SPECTACULAR NEWS FOR FISHERMEN AND HUNTERS

The "Outdoors Editor" of our daily newspaper reports something I was unaware of: "You can catch a salmon somewhere in the state every day of the year." He goes on to add: "Portland is the world's only city with a premium salmon run swimming through the heart of its skyscrapers" (i.e., the Willamette River).

Look at an Oregon map and you'll see that our state sits squarely between the world's largest ocean and its deepest canyon. In between lie the rushing rivers, streams and lakes that teem with fish -- salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, trout, walleye, stripers, shad and all sorts of warm water varieties. Then there's the Pacific, where you can surf fish or fish from a jetty or go out on a boat and fish for albacore tuna and bottom fish like snapper, cod and redfish.

Did I mention that you also can crab in our bays for Dungeness, hunt for clams (more than a half-dozen edible varieties) in our tide flats and beaches, and trap crawfish in our coastal streams.

Oregon is also a hunter's paradise. Deer and elk abound, and there are seasons for bear, cougar, bighorn sheep and varmints. Oregon has one of the largest elk herds in the entire country and deer in almost every area of the state. Bird hunters also find Oregon plentiful, hunting for ducks, geese, wild turkeys, and upland birds like pheasant, quail or chuckers.

Many of the areas offering incredibly good hunting lie within a couple of hours from The Fulton House, so the hunter in the family can go out a day or two or three while the non-hunter in the family shops in Portland, absolutely sales tax-free and mere minutes from The Fulton House.

To learn more about fishing and hunting opportunities, contact Oregon's Department of Fish and Game, either directly or on the internet. Or contact any store with an outdoor department and get a complete set of rules and regulations. Or, if you're making reservations in advance of your stay at The Fulton House, ask John or Wendy to mail you a copy.