For a lot of people out there, it is all doom and gloom. School started back up. Sleepy-headed kids that have been staying up until midnight are suddenly getting jerked out of bed at ungodly hours, thrown into a car and dumped out in front of some strange establishment called school. If they daydream and their thoughts drift off to their summer backpacking and fishing adventures, suddenly they’re snapped back to reality by the sharp crack of a ruler on their knuckles.

And a lot of adults didn’t escape this tribulation transition either. Some of them are the cruel ogres that inflict such pain upon the kids. Their schedules have been disrupted too. They’re the teachers! They’ve cruelly been snapped out of a lull as well.

I have first-hand experience with the above. I watch it on a daily basis. My wife is a school teacher and my daughter is a college kid and works part-time as a teacher’s aide. You’d think every year they were 18-year-old kids getting jerked out of a peaceful life and thrown into Marine boot camp.

They jump out of bed (well, crawl out the first week) and run around with their tail feathers on fire scrambling to get out the door only to dart back in once or twice for some forgotten item.

So, what the heck does the above have to do with hunting? Ha, I’ll tell you what! A bunch of us hunters are no different. We wake up a day or two before season acting like we didn’t have a year to get prepared. We’re running around searching for a list of items that seems to have disappeared. Well, actually they never got around to writing a list so they’re running around the garage like a kindergartener randomly remembering items needed to have a successful hunt.

I just had a buddy call me Thursday and ask me if I had his hunting knives. Where’s my tent? Then opps, where’s my HS Strut scent wafer? Then where’s my ammo? Where could my new Sierra Designs sleeping bag possibly be? Only to discover that the kids used it for a sleepover. After finding it you discover they spilled a 2-liter bottle of Coke inside of it and the neighbors dog slept with them and chewed his way out of the bottom of it.

I guess humans are just humans. Whether they’re school kids, teachers or hunters, they create the same disasters wherever they go, just in different scenarios. But despite the drama, the Idaho hunting season is in full bloom right now! It’s like watching a fireworks show. At the end of the show, they always send up multiple rockets in rapid succession. Well, that’s exactly how fall is in Idaho. She offers so many hunting opportunities that it is almost impossible to list them all. We have grouse, dove, chukar hunting, deer, elk, bear, wolves and if you drew tags (which I didn’t) antelope, moose, big horn and goat hunting. And I probably missed listing your favorite species. Such as upcoming duck, goose and pheasant hunting. And what about the lowly rabbit and squirrel hunting? Or cougars!

So if you live in Idaho, you’re totally blessed. What other state offers all the hunting opportunities that we freely enjoy? And we have multiple options in which to hunt. We can hunt with pistols, bows, crossbows, airguns, blackpowder and rifles.

If you’re new to the state of Idaho don’t be bashful. Grab your bow/rifle and hit the mountains. No one is going to show you their secret spots so you’re going to have to learn on your own. Buy a forest service map and go out exploring. When you find a spot you like, buy a detailed map from MyTopMaps.com.

It’s going to take you a few years to find some good hunting spots but that’s true no matter where you live. Over time you’ll meet new buddies at work, church or neighbors that will take you. But don’t go back to their spots later by yourself or you’ll be tar and feathered and run out of Idaho.

And if you handle and cook your game right, it’ll be the best organic meat you’ve ever had. I’m excited. In January we filmed three shows on processing and cooking game. I think they’ll be the best outdoor cooking shows ever produced. I met Charles and Jody Allen — the owners of Knives of Alaska on their ranch to cut up a deer, wild hog and a wagyu steer. They also had the High Road With Keith Warren crew there to film it all — Keith Warren, Matti Tackett and Johnny Piazza and one of the top 15 chefs in America, Michael Scott. I learned a lot from them. You’ll learn how to pull some unique cuts off your wild game and how to cook them. Here’s a link to some of the footage. Click on the pic with Keith holding the hog then next on the tray of meat. Two more shows to come. highroadhunting.com.

So don’t set out another season. Get out in the woods and if your kids are old enough, take them, too. Dad started taking me deer hunting when I was 7 or 8 years old. If the guys in your camp are too rough to have your kids around then you need to make some new friends. 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.

This is going to be a bit of a unique outdoor article, but nonetheless, I think that at sometime in all of our lives the info here will be pertinent, and it is applicable if you’re young or old. I don’t want to say that we’re like cars but we all do have a shelf life. Some longer than others. But God is in control of when we die so what I’m going to talk about today is how to keep you more active whether you have a short life or a long one.

If you hot rod and peel out, your tires aren’t going to last as long, right? Same with your joints. The more you abuse them when you’re young, more than likely you’ll have trouble when you get older. So if you’re young, take heed to some of these precautions, and if you’re old and feeble, try some of these remedies.

