Our Outdoors

Our Outdoors: Scent Matters By Nick Simonson My buddy and I purchased pups from the same litter of labs at mid-summer.  Through stories exchanged over the phone and text message, the two brothers are well on their way to becoming good field dogs, putting up the roosters and hens available in our respective areas during this challenging pheasant hunting season.  While we both lament our lack of shooting behind them – his often due to the position of a rare and cagey rooster’s flush and mine more so due to my lack of innate aim – I stress the importance […]

Our Outdoors: Mingo Modification By Nick Simonson The gentle up-and-down motion of the gulf waters against our walk-on charter boat sitting a few miles off the coast played with the thick line of my borrowed saltwater setup.  Between my brother and brother in law, I watched for the tap-tap-tap coming up from a hundred feet below on the beefy monofilament, and from time-to-time glanced at theirs to see if I was missing anything. Shortly after the 75-minute cruise to our fishing spot had ended, I realized I was, as my line angled off to the right, under my brother’s pole […]

Our Outdoors: The Hottest Stuff on Ice 2017-18 By Nick Simonson Hard water is fast upon the northern tier of the landscape, and with a few bumpy warm-ups out of the way, the ice season can begin in earnest.  Once again, ice anglers will find an incredible array of augers, sonar, rods, reels, tip-ups, cameras and more this season, and at no other time have there been more options to choose from, as a new crop of interesting items hit store shelves, to establish themselves as “The Hottest Stuff on Ice” for the 2017-18 winter season. Electrifying Augers The expansion […]

Our Outdoors: Getting Closer By Nick Simonson The darkening grayness of the overcast sunset hour crept down from the buttes along the small valley formed by the feeder creek and river where my bow stand rests, near their junction.  The rising north winds carried flurries into my eyes which I blinked away. I looked down at the frosted the outlines of the zipper and pockets on my camo jacket and gently lifted the grunt call resting on my shoulder up to my lips. I licked them two or three times before pulling the chin of my facemask down to feel […]

Our Outdoors: United in Orange By Nick Simonson Blaze orange is the color that binds us as hunters at this time of year.  While we all may don the most visible shade known to man to let members of our hunting parties, or those in others know of our presence, the color serves as a common bond. It is a burning flag in the field that signals to all others our passion, drive and tradition, and united underneath it we represent the deer hunting nation.  While each hunter takes the field bound by different traditions, experiences and styles of hunting, […]

Our Outdoors: What Time We Have By Nick Simonson I watched the gallon and price counters on the pump slowly tick up, up, up.  I estimated that I’d need about 28 gallons, with the tank of my pickup sitting at just below a quarter and impatiently ticked off each one.  Unwilling to test the limits on the back portion of the fuel supply, I had stopped at the gas station, despite having a limited amount of time for a quick fishing trip after work. With a bit of a drive ahead of me to the small impoundment stocked with trout […]

Our Outdoors: Ways of the Wind By Nick Simonson   Every autumn has a week where the winds of change blow through the upper Midwest, and this one is it for the current season.  With gusts in some places touching 50 miles per hour at the start of the week, the shift toward cooler weather was obvious, as hat-removing gales were a steady state after the previous week’s brush with summerlike temperatures and relatively calm conditions.  No doubt, winds make things more challenging in the field, not only in terms of adding a layer or two of clothes, but also […]

Our Outdoors: Getting Trained By Nick Simonson It happened suddenly, coming up out of a yellow-leafed draw, my lab puppy, Ole – which until that point had lazily wandered in and out of the grass, kept pace behind my boots, and attempted to bite the other dogs in our opening weekend pheasant hunting group – took off.  He switchbacked in a heart-pounding pursuit and followed the invisible lines up the small depression in the hillside, quartering back just enough so that I could hear the pump-pump-pump of his nose deciphering the Morse code of scent laid out in front of […]