Our OutDoors: Tactics for Clear Water Fishing
By Nick Simonson I’ve fished a great number of lakes in the past few years, from alkaline-clouded sloughs in eastern North Dakota to crystal clear lakes near the Canadian border in northern Minnesota. Of all the waters fished, it is the latter that has provided the greatest challenge. Those lakes where a person can sight fish in 25 feet of water provide a test of a fisherman’s ability to adapt and react to the conditions. Applying lessons old and new, I have worked on clear water tactics the past few seasons and here’s what I have learned. Foul weather fisherman […]
Our Outdoors: A Clear Line
By Nick Simonson The water was clear. Sure, it was finally spring and the ice came off the lake late this year, and like any stretch after that momentous occasion, the water was always crystal clear. Ripping a few flies through the shallows on the even of opener to see how my handiwork looked after a season behind the vise, I was amazed to see every flicker of bucktail and feather and even the tiniest shimmer of krystal flash in my streamers above the golden-brown sands in Big Detroit Lake. As I wound up the last of the fluorescent line […]
Our Outdoors: A Winning Season
By Nick Simonson Wrapping up the awards celebration for the local High School Clay Target League teams, it was natural to look back on the spring that was. With the various State Tournaments and Championships across North Dakota, Minnesota and 29 other states set for the coming weeks as part of the USA High School Clay Target League, the regular season’s end served as a reflection point and a chance to regroup and look forward, as young shooters celebrated their accomplishments and talked about their goals for the big event in just a few days. From logging the year’s first […]
Our Outdoors: Three Homecomings
Our Outdoors: Three Homecomings By Nick Simonson There’s no fish more welcoming to me than a smallmouth bass. Having grown up with them during my formative fishing years on the Sheyenne River in southeastern North Dakota, they made up the bulk of my pursuits as I learned the ways of flowing water. When I married and relocated to the far northeastern corner of Minnesota, there they were as well, tucked into the chunk rock and tannin-stained waters of Lake Vermilion, or down in the clear depths of lakes too small to be named in print. Even when I moved to […]
Our Outdoors: Another Always Awaits
Our Outdoors: Another Always Awaits By Nick Simonson In the gin clear water of spring, it was a slow troll for the usually fast-biting walleyes on the small lake under the warm and sunny evening skies. A combination of flooded gravel pits connected to two large sloughs on its north and south end created in the wet 1990s, the water body featured a good population of smallmouth bass that had always provided me a fix for my favorite fish in the middle of prairie lakes stocked with the more popular pike, walleyes and perch. Meeting up at the launch with […]
Our Outdoors: A Green Up
Our Outdoors: A Green Up By Nick Simonson The sun broke free of the high, hazy clouds that held the forecasted temperatures in check and the world around our boat in the shallows of Little Detroit Lake lit up in a verdant show of the first emergent weeds of the season. Having worked hard in the chilly mid-day gray, flipping watermelon tubes, working dark crankbaits and slow-stripping my own gaudy handcrafted flies along the breaklines throughout the waters of the system, my brother and I had but a handful of small male bass and the odd bowfin to show for […]
Our Outdoors: Cornered
Our Outdoors: Cornered By Nick Simonson “If the trout have been stocked, it’ll be fast and furious,” I explained to my buddy Adam, “if they’re not in the lake yet, the bites will be fewer, but the fish will all be big,” I concluded on our sort of all-or-nothing venture to a prairie impoundment known for its handful of big rainbows that managed to survive summer’s heat, winter’s low oxygen and all sorts of angling pressure on the small lake. I readied a rod for our mission in the relative calm of a north bay just off the launch and […]
Our Outdoors: See What’s Hatching
Our Outdoors: See What’s Hatching By Nick Simonson As an angler that enjoys a variety of styles of angling for a number of species, I’ve often talked about “matching the hatch” in order to find success, no matter how or where I’m presenting a bait, lure or fly. Truly originating in the world of fly fishing, the term has come to mean putting an offering out there by any means – spin, baitcast, fly, trolling, casting or slip-floating – that is similar in size, shape and color to the food items that are buzzing, swimming, jumping and moving in the […]
Our Outdoors: Campfire Safety
Our Outdoors: Campfire Safety By Nick Simonson While controlled burns and even natural fires can serve a purpose in regenerating habitat this time of year, unintended blazes sparked by careless use of fire can cause unwanted damage to property and potentially threaten the lives of both wildlife and people. Knowing how to properly manage a campfire, being aware of the fire danger index and obeying a few simple safety rules can help keep things from getting out of control this time of year as the last of the snow melts and things begin to dry up. Campfire Control For creating […]
