Our Outdoors: Go Fishing
Our Outdoors: Go Fishing By Nick Simonson It’s fitting that this week is “National Fishing and Boating Week” because we need it now more than ever. I don’t know what last week’s title was, but it was awful. With the world still reeling from a bombing of a concert for tweens and teens across the pond which left 22 dead and dozens injured, we endured black-letter racist slurs spray-painted on a sporting legend’s home and uttered by a late-night comedian which reminded us that the bigotry of the last century still remains. Add in an unfunny attempt at headless […]
Our Outdoors: Krystal Crappie King
Our Outdoors: Krystal Crappie King By Nick Simonson The art of lure making and fly tying results in a good deal of B flies and seconds that, after a few tries on the water are relegated to the bottom of the box, and are filed away for future reference, simply because they failed to connect with the trout, walleye or bass they were intended for. It might be a matter of time and place, but more likely, they just didn’t have the right stuff. It’s a process of trial-and-error that plays out at the vise each winter and is tested […]
Our Outdoors: Give ‘Em The Slip
Our Outdoors: Give ‘Em The Slip By Nick Simonson There’s a sort of silent excitement in watching the chartreuse top and orange spindle point of a slip float slide under the surface of the water, knowing (or maybe not knowing) exactly what comes next. The sweep of the rod tip to set the hook, the protesting pull on the other end and the back-and-forth that follows, with the float serving as the metaphorical handkerchief tied to the rope in a tug-of-war between man and fish. Whether it’s for springtime crappies, summer walleyes, or even muskies in late autumn, employing slip […]
Our Outdoors: Spring Shallows
Our Outdoors: Spring Shallows By Nick Simonson It was fitting that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band blared through the back doors of the pavilion, where the 10:30 crowd at the wedding reception sang along with each verse of “Fishin’ in the Dark” with growing rowdiness, especially on the well-known choruses of the song. Just down the sandy shore of the lake, my brother and I found ourselves where he was just after midnight the night before, fishing familiar structures, but not for the fish we normally sought. Here, in the two-foot shallows along the sprawling multi-boat dock complexes, walleyes were […]
Our Outdoors: Advanced Angling
Our Outdoors: Advanced Angling By Nick Simonson Not every aspect of angling is as easy as sitting on the bank, casting out a bobber over a hook full of worms and hoping for a bite, the way many of us started out fishing. With each varying twist on the sport, there is more to learn and practice than there was at the level before. Jigging, flipping and fly casting each have a certain amount of precision that takes time to master. Even trolling and presenting baits at certain depths for greater effectiveness have elements of physics, geometry and those “Train […]
Our Outdoors: Welcome Notes
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
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
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
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 […]
