Ice fishing, Part II

The other day I wrote horror stories about ice fishing. I figured I’d better follow up with a how-to ice fishing article in case someone still had a death wish and wanted to go! I’m headed to Texas next week for a hog hunt using the Umarex Air Sabre (which is an airgun that shoots arrows). Due to being AWOL, I had to submit this story early. By the time it publishes, ice will probably be melting at CJ so you’ll probably have to go up to a mountain lake to ice fish.

It’s according to how serious you want to get. If you’re going to go every weekend, you’ll need to accumulate more gear than I’m going to recommend. You see pictures of ice fishermen up in the Northeast that have ice fishing shanties out on the ice. We won’t cover that angle.

If you’re going to ice fish regularly, I’d recommend a portable pop-up hut. You set on a bench and there are holes in the floor to line up with the holes you’ve drilled in the ice. I’ve never used any of these so sorry, I don’t know a good one to recommend.

I’ve always wondered, but never have tried it, why wouldn’t a cheap little dome tent work? Set it up and fish in it? But who knows, the bottom of the tent may freeze to the ice and become a permanent fixture until spring! So, this idea may not work.

To haul out my gear I use a cheap little red kid’s sled. Load on your gear, tie a rope on front to drag it and off you go. It should hold all of your gear but if not, throw the rest into a backpack. It’s smart to take a 20-foot rope with a thick diameter. That way if someone falls in you can throw it to them and drag them out.

I always carry a 5-gallon bucket to set on. Yes, a chair would be more comfortable but you can throw your gear in the bucket and then set it in the sled. If it’s cold you may want to take a tent heater. Or, you can build a fire.

Then, of course, you’ll need an ice auger. I have a cheaper hand auger but if you’re going to be fishing much a gas auger would be better. If they’re not biting, you need to move. Maybe you can’t troll when ice fishing but if you have a gas auger you can move more/faster. You’ll also want an ice scoop to scoop the slush out of the hole after drilling it. You’ll also use the scoop to break up ice as it starts forming on the surface of your hole.

Now for the important items. If you’re going to be drilling a lot of holes, you may want to buy cheap tip-ups to save money. I personally favor regular rods and reels. But you don’t want your regular fishing rods. You’ll want to use the short ice fishing rods. Again, I’m not a 24/7 ice fisherman so I buy cheap ice fishing rods and reels but like with all fishing, you’ll cuss less and fish more if you use quality reels.

Like with all fishing, no one lure is the silver bullet. No siree, the manufacturers have convinced us that we need a multitude of lures of different sizes and colors. I usually use the little ice fishing jigs and tip them off with a meal worm. Or, I’ve got a variety of Pautzke’s Fireballs that you can put on the jig. They’re colored and scented to help attract fish. And, they don’t die like worms do. So you can keep a bottle for … I don’t know how long, but years. That’s probably your best option because a worm isn’t going to be too lively in the frigid water below anyway, right?

For perch, I usually drop down to the bottom and reel up 8-12 inches. But like all fishing you have to check all of the water column to find out where the fish are. They even offer fish finders for ice fishermen. I’ve never used one, though, so I can’t tell you anything about them.

One good thing about ice fishing, you don’t need a stringer or a live well. Kick a little snow in a pile and throw your fish in the snow and you’re good to go. Then when you leave, just throw them into your bucket.

One last tip: due to the cold water, the fish will be a little lethargic so don’t fish your lure fast. And yes, you can jig up and down but do it slower than normal. Have fun.

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

Chilling tales about ice fishing

OK, I’m not a hard-core ice fisherman. I don’t want to be a little wimp but deep down, I don’t relish the idea of breaking through the ice. I don’t know which would be worse. Breaking through the ice or getting to survive and having to crawl out back up on the surface soaking wet and freezing cold! It’d be a toss-up.

Now mind you. I’ve experienced a lot of near-death experiences. But the older I get, the harder I try to stay alive. I haven’t broken a bone in … a few years now. Used to think you had to or you weren’t living life to the fullest.

But there’s something a little spooky about hearing that harmonic cracking sound reverberating across the lake as a crack comes racing across the lake and the ice semi cracks/splits between your feet.

Like I say, I hate to be a wimp but it’s just a little disconcerting.

I remember one time, not long after I graduated out of college, I took a job over in Nebraska. My buddy Mike Helzer wanted to go ice fishing. It had warmed up a little and the snow had melted so there was a little water on top of the ice.

