Our Outdoors: Turn it Up for Late Season Pheasants
Our Outdoors: Turn it Up for Late Season PheasantsBy Nick SimonsonLate season pheasant hunting is by far my favorite. The throngs of people have disappeared from the landscape as colder, snowier, and windier conditions generally keep the fair weather uplanders inside watching football on the weekends. Access to places both public and private – with the demands of deer season now subsided – is far more open and landowners are often welcoming once their tags are punched, and the holidays are upon us. Taking the time to introduce yourself and explore those relationships and options is well suited for this […]
Our Outdoors: New Ceilings
Our Outdoors: New CeilingsBy Nick Simonson While shooting the breeze in between rounds of trap this fall, one shooter explained his use of livescope sonar under the ice last season to pick off schools of perch on a favorite water we both shared throughout much of our winter fishing time. He’d simply drill the holes, drop the transducer, spin it around and find the pods of roving perch in the basin. Then he’d move in the general direction of the school, punch another hole, and catch a handful before they moved on, repeating the process once things got quiet until […]
Our Outdoors: First Line of Defense
Our Outdoors: First Line of DefenseBy Nick Simonson Openwater rods get a workout, and so does the line spooled on the reels. For that dedicated jigging rod, or those trolling rods that see regular deployment from the holders mounted on a boat’s hull, they are often in action nine months out of the year from ice off in the spring to winter’s onset. Likely, if they’re used frequently enough, they go through a couple respoolings in a season to make sure that not only the line is flexible and in good shape structurally, but also strong at the end that […]
Our Outdoors: Sudden Shift
Our Outdoors: Sudden ShiftBy Nick Simonson It’s strange how one day in November, you can be staring out at a beige and brown field, watching deer move back and forth, going about their annual chase in an effort to beget the next generation; and then the next day, staring silently as drifts and drifts of white grow in the front yard, pinning you indoors until the first plows make their way to the neighborhood. It doesn’t always happen in November, sometimes it’s late December, right around the holidays, or as it was last spring, mid-April, putting some amazing early season […]
Our Outdoors: Tell Tail Signs
Our Outdoors: Tell Tail SignsBy Nick Simonson From across a golden field of fall CRP grasses, or bounding through the leafless November brush on a steep hillside, it’s easy to see the arching back-and-forth following a whitetail deer in full flight. Their name says it all and that white flag on their rear end typically does too. From the gentle flick signaling that everything is cool, to that wild waving that lets every other deer in the herd know it’s time to get out of Dodge, a deer’s tail is a signal to both hunters and other deer about what’s […]
Catch & Release Hunting
Catch & Release HuntingBy Nick Simonson If I could find a way to zap a pheasant in the air without killing it, to have a second or two to hold it and look over its feathers and admire their sheen and the length of the tail growing late into the season before it wakes up and takes flight out of my hand, I probably would. However, the hard work of my dog, the limits of our technology afield, and the nature of the hunt itself produce a sense of obligation to pull the trigger which results in a finality that […]
Our Outdoors: Scope It Out
Our Outdoors: Scope It OutBy Nick Simonson There’s nothing so clear and so adrenaline inducing as seeing a deer through the reticle of a scope. The movements of the animal are magnified, and if from the right position of concealment at a distance, natural and without knowledge, until the last moment, that the hunt is on. In those seconds leading up to the shot, knowing a scope is dead on can make all the difference between success and failure and these days ahead of the firearms deer opener give one final chance to make sure that both it and the […]
Our Outdoors: Bucking the Trend
A rather startling headline made its way around the internet last week regarding a staggering drop of almost 70 percent of all wildlife species worldwide over the past 50 years. Far beyond clickbait, the story detailed results of the Living Planet Report, an annual survey conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London, which showed declines on all major continents in the populations of wildlife since 1970. In the graphs contained within the report, it showed decreases of over 90 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, 66 percent in Africa, and 55 percent in […]
Our Outdoors: Thick Thoughts
Our Outdoors: Thick ThoughtsBy Nick Simonson In the dry, crackling brown of a cattail slough is one of my favorite places to be in the fall. When the stand of dense vegetation is about chest high – tall enough to provide a good screen and cover for pheasants, but short enough to allow for a clear shot when they flush – that’s about as perfect as things can get. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment but plowing through that kind cover to me is enjoyable, especially after a couple of months back on the workout train ahead of hunting season, […]
