WHAT WOULD THANKSGIVING be like without turkey?
Maybe this is the year to find out.
When you think about it, it’s surprising that one bird has remained the focal point of dinner every year on the fourth Thursday in November.
It’s a good thing, for sure — don’t fix what isn’t broke, you know? — but the tradition’s staying power is impressive.
You against-the-grainers and do-it-yourselfers do have options, though.
While the wild turkey hunting season gets underway Friday in Eastern Washington, there are various other hunts that can put a different meal on your table a week from today.
All the weather the North Olympic Peninsula has received during the past week has made the area’s rivers difficult to fish and the saltwater miserable to fish.
Ducks don’t mind the rain, but the wind that had them ducking.
“Waterfowl hunting season is in full swing,” Ward Norden, owner of Snapper Tackle Company and a former fishery biologist who lives in Quilcene, said.
“Last week, the first big flocks of widgeon ducks joined the pintail and mallards on Hood Canal’s and other bays.
“The wind storms of the last few days have sent the birds running for cover, but they will come right back with calmer weather. They don’t care about the rain.”
But be on alert; the weather has left floating monsters in the water.
“Care should be taken by waterfowl hunters in boats because there is a lot of floating debris in the water from recent flooding, and hitting something before first light can ruin your entire day,” Norden said.
For those extreme outside-the-boxers, the cougar hunt is ongoing, and the wind actually has helped the cause.
“If you are intent on bagging one of our continent’s finest trophies, a mountain lion, it gets a lot ‘easier’ now that all the leaves have been blown off the bushes, so you can see a cat coming to the call,” Norden said.
Deer hunts
The late modern firearm black-tailed deer season opens today and runs through Sunday.
For muzzleloaders, the late black-tailed deer season opens next Wednesday, Nov. 25.
“Next week is the opening of the late muzzle loading season for deer, and this is the first year that the Olympic hunting unit on the west side of Hood Canal and north of Sequim has been open for muzzleloaders,” Norden said.
“I have been looking forward to it for a while. Even with the huge numbers of deer in the unit, this is one of the toughest hunts in the state due to our local deer’s habit of lying in one spot for a week or more to conserve energy, a habit they have in common with Southeast Alaska’s coastal deer.”
The late muzzleloader deer season will remain open through Dec. 15.
Opah record broken
Here’s a big fish story, and it’s actually true.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this week that Jim Watson of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has set a new state record for the largest opah caught off the Washington coast.
Watson caught an opah on Sept. 27 that weighed 35.67 pounds and measured 37 7/8 inches. That beat the old record by 7.49 pounds.
Watson caught the large-eyed, orange-red-colored, disc-shaped opah while fishing with anchovies 45 miles offshore of Westport in Grays Harbor County.
“Catching the fish was a lot of work, but fun. They really fight, and it took a while,” Watson said in a new release.
“The captain and crew came unglued, because you just don’t see these fish very often.”
Watson said he shared the fish with the charter crew, family and friends.
“It was not like any fish I’ve tasted, but it was really good,” Watson said. “Every bit of it went to good use.”
It’s fitting that the record-breaking opah was caught in 2015. Earlier this year, in May, the journal Science reported that opah are the only fish found to be warm-blooded throughout their bodies.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton, who is filling in for outdoors columnist Michael Carman, can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
