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 on the day after Christmas had taken on a distinct chill, and I held my hand out over the flickering propane heater, which sputtered and spit the last fumes from the twenty-pound cylinder on the outside of the house.  Being back from Florida for my final holiday break of undergrad, I still was not used to the North Dakota winters which I had fled from in 1997, and I nervously asked how we planned on keeping warm the rest of the day.

“We’ll have to go back into town and refill the tank,” said my buddy, obviously annoyed.
His cousin nodded, and agreed to drive. I volunteered to stay behind just in case a school of fish decided to cruise by our spot on the channel edge, though I was doubtful.  I watched the duo pull away from the ice house in Adam’s Chevy, opened a set of handwarmers and clicked the bail on my borrowed ice rod.  The Northland Buckshot Rattlespoon zipped down the hole off to one side and disappeared from view in the twenty feet of dingy water below me.  I looked to my left at the whirring disk of green, red and yellow on the Vexilar FL-8 fish finder hanging in the next hole over while I jigged my lure about four feet off the bottom.
With each twitch of my rod, I saw a yellow flash on the monitor of the sonar device.  I would rip the lure up and down and the color would change from yellow to red to green and back to yellow, or when I’d move it just slightly, it would flicker between a light green bar and a thicker yellow bar.  It was like a video game of sorts, and as my brain made the connection, I smiled with the onset of that “ah-ha!” moment.
I would open the bail and the lure would drop into the solid red bottom and the line would go limp.  I’d slowly pull the spoon up and it would creep up warily from the edge of the sonar’s viewing area.
“This is pretty neat,” I said aloud as I banged the spoon on the bottom, ripped it up and let it fall; and then reeled it up a few feet in the water column.
I glanced at my watch, looked out the window and sat down as I jiggled the fishing rod some more.  I again turned my attention to the whir of the FL-8 fish finder and saw something that looked out of place.  A large red blob had materialized on the circular screen, just below my offering.  I jigged the rod to make sure that the object wasn’t my spoon, and as I did, the red bar rose up toward it and paused about a foot below the yellow mark on the screen.  I then ripped the spoon upward and the red mark exploded after it and I felt the fish whollop my offering.

The drag on the reel began to scream, the ice rod was doubled over pointing straight down the hole and the fight was on.  I went from watching the Vexilar, to looking down the hole, to loosening my drag.  Occasionally, the red mark would zoom through the screen and then quickly disappear.  Each time, the line was higher up on the sonar’s display.
Finally, I saw the fish – a large pike – swim under the hole.  My adrenaline surged and I cranked on the reel, attempting to steer its head toward the surface.  Finally, the gaping, tooth-filled maw angled just right and I put the last few turns on the reel.  I reached down and grabbed the northern behind the head and hoisted it out of the water.  It was a five-pound pike, my first ever through the ice.
My friends rumbled up in the pickup shortly thereafter with a tank full of propane.  I stepped outside the metal shack and held the fish up for them to see.
“That Vexilar is really cool,” I said to Adam, as I explained how I saw, triggered and caught the fish with the help of his sonar unit.
The next year, graduated and relocated back to North Dakota, my parents bought me one for Christmas, and that old FL-8 still ranks as one of the best gifts anyone has ever given me.  A few years ago, I upgraded to an FL-20 fish finder, and passed the old unit on to my brother who still uses it to this day.
I’ve often said that a sonar device is only slightly more important than an auger when ice fishing, and I wouldn’t leave home without one.  Today, there are more brands, models and options to fit any angler’s needs and budget than just the FL-8 fish finder, which was the only unit available at the turn of the century.  If you fish with any of them, you’ve probably had that “ah-ha!” moment on ice, seen what was once unviewable and learned how fish react to your presentations.  As a result, you probably agree with me that your chosen sonar is the most important piece of ice fishing equipment.  If you haven’t yet fished with one, it’s time to see what you’re missing and experience an epiphany of your own…in our outdoors.

Related Articles

• The Ice Fishing Sonar Revolution (1)
• Spouse Ice Fishing Trip Tips (0)
• Sight Fishing – Ice Fishing With an Edge (0)
• MarCum – More Power, More Performance (0)
• Ice Safety Tips (0)

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 it comes to deer hunting in North Dakota.

