Canadian shore lunches are legendary, and for good reason: They’re awesome! I experienced my first Canadian shore lunch 34 years ago. My father-in-law took the family to Flin Flon, Manitoba, fishing forever. The first year that Katy and I got married, he took six of us. What a great trip.

Every day at lunch, we’d pull up on the shore, build a fire and he’d fry up a great meal which fried northern pike as the main course. Let’s fast forward to last week. My daughter and I just got back from a fishing trip to the historic Plummer’s Lodges in the Northwest Territories. I’ll write an article on that trip at a later time, but right now I want to write about the shore lunches we had.

Every day, our guide, Darrel Smith, would keep back one of the smaller lake trout to cook for lunch. We were fishing on Great Slave Lake, and about noon we’d pull up on some small island or bank where there was a semi-flat spot. We’d build a fire ring with rocks and whip out a fire.

Darrel kept a big metal grate in the boat that we’d lay on the rocks. He had a tow sack that he’d keep all of his utensils and which included some big frying pans. He also had a couple of camp chairs for me and Kolby.

Next he’d fillet the fish. On this trip, we were testing out the Smith’s Consumer Products Lawai 7-inch and 9-inch knives. He’d prepare the fish in a different manner, all of which were excellent. I don’t know how many different recipes he has.

Of course, the fried fish were excellent and to die for. He had a bag of dry batter and would throw the fillets into the bag and shake it up to coat them and then throw them in a skillet of hot oil.

But first he’d fry the potatoes and slice onions. I know food always tastes better in the outdoors, and you always eat more but I’m serious — he made the best potatoes I’ve ever had. I don’t know if it was the seasoning or the environment, but I would have been happy with just the potatoes.

When the potatoes were done, he’d put a colander over a metal gallon bucket and pour the potatoes into the colander. Of course, the colander would catch the potatoes and the grease would drip into the metal bucket.

Then he’d pour the grease back into the pan to fry the fish. He’d open a can of beans and a can of corn and set them on the side of the grill to begin heating up. When it was all done, he’d set out the spread on a big rock, and we’d have a buffet fit for kings. We’d eat until we were about to die.

But we didn’t eat fried fish every day (although we could have, and I would have been happy). One day he did a baker. On a big sheet of foil, he poured a tub of salsa and then laid in the fillets. He then wrapped it up and baked it on the grill. When it was about done, he poured a pound of grated cheese on top and refolded the foil and let it melt. Kolby really liked the baker.

After lunch, Kolby asked him if he’d ever had teriyaki fish. He replied, “Do you want teriyaki tomorrow?” She said, “I’m good with whatever.” The next day, he spoiled us with a teriyaki shore lunch. It was to die for.

I was amazed at how organized and fast he whipped out a shore lunch. He was super efficient and has a good system down. The fishing was unbelievable, but the shore lunches alone almost made it worth going on the trip.

After the trip, I got wondering. Why don’t we do shore lunches in Idaho? Even Huckleberry Finn and Jim knew that fresh fish was the ultimate.

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

In September 2016 the former outdoors editor of the Idaho State Journal wrote an article titled, “The 4 best places to hunt for deer in Southeast Idaho in 2016.” He identified Unit 70 near Pocatello, Unit 73 in the Malad area, Unit 76 in the Diamond Creek area, and Unit 78 in the Bear Lake area. The good news is that those areas remain pretty good for deer hunting. The bad news is they are draw areas, and if you haven’t successfully drawn for one of those areas, you would be foolish to hunt there.

When people ask me where to find deer and elk, I usually tell them that is exactly what I’m trying to learn when I take a couple of days, grab my binoculars, compass, topographic maps, pen and notebook and scout areas that I think I might like to hunt. My scouting trips determine where I decide to hunt, even though I have been hunting for a lot of years and have some areas that I generally prefer. Scouting for game also gives me a chance to formulate a hunting strategy for the area.

Even my old haunts change from year to year in terms of amount of game and how they are moving through the area. Little things that I may not be aware of can make game change what trails they are using, where they bed down and where they forage or drink.

