By Nick Simonson If you look back at the last 20 years, you’ll see some pretty incredible turnarounds in the wild and across the globe that humanity has engineered.  While some of these one-eighties have been caused by our own short-sightedness, greed, and lack of care for the planet and creatures we share the world…

By Nick Simonson While angling on Lake Sakakawea has been excellent the past several years, one trend that has fishery warning lights flashing is a noted decrease in the overall size of smelt found in the water.  A primary forage, rainbow smelt have gone boom and bust on the lake in the past due to…

By Doug Leier Every hunter, angler and trapper can assess their own past seasons and look forward to the challenges and opportunities of 2024. The director of North Dakota Game and Fish and division chiefs are tasked with understanding and guiding the vested interests of all from Cavalier to Carson, from Crosby to Cayuga. It’s…

By Nick Simonson On winter’s hard water, presentation is one of the key factors for consistently catching fish and the nature of angling through the ice doesn’t leave a whole lot of horizontal options.  For that reason, knowing why fish take to a vertical presentation, how to draw them up to a lure and what…

By Mike Peluso Mother Nature you need to go home, you’ve had a couple too many. With these abnormal temperatures at the end of January and February you are giving us ice fishing guides extreme stress and anxiety. Yes, we have ice. Yes, we have safe ice. However, you need to really be on your…

By Nick Simonson The middle of winter brings with it funky fish and some changes in your presentation and efforts are required in the doldrums of February to not only find them but also to convert lookers into takers under the ice.  With a few simple hacks at mid-ice, the action can stay white hot,…

NDG&F Release North Dakotans interested in supporting wildlife conservation programs should look for the Watchable Wildlife checkoff on the state tax form. The state income tax form gives wildlife enthusiasts an opportunity to support nongame wildlife like songbirds and birds of prey, while at the same time contributing to programs that help everyone enjoy all…

By Nick Simonson Like many other avian game species last year, North Dakota observed a surprising and welcome increase in numbers of wild turkeys during the spring and summer which helped buoy populations of the large upland birds across the state.  This, coupled with a mild winter being experienced by much of the region has…

By Doug Leier Fall and winter of 2023 started off pretty good for deer, pheasants, farmers, hunters and ranchers. Just about everyone was smiling with the soft start compared to the hard finish of last winter. But when snow, rain and ice pelted much of central and eastern North Dakota as Christmas was giving way…

By Cara Greger Through its outreach efforts, the North Dakota Wildlife Federation (NDWF) is constantly working to unite hunters, anglers and conservationists under a common banner.  As a result of the organization’s recent work, it welcomed into its ranks its newest affiliate: the Beach Firearms and Trap Club in Beach, ND.  This club is newly…

By Mike Peluso While walleye fishing on Devils Lake this past week, we’ve gone from absolute torture conditions with bitter cold and wind to getting sunburned. It’s been a crazy winter up here in North Dakota! The last few days have been good news for my kind of work as I’m not freezing my buns…

By Nick Simonson Perhaps the two sweetest words this time of year in the upper Midwest are “January thaw.” With temperatures ticking into the upper 40s and walks around the block to rooster pheasants crowing and small covey of partridge taking flight on the north end, I noted how suddenly it felt like everything was…

NDG&F Dept. Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is offering 8,137 wild turkey licenses for the 2024 spring hunting season, 725 more than last year. Thirteen of the 22 hunting units have more spring licenses than last year and eight remain the same. Unit 21 (Hettinger and Adams counties) is again closed due…

By Clark Davis How can ranchers and farmers improve soil health, maximize profits, make better habitat for wildlife and live a better life?  A documentary series called Carbon Cowboys starts a discussion on how some producers are doing just that.  Learning from friends and neighbors to make our community, business, and the environment better for…

By Doug Leier My first game warden station was in Bottineau. Having spent time there in junior college the uniqueness of the Turtle Mountain’s fish, wildlife and habitat was part of the outdoors DNA, which gave north central North Dakota its own unique identity. One of the few areas with huntable populations of ruffed grouse…