After nearly two decades in the field, I have learned to “never say never.” Even if I get a call on a pink flamingo in a storm-water retention pond, my initial response would be “could be, you just never know.”

That’s always a safe response without the benefit of a first-hand look. I did one time express doubt regarding a call about a kangaroo stuck in a fence. And my suspicion was confirmed when it was later determined the animal was actually a young deer attempting to kick its way loose.

This winter a few people have asked about seeing fewer deer and smaller herds of deer in areas where hunters or landowners for the last several years may have seen deer bunched up in larger groups.

As with many outdoor issues, weather, habitat and populations all tend to play a part in what is seen or not seen across the prairie.

Out of the gate, I’ll explain that a lack of visible groups of deer is not necessarily a bad sign from the perspective of a biologist or a landowner. Just a short year ago the extreme cold, piles of snow and long winter created many reported deer depredation situations across North Dakota where dozens and sometimes even hundreds of deer gathered near food sources.

One reason deer aren’t as visible as last year is simply that over much of the state, the landscape through late January was more brown than white. Deer just don’t stand out as much as they do against a white background.

Secondly, deer can find something to eat just about anywhere this winter so they aren’t nearly so congregated around isolated food sources. We may still have some large gatherings of deer in places, but for the most part those situations are more of an exception than the rule this year.

A third factor that might explain why some people are seeing fewer deer this winter is that the state likely has fewer deer. In addition to three severe winters in a row, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, through hunting pressure on antlerless deer with rifles, bows and muzzleloaders, has been trying to reduce the statewide deer population for the last five years or more.

The winters served to accelerate the population reduction. This year, the management strategy will be to try to increase deer numbers in most units. For a couple of years, and possibly more depending on weather and habitat changes, that will mean fewer licenses available than in other recent hunting seasons.

Whether it’s icefishing, predator hunting, work, family vacation or sports travel with the kids, if you’re traveling across North Dakota this winter, don’t be shocked if you don’t see deer gathered in the same places they were the last few years.

It’s understandable that people would express concern over not seeing so many deer this year, but for the most part, that’s probably a good sign for deer hunting.

Related Articles

• Venison Recipes Come in All Forms (0)
• Still Hunting Strategies (0)
• Sportsmen Against Hunger (0)
• Small-Bore Centerfire Performance on Big Game (0)
• Reevaluating Your Season (0)

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 perch.  At the urging of my buddy Randy, we headed back for one more try on the small reservoir, based on a tip a fellow gave us on our way off the ice at the end of our last trip.
We ventured off from the point and I fired up the auger and began punching holes out in a line from shore.  After the thirtieth hole I clicked the auger off, tied a tiny jig on my spring bobber rod and began to explore the basin before us.  With my friend fishing shallow, I walked out to the farthest hole in the line with plans of working my way back toward shore.
As soon as I dropped the transducer in the hole, three lines flickered against the black backdrop of my sonar.  I dropped the jig and watched it spiral out of view into the murky waters of the forty-acre lake formed by the damming of a small creek some thirty years ago.  The lines rose up to meet the jig and I readied for the inevitable – undoubtedly they would be the same six-inch perch I had encountered before.  The spring bobber on my rod bounced and I set the hook with a snap of my wrist.
The blank bent in a solid arc and I knew right away the fish on the other end was not one of the tiny perch I had worked so hard to get away from.  The line spun around the hole as the whirling fight of the fish pulled it tight against the edge of the ice and then popped it loose and over to the other side of the hole.  The upside-down tornado whirled closer and closer to the surface as the line between the rod and hook shortened.  Like the moon sliding in front of the sun, the circular body of a big bluegill eclipsed the diameter of the hole and I felt my eyes go wide.
With many other anglers in the shallows where my friend was fishing, I gave a quick but muted whistle to my buddy and held the hand-sized panfish up for him to see and motioned him to join me out over the deeper water.  In a few minutes we were in the thick of a bluegill bonanza.  Our backs turned to the rising south wind; we raised the red lines off of the bottom and got them to bite with a subtle shake of a small plastic tail or a lightly-hooked spike.  Time and again, quality sized bluegills came to hand, but as the wind rose, the fish became more stubborn.
We switched ice fishing rigs to pull a few more from fourteen feet; bounced to a hole just on the break to land another out of twelve feet; and varied our baits to trigger other fish we encountered at various depths in between.  Even when we were forced by the wind to set up the shack and settle for a more stationary – but comfortable – position, the fish directly under us could be fooled by keeping our baits moving and modified from time-to-time when things slowed down.  The entire afternoon we landed forty ‘gills.  In that time, we hooked only one perch.
If it wasn’t for my friend’s continued press to give the lake one more try; the bluegills might have just been a hopeful thought for next season.  But by persevering, trying new areas and varying our presentations, we found success where we once found only frustration, and had we given up the stories of the big bluegills would have remained just that.  I’ve learned in the past few seasons – whether hunting or fishing – that sometimes perseverance is all it takes to have a breakthrough like the one I experienced this weekend, and help make those stories a reality…in our outdoors.

