North Dakota Fishing License – Free Fishing Days

by Doug Leier It’s hard to believe when I glance at the calendar that it’s May, and not June or maybe July. The early arrival of spring-like temperatures after a milder winter can do that. So while open water fishing has been viable since mid-March, between work, school and other responsibilities not everyone has yet [...]

Fishing Lake Sturgeon – Rainy River

Fishing Lake Sturgeon “Well, that hookset didn’t go anywhere,” my brother said as I got about one-third into my sweeping movement against the creature that tapped on the end of my line near the bottom of the Rainy River in northern Minnesota.  With the rod in full arc, I began cranking down to meet my [...]

Best Fishing Times

by Doug Leier “Best fishing times?” I’m the first to admit I’m not a professional angler. When it comes to tips and tactics on how to land a lunker walleye or fill a stringer in short order, I’ve got more questions than answers. At times, I casually refer to myself as the human cold front [...]

Early Pike Spawning

by Doug Leier As far as I can tell, few people are complaining out loud about the early arrival of spring in 2012. Since 2009 it’s almost felt like we’d skipped a season, or replaced spring with “flood” season. This year, it started to feel like spring in February and March and it’s almost as [...]

Slip Bobber Fishing

By Jason Mitchell As a guide, I believed that the most effective game plans just kept walleye fishing straight forward and simple.  There are plenty of folks in this business who try to make fishing really complicated and you can make fishing akin to rocket science if you wish… I however made a living as [...]

Backyard Wildlife

Backyard Wildlife By Nick Simonson So much of my formative years were spent in the backyard at the old brown-trimmed house along the oak-lined street near the college in my hometown of Valley City.  Nestled between the mesotrophic curve of the slow-flowing Sheyenne which forms three of the boundaries of the nearby city park and [...]

Trout Fishing Tips

By Nick Simonson The recently stocked trout in the stream near my house were quick learners this year.  With a winter short on snow and a spring that only just recently made up a couple of inches against the lingering drought, water levels were low and the fish were instantly wary after the DNR truck [...]

Paddlefish Snagging Season Opens May 1

ND G&F Release: Paddlefish Snagging Season Opens May 1 North Dakota’s paddlefish snagging season opens May 1 and is scheduled to continue through the end of the month. However, depending on the overall harvest, an early in-season closure may occur with a 36-hour notice issued by the state Game and Fish Department. Snaggers need to [...]

Silver Carp Facts & Other Aquatic Nuisance Species

by Doug Leier Last fall, an angler caught a silver carp in North Dakota’s portion of the James River near LaMoure. A couple of weeks later, North Dakota Game and Fish Department fisheries biologists caught another one in a net, nearly 50 miles farther upstream in the James, near the dam at Jamestown Reservoir. That [...]

Fly Fishing Knots

By Nick Simonson On Friday night, my fly fishing gear was in a sorry state.  It had been almost 8 months since I had last used it on some sunny day in Detroit Lakes, Minn. for the dock-patrolling bluegills at my family’s cabin.  In addition to updating the twisted leaders with no tippet and cleaning [...]

Facts about Bald Eagles

Facts about Bald Eagles by Doug Leier When the phone rings and the caller on the other end of the line is excitedly relaying an unusual wildlife observation, I do my best to join the adrenaline rush brought on by a possible rare or uncommon sighting. While some may downplay a turkey vulture observation or [...]

Florida Fishing – Distant Cousins

Florida Fishing By Nick Simonson My wife’s extended family is very close.  Her grandfather and his cousins grew up together like brothers, and as a result her mother and second and third cousins grew up the same way.  No matter where we go for her family reunions or for vacations with the extended family, as [...]

North Dakota Fishing Regulations

by Doug Leier I don’t necessarily consider myself old, but I do know I’m old enough to remember the drought of the late 1980s and early 1990s when Devils Lake was hardly visible from Minnewaukan, and one day I walked across the parched bottom of Hobart Lake in Barnes County. Since a wet cycle started [...]

Beginning Photography Tips for Fishing

By Nick Simonson As the adage goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” a fishing picture, however means never having to face an inquisition from friends or foes at the local watering hole. While any snap, from a camera phone on up to top-of-the-line photography equipment, will preserve the memory and the proof of [...]

