Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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Few deals can top a two-for-one special and the same can be said for lakes that provide a two-tiered fishing option. Whether it's perch and walleyes, bass and bluegills or pike and perch, these common predator-panfish scenarios can be found throughout the region offering up two popular angling targets in the same water. As it turns out, the way many smaller lakes throughout the upper Midwest are managed, that two-tiered approach is as much for the benefit of the angler as it is for the...
As we say farewell to the fly-tying season – not saying we won't sneak a new pattern in here and there as the openwater bite dictates this spring and summer – there's one last super streamer to add to that catch-all fly box for bass, panfish and anything that snacks on minnows. The Thunder Creek streamer is an incredible baitfish imitator that pulses and glides with a combination of bucktail and flash to catch any fish that eats smaller fish on the regular. Tied up in natural hues or bri...
Outdoor notes: *North Dakota state park facilities, including vault toilets, restrooms, and visitor centers, remain closed to public use, although hiking trails are open for day use only. Please remember to implement social distancing. Day and annual passes available through park self-registration or online (www.parkrec.nd.gov). *N.D. Game and Fish Dept. Wildlife Mgmt. Areas also open to public use, although specific use regulations apply. Go to the Game & Fish Dept. website, (gf.nd.gov) for inf...
Springtime is primetime for smallies, and the best way to turn things up for brown bass is knowing where they will be this time of year. As waters warm, smallmouth bass make a surge into the shallows and the prime substrate they relate to is an area with gravel and varied sizes of rock. From a natural boulder field to a man-made stretch of rip-rap, these areas become havens for spring smallies set to spawn in skinny water. What draws them there is a combination of the things that rocks provide...
Spring is the time of the year that many die-hard anglers have in the back of their mind as the opportunity to catch the biggest fish of the season and possibly their lives. Regardless of whether they're on the tail end of the pike bite through the ice or the first run of slimers up a shallow creek, patrolling the vernal breaklines for huge walleyes along a feeder stream, or scanning the shallow bars for prime smallie spawning sites and the big shadowy females moving in, anglers of all stripes k...
Seeing a fish come in behind a lure is one of the most exciting moments in angling. When the water is clear and the shadow of a pike or muskie becomes a distinctive, magnified image of what I’d imagine Leviathan looked like in legend, few things in the outdoors get the heart racing as fast. When the wake forms on a largemouth zeroing in on the plop-plop-plop of a surface popper, it’s hard to tune out the adrenaline rush. Even on a recent outing for crappies, angling over a shallow rocky are...
When the alarm went off, I had already been awake for 15 minutes. I easily popped out of my bed in the back of my 4Runner and started layering up. I was off hiking with my pack and shotgun slung on my shoulder in a matter of minutes. When the sun broke the horizon, I was a half-mile from my camp without another person in sight. Few turkeys were sounding off, preferring the silent treatment once they left the roost. The turkeys were practicing their own brand of social distancing, it seemed....
The continuous fishing season in North Dakota and South Dakota coupled with warming weather and rumors of a hot bite in any given location can bring anglers out in droves, particularly in those combat fishing areas along spawning creeks and channels from Devils Lake to the Missouri River basin to smaller waters in between. With these high-density congregations inevitably come the reports of over-limits, fish snaggers, and the one percent trouble-making portion of the population putting a black...
State Agencies Promote Benefits of Outdoor Recreation While the upcoming weekend weather doesn't necessarily remind us of spring, warmer weather is just around the corner. As the days get longer and temperatures rise, people naturally want to head outdoors. But this year it's not business as usual. North Dakota's outdoors and its health benefits, including stress reduction, lower blood pressure, better sleep, and relief from anxiety, stress, and depression, are likely more important than ever. That's why the North Dakota departments of Parks...
Outdoor notes: *North Dakota state park facilities, including vault toilets, restrooms and visitor centers remain closed to public use. Hiking trails are open for day use only. Please remember to implement social distancing. *N.D. Game & Fish Dept. Wildlife Mgmt. Areas also open to public use, although specific use regulations apply. Go to the Game & Fish Dept. website, (gf.nd.gov) for information. *Check with other public land and recreation agencies, as well, regarding camping and public use...
A colleague of mine, reacting to the recent and sudden halt to everything economic, expressed concern about business and the state of the world in general. The advertising dollars dried up almost instantaneously in the front half of the month. Doors were closed and shops were dark as if it was some sort of black holiday on main street. People's priorities had suddenly shifted from spend-spend-spend to survival. While I'm no economist and can't predict which letter of the alphabet comes next in...
While crappies aren't known for adrenaline-inducing strikes or heart-pounding battles, they're often some of the earliest angling excitement in spring as they stage to spawn and hang on the edge of shallow northern bays and other areas where they'll beget the next generation of slabs. While an EKG might not register the spike in pulse when one of these popular panfish is hooked, thinking of that heart monitor readout is a good way to remember a reliable tactic for catching them this time of...
Spring walleyes - especially those river fish that offer up some of the season's first opportunities as ice takes its time peeling off area lakes - are a predictable lot insofar as the locations they use when staging for the spawn. In those holes and riffles below obstructions, shallows or mating areas are where they can be found getting ready for water temperature, day length and related seasonal factors to combine in an ideal scenario and trigger the species' regular spring rituals. Targeting...