I’d taken my pastor’s son with us. If a fish hit at one of the holes and we all three ran over to reel him in, the ice would somewhat sink down an inch or two and water would run out of the hole onto the top of the ice and we’d slightly sink down. Again, I hate to be a wimp but that is a little disconcerting.

The fishing was pretty good, the best I remember but … . I don’t think it was good enough to have been designated as my final spot on earth.

Then after that I moved to Colorado. A couple of buddies had some death wish to go up to the mountains and ice fish all night every year on the longest day of the year. Well, I got out of that ordeal but we did go up on a lake at 10,000 feet on New Year’s Day.

We were drilling holes to fish and my buddy Mike Trautner was setting up an ice house. We were involved in drilling our holes and suddenly we heard some screaming. A stiff wind had whipped up and he was in the process of going airborne! We grabbed his ice house (with him in it) as it was sliding across the lake and rescued him.

But, all of our gear — 5-gallon buckets to set on, rods, gear AND my party trey with sausage, tomatoes and slices of cheese — had been blown away. We got Mike’s ice house staked down and then took a hike across the lake picking up gear.

But while walking across the lake there were little frozen red marbles, which I finally figured out were the little red tomatoes that were on my party tray. The slices of sausage were rolled for amazing distances like pinwheels all across the lake. My party trey was scattered to Kingdom come.

Luckily, there was a barbed wire fence on the far side of the lake, which stopped all of our gear from blowing to the Antarctic.

Then one more ice fishing horror story. Years ago, I attended a Winter Camping seminar at Sierra Trading Post put on by Brian… I can’t remember his last name. After attending his seminar, I came up with an ingenious idea. Why go winter camping with nothing else to do? Why not go winter camping on a lake and make it a joint ice fishing trip! I’m a genius. No, that’s not giving me enough credit. I’m a visionary genius. The only problem, I couldn’t find anyone dumb enough to go with me. None of my buddy’s were game. Surely Ron Spomer would go. Nope. Oh well, I’ll go by myself.

I threw my gear in a sled and on my backpack and hiked a mile or so out to an island and luckily set up my tent on the side of an island in case the wind whipped up. Which it did. It was by the grace of God that I didn’t go tumbling off but luckily, I was on (whatever it is??? The leeward side of the island). I thought my tent was going to take off rolling. The wind was howling. The next morning, I gingerly crawled out of the tent to surprisingly (not) find that all of my ice holes had frozen solid with my lines frozen in them.

Luckily, I had a tent heater and had survived the night. I caught a few fish that morning and finally gave up the ghost and headed for the truck. A guy on a snowmobile stopped by and fished with me for a while. When he was leaving, he asked if I wanted him to carry my gear to the truck. Naw. I’m fine … . I hiked to the truck and the road had drifted shut. There was a good 2 feet of snow. Luckily someone was behind me and had to help me get out or they wouldn’t have been able to leave. Gee, I love ice 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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

Packing a pistol: Tips on how to fly with firearms

Can you fly with a gun? Yes, but there are rules and regulations that you must follow. Some set by the government and some by each individual airline. We’ll cover some of the regulations … but first, if you’re new to the gun world you may ask the question: why would you want to fly with a gun?

I see three reasons right off:

1. You’re flying somewhere to hunt.

2. You’re a competitive shooter and flying to a match.

3. You want to have a gun for self-protection.

It doesn’t matter what the reason, the rules are the same. When you get to the ticket counter you have to declare that you have a firearm. They will ask you if it is unloaded and locked in a hard container. They will then have you sign and date an orange “Declaration Card” which is later taped to the gun box. In Boise, you will then be directed to go down to the left to have TSA check it out.

The firearm must be locked in a hard sided container. Many pistols come with a traveling case. For rifles, you will have to buy one. Forty something years ago Frontier Airlines would rent you a case for $20. The first time I flew with a rifle I was headed to Texas for a deer hunt. The ticket lady told me that if I didn’t bring it back that they’d keep my $20. She said if I wanted to keep it, she’d go get me a new one in a box.

Now, there are a plethora of gun cases to choose from. Most are lined with foam to protect your scoped rifles. These types of gun cases work fine but all that you can fit into them is your guns and maybe a knife or two. So you’re paying the airline for one bag that only has your guns in it.

Seven years ago I discovered a gun case made by Explorer that had no inner foam. They utilize a canvas carrying case. At first, I didn’t like it. I thought that’s stupid, it won’t protect my scope. But I used it on a trip to Alaska for a brown bear and duck hunt and fell in love with it. Here’s why.