Birding in North Dakota

by Doug Leier I’ve had the opportunity to hunt many different places and species across North Dakota, much of it a result of having lived in more than 10 different zip codes across the state. It’s those places, and the people who go with them, that often account for the best memories. While we always [...]

Conservation Message – Bits & Pieces

By Nick Simonson Normally, I’d being talking about getting ready for spring by now.  But in case you missed it, spring is over.  Welcome to June.  All kidding and weather-banter aside, spring is here and everyone’s timetable has been moved up, but there are some important dates, activities and here-and-now conservation message actions that are [...]

Walleye Ice Fishing Tips

Walleye Ice Fishing Tips by Doug Leier Winter began Dec. 21 and ends March 21. Or so says the calendar, if you prefer a specific date, rather than a change in weather, to note the arrival and departure of seasons. For many, winter didn’t really feel like winter until the snow and storms of late [...]

Spring Season in Fast Forward

By Nick Simonson Even in “The Winter that Wasn’t” signs of spring are welcome, and with the surge of May-like weather on the southern breezes of early March they’ve been popping up everywhere, getting me excited for the season to come. Last November, I procrastinated my purchase of a new snowblower right up to Veteran’s [...]

North Dakota Hunting & Fishing Licenses

by Doug Leier In North Dakota, your fishing license, along with several other licenses including general game, small game and furbearer, will expire March 31. In the weeks following, tens of thousands of North Dakotans will renew their licenses throughout spring with the onset of open water fishing, carrying on the tradition of anglers and [...]

Walleye Fishing – The Big Bite

By Nick Simonson And….nothing.  I ripped the glow-red spoon upward and it went…nowhere. It was a sensation I hadn’t experienced in quite a while, having spent a majority of the past few winters searching lakes across the upper Midwest for slab crappies and bull bluegills. But on this, the last weekend of the Minnesota walleye [...]

Trapping the Muskrat, Bobcats, Coyotes and other predators in ND

by Doug Leier My son and daughters have seen urban trapping first hand –in a backyard live-trap. Beyond that, my son also loves to help my dad check coyote and muskrat traps, the same way I did. While my dad and son are certainly not alone in their interest in trapping, trappers in North Dakota [...]

Ice Fishing – Significant Trip Tips

By Nick Simonson Fishing is a social sport; ice fishing even more so.  I can’t recall a morning after a hot (or not-so-hot) dawn bite that I haven’t stepped out of my shack to see who else was punching holes in the dark, ask how the fish were biting fifty yards away and shoot the [...]

Spring Snow Goose Hunting

by Doug Leier Since 1999 North Dakota hunters have had a spring hunting opportunity besides turkey. While overall interest and participation in turkey hunting overshadows the spring light goose season, those with a decade of spring snow goose hunting experience, and first-time participants alike are looking forward to the 2012 season, which opened Feb. 18. [...]

Motion Snow Goose Decoys – Dare to be Different

Dare to be Different How many snow goose decoy spreads have you driven past over the years? Seriously, think about it. What did you notice? I swear most snow goose decoy spreads are close to the same. They consist of 300-600 snow goose decoys (usually windsock type), around a 4-12 flyers and maybe a circling [...]

Natural Resources Jobs

By Doug Leier Between the phone and my email inbox, I get a lot of questions. This time of year, the most popular are: “Where are the fish biting?” and “How are the pheasants doing?” The answers are: “Beneath the ice,” and “Pretty good, but a few weeks of winter still remain.” Another frequent question [...]

Fish Finders – An On-Ice Epiphany

By Nick Simonson I recall clearly many days where an “ah-ha!” moment changed the way I did things forever.  One such moment happened on December 26, 2000, and it altered the way I fished through the ice permanently. The converted trailer shack that my buddy Holmes, his cousin Adam and I were fishing out of [...]

Deer Hunting – North Dakota Winter Gathering

by Doug Leier As a biologist I deal with aspects of fish and wildlife behavior on a routine basis. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t get at least one phone call or email from someone who witnessed an odd, strange, or erratic animal behavior, or saw something in an unusual location. Especially when [...]

Ice Fishing Rigs – Big Bluegills

Ice Fishing Rigs – Big Bluegills By Nick Simonson For the past few weekends, I have been exploring a small impoundment about twenty minutes from home.  Rumor had it that big bluegills roamed the basin out from the public access, but all my efforts had produced over the past month was a plethora of puny [...]

