I interrupt this “Backpacking Series” to bring you a time-sensitive article. My daughter and I had an awesome backpacking trip last week and I planned on writing about that trip this week but first we have to talk about picking huckleberries since the season is semi short.

As stated above, we were up backpacking and while hiking down a trail after fishing, we hit one of our old huckleberry patches. Wow! They are thick this year. We picked quite a few but of course since we were backpacking we didn’t have a container. Kolby decided the best that we could do was to store them in our Aquamira filtered water bottles. So we pulled out the filters and used them.

If you wonder why I am so excited about them, my answer? You would only ask that question if you ever hadn’t eaten any. They’re a great tasting berry. They’re unique. A little tart and yet sweet — and a great tasting berry. They grow on a small shrub, barely up to your knees. I pick a lot of mine on steep hillsides. They are a deep blueish/purplish color berry that is about half the size of a green pea.

Normally, I always pack flavored oatmeal for us to eat for breakfast. A big treat every year is to pick huckleberries and mix them in every morning for breakfast. That is a real treat. This year I totally screwed up and forgot to buy oatmeal. Screw up of all screw ups.

I also like to mix some huckleberries into my water bottle. It elevates water from plain ol’ water to a fruit-flavored water drink. Pretty ingenious, huh? The first real natural fruit-flavored drink.

For lunch we always eat PBJ sandwiches but this year we didn’t have any jelly. PB sandwiches by themselves are not exactly a gourmet meal. In fact, it’s kind of a prison diet. So as they say, necessity is the mother of all inventions so we came up with a PBHB (Peanut Butter Huckleberry) sandwich. A little unique … and maybe not necessarily a good unique!

Normally when backpacking I’m mentally keeping note of all of the items that I’m not going to have to pack out. My Mountain House backpacking meals, four at 5 ounces each = 20 ounces; peanut butter, 12 ounces; bread 4 ounces; candy, a couple of pounds — and so the mental list goes. But this time we took out a few pounds of huckleberries and gladly did so. They are one of God’s natural delights second only to the morel mushroom.

And I failed to mention — the best way to eat them is by themselves. You’ve got to have discipline for them to ever make it into your container without eating them all while picking. They are small and you pick them one at a time so it takes a while to gather very many.

Upon making it home we put them in the fridge and stumbled off to bed at 1 a.m. The next day we had a fish fry. I made crappie into fish tacos and grilled a batch of sweet corn on the cob on my Camp Chef pellet smoker.

But then it was time for dessert. Huckleberry homemade ice cream! This is the ultimate way to eat your huckleberries. They freeze solid in the ice cream and I can’t tell you how good they are. This is my most favorite homemade ice cream.

So what are you waiting for? Pick up the phone and call in sick tomorrow. The huckleberries are ripe.

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.

When I first started teaching Backpacking 101 seminars, I expected to talk the first 45 minutes and then field questions the last 15 just like I did in all of my other seminars. But I soon found out that the attendees want to hear the instruction the first 10 to 15 minutes and then go over what gear they’ll need. Later on I’m going to run one or two backpacking articles but, today, I’ll list out what I consider some items that you’ll want to pack. When possible, I’ll list which manufacturer(s) has tested out well for me.

I’m going to list out items with a short description. This way we can save space plus I can cram in more items.