Related Articles

• When Perch Won’t Bite Through the Ice (3)
• Perch Ice Fishing – Catching Bottom Huggers (1)
• Ice Fishing with Plastics (0)
• Ice Fishing Tip Ups (0)
• Ice Fishing for Panfish – The Right Ice Rods (0)

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 Fish Department. Listing under the ESA basically means the federal government, specifically the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, would assume primary sage grouse management instead of the states.

The FWS determined that listing was warranted, but other species had a higher priority for federal recovery efforts. However, the FWS is scheduled to revisit sage grouse listing again in 2015, and at that time, one of the determining factors will be whether a regional sage grouse management plan is in place.

The effort to develop that plan is just getting started across the western United States, with public meetings in all states in the sage grouse range. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is leading the effort, because more than 50 percent of the nation’s sage grouse are found on BLM land. In North Dakota a majority of the state’s sage grouse, and the largest leks, are found within BLM land in Bowman County, according to Aaron Robinson, Game and Fish Department upland game biologist.

Robinson participated in North Dakota’s public meeting in Bowman in mid-January. He says the next step is for the states and federal agencies to work through the public comments and build them into a comprehensive range-wide management plan that provides for sage grouse conservation and protection by late 2014.

Game and Fish Director Terry Steinwand says that while North Dakota is on the periphery of the sage grouse range and doesn’t have many of these native birds compared to states farther west, the state still has an important role in the long-term recovery plan. “Sage grouse have had a rough time the past decade or more, not just here, but in all the Western states where they exist,” Steinwand said “We’re committed to using whatever resources we can to help get those birds stabilized and headed in the other direction.”

In North Dakota, Steinwand added, a number of projects are already underway.
Highlights of Game and Fish involvement over the past several years include:

• Game and Fish has funded research over the past six years to determine species demographics such as survival, nest success, bird movements and reproduction success.
• Helped form a working group, in conjunction with a core group of local landowners, to provide information to agricultural producers about sage grouse conservation.
• Worked closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and BLM on extensive sagebrush plantings designed to connect fragmented areas and provide incentives to local landowners.
• Provided funding and piggybacked with federal programs to provide incentives for private landowners to implement grazing practices that increase residual grass cover that benefits sage grouse.

“We’re going to continue our efforts, in cooperation with other agencies and private landowners, to work on projects to benefit sage grouse,” Steinwand said. “It’s in the best interest of all the states in sage grouse range to keep these birds off the endangered species list.”

