By Nick Simonson Population jumps in walleyes and bluegills and a decrease in the surveyed number of bullheads in the North Dakota Game & Fish Department’s (NDG&F) late summer sampling of Lake Ashtabula in 2023 have made the reservoir on the Sheyenne River a destination for anglers seeking a variety of gamefish and panfish and…

By Doug Leier Do you think much about wild turkeys in North Dakota? If you’re like me, when you see a turkey you call them out: “tom, jake, hen … how many are there? Are they on private land? Where did they come from and where are they headed?”  Game and Fish biologists wonder some…

By Nick Simonson Springtime is smallmouth time, and as the waters warm up and bronzebacks stage for their spawn in late April and early May, targeting them provides a welcome challenge. Upping your odds with some choice soft plastics helps better connect with these fish this time of year and provides an arsenal that often…

By Mike Peluso Things are just starting to get going here on the Missouri River near Bismarck. The weather has been a little up and down, but it’s trying to get better, and it has given us a few little windows to get out. It seems like once you are out there you will see…

By Nick Simonson In the coldest waters of spring, every bit of realism, enticement, and apparent edibility a lure can project is an advantage to anglers.  That’s why, as the last few handfuls of lures come together on my vise ahead of the open water season, whisps of marabou pile up in drifts of red,…

By Nick Simonson Over time, I’ve amassed my share of tackle boxes, bait binders and other compartments big and small that hold everything from a large selection of tiny flies, to a catalog of soft plastics. In those years and seasons on the water, I’ve found those that best fit my style of fishing and…

By Doug Leier We live in a world of point, click, instant access and information. Patience is a rare commodity, but when it comes to hunting and fishing, it’s not an option. Waiting for the right deer or the hot bite is as important as finding the right lure or spot. In the same way,…

By Nick Simonson The North Dakota Game & Fish Department’s (NDG&F) survey of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) – a prion-based illness of the brain and nervous system which always results in the fatality of the animals it infects – in the state netted 11 positive samples in fall of 2023. With an intensified focus on…

By Mike Peluso Well, here we go again. I think it’s a prerequisite for me that if I’m coming home from a season of ice fishing, we are going to get hit with a blizzard. So, yes, here we are again. I did get out a couple times fishing walleyes on the Missouri River just…

By Nick Simonson A co-worker once said to me after I had announced my first robin sighting of the spring that there would only be three more snow events to go.  Puzzled, I inquired further, and she explained it was a saying her mother used to make after she saw her first robin of the…

By Nick Simonson With spring on hold for the next week or so (depending on this weekend’s storm track) there’s likely some time to think about what comes when that snow melts.  Of course, the fishing will be fast and furious once we flip the calendar into April, but after the solid spring bite and…

From NDG&F Dept. Releases A total of 45,927 North Dakota deer hunters took approximately 25,146 deer during the 2023 deer gun hunting season, according to a post-season survey conducted by the state Game and Fish Department.  Numbers were similar to the 47,590 hunters and 25,093 deer harvested in 2022. Game and Fish made available 53,400…

NDG&F Dept. Release North Dakota’s 2024-26 fishing proclamation is set, with regulations effective April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2026. New fishing licenses are required April 1. Anglers can find the North Dakota 2024-26 Fishing Guide online at the state Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov, or at Game and Fish Department offices and license vendors throughout…

By Nick Simonson Drag is that mechanism by which anglers tire big fish out and prevent their lines from being broken in the process.  Few things excite in the outdoors as much as a big muskie, pike or channel catfish charging off into the depths with the resulting whir, whine or pinging of a drag…

By Mike Peluso As I’m writing this very last report from the ice on Devils Lake, I can honestly say this has been the most challenging ice fishing season in my lifetime, but it has also been very rewarding at times, too. There were lots of ups and downs and highs and lows. I’d say…

By Nick Simonson The tip of the flock came over our house on the north end of town as my wife and I looked up from the deck to the high-pitched cacophony riding the northwest wind over our neighborhood.  A blur of blue and white in a pair of overlapping vees of light geese organized…

NDG&F Release Elk, moose and bighorn sheep applications are available online at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s website, gf.nd.gov. The deadline for applying is March 27. A total of 833 elk licenses are available to hunters this fall, an increase of 230 from last year. Licenses in units E1E, E1W and E3 increased due to…

By Emily Spolyar In North Dakota, Pheasants Forever (PF) chapter members are putting their money where their boots and birddogs want to be most: in high-quality, accessible habitat. Recognizing the significant loss of habitat in their area and the implications of these lost acres, the Pheasants Forever MonDak Chapter 619 hatched a plan to bolster…

By Doug Leier Growing up, living or even moving to North Dakota you understand the connection to the outdoors and how important fishing is to “quality of life.” While each individual has their own unique factors which contribute to why we live here, the outdoors is part of it for some and more for others….

By Nick Simonson When it comes to tiny tackle, no piece is more overlooked than the split ring.  Whether it’s used as a tie-in point on spoon to provide a little bit more wiggle or utilized in securing a pair of treble hooks to a favorite crankbait, the split ring is a small part of…

By Mike Peluso I’m on the 18th tee box for the ice fishing season, I just need to keep it in the fairway and get up and down to close it out. It is hard to believe it’s coming to an end already, but it goes fast and I’m already getting excited for the open…

By Nick Simonson As it sits now, I’d call it wonderfully uncomfortable because the soreness in my quadriceps on both legs – a bit higher on the right, more towards the knee on my left – is no less a sign of spring than the things I saw while running the tap for the lactic…

NDG&F Dept. Release Harvest statistics released by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department show overall hunter success during the 2023 season for bighorn sheep was 100%, 89% for moose and 71% for elk. The department issued five bighorn sheep licenses and auctioned one. All six hunters harvested a bighorn ram. The department issued 253…

By Doug Leier Winterkill of fish in lakes, reservoirs, ponds and sloughs is nothing new in North Dakota. In any given year there’s a potential for winterkill. Just like for pheasants and deer in North Dakota, long, cold, snowy winters exact a toll. Dead deer and pheasants are easier to spot with a white blanket…

By Nick Simonson I can recall the first instance of a smallmouth smashing a rusted-up firetiger Husky Jerk I weaseled out of my dad’s gold flip-sider tacklebox for a trip upriver one spring night after work.  After the rings from the lure’s splashdown along the shoreline at the spot where a small feeder creek met…

By Mike Peluso It seems crazy to think, but I have only two weeks left up here on Devils Lake for the winter. Time flies when you stay busy. The winter season has been an absolute roller coaster. We have had some great days and we have had sone tough days. There are lots of…

By Nick Simonson There’s an old terabyte drive I bought a decade ago to back up the hard drive on my old computer as things were getting a bit glitchy and the blue screen wake-ups of the machine suggested the loss of most of my information was highly inevitable.  Before synchronized back-ups through cloud storage…

By Nick Simonson The National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) will be hosting its annual State Tournament on Mar. 15 and 16 at the Minot State Fair Center, bringing hundreds of top shooters from schools around the state to compete in four events to determine North Dakota’s top archers, according to Jeff Long, the…

By Doug Leier Around here we hope and pray March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. I’m not sure where this saying originated from, but last year it may have been more accurate to say March came in like a lion, stuck around until April and left a mess of…

By Seth Owens This winter has graced North Dakota with unusual kindness. The weather has been remarkably pleasant, boasting warmer temperatures than average and the snowfall has remained quite limited thus far. Such conditions bode well for our upland bird populations as they enjoy an abundance of cover and forage that harsh winter conditions of…