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Paint It Black – Springtime Crappie Colors

By Nick Simonson With the first green leaves starting the spring canopy above the lake shore, our boat glided over the shallow stretch of mud bottom along a backwater lobe just off of the main lake. Through the glare-cutting view provided by a pair of polarized sunglasses, it was tough to miss the schools…

Leave Baby Animals Alone

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department emphasizes a simple message to well-intentioned humans who want to pick up and rescue what appear to be orphaned baby animals this time of year – don’t touch them. Whether it is a young fawn, duckling, cottontail rabbit or a songbird, it is better to just leave them…

Our Outdoors: Spring Shallows

It was fitting that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band blared through the back doors of the pavilion, where the 10:30 crowd at the wedding reception sang along with each verse of “Fishin’ in the Dark” with growing rowdiness, especially on the well-known choruses of the song. Just down the sandy shore of the lake, my…

Flooded by Memories

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. In the past couple of months, many media outlets in North Dakota, especially in the eastern part of the state, published or broadcast stories related to the 20th anniversary of the 1997 Red River flood. With all those historical accounts taking place, it seemed more appropriate to wait a few…

54,500 Deer Firearm Licenses Available in 2017

NDG&F Press Release North Dakota’s 2017 deer season is set with 54,500 licenses available to hunters this fall, 5,500 more than last year. The number of licenses available for 2017 includes 2,750 for antlered mule deer, an increase of 200 from last year; 1,022 for muzzleloader, an increase of 94 from last year; and 245…

Our Outdoors: Advanced Angling

By Nick Simonson Not every aspect of angling is as easy as sitting on the bank, casting out a bobber over a hook full of worms and hoping for a bite, the way many of us started out fishing. With each varying twist on the sport, there is more to learn and practice than there…

2017 Legislation Impacts Outdoors Activities

NDG&F Press Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department tracked 28 outdoors-related bills during the 2017 legislative session, 11 of which were passed by both chambers and signed into law. The following bills take effect Aug. 1, unless the bill includes an emergency clause which indicates it is already in effect. HB 1017 – Appropriates…

Bighorn History & Status

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept To understand the current North Dakota bighorn sheep population, it’s a good idea to try to understand the past. And really it’s a past highlighted by a “who’s who” in Midwest wildlife documentation. Writings describing these majestic bighorn sheep were first recorded by the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805…

Moose, Elk Lotteries Held, Bighorn in Sept.

NDG&F Dept. Press Release North Dakota’s moose and elk lottery results are available online at the state Game and Fish Department’s website. Applicants can find individual results by clicking “my account” under the buy and apply link. Successful applicants will receive a letter the week of May 15, stating the license will be mailed after the successful…

Our Outdoors: Welcome Notes

By Nick Simonson Coffee for the outdoorsman is more than just a morning drink. It’s the dawn-delivered lifeblood of adventure, that sip that puts some pep in each step and kicks the adrenaline up a notch when that initial fish taps the line on a gorgeous spring day or the slightest crackling of leaves echoes…

New Programs Fill CRP Void

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. The rise and fall of acreage enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program is well documented. The CRP got its start in the mid-1980s as a program designed primarily to reduce nationwide crop production in an effort to turn around low commodity prices, and also to reduce…

Paddlefish Snagging Opens May 1

NDG&F Press Release North Dakota’s paddlefish snagging season opens May 1 and is scheduled to continue through the end of May. However, depending on the overall harvest, an early in-season closure may occur with a 24-hour notice issued by the state Game and Fish Department. Although there are no regulation changes from last year, snaggers…

Our Outdoors: One Clay at a Time

By Nick Simonson Like colored currents of air through a wind tunnel in an aerodynamics lab, the gray smoke wound its way up and out of the bottom barrel of my over-under shotgun. I watched as the wafting darkness gave way to the shimmering green and yellow colors of the first dandelions of the season…

Mule Deer Survey Complete

NDG&F Press Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department completed its annual spring mule deer survey in April, and results indicate western North Dakota’s mule deer population has increased 16 percent from last year. Biologists counted 3,349 mule deer in 306.3 square miles during this year’s survey. Overall mule deer density in the badlands…

Fishing the Whole Year ‘Round

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. Every year about this time, after the ice leaves North Dakota lakes and game fish like northern pike and walleye go through their annual effort to spawn, the Game and Fish Department fields a fair number of questions about the state’s year-round fishing season. In my experience, the questions are…

