Skunked on Deer and Salmon: Road Hunter Podcast Ep. 43

Deer season in Oregon has been rough this year, folks. Unseasonably warm, bone dry, and the deer just aren’t moving. In Episode 43 of the Road Hunter Podcast, we go back to our roots in the Jeep to talk about how we’re changing tactics, Eli getting skunked salmon fishing with his boss, a front lawn that’s slowly turning into a boatyard, and the $18 pocket knife Brad hasn’t put down in over a month.

Watch the full episode below, or keep reading for the rundown.

Warm, Dry Weather Has Oregon Deer Bedded Down

We recorded this one parked on a ledge in a full-on rainstorm, wind howling hard enough that the only things keeping the Jeep from blowing into the bowl below were 6,000 pounds of car and Brad’s butt. (Mostly the car. The butt helps.) Ironically, that storm is the best news we’ve had all season.

Up to now, the weather has been unseasonably warm and dry. No moisture at all, the feed is drying out with fall, and we can’t figure out where the deer are. We’ve glassed clearcut after clearcut for hours, waiting for something to stand up. Nothing stood up.

• Walking roads with zero wind meant every step sounded amplified. We weren’t sneaking up on nothing.
• We hiked a new ridge after spotting fresh tracks and found a game trail that looked like a hiking trail. The trails ran along the inner ridge and dropped down onto a bench. Great-looking deer highway. No deer.
• We drove to the Cascades before daylight because the forecast called for rain, sat in the 30s glassing a ridge for a solid two hours, tried the other side, and saw nothing. The rain never showed.

We did get a YouTube short out of that game trail, which is about the only thing we’ve harvested so far.

Switching Tactics: Benches, Thermals, and Rattling

Clearcuts aren’t working, so we need a new plan. We’ve been working OnX maps to e-scout for bowls where each ridge finger comes off, right where a ravine catches it. Here’s the plan:

1. Come in from the top. As the morning heats up, thermals should carry air up the ridge, so approaching from above keeps our scent off the deer below.
2. Find the benches. Look for flat spots on those fingers where deer bed and travel.
3. Work one elevation. Hold a consistent elevation and side-hill across it.
4. Rattle and grunt. Try to make something move instead of waiting for it to show up on its own.

That’s new for us. The rain and wind help too. Walking the dead-end finger roads up this ridge in a storm masks our footsteps, which we haven’t been able to do all season. If you hunt clearcuts and want to know what you should be looking for, our guide on how to break down a clearcut for blacktail covers it.

Good news on the board: Ryan’s boy got a spike this morning. So the Failed Outdoors crew is officially on the board with one deer. Not ours, but we’ll take it, and we’ll get him on the show to tell the story.

Eli Got Skunked Salmon Fishing With the Boss

Eli went out salmon fishing on the sleds with his boss. The weather app said 75 and sunny with a low of 50. It was 30 degrees. It stayed somewhere between 30 and 50 until about 11 a.m., and nobody packed for it, because the app lied.

• The good: way fewer boats than normal. Usually you’re weaving through traffic, but they could hold one spot and troll back and forth.
• The bad: they kept getting bites, but nothing landed. Skunked.
• The lesson: the only fish they saw caught by a troller was a huge one that dragged the guy’s boat around for a while. Everyone else was catching them on bobbers. Bring the right stuff.

They also ran into a buddy, Dave, out on the water. Fish the same stretch long enough and it turns into a small world. If you’re new to running a river for salmon, our first-timer’s guide to river salmon fishing from a boat walks through the basics. (It also mentions bobbers.)

A Boatyard on the Front Lawn

Brad came home and rounded the corner to find a boat parked on the front lawn, plus a barrel where Eli had been testing the motor. It runs. It took a minute, because he had to get fuel back into it with the wrong fuel line.

We live in a tidy, suburban, front-lawn kind of neighborhood. Our neighbors have tidy front lawns. Ours is a little weedy, because we’re busy hunting and fishing. Eli’s logic: if the boat kills the grass, you don’t have to mow it. Hard to argue with.

For a while there, we didn’t have a backyard at all. Here’s Eli’s Facebook Marketplace scorecard, which is why his mom has officially banned buying stuff off Facebook and bringing it home:

• Brown drift boat: his first boat, and a heck of a good deal.
• Aluminum boat: same price as the bad one, and it actually works. So does the motor.
• The other boat: a bad purchase. Got chopped up and hauled off. The motor that came with it still has a dead telltale even after a new impeller, plus a shifter that may or may not have been reassembled backwards.
• Two quads: terrible purchase. Don’t buy used quads off Facebook. (Solid advice for most things off Facebook.)
• The truck: a hell of a good deal. One win for Facebook.

Eli buys things that don’t run, then scratches his head when they stop being a good deal once you pay to get them running. That’s failed outdoors, folks. Now the boat is getting set up for future salmon trips, so the fish had better start paying attention.

Flashlight Update: Twice Under an F250

Remember the budget flashlight from Episode 42 that we ran over with a truck? It survived the first trip under a one-ton F250. The second time finally got it. Now it turns on but won’t turn off, blinks at random, and gets hot all by itself. For a $15 two-pack run over twice by a one-ton truck, that’s honestly pretty durable. It’s also coming out of Eli’s truck before it burns the thing down.