Sage Grouse Hunting – Management

by Doug Leier Sage Grouse Hunting Because of a long-term population decline throughout their native range, in 2010 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered listing sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. Since sage grouse inhabit the extreme southwestern part of North Dakota, this development was of particular interest within the State Game and [...]

Pheasant Feathers for Fly Fishing

By Nick Simonson This year, it seemed that every pheasant was a trophy.  Whether it was those early birds on opening weekend with half-colored feathers, or that lone rooster coming late in the season, each one provided a welcome warm meal and a new crop of pheasant feathers for fly fishing.  With one season behind [...]

Outdoor Activities Sharing Memories

by Doug Leier Over the holidays I bumped into an old high school friend, and true to form for a couple of guys who love the outdoors and also have young families, we began sharing memories of outdoor activities. Living in Montana, Jon has had the opportunity to hunt elk in the same manner we [...]

Ice Fishing Tip Ups

By Nick Simonson I often think back fondly to my times while ice fishing tip ups growing up in North Dakota.  For those anglers who love to chase a waiving flag across the ice, there’s no better place than the Peace Garden State, where on hardwater, fishermen are allotted four lines with no restrictions as to [...]

Hunting seasons – Banquets & Board Meetings

by Doug Leier While many hunters and anglers associate spring and summer with fishing season and fall with hunting season, truth be told, in North Dakota fishing is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days each year. And while hunting season is generally considered a fall season, with small game [...]

Winter Current Walleye Fishing

By Nick Simonson My prediction from last month – that winter would eventually get colder – was way off; so much for making the safe bet. The ice in most areas hasn’t grown much, and with unprecedented January temperatures crossing the 50- and 60-degree barriers across the upper Midwest in recent days, it has receded [...]

Fall Turkey Hunting – Small Game – Deer Questionnaires

by Doug Leier After a couple of cups of coffee and the usual bantering about weather at my favorite corner convenience store, a recent discussion turned to Game and Fish Department surveys. Not the kind for which biologists annually count deer or ducks, but the kind that just about every hunter or angler receives from [...]

Ice Fishing Shelters – Ice Anchors

By Nick Simonson The noise in the pines behind me grew until it sounded like a rushing spring waterfall on the North Shore.  I had been on the ice just long enough to set up my hub-style ice fishing shelter, drop my Vexilar transducer and land my first fish of the new year when the [...]

Ice Fishing – Abundant Opportunities in ND

by Doug Leier The older I get the faster time seems to pass. My neighbor and friend Mick explained a few years ago it’s a function of the percentage of life. Case in point is remembering the vivid details of my first trip to the old outdoor movie theatre in Valley City more than three [...]

Awaiting a new Deer Hunting Season in ND

by Doug Leier For a lot of North Dakotans, the end of 2011 can’t come fast enough. While none of us can predict exactly how the coming year will unfold, for the state as a whole, and most wildlife in particular, 2012 just has to bring improvement, doesn’t it? As a biologist, I’m always interested [...]

Winter Weather Predictions

By Nick Simonson “Guys, where are we,” this initial inquiry by Dominic Monaghan’s character, Charlie, summed up the question that I and ten million other viewers tried to figure out for six seasons on the TV show Lost. The J. J. Abrams sci-fi series focused on a group of plane crash survivors marooned on a [...]

Ice Fishing for Northern Pike – Darkhouse Spearing

by Doug Leier When it comes to trying something new, I’ll admit I usually need a good reason to change or replace anything in my routine. From breakfast to fishing, after nearly four decades on earth I still gravitate toward my preferred options – sausage and eggs for breakfast and worms and bluegills for fishing. [...]

Ice Fishing Tips – Early Ice

By Nick Simonson While taking those first nervous steps onto the ice this weekend, I stared down into the weedy shallows with their vegetation frozen in place, the last respiration of openwater photosynthesis trapped in the tiny bubbles just inches from the surface of the frozen water. I traced my way along a small crack [...]

G+H Weather Vane Decoys Deal

Buy 3 six packs get free shipping!! These words are music to all waterfowlers’ ears. G+H Canada Goose Weather Vane Decoys are the ticket for realism in the field. Simple to set up, light for travel, and they move with the slightest wind always realigning themselves. No more days of getting up and moving the [...]

