While farmers and urban folks may have had trouble with high water in the Dakotas following two decades of above average
precipitation, anglers are taking advantage of some great opportunities. Scores
of North Dakota sloughs have swelled to a size
and depth capable of supporting game fish, especially northern pike and perch.
It took over 50 years, but I just checked off one more thing from my “Bucket List.” I’ve spent thousands of hours in Minnesota’s
forests hunting deer, bear, squirrels, and grouse. From my first time deer hunting in heavily forested Koochiching County in the far north central part of the state, I’ve wanted to see a Minnesota bobcat in the wild. That and more happened on a very exciting chase!
Smallmouth bass were introduced to the Otter Tail River near Fergus Falls in
west central Minnesota several years ago. They have survived and done very well
as we found out on a recent Fall fishing trip.
Having never hunted Minnesota’s early goose season, I was excited when my friend Jason Riopel called one evening to invite me along for early season goose hunting. The first group of 20 geese came right in to our spread, coaxed on by Pat Hoolihan and Riopel’s calling. They dropped in on the south side and Riopel said,
"OK, shoot ’em."
I was pumped to hunt spring turkeys in Minnesota, but wasn’t able to make it out until the last day of the 2007 season. About an hour after setting out my hen decoy in a little grassy opening and getting comfortable behind a big oak tree, three turkeys surprised me by appearing right in front of me without me seeing them approach. I moved just a little to draw my bow … .
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I had a couple days of work left before I could head out for a thar (also spelled “tahr”) hunt in New Zealand. Thar
are a type of mountain goat that is native to the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal and Tibet. The morning of the hunt was overcast with a little rain, which delayed both the hunt and arrival of our "New Zealand ATV" (actually a
helicopter!). It was one of the most exciting hunts I have ever gone on in the land down under!
I was happy to get an Impala for my birthday a couple of years ago! I was in South Africa on a short work assignment at Mkuze Game Reserve. When the people responsible for bringing me to South
Africa found out, they asked what I would like for my birthday. My quick response was "I’d like to shoot something!"
One of my most anticipated guided hunts was a trip to hunt mule deer in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. Our guide made some squealing noises that sounded to me like they would scare any respectable deer to the next mountain range! All of a sudden, like out of an outdoors’ magazine, a big, dark British Columbia mule deer buck appeared in a small clearing straight ahead and about 70 yards away!
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Pound-for-pound, there aren’t many freshwater fish that fight harder than channel cats. In our 2-1/2 hours of fishing the Red River of the North that morning, we caught four that were over 11 pounds, the largest just over 14 pounds!
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