• Pack — I’m old school. I still use an old external frame Kelty. But the younger crowd likes an internal frame. And they do conform to your body better and not sway like an external frame pack.
• Tent — I used an Alps Mountaineering Chaos 2 tent this week and my daughter used the Meramac 2 tent. They’re nice. They have two doors AND, two vestibules in which you can leave wet gear.
• Sleeping bag — According to how cold you get. This week we had the Alps Crescent Lake 20 mummy bags. If that is too warm for where you’re camping, get their Blue Springs 35.
• Sleeping pads — You’ll want a pad. We live in the Rocky Mountains! The Alps Nimble pad is about 4 inches tall. You’ll only need one pad.
• Chair — Nice so you don’t have to set in the dirt while eating or setting around the fire. Ten times more relaxing. I found one in the middle of the road called an Alite Mayfly.
• XGO base wear — Light weight and good for cool mornings and to sleep in.
• Boots — I like the Irish Setter VaprTrek 5-inch hiking boots. You’ll want a lightweight durable boot.
• Sandals — I take a pair of Chaco sandals to give my feet a break and to wade in rivers.
• Socks — Wear good hiking socks and you’ll never regret it.
• Rain gear — We got rained on two days this week on our backpacking trip. Take something like the Frogg Togg lightweight, easily packable top.
• Straps — To secure gear to your backpack.
• Cooking utensils — Small aluminum coffee pot, Army/Boy Scout mess kit, plastic eating utensils sold at sporting stores. I like to take a plastic coffee cup.
• Paper towels — I always take half a roll. Works for TP, kindling to start a fire and to wash utensils.
• Fire gear — Take a few cheap Bic lighters, waterproof matches and some Trioxane fire bars.
• String — Always handy.
• Mouse trap — The little vermin try to confiscate your food.
• Food — I eat flavored oatmeal in the morning (add fresh huckleberries), PBJ sandwiches for lunch and splurge and eat Mountain House MREs for supper. For coffee, I use motel packs.
• Flashlight — I take a good one and a cheap one to read in the tent/change clothes etc. Plus, one may break.
• Water — I use Aquimira filtered water bottles. That way you don’t have to lug around water.
• Mesh bag — Use to hang your food in a tree.
• Camera — You’ll be in cool country and want pics.
• Adventure medical kits — Moleskin and the small roll of duct tape to patch tents, tent poles etc. Also take some Bactroban for cuts and adhesive wrap and Band-Aids. Uncle Ben’s tick repellent.
• Knife — You’ll use a knife constantly. I like the Spyderco locking blade folders.
• Nylon zip-off leg pants or shorts. They dry easy.
• Blue Lizard sunscreen
• Maps — MyTopoMaps makes the best maps. You can get one specific for your area, as large/small as you desire.
• Compass — Always have two.

As you backpack you’ll add/subtract items from this list, but this should get you started. 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.

A couple of weeks ago a good buddy of mine Bill Olson who is the publisher for Texas Outdoors Journal lined us up an airgun hunt with Adventures Missions Recreation Properties on one of their ranches in Menard, Texas.

I was going to use the new Umarex .50-caliber Hammer on axis deer and then switch to the Umarex Air Saber and hog hunt.

The air saber is like an airgun that shoots arrows-at 450 fps. That’s fast.

The hunt gelled fast due to the quality of people making it happen. Bill called me Wednesday and told me to grab a plane ticket and fly into San Antonio the next Tuesday.

D-Day soon hit and Air Olson (Bill’s truck) picked me up and we were off. We stopped by Uvalde to meet Bob Zaiglin, whitetail deer extraordinaire biologist.

I hadn’t been to Uvalde since years ago when right after the bell rung, I got thrown under my horse and he stomped me pretty bad. Ended up in the hospital in San Antonio.

The next morning we headed to Menard and met our guide Robert Shipman and owner Scott Huggins. We sighted in our guns and then jumped in a blind. We were going to hit the axis deer and Aoudad sheep first and then hogs.

We set up a Slow Glow to get the hogs coming in and were going to give it a few days to get hit. But sometimes schedules get changed up when hunting. Robert and I were doing a spot/stalk hunt for axis deer. If I remember correctly it was the middle of the day and the sun was up and it was warming up.

By now the axis would be bedded down under a mesquite tree or live oak. We were creeping along stopping ever so often to glass with our Riton Optics 10×42 binocs. No need for a spotting scope because half the time you couldn’t see 50 yds.

We must have been moving along pretty quiet because we got within 20 feet of a boar on his bed under some brush. He shot out like a bullet and Robert hissed hog!

When spotting/stalking I keep my scope cranked down to 4x so I can take a fast shot. If something is way out there you should have time to crank it up.

I threw up my .50-caliber Hammer and hit him in the rear end. The big 350 gr. slug flattened him. Impressive.

But in a hot second he jumped up and charged downhill straight at us. Robert yelled he’s charging.

I jacked in another pellet and leveled out again. He was coming down the slope at a full charge. The brush stopped about 10 feet from me. I didn’t want to shoot at him in the brush and take a chance of the bullet deflecting so I was going to wait until he hit the edge of the brush. At 10-15 feet he went down.