Related Articles

• Retrieving Upland Game (0)

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 us, another one begins – the fly tying season.  And I’ve been hard at it already, tying up new patterns with feathers from my favorite bird, beyond the nymphs and soft hackles that are so common.  Here are just a few for you to try.
The Copper Sawyer

Humpies and Stimulators are some of my favorite dries, and big flashy streamers are fun to tie and neat to see in the water. Nymphs aren’t usually so flashy, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be. The Copper Sawyer is a good mix of the usual nymph features – brown and buggy – with a little added flash and weight thanks to some copper ultra wire; and best of all it is a simple two-material fly made with feathers from our favorite bird – AND it catches fish.
Materials
Hook: Nymph, Size 12-18
Thread: Brown 6/0
Tail, Body, Wingcase: Pheasant Tail Fibers
Abdomen: Copper Ultra Wire

Tie in 6-10 pheasant tail fibers so the tips hang one-third of the hook shank length beyond the bend, serving as the tail. Tie in a 3-inch strip of copper ultra wire (use Medium for size 12-14 hooks, and Small for hooks size 16 and smaller). Wrap the remaining fibers forward about 2/3 of the hook shank and tie off, advancing your thread to the hook eye. Then wrap the ultra wire forward, segmenting the thorax. When you reach the tie off point, use the ultra wire to form the abdomen by tightly wrapping it forward and then back over the first wraps to the tie off point, trimming the wire neatly. Fold the tied-off feather fibers over the wire abdomen forming a wingcase, tie them off and trim. Form a head with the thread, whip finish and cement.

Simple Streamer

This two-material fly is a short streamer that can be used for bluegills or crappies.  It wraps up quick and uses all-pheasant fibers to trigger fish.

Materials
Hook: Streamer, Size 8-12
Thread: Brown 6/0
Body: Gray Underfeather
Collar: Pheasant Rump Overfeather

You’ll need a streamer hook, a rump feather from a rooster and the gray underfeather beneath it. Simply tie in the underfeather and wrap it forward for the body.Then tie in a rump feather – a nice big blue-green one from the top of the rump – by the tip and turn it around a couple times behind the hook eye for a collar, trim it and tie off. Whip finish, cement, and you’re done!

Advanced Streamer
This bigger, badder version of the previous fly works great on smallmouth bass and aggressive trout.  It has more substance and style to send bigger predator fish into a frenzy – and except for two pieces of tinsel – it is all pheasant-powered!

Materials
Hook: 3X Long Streamer, Size 8-12
Thread: Brown (or Red) 6/0
Tail: Pheasant Marabou
Body: Gray Underfeather
Lateral Line: Tinsel of Your Choice
Collar: Two Pheasant Rump Overfeathers

With a streamer hook secured in your vise, select a full marabou-tipped middle layer rump feather from a rooster and strip the fibers from it. Tie the fibers in as the tail of the fly. Next, find a fairly long after feather with bushy gray marabou all along it and tie it in by the tip, just in front of the marabou tail. From there, wrap the gray feather forward, forming a nice thick body, giving the fly a minnow-like appearance. Trim and tie off about 1/4 of the hook shank behind the eye.

Now tie in a piece of tinsel on both sides, forming a colorful streak for some fish-attracting flair – you can use silver, gold, pearl, red, whatever – make the fly your own! This tinsel should reach the end of the marabou tail. Finally, select two bright colored rump feathers (the blue-green ones around the tail) and tie them by the tips over the tinsel. Advance your thread and wrap the feathers around the hook to form a collar on the fly. Trim off the excess, cover with thread, form a small head, whip finish, cut the thread and cement for posterity. You can add lead wraps or a bead head at the beginning for more weight.  Fill your fly box with an army of these flies built with pheasant feathers for fly fishing and you’ll be ready for some fast spring fishing…in our outdoors.

Related Articles

• Time to Start Tying Flies (0)
• Fly Fishing for Beginners (1)
• Tying Egg Flies (1)
• The Woolly Bugger (0)
• Spring Steelhead Fishing (0)

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 hunt pheasants or ducks, and his kids are right there with him. His eyes sparkled like the ripples on an early-morning lake when he proudly relayed how his daughter, on an outing back in North Dakota, had bagged her first pheasant. “And my dad was along, too.”

This had special meaning to me as well, since Jon’s dad is Mr. Stites, one of my high school math teachers.

For a kid needing a solid math and science background – when even in high school  a “C” in math was an “A” in my book – Mr. Stites had a way of making sure I was armed with the knowledge and skills to survive college statistics, calculus and trigonometry. All with a “C” for good measure. But I made it.

