R.I.P. – Essential Safety Gear for Kayak Fishing on the Ocean

R.I.P. – Essential Safety Gear for Kayak Fishing on the Ocean

It’s far too often that we hear about tragedies involving kayak anglers. In recent years kayak fishing has exploded in popularity and during pandemic years the Coast Guard reported an increase in the number of kayaking fatalities. If you’re considering kayaking on the ocean, there 

How to Find Late Season Winter Mushrooms

How to Find Late Season Winter Mushrooms

Last December, just before the new year, a big storm absolutely hammered our house with record-breaking snowfall. Our touristy ski town gets flooded with people when it snows. But when it gets really, really snowy, people panic and instead of sticking around and riding it 

How to Plan a Successful Hunting Trip – Rethinking Success

How to Plan a Successful Hunting Trip – Rethinking Success

When my brother took this photo, I was right there but I didn’t notice the beauty in front of me. I was steaming up the hillside, shotgun in hand, completely consumed by the sound of chukar calling from the distant rim rocks above. In a 

How to Find a Good Hunting Spot During the Off-Season

How to Find a Good Hunting Spot During the Off-Season

If you’re an experienced hunter, this article probably isn’t for you. But if you’re an experienced hunter and have friends that don’t hunt, you might want to send this article to them so they can keep an eye out for you. It can’t hurt… For 

How to Train Your Eye to Find Morel Mushrooms

How to Train Your Eye to Find Morel Mushrooms

Morels are truly a spring delicacy. They exist all over the northern U.S. and can be found anywhere from orchards to alpine forests, but out west we’ve usually harvested them from April-June in forests that burned in recent years. They’re super fun to hunt for 

How to Pick Wild Morel Mushrooms Safely

How to Pick Wild Morel Mushrooms Safely

Morel mushrooms are a prized delicacy and it is well known that the best way to find them is to search through burn areas during the spring(s) following a wildfire. Recent fire seasons out west have been unprecedented, so it’s safe to say that morel 

How to Find Morels – Our Favorite Spring Mushrooms

How to Find Morels – Our Favorite Spring Mushrooms

First of all, this post isn’t about identifying morels but that’s obviously a very crucial part of any foraging. We have a brief post here where we provide recommendations for resources to learn to I.D. morels. Here is a mushroom that looks similar to a 

What do I need to do to go Hunting?

What do I need to do to go Hunting?

Wow, we’ve been busy. We went from wildfire evacuation directly into a big hunting trip for two weeks. We followed that up with moving and here we are. We are barely settled in our new home but we’re back to hunting before it’s over for 

Our Super Trusty, Cheap, and Simple DIY Awning

Our Super Trusty, Cheap, and Simple DIY Awning

Several of our friends have asked us for instructions for our DIY awning, so here you go! Sorry for the mediocre photos – we wanted to get this out to a few friends before hunting season so we’re working with what we had – please 

Checking Air Quality – How To Forecast Smoke with Windy.com

Checking Air Quality – How To Forecast Smoke with Windy.com

Today I was supposed to be leaving for a 9-day Roosevelt Elk hunt in Washington and instead I am sitting at my computer, unable to go outside because it’s too smoky. I’m delaying the hunt for now and I will probably end up bagging it 

Seven Places to Kayak Fish in the Strait of Juan De Fuca

Seven Places to Kayak Fish in the Strait of Juan De Fuca

The last post I wrote about strategies for kayak halibut fishing received a lot of positive feedback so I decided to take it a step further. In the past couple of years we fished the Strait of Juan De Fuca fairly extensively, mostly by kayak 

How To Adventure With Your Dog

How To Adventure With Your Dog

One thing you should know about us is that if we’re outside, chances are we have our dogs with us. The only exceptions are when we are actually hunting, or when we venture to areas where dogs aren’t allowed. Our boys come with us on 

Our Favorite Website for Wind Forecasts

Our Favorite Website for Wind Forecasts

Windy.com is a really awesome interactive website for wind forecasts. It’s easy to use – you just zoom in to the area you are interested in and click on the map and it will tell you the current wind speed and direction. – For a 

Our Favorite Website for Marine Weather Forecasts

Our Favorite Website for Marine Weather Forecasts

We use www.weather.gov for ocean weather forecasts for the same reasons that we use it for land forecasts – weather.gov offers an accurate marine point forecast that is specific to the exact location where you plan on fishing. If you’re interested in an ocean weather 

Why You Shouldn’t Use the Weather App on Your Phone – How to Read the Weather for Outdoor Activities

Why You Shouldn’t Use the Weather App on Your Phone – How to Read the Weather for Outdoor Activities

If you just look at an app on your phone to get the weather forecast before you go outdoors, you have been seriously missing out. If you want to catch more fish, find more mushrooms, avoid bad weather when hunting, and generally be a better 

Two Basic Websites for Understanding River Flows

Two Basic Websites for Understanding River Flows

– When we are planning a rafting, kayaking, or fishing trip on the river, the first and most important thing to look into is the river flow. Flows don’t only determine the conditions for safety but also the chance for success of fishing trips. With 

Deep Zoom – Free Interactive Map for Tides and Currents

Deep Zoom – Free Interactive Map for Tides and Currents

If you’re planning on fishing out on the salt, it’s essential to have an understanding of the tides and tidal current, especially if you plan on fishing from a kayak. For studying tides and tidal current, we highly recommend checking out Deep Zoom. The main 

Catching Pacific Halibut from a Kayak: the Basics

Catching Pacific Halibut from a Kayak: the Basics

To get started, here’s a quick preview of what it looks like when a 30 lb halibut pulls on an A1 buoy. In my mind, this is the pinnacle of fishing in the Northwest. I know that other Northwest fishermen may not agree, but we 

Halibut Harpoon Setup for a Kayak

Halibut Harpoon Setup for a Kayak

I was giving my harpoon a good look-over today to make sure it is all in order because HALIBUT IS OPEN in Washington!!! I have been waiting since it closed last year for this. The weather has been bad, but it looks like it is 

DIY Archery Target for Compound Bows

DIY Archery Target for Compound Bows

Why build a carpet target? If you’re new to archery hunting and you think you can get by with just one small foam target, you can’t. If you are practicing as much as you should as a new archer, you will ruin a foam target 

How to Freeze Fish or Venison Without a Vacuum Sealer

How to Freeze Fish or Venison Without a Vacuum Sealer

Is your vacuum sealer not working well? Or maybe you don’t want to buy one yet? You really don’t need one – this method works great, if not better, than cheaper sealers like Foodsavers, and only requires a couple things from the grocery store: Plastic 

How To Clean and Package Razor Clams

How To Clean and Package Razor Clams

Razor clams are a little tedious but they are easy to clean and the meat makes it totally worth the effort. With most clams and oysters, we usually eat the entire organism except for the shell. With razor clams, they are big enough that you