crisp clear view. Otherwise you will have a blurry view.

If you decide to take an air rifle, make sure you get some high-quality pellets like the ones made by RWS or your accuracy will suffer immensely. I cannot believe how much the accuracy can vary between pellets. It’s similar to different ammo in your high-powered rifle.

If you decide to hunt with a .22, the Ruger 10/22 is the most popular model hands down. They are extremely versatile, and there are a ton of aftermarket parts available. Just like with your air rifle, you’ll want a good scope that has an adjustable objective.

Also, .22 ammo accuracy varies wildly. As a kid, I figured my .22s were only able to obtain a 1 1/4-inch group, but as I got older, I started testing higher priced ammo and discovered the reason I couldn’t get a good group was because I was buying cheap ammo all the time.

Well, the heat is coming soon, so I’d recommend that you hurry up and go shoot some whistle pigs while the hunting is still good. I’ve had a banner year this spring.

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.