I want to be able to fish and hunt until the day I die and if you’re reading this article, I’m betting you do, too. So let’s get started. I’m betting that a big percentage of people reading this article work in a concrete jungle of some kind. Whether it’s in a plant, store, construction or whatever.

I always wore rubber high-top boots in the plant the first seven to eight years. I was a general foreman at the time, which meant I had a crew of over 300 employees and seven foremen. So I was running, gunning 10.5 hours a day. One day I came home from work and my shins were killing me. I bought some $1.99 Dr. Scholl’s boot pads which felt great. Ah, they were a slice of heaven. But within two weeks they shelled out. I then learned that I needed to invest in some good boots and jogging pads. I just recently got some Tuli’s pads.

I’m warning you younger guys and gals, start using pads now while you’re young. They will extend the life of your knees. I wish that I would have started using them seven or eight years earlier and my knees wouldn’t feel like they do now.

The other day I had a carcass fall on my head and flatten me. The doctor said he wanted to replace my knee. Nope, it hurts but I can still walk. I’ve seen too many people get knee replacements and are now dysfunctional. I’m not going to be stuck in town with all the other little yuppies.

Get some good boots and pads like the Tuli’s. They will extend the life of your knees. I don’t want to say it’s like walking on carpet but that’s not too much of an exaggeration. And if you’re an old timer, it’s never too late to start doing the right thing. Squeak as much life out of your knees as possible. You can trim down the toe end with a pair of scissors to fit your boot.

So far, knees have been the main focus and for good reason. If your wheels are blown out, then you’re pretty much blown out of the water, outdoor-wise.

But there’s another common ill that many face — a messed-up elbow. My left elbow is a little whacked.

In high school, I got thrown off a bull and it bruised the elbow. Then in college, the day after Christmas, I had a horse run into the fence and somewhere in the wreck it knocked my elbow out of joint. Ever since then, it doesn’t bend out totally straight. And the last few years, if I’m working super hard it locks up.

For whatever reason, if I squeeze it right above the joint, it doesn’t hurt and I can move it. I’ve found this also to be true on my knee. I used to try to tape them up tight with athletic tape but recently I found something a lot better. MEDI-DYNE makes a Velcro strap that you can put above your elbow or knee and tighten it down. It makes you feel like a new man. Obviously, it’s the tendons and/or ligaments that are messed up but for whatever reason, it makes my elbow feel 100 times better.

About 25 years ago I had some floating bone chips in my elbow from the horse wreck and had them removed. The bone chips would get in the joint and lock up my elbow so I had the Doc remove them.

Ugh, it’s never been the same since. This MEDI-DYNE wrap really helps.

Here’s the moral: If you’re young and work on concrete or work on your feet in general, get some good boots and pads. (Or if you’re older it’s never too late to do what’s smart.) If you’re older and your joints hurt, try one of these straps like the MEDI-DYNE. I got their CHO-PAT Tennis Elbow Support. Everyone knows that real men don’t read instructions but in looking at their website they show placing the CHO-PAT below the elbow but for me it works better above. Maybe my wound is different.

P.S.: Little Tommie has no medical training so heed his medical advice at your own risk.

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.

To help prolong the life of your knees wear good boots like the Irish Setter

This is going to be a bit of a unique outdoor article, but nonetheless, I think that at sometime in all of our lives the info here will be pertinent, and it is applicable if you’re young or old. I don’t want to say that we’re like cars but we all do have a shelf life. Some longer than others. But God is in control of when we die so what I’m going to talk about today is how to keep you more active whether you have a short life or a long one.

If you hot rod and peel out, your tires aren’t going to last as long, right? Same with your joints. The more you abuse them when you’re young, more than likely you’ll have trouble when you get older. So if you’re young, take heed to some of these precautions, and if you’re old and feeble, try some of these remedies.

I want to be able to fish and hunt until the day I die and if you’re reading this article, I’m betting you do, too. So let’s get started. I’m betting that a big percentage of people reading this article work in a concrete jungle of some kind. Whether it’s in a plant, store, construction or whatever.

I always wore rubber high-top boots in the plant the first seven to eight years. I was a general foreman at the time, which meant I had a crew of over 300 employees and seven foremen. So I was running, gunning 10.5 hours a day. One day I came home from work and my shins were killing me. I bought some $1.99 Dr. Scholl’s boot pads which felt great. Ah, they were a slice of heaven. But within two weeks they shelled out. I then learned that I needed to invest in some good boots and jogging pads. I just recently got some Tuli’s pads.

I’m warning you younger guys and gals, start using pads now while you’re young. They will extend the life of your knees. I wish that I would have started using them seven or eight years earlier and my knees wouldn’t feel like they do now.