And from the sounds of it, Jon was working on the honor roll of the outdoors. The tone of his voice and the excitement in his explanations were a testament to family ties created through outdoor adventure.

While the conversation was merely minutes, it felt like hours as we shared stories back and forth, between bites of a manhandler pizza. Weeks later, on one of my many winter drives with no purpose other than just making sure it’s all still out there, I replayed that conversation and marveled at the role the outdoors plays not only in our lives, but the lives of many current and former North Dakota residents.

All this occurred at roughly the same time I passed the mark of four decades on earth, and quite frankly I’m not sure whether to grasp the philosophy that “age is just a number,” or “you’re only as old as you feel.”

Either way, heading toward half-a decade is kind of like getting a new gadget figured out. Once you know how it works, you can enjoy it a little more rather than struggling to figure it out.

We all face our own struggles, and with a little thought you realize it’s relative to each individual. There’s always someone doing better than you, and others not doing as well. The outdoors sometimes is a place to gain perspective, think through tough decisions and internally reboot our system.

Upon returning home from that drive, I wrote a Jon note and thanked him for the conversation and the privilege of meeting his family. It’s reassuring to know that while pursuit of a trophy elk, a limit of ducks or a lunker walleye can be part of the outdoors, for most of us there’s more to it than that.

Time spent with family and friends, and little things like simply breathing fresh air or hearing the call of spring’s first meadowlark, are just as significant.

I’ve known for years that we would all do well to share the outdoors with a friend, child or neighbor who’s never experienced it. Somewhere along the line they’ll thank you for the memories of outdoor activities.

And besides, when life sends you a curve, have you ever heard anyone say, “I just need to watch some TV or play a video game?”

Related Articles

• Managing Deer Through Archery Hunting (2)
• Deer Management (0)
• Why Party Hunting is Illegal for Deer Hunting (2)
• Whitetail Deer Hunting and Waterfowling in November (7)
• Where I Hunt (0)

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 what’s on the other end.  It could be a treble or it could be a single hook, it could be in pursuit of pike or trout or walleye.  Smelt, shiners, fatheads, whatever your bait of choice there are so many ways to fish with tip ups.  We fished them all and found ways to modify our tip ups for any situation.  Now, even in Minnesota where only two lines are allowed, I still like to keep a lookout for an orange flag waiving in the breeze.  What follows are some tips for not only the usual slimy suspects, but for fishing flags for any other species.

10.  Barrel Role.  I like to spool all of my tip-ups with old-school 50-pound-test Dacron – simply because it’s strong and easy to handle.  However, if fishing walleyes or trout, it is far too visible to connect to a hook.  I like to tie a barrel swivel at the end of the line and from there I can add leaders of superline or monofilament in varying lengths above a smaller hook or treble to match the species I’m pursuing.

9.  Another Notch.  The flag-holding T on the top of each tip-up usually has two sides, an all-smooth side and a notched side.  The notched side will hold the flag more securely, requiring a good tug to pop it loose, as opposed to the smooth side, which will allow the flag to trip easier.  In addition, these sides can be turned into, or against the wind to prevent a premature triggering of the flag.  Use this feature to assist on those gusty days.

8.  Cleanup.  When using tip-ups, make sure the area around the ice hole is clean.  Also, keep the surface of the water in the hole free of slush and ice; making sure to monitor that there isn’t a build-up of ice sealing off the hole.  This might require a regular round of inspections – particularly when it’s cold – to keep the areas ice free.  Clean holes will make playing and landing fish with a tip-up easier and more successful.