I don’t know if he stumbled and fell or what but I shot him again right fast and ran up and shot him behind the ear with my .44 mag and he was down for the count.

Wow, that was exciting. Don’t even have to go hog hunting in Texas, they come hunt you!

We drug him down to where we could get the truck to him and took him back to the lodge and hung him up. We took pics and then skinned him out right fast.

I had a prototype of the new Professional Boning Knife that Knives of Alaska is just coming out with. I’ve been working with them on developing it so am excited to see it hit the market, probably by the time this article prints.

I whipped out the new knife and in a few minutes we had a pile of meat. Upon getting home I smoked the forequarter and wow, it was the best smoked ham I’d ever had.

Katy and I made chopped BBQ sandwiches and the forequarter didn’t last long. Now I can’t wait to go get another hog. That’s the first big game animal that I’ve killed with an airgun. I’m hung.

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

A couple of weeks ago a good buddy of mine Bill Olson who is the publisher for Texas Outdoors Journal lined us up an airgun hunt with Adventures Missions Recreation Properties on one of their ranches in Menard, Texas.

I was going to use the new Umarex .50-caliber Hammer on axis deer and then switch to the Umarex Air Saber and hog hunt.

The air saber is like an airgun that shoots arrows-at 450 fps. That’s fast.

The hunt gelled fast due to the quality of people making it happen. Bill called me Wednesday and told me to grab a plane ticket and fly into San Antonio the next Tuesday.

D-Day soon hit and Air Olson (Bill’s truck) picked me up and we were off. We stopped by Uvalde to meet Bob Zaiglin, whitetail deer extraordinaire biologist.

I hadn’t been to Uvalde since years ago when right after the bell rung, I got thrown under my horse and he stomped me pretty bad. Ended up in the hospital in San Antonio.

The next morning we headed to Menard and met our guide Robert Shipman and owner Scott Huggins. We sighted in our guns and then jumped in a blind. We were going to hit the axis deer and Aoudad sheep first and then hogs.

We set up a Slow Glow to get the hogs coming in and were going to give it a few days to get hit. But sometimes schedules get changed up when hunting. Robert and I were doing a spot/stalk hunt for axis deer. If I remember correctly it was the middle of the day and the sun was up and it was warming up.

By now the axis would be bedded down under a mesquite tree or live oak. We were creeping along stopping ever so often to glass with our Riton Optics 10×42 binocs. No need for a spotting scope because half the time you couldn’t see 50 yds.

We must have been moving along pretty quiet because we got within 20 feet of a boar on his bed under some brush. He shot out like a bullet and Robert hissed hog!

When spotting/stalking I keep my scope cranked down to 4x so I can take a fast shot. If something is way out there you should have time to crank it up.

I threw up my .50-caliber Hammer and hit him in the rear end. The big 350 gr. slug flattened him. Impressive.

But in a hot second he jumped up and charged downhill straight at us. Robert yelled he’s charging.

I jacked in another pellet and leveled out again. He was coming down the slope at a full charge. The brush stopped about 10 feet from me. I didn’t want to shoot at him in the brush and take a chance of the bullet deflecting so I was going to wait until he hit the edge of the brush. At 10-15 feet he went down.

I don’t know if he stumbled and fell or what but I shot him again right fast and ran up and shot him behind the ear with my .44 mag and he was down for the count.

Wow, that was exciting. Don’t even have to go hog hunting in Texas, they come hunt you!

We drug him down to where we could get the truck to him and took him back to the lodge and hung him up. We took pics and then skinned him out right fast.

I had a prototype of the new Professional Boning Knife that Knives of Alaska is just coming out with. I’ve been working with them on developing it so am excited to see it hit the market, probably by the time this article prints.

I whipped out the new knife and in a few minutes we had a pile of meat. Upon getting home I smoked the forequarter and wow, it was the best smoked ham I’d ever had.

Katy and I made chopped BBQ sandwiches and the forequarter didn’t last long. Now I can’t wait to go get another hog. That’s the first big game animal that I’ve killed with an airgun. I’m hung.

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.

When I was a kid, no one filleted their fish. Dad had us kids use a teaspoon and we’d scrape the fish to remove the scales. Then you made a cut up to the head and then cut the head off. Then you’d pull out the guts. On larger fish like bass you’d make a cut on each side of the dorsal fin and then pull the fin out, and you can do this on crappie and smaller fish, too.

