By Nick Simonson About this time of year I start to get really primed for what’s to come.  Sure the cool mornings and warm afternoons behind a good dog while under a clear blue sky surrounded by the beiges and golds of rolling grassy hillsides are a moment in time to be held in memory…

By Nick Simonson While near-record snowfall across the southeastern portion of North Dakota hampered survival of the state’s white-tailed deer population over the winter of 2022-23, those animals that made it through the challenging season have had conditions helpful to their recovery since spring.  Temperate conditions and ample rainfall have helped those does able to…

By Doug Leier August means the early Canada goose season and the beginning of the 2023 hunting seasons.  Part of the process is looking for places to hunt from the first geese to ducks, deer, pheasants and grouse.   Did you know about 93 percent of the land in North Dakota is privately owned? It’s no…

NDG&F Dept. Release State Game and Fish Department migratory game bird biologists expect a fall flight of ducks similar to 1998, 2004 and 2020. If those past seasons don’t ring a bell, the fall flight is anticipated to be about 23% above last year’s fall flight, based on observations from the annual mid-July duck production…

By Brad Durick The feeling of fall is setting in while we’ve been fishing for cats on the Red River of the North The water temperature on the flow has dropped down to around 70 degrees and all the fronts throughout the past week have pushed the catfish to an off-current pattern. This means the…

By Nick Simonson North Dakota’s Private Land Open to Sportsmen (PLOTS) program added approximately 5,000 acres of access opportunity to hunters for this fall, but what drives the system which has been in place for nearly 25 years now is a focus on better habitat. In the era of lowered conservation reserve acres, a heightened…

By MIke Peluso It’s been a great week for walleyes up here on Devils Lake. We have caught lots of fish and they are ranging in every size imaginable! The lake is healthy with small fish and a nice mix of bigger walleyes too. The combination of good spawning and good management of the system…

By Nick Simonson There comes a day in every August where the shift to fall is heavily hinted at.  Some years, it’s the chill in the night breeze as the boat comes up the launch after a humid evening of walleye fishing that implies autumn is on the way.  In others, it seems as if…

By Doug Leier  High school fall sports practices are underway, school has either started or will begin soon. Like it or not, it’s hunting season. The good news is the fishing season in North Dakota never closes so hunters who lament the loss of the true summer can choose not to take part in the…

By Brad Durick For Red River catfish, the past week has been really good for numbers and more and more big fish are showing up. The pattern has not changed all that much in terms of locations with fish still mostly right down the middle of the river. What has changed, however, is that we…

By Nick Simonson While yellow perch are most notably pursued through the ice and are a primary target of many anglers throughout the region during the cold weather months, these fish can provide fast summertime action and a stockpile of delicious fillets that can rival the stash that winter anglers accumulate.  Connecting with roaming schools…

By Mike Peluso This report will be a quick recap of what I know on two bodies of water and what I’ve heard on another. Once again, my job has taken me to both Devils Lake and Lake Sakakawea this week. As far as Sakakawea goes at this time of year the bulk of the…

By Nick Simonson Late summer brings with it fast fishing, but it can provide challenging conditions as well.  Gearing up for the home stretch of the season and the start of fall, which produces some of the biggest and fastest bites of the year, requires anglers to rethink some strategies, remain persistent on others and…

By Doug Leier It’s been nearly 20 years since the first legal mountain lion season in North Dakota.   To think there’s a generation that has grown up never knowing a time when there wasn’t a season. It puts into context the label of “new” or “experimental” when describing one of the more recent additions to legal…

By Nick Simonson The modern ranks of anglers throughout the upper Midwest are armed with uncountable lures, amazing watercraft and technology that rides the cutting edge.  As a result, this concentrated core of well-equipped sportsmen is able to make up for the increased pressure that equally-endowed anglers have produced in recent seasons, making fish just…

By Mike Peluso Since my arrival on Lake Sakakawea on June 15, the lake has risen probably 12 feet. Maybe more maybe less. The fact of the matter is, with that much water, the walleyes tend to spread out a tad. The one thing I have noticed a lot this week is how the fish…

By Nick Simonson Second perhaps to the day after New Years, the Sunday following the Fourth of July is one of my most dreaded days of the year.  I know it’s just a number, and I know that health and fitness overall is more than the red-line numerals on the readout in the dim light…

By Nick Simonson With a recharge of wetlands from the winter and spring snows, conditions were improved across North Dakota for returning waterfowl.  While this spring’s survey report from the North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F) showed a slight increase in breeding duck tallies, behind the numbers, Ducks Unlimited (DU) is finding good indicators…

By Doug Leier I’ll apologize in advance as I’d rather not dig up bad memories, but this past winter started too early and stayed too long. But sometimes as a friend reminded me, “we can turn the page, but don’t forget what you’ve read.” The winter/spring of 2023 lasting impact on deer, pheasants, livestock, landowners…

By Brad Durick Catfish on the Red River are starting to get into the swing of summer.  The post spawn phase now has the fish starting to move to a more summerlike mid-river pattern. The best fishing has continued to be in the holes in or near the main current in the middle of the…

By Nick Simonson Summertime means working soft plastics for both largemouth and smallmouth bass, and more often than not those lures are offered up on a wide gap worm hook.  While this is often the best way to present plastic options, these hooks require a mastery of both their advantages and their shortcomings.  It’s the…

By Mike Peluso As we turn the corner and head toward the back nine of summer fishing, things continue to be incredibly good up here for walleyes on Lake Sakakawea. The fish are being caught all over this body of water at the moment and there is no need to pile into the packs of…

By Nick Simonson There was almost an air of concern in my mom’s voice as I wandered back in from my morning stroll to the end of the dock to watch the sunrise and inspect the shallows.  A few quick casts of the neon green fly line sporting a beadhead pheasant tail nymph connected with…

By Doug Leier Thanks to modern technology you can register your boat and buy a fishing license from your phone. The internet and mobile technology has made the process quicker, faster and more efficient. But as my friend Alan asks, “Have we traded our patience in for conveience?” After spending two Saturday mornings in a…

By Brad Durick There’s good news from the Red River of the North where conditions for catfishing are quickly improving! It appears that the spawn is at its tail end and the region recently got some rain to kick things into gear. Now that we are in post spawn there will be some skinny but…

By Mike Peluso It’s been a week of changing weather with a little of everything up here on Sakakawea. This report may seem off to some and spot on to others who’ve been out on the lake looking for walleyes and depending on what part of the lake you are on this report may seem…

By Nick Simonson As shifty as the weather has been leading up to the official start of summer, it’s no surprise that recently rough conditions have seemingly targeted each weekend of this past month, throwing a bit of a monkey wrench into many anglers’ plans.  Whether it’s a cold front bringing thunderstorms on a Thursday…

By Brad Durick I hate short bites! It seems like the Red River’s big catfish are nearing the end of the spawn but they are not quite there yet.  This week, the trend has been that they will hit the baits but not take the whole hook. The solution has been to get a bigger…

By Doug Leier  Since 1993 when the wet cycle began, the growing and maintaining aquatic habitat has been … natural. If you are under the age of, say, 35 or 40, you’ve never known the impacts of lower water issues. Sure, we’ve had a few short-term drought interruptions during the wet cycle, but anyone who…

By Nick Simonson With the solstice, we’ve reached the official start of summer, meaning there’s about three months of temperate weather and great fishing for active species that should be gearing up for some solid bites in the coming weeks.  Three of my favorite species to angle for in summer are bass, walleyes and crappies,…