Recreational Fishing – Fish Transportation

by Doug Leier In the early 1990s I was attending junior college in Bottineau, and enjoyed many trips to other parts of the state to visit friends and relatives. It was a great time to explore different corners of the state around Bismarck, Fargo and Napoleon, but a couple of observations during that time are [...]

Tebowing – Late Season Pheasant Hunting

By Nick Simonson It’s December, it’s cold, it’s tough going in the field. But somehow, as the season wears on, I find myself out there, still grinding away, searching for a last chance bird or deer with a never-give-up attitude I hoped I’d have at this time of year, way back in October as I [...]

Bow Hunting with Trail Cameras

By Nick Simonson I feel like Sauron from the Lord of the Rings trilogy; with my all-seeing eye looking out over the land – well at least 100 square feet of it. With my new trail camera set up overlooking the entrance to a watering area about 50 yards from my favorite bow hunting stand, [...]

Ice Fishing Techniques – Cameras

By Jason Mitchell The education we get from ice fishing techniques such as underwater cameras is invaluable. Having the mental picture of how the presentation or lure looks in the water, how the fish approach the lure and what actions caused particular reactions from the fish sets some anglers apart. Anglers who have this education [...]

Mild Fall Hunting

by Doug Leier Each year without even having to review, I can count on a few standard column topics finding their way onto my screen, like spring fishing, deer season questions and answers, and the pheasant outlook. At the end of the year I take a look back at the previous seasons and often look [...]

Deer Hunting – CWD Q & A

by Doug Leier Chronic Wasting Disease Questions and Answers In the last two years, two North Dakota deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease. These are the first two positive cases discovered in the state among thousands of deer tested over the last decade or so. Here’s a closer look at CWD with some [...]

Deer Hunting Tips

By Nick Simonson “Wait…what…how did she, where did she come from?!?  Aw crap…no wait, maybe she doesn’t see me, she’s looking…does she? “WHHHHHT!  WHHHHT!” “Guhhh…” My heart never sinks so low as when I know the jig is up; when all the scent killer in the world isn’t enough to cover up a stupid mistake [...]

Deer Hunting in Windy Conditions

By Nick Simonson Rarely does a strong wind factor into a good day outdoors.  Sure, there are those times where the right wind whips across a reef or a point, roiling the waters and bringing schools of walleyes in to feed on discombobulated baitfish.  And maybe a breeze catches  a rooster’s scent and wafts it [...]

Deer Hunting Tips – Meat Preparation

by Doug Leier Each year it seems I somehow wind up as part of a large number of hunters who receive a recycled email joke about making beef taste like venison. Most who read it find themselves nodding their head and chuckling, as the masses who’ve hunted deer can relate to the uneasy truthfulness of [...]

NDTRAX 2011 Gets Even Better

NDTRAX 2011. It keeps getting better! Kirsch’s Outdoor Products is announcing the immediate release of additional options to the TRAX family of products. TRAX maps continue to evolve making it the most complete line of GPS solutions available empowering sportsmen and women with their outdoor activities including fishing, hunting, hiking, horseback riding, camping, and traveling. [...]

Ice Fishing Essentials for Crappies

By Paul A. Nelson The best time to search for winter crappie spots is in the fall, when anglers can capitalize on the mobility of a boat and onboard sonar to cruise around marking spots mentally, preferably with GPS, too. Once the lakes freeze, though, assuming you didn’t conduct autumn reconnaissance, your tools are a [...]

Ice Fishing Tactics for First Ice

By Jason Mitchell We do much of our filming on late ice. We take a lot of our photos at late ice as well. The reason is simple, long relatively nice days on the ice where you can expect sweatshirt weather. When the sun begins to rot the ice, you can expect to get some [...]

Retrieving Upland Game

By Nick Simonson While finishing up a walk for ruffed grouse along the Saint Louis River in northeastern Minnesota this weekend, I decided to skirt the edge of a stand of young aspen trees which came right up to a stretch of sixty-year-old red pines. I weaved in and out of the last row of [...]

Where I Hunt

By Doug Leier I live in a great neighborhood. While most people think their neighborhood is the best, I know mine is. I’m not trying to pick a fight, but it’s the best I could ask for, with a mixture of ages and backgrounds probably not much different than many neighborhoods in the state. When [...]