I don’t stop hunting when the season ends, but I don’t hunt illegally. Most of the year I scout possible hunting areas, weather permitting. Normally, when I am scouting I don’t carry a rifle, but I do like to carry a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver or a little bigger as a precaution. However, topographic maps, pen, note book and binoculars are the tools of scouting for game.

I generally start my scouting trips as early as April if possible, but the end of May, or first part of June is more likely. I like to get into the back country as much a possible and just observe what has changed and what is still pretty much the same.

The most important notations I make in my notebook concern signs. The primary signs I look for are droppings, tracks, game trails, feed areas, beds , rubs and scrapes.

The amount of droppings one sees indicates whether deer or elk are using the area and fresh droppings indicate whether the area is currently being used. Extremely large clumps of droppings may indicate that a large deer or elk is using the area.

Tracks can also be telling. If a track is dry and eroded, it was made several day before. If it is fresh and well defined, the track may be very recent or only hours old. Does usually travel in groups, so if one finds a single set of tracks, it may be a mature buck. When walking, a buck should have a little longer stride between tracks. The more you study tracks the better you will become at using them to determine where you want to hunt.

The best game trails usually lead to thick bedding cover and dense escape routes.

Night time game trails normally are open and accessible and the game will not use them during day light hours.

If you find an area where the vegetation is pressed down, you have probably found a bedding area. Don’t spend much time there, but find a spot where you can intercept game as they move into or out of their bedding area.

Rubs are a major sign of game in the area. Several rubs may show you which direction the game is moving. Pick a spot where you can clearly see any rubs and you may get your deer or elk if it returns to the rub. A rub where the tree is ripped to shreds usually indicates a mature buck. Game generally rub the side of the tree from which they approach.

Scrapes are areas on the ground where bucks have been pawing out leaves and urinating to attract does in heat. The best are damp with a tree branch bent down and scent left on the branch.

Mature bucks will usually leave several scrapes along a corridor they actively check. If you find such an area, setting up down wind where you have a good view just may be worth while.

I like to scout for game several times during the summer, but the most important trip is about a week before the season opens. After that I leave the area undisturbed until the season opens.

However, you won’t know where to look for game during hunting season if you haven’t done any scouting before hand. Remember to mark everything you find on your topographic map. then when you return during opening day of hunting season, or the night before, you will be ready with a knowledge of the area and where to find game.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

While conducting seminars at The Great Northwest Outdoor Expo, I met Kory Richardson, the owner of Lucky Tackle Co. Of course, you know what happens when two gung-ho fishermen get together! We were soon lining up a fishing trip. Gee, I’ve had seminars, hunting and fishing trips nonstop since the expo, so it took us over a month to finally be able to nail down a date.

I met him before daylight, threw my gear in his truck and off we went. I love fishing and hunting with someone who is passionate about what they pursue. Even on a tough day, you learn so much from them. On the drive, he caught me up on the basics. It may sound strange, but I’ve never gotten to fish for kokanee salmon, so it was a whole new world for me. As stated above, Kory is very knowledgeable, so much so that he owns a kokanee lure company. Someday soon, I want to interview him. I’ll pick his brain and we’ll all learn from that article.

If you’re a salmon fisherman, then you know that there are five kinds of Pacific salmon, and they all have two names.

• Chinook: Kings
• Silvers: Cohos
• Dog salmon: Chum
• Sockeye: Reds
• Pink: Humpies

To my understanding, there are three lakes in Idaho where you can fish for kokanee: Deadwood Reservoir, Arrow Rock and Anderson Ranch. A kokanee is a land-locked sockeye. The sockeye is the most desired eating fish to a lot of people.

We arrived at the lake, and it was a beautiful day. Wow, we’re lucky to live in Idaho. With the spring rains, we’re having an exceptionally green summer, so things were green on the drive up, and then of course how can you not love fishing in the mountains? The scenery was beautiful.

