By Doug Leier If you’ve spent any time around North Dakota’s prairie potholes, you probably noticed more hens with ducklings. That’s not just fall hunters wishful thinking. The Game and Fish Department surveys confirm it. Duck brood numbers are up 55% from 2025. Every spring and summer, North Dakota Game and Fish migratory game bird…

By Mike Peluso The start of fall walleye fishing on the Missouri River is showing us that the water is low, and we don’t have many usable ramps on the flow near Bismarck right now.   However, this doesn’t mean we stop fishing.  Like always we figure out ways and places to get boats in…

By Nick Simonson A long time ago, when I first started writing this column, the weekly email to my publishing papers didn’t always include a photo.  I figured that my 700 words or so were enough to amply describe the adventure in each week’s article or to lay out my ideas for better hunting or…

By Nick Simonson While many eyes turn to the uplands or that favorite waterfowl spot this time of year, the openwater fishing can provide some of the very best angling opportunities of the season in fall.  Whether it’s walleyes fished with swimbaits under a late September or October full moon, or voracious stocked trout aggressively…

By Doug Leier Like many hunters, anglers and anyone with an interest in North Dakota’s outdoors, I’ve taken for granted the North Dakota OUTDOORS magazine. It began and remains a rare combination for news and insight, explaining the current regulations and impacts of habitat to walleye stocking and expanding fishing access. Stacking the years on…

By Mike Peluso It’s that time of year for me to start probing the Missouri River near Bismarck.  Right now the water is low and boat ramp access is sketchy at best.  It’s going to make for an interesting fall.  I’m starting up my guide trips here actually a tad earlier this year.   I’m…

By Nick Simonson The early season flush of a sharptailed grouse – or better yet a nice group of them – can provide an exhilarating rush to kick start fall in the field.  As autumn progresses, however, the remaining birds learn fast, and once the sentry sharpie takes to the air at a distance, it’s…

By Nick Simonson With the approaching Youth Waterfowl Opener on Sat. Sep. 19, the Resident Waterfowl Opener set for Sat. Sep 26, and the Non-Resident Waterfowl Opener slated for Mon. Oct. 5, Ducks Unlimited Biologist Dane Buysse sees good things on the horizon for duck hunters in North Dakota as the starts of these duck…

By Brad Durick The huge annual cool off happened on Monday, signaling not only a change in the seasons but a shift to the off-season for me when it comes to guiding for catfish on the Red River around Grand Forks. The day we had in the 50s with rain is an annual September event…

By Doug Leier Unlike deer, upland game and waterfowl, the production of fisheries is hard to notice on a year-by-year basis. What hasn’t changed is the strong boost the beginning of the early 1990s wet cycle has provided for decades or fishing success in North Dakota. As it’s been said, we’re living in the good…

By Mike Peluso I spent the past few days fishing this week up on Devils Lake working with Jason Feldner and Percheyes Guide Service.  Devils Lake is going through what I’ve been calling a transition.  Unfortunately, too many people are on a bandwagon of doom and gloom for the lake.   I want to set…

By Nick Simonson From the rush of a buck moving under my perch in the low crook of a large tree along a vast slough, to a covey of sharptailed grouse rising on a grassy hillside, to the excitement of a flushing pheasant breaking its way out of the cane on a mid-December hunt, the…

By Nick Simonson Upland hunters in North Dakota will likely see more rooster pheasants in the field this fall according to recent data collected from the North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F) as part of its summer roadside surveys which tally the number of adult and juvenile pheasants along with brood numbers and sizes…

By Doug Leier The 2026 archery deer season opened Sept. 4, and  regular deer gun season opens at noon Friday, Nov. 6. Before hunters head afield this year, North Dakota Game and Fish Department officials are reminding sportsmen and women that protecting the state’s deer herd remains a shared responsibility. The department’s chronic wasting disease…

By Mike Peluso The reason I don’t love to guide in September is already showing itself a little.  The walleyes, especially on Sakakawea, can become extremely difficult to catch.  They do this every September for some reason.   I have my theories as to why, but it’s too long to put into this post.  I’m…