Hazelnut Orchard Cell Cams, a Ghost, and a Drone

Eli got permission to hunt his boss’s hazelnut farm, so we bought two Moultrie cellular trail cams and hung them up, very excited. Then we learned what happens to a hazelnut orchard that gets harvested three times: there are no more hazelnuts. And when there are no more hazelnuts, the deer go somewhere else.

During harvest, the crews saw deer, a cougar, a bobcat, and coyotes. The predators stuck around. The deer didn’t. The first night out, we bumped a doe, then saw three deer: two doe and probably a spike. They ran into the timber, and we haven’t seen a deer since. Not one on camera.

What we did get on camera: a ghost (a little blue light spot) and a three-prop drone. Kyle floated UFO. Somebody else floated three geese flying real tight. It had motor circles. It’s a drone.

Lesson learned: when you set up on private ag land, find out the harvest schedule first. The food source is the reason the deer are there, and once it’s gone, so are they.

We’re Hunting an Old Military Base

Bonus history lesson: the farmland we’re hunting used to be part of a military base, roughly from the 1930s to the 1950s. It connected to a wildlife refuge down the road, and parts of it were used to test munitions. Every five to ten years, a farmer plowing a field turns up an old piece of ordnance. One property even had an old bunker torn out to put in a field.

So if that trail cam ghost is real, it’s probably an old soldier. And if anyone steps off the path first, Brad is sending Eli. (Real talk: if you ever find anything that looks like old ordnance, don’t touch it. Back away, mark the spot, and call it in.)

Gear Review: The $18 Amazon EDC Knife

We’re keeping the budget gear reviews going. This time it’s a pocket knife Brad bought on Amazon for about $18 and has carried every day for a month and a half. Here’s the exact knife we reviewed.

What We Like

• Smooth open, smooth close. It flips open easily and locks up solid. Cheap knives usually feel loose. This one doesn’t.
• Still sharp. It’s opened boxes, broken down cardboard, cut rope, and scraped old caulk off a bathtub. A month and a half in, it still hasn’t needed sharpening.
• Deep-carry pocket clip. It’s ambidextrous, so you can switch sides.
• Light, grippy handle. It’s lighter and thinner than Eli’s Gerber, and the textured handle grips well.

What We Don’t

• The clip was really tight out of the box. Brad bent it out and went a little too far, so now it’s a bit loose. That one’s on Brad.

$18 Knife vs. $200 Benchmade

Here’s the real value: you’d never scrape a tub with a $200 Benchmade. (Eli did. He’s a savage.) With an $18 knife, you’ll use it for everything and won’t cry if it falls out of your pocket and disappears. One thing it won’t do is gut a deer. We carry a proper knife for that, because the right tool for the job matters when it’s meat on the line.

Verdict: highly recommend, and Brad would buy it again. Always carry a knife. As for running it over with the car like the flashlight? Not this one. Brad likes it too much. Maybe we’ll buy a second one for Eli to run over.

FAQ: Warm-Weather Deer Hunting, Salmon, and EDC Knives

Why aren’t deer moving when the weather is warm?

In unseasonably warm, dry weather, deer tend to bed in shade and timber during the day and move more at night, especially with hunting pressure on top of the heat. This season we glassed clearcuts for hours without a single deer standing up.

Does rain make deer move more during hunting season?

In our experience, a weather change is what gets things moving, and that’s why we’ve been chasing the rain. Wind and rain also help hunters, because they mask your footsteps so you can still-hunt roads and ridges without sounding like a marching band.

How do thermals affect deer hunting in the morning?

As the sun warms a slope in the morning, air rises uphill. Coming into a ridge from the top keeps your scent above the deer, which is why we’re approaching benches from above and working across one elevation.

Do deer leave an orchard after harvest?

They did on the hazelnut farm we’re hunting. Once it was harvested three times and the nuts were gone, the deer moved on while predators stuck around. Check the harvest schedule before you hang cameras on ag land.

Is it normal to get skunked salmon fishing?

Absolutely. Eli’s crew had plenty of bites trolling and didn’t land a fish, while most of the anglers catching them were fishing bobbers. A skunk is a good reason to change tactics, not to stay home. Check ODFW’s salmon fishing page for current seasons and rules.

Is an $18 pocket knife good enough for everyday carry?

For everyday tasks, yes. Ours has stayed sharp through a month and a half of boxes, rope, and caulk. We wouldn’t field dress a deer with it, but as a knife you won’t cry about losing, it’s hard to beat.

When does Western Oregon’s general deer season end in 2026?

The general Western Oregon buck season runs October 3 through November 6, 2026. Check ODFW’s official season page for unit-specific rules before you head out.

Get Out There (Just Not in Our Neighborhood)

The forecast finally shows rain all week, with snow in the Cascades, right as we head into the last two weeks of October. Keep praying for crappy weather, folks: rain, snow, and freezing cold, especially heading into November and elk season. The summer people will hate it. We’ll love it.

Get out in the woods and go hunting, even if you get skunked like us. Just go do it in somebody else’s neighborhood, because ours is crowded. Ducks are coming, and we’ll see you in the next episode.

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