Fall in ND

By Doug Leier Most kids grow up looking forward to the Christmas season. Even before Thanksgiving turkey is served they are counting the days before they can open their share of the wrapped boxes beneath the tree. Many hunters feel that way about October. While September offers its archery and dove and grouse and crane [...]

PLOTS Guide

Doug Leier Over the past two decades the North Dakota Game and Fish Department has emphasized wildlife habitat enhancement and hunting access on private land through its Private Land Initiative. Most North Dakota hunters are familiar with the Private Land Open to Sportsmen program, which provides walking hunting access to more than a million acres [...]

Ruffed Grouse Opener

Our Outdoors By Nick Simonson Opening day in the northwoods of Minnesota generally isn’t the ideal time to chase after the booming wingbeats of a ruffed grouse.  The weather is hit-or-miss, with some mid-September weekend temperatures climbing into the 80s, limiting the time afield for my lab, Gunnar.  There’s still a great deal of foliage [...]

Projects with Antlers

Our Outdoors: DIY Rattling Antlers – Projects with Antlers By Nick Simonson Do you hear that tick-tick-ticking? It’s either the second hand of the hall clock marking off the moments until I’m up in the stand on bow opener or it’s the beginning of field combat between this year’s herd of whitetail bucks in an [...]

Fishing in the Fall

by Bob Jensen Labor Day 2011 has come and gone.  For some folks, that marks the end of summer, and to some people that means it’s time to put the boat and their rods and reels in storage.  If they want to pull the plug on fishing in early September, that’s certainly their decision, but, [...]

ND Flooding

By Doug Leier You don’t have to live in Minot, Bismarck, Jamestown, Valley City or Devils Lake to have battled through drifts of snow and waves of floods through the past several months. Like many North Dakotans I’ve spent my share of time working in and through these floods since last spring, everything from sandbagging [...]

Trolling Crankbaits

Our Outdoors By Nick Simonson In cooler waters of May and June the shallows can seem almost bare.  Nothing but the occasional waterboatman or roaming bluegill disturbs the water bordering shore.  Then as summer peaks, it seems the shallows are suddenly alive and teeming with small fish, as if the table was set for a [...]

Minnesota Youth Hunting

Our Outdoors - By Nick Simonson Odds are your introduction to hunting wasn’t like mine.  Sure, I collected the tail feathers and wings from the pheasants and ducks my dad brought home from his hunts when I was too young to go into the field with him.  But with the death of the family dog on [...]

ND Fishing Questions

By Doug Leier Questions tend to flow with the seasons and while hunting is starting to gain ground, fishing continues to lead my list of phone, email and random inquiries. Here’s a sample of some the North Dakota Game and Fish Department typically receives, with answers from the Game and Fish website at gf.nd.gov. Why [...]

Right Under My Nose

By Nick Simonson When you stand the world on its head, or do your best to stand on yours, the perspective of how and what things are gets turned upside down and undoubtedly provides a new view of what were once familiar surroundings.  Last week, as I made the move from the house my wife [...]

Bass Fishing Technique

by Bob Jensen Largemouth bass can, at times, be pretty receptive to whatever bass fishing technique you might put in the water.  On some days they’ll eat pretty much anything you throw that’s appropriate for where they’re hanging out.  If you throw a bait that’s made to work in shallow water, and if the bass [...]

Legendary hunting awaits you in North Dakota

North Dakota has all the ingredients for legendary hunting: thousands of potholes produce the most ducks in the nation, millions of geese fly along the most intensely traveled migratory paths, upland game birds and big game thrive in abundant habitat, and seemingly endless expanses of public and private land offer plenty of land to hunt. [...]

Fresh Live Bait

by Bob Jensen Fish in the summertime can be a finicky bunch. Some days they want a crankbait moved quickly halfway between the surface and the bottom, other days they want a jig tipped with soft bait bounced aggressively right on the bottom. And then there are the days when they want something worked very [...]

Free Buck Knives Up For Grabs

“LIKE” BUCK KNIVES ON FACEBOOK FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A FREE BUCK141 PAKLITE FIELDMASTER! Pack Light, Cut Easy Three Knives for the Weight of One! Developed by hunters to provide hunters with the essential field dressing tools they need, the PakLite FieldMaster kit is the newest, lightweight addition to the Buck Knives broad line [...]