Bighorn Sheep Populations Stable

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s spring bighorn sheep survey revealed a minimum of 296 bighorn sheep in western North Dakota, up slightly from last year and 3 percent above the five-year average. Altogether, biologists counted 104 rams, 170 ewes and 22 lambs. Not included are approximately 20 bighorns in the North Unit of…

2016 Deer Season Summary

NDG&F Dept. Press Release A total of 44,140 North Dakota deer hunters took approximately 29,300 deer during the 2016 deer gun hunting season, according to a post-season survey conducted by the state Game and Fish Department. Game and Fish made available 49,000 deer gun licenses last year. Overall hunter success was 66 percent, with each…

Our Outdoors: Likely Locations for Trout

By Nick Simonson The conditions and even the dates have varied greatly from year-to-year for the trout opener on the small stream in the state park south of my home. In some seasons, the water has been so low that the stocked browns still remained stacked by the dozens in the deepest pockets under…

2017 Spring Waters Report Issued

NDG&F Press Release Just in time for the height of spring fishing, the NDG&F Department has released its spring waters report. Options abound more than ever as North Dakota now has more than 420 fishing waters that have public access and some degree of management by state Game and Fish Department biologists. The state is…

The Advancement of Online Licensing

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. I don’t remember the year, but I do remember the scenario when I bought my first fishing license online. It was one of those spring days that wasn’t supposed to be spring. Early April and the sun was shining, the snow was all but gone and my buddy said the…

CREP & SAFE Programs For Wildlife Open to ND Landowners

NDG&F Press Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is partnering with the U.S Department of Agriculture to provide landowners with options to enroll acreage into two new programs designed to develop wildlife habitat. A new Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, and State Acres For Wildlife Enhancement, are companion programs to the popular Conservation Reserve…

Our Outdoors: What a Bargain

By Nick Simonson Having spent a good deal of the weekend scoring for the local high school trap team and doing yard work in the unseasonable 80-degree highs, I hoped the rain scheduled for Sunday afternoon would hold off long enough to let me loosen my arm for the approaching stream trout opener with some…

The Rise of the Bald Eagle

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. After writing recently about the whooping crane, an endangered bird species that migrates through North Dakota in spring and fall, I got a text message from a friend who was reporting the spring sighting of dozens of bald eagles in one spot. While the area of interest was from northeastern…

Whooping Cranes a Rare Sight in ND

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. I’ve lived in North Dakota my entire life and worked for the state Game and Fish Department my entire full-time natural resources career. I’ve lived and worked near Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Moffit and Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge north of Stanley. Those facts alone would make it…

Our Outdoors: Lead On

By Nick Simonson Another cast, another strike, another hookset met with the sensation of nothing on the other end. The line wound haphazardly on the spool of my reel without the weight of the lure to keep some tension on the retrieve. It wasn’t the first time I had been bitten off in the swirling…

Our Outdoors: Unnatural

By Nick Simonson The first few spotted seatrout I picked off of the grassy break were respectable for the Don Pedro Island area along the Intracoastal Waterway of Southwest Florida. At an inch or two under the minimum limit for keeper-sized speckles, these fish provided fast action as the tide rose onto the large flat…

ND Sportsmen Find Busy Spring

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. Over the past six weeks or so, North Dakota has had a lot going on that relates to hunting, fishing, trapping and conservation that isn’t always tied in directly with fishing on frozen water or hunting the first flocks spring snow geese in frozen fields. Since it’s a legislative year,…

Report Bald Eagle Nests

NDG&F Press Release The State Game and Fish Department is asking for help in locating bald eagle nests in North Dakota. Game and Fish conservation biologist Sandra Johnson said the department is looking for locations of nests with eagles present, not individual eagle sightings. Eagles are actively incubating eggs in March and April, and it’s…

Our Outdoors: Gopher It

By Nick Simonson While my own speed has never been hare-like, or cat-like or really like any fast animal in the natural world, I felt speedy as I made the turn on my first morning run of vacation with a pace of 7:40, a full 20 seconds faster than my usual average. I’d give some…

NDG&F is Encouraging Tomorrow’s Hunters with Grant Program

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. I grew up in an era in North Dakota when special seasons for young hunters did not yet exist. Looking back, I surely would have enjoyed the extra days afield the special youth deer, waterfowl and pheasant seasons now offer. But I was fortunate to have spent a lot of…

The Legends of Late Season

The Swing of Things

Our Outdoors: Man Without a Knife

ND Deer Gun Tags Reduced to 10-Year Low

Making Partridge Pop