The other day I had a carcass fall on my head and flatten me. The doctor said he wanted to replace my knee. Nope, it hurts but I can still walk. I’ve seen too many people get knee replacements and are now dysfunctional. I’m not going to be stuck in town with all the other little yuppies.

Get some good boots and pads like the Tuli’s. They will extend the life of your knees. I don’t want to say it’s like walking on carpet but that’s not too much of an exaggeration. And if you’re an old timer, it’s never too late to start doing the right thing. Squeak as much life out of your knees as possible. You can trim down the toe end with a pair of scissors to fit your boot.

So far, knees have been the main focus and for good reason. If your wheels are blown out, then you’re pretty much blown out of the water, outdoor-wise.

But there’s another common ill that many face — a messed-up elbow. My left elbow is a little whacked.

In high school, I got thrown off a bull and it bruised the elbow. Then in college, the day after Christmas, I had a horse run into the fence and somewhere in the wreck it knocked my elbow out of joint. Ever since then, it doesn’t bend out totally straight. And the last few years, if I’m working super hard it locks up.

For whatever reason, if I squeeze it right above the joint, it doesn’t hurt and I can move it. I’ve found this also to be true on my knee. I used to try to tape them up tight with athletic tape but recently I found something a lot better. MEDI-DYNE makes a Velcro strap that you can put above your elbow or knee and tighten it down. It makes you feel like a new man. Obviously, it’s the tendons and/or ligaments that are messed up but for whatever reason, it makes my elbow feel 100 times better.

About 25 years ago I had some floating bone chips in my elbow from the horse wreck and had them removed. The bone chips would get in the joint and lock up my elbow so I had the Doc remove them.

Ugh, it’s never been the same since. This MEDI-DYNE wrap really helps.

Here’s the moral: If you’re young and work on concrete or work on your feet in general, get some good boots and pads. (Or if you’re older it’s never too late to do what’s smart.) If you’re older and your joints hurt, try one of these straps like the MEDI-DYNE. I got their CHO-PAT Tennis Elbow Support. Everyone knows that real men don’t read instructions but in looking at their website they show placing the CHO-PAT below the elbow but for me it works better above. Maybe my wound is different.

P.S.: Little Tommie has no medical training so heed his medical advice at your own risk.

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.

To help prolong the life of your knees wear good boots like the Irish Setter

My career as an outdoor writer is over. I’m done. Fried! Not only that, I probably got my wife fired to boot! I haven’t been to Owyhee Reservoir but once this year. So I thought I’d go check it out. I took Katy’s boss with me and guaranteed him we’d smoke ‘em. Don’t worry, I always catch a cooler of crappie at CJ, Brownlee or some at Owyhee.

We drove down the gulch to the lake and upon rounding the last rise my mouth dropped. It was dry sand past the end of the boat ramp for I don’t know? 200 yards? From what I could tell, the river wasn’t even running enough to float my little jon boat so we couldn’t even drag it out to the river and drift down to the main body of water.

I’m betting it was 20, maybe 30 feet lower than it normally is in the spring. It was the lowest I’ve ever seen. Well, we were here so we drove downstream on the slanted bank for probably a mile. There was a muddy slough that hooked into the lake. We parked and carried the boat for maybe 150 yards and put in. It was super shallow but we made it down to the main body of water. 

The water was super muddy. I couldn’t see my chartreuse jig head over 1-inch below the surface. I don’t think a fish would even have been able to see my jig. Luckily I’d brought a big assortment of Pautzke Crappie Fireballs and other of their scents. But even with them I couldn’t beg a bite.

We moved to another spot. Nada. Finally after a while it became apparent. The crappie fishing was done for the year there. I’ve never seen the lake that low in my life. I can only assume that the crappie had moved out into the main body of the lake into a cooler, deeper hole. I only had a little 2.3 horsepower Honda motor on the boat so it’d of taken us a few hours to get where they might be and we only had a few hours of daylight left.

I’m usually the eternal optimist but it was clear. We were barking up the wrong tree today. We finally pulled the plug and headed back to the truck.

To add insult to injury, there were a few young men on the bank. One of them didn’t even have a fishing rod. He had a plastic bottle with fishing line wrapped around it and would throw out a jig and pull it in wrapping the line around the bottle like it was a reel.

He showed me their cooler. They had a good 15 bass in it and some of them were pretty decent ones.

Arrghh, all is lost.

Well, all was not lost. It was a beautiful day and an unbelievable scenic drive in. We’d had a good time. But all of this brings up the deep philosophical thought. Or maybe I should say choice to make. Are you going to let your circumstances determine your happiness or do you find your joy somewhere else?

There is a difference in happiness and joy. You make a choice as to whether you’re going to be joyful or not.