7.  Depth Charge.  When fishing for species that tend to roam the water column or at least parts of it – such as stocked trout, lake trout and pike – vary the depths at which your baits are set.  I found great success fishing for wintertime rainbows stocked in a lake near my home town by finding depths of 15-to-20-feet and setting a bunch of tip-up offerings from five feet below the ice to five feet above the bottom.  Check them with a sonar unit and mark the line at the surface with a rubber band when the presentation is where you want it.
6.  Sharpen Up.  Now, most of my tip-up fishing is for pike.  I like quick-strike rigs and just plain trebles, where legal.  The key for toothy critters is keeping these bigger hooks sharp.  Go through your collection of terminal tackle, whether fresh out of the package or not, and run a hook hone to make sure the point finds the mark when it’s time for the hook set.
5.  On Your Mark.  As stated above, a line marker will allow for a quick reset of a tip up after a fish has been landed.  I like to use a broken thin rubber band, but a piece of string or yarn will do the trick.  Once you have your presentation set where you want it to be, or where you find fish are striking, tie in your marker so you can get back to fishing sooner when you bring your hook to the surface.

4.  Traction Faction.  When there are a number of folks fishing tip-ups in a group, the more the merrier.  Be ready for fast-paced flag action on the ice, and be ready to sprint to the nearest tip-up when a pack of pike rolls through.  Especially at early ice, the spring from the shore or shack to the flag requires traction on the ice.  Have a set of cleats, such as Yaktrax, on your boots to help you stay standing (or sprinting) after those tip-ups that pop.
3.  Wrapped Up.  It is important to keep the line spooled neatly on tip-ups, and you should check for an evenly wrapped spool each time you bring the line up and put the line back down.  Bunched or tilted line freezes and tangles easier.  This can produce resistance when a fish swims off with your bait, causing unnatural pull which in turn may cause the fish to drop the offering.
2.  Neat Freak.  When a fish is on the other end, there’s a lot to think about – tension, playing out the line, how to land it and where the fish is located.  Keep your line out of the equation by setting each section as neatly as possible on the side of the hole each time you gain a little on your quarry.  This way, if the fish runs the line zips easily up through your hands and back down the hole.  Refer back to tip #8 to make sure the loose line plays back easily – with no ice or slush to snag on.

1.  Let It Spin.  When fishing for species you plan to keep, you can take things a little easier.  Especially when looking for pike, when a flag pops, hustle over to the tip-up and watch.  If the fish still has the bait and is swimming away, wait until the T mechanism stops twirling.  Pike instinctively strike a bait and then run with it a while before stopping, turning the bait and swallowing.  If you’re keeping fish, it’s best to set the hook after the tip up stops moving.

With these tips and some you’ll undoubtedly pick up on the ice with a little experience, you’ll find your ice fishing tip ups success will increase.  And it won’t be long until the repeated and resounding shouts of “FLAAAAAG!!!” will echo across the hardwater surface of your favorite lake…in our outdoors.

Related Articles

• Spouse Ice Fishing Trip Tips (0)
• Sight Fishing – Ice Fishing With an Edge (0)
• Ice Safety Tips (0)
• Ice Fishing Tactics for First Ice (0)
• Ice Fishing Safety (19)

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 and archery deer open into January, along with spring turkey and snow goose conservation hunts, and an early resident Canada goose season that starts in mid-August, hunting’s off season is shorter than it once was.

Another “season” of sorts that begins slowly in late fall and picks up steam through and well into the spring thaw, is the meeting and banquet season.

From local rod, gun and wildlife club annual meetings to regional banquets sponsored by national organizations, I’d bet dollars to donuts there’s a banquet or annual gathering somewhere in North Dakota weekend from here through April. It’s an opportunity for like-minded individuals to gather and often raise money for the next year’s habitat, youth or other outdoor events.

Along the way, participants share stories of the past year and make plans for the future.

Another important tradition of the “off” season is the North Dakota Game and Fish Department district advisory board meetings, held each fall just after deer gun season and again in early spring. These meetings provide hunters, anglers, landowners and others a chance to meet face-to-face with Game and Fish staff, to share information and concerns.

Recent advisory board meetings were dominated by discussions on deer, pheasants and fishing. While each meeting had its local issues, everything from muskrats to mountain lions, the 2011 deer season was on the minds of many.

In 2011, the Game and Fish Department allocated less than 110,000 deer licenses, down from more than 149,000 in 2008. The reasons for a declining deer population are many and hunters are concerned about winter weather, loss of Conservation Reserve Program grasslands, archery success rate, and other mortality factors such as predators.

