Even as a 12-year-old bass-fishing prodigy, Jacob Wall knew all those practice casts on his family's Jacksonville driveway would one day turn into cash.

In late May of 2000, Beaverton hunter Ron Wold thought he had his checklist covered for a coveted deer hunt in Central Oregon that coming fall.

ASHLAND — For more than 30 years, Bob Isaacs hasn't missed the opening day of the trout-fishing season at his favorite haunt — Hyatt Lake.

Nike bolts out of his dog box and instantly bounces around like a 4-year-old on a sugar high of diabetic proportions.

JACKSONVILLE — Botanist Kristi Mergenthaler strolls the paths of the Jacksonville Woodlands with an eye that's well-trained for picking out the rare flower from among its imposters.

BUTTE FALLS — Mark and Jennifer Vargas trudge through snow in the Cascade Mountains following a string of big, fresh cougar tracks, but it is an even larger and more famous apex predator they're after.

From behind the counter of his family's Grants Pass gun-and-tackle shop, Dave Bradbury sells access to the outdoors one jar of PowerBait or one pair of boots at a time.

SHADY COVE — For the first six days of March, Mark Randolph pulled himself out of his Shady Cove bed and trudged up to Cole Rivers Hatchery intent upon ushering in this year's spring chinook salmon season in the upper Rogue River.

After a fruitless day of marlin fishing off the central Mexican coast on Feb. 25, Oregon native Jeremy Lusch was motoring his panga boat toward home when he spotted something large frolicking in the rough Pacific swells.

When Portland fly-fisher Dave Hughes heads to Eastern Oregon's Chewaucan River for a day of trout fishing, his arsenal is noticeable as much for what's in it as for what's not.