I refuse to let outward circumstances dictate as to whether I have joy or not. It’s not always easy and I don’t always succeed but if you don’t strive for that then you’re letting circumstances determine your happiness and your mood will be determinate upon the weather or surroundings, so to speak. If the sun is out and it’s pretty, then I’m going to be happy, etc. No, I refuse to live like that.

But I do like to fill my tags when I go hunting. So the struggle continues.

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.

I teach three to five Backpacking 101 seminars every year. The first one that I conducted I planned on doing an hour-long seminar with the first 45 minutes I’d talk and then hold a 15-minute Q&A at the end. That’s somewhat the format on all of my seminars.

But I learned in the first Backpacking 101 seminar that everyone wants to get some instruction the first 15 minutes and then talk about what gear you need for the remainder of the seminar. And that makes sense because what gear you need to carry is super important.

Maybe you’re backpacking in to hunt for a week. Or maybe you want to climb a certain mountain, or go back into the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and see some of the petroglyphs. Or maybe you to get into some cool fly fishing spots.

Regardless of your reason, certain gear is needed for all of the above listed reasons. I get to test a lot of gear over the year, so let’s spend the rest of this article listing items that I favor and, where pertinent, I’ll tell which brands have worked out for me.

• Boots — I use Irish Setter boots. Their Vapr Treks are lightweight and I like their Pinnacles.

• Socks — I use Browning hiking socks. Take two pairs. One to sleep in and one to hike in. Rinse them in the river.

• Pants — I wear zip-off pants. 5.11 Tactical has some durable/functional pants.

• Rain gear — Get a lightweight Gore-Tex coat that extends past your waist.

• Tent — ALPS Mountaineering tents: Lynx 1-person or, if you want a little more room, the Taurus 2.

• Sleeping bag — Sierra Designs sleeping bag. Super lightweight. I don’t pack a heavy, bulky bag. I use a lightweight one and wear base layers.

• Sleeping pad — Klymit makes a really compact, lightweight sleeping pad. I also carry one of the ½-inch thick Army pads.

• Backpack — Sierra Designs Flex Capacitor backpack. Kolby just got one and I think it’s going to be great. Super lightweight.

• Chair — I hate sitting in the dirt around a campfire eating or while lounging around camp. Take an ALPS Mountaineering Dash Chair.

• Base layers — For base layers I use Haeleum or XGO. You’ll want a set of base layers in case it gets cool at night.

• Day pack — Take a day pack to do your day hikes with.

• Flashlights — I just received an ASP Dual Fuel Raptor that is super bright. You’ll want a bright one in case a bear comes in camp. Use rechargeable lights. I also take a cheap flashlight to do menial tasks.

• Solar chargers — Bushnell has a variety of solar chargers. These are nice to charge your phone, camera, GPS, flashlights, etc. Don’t have to carry extra batteries.

• Map and compass — I’ve used MyTopo Maps for years. Paige will make you any size/detailed of a map as you want. They’re the best.

• Paper towels — I always carry a roll of paper towels to use for cleaning, toilet paper and to help start fires.

• Aquamira filtered bottles — Use to drink out of rivers so you don’t have to boil your water. If there’s a large group, take an Aquamira pump and jug to store water in.

• First aid — Adventure Medical Kits makes the best first aid gear. I always carry their moleskin. If you start feeling a hotspot slap a patch on. Just received their MOLLE Bag Trauma Kit. I don’t take a ton of first-aid gear but you want some. All you have to do is patch up and get to the doctor.

• Mess kit — Boy Scout/Army mess kit. I use these to cook or for eating out of. I’ve bought a few at garage sales.

• Coffee pot — I always carry a small aluminum coffee pot to make coffee and boil water.

• Backpack meals — I’ve tested a lot, but Mountain House makes the ultimate backpacking meals. Kolby and I love their beef stroganoff and chicken and dumpling meals. And if I don’t take the raspberry crumble dessert, there’ll be mutiny in camp!

• Breakfast — For breakfast, we take flavored oatmeal packs and add freshly picked huckleberries and raspberries.

• Lunch — For lunch, we eat peanut butter sandwiches. They’re cheap, easy to pack and not perishable.

• Mouse traps — I always take two mouse traps.

• Fire-starting gear — Make sure that whichever fuel bars you take really work. Waterproof matches. Also throw in two or three cheap Bic lighters. If necessary, you can break one and pour the fuel over damp wood.

• Knife — Take a nice folder or a straight knife.

• String — String to hang or tie stuff down.

• Bag — Mesh bag to hang your food.

• Plan — Always leave a trip plan with someone trustworthy (and that loves you enough to come rescue you if necessary).

• Gun — .44 magnum or .357 magnum.

• Book — Little Gideon Bible so you can have your daily devotions.

