November 06, 2009 02:43 pm
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 Brooke Hanson and her dad pose with Brooke’s bull – taken near North Powder through the Hunt of a Lifetime program. RAY FOSTER In many ways Brooke Hanson is like most teenagers — she enjoys
sports like softball and basketball, likes riding horses and has been
involved with 4-H for much of her life. She likes spending time in the
outdoors and keeps her cell phone hot — calling and texting her
boyfriend, David.
Growing up in a family of hunters, Brooke learned how to shoot a
rifle at age 11 and took her first whitetail buck at age 12.
White-tailed deer are the primary target for hunters near her home in
Baudette, Minn. — a land of bogs and swamps surrounded by heavy timber.
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October 09, 2009 03:12 pm
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 Duck hunting season opens at 6:35 a.m. Saturday. Observer file photo A coffee and donut vendor could earn a tidy profit Saturday between
1 and 4 a.m. in the parking area of the Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area
headquarters.
So might anyone selling duck calls and decoys.
The Ladd Marsh parking lot will be percolating as hunters await the opening of duck season Saturday.
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October 05, 2009 04:07 pm
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 FLIGHT TO FREEDOM: From left, Grant, Gavin and Madison Young, known as the “pheasant whisperer,” take part in the Sept. 18 pheasant release in preparation for the weekend’s Youth Hunt. Photo/JIM WARD Young hunters experienced success at the annual youth pheasant hunt Sept. 19-20 at the Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area.
The 75 hunters participating, all age 17 and younger, took 76
pheasants and three quail during the two-day hunt, according to the
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Many of the pheasants taken were among the 212 released Sept. 18 at
Ladd Marsh. The Oregon Hunters Association and the Oregon Department of
Fish each paid for 100 of the pheasants, and Les Henderson of Oregon
Trail Trader paid for 12.
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September 11, 2009 03:59 pm
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 Mark Penninger finds the traditional bow an effective tool for gathering small game like this blue grouse in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. To trust everything you hear or read about archery equipment these days is to be led astray.
Many modern archery equipment manufacturers want us to believe that the only way to be a successful bow hunter is to spend a fortune on the latest and fastest compound bow, complete with fiber-optic sight, drop away arrow rest, vibration silencers, mechanical release aid, the lightest and skinniest carbon arrows, and broadheads that have catchy names and cost more than $12 apiece.
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September 04, 2009 01:56 pm
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 TEXAS STAR: Jess Roberts sets up plates for the Grande Ronde Rifle and Pistol Club’s new Texas Star targets. Roberts is a member of the club’s Grande Ronde Practical Shooters and International Defensive Pistol Association groups. Roberts is also a Union County Sheriff’s Department reserve deputy. The Observer/DICK MASON The La Grande Rifle and Pistol Club is receiving a boost from the National Rifle Association.
The NRA recently awarded the club a $3,005 grant used to purchase 11 new targets for the club’s practical shooting pistol range.
The range is used by the club’s Grande Ronde Practical Shooters and
International Defensive Pistol Association groups and the Union County
Sheriff’s Department. The range is also open to members of the La
Grande Rifle and Pistol Club.
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August 14, 2009 02:12 pm
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Cathy Nowak was stunned.
She was so shocked a feather from a mallard could have knocked her over.
Nowak, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, had just
spotted a sandhill crane at Ladd Marsh. The crane was one of more than
100 that come to Ladd Marsh in the spring. This one, though, was
different.
The crane had punctuation — an exclamation mark on a green leg band.
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July 24, 2009 02:01 pm
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Most of us love the outdoors. That’s why we live here. And, as
outdoor-loving people, we enjoy viewing wildlife in its natural
habitat. Mount Emily Recreation Area (MERA) is a wonderful place to see
deer, which are seemingly everywhere (just ask my wife about her
disappearing flowers), elk at certain times of the year, squirrels and
an abundance of birds including wild turkeys. Other denizens of the
forest are around too, those being bears and cougars, but they rarely
allow themselves to be seen.
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June 26, 2009 03:44 pm
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The historic Eagle Cap Excursion Train and Winding Waters Rafting announce the opening of the River to Rails Expedition season.
The experience will include a raft trip down the roadless Wallowa
River from Minam to Rondowa, the confluence with the Grande Ronde
River, where rafters meet up with the Eagle Cap Excursion Train.
Rafters leave the water and climb aboard the train for a scenic ride back up the canyon to Minam.
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June 26, 2009 03:42 pm
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Morgan Lake and Yaquina Bay share little in common in terms of fishing opportunities.Morgan Lake has rainbow trout and catfish. Yaquina Bay has rockfish, crab, chinook salmon, perch and sturgeon fisheries.
Yaquina Bay is accessible year round. Morgan Lake, by contrast, is often covered by ice at least four months a year.
Anglers never need more than 15-pound test line at Morgan Lake but
might need 80-pound test line to pull in Yaquina Bay sturgeon.
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June 12, 2009 03:00 pm
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 IMNAHA GRANDEUR: The fishing season for spring chinook on the Imnaha River opens Saturday and ends July 12. Eighty percent of the salmon returning to the Imnaha will be hatchery fish, predict biologists. The ODFW projects that 5,000 adult spring chinook will be in the Imnaha River - The Observer/PHIL BULLOCK Spring chinook salmon, unlike many steelhead, waste little time migrating upstream from the mouth of the Columbia River to Northeast Oregon.
On Saturday morning, anglers will waste little time getting to the banks of the Wallowa and Imnaha rivers.
Anglers will be flocking to the rivers for the opening of a one-month hatchery spring chinook fishing season.
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