Due to the fish being whole you had to have nearly an inch of grease in the skillet.

Fast forward. After college I moved off for a job and while home on vacation, I hired a guide on Lake Texoma to go striper fishing. We had a good day and when we got back to the dock the guide whipped out an electric fillet knife and filleted our catch.

I’d never seen anyone fillet fish before. I’d heard rumors of filleting fish or maybe read about it in an article but had never seen it. Plus, Dad said you wasted too much meat when filleting, so I’d written it off.

But wow, filleting was nice. With a fillet it took up less room in the skillet and made for easy cooking. 

This totally rocked my world. So I jumped in with both feet and for the last 40 years, I’ve filleted all of my fish.

The other day while my daughter Kolby and I were filleting a mess of fish I had a flashback and told her how we used to clean fish before we learned how to fillet them. She said, “Really?” I said, “Yeah, I’ll show you how we did it.” I told her the good deal is you did get to save the meat over the rib cage and you waste zero meat.

I ran in the house and grabbed a spoon and showed her.

It was now lunchtime and I was going to fry up some fish so I told her we’d fry up this one, too. We sat down to eat and I showed her how you pull the meat off the top of one side and then you can lift up and remove the whole skeletal structure.

Wow! I’d forgotten how much more meat you can retrieve doing it this way. This will work on a lot of your smaller fish, such as trout, perch, crappie bluegill, etc. Gee, have I gone full circle and landed back where I started when I was 4 years old?

I don’t know. For years I’ve even filleted trout but while up backpacking I guess I always pull out the gills, clean out the guts and fry them up whole, head and all. And eat it as described above, eating one side and then pull the head and removing the skeletal structure.

So maybe that’s my answer. Sometimes I’ll fry them whole — and sometimes I’ll fillet my fish.

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

I just don’t think that the Mormon crickets heard about the social distancing bit. They travel in hordes packed so tight that they will bring to remembrance the old biblical plagues; you’ll have flashbacks to Charlton Heston’s “The Ten Commandments” movie. If you hate bugs like Katy does, they will freak you out.

Hordes like this are cyclical; some years you see millions and then it may go for years before I see them in high numbers again. If you’re new to Idaho, you need to go check them out. Over the years, I’ve seen them in various places.

Years ago, there were millions on the road before Horseshoe Bend. There were so many that the Idaho Department of Transportation had up a warning sign about slick roads. So many were getting run over that it looked like an oil slick. It sounded like popcorn popping when you were driving since you were running over so many. The road was a mahogany color.

One year, thousands tried to cross the river behind Anderson Ranch Dam. They drowned by the thousands and were thick as a carpet on top of the water in the backwater eddies. It stunk like there was a dead cow in the river.

If you want to see some right now, I found many on the road down to Jordan Valley. I don’t know how long they’ll be there. They were by the concrete barriers on the east side of the road. They strung down the road for probably five miles but the concentrations were a lot less.

I see them but really didn’t know much about them. Where are they migrating to? Are they like the locusts in biblical times? I had to do a little research. They say they can grow to 3 inches long but the ones I see are about 2 ½ inches.

Weird, but they say they live in the rangelands dominated by sagebrush and forbs and are actually not crickets but in the katydid family. (See, they are in the locust family). They are a blackish/brown color although they say they turn this color when swarming but are green or purplish when living in solitary.

How far do they travel? Do they fly in swarms? They can’t fly, only walk, but can travel up to 1.2 miles per day.

According to some of the research that I did, their eggs hatch in the spring when soil temps hit about 40 degrees. Although a lot of time Mormon crickets seem to live almost in solitary confinement in the sagebrush there can be huge population explosions which leads to them forming large roving bands numbering in the millions. What’s weird is that there doesn’t seem to be definite research that explains what causes the fluctuations in populations.

One document that I read said the reason that they have their huge migrations is that they are hunting new sources of nutrition and to avoid from being eaten by their traveling partners. They have no known predators, per se. Sure, various animals and birds will feed on them but not in large enough numbers to thin them out.

I’m only used to seeing seagulls around water. I know it is a different type of seagull but there are a lot of seagulls out on the prairies. I’ve even had seagulls try to carry off whistle pigs when I’m out shooting. So maybe the seagulls that we see out there are surviving on Mormon crickets?