When you go on a hunt, you have to take a ton of gear. Clothing — pants, shirts, base layers, coats, gloves, etc. etc. Then your guns, ammo, optics, knives, camera, maybe waders and the list goes on and on.

With my foamless case I could lay shirts/pants on the bottom, lay the canvas case on top with the guns in it and then lay more clothes on top. Wow. This was almost like having an extra bag of clothes. Plus, I could put my binoculars in the case and they’d be padded.

I fell in love with this concept of luggage. It is the only one like it that I’ve seen on the market. But what if you already own an expensive gun case and can’t (or don’t want to) buy another one? It just hit me while I’m sitting here typing but I guess you could remove the foam out of your existing case and be set. That’s better than flying a luggage half full of foam around the country!

So, if you go the above route, I’d recommend getting a canvas gun case to put your gun in to stick in the case. Plus, you can carry your gun around in the canvas case when hunting. For a pistol you can lock it in a smaller case and put in your unlocked suit case.

Some gun cases have holes for two locks. My Explorer case has holes for six locks which is a pain because Delta requires you to have a lock in every hole. You don’t want a real long necked lock because a thief may be able to pop open the closures on the gun case and be able to stick his hand into your case and pull something out (plus TSA will ding you).

On the other hand, I like longer necked locks to ensure that they can be locked. To alleviate any problems with TSA I carry a baggie of washers. I put a few on the backside of the neck of the lock and then lock the lock in place. Then, even if a thief opens the clasps on the case, he cannot pry open the top. I started doing this years ago.

I always carry 1-2 extra locks in case one malfunctions, which would be a disaster. I’ve never had a problem until … the other day. TSA wanted to open my case to inspect it upon arriving at their booth and for some reason the key wouldn’t work. No biggee. I let them cut the lock since I had an extra one.

What about ammo? Some airlines say ammo has to be in the original container but here is an excerpt from the TSA website:

• Small arms ammunition (up to .75 caliber and shotgun shells of any gauge) must be packaged in a fiber (such as cardboard), wood, plastic, or metal box specifically designed to carry ammunition and declared to your airline.

• Ammunition may be transported in the same hard-sided, locked case as a firearm if it has been packed as described above. You cannot use firearm magazines or clips for packing ammunition unless they completely enclose the ammunition. Firearm magazines and ammunition clips, whether loaded or empty, must be boxed or included within a hard-sided, locked case.

• Please check with your airline for quantity limits for ammunition.

You can carry your ammo in the original box but over time, a factory cardboard box starts to deteriorate. I just discovered some lightweight plastic containers called Ammo Buddy made by Clamtainer. That’s what I use now. They’re also great to carry extra ammo while backpacking or packing into elk camp. I would classify them as somewhat water resistant, at least as compared to a factory cardboard box.

As far as I can tell TSA doesn’t limit you on how much ammo you can carry but airlines seem to set their own limits. Delta allows up to 11 pounds and in the past United has told me they allow 10 pounds.

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

Now for the gun shows

I love the show season. And if you’ve been reading any of my articles lately then you know I’ve been flying around the country hitting the Dallas Safari Club Convention & Expo, the Safari Club International Convention and the mother of them all, the SHOT Show.

Even though I love the big shows, I have to admit. I’ve been stretched out thin. Between giving seminars at all of them and working the shows from daylight to dark, maybe flying in late to one of them at 2:30 a.m. and getting up some mornings at 4 to write articles covering them — I was drained by the time I flew home from the last one on a Saturday night at midnight. Only to have to get up at 3:30 to fly out again for two and a half weeks on Wednesday morning.

But now it’s time for some more relaxing type of shows. Gun shows! I don’t think that I’ve ever been to a gun show that it didn’t have something that I couldn’t live without. Gun shows have something for everyone.

If you need a brand new rifle, shotgun or pistol have no fear, you’ll find it there. Want an old M1 Garand? Saw a collection of them today. What about cowboy pistols? Yep, you’ll see a plethora of them.

Then there’s always a few vendors with a ton of old Army gear. Then if you’re looking for knives, you’ll find a ton of them. A lot of old school leather handle knives on up to some modern ones that are good for … I just don’t think their use has been discovered as of yet.

Knives that fit into my hunting world, I usually don’t see too many of them — although today I did.

And who isn’t infatuated with old lever actions? There are always a few tables of them that I have to stop and google over. The old lever action has to be the coolest rifle ever designed, doesn’t it? They’re the gun that won the West and still win the heart of any true westerner. I shot a cinnamon bear a few years ago with a Henry’s Golden Boy 45-70. That made for a beautiful picture with the brass lever action laid on the cinnamon bear.