It’s safe to say that when the 2012 deer applications are available, a further reduction in deer licenses is likely.

Pheasant hunting was not as widespread of a topic, though hunters and Game and Fish biologists are certainly concerned about the loss of more than a million acres of CRP habitat in the last five years, with another 800,000-plus acres scheduled to come out of the program in 2012. On top that, severe winters have reduced pheasant numbers across the state. The mild start to this winter at least provides some hope for less winter mortality than the past three years.

Amid the concerns about deer and pheasants is a rather bright future for fish. When the new fishing regulations take effect April 1, Game and Fish is proposing to increase the daily limit on northern pike from three to five across the state.

With many new or expanding water bodies holding pike, many fisheries managers, and anglers agree that greater use of the pike resource is a good option.

As you enjoy the “meeting” season those are just a few of the topics likely come up … along with inevitable stories of the “one that got away” last year.

Leier is a biologist with the Game and Fish Department. He can be reached by email: dleier@nd.gov.

Related Articles

• Watch What You’re Shooting At (0)
• Hunting Sunrises & Sunsets (0)

Related Articles

• Walleye Trolling Boards & Trolling Deep for Walleyes (2)
• Raising Nightcrawlers off the Bottom (1)
• Learning Crawler Rigs and Roach Rigs on Walleyes (0)
• Weight Forward Spinners (0)
• Walleyes on Soft Plastics (0)

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 time to time, asking questions about harvests and days afield.

Surveys are not a hot topic compared to discussion on deer numbers or other wide ranging subjects such as the potential for the Twins or how to fix the Vikings. But in my mind, it’s a topic that worth a little more pondering. I wonder if hunters and anglers truly understand the importance of these post-season surveys?

Here in the Midwest, we have a tendency to under-estimate the influence of our own participation in everything from ushering at church to attending any public meeting. I’ll loosely compare it to poaching or hunting violations. If it bothers you, then do more than kick the ground and mutter your frustrations. Engage and pick up the phone and call the Report-All-Poachers hotline (800) 472-2121.

The same goes for surveys. When they arrive in the mail, take the time to quickly, factually and accurately complete them.

Jerry Gulke, the Game and Fish Department’s data processing coordinator, says that deer bow, small game, waterfowl and fall turkey hunting questionnaires were recently mailed to randomly selected hunters. “The number of surveys returned to us has been declining in recent years to where it is becoming a problem,” Gulke said on “Outdoors Online,” the Game and Fish Department’s weekly webcast news program. “We really need the data.”

Over the years I’ve had several people question whether they need to return a survey even if they didn’t harvest anything. Whether you hunted dozens of days, one day or not at all, the statistical information is all needed, even if you didn’t hunt at all.

“The harvest survey is very important because it allows us to evaluate the hunting season,” Gulke said. “What we are able to determine includes the number of hunters, amount of hunting activity and size of the harvest.”

I can personally attest that the volume of physical mail in my mailbox has shrunk in recent years. For the most part, my bills and much correspondence arrives via electronic or paperless communication. So the excuse of the survey being lost in the mail might not fly, and if you do accidentally toss it out, a follow-up survey will be mailed to those not responding to the first survey, with the idea that a second notification will convince the recipient that he or she is not just a victim of a mass mailing.

I’ve also been asked why Game and Fish doesn’t conduct the surveys all electronically. While respondents can go online and fill out surveys instead of mailing in the paper version, ask yourself how many other surveys you get at checkouts, on receipts or via email?

I’d suggest that human nature might give more merit to a Game and Fish Department survey when it’s found in the mailbox and not the email inbox.

Before you advise me to “get with the times,” trust me. I am with the times, and it’s much easier to click delete than to move an envelope into a stack of action lists on the desk.

In fact I’d rather fill out a postage-paid paper survey than pay a bill. I can’t be the only one who finds it more pleasant recalling past hunts than paying current bills.

Related Articles

• Why Party Hunting is Illegal for Deer Hunting (2)
• What’s New in December (0)
• Venison Sausage Recipe (8)
• Venison Recipes Come in All Forms (0)
• Turkey Recipe List (0)