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to envision the damage that a horde of a million Mormon crickets could do on your crops if you’re a farmer or your pastures if you’re a rancher.

As we close, don’t panic if you look out your kitchen window and discover that the sun is blocked by the army of Mormon crickets covering your window. You hear the screams of slow-moving people and pets getting eaten alive. The Mormon crickets have hit your town! Sleep well.

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.

As an outdoor writer, I test hundreds of outdoor items a year. I’m going to list out some items that have caught my eye for some good Father’s Day gifts. Remember, you don’t have to spend a fortune to light up his eyes. We use everything from a $1.49 package of crappie jigs on up to a $75,000 boat. So whether you’re a kid on a 50-ce-per-week allowance or the Queen of Sheba, you can make his day if you choose wisely.

First off, investigate. With a little work you can figure out what he wants or needs. Just because he is a fisherman doesn’t mean he wants a bag full of red and white bobbers. If he only fly fishes, then you might as well give him a bag of rocks as a bag of bobbers. Get my drift? Let’s get started.

CLOTHING

• 5.11 makes some cool tactical pants that are great for hunting, fishing and hiking. They also offer great shorts.
• Heybo makes some sporty fishing shirts.
• Irish Setter offers great hiking boots. Right now I’m testing their Canyons hiking boots.
• Hiking socks. These are like a gift from heaven for your feet.
• Base layers. I use XGO First Aid/Survival.
• Aquimira offers a lot of filtered water bottles and straws.
• Adventure Medical Kits offers a plethora of first-aid kits and accessories.
• Fire starting gear. Waterproof matches and a pack of cheap Bic lighters work great.

BACKPACKS

Outdoorsmen use daypacks, backpacking packs and packs to pack out game. Make sure you buy the size he wants and with the desired features.

KNIVES

(This could be a whole list by itself since we use so many different knives.

• Knives of Alaska Pronghorn, Elk Hunter, Cub Bear or Legacy.

• Spyderco folding knives, Native Chief, Endura, Endela.

• Stones, Smith’s Consumer Products makes the best. Fine Diamond stones, Trihone stone etc. They also offer a lot of folding knives and a boning knife.

FISHING GEAR

(You can buy a lot of small inexpensive items here.)

• Lures, flies, weights, fishing line, jig heads, plastics, Pautzke Crappie Fireballs, Field & Stream fishing rods
• Dip net
• Fly vest
• Polarized sunglasses

CAMPING

• Tents — I’ve got a few Alps Mountaineering tents.
• Lodge Dutch oven.
• Camp Chef backpacking stove.
• Grizzly makes some great coolers. They’re durable, bear rated and hold a lot of food.
• Cook set. If you’re on a tight budget, go to Goodwill and put together a cooking set. Pots, pans, plates, silverware, glasses, etc. — and put it all in a large Tupperware container.
• MyTopoMaps makes the best maps on the market.
• For fun around camp get him a Daisy P51 slingshot or a throwing knife or hatchet.
• SneakyHunter BootLamps for hikers. These are like headlamps for your feet.

HUNTING

• Get him a Umarex air rifle. He’d have a blast plinking Ruger 10/22. I love these little rifles. They are the most popular .22 on the market.
• Brick of Federal or some CCI .22 ammo.
• Riton Optics scopes and binoculars.
• SwabIts makes some cool gun-cleaning swabs.
• NRA magazine subscription.
• SneakyHunter BootLamps. They have three light options, one of which is a blood-tracking light.
• Targets. He’d love the Birchwood Casey ShootNC targets.

SIMPLE GIFTS

Tell him you don’t have much but you’ll go fishing/hiking/camping/hunting with him. I love it when my wife or daughters go with me. That means more to me than any gift in the world. That way I’m doing what I love and with the people I love the most.

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

I’ve got to clarify one item. A lot of people think/expect an outdoor writer to write about a different topic every time and for my magazines I do but for my newspapers I don’t. Let me explain.

Right now bear season, whistle pig hunting and crappie fishing are all in full bloom. And crappie fishing is leading the pack. They are still spawning and fishing is still unbelievable. Why would I veer off on some other tangent when crappie fishing is as good as it can get?

