Our Outdoors

By Nick Simonson There’s only three episodes in the current season of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.  Typically, PBS releases five or six installments at a time, and most seasons have at least 10 shows in an entire run. However, right now there’s only three, which for those parents like me looking for some soft-glow, small-screen guidance for their children while upland gear gets prepped, a few fall flies get tied, or summer rods and reels are cleaned and stashed for the off season, doesn’t provide much cover to get those items checked off the list. However, the second episode in the […]

By Nick Simonson Through thick fog, the gurgle of my boat’s motor joined the crowd launching from the east side of Garrison Dam, with one more search for summer salmon as its primary mission.  As we cleared the first of phalanx of boats readying rods and dropping downrigger balls, I turned the wheel over to my brother-in-law, Adam, and set about to the same business.  On the sonar, arcs appeared from 120 to 70 feet up over the deepest stretch of Lake Sakakawea, so I set the combos rigged with frozen herring at 105, and the plastic squids and tinsel […]

By Nick Simonson It happens fast and almost unexpectedly, like a mourning dove banking hard from behind to circle in on the muddy edge of a stock pond during an evening hunt, or in the way a doe and her fawns suddenly appear in front of a bow stand where there was nothing a moment before.  Fall shows up in this manner and in abrupt fits and starts, with gusty winds and cool conditions sweeping in for a day or two, only to be ousted by an equally-surprising summery counterpunch that makes for warm weekends and temperate evenings.  The transition […]

By Nick Simonson  The dogs recoiled in unison from the movement of the dark, curly-que shaped creature standing out against the streetlight glow which illuminated the driveway cement near the garage door.  On our daily walk in the pre-dawn dark of five o’clock, they shook off their surprise at the small, elongated object suddenly balling itself up in a defensive posture, and stood on high alert over it trying to determine if it was threat, food or something else entirely.  The zip of the retracting leashes subsided as I came up behind them, quite certain of what sat in front […]

By Nick Simonson I’ve been prone to some idiotic moments in the outdoors, such as toting an unloaded shotgun racked over my shoulders on the way back from a long walk in the field, when all of a sudden birds start flushing; or missing a buck standing broadside at 20 yards with my bow because my nerve-wracked brain thought he was at 30.   Fishing is no different.  It seems as if every missed hookset – especially on those where a steamrolling bass or freight-training pike slams my offering – is one of those ‘duh’ moments that stings a little bit […]

By Nick Simonson Our time in the outdoors, much like life, is defined by the successes and amazing events that live on in memory and require no photograph or journal entry to remind oneself, or perhaps a group of close friends around the campfire, of what happened. A simple “do you remember that time when…” stokes the flames of storytelling that burn on into the night, triggers a bit of super-sizing those memories and rekindles a passion to get back out there to try to repeat those feats and experience new ones. They may come along once in a season, […]

By Nick Simonson The tinny buzz of the mosquito hovering annoyingly close to my ear was almost enough to distract me from completing the draw on my bow string and setting up the umpteenth arrow of the day.  With a sideways exhale that pushed the micro-menace away for a few more seconds, I steadied and clicked on my release and the muffled twang of the string and dense thwack of the arrow finding the foam block were quickly absorbed into the humidity of the afternoon which hung heavy in the small lane cut through the woods.  Through the sun-dappled path […]

By Nick Simonson There was nothing subtle about the take that came along the stand of watershield leaves which partially covered the surface of the clear shallows.  A solid bump elicited the hyperspastic reel-down on my baitcaster and the sweeping hookset which followed.  Where most of the one-to-two-pound fish had been rocketed out of the reeds, lilies and other aquatic vegetation by my powerful sweep, this one barely budged and instead plowed along the bottom of the area in between the two prime stretches where we offered up our plastics. I advised the boys – my wife’s cousin’s twins Billy […]

By Nick Simonson Topwater fishing is synonymous with the start of summer.  While the tactics and lures vary, an explosive take of a bait off the surface of the water is about as thrilling as the culmination of a July firework show.  While topwater fishing may not be the best way to catch bass, it sure is one of the most heart-pounding experiences to watch a subsurface wake materialize into the white-foam splash of a strike, and always worth having an option ready to throw to add to the summertime excitement.  To make the most of these opportunities often limited […]