Outdoors

For those of you still working full-time, you will have to forgive me for saying that being retired from a full-time job is awesome. My freelance writing allows me to work on my own time when and how much I want to work. With this type of flexibility, over the past 15 years, my wife and I have enjoyed taking a week or two trip every winter to a warmer climate somewhere in the United States (South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Maui). ...

Boy oh boy what a change: When the new year started a couple of months ago we were looking at a very mild winter. The ice wasn’t as thick as it usually is at that time of year, and there wasn’t much snow around either. Flash forward to early March and there’s plenty of ice and too much snow. ...

Ice anglers have long been infatuated with big jumbo perch, and late ice is a prime window for targeting perch on a lot of different fisheries. In some states, game fish seasons close prior to the late ice period where as perch and other pan fish seasons remain open year-round. ...

The tracks jumped out from the old, crusty snow - they were big - likely from a trophy - and some of the largest Jeff Glaw has seen. “That’s a pretty good sized tom turkey that left these tracks,” said the long-time wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Glaw was visiting the 780-acre Soap Creek Wildlife Area with district forester and co-worker Ray Lehn to check on an area that had its tree make up manipulated as part of their forest stewardship plan...

Once a well-known resident of Iowa’s grasslands, the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) calls Iowa home in much lower numbers today due to loss of habitat. However, they still remain one of Iowa’s most interesting mammals! 
One of Iowa’s fastest animals, jackrabbits can run up to 35 miles per hour while covering up to 15 feet in a single bound!...

Ever wonder what the process is for manufacturers to bring a bait from the concept stage to the fishing market? I recently had the opportunity to learn more about this at a fishing seminar put on by the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club at its annual spring get together at the Hap Ketelsen Center in Everly. Dan Spengler, senior bait development engineer for Pure Fishing, provided insight into the development process for Berkley hardbaits and also how-to fish the baits...

There are still lots of ice fishing opportunities to take advantage of, but for many of us who like to go ice fishing, the season is starting to wind down. Not winding down, just starting to wind down. There are some things that we can do to make our remaining trips on the ice more productive. Following are some of those things...

As more snow and bitter temperatures dominate the forecast across Iowa, the mild start of winter is a distant memory. More than two feet of snow sits on many lakes and ponds across northern Iowa with 20-24 inches of ice below all that snow. Heavy snow on top of ice blocks sunlight from reaching aquatic plants and stops them from producing oxygen. This combination can create low oxygen conditions that may lead to fish kills...

Story after story on TV, the radio and in newspapers detailed the historic winter storm that swept across northern and western Iowa last weekend, stranding vehicles and closing roads for days. Drivers were warned repeatedly to stay off the roads because not doing so was “taking your life into your own hands.”...

Little did 43-year-old Royce Krummen of Lake Park realize when he went fishing shortly after noon on Saturday, Feb. 16, that he would end up catching the fish of a lifetime and possibly the new Iowa state record for perch. It all happened about mid-afternoon. Fishing a northwest Iowa area pond with a friend, Krummen was jigging a small pink and yellow jig tipped with a wax worm. First came the slight dip of the rod tip. At the sight, Krummen raised the rod tip, felt the bite and set the hook...

On a recent or past episode of Fishing the Midwest television depending on where you live, we talked about some of the changes that have taken place in the world of fishing. I’ve been fishing for a little more than five decades and have seen many changes. Most of those changes have been for the good, some even great, for those of us who like to go fishing. Following are some of the changes that I’ve seen...

(Editor’s note: Last week’s outdoor page contained a report by the World Wildlife Fund on the status of the monarch butterfly population. This week Kiley Roth, community relations coordinator, takes a closer look and what we can do here.) Each winter, pollinator enthusiasts anxiously await monarch population numbers as eastern populations overwinter in the forests outside of Mexico City...

For people interested in camping during Memorial Day weekend, the three-month window to reserve a campsite at an Iowa state park opened Sunday, Feb. 24. Memorial Day weekend begins Friday, May 24 through Monday, May 27. Campsite reservations can be made three months prior to visiting, making it a good time to start planning a trip to a state park...

With age, I have found I often look back and reminisce about how I got to my present age — 70! Pretty darned old, but both my dad and father-in-law lived to over 90, and they aged with a positive attitude and, although I am prejudiced, both with a touch of class...