By Nick Simonson Generally favorable conditions met North Dakota’s pheasant hunters in the fall of 2023 during the first two weeks of the season, and then again throughout November and December as conditions improved following a blizzard and subsequent cold snap in late October.  It’s likely that hunters will have logged more hours afield in…

By Mike Peluso The past week has been a battle fishing for perch and walleyes on Devils Lake. I think all those nice December days finally caught up to us. Old man winter needed to remind us of that. Not only did he get our attention, but he also made the fish mad, especially the…

By Nick Simonson Coming out of last week’s deep freeze and the one day it pushed my boys and I to the truck for a rare two-block drive, instead of our normal walk to the nearby school, my youngest requested my facemask for the below-zero trek into the northwest winds.  The sting on my cheeks…

NDG&F Dept. Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s annual midwinter waterfowl survey in early January was a record breaker. During the aerial midwinter survey, one of the longest running coordinated migratory bird surveys in North America, biologists counted more than 300,000 Canada geese. “Our old record was about 222,000 Canada geese, so we…

By Nick Simonson All the flutter of a fleeing baitfish with the pulsating action of bucktail and flash come together in the Half and Half, a fly that combines the back end of a Deceiver with the weighted, jig-like action of the Clouser minnow into a powerful package that gets down in the column for…

By Doug Leier January 7 was the official end date for archery deer, pheasant, grouse, partridge and turkey seasons in North Dakota. While squirrel season is open through Feb 29, most of the hunting seasons are over. With spring snow goose officially opening in February and the spring turkey season opening April 13, I need…

By Nick Simonson Oftentimes when exploring a new piece of open water or even returning to those I have known throughout my life but haven’t been to in a while, I break down my early foray into an imaginary set of squares laying out over an area, particularly on a river, or any stretch of…

By Mike Peluso I’m not sure how my days just keep ticking away and I can’t seem to remember what day it is. When guiding is this busy, I guess I need to set an alarm. It kind of feels like Groundhog’s Day. The ice conditions on Devils Lake have definitely changed since last week….

By Nick Simonson I was more the memorize-and-identify type when it came to Science Olympiad in high school.  A love of the outdoors and especially frogs, turtles and salamanders from an early age and knowing exactly where they were in my field guide and on the continent made me a two-time state champion when it…

NDG&F Release The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s annual Earth Day Patch Contest is, in part, an effort to heighten the awareness about the environment in North Dakota and beyond. Students who participate will develop a patch design using five colors incorporating an aspect of Earth Day such as environmental awareness, respect Earth, water…

By Nick Simonson During the depths of winter’s trough, typically coming in the month of January, but honestly, based on past precedent, running as late as early April some years, anglers get plenty of time to get ready for the upcoming openwater season.  The steps taken this time of year often help prepare those optimistic…

By Doug Leier The first time I felt safe enough to check the ice thickness was Thanksgiving weekend. It wasn’t safe yet at 1.5 inches. A week later and it still wasn’t.  In early December we had 50-plus degree temperatures, making late season pheasant hunters and archery deer hunters smile. The ice anglers pumped their…

By Nick Simonson I’ve often wondered if people would be more concerned if the increasing reports of Chronic Wasting Disease in the region made the jump from a limited population of mule and whitetail deer into more uncommon species like the resident moose and elk in the state, as has occurred in Montana.  It seems…

By Mike Peluso Things are slowly starting to turn around on the ice up here on Devils Lake, and it looks like winter will be here in full force by week’s end. We need it! It seems so far this season that the fish just haven’t gotten into their winter ways quite yet. I believe…

By Nick Simonson Occam’s Razor is a tool of logic, which holds that by shaving off the most outlandish ideas for the solution to a problem, a mystery, or any other situation where one is trying to figure out the answer, the simplest of the remaining possibilities is usually the correct one, and the right…