Northwest Sportsman – August 2019

68 Northwest Sportsman AUGUST 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

COLUMN

RIVER ANGLERS HAVE already been fishing

the Nisqually for a month now, but come

mid-August when the Puyallup opens up,

most will make the shift to the shores of

this well-known fishery. Lower parts of the

river are tidally influenced and it is best

to fish the few hours after high as fish are

flushed in.

Solitude is hard to find on the Puyal-

lup, but if you have a drift boat or pon-

toon there is some good news for you

this season. A boat slide – the first ever

in the entire state of Washington – was

recently installed near Sumner. This is the

take-out, with a Washington Department

of Fish and Wildlife gravel bar access site

near McMillan being the put-in. What

this really does is open up river stretch-

es that only have private bank access,

as well as places where trees and other

obstacles hinder bank anglers from ac-

cessing near-shore holes. Put in the drift

boat, float down to an exposed gravel

bar or drop an anchor and fish a section

with nobody around. With nearly 104,000

Chinook, coho and pink salmon coming

back to the Puyallup, the new boat slide

will provide some great access to some

good fishing.

BEAR SEASON’S UPON us and though

WDFW biologists agree that most bruins

are taken incidentally while deer and elk

hunting, there are good opportunities to

focus on them in August. Look to ripen-

ing berry patches, which will first occur on

south-facing slopes. Once those berries get

picked over, switch to north-facing slopes,

which take a bit longer for the fruit to ripen

due to the shade and cooler temperatures.

Black bears don’t wander too far this

time of year, so if you see sign of their pres-

ence be patient and keep watching the

area. It might take a few days but eventually

you will find one. Unlike hunting deer and

elk, when you want to be at a vantage point

before sunrise, bears will be out feeding

throughout the day. Back when we could

use bait we killed most bears in the evening

and rarely had one come in before noon.

This makes for a great hunt as you can head

out in the morning to a trailhead and hike

up into the alpine berry patches and watch

them during a midafternoon break.

If hiking into the heights doesn’t sound

too appealing, drive logging roads and

glass clearcuts instead. This is because

bears will cruise along and eat wild straw-

berries, huckleberries and blackberries

that tend to grow in the forest openings,

which today are primarily at lower and

midelevations than back in the 1970s and

’80s. In creek drainages bears will forage

on fiddlehead ferns, devil’s club, stinging

nettles and mountain ash, along with oth-

er foods, as well as use them for thermal

relief from late summer’s heat.

Of note, with a rule change approved by

the Fish and Widlife Commission earlier this

year (see sidebar, page 122) and meant to

standardize units across the state, the start

date for hunting season in the South Cas-

cades Bear Management Zone was moved

up from Aug. 15 to Aug. 1. It affects Game

Management Units 466, 485, 503, 505, 510-

520, 524, 550-574, 653 and 654.

THERE’S PLENTY FOR South Sound sports-

men to do as August blends into Sep-

tember. And before we know it the bulk

of hunting seasons will be upon us, so

spending a day at the range sighting in

rifles, shooting some clays, or stacking ar-

rows is another way to spend a few sum-

mer afternoons. Between that, chasing

salmon on the salt or from the river bank,

or picking berries while glassing for bears,

it’s time to get outside. NS

Black bears will be on the prowl for blueberries and more as summer wears on. Seek out south-

facing mountainsides for the first ripe fruit, north sides later. (DEVIN SCHILDT, ANDY WALGAMOTT)