Bluegills for Kids

By Doug Leier
Late in the 1980s my family moved from LaMoure to Valley City. I’d fished the Jim River and Lake LaMoure prior to the move, and enjoyed an array of fish, from pike to perch and even the lowly carp.
In Barnes County around Valley City, I spent a good chunk of time fishing Lake [...]

Horizontal Jigging

By Nick Simonson
Have you ever watched the way minnows move? When I was in Grand Forks, N.D. attending “The School that Shall Not Be Named” I had multiple chances to jump the Red River into East Grand Forks, Minn., and watch as trout, bass and pike preyed upon minnows that the staff had dumped [...]

Ultralight Fishing Tackle

The UltraLight Brigade
By Nick Simonson
There’s something special about taming a charging bull bluegill on line as thin as a spider web. Few fishing sensations are wilder than a white bass tearing up the sunset reflecting off of the evening water. Even a ten-inch trout brings a wondrous battle as it twists and turns [...]

Slip Bobbers for Crappies

The Deadly Drag
Dumbing-down to a crawl dupes springtime crappies for panfish pros
By Brian “Bro” Brosdahl with Tom Neustrom
“Slow and steady wins the race.” I’m a disciple of the philosophy. In real life, the examples are countless. Consider the marathoner. The guy who paces himself for 26.2 miles is sure to pass the jackrabbit before reaching [...]

Catch and Release Fishing

‘Swimming Pools’ for Fish
A Little Advice on Caring for Your Catch
By Tony Roach
Have you ever caught the same fish twice in a single day? How about the same fish two or three times inside a week? I’ll bet many of you have. Even on a massive fish factory like Mille Lacs in Central Minnesota, [...]

Make Custom Crappie Jigs

Our Outdoors – By Nick Simonson
As winter blankets, and blankets, and blankets the region with snow, it is becoming more apparent that it will be a long season indeed. That’s not a bad thing if you need some time to get your tacklebox ready for one of open water’s early quarries – prespawn slab [...]

Fishing Rod Building Tips

By Taylor Fitterer

Making your own custom fishing rods can be a fun experience. Each rod normally takes about 2-3 hours to manufacture, and the finish drying time can take from a few hours to a few days depending on the type of finish, temperature and humidity. We have learned through trial and error and I [...]

The Fishing Preseason – Spring Crappie Fishing

By Eric Hustad
Another April is upon us and I can’t help but get excited! What a great month: the Twins play meaningful games, the NFL draft, snow melting, longer days, and the start of what I consider my preseason fishing. Giving normal ice out, in the middle of April, crappie fishing is my preseason of [...]

Crappie Recipe List

Here are some favorite crappie recipes of ours.

Stir Fry Crappie Recipe :
This is a very easy recipe to make, and is very delicious and healthy.

2 lbs of Crappie fillets
2 cups of broccoli
1 wide sliced onion
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
1 wide sliced green pepper
Add more vegetables if you desire
3 pinches of garlic powder
3 pinches of Old [...]

Winter Crappie Tips and Tactics – Q & A Session

Crappies are one of the most frequently-chased winter fish. So it’s no surprise that the subject of crappies comes up constantly when the Power Sticks gather at sports shows. We put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) when it comes to crappie fishing, followed by solid answers, built from an informal poll of [...]

Standard Fishing Knot – The Palomar

This is a common fishing knot around the world. It is very easy to tie.This fishing knot can be used many different ways and is one of the strongest knots known. Very common with tackle, and is also used for flying fishing when connecting the tippet. With the braided line brands of today, it’s one [...]

Fishing Laydowns

Joe Zentner
 Bank sloping trees that have fallen into the water, known as lay-downs, attract fish throughout the Midwest. Long-time anglers are keenly aware of the value of immersed trees. The primary cover choice of freshwater fish is, in fact, submerged wood.
A lay-down is a tree that has fallen into the water and is somewhat if [...]

Arbor Vital – Fishing Flooded Trees

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
I  think that I shall never see structure lovely as a tree. Pardon the take on Ms. Kilmer’s poem; let’s consider it the angler’s version. But timber – be it live on shore, a deadfall along a river or a man-made reef on a lake – is structure that all anglers should develop [...]

The Old Crappie Fishing Hole

By PJ Maguire
In my day I have lost my share of fishing gear to the bottom of many lakes. Along the way I have heard many stories of family members and peers losing fishing equipment as well. I have often thought about how cool it would be to take an underwater adventure to the bottom [...]

Free Fishing Log – Printable Fishing Log

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
“Putting together the fishing pieces of the puzzle”
Fishing, no matter how good a person gets at it, is still the grandest puzzle of all. There are so many elements that have to be put into place such as weather, season, bait, lures, and so on. When looked at in hindsight, these puzzle pieces [...]

Fast & Easy Fish Cleaning Tips for Walleye, Perch, and Panfish

By Chris Hustad

The fish cleaning techniques described here are nothing new, and is mainly intended for beginners. This process takes about a minute for each fish, depending on experience. The example shown is using a walleye, but can work all the same on perch, crappies and bluegills. On those crappies, you DO NOT need to scale [...]

Matching Floats for Slip Bobber Fishing

From Lindy Fishing Tackle
There are a lot of opportunities at slip bobber fishing, and this method can be used for a lot of fish species. Thill® has done a lot with their bobbers, or they call, “floats” to increase your fishing success. These aren’t the bobbers of yesterday, and we’ve come a long ways from [...]