If you’ve never trolled for kokanee, the tackle is unique. First, Kory tied on an attractant spinner, which looks like a big spoon and is called a dodger.

Then he tied a leader to the dodger with one of his flies on the end. Kokanee feed on plankton, so they don’t hit your fly because they’re eating — they hit because they’re mad at it.

One thing that Kory is fanatic about is his scent. After fishing with him, I want to experiment in all aspects of my fishing adventures. He uses rubber gloves when he is handling his flies or hooking on bait. He swears by how important it is to keep bad scents off your flies. Think about it. How can a Chinook know which river to turn up while heading back to their birthplace? The experts say by the scents of the minerals out of the rivers.

I’ve only the last few years started using bait on my crappie jigs, and it helps for sure. This year, I’ve started using Pautzke Crappie Fireballs. I may experiment on controlling and using scents on all of my fishing adventures. What about flies even in the backcountry? Soon I’m jumping on a plane to the historic Plummer’s Lodge in The Northwest Territories. I think I’ll pack a bottle of Pautzke’s Crappie Fire Balls. It will be interesting to test.

The next thing that hit me as weird was how flimsy of rods Kory used. They were as light weight and flimsy as crappie rods. He explained that they have super soft mouths so don’t horse them like you do a bass and sure don’t set the hook. He said the best method is to just lift the rod tip and start reeling, just like you do on crappie of you’ll rip the hook out.

He uses down riggers to get down deeper in the water column. Of course to find where they were, we had all of the lines at varying depths. There is so much more to cover, but we are about out of room. We’ll get in deeper detail when I do an interview with Kory.

Not long after starting, we had a big hit. We thought we had a lunker, and we did. A lunker pikeminnow, that is. We hit it hard, but it was a tough day. We only ended up netting one. But hey, that’s fishing. It happens sometimes.

In case you wonder why I am making such a big deal about kokanee fishing, it’s only because you haven’t eaten one. Brine them for three to five hours and smoke them on a plank. Your wife will be kicking you off the couch and telling you to go get her more kokanees. Or you may be lucky like Kory. He assured me that his girlfriend Janelle would be claiming the reason that we hadn’t caught more was because she wasn’t with us!

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

If you have never heard the phrase that, “Texas is a whole ‘nother country,” take it from me that it is true. Where else can you hunt exotic game from around the world without leaving the United States?

While I was living in Texas, there were two exotic game ranches that I was aware of: Y.O. Ranch near Kerrville and Ox Hunting Ranch near Uvalde. Both are basically located in the hill country of Texas. Both ranches have websites you can browse through with pictures of the species of game offered for hunts at their facilities.

The Ox Hunting Ranch is the larger of the two ranches and offers more species of exotic game, but the hunting should be a great experience at either ranch.

In the interest of conserving space I’ll discuss the Ox Hunting Ranch in this column.

The Ox Ranch is a little unique in that you don’t have to be a hunter to enjoy a vacation there. They can cater bachelor parties, outdoor weddings and corporate retreats and offer hand feeding giraffes, driving and firing a World War II Sherman tank, firing a .50-caliber Barrett M82A1 semi-automatic rifle, machine gun shooting, shooting skeet, fishing, jet skiing and cave exploring, in addition to hunting 60 different species of game from around the world, including white-tailed deer and elk.

The Ox Ranch conducts hunting year around. As I understand it, the reason they can hunt all year is because they own all 18,000 acres that comprise the property of the ranch, and in Texas the game on one’s property belongs to the owner of the land. The exotic game imported by the ranch are not native to the united States, and U.S. Fish and Game laws do not apply.

If you are starting to suspect that the hunts on the Ox Ranch are canned hunts in which the client is virtually assured success once he or she puts down the money for the hunt, you would be correct for the most part. They do want you to have a good time and go home happy for the money you pay to hunt.

However, don’t expect any of the staff to shoot your trophy for you.