There are lots of fishing seasons and ways to go fishing. In some parts of the world right now it’s ice-fishing season, but in others it’s open water season. Insome places it crappie season; in others it’s perch season. In some places we go spinnerbaiting for bass or jigging for walleyes...

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is hosting a series of town hall-style meetings where local staff will provide updates on recently completed hunting seasons, discuss possible changes to hunting rules and regulations, and address other topics as requested...

The World Wildlife Fund recently released its 2018-2019 overwintering monarch population report. Adult monarch butterflies covered approximately 15 acres of forest canopy in Mexico, a doubling of last year’s population, and a level not seen since 10 years ago...

Catch and release fishing is one of the most powerful tools for conservation. It is also used across a wide, and diverse, population of anglers. Consider, in the United Kingdom, course anglers have practiced catch and release for more than a century to prevent target species from disappearing from heavily fished waters...

Area anglers need to mark Thursday, Feb. 21 on their calendar for the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club’s (IGLFC) annual spring fishing seminar at the Hap Ketelsen Center in Everly. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., followed by the meal at 6 p.m. and seminar at 7 p.m. ...

Some fishing friends and I got into a conversation recently, and as usual, the talk turned to fishing. We talked about ice fishing and we talked about open water fishing. We talked about techniques for fishing and we talked about favorite places to go fishing. After exhausting all those topics, we got into a conversation about the tools that we use to go fishing, and then we got a little more specific...

The Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club’s (IGLFC) recent Wild Game Feed held at Haggy’s in Royal on Saturday, Jan. 12 netted approximately $2,450 for the Jim McDonnell Scholarship fund. IGLFC president Terry Thomsen, notes, “The Wild Game Feed was a huge success! The big crowd on hand contributed to a very successful raffle, silent raffle and horse races.”...

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is extending the trapping season for muskrat in several areas of northwest Iowa until April 1. The areas where the extended season is being allowed are Diamond Lake, West Hottes and Marble Lake in Dickinson County; Burr Oak Lake in Emmet County, Trumbull Lake and Barringer Slough in Clay County; Virgin Lake in Palo Alto County, and the Lizard Lake Wildlife Area and Little Clear Lake in Pocahontas County...

Iowa is one of the most important wintering grounds for Bald Eagles with thousands of the huge raptors moving into the state from the north to join our resident breeding birds.  Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan all have some of the highest densities of nesting Bald Eagles in the lower 48 states and many of those eagles, especially from Minnesota and Wisconsin move into Iowa during the winter months and frequently gather in large numbers around areas of open water to feed and roost...

What a deep freeze! Then came the about face for two days with temperatures well above freezing. Then back into the semi-deep freeze with several more nights below zero. Whew! It is pretty obvious that Mother Nature does her own thing. About all we can do about the weather is talk about it...

Ice fishing sometimes is thought of as something that it really isn’t. When the conversation of ice fishing comes up, and there are people in the conversation who don’t go ice fishing, their first thought is of how cold you get when you go ice fishing. ...

With wind chills dipping to nearly 60 below in parts of the state - enough to cause frostbite in 5 minutes - you might be wondering how Iowa’s wildlife survives such brutal cold. Step back from the bread aisle and hoarding gallons of milk to learn how everything from mice to deer ride out the storm!...

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a free, fun, and easy event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations. Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. ...

The thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), colloquially known as “squinnies” in Iowa, spends more of the year asleep than awake. Adult thirteen-lined ground squirrels typically enter hibernation in August or September and emerge in April. Females may stay out longer in the fall than the males, and the young of the year will remain out longer than the adults...

I had to keep it quiet, but I must share something with you. I haven’t had to shovel any snow or bundle up to avoid the freezing temperatures. That’s what a trip to Panama City Beach and the Florida Panhandle can do for you. Oh, and I’m blessed with good neighbors that keep the driveway clean. However, I am sure there will be a price to be paid for that. LOL!...

Northern pike have a rap sheet with ice anglers. These top end carnivores have always held a special place in ice fishing lore simply for their attitude. Some of my earliest ice fishing memories involved staring down a hole in a shallow weedy lake. The weeds seemed vibrant like a neon green carpet. We would stare down the hole for hours watching pike and perch swim underneath...