By Nick Simonson I recognize a strange duality in the way I approach the outdoors with technology – going low teach or high tech – and the options I’m provided for any given trip on the water allow me to indulge either side of that coin.  On the ice, I was an early adopter of…

By Doug Leier While ice fishing in North Dakota kicked into full gear back in December, it’s never a bad idea for a refresher on rules and regulations. Winter fishing regulations include: ● A maximum of four rods is legal for ice fishing. ● Tip-ups are legal, and each tip-up is considered a single rod….

By Mike Peluso I have definitely learned one thing these past few winter seasons. Don’t try and predict anything, that’s a waste of time. Just as soon as you think you know, or think you know what is going happen, the ice fishing gods like to mess with you. Mother Nature has really been a…

By Nick Simonson While many school sports struggled coming out of the pandemic in 2021, the USA High School Clay Target League (USA CTL) and its North Dakota State High School Clay Target League (ND CTL) affiliate were back on track, providing shooting sports activities for thousands of students across the country and the Roughrider…

By Hannah Hayes It’s the little things that draw me to the uplands. Fishing, hunting, and falconry are just a few of the many hobbies I enjoy. I love ice fishing and open water angling, upland hunting and duck hunting, and it doesn’t get more exciting than catching rabbits with my red-tailed hawk. However, in…

By Nick Simonson A heightened wind gust flapped at the canvas of my flipover shack as my youngest son, Jackson, sat next to me sounding out the longer words in his brother’s book which I had tucked into the pocket of my ice fishing jacket and provided to him after our run of fishing had…

By Doug Leier With so many state, national and local news stories wrapping up 2021 and previewing 2022, life in North Dakota’s outdoors can get lost in the shuffle. Without further delay, Jeb Williams, North Dakota Game and Fish director, provides a look back on some of the issues for the department, hunters, anglers and…

By Mike Peluso In this week’s Devils Lake report, I’ll touch on what is taking place up here for us right now and also the next chapter of my fishing adventures, which is approaching extremely fast! What’s going on right now on Devils Lake? Well, for me and most of our crew things are definitely…

By Nick Simonson In addition to providing a means for anglers in North Dakota to flex their muscles with the fly rod and pursue a species that normally would not be present in our region, stocked trout offer incredible fun on the ice and are generally ready biters throughout the winter.  What follows are some…

By Nick Simonson The Holographic streamer came about as a modification of the Holographic wet fly, a smaller pattern used on eastern waters for trout.  When modified to the tastes of crappies and white bass – with its highly customizable components of tinsel, marabou, ice dub and hackle – the Holographic streamer can be tailored…

By Nick Simonson Midwinter is the trough of the natural world, and the challenges above the ice reflect what’s going on below it.  Conditions are rougher, colder and there’s less movement out there.  Everything that runs, flies or swims sometimes seems to be saving up its energy for the warming days coming in just a…

By Doug Leier When we think about proper catch-and-release, we often think of stressed fish in warm water during the dog days of August. Most anglers who choose to release fish they catch, or may be required by law – for instance, undersized fish on waters where length regulations exist – take great pride in…

By Mike Peluso Man, I have to admit this winter is starting to get tough, with more snow, cold temperatures, and lots of wind! I can handle the snow and cold, the wind, however, is getting a bit ridiculous and it is making travel on the ice and moving around difficult. You want to go…

NDG&F Dept. Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is offering 7,647 wild turkey licenses for the 2022 spring hunting season, 635 more than last year. Ten of the 22 hunting units have more spring licenses than last year, one has fewer licenses and 10 remain the same. Unit 21 (Hettinger and Adams counties)…

By Nick Simonson They’re out there under the ice, scattered throughout North Dakota’s slough country; jumbo perch that just a couple of decades ago were limited to major reservoirs in the Peace Garden State along with the noted population in Devils Lake.  With the onset of the wet cycle experienced in the upper plains since…

