- Joined
- Apr 3, 2019
- Messages
- 22,341
- Reaction score
- 9,893
- Location
- Alaska (61.5°N, -149°W)
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
Trout fishing at Silver Creek outside of ShowLow, AZ. It's usually enough to drop a midge off a hopper and haul 'em in. The stream is C&R only over the winter but a average Rainbow is 20".
Dove hunting pretty much anywhere outside of town but it's just too damned hot for that right now.
I never learned how to fly-fish. It is the perfect form of fishing, in my opinion. No technology, just a well-crafted lure and the right touch and feel. Fly-fishing is very popular for trout and grayling in Alaska, not salmon though.
We had a problem with our Rainbow/Steelhead trout runs for a few years. Some idiot had illegally released northern pike into one of the lakes and they got into the rivers and started eating all the trout fry. For several years trout fishing in south central Alaska was strictly catch-and-release. Personally, I prefer the catch-and-keep kind of rivers. I don't mind fishing and not catching anything, but when I do catch something I would like to eat it instead of releasing it.
I did a lot of dove hunting in southern California and Nebraska. Although, it tended to be more pheasant and quail than doves in Nebraska.
I use to be able to handle your kind of heat when I lived in Palmdale, CA, but after 28 years in Alaska I would die without air-conditioning in Arizona. I find anything above 80°F to be uncomfortably hot.
I like hiking, usually I walk under 25 miles / day in Lapland.
Landscape is like:
73% of ground area is covered by trees in Finland, but I like to hike where I can't see any of them. So I have to go higher and I end up walking in places without any trails, just lot of rocks and small lakes. If you like trees there's lot of them too in Lapland, just stay lower.. but you need even better orienteering skills when you're middle of those huge forests. I'm not good at orienteering, so for me it's lot safer stay on higher ground.
I like hiking, usually I walk under 25 miles / day in Lapland.
Landscape is like:
73% of ground area is covered by trees in Finland, but I like to hike where I can't see any of them. So I have to go higher and I end up walking in places without any trails, just lot of rocks and small lakes. If you like trees there's lot of them too in Lapland, just stay lower.. but you need even better orienteering skills when you're middle of those huge forests. I'm not good at orienteering, so for me it's lot safer stay on higher ground.
You walk 25 miles in a day? That's pretty substantial!
Hiking in thick forest is, for me, more a function of terrain association rather than strict orienteering. I find I have MUCH better luck tracking ridgelines and streams than I do trying to figure out whether I've walked 1/4 mi SSE or not.
You walk 25 miles in a day? That's pretty substantial!
I agree. It is very difficult to orient yourself in a dense forest, even with a GPS. Primarily because your visibility is reduced. All you can see in the direction you want to go is another tree a few yards away. So you fixate on that tree, move towards it, then find the next landmark. Only problem is that you have approached that tree from a slightly different angle that you originally started, so now you no longer oriented in the direction you want to go. If I'm not particularly careful in dense forests, I will find myself hiking in a large spiral, and it is always in a clockwise direction for some reason.
It takes all day with multiple stop's, you need to eat a lot.. it's really fun and relaxing. My longest trip so far is 13 nights, and it's kinda max, because I can't carry much more food (dry) with me. Water is amazing, much better than tap water (tap water is safe everywhere in Finland, but taste is not like it is in those lakes/streams).
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Oh, I've got plenty of air conditioning but just not standing in a field at sunrise. This morning wasn't really too bad. It was maybe mid 70s at 6am when I went for my walk but by 8 it was pushing 100. Dove hunting tends to be a 90 minute drive, half an hour to bad a few birds and 90 minutes back. I really don't hunt much any more as it's way too much work for the meat I get to keep. The fishing, however, works just fine and there are a few lakes not far from the creek I mentioned that usually produce pretty well. The difference is that pulling a 2 pounder out of Big Lake is like finding a unicorn whereas it's common at the creek.
If I'm going to be in a forested area I haven't visited before I'll try to get topographical maps and study them as much as possible before I go. Most of that study goes to hell as soon as I get into the woods but as long as I have an idea of where the streams, lakes and logging roads are I can usually manage.
It takes all day with multiple stop's, you need to eat a lot.. it's really fun and relaxing. My longest trip so far is 13 nights, and it's kinda max, because I can't carry much more food (dry) with me. Water is amazing, much better than tap water (tap water is safe everywhere in Finland, but taste is not like it is in those lakes/streams).
View attachment 67262775
It takes all day with multiple stop's, you need to eat a lot.. it's really fun and relaxing. My longest trip so far is 13 nights, and it's kinda max, because I can't carry much more food (dry) with me. Water is amazing, much better than tap water (tap water is safe everywhere in Finland, but taste is not like it is in those lakes/streams).