Leadcore Walleye Fishing

With Jason Mitchell Over the past ten years, trolling with lead core line has gained in popularity amongst the walleye crowd. Lead core enables anglers to put any crank bait in the tackle box in front of fish regardless of how deep. This in itself is a huge advantage but you can also accomplish the [...]

Fishing Mudlines

By Jason Mitchell Wind and chop on the water often makes or breaks walleye fishing success. As wind directions and velocities change through the course of a day, adapting to the opportunities created by wind requires some flexibility. Mid summer often finds extended periods of stable weather with varying wind. One of the top patterns [...]

Snap Shot Ruler Review

Now you can prove the big one didn’t get away! The new SNAP SHOT RULER easily attaches to any fishing line, grip, or scale and measures fish length vertically so there is less handling of your prized catch. Accurate and photo friendly, this innovative ruler is great for anything from catch and release measurements to [...]

How to Make Muskie Spinnerbaits

Our Outdoors – by Nick Simonson Late last summer while scrounging for replacement lure-making parts, I came across a badly worn muskie spinnerbait which had been reduced to a bare lure head, trailer hook and just one of two blades. Recalling some spare black and red flashabou tucked into my desk drawer back home, I [...]

Littering Problems

By Doug Leier Most of us who spend time outdoors occasionally wind up in a spot that makes us think we are the only human to have ever stood or floated in that exact location. Realistically, at least in this part of the world, that’s probably not true. If the natural setting is not altered, [...]

Drayton Catfishing Tourney

_____________________________________________ September 17th, 2011 Rod & Reel Rally Catfishing Tournament Hastings Landing Recreation Area Downtown Drayton, North Dakota 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm Cash prizes and a special $30,000 bonus for breaking the ND channel catfish record The Red River of the North’s only WHOPPER catfishing tournament Call 701-454-6184 or 701-454-FISH Go to www.draytonnd.com Email [...]

Female’s Tree Stand Experience

By Debra Nelson Last year I joined my husband at the archery range with my new Mathews Mission compound bow.  I hadn’t really planned on hunting until I used a judo point on a gopher!  Now, there is disagreement on whether I actually hit it or not but that gopher did not show up anymore [...]

Northern Pike Slime

Our Outdoors: Slime Time By Nick Simonson While unhooking my second pike of the morning, the two-pound fish slipped quickly out of my wet hand and back into the water with a splash. All that was left as evidence that I had even caught it was a chewed up plastic tail and a small coating [...]

Shallow Bass Fishing

by Bob Jensen The month of June provides some of the best fishing of the year in many areas of the Midwest. One style of fishing that is popular and productive is chasing largemouth bass in shallow water. When the bass are done spawning, they’ll hang around the shallows for awhile. The females take a [...]

Time to Go Fishing

by Bob Jensen It used to be that anglers planned their fishing trips way in advance, and many still do. However, in conversations with resort owners and tourism people, more and more, anglers are becoming very spur-of-the-moment planners. They decide on Tuesday they want to go on a fishing trip for the upcoming weekend, maybe [...]

Boating Safety

By Doug Leier Many anglers and recreational boaters enjoy reading through information and testimonials on the latest electronics and power options for a boat or personal watercraft. It’s a good thing to invest time into finding out ways to more efficiently use every last second of fun outdoors. While honestly no one would expect the [...]

Walleye Master

Our Outdoors – by Nick Simonson I heard the audible click of a bail opening at the front of the boat and the whisper of line being played out and I chuckled. I turned and watched the same scene that I had observed multiple times last Sunday night. There in the spotlight was the star [...]

Live Bait Rigs for Walleyes

With Jason Mitchell Live bait rigging is all about angles.  The amount of weight on the sinker combined with the amount of line out determines the angle that the line takes from the rod tip to the water.  The direction that you hover or move either across structure or up and down through structure determines [...]

Fishing Walleyes on Flats

By Jason Mitchell If there is one spot, one pattern that is capable of producing a lot of walleyes for us each season early in the summer, my vote would go to large shallow flats that protrude to deep water.  Shallow is relative along with deep but what we are looking for are flats that [...]

Maverick 5501 Meat Grinder Review

The Maverick 5501 Meat Grinder is a very nice unit that I picked up recently.  I’m relatively new to meat grinding with only limited experience in the past with hand grinders, but I picked it up rather quickly.  Here is some pro’s from this meat grinder review: It is fast.  I was able to grind [...]