• Miscellaneous — I take a handful of plastic grocery bags to wrap my sandwiches and my sooty coffee pot and mess kit. I take motel coffee packs, a small tube of toothpaste and brush.

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.

I know that I’m totally blessed. I live in Idaho and get to hunt and fish all of the time. But, my most fun trip of the year is when I go backpacking with my daughter. It’s just her and me with no distractions. No Facebook, no Instagram, no TV, no leaky pipes, no yard to mow — you get the drift. No interruptions.

But I about died on this trip. It probably wouldn’t have been so painful if there weren’t 30,000 forest fires burning causing us to suck down half smoke/half oxygen every breath. Plus I overloaded my pack with everything including the proverbial kitchen sink. But, still, we had a blast.

I’ll write a Backpacking 101 article soon and cover what gear you need to carry, but this week we’ll just talk about the recent trip and the fun we had. Kolby had an appointment with her college adviser and then she was going to run home and we’d take out. Of course she rushed home and I was still working on articles and had a four-part series I had to get submitted to a new website so we got off a minute later than planned.

We soon arrived at the trailhead and started strapping everything to our packs. I’m still old school and use an old frame Kelty pack I’ve had since 1998 or 1999. I did just order Kolby a Sierra Designs Flex Capacitor internal frame pack, which is lightweight, but it didn’t arrive until the day we got home.

We threw on our packs and hit the trail a little later than I wanted. We wouldn’t hit our camping spot until well after dark but the only other option was to camp at the trailhead, which meant we’d have had to unpack our gear, throw up a camp and then tear it down the next morning, repack etc. etc. Plus, we’d done that one year and got woken up at 1:30 a.m. by a bear rubbing the tent.

It’s never fun hiking in the dark. If you stumble off a trail in the dark with a heavy pack, you’ll go tumbling off the side of the mountain down into the river below. One year on this trail my buddy rolled two horses and a mule down into the river and barely got them out alive.

We finally hit our spot, unloaded, slapped up our tents and hit the sack. I was beat. This trip we’d taken our ALPS Mountaineering Taurus 2 Tents. They’re a hair heavy for backpacking but they’re nice in that they’re larger and have awnings on each side that you can store your gear under.

The next morning I woke up and had to go drown some of my new flies from flydealflies.com (I had a bunch). I fished for a while and then ran back to camp and whipped up a hot cup of coffee and some oatmeal for us and woke up the little sleepy head. Nothing is better than a cup of coffee in the morning up in the mountains, is there? Even if it’s just a motel pack from the last business trip. We’d grabbed a couple of coffee creamers at the last gas station and dined like kings and queens. Well, at least by hobo standards!

Some rotten little field vermin had climbed the tree and gotten into our food bag and nibbled on a few items. But I set traps and caught two mice per night the rest of the trip.

We strung up our fly rods and took off down the river. The water was lower than it normally is in late August. Which is good because it congregates the fish in the holes which helps fishing.

We were having a great time fishing and then disaster struck. We passed through a spot that was loaded with huckleberries and raspberries. Kolby slid to a screeching halt and it was all out war on the berries. No hurry. We were going to be back here for four days. Normally we’ll half fill a water bottle with huckleberries to make a fruit flavored drink but this time we only had our Aquamira filtered water bottles to store them in.

I finally got her pried away from the berry patches and back on track. I lose track of what day we caught what. We didn’t catch as many fish as normal but still caught enough. Somewhere in the mix Kolby hung a really big cutthroat. I mean he was big! I saw him slash the water and he had a big girth. I bet he was 17 or 18 inches. She had on a light tippet and he soon snapped her off.

Like I said above, it was smoky and in late afternoons the smoke would really roll down the canyon and cloud things up. You could hardly make out the far ridge. Kolby would ask me every night if I thought we needed to get outta there. We’d end up staying only to wonder again the next night. You don’t want a forest fire racing over the top of the mountains while you’re sleeping.

Well, our time finally came to an end. We loaded our packs and hit the trail. Great 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. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.

My year has been hectic. Last year, I was crappie fishing two or three times per week. This year, I’ve been slammed and haven’t even gotten to go. Granted, I’m having a great year; it’s just that it hasn’t included crappie fishing. I miss that. Crappie fishing is a low-stress outing. They’re not exceptionally hard to catch, you catch big numbers of them, and they’re in the top three freshwater fish to eat in America. My family loves to fill our freezer with crappie, and we eat like kings all year.

In our locale, we have three options for serious crappie fishing and these three options have varying degrees of success each year so you have to hit all three to determine which lake is the best that year. I’m talking about CJ Strike, Brownlee and Lake Owyhee reservoirs.