If you need some décor for a mountain cabin, I don’t know how you could do better than hit a gun show and grab a box full of old-school ammo boxes to set up on a shelf. I saw a guy that had a whole box of old ammo boxes for sell today.

Usually at every gun show I can find at least one deal on a couple of boxes of ammo that I need. But one word of caution. I’d advise against buying any ammo reloaded by some individual local. Years ago I bought some at a Nampa Gun Show and it nearly blew the firing pin back through the end of the bolt. It was protruding out the back of the bolt. Little Tommie’s forehead would have been the next stop. So only buy reputable ammo.

One thing that I really like to stumble upon is a unique local dealer. One year at the La Grande gun show I met a guy that sold imported knives from Finland. They were unique. The handles were made out of reindeer horns. He had a mushroom knife that had boars’ bristles on the end of the handle to brush dirt off of your mushrooms as you gathered them.

Today I met a young man named Justin that owns Dakota Prairie Ammunition. They manufacture ammo, of course. I’m going to be testing some of his ammo. I love helping guys that are just getting their feet on the ground and many times you’ll be able to meet a new fledgling company at your local show.

Some upcoming gun shows in Idaho include: The Amoureux Homedale Gun Show on Feb. 19 and 20 and The Boise Gun Show at the Ford Idaho Center on March 5 and 6.

So don’t just set around the cabin bored this winter. Get out and hit a gun show. If nothing else I always see a few old-time books that I can’t pass on. Have fun.

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

Dark dreary winter or glorious snow heaven?

If you read any writings that are 50 years or older, anytime they wrote about winter there was a dark foreboding sinister feeling portrayed about it. There were cliches like they were entering into the winter of life and you knew they were about to die. You could almost hear the creepy music playing in the background.

As a kid, I didn’t have a lot. When I was 8 years old I’d pull on two to three pairs of socks and cram my foot into my already tight pair of cowboy boots. My toes would have zero circulation. I’d be shivering like a cartoon character.

Even up until after college I thought I was decked out if I had a set of red one-piece Union long handles. Of course they were made out of cotton and we now know that cotton doesn’t wick away moisture. In those days everyone advised wearing wool because it wicks away moisture and you’d survive even if you got wet. But the downside, wool itches.

Fast forward 50 years. Now suddenly a big percentage of people can’t wait for winter! You have to wonder, what caused this big shift in the paradigm? Here’s my explanation. Now we have a ton of fun winter outdoor activities. Skiing, snowboarding, ice fishing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, winter camping, sledding, ice skating, varmint hunting and who knows what else?

And I think the thing that allowed this change is the availability of new winter clothing that the market offers. Let’s list some of those items from the toes on up.

FOOTWEAR

Manufacturers offer moisture-wicking socks from medium weight on up to thick. Thirty years ago, there was a trend to wear a thin pair of polypropylene socks under your regular pair. This did two things.

1. Wicked away moisture.

2. The socks slid on each other so you didn’t get a blister.

Now there’s a design of boots to fit your every activity. As a kid, I never heard of waterproof boots, but now, nearly all of them are waterproof. (Although in a meeting with marketing guru Ethan Peck with Garmont boots last week at the SHOT Show he told me that sometimes he likes non-waterproof hiking boots because they are better at wicking away moisture. Never heard that before but it makes sense.)

You can get various heights of boots according to how much snow you’re going to encounter. You can also get varying degrees of insulation in them, according to how cold it is or how sedentary your outdoor activities will be. When snowmobiling or ice fishing you may want some Sorel Pac type of boots.

If you’re new to Idaho and haven’t used gaiters before, you need to get a pair. They’re a plastic like/canvas deal that zips up around your ankle and extends almost up to your knee. They clip onto the string on your boots and prevent snow from coming in over the top (curse of all curses).

BASE LAYERS

According to how active that you’re going to be but you can get light, medium and heavy weight base layers. Most are made out of polypropylene and some of silk. These are a must have in cold weather. Don’t get cotton. Remember the old saying, “Cotton Kills,” said because cotton gets wet and clammy.

For pants, it’s nice to have something that is water resistant. It may be cool looking in town but you don’t want your pants skin tight. You want them a little baggy. For a shirt, wool is great but I usually end up wearing some kind of a cotton shirt (flannel, etc.).

If you’re new to Idaho, you need to learn how to layer. You don’t want to wear just one jacket like an oversized Eskimo jacket. Otherwise, you get a little warm hiking and you have to tough it out or pull off your monster size jacket and freeze.