Outdoor notes: *Practice social distancing when visiting bait shops and businesses when getting outdoors. *Ice conditions greatly deteriorating across North Dakota lakes. Avoid areas with vegetation, moving water, pressure ridges, and springs. *North Dakota state park facilities, including vault toilets, restrooms, and visitor centers, remain closed to public use, although hiking trails are open. Please remember to implement social distancing. *N.D. Game & Fish Dept. Wildlife Mgmt. Areas also op...
In the last two weeks I have become a fulltime teacher, cook, gym instructor and referee in addition to my normal professions, which admittedly were wide and varied to begin with.Having been something of a jack-of-all-trades and an angler of all species thus far in life has helped prepare me for these duties brought on by our recent societal changes. My favorite responsibilities in this time of transition, however, remain boat captain, hook baiter, fish remover and photographer to capture those...
Outdoor notes: *Ice is never completely safe. Avoid areas with vegetation, moving water, pressure ridges and springs. Check conditions as you go along on the ice. *April 1: New fishing, trapping, and hunting licenses due. *April 11: Turkey season opens. Fishing: *Devils Lake elevation, March 23: 1,449.01 feet above mean sea level (MSL). *Stump Lake elevation: 1,448.85 MSL. *Lake Sakakawea elevation: 1,839.73 MSL; 23,000 cubic feet per second average (CFS) Garrison Dam daily releases. *N.D. Game...
Whooping cranes are in the midst of their spring migration and sightings will increase as they make their way into and through North Dakota over the next several weeks. Anyone seeing these endangered birds as they move through the state is asked to report sightings so the birds can be tracked. The whooping cranes that do make their way through North Dakota each spring are part of a population of about 500 birds that are on their way from their wintering grounds at Aransas National Wildlife...
Water is freedom, no more so than in spring. Casting off the icy bonds of winter, breaking them into pieces and then absorbing them is the completion of a flow's self-fulfilling and seasonal prophecy. So too for the angler, flowing water represents the possibilities to not only move with life's direction, but to challenge it and go back in time in a sense and find those places the riffles speak of upstream where trout, or bass or walleyes hide beneath the calm surface. It's been said that we nev...
With the impact of the coronavirus obvious across many layers of society, the North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F) has not been immune to changes in day-to-day life. Under guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and orders from the Governor, all NDG&F offices and facilities have been closed to the public. Despite that fact, the state's staff of wardens and other officials tasked with monitoring the use of North Dakota's game, fish and natural resources are carrying on,...
Growing up a wrestling fan, there was no better time to be watching WWF (now WWE) than when Triple H and Degeneration X were the featured heels. Challenging Vince McMahon and the establishment each week, after a win the various members would slap their crotch and yell out their trademark “Suck It!” Boorish, sure, but the battle cry became the focal point for the chairman’s ire each week. So too in the wild waters of our world does an annoying nest raider raise the ire of protective speci...
Outdoor notes: *Ice is never completely safe. Avoid areas with vegetation, moving water, pressure ridges and springs. Check conditions as you go along on the ice. *March 25: Elk, moose, and bighorn applications due. *April 1: Fishing, trapping, and hunting licenses due. Fishing: *Devils Lake elevation, March 17: 1,448.99 feet above mean sea level (MSL). *Stump Lake elevation: 1,448.82 MSL. *Lake Sakakawea elevation: 1,839.44 MSL; 23,100 cubic feet per second average (CFS) Garrison Dam dail...
Except in those instances where the steelhead were running hard and fast up the tributaries of Lake Superior, or the walleyes were so thick one could nearly walk across them on Devils Lake’s famed Channel A in the spring, I’ve rarely fished in a scenario that would cause my line to tangle with another person’s. Over the last few years, at least 90% of my hunting outings have been solo trips for grouse, pheasants or deer, with the experience of being alone with the animals – huntable and watchab...
In that gap between the last snow melting and the sure signs of spring like budding trees and greening grass, the tom turkey is king of the corridor throughout the rills and rivers of the region. For those starting in turkey hunting or looking to increase their success in harvesting a gobbler this season, keying in on the basics, such as knowing the times and patterning places and portions of the season where turkeys are most active will make for a memorable spring. With early spring conditions...
Whether fishing for trout making their spring sprint up tiny coldwater streams or going after those species that get stocked in any number of rivers and lakes around the region, having some sort of spawn imitator in a fly box is important. Here are three simple recipes that make for some egg imitations that are as flashy as those real ones that are going to get dipped in cups full of Paas dye in the coming weeks. Glo Bug Hook: Curved Egg, 2X Strong, Size 12-8 Thread: 6/0 to match Body: McFly Foa...
Outdoor notes: *Ice is never completely safe. Avoid areas with vegetation, moving water, pressure ridges and springs. Check conditions as you go along on the ice. *March 25: Moose, elk, and bighorn sheep applications due. Fishing: *Devils Lake elevation, March 10: 1,448.98 feet above mean sea level (MSL). *Stump Lake elevation: 1,448.89 MSL. *Lake Sakakawea elevation: 1,838.66 MSL; 22,800 cubic feet per second average (CFS) Garrison Dam daily releases. *N.D. Game & Fish Dept. Dist. game wardens:...