By John Bradley My uncle and I go pheasant hunting a couple times each year.  We usually hunt over our labs in Montana and during the holidays in Minnesota.  He has a couple catch phrases that will undoubtedly be said during each hunt.  The first is said upon seeing other hunters out in the field…

By Nick Simonson You don’t hear much in the way of hymns from a congregation of alligators, which is the name for the reptiles when they’re found in a group.  Likely, you don’t turn to a shrewdness of apes for advice as they’d most likely be chasing you off, especially if they are of the…

By Doug Leier Thankfully, winter didn’t really start until December. Living in North Dakota we’ve felt winter begin in October some years and drag into what should be spring.  The later winter begins and the earlier it exits is mostly better for resident wildlife.  So far, this version of North Dakota winter has been benign…

By Mike Peluso A few words come to mind this past week up here on Devils Lake: snow, wind, cold, warm and Covid. Yes, I said the bad word – Covid – and while it has not hit me, we have had a few groups cancel on us here as of late due to Covid….

By Nick Simonson The traditional image of a hunting dog on the prairies of the upper Midwest may suggest the statuesque shorthair holding point over a covey of grouse, or the staunch vigilance of a chocolate lab watching the skies from the cover of a duck blind. A growing number of hunters, however, are taking…

By Nick Simonson In college, at the local grocery store was one of those old-timey scales from the 1930s or 40s with a large dial at the top displaying weights from 0 to 300 pounds.  Each time I’d step on it, I’d watch the needle zip up to the high 200s, then back down to…

By Doug Leier The current status of winter fishing is better appreciated and understood with a look back at where we were when the ice retreated last spring. “At that time, we had roughly 430 lakes in North Dakota and as we go into the new ice fishing season, we still have about 430 lakes,…

By Mike Peluso It certainly amazes me how fast word travels these days when it comes to catching fish. Modern technology, without question, is a huge factor in this. Text messages, Snapchat, instant messaging, pin drops, etc., all factor into word of a bite and spots being discovered extremely fast. We have found this to…

By Nick Simonson Crappies are baitfish feeders, and where “half-inch brown and buggy” is the rule of thumb for general trout flies, that guide can be adjusted for spring and summer slabs to “inch long, flashy and fishy” for successful patterns.  Thus, tying up a variety of streamers that somewhat match that rule for the…

By Nick Simonson This autumn, upland hunters found good success where habitat remained intact because it congregated birds in those locations.  In places throughout the state which received little rain and stands of grass grew shorter and sparser than normal, upland birds such as pheasants and sharptailed grouse were harder to come by.  Add in…

By Nick Simonson The whir of wings on the far side of the stand of pines caught my attention as my hardworking lab sniffed out the row’s only resident.  From the sound and the urgency, I guessed it was a pheasant as we had put three hens up on the walk down the valley, before…

By Doug Leier  The North Dakota state bird is the Western meadowlark, a familiar, yet declining, songbird who’s melody booms across the prairie with its rich, flute-like call and equally glowing yellow feathers.  Founders of the Meadowlark Initiative, a new statewide strategy that will team landowners, conservation groups, scientists and others to enhance, restore and…

By Nick Simonson With the completion of the archery deer hunting season coinciding with the end of the calendar year, avid hunters have hung up their bows and stashed their camo in scent-proof containers. Whether successful or not behind the scope or the peep sight this autumn, they have already begun planning for next year’s…

By Nick Simonson The new year brings with it countless resolutions by those looking to improve their lives through the achievement of mindfulness, the loss of a few pounds, or to educate themselves in some new area.  The same can be said for those in the outdoors.  Whether it’s fishing or hunting or a skill…

By Mike Peluso Well between fixing starters, putting tracks on, having to get a skid shack, thawing frozen pipes, fixing zippers on shacks and so on, we have actually been fishing during this massive deep freeze on Devils Lake, and surprisingly some days have been pretty good! The first thing we are finding is some…