Specials / Palouse Outdoors
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Palouse Outdoors:Steelhead, The (other) Fish of 10,000 Casts
Most of my winter trips to the Wallowa River are characterized by slippery travel across the Tollgate Crossing during an active snow or ice storm. The five-foot walls of packed snow confining the...
Palouse Outdoors: Hunting Late-Season Snowshoe Hares
The end of the upland bird and waterfowl seasons in the early part of the calendar year comes with bittersweet closure, but as time ticks further beyond that last hunt, the urge to venture afield...
Palouse Outdoors: Winter Rainbows on Rufus Woods Lake
Chief Joseph Dam came online in 1961, producing power through the first 16 of its 27 hydro turbines. Behind the dam is Lake Rufus Woods. Over 8,000 surface acres of the upper Columbia River stretch...
Palouse Outdoors - Local Conservation Organizations Have a Field Day with Dixie Elementary School
In late October, the Walla Walla County Conservation District (WWCD), Blue Mountain Pheasants Forever (BMPF), and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) hosted Dixie Elementary for a...
Boot Leather Wins Wild Birds
It's an utter fact, proven time and again, particularly in a state like Washington: wild birds in the vest are won with "boot leather," so to speak. Even in a spectacular wild bird year, by December,...
Bird Hunting Made Simple with Outdoor Technology
As I lay in bed flipping through the latest edition of a well-respected gun dog magazine, an article titled "What Happened to Simple" grabbed my attention. The author is a long-time columnist for the...
Palouse Outdoors:Eurasian Collared Doves Offer a Fine Early Upland Hunt
The raspy "cuh coo co" calls of Eurasian collared doves could be heard in every direction. It was 5:30 a.m. It's an absurd hour to be afield chasing doves, but August heat makes the birds lazy. The...
Palouse Outdoors: Grandma's Legacy
A satisfying aroma rode the heat waves from the grill where six smallmouth bass filets dredged in flour, egg, and panko sizzled in a quarter-inch of shimmering olive oil. The cast-iron pan rested on...
Palouse Outdoors: Sharing the Land and conservation values
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is known as the visionary behind modern wildlife and habitat management. He understood the connection between ecosystem integrity and wildlife abundance and diversity....
Palouse Outdoors: The Phenological Calendar of Kokanee
Whether you realize it or not, most outdoor enthusiasts are phenological scientists. You may never have published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal or even considered proper phenology as...
Palouse Outdoors: An Embarrassing, Unconventional, Wildly Effective Fishing Fly
Seventy degrees with a cool breeze was welcomed, given the snow had barely left the northern shadows of the barn at home. I was surrounded by waterfowl and songbirds warbling, cackling, bickering,...
Palouse Outdoors: A Photo Safari in the Columbia Wildlife Refuge
My predawn exhaustion caused me to miss the freeway exit and my goal of being at the Teal Lakes at dawn, thanks to a detour through Connell. My tardiness was irrelevant, however. The vibrant sunrise...
Palouse Outdoors: A Fine Morning for Waterfowl
As I neared the river, a fog bank appeared on the horizon – an impenetrable wall along the highway corridor. It was disheartening to watch a beautiful January day disappear in the rearview as the...
The Final Day
Rather than hunting my traditional last-day trac tin Lind, I spent the final morning of the 2022 upland bird season with new friends Ryan and Jessica. They had traveled from Canada to Ryan's old...
Palouse Outdoors: Contemplation on Snow Days and Bird Hunting
As the December snow fell softly on the homestead, I peered out the kitchen window at the quail, songbirds, and pheasant that sought the bird feeders around the house. My double guns were locked in...
Tegan Largent shoots for two points for the B-squad
At the bottom of a narrow east and west running canyon, on what little flat ground was afforded, stands the remnants of an old homestead. Barns. Outbuildings. Machinery parts peeking out from beneath...
A Timely Hunt for Valley Quail
One of the things I appreciate the most about valley quail is its laid-back personality. The older I get, the less likely I am to crawl out of bed in the dark to go hunting. I am still motivated, but...
Palouse Outdoors: Women on the Wing hosts pre-season upland hunt
Smoke hung like a heavy fog in the Palouse River canyon, making for a simultaneously mesmerizing yet apocalyptic scene. The sun appeared ablaze, blood-orange behind the smoke as it climbed above the...
Dusk on the Palouse
Stepping outside for the evening dog potty, the cool of the settling night air brought instant relief from the heat of summer. The moon appeared massive and low – the Man in the Moon eyeballing me...
Palouse Outdoors: Upland Pursuits – A Fly Fishing Farewell
The high cumulonimbus clouds born of afternoon heat, dust particulate, and inexplicable humidity morphed into a nebulous gray bank of doom. Nate and I were headed east into the Blues for an evening...
Palouse Outdoors: Pedaling for Petals
It had been some time since I made the drive up to the Godman Guard Station. As familiar geography passed by, I realized I had never made the drive outside of hunting season. A steep and jagged...
Palouse Outdoors: Taming the Tiger (Trout)
The pond could not have been more than a couple of acres, just small enough that I could fish a full lap around in my float tube before the consequences of sitting belly-deep in frigid water required...
Palouse Outdoors: Shed Hunting the Palouse
Spring outdoor adventures can be hard to come by when we allow routine to take priority. I don't hunt turkeys or fish the desert lakes nearly as often as I should. Instead, I tend to the property,...
Palouse Outdoors: Escape to Gaviota State Park
When winter settles into the Walla Walla Valley like it did this year, short days and frigid temperatures compound into cabin fever in a hurry. Luckily, southeast Washington is the center of the...
Palouse Outdoors: Fishing the Trestle
"So, you wrote a book on bird hunting? You should write one on fishing", Scott said. "That's a strong possibility, considering I have twenty years' more fishing stories over bird hunting in the...