Maybe wear a decent fleece jacket and then a bigger coat over it. That way if you get warm you can just pull off your bigger outer jacket and strap it on your backpack. For a jacket you want one that goes past your waist to block the wind and contain your body heat. And talking about wind, you want one that is windproof and water resistant. And never, never buy a coat without a hood. Otherwise, wind will whip down your neck as well as snow and rain. I always wear a cap. Throw the hood over it and the bill sticks out and protects your face/glasses against the rain and snow.

A gaiter is nice to wear around your neck to keep wind from whipping down your collar. For head cover, everyone now wears some kind of sporty beanie. For extreme weather, Katy bought me one years ago that is four-layers. It’s the ultimate.

Then of course you’ll need some good waterproof/resistant gloves or mittens. You can also supplement with hand warmers to stick in your gloves or pockets.

Well, I could go on for a while but this list ought to at least be enough so you’ll live to make it back to town alive and be able write me some hate letters to the editor pointing out some item I forgot to include!

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

Snowshoeing: Now and then

If you’ve never snowshoed, you ought to try it. In the old days when I bought my first pair of snowshoes all that they had were the old wood frame ones which had rawhide webbing. I still think that they’re the coolest.

In the old days, the trappers and American Indians made them out of branches and used rawhide strips to make the webbing. Out on open prairies and grasslands they used longer, narrower shoes. In brush and mountains everyone uses wider, shorter ones nicknamed Bear Claws.

But let’s back up to the beginning. Why would someone use snowshoes? Because in deep snow you’ll sink up to your waist and get buried. It is impossible to walk. And even in shallower snow it is a major pain if it is just slightly crusted over. You take a step and right when you’re putting weight on that foot you break through the crust and slam down into the snow. Snowshoes are the only way to go in snow other than if you’re a cross-country skier.

The bindings on snowshoes are different from those used on downhill skiing. When downhill skiing your foot is tied firmly to the ski. When snowshoeing your toe is in constant contact with the shoe but with every step your heel rises up. The bindings resemble a thick piece of rubber that your toe slips into. Of course, there are varying types of bindings but the original ones 40 years ago were all like this.

A few years ago — I don’t remember maybe 20 or 30 years ago — you started seeing aluminum framed snowshoes hit the market. They’re lightweight and relatively cheap. I still like the old wood/rawhide snowshoes the best but mine finally rotted out. It was cheaper to buy a pair of aluminum ones than to repair my old ones. So that’s what Katy and I use now.

So where should you go snowshoeing?

You don’t want to just randomly pick a mountain to hike up. You’ll want to pick a trail or old logging road to hike on. Think back to where you elk hunted last fall. Where were some good logging roads for hiking? You’ll want to pick an old logging road or trail. Or you can hike across a meadow. Or maybe even use them if you’re going ice fishing and the snow is deep on the ice.

I’ve seen a couple of backcountry yurts advertised as fun to hike to and spend the night in. I’ve never done that. When Katy and I go snowshoeing we just go up in the mountains and hit a trail. It’s a fun excuse to get up in the mountains and get a little exercise. We don’t have a big agenda. We’re just going hiking.

To have a carrot at the end of the hike I like to throw a coffee pot in my backpack. After a couple of hours of hiking we’ll build a fire and heat up a pot of hot water to make hot chocolate. You’ll want to throw a jug of water in your pack. Sure, you can melt snow but remember, 10 inches of snow melts down to 1 inch of water. By the time it heats and sizzles you don’t have much water left so you’ll use a lot of snow. But yes, I use snow. I’ll put water in the pot and supplement it with snow so I don’t have to pack as much water.

So, with the above said, heat up a pot of water and pour everyone a cup of hot water. Pull out the packs of hot chocolate and everyone is ready for a treat. It’s a big treat for everyone to warm up around the fire with a cup of hot chocolate.

A lot of the newer shoes are not quite wide enough so with some of them you’ll sink down in the snow if it is too powdery, soft and deep. I haven’t researched all of the makers so I can’t recommend which is the best shoes to buy.

So in closing, don’t sit around the house and get fat and lazy. Grab a pair of snowshoes and hit the trails.

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

It’s varmint season!

I don’t know what makes varmint season so appealing. Maybe because our hunting seasons are all over and we feel like we cheated the system and snuck in one last hooray. Or maybe it’s just because it is flat out fun. Or maybe it’s because after a hard-core regimented big game season you can run ‘n’ gun and shoot multiple animals. Elk/deer hunting is like a chess game. Varmint hunting is like a high-speed video game!