I hadn’t been to Owyhee in a year, so Katy and I ran over there to check it out. Whoa, we’d waited too late in the year. The lake was down about 500 feet. OK, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic but it has to be down at least 20 feet. My normal holes are now nonexistent! We fished for two hours and had three fish.

Now for Plan B. We still had to get some crappie in the freezer. We hit another spot but I figured the crappie fishing had crashed for the season. About dusk though they moved in shallow feeding and things livened up.

We started off catching some in the shadows but by dusk they had moved up to within a foot of the banks. I’d flip a jig tipped off with a 2 ¼-inch Mister Twister tail on it and they’d slam it. We were out from the bank and would cast within inches of it. It seemed to work best to lift your rod tip and reel slowly. Of course right up by the shore you had to reel a little faster or you’d hang up and then you could slow down as you got out further from the bank.

Katy was getting hits right up by the boat. In fact, one hit right at the boat. I told her to quit reeling them in so close to the tip of the rod but according to her he had hit when the jig was in and she about to cast again. Who knows but the rod tip was halfway down into his stomach!

It depends on how windy it is, how deep you’re fishing and how far you want to cast but we were using 1/8 and ¼ ounce Mister Twister Chartreuse or orange jigs tipped off with blue or silver colored plastics. I think presentation is more important than color.

Gee am I glad that I’ve got a Honda boat motor on my jon boat now instead of the electric trolling motor. Used to I always had to worry if I fished too far from the truck or if a big wind kicked up that I wouldn’t be able to make it back. Now I can venture out further and stay later. With the trolling motor it took a lot longer to make it back. Now I can fish later and zip back faster.

As it got later the fishing got increasingly better. The last 30 minutes I was getting a hit every cast. Most of our fish were decent sized. We didn’t throw back even 20 fish.

I took a bottom bouncer and wanted to try to find some perch but that never transpired. I drug it for a little bit tipped off with a worm but all I got was one or two catfish. If you can catch one perch then anchor because they are a schooling fish and if you can locate the school by catching one you should be able to load up on them. The same with crappie actually.

Well, we ended up with half a cooler of fish and had a great time. It was good to get away with Katy. I haven’t got to be with her much lately. She took Joel Rosenberg’s new book titled “The Beirut Protocol” and she read it to me on the way over and back. It’s a great book. You ought to check it out. In fact, you ought to check out the whole Marcus Ryker series.

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.

This week I was having a hard time trying to decide whether to write a Backpacking 101 article followed up by an article on Kolby’s and mine backpacking trip last week or Katy’s and my crappie fishing trip. But then while Kolby and I were backpacking we stumbled into a gold mine of berries.

This is the best berry season that I’ve ever seen. The huckleberries were thick. We had backpacked into the backcountry to fly fish but who can just walk by a loaded down huckleberry bush? A handful of huckleberries can spruce up the blandest bowl of morning oatmeal, can’t it? Or you can throw a small handful in your water bottle to make a real fruit flavored drink. A few huckleberries sprinkled on a peanut butter sandwich raises a peanut butter sandwich to an elite sandwich level.

What do we do now? I’d packed in way too much gear and about died on the pack in. But how do you just nonchalantly stroll by a bush heavily laden down with huckleberries? So, we gorged for a while and picked a couple of bottles full for our oatmeal the next morning and enough to take home to make some homemade ice cream and then it was back to fly fishing.

But then matters got more serious. Kolby stumbled onto some raspberries. Fishing was done for the moment. Finally, she got her fill and I was able to coax her on down the trail to fish the next hole.

So with the above said, we’ll talk about backpacking and crappie fishing in the next three articles but for today, it’s berry picking! Berry season is in full swing right now and you need to drop everything and scramble up to the mountains with a handful of empty buckets.

Every year after gobbling down the first handful I’m reminded of how much I love huckleberries.

They’re the best berry in the world with wild raspberries trailing right behind them. I know your first question will be, where do I find them? I found mine at about 4,500 to 5,000 feet elevation. As we were headed home, we found a bunch more up high near the passes but only a couple of their berries were ripe. 95% of them were green as a gourd and maybe only 1/16-inch big. So up at the higher elevations, they were a long way off from being ripe. If you go up this weekend, I’d advise you start at 5,000 feet.

If you’re not familiar with huckleberries they’re a small bush. I’ve never measured them but I’d say that they’re about 28 inches tall on the average. They grow a small purple berry that is maybe 1/4-inch in diameter and some will be smaller. I find most of mine on hillsides. I’ve never seen them down low in flat areas.

You’ll find them on the side hills of trails and roads but of course it’s easy access to the ones along roads so they’ll get picked fast by everyone. That’s the area they seem to like. We find our raspberries intermixed in the same type of terrain.