By Nick Simonson While soaking up the last rays of the summer sun on the cabin deck and watching the boat of four anglers explore the breakline just out from the dock, that familiar loud ‘slurp, slurp, slurp,’ of my old lab drinking water broke the afternoon silence. Of course it wasn’t from the elevated,…

By Nick Simonson As the premier destination in the upper Midwest for upland hunters seeking ruffed grouse, Minnesota sports millions of acres of public land in the form of national and state forests, state Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), along with abundant county land which harbor the loud flushing species which is subject to a natural…

By Brad Durick When it comes to catfishing on the Red River in this late and low water portion of the 2026 season, the only boat ramp that is truly safe and reliable right now is the one in East Grand Forks. Any others in the area will require that you utilize extreme caution when…

By Doug Leier  The Report All Poachers call I received when I was a game warden was from an elderly lady who watched a young man intentionally run over a couple of squirrels. Doesn’t sound like a big poaching crime but I’ll never forget how angry she was. This “poacher” swerved to run over one…

By Mike Peluso Today I am super sad to report that I’m done guiding for walleyes on Lake Sakakawea for the 2026 open water season.  That doesn’t mean I won’t go up to fish the lake a bit here and there. Last September on the eastern portion was absolutely top notch and currently, the lake…

By Nick Simonson The uptick on my miles walked and ran in my fitness tracker app spikes every May.  Right around Memorial Day weekend, the number of minutes for exercise jumps accordingly too and stays high straight through the balance of summer and into fall.  While lamenting the purchase of a new pair of running…

NDG&F Dept. Release Hunters and others enjoying the outdoors this fall should be aware of the daily fire index, take precaution and be prepared. Many parts of the state remain dry with ample fuel for wildfire.  Fall remains a risk period due to increased human activity outdoors in rural areas, drying ground vegetation and high…

By Nick Simonson Late summer brings with it warmer waters, and as temperatures go up, predator fish typically go down in the water column in pursuit of their prey seeking cooler environs until fall settles in.  As those gamefish like walleyes go after baitfish species like smelt, anglers follow suit and put their presentations in…

By Brad Durick When it comes to catfishing on the Red River, nothing has changed in terms of water river levels, but I believe I have pinpointed just about where these fish are hanging out. Going back to the really low water year of 2021, I noticed while imaging for hours that catfish were stacking…

By Doug Leier With fall fast approaching, North Dakota’s hunting seasons have already opened. The 2026 season officially kicked off Aug. 15 with the early Canada goose management season. Depending on the hunting zone, the first closure is Sept. 7 in the Missouri River zone, followed by Sept. 15 in the western zone and Sept….

By Mike Peluso What an interesting week of walleye fishing it has been on Lake Sakakawea.  There are lots of things happening all at the same time and in my line of work, it definitely keeps me on my toes.  The fish have decided to go deep! Or have they? I’ll get to this in a…

By Nick Simonson Your opener is coming up soon.  I don’t care if you’re a waterfowler, a pheasant hunter or have that coveted firearms deer tag for this autumn, opening day is approaching faster than a set of mallards with cupped wings descending on your decoy setup. Which is why now is the time to…

By Nick Simonson Continuing recent uptrends, the North Dakota Game & Fish Department’s (NDG&F) Private Lands Section added nearly 45,000 acres of public access to its Private Land Open to Sportsmen program (PLOTS) ahead of the fall 2026 hunting season.  With a goal set in 2023 of returning to 1 million or more PLOTS acres…

By Brad Durick The Red River is currently the second lowest level I have seen in my entire catfishing career on the water. That means some sections are unacceptable to bigger boats and others have no current. Right now, the pattern is more of a poke and hope strategy. With very little current you can’t…

By Nick Simonson Before you gear up to do your autumn blasting, don’t forget to add in a bit of fall casting as well.  One of the region’s best autumn targets in those warm afternoons after a cool morning of bow hunting, upland pursuits, or waterfowling are stocked trout that have weathered the warmth of…