Sports

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, December 6, 2007 State duck call champ 5th at Worlds By Wayne Kruse, Herald Writer I don't know whether or not we should call him Superquacker just yet, but Bothell resident Shane Rossen seems well on his way to becoming the best duck and goose caller this state has seen in recent memory. Rossen won the right to represent Washington by taking the state championship in Moses Lake this summer, then went to the World Duck Calling Championship in Stuttgart, Ark., where on Nov. 24 he placed fifth runner-up against 70 of the best waterfowl callers on the globe. Rossen, 37, also won the state title last year and went to Arkansas. He couldn't compete there, unfortunately, because of a rule glitch in the state competition, but he watched, listened, and learned. "I got a real education," he said, "which made me better prepared and more determined for this year's competition." Rossen grew up in Minnesota, in a hunting family, and tramped the Mississippi River bottoms for ducks and geese, bow-hunted whitetails, and trapped furbearers as a young man. He started calling competitively as a teenager, took a 10-year hiatus and then, after moving to Washington, got back into it. He has won state championships here and in the upper Midwest, Cabela's Open titles, and a lot of others, in both duck and goose calling. A full-time dad, Rossen hunts, fishes and camps -- often with his family -- practices calling, and trains his dogs: Duke, a yellow Lab; Stitch, a black Lab/pointer; and Bean, a German shorthair. Rossen is ex-military, and has worked in sporting goods and owned his own construction business. He is on the pro staff of Buck Gardner Calls, Avery Outdoors, and Wing Waver Decoys, and a member of Ducks Unlimited and the Washington Waterfowl Association. Rossen is also founder of Callers for Christ, an organization which, he says, teaches and shares the faith, the art of competition and field waterfowl calling, and other game calling (www.callersforchrist.com). And speaking of waterfowl hunting, the big storm was anathema to a lot of people around the state but welcomed here for wind and rain which pushed ducks and geese off the bays and provided water for ponds, ditches, and other waterfowl habitat. Hunting has improved, said Rone Brewer of the Washington Waterfowl Association, as warming temperatures encourage birds to hit the fields after a long period of energy-sapping cold. Brewer said ducks are going through the grain on the farmed island segment of the Skagit Wildlife Area rapidly, but that there should be at least some left for a while. Other possibilities include Lecque Island, west of Stanwood; Samish ponds; and the headquarters area of the Skagit Wildlife Area. Snow goose hunting continues to be a bright spot, Brewer said, particularly in areas around the Fir Island reserve, and on several of the Quality Hunt units. Most small ponds in the Columbia Basin are frozen now, said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Rich Finger in Moses Lake, which will push ducks onto spring ponds, creeks, rivers, and wasteways. Recent storms have also brought more waterfowl into the Basin from the north, and the latest aerial surveys found mallards and other dabblers concentrated on North Potholes Reserve, Lower Crab Creek, Eagle Lakes, Wanapum Reserve, and Winchester Reserve. Divers are moving down the Columbia River system, piling up in the Wells Pool, Wanapum Pool, and Priest Rapids Pool. Of particular note, said state waterfowl specialist Mikal Moore in Ephrata, are large populations of canvasback on Wells Pool. She said that duck populations haven't yet peaked in the north Basin, but that there are healthy numbers of birds throughout the area. See complete north Basin waterfowl surveys at wdfw.wa.gov/reg/eventopp/events2.htm. PHEASANT: Snow on the Eastside should improve hunting conditions for upland birds through the remainder of the season, and the last game farm rooster pheasants for the year will be released this weekend in most of Eastern Washington. For Eastside pheasant enhancement information and release site maps, go to http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/ewapheas.htm. STEELHEAD: With a lot of rivers high and dirty after the weekend's heavy rains, what's a steelheader to do? The Whidbey Island beaches have started putting out winter fish, according to Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington. Fort Casey is a good bet, along with Bush Point and Lagoon Point, and the standard lure setup is the longtime Spin N Glo/orange hoochie skirt combination. An incoming tide is the best, most beach fishermen feel. The Cascade River, a tributary to the Skagit, clears quickly and has been putting out steelhead for at least a couple of weeks. Other fast-clearing small streams worth a look this weekend include the Wallace, Pilchuck and Sultan locally, according to guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram. "The Wallace is an underutilized fishery," he said. "By total numbers, it doesn't look too impressive, but considering the relatively small number of fishermen who learn it and work it, the fish per rod ratio is a lot better than the Skykomish." The Sky itself was dropping quickly at midweek, Ingram said, and could possibly be fishable by the weekend, at least marginally. In dirty water, he recommended using larger lures, either tipped with bait or heavily scented. Steelhead returns so far to hatcheries on the southwest rivers are a mixed bag -- some up and some down -- and so not a real indicator of the strength of the general winter run. The latest hatchery numbers include the Elochoman, with 17 fish at last count, compared to 37 returnees by this same time last year; the Cowlitz, 42 this year compared to 389 in 2006; the Kalama, nine vs 14 last year; the Lewis, 398 vs 58 last year; and the Washougal, 48 vs 39 last year. Some rivers, or portions of rivers, in the Forks area clear rapidly, and could be fishable by this weekend. If they are, they should be smokin'. Check with Olympic Sporting Goods in Forks, 360-374-6330, for current conditions. State biologist David Low said predictions on the Peninsula are for a winter season roughly equivalent to last year, which was a pretty good one. SMELT: Many indicators used by biologists to predict smelt returns to the Columbia River are negative again this year, according to the state's Joe Hymer in Vancouver, leading a joint Washington/Oregon committee to recommend the most conservative of possible approaches when setting 2008 seasons. Eulachon populations have been severely depressed both in British Columbia and Washington for two years or more, Hymer said, citing a steady decline in smelt bycatch in the Canadian ocean shrimp fisheries since 2002 as an example. Recreational smelt dipping in the Cowlitz and Sandy rivers was poor last year, due both to a lack of fish and dirty water much of the season, and the commercial landing of 8,300 pounds was the second lowest since records started being kept in 1938 (lowest was 200 pounds in 2005). On Nov. 9, the Cowlitz tribe petitioned National Marine Fisheries (NMFS) to designate populations of eulachon south of the Canadian border as a distinct population segment and to list it as threatened or endangered. Tribal biologists cited habitat degradation, overutilization of the resource, disease and predation, and inadequate regulatory mechanisms as threats to the population. NMFS is not required to determine if a formal review is warranted until early 2008. BLACKMOUTH: Although most fishermen haven't wanted to brave the weather recently, blackmouth action in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 hasn't been bad between storm fronts. State checks on Friday (before the big blow), for instance, tallied 17 anglers at the Port of Everett ramp with six chinook. Columbia Beach, the Langley shoreline up the west side of Saratoga Passage, and Elger Bay continue to be the most popular spots in Area 8-2. The folks at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington said some good reports have been coming from the green buoy at Oak Harbor, in Area 8-1, on a rig composed of flasher and green/chrome Coyote spoon. Anglers in Area 8-1, particularly, have been wading through a lot of shakers. CRABBING: Diehard crabbers can still do their thing in Marine Area 6 through the end of the year, and it's been fairly productive in spots.

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