But we also find a lot of randomly placed raspberry bushes when we walk off a trail down to our fishing holes in the rock/boulder slides. It almost seems that they do best in the worst possible spots. But granted, we still find a high percentage of them along the trails interspersed with the huckleberries.

If you want to go out this week you should find them anywhere from Smith’s Ferry on north. Once in a while I hear people say that they picked 2-4 gallons of huckleberries the past weekend. I don’t know.

I’ve never picked that many in one setting. Maybe they’re talking about how many their whole church family picked. Or maybe I’m just an amateur berry picker. But regardless, instead of taking 5-gallon buckets I’d suggest taking a large mouth water bottle to put them in while picking and then as you go you can transfer them to a bigger bucket at the truck.

I remember one year Katy and I hit our spot at Smith’s Ferry. When we pulled up and parked I killed the truck and we had a thermos of coffee. We poured a cup before we got out to pick. We were setting in the truck shooting the bull and Katy says whoa! I’m not getting out. It sounded like a light hail storm due to all of the mosquitoes hitting the sides of the truck. Carry mosquito protection because on some years they can be horrendous.

So if you don’t have anything to do this weekend, grab the wife and kids, pack a picnic and go up picking berries. But you and the wife ought to be sure to carry a pistol. You might just be picking in a popular bear eating area.

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.

We’re in the peak of vacation season. But what if the vacation schedule is some boring urbanite list of drudgeries? Or what if you’re traveling on a business trip? Attending a seminar in another town or state?

This article will apply to all of the above scenarios.

I remember one time my daughter, grandson and I flew down to see mom for a week. I had one striper fishing trip lined up with my brother, but other than that, we were just going to mess around and see the family.

My daughter is super creative and lined up two to three fun activities. I was raised around there and didn’t even know about these possibilities. My point is that what I learned from her is don’t trust the locals to know about all of the local attractions. Granted, I love visiting locales and the locals showing cool stuff I would of never discovered but sometimes they take for granted their surroundings.

It’s easy now to explore beforehand your destination due to the advent of the internet. Another idea, when the kids were small and we were visiting an area, we’d buy a book about rocks that could be found locally and try to find some of each.

If (which is usually the case) you only have a couple of free half-days, hire a fishing guide. He’ll have the boat, fishing gear, know where to go etc. Otherwise, you could stumble around for a month figuring out the system.

Sometimes it’s not a bad idea to hire a guide anyway. Used to be, I’d fly home for Christmas and hire a striper guide for a day. Then my brother would come home the next day with his boat and we’d know where to go and what they were hitting.

Usually on any trip, visiting in-laws, business trip, going somewhere for a wedding or maybe a family vacation you’ll have one to two free afternoons. Instead of wasting precious vacation time setting around doodling why not get outdoors? It may be exploring, hiking, fishing, visiting a local gun range or outdoor shop.

All of the above is fresh on my mind. I’m over in South Dakota as I type this article doing a consulting deal. I fly home this Friday. But Saturday I didn’t have to work. I had a ton of articles to get in. I have a nine-part airgun series for RonSpomerOutdoors.com, a self-defense in the outdoors article for gunpowdermagazine.com, something like six to eight product reviews for Ammoland Shooting Sports News and this article. No way that I was going to be able to get them all written until I get home and can write solid for a week but some (like this article) are due right now.

So, Friday night I typed until nearly midnight and when I woke up Saturday I started pounding the keyboard again. But with the thoughts above in my mind I told a buddy that we ought to go fishing for a couple of hours Saturday at about 7:30. So I worked on getting all of the articles whipped out that I could and then grabbed my buddy and his wife and off we went.

South Dakota is world-renowned for walleyes. But mainly in the spring. Summer is tough. Last weekend Katy was here and we jumped in with a guy with a boat Sunday after church but like I said above, walleye fishing is slow right now. But as the saying goes, “A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.”

Well, Jeff, Kate and I went to a local lake 15 miles from where I was working. Sundown it cools off a little and the walleyes get active. We were bank fishing so it’d be tough but still, refer to the above saying.

I hung one small walleye and lost him. Kate is from Russia and I don’t think that she has ever fished.

She hung one small walleye but he got off before I could get over to where she was. Then in a bit she hung a hog.

I coached her on holding her rod tip up etc. He was taking a little line and Jeff reached over to tighten her drag. I quickly said nooooo, but it was too late. The hog snapped her line in a hot second.

A little later I saw where a big fish boiled out about 20-30 feet. I flipped out a jig with a Mister Twister tail. Nada. I cast again. Nada. He boiled again right below the surface feeding on something. The fourth cast he engulfed the jig.

I had a medium weight set-up with 8-pound test so I had my drag set semi slack. I was afraid he was going to snap off so I loosened it a little more. This was going to be a huge walleye! Probably pushing 10 pounds! I fought him for a good while. I’d lift the rod tip slowly and reel back down. Then he’d take another run and peel off line. I played him slow for 10 to 15 minutes then started getting more serious.

