By Doug Leier A highlight of my early years with the Game and Fish Department as a district game warden was the variety of field-training opportunities. New wardens learn different required skills from seasoned wardens at stations literally in every corner of North Dakota. My primary training warden was Kurt Aufforth, who was stationed in…

By Nick Simonson The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Valley City Fish Hatchery has been host to a number of notable fish species which are raised from eggs and fry up to stockable fingerling sizes each spring and summer.  From more common sportfish such as walleyes and pike, to a notable tiger muskie program…

By Mike Peluso As promised last week, I would let you know what this week’s water temperatures on the Missouri River look like. As of Saturday, they had dropped anywhere from 8 to 12 degrees depending on where you were on the river. As a result, this has slowed the action down when it comes…

By Nick Simonson “You should have been here yesterday,” is paradoxically one of my favorite and least favorite sayings about the outdoors. When I’m issuing it, it recalls a day of excitement, and likely invokes a bit of good-natured envy from a fellow angler, who with me in the newest moment, probably isn’t doing as…

By Nick Simonson For those anglers looking to explore one of the region’s most underutilized but powerful river fish, channel catfish provide a trophy experience and some consistently good fishing, especially on the Red River from Fargo to the Canadian border in North Dakota.  While it may require a bit of specialized gear and a…

NDG&F Dept. Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department will be conducting numerous tagging studies on walleye populations across the state over the next several years to gain a better understanding of how anglers are utilizing these fisheries. This year, walleye tagging efforts will occur at Coal, Twin, Coe and West Napoleon lakes. These…

By Nick Simonson With each slide of the small bucktail fly over the two rocks in the shallows, I elicited a strike on nearly every cast from the crappies staging on the edge of the flat in the warming spring afternoon.  A slow drag of the brightly-hued minnow imitator kept it moving out and away…

By Doug Leier There’s just something to be said for consistency. Not just because I’m an old man and don’t like change, either. Changing fishing regulations year to year and lake to lake can maximize management at the expense of confusion leading to angler frustration. Same with hunting. Case in point: In my years with…

By Mike Peluso Well, it’s been an interesting week fishing for walleyes on the Missouri River. So interesting in fact that I almost forgot to do this week’s fishing report! That tends to happen when you are guiding every day and even pulling a double shift or two. During the early portion of the week…

By Nick Simonson The midnight-tinted sides of the spawning black crappie from the north bay of the power plant lake was a welcome sight.  It confirmed that both my timing and my location were on, as my first cast into the area of the sunken rock crib where the fish spawned each spring connected soundly,…

NDG&F Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department announced the winners of the 2024 Earth Day Patch Contest. Over 2,000 students from 100 schools entered this year’s contest. Winners in three age categories are Ella Haagenson, Leeds (K-4); Isla Anderson, St. Johns Academy, Jamestown (5-8); and Deegan Kierschemann, Barnes County North, Wimbledon (9-12). Haagenson’s design was…

NDG&F Dept. Release North Dakota’s paddlefish season opens May 1, and is scheduled to continue through May 21. 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. Paddlefish tags are available for purchase online at the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov,…

By Nick Simonson For more than two decades, the North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F) has enlisted the help of citizen wildlife watchers in tracking active bald eagle nests throughout the state.  Through the process, the agency has watched a fledgling population of these once endangered birds grow to be present across the Peace…

By Doug Leier The work of North Dakota game wardens is so much more than checking hunting and fishing licenses. The men and women wearing a badge and working the frontlines of game and fish law enforcement are the first called when a hunter has a question or a landowner is dealing with deer depredation….

By Nick Simonson Springtime brings with it some interesting water conditions.  In years such as this one, where limited snow and low runoff are the norm, many streams and lakes can be super clear.  In springs like 2023, where a seemingly endless supply of snow provided a rush of meltwater for a long period of…

By Mike Peluso The good news is we are finally in full swing this spring. The bad news is that the weather really hasn’t been that great, with lots of wind making walleye fishing on the Missouri River difficult. When the weather permits, however it seems the fish are willing and able. For my guide…

By Nick Simonson The two men in Carhartt body suits watching their rods along the far side of the creek below the rock dam were a welcome sign.  Though their pickups in the parking lot when I arrived suggested there may be more traffic at the out-of-the-way feeder creek where a number of seasons ago…

NDG&F Dept. Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s 2023 bighorn sheep survey, completed by recounting lambs in March, revealed a record 364 bighorn sheep in the grasslands of western North Dakota, up 5% from 2022 and 16% above the five-year average. The count surpassed the previous record of 347 bighorns in 2022. Altogether,…

By Nick Simonson Population jumps in walleyes and bluegills and a decrease in the surveyed number of bullheads in the North Dakota Game & Fish Department’s (NDG&F) late summer sampling of Lake Ashtabula in 2023 have made the reservoir on the Sheyenne River a destination for anglers seeking a variety of gamefish and panfish and…

By Doug Leier Do you think much about wild turkeys in North Dakota? If you’re like me, when you see a turkey you call them out: “tom, jake, hen … how many are there? Are they on private land? Where did they come from and where are they headed?”  Game and Fish biologists wonder some…

By Nick Simonson Springtime is smallmouth time, and as the waters warm up and bronzebacks stage for their spawn in late April and early May, targeting them provides a welcome challenge. Upping your odds with some choice soft plastics helps better connect with these fish this time of year and provides an arsenal that often…

By Mike Peluso Things are just starting to get going here on the Missouri River near Bismarck. The weather has been a little up and down, but it’s trying to get better, and it has given us a few little windows to get out. It seems like once you are out there you will see…

By Nick Simonson In the coldest waters of spring, every bit of realism, enticement, and apparent edibility a lure can project is an advantage to anglers.  That’s why, as the last few handfuls of lures come together on my vise ahead of the open water season, whisps of marabou pile up in drifts of red,…

By Nick Simonson Over time, I’ve amassed my share of tackle boxes, bait binders and other compartments big and small that hold everything from a large selection of tiny flies, to a catalog of soft plastics. In those years and seasons on the water, I’ve found those that best fit my style of fishing and…

By Doug Leier We live in a world of point, click, instant access and information. Patience is a rare commodity, but when it comes to hunting and fishing, it’s not an option. Waiting for the right deer or the hot bite is as important as finding the right lure or spot. In the same way,…

By Nick Simonson The North Dakota Game & Fish Department’s (NDG&F) survey of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) – a prion-based illness of the brain and nervous system which always results in the fatality of the animals it infects – in the state netted 11 positive samples in fall of 2023. With an intensified focus on…

By Mike Peluso Well, here we go again. I think it’s a prerequisite for me that if I’m coming home from a season of ice fishing, we are going to get hit with a blizzard. So, yes, here we are again. I did get out a couple times fishing walleyes on the Missouri River just…

By Nick Simonson A co-worker once said to me after I had announced my first robin sighting of the spring that there would only be three more snow events to go.  Puzzled, I inquired further, and she explained it was a saying her mother used to make after she saw her first robin of the…

By Nick Simonson With spring on hold for the next week or so (depending on this weekend’s storm track) there’s likely some time to think about what comes when that snow melts.  Of course, the fishing will be fast and furious once we flip the calendar into April, but after the solid spring bite and…

From NDG&F Dept. Releases A total of 45,927 North Dakota deer hunters took approximately 25,146 deer during the 2023 deer gun hunting season, according to a post-season survey conducted by the state Game and Fish Department.  Numbers were similar to the 47,590 hunters and 25,093 deer harvested in 2022. Game and Fish made available 53,400…