Speaking of cost, you might be wondering what it costs to hunt at Ox Ranch? You will be charged a fee for the particular species you want to hunt. That could be $1,000 for two turkeys to $35,000 for bongo (antelope) or elk that score 500-plus points, Safari Club International Score (SCI). The cost of your hunt could be the same or more than an African safari depending on how many different species of game you want to include in your hunt. You also have the option of hunting with a bow or firearm.

Accommodations include The OX Lodge, Pavilion and cabins, as well as a dining area, so you don’t have to find off-site lodging or dining.

For those who have their own private planes or business jet or have a good friend who has one and is willing to take you along, there is an on-site runway for your convenience.

Many who were brought up in Idaho, including myself, may look down on game ranch type hunting as unsporting, but before you become too critical, there are a few things you might want to consider about Texas and The Ox Ranch.

Texas has very little public land compared with privately owned land. The exotic game ranches are owned by hunters who have hunted all over the world and decided to bring that type of hunting to their home state of Texas. They have gone to a great deal of expense to stock the ranch with exotic game species.

Several wealthy Texans who have their own ranches have stocked them with some exotic game for themselves and friends to hunt when they can get away from the business they own. Texas really is a whole ‘nother country, and Texans don’t care if others approve or not. That brings to mind another popular phrase in Texas, “Don’t mess with Texas.”

If you have ever wanted to hunt African plains game or other exotic species, but couldn’t afford the cost of air fare, gratuities, a professional hunter, gun bearers, trained skinners, trackers, tags, for each species you are planning to hunt, and the professional hunters’ choice of spirits for the evening campfires, etc., the Ox Hunting Ranch might appeal to you.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

A lot of our hunts can be pretty intense and exhausting. Some elk hunts, by the third day I’m so sore I can hardly crawl out of my sleeping bag. You’ll be up two hours before daylight, hiking hard all day scrambling up and down mountains and hit camp well after dark. I love elk hunting, but it’s tough.

So if you need a low-key, lotta-shooting hunt, check out pigeon hunting. They favor an agricultural type of setting. They love roosting in barns. They make a mess when roosting on the farmers equipment and spread diseases by messing in the feed bunks at feedlots.

Very seldom will a farmer or rancher turn you away from hunting pigeons on his property. Especially if you tell him you’re hunting with airguns. I received two airguns from Pyramyd Air. THe Ruger 10/22 Air Rifle is the spitting image of its cousin, the famous Ruger 10/22. I could not wait to test it out. Who doesn’t love the 10/22? It is the most popular .22 ever made.

The Ruger 10/22 Air Rifle is a CO2 air gun. It is a pellet gun powered by two 12-grain CO2 canisters and comes in the popular .177 caliber. It is a plinkers delight.

I also received the Gamp Swarm Whisper. It is a break action .177 pellet gun, but is unique in that it utilizes a 10-round rotary magazine. If you’ve ever hunted with a break action then you know how frustrating it can be digging a pellet out of your pocket and fumbling it around while the pigeons are in attack mode. The designers at Gamo were ingenious to come up with the clip. I believe they were the first ones to do so on a break action. Look on gunpowdermagazine.com for an upcoming product review on the Swarm Whisper.

My wife, Katy, went with me on this hunt. We sighted in the two airguns and then hit the feedlot. There were more pigeons than I’d ever seen before, so the shooting was good. We hit the barns first, but they spooked out before we could drill any. After spooking out, they landed on the nearby silos. We picked off one, waited a few minutes and a few more would land. This repeated itself for 20 to 30 minutes, and then we went out to hit the feedlot.

There were a few Eurasian doves, but we didn’t get any of them. The pigeon shooting was hot. I bet we had well over 100 shots. We’d catch them feeding on dropped feed in the alleyways or out feeding among the cattle. With an air gun, the cattle never blinked an eye — air guns are a great way to hunt around livestock. There is no loud report to spook the cattle or horses. I’ve shot thousands of times around livestock and never spooked them. Of course, as a kid, our cattle and horse got shot around so much they never even flinched, much less spooked. They got used to it.

