Our Outdoors

By Nick Simonson While sitting in the waiting area of the dentist’s office last week, wistfully staring at the nice day setting up outside and dreading the usual scraping and poking to come, a quote flashed on the screen of the television on the wall.  Fittingly, it had been awhile since I had read it or one of the various versions of it floating around out there, but it remained thought-provoking nonetheless, even if it was Hoda and Kathy Lee that were debating its merits over their morning wine. “When was the last time you had done something for the […]

By Nick Simonson Late summer brings with it fast fishing, but it can provide challenging conditions as well.  Gearing up for the home stretch of the season and the start of fall, which produces some of the biggest and fastest bites of the year, requires anglers to rethink some strategies, remain persistent on others and focus on the weather and moon factors that influence fishing this time of year.  What follows are some tips to squeeze the most out of the last couple months of openwater angling, before hunting seasons take over the calendar. 1. Stay Aggressive.  Big fish will […]

While strolling the aisles of the nearby megamart it hit me like a ton of bricks, or a pile of spiral-bound notebooks, as it were.  The creeping metal twist through covers of blue and yellow binding college-ruled papers brought a slight feeling of melancholy. It was as if I had been transported back to eighth grade, and the sprawling world of lakes and rivers filled with bass and bluegills, frogs and crayfish and late star-filled summer nights around youthful attempts at shoreline campfires would quickly be replaced by the black-trimmed windows and brick walls of a junior high classroom. It […]

By Nick Simonson “When we get one on, it’s a Chinese fire drill,” my buddy John explained with a laugh as we motored out along Garrison Dam on the south end of Lake Sakakawea in search of the chinook salmon which are stocked annually in the reservoir and provide a unique, cold-water fishery that fires up in late summer as fish feed before their spawning instincts take over in fall. Right out of the launch on my first expedition, in a learn-by-doing session, John explained how to rig up and clip the flashers and hoochie rigs – squid-shaped plastics threaded […]

By Nick Simonson At this point in the summer, weedlines have become well established and are the places where food is found by bigger predators bingeing from mid-season on in to fall.  Young panfish, this year’s crop of minnows and other smaller prey items abound in the underwater jungle created by the stands of seasonal growth. Knowing how to work the various features of a weedline and how fish relate to the edges, bends, turns and pockets along it will produce more bites and better fishing for the rest of the open water season. On the Edge The outer edge […]

by Nick Simonson With a smack, the foam fly flopped over on the cast next to the silver metal of the boatlift at the end of the dock. A second later, a dimple appeared and the offering was gone, replaced with all the might of a silver-dollar sized sunfish which swirled and turned under the surface.   I appreciated the small fish’s effort in not only gulping down most of the relatively bulky fly but also the way in which he cut back and forth and turned in a circle against my pull of the line. As the sun rose and […]

By Nick Simonson With trail camera technology now a big part of most every dedicated deer hunter’s pre-season scouting rituals, getting a glimpse at that big buck (or several of them) patrolling a certain area provides a shot of excitement for the upcoming autumn, the opportunity to understand more about the animal’s movement, and a connection with the creature that lingers long into the hunting season and sometimes even beyond. Clicking through the dozens or hundreds of photos that come through on a camera’s memory card is a lot like flicking through a pack of trading cards as a kid.  […]

By Nick Simonson As the neighbor’s speedy, slender lab streaked unleashed across the road toward Ole and I on our evening walk, I watched the hairs bristle from the back of my dog’s head straight down to his tail and expected the worst.  The two retrievers squared off and in tried-and-true lab fashion sniffed each other’s undersides until they were satisfied neither was a threat and they both could be friends.  Ole, now almost fully grown, clocked in at the veterinarian’s office at 96.4 pounds last week in his first annual checkup, and he easily had height, weight and I’m […]