Fishing Paddlefish

By Doug Leier Given North Dakota’s geographic location, sort of on the fault line between east and west, and north and south, it’s easy to understand the state’s diversity of fish and wildlife species. Few states can claim such a variety of critters in terms of roosters, bucks, ducks and pike. In fact after a [...]

Catch More Fish This Year

By Bob Jensen Although the lakes across the northern section of the Midwest are still covered with ice, anglers are fishing almost everywhere else. There’s a feeling in the air that anglers are anxious to get fishing. They want to be on the water chasing whatever it is that they like to chase, and nothing [...]

Aquatic Nuisance Species

By Doug Leier It feels like just yesterday, when in fact it’s been over a year and a half, since the first official discovery of zebra mussels in the Red River watershed. First, these aquatic nuisance species were found established in a Minnesota lake upstream of the Red River. Then, to no one’s surprise, they [...]

Canadian Night Crawlers

With fishing season coming to light, it’s a great time to start looking into cheap bait.   You can now buy premium Canadian night crawlers for a lot cheaper then your local bait shop.  Canadian night crawlers are considered the highest quality, largest crawlers available.   One of our newest sponsors now has a special [...]

Mahi Mahi Fishing

By Nick Simonson It finally sank in when I was about an hour from the lake cabin where my buddy had been watching my dog while I was on vacation. As I looked around the midway point gas station at the beige grasses, gray skies, and leafless trees, I could hardly believe that just sixteen [...]

Early Season Fishing Success

By Bob Jensen More and more, anglers are getting on and in the water. Some folks are fishing from boats, some are wading, and some are fishing from docks or shore. Some anglers are catching fish, some aren’t catching too much. If you want to catch more fish early in the fishing season, following are [...]

Blade Baits

By Eric Olson Water clarity can be such an important variable that affects our success regardless the time of year.  Walleye and sauger both can be affected by poor visibility.  On rivers in particular when heavy rains or sudden run off can dirty the water and create poor visibility, anglers have to make the adjustments [...]

Good North Dakota Fishing

By Doug Leier The late Dean Hildebrand was North Dakota Game and Fish Department director from 1996 through 2005 and he had a well-developed vocabulary of catch phrases and sayings. One description I heard repeatedly for years was his exclamation that, “We’re living in the good old days when it comes to hunting and fishing.” [...]

Long Lines for Spring Walleye

By Jason Mitchell Over the years, an incredibly effective tactic for us is to long line a light jig or split shot rig through shallow water.  In states where we could use two rods in particular, we often used the long line rig on the extra rod in the rod holder.  There are probably several [...]

Super Sport License

Our Outdoors By Nick Simonson Many times I think back fondly to reading class in sixth grade at Jefferson Elementary School. My teacher, Mr. Horner, read us a number of exciting books, many with a coming-of-age story behind them, preparing us for our adventure into Junior High the following year. Among the titles was the [...]

Early River Walleyes

By Bob Jensen Across the Midwest, March and April mean one thing to most walleye anglers: Rivers! In some states, walleye season doesn’t open until early to mid-May. If you want to go fishing for walleyes, you need to go to a border river where walleye season is continuous. In other regions, the lakes are [...]

Fishing Trivia

By Doug Leier If you asked my wife about my ability to recall seemingly useless fishing trivia data, she would likely say that it is times annoying. I’m not bragging about it, not a chance, but I’ve never understood how I can easily forget the whereabouts of my keys, cell phone, the remote control and [...]

Smallmouth Bass Jigs

Our Outdoors: Smallmouth Bass Jigs By Nick Simonson Learning how to fish on the Sheyenne River in southeastern North Dakota during my late teens and early twenties allowed me the luxury to go after smallmouth bass from the first warm-up in early April until the fish really got going in May. Throughout the years, my [...]

Open Water Fishing Is Here

by Bob Jensen I drove on the bridge over the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien Wisconsin this past weekend. The ice was gone and there were boats on the water. Reports were that fishing for walleyes and sauger was good. The open water fishing season for 2011 has started. When you get the chance [...]

Wildlife Biology Career

By Doug Leier Sooner or later – most likely later – what feels like spring will arrive. Just looking at the calendar makes that a pretty safe prediction, but I also know that spring is getting closer because of a bump in the volume of calls I get from students and parents looking for guidance [...]