And there are so many angles to a topic if you love it. On crappie for instance: Pre-spawn crappie fishing, post-spawn crappie fishing, different methods to fish for them, then of course different ways to cook them. So, in a nutshell what I’m saying is that I could write for six weeks just on crappie fishing.

The outdoors runs on seasons. You may wake up Aug. 4 and want to go morel mushroom picking but sorry, it’s out of season then. You’ll have to wait until next spring. So that’s what I love about writing for the Journal. Doing a weekly article allows me to write about pertinent topics as they are happening — real time. Make sense?

So, if you’ve read my crappie fishing articles and been going fishing, then most likely you have the question, “What do I do with all of these fish now”?

I love crappie fried plain, dusted with cornmeal. But I also love them battered in pancake batter. Or blackened with Paul Prudhomme’s blackened Redfish spices. Or using Roe’s (a Cajun girl I know) trout meuniére recipe.

But — for a light lunch on a hot day, fish tacos are hard to beat. 

So with that said, I’m going to tell you how I like to make my fish tacos but realize, there is nothing sacred about my recipe. Tweak it to fit the taste of your family.

To begin, cook your fish. I like to roll my fillets in cornmeal and season with Tony Chachere’s seasoning and fry to a golden brown.

Then heat some corn tortillas in a skillet. I put in a little grease and heat them up.

Next, lay out the tortillas on your plate or a cookie sheet. Lay a fillet on each tortilla and put on a little bit of salad.

Splash on some salsa and sprinkle on cheese. Instead of salsa we also like some of the spicy or vinaigrette types of dressings — or last week I used some Sweet Baby Ray’s Dipping Sauce. That was excellent, too.

Lately, I’ve also chopped up some onion slips and sprinkled on, too, which are good. You can also add fresh chopped tomatoes and especially slices of avocados.

Fold the tortilla over and indulge.

Try a fish taco and you might just find it hard to go back to eating fish fillets by themselves.

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

I was about to panic.

I love the spring in Idaho. If you’re an outdoorsman how can you not love it?

Bear hunting, turkey hunting, mushroom hunting, whistle pig hunting and crappie fishing is in full swing.

And I was stuck over in South Dakota for six and a half weeks — and then came down with COVID-19.

I’m probably exaggerating a little but it was cold and somewhat snowy up until I flew back home. I got to Idaho and everything was green. I felt like I’d lost one and a half months of my life. One day it was still somewhat winter and then suddenly I woke up in Idaho and we were on the tail end of spring. If I missed crappie fishing, I’d die! Katy and I had gone crappie fishing before I’d left but it had been about two weeks too early so we’d only caught a few.

So, I was afraid the crappie had already spawned and moved out but I had to run try ‘em. My daughter Kolby had just healed up from COVID-19 so she said she wanted to go with me. I had a few hours of writing to take care of and since it was Memorial Day I told her we’d leave at noon and hopefully the crowds would have thinned out a little by then and we’d fish until dark. Turned out to be a good call.

Due to minor complications we didn’t arrive at the lake until 3:30 p.m. Things started off a little slow. We were catching enough to be happy and at this rate would end up with a decent mess of fish but we had to get things sped up so we jumped and tried one of my old reliable hot spots.

We pulled up to my hot spot but no bueno. I always slaughtered the crappie there but something had happened. OK, back west I had a few spots, we’ll go hit them.

I have a little jon boat with a trolling motor so we don’t move too fast so we were fishing as we moved to our new location. There is a flat spot that I never fish because it’s no good but for some reason we hit it. We got a decent one. In all my articles I tell everyone if they catch one to stop and jig because crappie are schooling fish. Where you get one there’s more. So, I decided to follow my own advice even though it looked like a dead spot.

We caught a couple more. Then it got hot. I don’t know if we had found a spot packed with crappie or they had moved in as the sun went down but it was crazy. The last hour we literally had a hit every cast.

Usually when we start fishing, I’ll put a different colored jig on every now and then and we’ll go with whichever color they’re hitting best. The last few years we’ve been doing good on black/white or red/white tube jigs so that’s what I put on Kolby’s line. I decided to put on a Lake Fork Trophy Lures 2 1/4-inch Sickle Tail Baby Shad. After 45 minutes, I’d caught six and Koko had only caught one or two. I told her we were switching hers to a Lake fork jig. Right away she started smoking them too.