Who knows all of the deep psychological reasons why varmint hunting is so much fun? If you’ve never varmint hunted, don’t be a deep thinker, just do it! In this article I’m going to cover techniques and gear that you’ll need. But everyone has a budget so if you’re a kid on a paper route budget don’t despair — just buy a hand call and go cheap. You can still get some shots.

First off let’s start with what gun(s) to use. Two decades ago, a good bolt action was the ticket. Now, ARs have taken over the scene and for good reason. They’re semi autos so you can get fast follow up shots. I just got an Anderson Mfg. 5.56 and tricked it out and am now ready to have at it.

I love rifle hunting but if there’s more than one of you in your hunting party, I’d recommend one of you carrying a shotgun. I kept count one year and 40 percent of my shots were close enough to use a shotgun. How many times has one busted you when you were calling? Either sneaking in and spooking at 20-30 yards or zipping in at Mach V and you didn’t even get a shot? Have one of the hunters in your group carry a shotgun for one season and I bet it will become a rule.

For shotguns I’d recommend using good quality ammo. I use Kent or HEVI-Shot. Sure, you can use leftover pheasant shells but if you want to reach out there to 50-70 yards you need to use good shells.

CALLS

When I was 5 or 6 years old, dad had an old wood call. We’d call for a minute and then wait five minutes. That philosophy has long gone out the window. Now everyone calls non-stop. That’s why electronic calls are so nice. They save you from blowing out your lungs on a hand call. After a few revolutions we’d then run a flashlight on the horizon to see if we could see any eyes.

Years later Johnny Stewart came out with cassette calls. My brother would plug one in his truck, roll down the windows and we’d stand in back of the truck. You can either run your light on the horizon or about 20 feet out from you in a circle. If you see eyes glistening the shooter gets ready and the light is dropped down on the varmint and you have about a second to shoot before they scatter. This was revolutionary.

If you buy a cheap call, you’re going to get frustrated. Buy a decent call. All the good varmint hunters I know use a FoxPro. It comes with quite a few calls and you can buy/download more. Of course mimic whatever game is in that area. Don’t use an elk in distress if you’re hunting outside of Star. Use a rabbit squeal. You get my drift.

DECOYS

Something that will tip the odds in your favor is to use a decoy. The most popular decoy is some kind of waggler. In a nutshell it is a wire attached to a motorized spinner that rotates. A white rag or piece of fur is tied to the end. You’d think a small white rag spinning around would scare them off but they love it.

Everyone has a budget. If you’re a kid on a paper route budget you get a stiff wire (3 to 4 feet long) and tie a turkey feather 2-4 inches from the end. Stick the wire in the ground at an angle and the breeze will twirl the feather around.

A decoy is important because a varmint hears the ruckus and comes running in expecting to see some action. If they don’t, that throws up a red flag. That also has them focusing on the decoy and not you.

BLINDS

You’ll need to be concealed while calling. Numerous times I’ve just hid behind a fence post or a pile of brush. A few years ago I upgraded and bought a strip of camouflaged burlap that was 3 feet by 10 feet long. I can lay this over a fence or between two bushes. Or there’s C-shaped panels that are lightweight and work great.

I don’t want to get too extravagant but it’s nice to have a chair. You don’t need a full-blown Lazy Boy. I like the Alps Mountaineering Dash Chair which is a backpacking chair. It is beneficial to have a low-profile chair for two reasons: 1. It elevates you so you can see over the grass and sage brush. 2. It’s comfortable so you will hold still longer and not spook the game.

So just because all of our hunting seasons have wound down don’t store away your rifles alongside your summer shorts just yet. There’s one more season in full swing right now — varmint season!

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

It’s showtime!

Last week I said I wanted to write about Varmint Hunting but … maybe that will happen next week. A more time-sensitive topic popped up. I’ve been writing a weekly article for the ISJ since… I can’t remember when. You might think after a year or two you’d run out of topics to write about. But if you love something there’s always something new — a new angle or maybe you just get up in the mountains and get refreshed and have five more articles you’re dying to write.

Like right now I’m sitting in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport leaving the Dallas Safari Club Convention & Expo. Suddenly it hit me. I miss Katy. I’d pay $100 if she was sitting here with me right now for 10 minutes holding hands.

It’s weird, we just celebrated our 38th anniversary and I think I love her more now than when we got married. OK, I better switch back to hunting because if Katy sees that I’m comparing our love with my love for hunting this could be my last article!

