IT’S IN THE HOLE! Getting fish into a deep late-ice cylinder can be a challenge, especially when they’re big!  We’ve got the tips to help you finish off the fight and keep those fish from bonking their way to freedom in today’s Three Things. (Featured Photo: A crappie comes up through a 32-inch deep ice…

By Nick Simonson While attending school at the University of North Dakota during the long, deep winters that Grand Forks is well known for, it wasn’t strange to find me hovering over my vise in those early days of fly tying and lure crafting, trying to come up with new ideas to cast into the…

EVEN STEVEN!  We find ourselves at that point in the year where sunrise and sunset are at the same hour and minute in both the morning and evening giving us a perfect 12 hours of daylight today.  Make use of all of them, as you’ll have some strong lunar pull with the moon reaching the…

SEVEN-EIGHTHS!  On the Winter Severity Index (WSI) Calendar we’re just two weeks away from the end of the season..  We’ve got exciting news on our WSI update and a sign of spring from DEO Staff in today’s Three Things. (Featured Photo:  SPRING IS HERE (kinda)! DEO’s Nick Simonson brings the season’s first robin reports ….

CH-CH-CHANGES. Of the handful of tweaks and modifications in the 2018-2020 ND Fishing Guide, dialing back the bluegill limits is one of the notable ones.  We talk about that and other blue topics in today’s Three Things. (Featured Photo: Bigger Bluegills.  In an effort to improve panfish angling, the NDG&F has reduced limits. Simonson Photo)…

VIDEOS WORTH WATCHING.  Get over the hump today with some of the web’s best big game fights across the spectrum.  Whether it’s the pristine location, the parked cars on the street watching or the scary amount of antler mass, these flicks will have you clicking for more and thinking about fall! (Featured Photo: Something on…

NDG&F Press Release North Dakota’s 2018-20 fishing proclamation is set, with regulations effective April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2020. Fishing licenses for the 2018-19 season can be purchased online at the state Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov, or at license vendors that are linked to the department’s online licensing system. Anglers are reminded…

SMOOTH SAILING.  The midweek stretch is looking great for those sneak-out fishing trips you’re wanting to get in as the last-ice stretch of the season settles over the region.  Bag a few pike on the tip-up in those shallow bays as they make their move or find some hungry walleyes as we approach the new…

In catching up with my young friend Decker, a six-year-old with seemingly a sixty-year-old’s worth of fishing experience, he walked me through a number of his recent fishing adventures since we left his introduction to fly fishing on the small pond outside of town.  In the hurried conversation, he referenced catching a number of “PBs”…

YOU’RE LATE!  Here’s hoping the shift to Daylight Savings Time didn’t catch you by surprise!  A nice day will get you on the ice – and you can stay out later thanks to an extended amount of evening daylight.  While you catch some mid-March fish, we look ahead to spring angling with a trio of…

MIXED SATURDAY.  There’s a chance for light accumulations of snow early  and wind will blow it around some, but it shouldn’t interfere much with your outdoor efforts (unless we get freezing rain?!).  Don’t forget to SPRING AHEAD before going to bed tonight as Daylight Savings Time kicks in at 2 am tomorrow!  We talk about…

WEIGHTY MATTERS. We’re getting closer to the weekend and another shot at snow, but not nearly the amounts we saw last week.  While we plow through the last of winter, we talk spring and spring fishing and tips for getting your flies down for hungry fish in today’s Three Things. (Featured Photo: Flies at the…

By Nick Simonson I’ve never been a math whiz. When it comes to algebra, once there are more letters than numbers in an equation, I’m usually at a loss.  In fact, the only D I received in college was a D+ in Calculus for Business Majors.  I missed two days of class in the middle…

DAYS AWAY!  We’re just a matter of hours from longer days and more springlike temperatures, with the shifting of the clocks ahead to daylight savings time and a rapid increase in day length as well.  With that, we’ve got news on the rarest of big game tags in ND and other fun web stuff in…

IMPROVEMENT!  The Colorado low heads off to scare the east coast media for the weekend and we’re back on the trek toward spring.  We talk about tips for improving fly and lure offerings in today’s Three Things, because we know you spent your snow day(s) productively too! (Featured Photo: Mix it up!  Tie patterns with…

BLAST FROM THE PAST. Waves of snow swept east to west on the top-side of a snails-pace low pressure bubble, dumping snow across much of the state, suspending thoughts of spring and spurring flashbacks to last winter, at least for the time being.  We talk about totals and more in today’s Three Things. (Featured Photo:…

IT’S A GOOD DAY TO TIE.  Odds are you’ll be inside today (when you’re not out plowing the driveway or shoveling the walkway) making it a perfect day to be at the vise.  With up to a foot of snow forecasted for the area, and more in some places, we’ll put the idea of an…

By Nick Simonson The temperature gauge on the truck read 39 degrees as I tore up the blacktop of Highway 25 north of Mandan. It was nice for late winter as the melting drifts in the ditches gave way to the matted beige grasses below.  The first symptoms of spring fever were beginning to creep…

BRACE FOR IMPACT! Yesterday and today should wipe the countryside pretty clean of snow deposits, just in time for Monday Morning’s Monster.  We track the storm, it’s possible positive impacts for area wildlife and talk about some favorite springtime fish in today’s Three Things. (Featured Photo:  The last remaining snow dapples the hills on the…

MODEL MOVING. All eyes are on Sunday’s forecast as models have wobbled a bit since yesterday.  Most runs are now putting the bulk of the snowfall along the Canadian border, with the Bismarck area expected to be on the southeastern accumulation gradient.  Still, it looks like 12-16 inches possible near Minot, and anywhere from four…

GREAT WHITE!  Just when you thought it was safe to go outdoors…well, it still is…but, come Sunday a familiar shade will return to the landscape as heavy snow is expected from a massive low pressure system out west and a deep jet stream pumping southern moisture up into the plains .   We talk about what…

FILLIN’ UP.  This evening’s full moon is the first of two again this month, and conditions are right for some great ice fishing in the near term.  Get out there and get on them and use the power of a full moon and stable weather to cross some ‘eyes! We talk more moon lore, eagle…

NDG&F Press Release Anglers have until midnight, March 15 to remove permanent fish houses from North Dakota waters, and from any state wildlife management area or federal refuge land. Fish houses may be used after March 15 if they are removed daily. Anglers are advised to use caution while accessing area lakes because mild weather…

THAT WAS COLD.  February strung together a number of consecutive cold days, and we look back on the month that was, and ahead to what remains of winter all while calculating our WSI at the 3/4-mark of the season, while checking out what’s in store for vernal flows and see that some spring turkey tags…

By Nick Simonson Each spring, the banks of area lakes and rivers are littered with pop bottles, chip bags, Styrofoam cups, plastic bait containers, beer cans, and my personal pet peeve, spent fishing line.  The snow that lines the gutters of city streets and highway ditches this week will slowly give way to reveal plastic,…