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You must have a lot of Sisu to hike for so long. Ever run into old Russian equipment up there?
I want to go to hunting but I've not bought some special tools for that
I am somewhat surprised that there was no thread for hiking, hunting, fishing, and foraging. They can be considered "Leisure Activities," right? I mean what better way to relax and enjoy the morning than down by the river, fishing for salmon, as the ice-cold waters meet the warm air and begins to steam? I do not spend much time bowling, playing golf, or other forms of leisure activities. I relax and enjoy myself when I'm either hiking, hunting, fishing, or foraging. For me, these are my leisure activities. Surely there are other avid hikers, fisherman, hunters, and forgarers like myself.
This thread is not intended to have anything to do with politics. The sole purpose of this thread is to share hiking, hunting, fishing, and foraging experiences. Maybe learn something, and generally have a good time.
I'll begin...
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A little about myself. I'm currently 65 years old and have lived the last 28 years in Alaska. I was born in southern California, and mostly raised there, but I also lived in Minnesota and Nebraska. My father started taking me fishing and hunting when I was 8 years old in Saugus, CA. He bought me my first 12-gauge shotgun on my 10th birthday. I've hunted all over southern California, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and of course Alaska. I have fished in California, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Alaska.
When turning 60 Alaskan residents are entitled to a free hunting and fishing license, for the rest of their lives. Which I have been putting to good use. It varies every season, of course, but I try to catch and process at least 250 pounds of salmon by the first week of August. This season was particularly good. I don't always get a caribou or moose each season. Particularly moose. I need an off-road big-rig to haul them out of the woods whole, because it takes too long to field dress and haul them out a piece at a time.
In Alaska you are prohibited from protecting your game from wolves or other predators, so you need to be fast. It isn't like the lower-48 were you can haul one quarter of your deer out of the field at a time, not having to worry about other predators taking what you temporarily left behind. If you have not dressed and started to haul your meat out of the field within an hour after you started cleaning the critter, you can expect to have company. Some people go to the extreme of using peanut oil instead of bar oil in their chainsaw so they can cut up the game quicker. I prefer to take my time and do it right.
I don't live in a city, town, or village. The closest town to where I live, with a population of ~7,500, is Wasilla about 8 miles down the road. I spend a lot of time hiking around the Palmer Hay-flats, which is a salt-water marsh/estuary next to Knik Arm. It is a great source for sea lovage, chickweed, and other beach greens, but only in the Spring. You want to get them young before they bloom, like Devils Club, Fireweed or Fiddlehead ferns. If you wait too long they become bitter, woody, or otherwise inedible. The best time is early May in south central Alaska.
Hatcher Pass, just east of Wasilla, is my source in the Talkeetna mountains for raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and cranberries in the fall. They are usually best around the middle of September, just before the "termination dust" sprinkles the mountain peaks. Watch out for those bears though. We're competing for the same food.
One of the strangest sights I had ever seen, thus far, was a pod of Beluga whales swimming up the Kenai River in pursuit of salmon. I was fishing two-miles inland from the estuary when they swam past me. You don't see whales swimming up rivers every day.
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Tell us about your latest adventure into the wild. What kind of round and/or bait did you use? Was there anything unusual about the trail you hiked? Did you have any unusual encounters? What kind of local herbs and wild vegetables can you harvest this time of year? How do you prepare your catch/game? Do you have any favorite game/fish recipes?
It's wild boar. It's my first hunt on this animal and I've checked a lot of reviews and advices how to do it correctly. I have AR-15 Riffle, good enough and I've already decided to take a scope for my gun. Still choosing and reading reviews https://opticzoo.com/best-scope-for-ar-15-riffle-under-100. If you did this before, what advices can you give me? Thanks a lotYou need to determine what you want to hunt, and where, before buying what you need.
It's wild boar. It's my first hunt on this animal and I've checked a lot of reviews and advices how to do it correctly. I have AR-15 Riffle, good enough and I've already decided to take a scope for my gun. Still choosing and reading reviews https://opticzoo.com/best-scope-for-ar-15-riffle-under-100. If you did this before, what advices can you give me? Thanks a lot
You left out trapping...
It's wild boar. It's my first hunt on this animal and I've checked a lot of reviews and advices how to do it correctly. I have AR-15 Riffle, good enough and I've already decided to take a scope for my gun. Still choosing and reading reviews https://opticzoo.com/best-scope-for-ar-15-riffle-under-100. If you did this before, what advices can you give me? Thanks a lot
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