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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…

New ND Law Bumps Pheasant Opener Up

NDG&F Press Release A new law passed by the North Dakota Legislature will result in the State Game and Fish Department to propose Oct. 7 as opening day of the 2017 pheasant hunting season, one week earlier than what the department earlier announced. Senate Bill 2318, signed into law March 14, requires North Dakota’s pheasant…

Our Outdoors: Fish Formula

By Nick Simonson Catch and release angling isn’t anything new, in fact the conservation tool has been around long enough to have its own acronym of C&R, which is universally known in fishing circles. At the outset, providing the length or maybe the length and girth of that monster fish of the day wasn’t…

New Licenses Required Apr. 1

NDG&F Dept. Press Release North Dakota anglers, spring light goose hunters and trappers are reminded that new licenses for the 2017-18 season are required starting April 1. Anglers and hunters can purchase new licenses beginning March 15 at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov, and at more than 140 vendor locations throughout…

Our Outdoors: Set the Hook

By Nick Simonson A snap of the wrist, a drop and a sweep, an upward lift with a downward pull; however you set the hook, the energy and excitement that comes from connecting with a fish is half of the fun of angling. Whether the fish rockets up to the surface or thunders in…

A Moose for Dad

By Doug Leier, NDG&F Dept. My dad is proof of a couple different truths held when it comes to big game hunting in North Dakota. You don’t get drawn for a license if you don’t apply, and if you do apply, make sure you are prepared for the hunt in all aspects. Pretty fundamental. In…

Our Outdoors: Banquet Season

By Nick Simonson This year, my chapter of Pheasants Forever eclipsed the $7 Million mark in habitat acquisitions and restoration projects. Through funds leveraged through a state grant program, partnerships with the state and national PF organizations along with the much-appreciated assistance of nearby PF chapters and local conservation clubs, our alliances have opened nearly…

Our Outdoors: The Shift is On

By Nick Simonson The flock rose and fell like a slow pulse, banking and turning against the southerly gusts. They made the sky look like static on an old black and white TV screen long after the daily programming had stopped and the national anthem signaled the end of the broadcast day. The growing crowd…

Our Outdoors: Electronic Edges at Midseason

By Nick Simonson The rush of first ice is in the rear view mirror, and that stretch of more challenging mid-winter fishing is underway. While February marks the traditional seasonal slowdown in on-ice action in the upper Midwest, the midseason doldrums rarely prevent anglers from making their way out after fish. Heightened technology…

Our Outdoors: The League

By Nick Simonson Case upon case of 12 gauge shells piled up in the safe room at the trap club as a line of volunteers – some of them fellow coaches, some parents and some shooters – daisy-chained the 100 brown boxes of ammo through the snow to their resting place along the wall. While…

Our Outdoors: Put a Bead On It

By Nick Simonson When it comes to fast moving water, or big fish lurking below the school, nothing gets an angler down to business like the addition of a heavy, flashy bead at the front of a fly. Whether it is a rapidly-flowing stream harboring trout in deeper pockets or tucked into the…

Our Outdoors: A Perfect Reminder

By Nick Simonson We were five-for-seven heading into the homeward turn of a slough on a year end pheasant hunt. Seemingly every rooster that got up in shooting range went down in shooting range. The couple that escaped did so by the very fibers of their long tailfeathers which waggled in the breeze after some…

With Sturgeon Comeback, Eyes Turn to Angling

Our Outdoors: Here & Gone

Upland Predictors & Prognostications

Our Outdoors: Favors Returned

Sunglasses Season