Our Outdoors: Honing in on Hooks
Our Outdoors: Honing in on HooksBy Nick Simonson In midwinter, when bites come a bit slower and non-outdoors time is best spent in the basement at the lure-making desk or going through tackle for the coming spring, the point of much of my work is making sure that my gear is ready to go. When it comes down to it, a lot of my focus is on just that – the point of each hook. Whether on an ice lure such as a spoon for walleyes or a small jig for crappies, or the big bass hooks in the clear […]
Our Outdoors: A Sliding Scale for Screens
Our Outdoors: A Sliding Scale for ScreensBy Nick Simonson As cellular phone technology began to creep into every corner of life, I worked hard to keep it out of my outdoor adventures. Before smartphones even, when a gray LCD display lit by a greenish white backlight was the only glow a phone provided, the old pay-by-the-minute Nokia model I owned often stayed in my truck while I walked the fields or ventured out on the ice. I was not only reluctant to keep it out of the experience, I was adamantly opposed to it being part of it, even if […]
Our Outdoors: All Indications
Our Outdoors: All IndicationsBy Nick Simonson Sometimes it happens so fast my eyes can barely pick it up. The jump of a spring bobber or that slight lift of the brightly colored drop of glue at the end of the wire indicator which signals a take from a fish below – usually a panfish like a perch, crappie or bluegill – is one of the most exciting moments on the ice. Like the buildup to the big game consisting of two weeks of pregame highlights, interviews and in-depth analysis of the star quarterbacks’ meal prep; watching a fish rise on […]
Our Outdoors: The Worries of Midwinter
Our Outdoors: The Worries of MidwinterBy Nick Simonson By meteorological standards, we’ve made it through the worst of winter. Just like the hottest days of summer come in late July and August, a few weeks after the solstice, winter’s coldest stretch often comes in the final days of January. Then February brings with its shortened calendar the idea that March isn’t far away, and spring is just around the corner. However, what happens in the coming weeks is often telling in regard to the survival of both fisheries and wildlife. Winterkill for fish and lack of habitat for wildlife are […]
Our Outdoors: Vigilance
Our Outdoors: VigilanceBy Nick Simonson In the outdoors, paying attention can often mean the difference between missed opportunities and moments made better. Noticing the slight shift of gravel substrate or the bump of a small boulder can help put the puzzle together to catch more walleyes or bass lurking in a stretch of water. Off-season scouting observing deer motion and noting the trails they use can result in a better stand site for bow hunting and a closer shot for greater success. Even a quick scan of a cattail slough with a pair of binoculars can identify fingers, openings, and […]
Our Outdoors: Look Around
Our Outdoors: Look AroundBy Nick Simonson The next clue to good fishing is still there, even on a landscape blanketed with white. Whether in the grasp of midwinter’s icy clutches, or the gentle warmth of summer’s embrace, hints and suggestions as to where fish locate and where to start finding them are all around us, if only we choose to look.While electronic options like sonar, GPS, side scanning and underwater cameras guide us to the spot-on-a-spot, there are those suggestions that come from the area surrounding the water that give us tips as to where to first find the spot, […]
Our Outdoors: Interconnected
Our Outdoors: InterconnectedBy Nick Simonson As an elementary student I learned about the food chain. Little things get eaten by slightly bigger things, which get eaten by even bigger things, which ultimately get devoured in a bloody mess by sharks, lions, crocodiles or some other apex predator with sharp claws and gnashing teeth. As I got older, my understanding of that simple chain of predator-prey relationships became less of a straight line and more of a tangled web as biology courses and armchair interests in conservation exposed how from region-to-region and biome-to-biome, the networks of food species and predator species […]
Our Outdoors: History’s Guide
Our Outdoors: History’s GuideBy Nick Simonson One finds the outdoors in the strangest of places. On the final weekend of the 2022 hunting calendar, my wife, sons, and I joined much of our extended family for a make-up Christmas of sorts, ringing in the new year and catching up on those holiday festivities that the recent winter weather made impossible. With the feasting and singing and reminding of what it really is to be a Minnesota Vikings fan complete, I snuck off and returned to what I do in the quiet hours in my mother’s house when I visit as […]
Our Outdoors: A Year of Lessons
Our Outdoors: A Year of LessonsBy Nick Simonson The lessons learned coming out of the drought in 2022, where a wet spring spurred regrowth of upland grasses and the thickening of the cattail sloughs which remained on the landscape, are many. Foremost among them came with the pleasant surprise of many upland hunters who found higher numbers of pheasants in their favorite stomping areas where good cover and loafing grasses reestablished over the summer months following the vernal soaking. While in the moment, the teachings of nature may be lost in the excitement of a flush, or the thrill of […]