After firing a few shots, the pigeons started getting semi spooky. But right now, there are a lot of young ones out there, so they’re a little slower thinking.

If you decide to grab an air gun and go hunting, I’d recommend a break action. They’re more powerful than a lot of other models of pellet guns, and with the 10-shot rotary magazine, the Gamo Swarm Whisper is a good choice. I would suggest you look at the Swarm Maxxim, though, since it is available in a .22 caliber. The .22 caliber will flatten a pigeon better. And grab some good pellets. Something like the Crosman Premier Ultra Magnum 10.5-grain pellets.

For whatever reason, many people seem to freak out the over the suggestion of eating pigeons. They are just an over-sized dove, and like I said above, we encountered a lot of young ones on this hunt. They are more tender than an older bird. The weather is warm right now, so it would be smart to take a cooler to help preserve them while out in the field.

I make all of mine into poppers. I slice each breast into two or three pieces and marinate in some kind of vinaigrette salad dressing for a couple of hours. I then slice a piece of bacon in half and wrap it around a piece of breast, slice of jalapeno and a slice of onion and wrap it up and pin it together with a toothpick.

You can fry them in a Lodge cast iron skillet, but they are six time’s better if you cook them on your smoker or grill. Have fun and happy eating.

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

I’ve written articles every year covering the Scooter’s Youth Hunting Camp that I help with. I’ve done seminars at all of the big outdoor stores and most of the big outdoor shows. And no doubt, I love that. But the funnest (spell check says funnest isn’t a word but what do they know about the different levels of fun?) event that I do all year is the SYHC, and we don’t get paid a penny for helping.

I think you get your most joy when you help others who can’t repay you. Sure, you have to hustle hard to make a living, but surely in the midst of all of that, you can help someone worse off once in a while can’t you? Anyway, SYHC is a high-speed camp, and it takes a lot of volunteer work to make it all gel. To show his appreciation to the volunteers, founder Scott McGann puts on a volunteer barbecue.

Sure, we have fun eating. It’s a potluck-type of meal and usually the main course is something like a Subway sandwich etc. This year, Scott had some guys grill some steaks that he bought from Owyhee Meats. The fellowship is fun and the volunteers can bring their kids.

Scott even has a small drawing for some gifts. It’s kinda cool. Some of the kids that have been to the camp before have decided that it’d be better if they didn’t try to get in again so another kid can go. So, the next year they volunteer to be a helper at the camp instead of a participant. A couple of the donor companies let him put a prize in the drawing so some of the volunteer kids got to get a gift. For instance, one kid won a Knives of Alaska Xtreme Series capping knife and so the drawing went.

But the big-time, over-the-top deal is the shooting afterward. As you can imagine, I like to shoot. I don’t do a ton of organized shooting, just mainly hunting. But, this is the best clay bird shooting set-up I have ever experienced.

Here’s the format. We set up four throwers in a line and eight shooters line up intermittently between them. They will start throwing birds as fast as they can. When your gun is empty, birds are still flying. You’re cramming shells in your shotgun and shooting as fast as you can.

In the beginning, if I remember correctly, we had five throwers and as many shooters as could cram on the line. That was really wild. Now we’re more organized. Well, sorta. Now each shooter will shoot about three gun loads and back up and let another shooter step up. By then your gun is smoking hot anyway.

You have to be wired to the max. Not only do you have to hit the bird but, you also have to get a shot off before the other seven shooters. Birds will be flying left, right, sideways and straight away. You never know what is going to pop out where. It is an amazing amount of fun.

So if you want to put on a fun family event, company event or shooting club event, you ought to try out a combat trap shooting deal. No one will be disappointed.

It may sound wild to you, but just put in a few simple (and normal) safety rules to ensure that no one goes home perforated. Behind the shooting line, all actions are open.

You can only load your shotgun while at the shooting line with the barrel pointed down range. We chalk a shooting line that anyone with a loaded gun has to stand at.

Have fun — and P.S. Bring plenty of shells!

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