Our Outdoors: All Smiles
Our Outdoors: All SmilesBy Nick Simonson I’m a Christmas carol guy through and through, which generally makes coming out of the holidays a little hard on my psyche. The satellite radio stations that I’ve been listening to since the day after Halloween are all returning to their regularly scheduled programming for the next ten months, and the last scraps of wrapping paper I picked up from where the cat had them stashed in her corner of the living room from Christmas Eve are signs the season of joy is quickly coming to an end. All we’re left with are the […]
Our Outdoors: Grab & Go
Our Outdoors: Grab & GoBy Nick Simonson If you’ve ever watched the top of a tip-up spin after a pike has taken the offering below, be it frozen smelt, herring or perhaps even a hot dog, you often wonder when the metal circular blur is going to stop. Sometimes the process takes well over thirty seconds before the whirring T slows down and the force of nature on the other end takes a break from its underwater jaunt. That’s because pike are creatures of speed, sprinters capable of blasting across a short distance at an incredible pace to ambush their […]
Our Outdoors: In the Thick of It
Our Outdoors: In the Thick of ItBy Nick Simonson Give me an expanse of cattails in December with a little snow on the ground and a lot of pheasants scattered throughout it, and that’s about the best gift the outdoors can provide. Even in those years where I did not yet have a dog, I can recall serving as my own flushing machine, stomping over the three-toed tracks of pheasants weaving through a frozen slough. My buddies were often content to hug the edges, but I enjoyed the sweat-inducing high-kneed tromp through the crackling reeds and, more importantly, the excitement […]
Our Outdoors: The Hottest Stuff on Ice ’21-22
Our Outdoors: The Hottest Stuff on Ice ’21-22By Nick Simonson The ice fishing market has exploded in the last twenty years. Where once only a couple of companies dominated the auger, fish house, and sonar categories when I started this column detailing the annual advancements in on-ice technology, now hundreds are present, creating better competition across all hardwater product classes and a free-market economy that would make Adam Smith proud. This year sees that continued expansion with new products such as the growing electric auger market, and tweaks on classic options like tip-ups, as those items and more take center […]
Our Outdoors: Freeze Factors
Our Outdoors: Freeze FactorsBy Nick Simonson The lure of that first ice fishing opportunity has lost some of its pull on me. Where in the past I’d be one of the first anglers sliding out onto the newly-formed ice, these days I’m more comfortable taking my time getting out there. In part due to my cautious nature, having felt the chill of ankle, thigh, and knee-deep winter waters in my younger years, and also due my love for late-season pheasant hunting which usually ends when the ice is more than stable for a stroll out to my favorite spots, I […]
Our Outdoors: Back on Schedule
Our Outdoors: Back on ScheduleBy Nick Simonson “We now return you to your regularly scheduled program!”Whether it was Bozo the Clown before school or Saturday morning cartoons, when interrupted by a breaking news story or weather alert, those nine words were a relief during my childhood that no matter what was happening in the world or on the landscape, things would quickly be returning to normal, and I could get back to the day’s routine. For me the firearms deer season is always like that TV interruption of old. It’s not a bad break from the usual upland antics my […]
Our Outdoors: Seen & Unseen
Our Outdoors: Seen & UnseenBy Nick Simonson I’ve often wondered if I could give up hunting and just fish or give up fishing and just hunt. I’m most often stuck with that thought as I sit peacefully in my deer stand up from a small lake and listen to the last anglers of the season drop their boats off the launch at first light for the aggressive autumn trout that occupy the chilly waters. Ever a victim of FOMO, or the fear of missing out, I find myself caught in the internal debate of which is better, which would I […]
Our Outdoors: For Flock’s Sake
Our Outdoors: For Flock’s SakeBy Nick Simonson There is nothing more surprising on an upland hunt than to wander into a draw or to the edge of a stretch of grass and watch a covey of grouse or a group of pheasants rise en masse, wings whirring over their warning calls issued in the moment of excitement. Likewise, there are few results more disappointing in the outdoors than to expend two or three shots after an adrenaline-fueled shouldering of a scattergun and come away empty handed from such an amazing opportunity. The phenomenon of flock shooting is often to blame […]
Our Outdoors: Little Challenges
Our Outdoors: Little ChallengesBy Nick Simonson When it comes to the outdoors, I’m not a huge traveler. I find contentment and more importantly, excitement, close to home with the opportunities I have nearby. Whether that’s plying the breaklines for walleyes, casting to rising trout on a stocked lake, or working public parcels with my dog for pheasants, much of the joy I experience in fishing and hunting comes within an hour of my home. However, that home and thousands of others up and down the streets around me, likely harbor sportsmen who are looking for the same satisfaction from their […]