After 20 minutes I thought I’d better tighten my drag a little or this fight would go on all night but the deal that had just happened with Kate scared me so I didn’t dare touch it. Finally, after 25 minutes I started gently increasing the drag just a hair.

I still could not make any headway so to speak but he was a little closer to shore. Now the next big problem. We didn’t have a dip net and he was a big fish. The fight was now pushing 30 minutes and I was getting him almost close enough to net … if you had a long net … but then he’d charge and go out deeper.

Jeff took off his shoes and socks to wade out and wrestle him in. I cautioned him not to touch the line and to put his socks on his hands so he could grip the fish and to grasp him behind the head and flip him up in the rocks.

I asked are you ready? Jeff said yes. I cruised him in and Jeff did a great job grabbing him and getting him in. He redeemed himself after snapping off Kate’s big one. Don’t worry. We didn’t rag on him too bad.

Turns up my big walleye was big a fat channel cat. It had a huge belly so I figured it was spawning three to four months late or had just eaten an 11-inch crappie. Turns up it was packed with seaweeds. Have you ever heard of catfish eating seaweeds?

Well, by now it was well after dark. We went back to the apartment complex where Jeff lives, cleaned the big cat and had a fish fry and got to bed at 1:45 a.m. That’s a whole lot better than setting around watching the boob tube, isn’t it?

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.

Are you severely handicapped as a fisherman if you don’t have a boat? Should you just have a garage sale, sell all of your fishing gear and burn what doesn’t sell? Give up on fishing, buy a set of golf clubs and become a regular suburbanite?

Back away from the cliff and let’s try to talk you through this one. In some cases, fishing off the bank is actually more successful, so don’t feel like a second-class citizen if you don’t have a boat. In fact, just last weekend I was reminded of how successful you can be off of the bank.

For July Fourth, Katy and I were over in South Dakota. I just caught a decent walleye off the bank and we had him for dinner. In fact, the biggest walleye that I’ve ever caught was off of the bank.

Now no doubt, overall it’s best to have a boat but it doesn’t cripple you if you don’t have one.

Let me give a few examples. One time we were crappie fishing over at Lake Owyhee. After a few hours I went down the bank fishing and caught quite a few bass. In a while a tournament bass fisherman came by and we got talking. It sounded like if I had of been entered in the tournament I could of won it.

Years ago, Katy and I were northern pike fishing over at a wildlife refuge in Nebraska. We caught a 16-, two 8-, three 6- and three 4-pounders. All of these were off the bank and wading.

And if you’re a bow fisherman, you should know I’ve shot truckloads of carp and gar wading. Sure, it’s nice to have a flat-bottomed boat and lights for night fishing but at times you can get tons of shots wading. One time at Lake Lowell they were on the bank side of the willows spawning. There were so many logs washed in that I couldn’t get in to them with my little Jon boat. You had to wade. The only gear you need is a pair of cut-offs, tennis shoes and your bow.

And what about fly fishing? Sure, it’s nice to float the river behind the dam at Anderson Ranch or on the Rio Grande where most of the banks are brush covered but I’ve only floated rivers a few times — 99.9 percent of my fly fishing is on foot.

Not that high mountain lakes are usually that deep but they usually have silt bottoms. So you may not be in two feet of water but you’re sunk down one to one and a half feet into the silt. Float tubes do help on high mountain lakes so you can get out to where the water is a little deeper.

Also, where Katy and I used to northern fish a lot you had to wade out past the cattails to be able to fish. It was deep enough so the water was about to come over the top of your waders. And then of course with the muddy bottom you were trying to stand on your tiptoes. So like I say, sometimes no doubt a boat is beneficial.

Sometimes if you’re able to fish it, I think in shallow waters being on foot is best. Banging around in a boat can spook fish. I’ve for sure seen this with northerns. They just drop down and disappear into the weeds.

So, do boats help? Are they necessary? Yes, but if you can’t afford one, don’t give up on fishing. Sure, I own a little jon boat and am going to buy another big boat next spring, but without a boat, you can still catch fish. One time I pulled up to the boat ramp and there was a lady by herself setting in a lawn chair in one and a half feet of water. I thought, “Poor girl. I ought to give her a few fish.” I asked her if she was having any luck. She grinned and pulled up a stringer that I bet had 50 to 75 crappie on it. Gee! I about asked her for some fish. She’d caught them fishing at the boat ramp while I was out all day chasing them around.

As we’re getting into the middle of summer, get out and fish. Along the bank, you’ll probably do best early morning and late evening. The catfish seem to move in and feed in the shallows at sundown. 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.