Also, usually I’ll put a couple of split shots six inches above the jig. When I changed Koko’s jig, I removed her split shots. Lake Fork makes the best plastics. They have slots cut in the tail so any movement causes the jig to quiver realistically.

Here’s what was working for us. They were spawning so we’d cast right up close to the shoreline. We’d lift our rod tip and then reel in slowly as we let it back down. You don’t want to reel too fast.

Crappie are called “papermouths” for a reason. They have really soft mouths that can easily rip out so be gentle when working them. Don’t set the hook. Just lift your rod tip and reel steadily to keep pressure on.

The bigger (heavier) they are, the more likely they’ll rip off when hauling them into the boat. So I net all of mine. I haven’t documented it but I bet you’ll lose 15 to 20% if you try to lift them in so that’s why I use a net.

Kolby and I both wondered, did the fishing get hot because the sun was going down or had we just missed this little crappie stronghold when we went by the first time? I don’t know but I think we’re going back again near dusk and try to do a repeat.

If you haven’t been out crappie fishing this spring, then you better get out fast and get in on the 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.

Ground squirrel hunting is a blast and a great way to get kids into hunting. Elk hunting can be tough some years. You get up well before daylight and don’t get back to camp until well after dark. By the third day, you’re so sore that you can’t even move and some years if you see an elk you’re lucky, especially now that Idaho is overrun with wolves. And you’re really lucky if you even get a shot every three to five years.

So for a kid just starting off, elk hunting is not the hunt to take them on — unless you want to scar them for life. That’s why I say ground squirrel, aka whistle pig hunting, is a great hunt for a beginner. (Their actual name is Townsend’s ground squirrel).

To begin, they get a lot of shooting. On a good day, I’ll get 400 to 500 shots. Secondly, they don’t have to be quiet. I remember deer hunting as a 7-year-old. In those days, they didn’t make cold weather clothing for kids so you were freezing and Dad wouldn’t let you make a move. If you had to scratch, you had to slowly move your hand up and scratch yourself. And you couldn’t make a peep.

On a whistle pig hunt, that’s not the case. A kid can move around and talk. Of course, you don’t want to talk too loud or do calisthenics, but still, you have a lot more freedom. Let’s be real. A kid wants to shoot and the whistle pigs oblige.

While hunting them, you’ll see some cool stuff. One time while I was shooting and a badger ran out and grabbed my whistle pig. Another time, an 87-year-old buddy hit one and I said, “You got it!” Right while it was bouncing around a hawk swooped down, grabbed it and took off. Then I said, “You had it.” Many times while shooting, hawks will land out in front of you and pick them up.

Whistle pigs and badgers can totally destroy a pasture if they aren’t thinned out. They will make a pasture useless for grazing cattle and you’re sure scared to ride a horse across the pasture or he may step in a hole and break a leg and flip and hurt you to boot.

Most of your shots will be within 75 yards, so a .22 is a great rifle to use. The Ruger 10/22 is great because of the after-market 25 round clips that are offered. I love tricking out Ruger 10/22s to make them more accurate, which helps since whistle pigs are so small. You can also hunt them with your bow to sharpen up your archery skills.

.22 shell prices have dropped and are once again affordable, or another good option are airguns. I’m about to start testing a Umarex Hammerli 850 Air Magnum, which is a break-barrel .22-caliber airgun. That should work perfectly. Plus, with an airgun the bullet won’t skip across the prairies as bad which makes it a perfect choice for a kid to learn with.

Another fun option that I’m going to have to check out is the Umarex Air Javelin. It is an air archery option. It is like an airgun that shoots arrows. How cool would that be to hunt whistle pigs with?

On these hunts, it is a good time to teach your kids about the need to watch the background so a bullet doesn’t skip across the prairie and hit someone. They need to always be watching to make sure that someone didn’t drive up behind where they’re shooting.

It is best not to touch them or if you take your dog with you not to let him eat one. Many times they carry the plague, which you don’t want to catch. Which brings up the point that shooting them helps thin out the population which in turn helps prevent the plague, which in turn actually in the long run helps preserve the population.

Moral to the story: Get out of house isolation and go isolate out on the prairie and have a fun day of shooting with your kids.

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.