In the Field

Previous Columns

• Eurasian doves are seen as a threat - 1/14/2010

  A new invader packing a cute mug and a sweet coo is threatening to overrun Oregon, and wildlife biologists believe their best weapon against the hungry invaders will be shotgun-toting hunters.

  
• Best and worst of 2009 outdoors - 12/31/2009

  Tiger Woods getting a holiday cell phone to his grill may be the best you-couldn't-make-this-stuff-up event of the past year, but it certainly isn't the only time the world got a bit whacked out in...

• Tragedy puts spotlight on blaze orange - 12/17/2009

  Matthew Gretzon may accomplish in death what 18 other Oregonians have failed to do over the past two decades to change the way the state's 250,000 hunters see each other in the field.

• Honked off! Geese flee the 'wild' outdoors - 12/3/2009

  GOLD HILL — For the better part of a decade, Jeanette McConnell has had a love-hate relationship with the Canada geese that congregate outside her kitchen window.

• A mighty river runs through it - 11/25/2009

  Like trespassing fishers of old, Pat Kollodge pulls back two strands of barbed wire and steps onto one of northeast Oregon's historical cattle ranches in his quest to find where the wild things are.

  
• Coho Cowboy - 11/19/2009

  The latest run of phantom salmon are making their way up the Rogue River, their presence so well hidden that local anglers can go their entire lifetimes without as much as hooking one. Ever.

  
• Young boy's hunt 'was the best thing ever' - 11/12/2009

  GRANTS PASS — Ethan Swiger and his grandfather drove the Josephine County backroads together Nov. 1 looking to usher the 12-year-old boy into one of the family's more passionate of pastimes.

  
• If it's movin', it still might be a decoy - 10/29/2009

  Some of Oregon's more seasoned elk poachers have learned to side-step getting caught in a backwoods wildlife-enforcement-decoy sting by following the mantra, "If it ain't movin', they ain't shootin'."

  
• Opening elk weekend rings true for couple - 10/22/2009

  EAGLE POINT — In a small ground blind hidden Saturday in a meadow near Eagle Point sat Matt Dunbar and his girlfriend, Adrian Lass, together reviewing the fine points on how to bag a Roosevelt...

• A memorable spot on the 'Bragging Wall' - 10/8/2009

  Thumb-tacked to the "Bragging Wall" at Sportsmen's Warehouse is a photo of a rather under-whelming black-tailed buck, a little forked-horn deer held up by a man whose smile is wider than the deer's...

  
• Bass masters come from all parts now - 10/1/2009

  Southern bass anglers see it as their birthright to chase the next "sowbelly." But bass fishing may be the latest American original to become outsourced.

  
• The end of a respected hunting tradition - 9/24/2009

  The 2009 big-game hunting season will kick off next week with the death of one of Oregon's storied fall traditions — guys standing in line to buy their license and deer tag at the very last...

• Fly-casters find a little respite on the water - 9/17/2009

  A smallmouth bass finning its way around an Umpqua River pool caught Shawna Henderson's eye, and she hoped this fish would usher her into the world of women on the fly.

  
• Salmon derby is a sight for strained eyes - 9/10/2009

  GRANTS PASS — Derrick Stevenson has waited for years to feel that first bite of a Rogue River chinook salmon, experience that tug-of-war battle to the boat and then to see — really see...

• Angler completes his catfish quest - 9/3/2009

  ASHLAND — Amid the moonless darkness, Andrew Jensen plied the murky waters of Emigrant Lake last Thursday for the big blue beast that had consumed his life and his fishing gear for much of...

  
• Lower Rogue bay is busy with chinook - 8/27/2009

  After 15 years behind the Costco photo counter in Medford creating snapshots of Rogue Valley fishing adventures, Laurie Stovall finally produced a Kodak moment of her own.

  
• Early signs point to 'solid' summer steelhead run - 8/20/2009

  SHADY COVE — Lee Wedberg's little prince nymph fly dribbled along a Rogue River riffle in the middle of town, stopping abruptly next to a submerged ledge and signaling the start of another epic...

• 'This will be my biggest challenge' - 8/6/2009

  Matt Thomas positions his feeble arms to prop himself upright on a padded hospital bench, trying to teach his muscles how to work again.

  
• King for a day - 7/23/2009

  TRAIL — With a freshly tied hook and leader on his rod, Frank Powell trudges down the Casey State Park bank and back into the Rogue River, pausing to peer into the shallows to see whether what...

  
• Survival suits this dog just fine - 7/9/2009

  AGNESS — Pete Pollard walked up the remote trail through the Lower Rogue River Canyon with the melancholy of a man who knows his one missed oar-stroke killed his daughter's dog.