Anyway, now is the show season and it makes sense. Hunting season is pretty much over so because it’s a dead time, January to March is the perfect time to schedule the shows. The SHOT show is the mother of all shows. It’s Jan. 17 to 21 so everything else falls somewhere around it. Although this year for some reason the Safari Club International Convention moved back to Vegas and is on the tail end of the same week at SHOT. Usually, it is in February.

But with all the above said, let’s talk about why you ought to hit the shows. We’ll start with the SHOT. Monday is Media Day at the Range. They invite writers to test out all of the new (and old) rifles, pistols, shotguns, crossbows and ammo. Of course, that’s a fun day. The show actually runs Tuesday through Friday. All of the big manufacturers are there. Worldwide. I don’t know if every country is there but nearly. Firearm manufacturers, ammo, backpacks, knives, optics, outdoor clothing, backpacks — you name it. The reason I’m there is to see all of the new gear for 2022. I’ll be finding new products to test and write about, lining up sponsors, trips, etc. It is by invitation only but if you ever get to go, you should.

Next let’s talk about the club conventions like SCI and DSC. Probably two-thirds of the booths are guides. If you want to book the hunting/fishing trip of a lifetime, these are the shows to hit. I want to take Katy and Kolby on a South Louisiana redfish/spec fishing trip and to Alaska fishing so I hit some of those booths. I met a good sounding group of Cajuns that run Saltgrassoutdoors.com. Then I talked to Waterfalls Resort, which is where I went for my first Alaska fishing trip years ago, which instigated my writing career. I may take them there.

Then you have the state shows like the Idaho Sportsman Show, The Great Northwest Outdoor Expo (I hope they’re having it this year) and so forth. I love these shows. They’re local so you meet a lot of local manufacturers with a new product that they’ve invented. That’s how I met the SneakyHunter Bootlamps crew.

Then of course there are a lot of guides there, too. You can usually tell by talking to them if they’re legit but check references. You don’t want to save your pennies for the trip of a lifetime only to end up with some bozo for a guide.

Then I love hitting the seminars. But take with a grain of salt seminars put on by celebrities if they’re promoting their sponsor’s products. Like any shopping check around and do some research. I conduct 40 to 60 seminars a year. I had a seminar at the DSC, two at SHOT and three at the SCI Conv. I try to give honest reviews because if I say this air gun is the best, some kid may be saving up his paper route earnings to buy that air gun. If it’s a dud he’s stuck with it until he gets out of college and gets a real job.

But still, here’s a couple of words of warning:

1. Remember the old proverb — a gift blinds the eyes of the wise. If the speaker is sponsored, the gift will sway his opinion.

2. Marketing is made to create discontent. A few years ago the .300 Win. Short Mag was advertised as the best rifle ever and the 30-06 was relegated to the museum. Then the 6.5 Creedmoor came out and overnight the .300 Win. Short Mag was deemed worthless. Manufacturers have to breed discontent or you’ll use the same rifle your dad did, your kid will use it and your grandkid will. That’s bad for business. They want you to buy a new rifle every year.

Everyone likes new inventions but products also have to stand the test of time. So investigate and make wise buying decisions.

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

An apple a day

I wanted to write an article on varmint hunting this week but it will have to wait until maybe next week due to a lot of extenuating circumstances.

I was supposed to fly to South Dakota on Monday but due to airlines laying off staff, they were short-handed and my first flight out of Boise was late which threw off all of my other connections.

Rebooked for Tuesday. Got up at 3:30 a.m. and Katy dropped me off only to discover that my flight was canceled.

Rebooked for Thursday morning only to have my first flight late again due to short staffing which threw off all of my connections. Again! Finally, I actually got out at 6 a.m. Sunday morning and am now sitting in the Minneapolis airport waiting for a flight to South Dakota. I think that I am finally going to make it on the fourth try!

So with that said, I have spent the week running back and forth to the airport, not getting a paycheck.

But with the above said, we’ll make lemonade out of the lemons provided by the layover. To begin, at least I was stuck in Idaho so I got to spend an extra week with Katy and Kolby. One day, Kolby was going to walk her new dog and wanted to know if I wanted to go along. Sure, I need to get in shape anyway. We took off down a trail and she showed me a house that had an apple tree. The owners weren’t picking them so I knocked on the door and asked if we could pick some apples. He said sure.

We picked a couple of bags worth and then came back later loaded for bear. We had plenty of bags and my backpack and picked 70 pounds of apples. If you’re like me then you’re wondering, aren’t they all frozen and ruined since it has been single digit weather for a while? Which is exactly why I am writing this article. No! They are salvageable!

