Our Outdoors

By Nick Simonson Coffee for the outdoorsman is more than just a morning drink.  It’s the dawn-delivered lifeblood of adventure, that sip that puts some pep in each step and kicks the adrenaline up a notch when that initial fish taps the line on a gorgeous spring day or the slightest crackling of leaves echoes through the crisp morning around the deer stand in autumn. No matter where you are, coffee just makes you feel at home – in the boat, in the blind, or sitting in the pickup waiting for first light. So, upon waking up in a strange […]

Our Outdoors: One Clay at a Time By Nick Simonson Like colored currents of air through a wind tunnel in an aerodynamics lab, the gray smoke wound its way up and out of the bottom barrel of my over-under shotgun. I watched as the wafting darkness gave way to the shimmering green and yellow colors of the first dandelions of the season reflecting up the smooth side of the cylinder from the sun-drenched grass of the trap house at the local gun club.  My numbers for each round rose like the slow-climbing smoke as I broke in a recommended Improved […]

Our Outdoors: Likely Locations for Trout By Nick Simonson The conditions and even the dates have varied greatly from year-to-year for the trout opener on the small stream in the state park south of my home.  In some seasons, the water has been so low that the stocked browns still remained stacked by the dozens in the deepest pockets under bridges and after a few choice riffles right around the areas near the road where they were placed a few days before the season’s start.  In others, stocking – and the reason for fishing the small river – has been […]

Our Outdoors: What a Bargain By Nick Simonson Having spent a good deal of the weekend scoring for the local high school trap team and doing yard work in the unseasonable 80-degree highs, I hoped the rain scheduled for Sunday afternoon would hold off long enough to let me loosen my arm for the approaching stream trout opener with some pre-season panfishing on a little pond in a nearby Wildlife Management Area.  Heading west from town toward the spring-fed pond and it­­­s bull-sized bluegills and sunnies hidden deep in the rolling hills, I watched the sky warily as white wisps […]

Our Outdoors: Lead On By Nick Simonson Another cast, another strike, another hookset met with the sensation of nothing on the other end.  The line wound haphazardly on the spool of my reel without the weight of the lure to keep some tension on the retrieve.  It wasn’t the first time I had been bitten off in the swirling blue-green surf of southwest Florida, but it would be the last as I whipped the tip of my rod into the salty gulf water in frustration. As fast as my legs could pedal the rusty roadster bike back to our family’s […]

Our Outdoors: Gopher It By Nick Simonson While my own speed has never been hare-like, or cat-like or really like any fast animal in the natural world, I felt speedy as I made the turn on my first morning run of vacation with a pace of 7:40, a full 20 seconds faster than my usual average. I’d give some of it back on the last three miles of the run, but would still finish up at 7:49 per mile.  Perhaps it was the rush of being on new paths and out of the resurgent winter and second spring back home […]

Our Outdoors: Fish Formulas By Nick Simonson   Catch and release angling isn’t anything new, in fact the conservation tool has been around long enough to have its own acronym of C&R, which is universally known in fishing circles.  At the outset, providing the length or maybe the length and girth of that monster fish of the day wasn’t the most glorious statistic for anglers to share at the boat launch after a trip, as success was typically measured in pounds not inches.  Over time however, as C&R caught on, anglers began to either accept the tale of the tape […]

Our Outdoors: Set the Hook By Nick Simonson   A snap of the wrist, a drop and a sweep, an upward lift with a downward pull; however you set the hook, the energy and excitement that comes from connecting with a fish is half of the fun of angling.  Whether the fish rockets up to the surface or thunders in the depths, that positive connection is what sets the stage for the battle and, at this time of year, is the moment that many open water anglers wait all winter for.  Not all hooksets are created equal, and not getting […]

Our Outdoors: Banquet Season By Nick Simonson This year, my chapter of Pheasants Forever eclipsed the $7 Million mark in habitat acquisitions and restoration projects.  Through funds leveraged through a state grant program, partnerships with the state and national PF organizations along with the much-appreciated assistance of nearby PF chapters and local conservation clubs, our alliances have opened nearly 4,000 acres to public hunting and converted marginal ground into major habitat complexes in the last 34 years.  While the vetting process, financing and organizational efforts for these projects can take time, it all starts with one annual spring event which […]