So, to answer the obvious question first. Aren’t they soft and mushy? Yes! And no! Let me explain. It surprised me but most of the apples were still on the tree, not that many had fallen. And when picking them I only had a few fall. Now bear in mind, I’m not a real apple expert but I would have expected that they would have all fallen by now, but not so.

So yes, they are frozen right now but if you have access to an apple tree, hustle out there and stock up for the winter! They are frozen so of course that has burst the cell wall structure so they will be mushy when they thaw out but still, you can do a lot with them. Let’s list out some options:

First and easiest, slice them and eat them frozen. They taste like a frozen apple-flavored popsicle and are delicious. I couldn’t believe how tasty they were.

Second option is to slice them and throw them in a blender with orange juice. This made an awesome juice drink for us at supper last night. I tried it later with a berry juice but that was a little weird so I’d recommend just mixing them with orange juice.

Since we had 70 pounds there was no way that we’d use them all before they went bad so we quartered out as many as we could fit in the freezer and put them in bags and froze them for later use.

A fourth option, and a good one, we made applesauce. Applesauce is easy to make. Becky across the street taught us how to make this. Slice some apples and put in a pan and boil/cook. Add cinnamon and allspice and when soft put in a blender. Excellent applesauce. We made way too much so we put some in baggies and froze it.

And I saved the best for last. Ever since my daughters were 6 to 8 years old, they made apple crisp using a recipe out of one of their kids cook books. They’ve since progressed to recipes off of the internet. But regardless, Kolby is about to founder us on apple crisp. To add a little more flair to it she throws on a few dollops of ice cream which makes it to die for. Here’s a recipe she shared with me that she got off of the internet by The Chunky Chef. We tweaked it a little.

Kolby’s Apple Crisp

6-8 Apples

¾ cup Oatmeal

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. allspice

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup flour

½ cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl mix the topping ingredients and stir.

Lay apple slices in pan.

Cover with the topping ingredients.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until golden brown.

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

How to properly store your hunting knives for the winter

This is one of those “do as I say, not as I do” articles. I don’t want to make my ignorance publicly known but until the last few years I’ve never given it a thought as to prepping my hunting knives for storage. Three things have woken me up to the need to do so.

The first one was about 15 years ago when I pulled my skinning knife out of the sheath to skin a deer, elk, bear or something and noticed that some idiot (that would be me) had left gobs of fat caked up on the blade from the previous year’s hunt. It hit me then that maybe I ought to wipe the blood and fat off of the blade before storing away my knives.

Then a couple of years ago my brother said that he always sharpened his knives before he put them away for the year. That way the next year when he pulled them out on opening day to skin his deer they were sharp and good to go.

And the final straw that tilted me over to this new line of thought: I’d recently done a few TV shows with “The High Roads With Keith Warren” and while watching the show there was an advertisement in the middle in which he said something to the effect that you ought to clean your knife before putting it away and wipe it down with a good quality oil but to be sure to wash the oil off with dish soap the next year before using it.

So, with all of the above said, I finally jumped on board and am recommending that you properly winterize your knife before storing it. I’m going to describe what steps that I’m going to be taking from now on.

First off, blood is corrosive so you’ll want to wash any blood/fat off of your knife with warm soapy water and then dry it off well before putting it back in the sheath. I have some Kydex sheaths but I still think there is something attractive or maybe nostalgic about a leather sheath and favor them. But, on many of our hunts we encounter snow, rain or both. So, after you get home from your hunt you don’t want to throw your knife on the shelf in a wet sheath. Granted, many of the new knives are made out of stainless steel so they resist rusting. But some of the old school knives like Old Timer, etc. are made of some kind of regular iron and will rust and pit. It’s a shame for a knife to rust up and not be able to pass it on to your kids or grandkids. So not only do you need to properly care for the knife but also dry out the sheath when you get home before storing the knife in it.

Next, after washing and drying my knife I’m going to wipe the blade with a rag that I put a few drops of high-quality gun oil on. We do this with our guns don’t we? Some of my Diamond Blade knives cost $400 to $500 so it’d be a shame not to be able to pass them on down to my grandkids. So, I think Keith is right in advising to do this.

And don’t forget to care for your sheath. If you take care of it the sheath should last for two to three generations; if not, it can mold up or dry out and crack in a short amount of time. So, here’s my advice: After you get home let it dry out. Then using a rag rub it generously with either Neatsfoot oil or Lexol. This will help it last for years to come.

Or I guess there is one other option. Don’t ever kill anything and then your knife can sit in the knife display case at home for eternity!

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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.