Outdoorsmen Adventures, The Outdoor Television Series That Gives You Less Talk and a Lot More Hunting and Fishing!
Resident honkers often haven’t seen much pressure. Sometimes smaller spreads work fine. These family group setups, say 4-6 decoys spaced evenly near your blind, can work early on. (Courtesy photo, Travis Mueller, Avery Outdoors, Inc
Honker action can be hot early on: literally and figuratively. The sight of early-season geese moving across the late-summer skyline still lifts your heart the same way it did back in winter, even if it feels just a little different now.
More geese can be a good thing — for us waterfowlers, and a challenge for landowners as population surges can foul lawns and wreck habitats. As a result, these seasons are staged around the country in late summer; many begin in early September (check your current regulations).
Assuming you’re armed with a reliable shotgun, loads, and proven calls, here are some other basics.
Due to availability, resident geese are much more likely to munch green grass (in addition to certain planted crops) than agricultural leavings; at least early on.
As a result, you’re often better off finding their roost (where geese loaf at night, often on water), and where they like to hang out by day, be it a corner pasture that hasn’t been planted (check with your landowner first), or any other available spot, including where you might call them out of the sky on their way from point A (the roost) and point B (where they feed and/or linger during the daytime). As fakes go, you should use the best you can afford. Add new options to the old reliable mix. If you hunt hard as many of us do, take care of your gear to and from your hunting spots. Decoy bags are a must. Some guys even put full-bodied fakes in individual bags. Clean decoys with a bristle brush and water. This is a 24/7 lifestyle. No shortcuts. Do what it takes. It’ll put more geese in range. … Continue reading
Each year, there’s a convention where manufacturers of fishing related products get together to display their latest and greatest products.
The 2010 International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades or ICAST as it’s commonly know was held in Las Vegas recently, giving manufacturers the opportunity to introduce what’s new for the angler.
My daughter Cassie and I were on hand for this year’s convention, spending g three days working our way through isle after isle of new products.
This year, there were hundreds of new products with everything from fishing tackle to clothing and everything in between.
Here are a few of the items that caught our eye at this years show.
Humminbird
Humminbird’s 998c GPS Fishing System side imaging unit allows you to see everything that’s below your boat and the water around it.
It’s side imaging sonar uses a super thin beam, taking a sonar snapshot of the area not just below you, it can cover an area up to240 feet to the left and right on either side of your boat, giving you an incredibility accurate picture of what’s on he bottom and to either side of your boat.
Reading the screen is easy as the dark blue in the middle is what’s directly below you and off to the left and right side are your side images.
The Humminbird 998c allows you to see trees, rock piles and any other object on the bottom just as if you were looking at a photograph as anything on the bottom or off to the side appear as they are.
When put together with the new LakeMaster chips, the Humminbird 998c will put you on the spot, helping to make locating structure and fish much quicker and easier.
For more information on this and other Humminbird products check out www.humminbird.com
Shooting at a target butt 15 or 20 yards away is great practice for becoming more familiar with your equipment, correcting errors and building muscle tone and memory. It’s also the right kind of practice for competitive archery. But if you plan to hunt with your bow it’s not enough. Experienced bowhunters know the best practice is that which most closely simulates a hunting situation, and that means a 3-D range.
If your local pro shop has a 3-D range you’re all set. You should be able to shoot a round for around $5 – $10. Or, if you belong to a sportsman’s club they
probably have a range that members can shoot for free, and guests can shoot for a small fee – if they don’t; they should.
Or, you can get together with a few buddies and build one. This is better as a group activity anyway. More hands helps spread out the labor and costs. It’s also more fun to shoot with a group. One of the groups I shoot with meets once a week and after we shoot the targets, we grill burgers and dogs and shoot the bull.
Obviously, you need a place to shoot. The more ground the better, but you can build a decent course on as little as 1/4 acre. If you don’t own it, recruit someone who does into your group, or consider asking permission of a landowner whose ground you hunt on, particularly if you lease that ground.
For equipment, you need whatever is necessary to clear shooting lanes, and the targets themselves. In most cases that means simple hand tools like saws and loppers, though you may need a chain saw for some of the larger stuff. Most any 3-D targets will work. It helps if they represent the animals you hunt most, but it’s not critical.… Continue reading
The Antlerless Deer Hunter Program allows hunters to register online and landowners to scan the database for hunters in their area, then contact them by telephone or e-mail.
This program is available at OutdoorNebraska.org. Click on Hunting, Programs and then Antlerless Deer Hunter Program to access it, or go directly to http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/hunting/programs.asp.
“We hear from many hunters who have difficulty finding land to hunt,” said Kit Hams, big game program manager with Game and Parks. “We also hear from landowners who say hunters only want to shoot bucks or they do not feel comfortable telling hunters… Continue reading
Most of us know just how great it is to spend time in the outdoors hunting deer and creating memories that will be talked about around the campfire for years to come. Creating wonderful memories that will be etched in our minds and stay with us as long as we live.
What would it be like to have the desire to participate in these things, but because of disabilities, believe that it was just a dream, something that others would be able to do, but you couldn’t?
Well, in a year past that’s the way it was, but not anymore. There are individuals and groups determined to share the opportunity to hunt with youth whom without their help wouldn’t have these opportunities.
There’s a group headed up by Dean Rasmussen in the small community of Clark, S.D. population 1,285, who are making these dreams come true for disabled youths throughout the state.
The PDR Youth Hunt is named for Payton Dean Rasmussen, grandson of Dean Rasmussen. Payton passed away from by spinal meningitis in 1999.
It was Dean’s vision that would enable disabled youth the opportunity to be part of a true South Dakota deer hunt. He and other volunteers obtain landowner permission, locate guides, build blinds/shooting platforms, provide housing, meals and plan other activities for the guardians that accompany the kids.
He wanted this to be a real hunt, a hunt like any other deer hunt with the kids in the blinds before sun up.
Dean brought his idea to community, local school and area leaders and a board was formed, holding their first hunt in 2008 with three kids.
The small but energetic group knew what they were taking on would be a huge task. Through determination, hard work and numerous hours, their dream has become a reality.
As with any endeavor, getting the event off the ground would be the toughest part as they were starting from square one. They starting out slowly, making sure they would be doing it right. An event like this isn’t something that can be put together hastily as disabled individuals have special needs.
Obtaining land to hunt and finding volunteer guides was the easiest part as the folks around Clark supported the group whole-heartedly.
Link: http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/events/dynamicevent/2/1260/yamaha_outdoors_tip_of_the_week.aspx
Camps always have a set of unspoken rules, etiquette if you will, that reflect the practices and forms prescribed by social convention or by authority. It’s a pecking order thing. No matter where you lay your head in camp after a long day of fishing or hunting, it’s important to identify: (1) Who acts like they’re the camp boss, and (2) Who really is.
You may have a guy who acts like he runs the camp show, but it might be his wife or girlfriend who actually does. Who is in charge of breakfast, lunch and dinner? That counts too. Figuring out the true camp boss often doesn’t get cleared up until the actual trek to the fishing or hunting locations begins (much small talk goes on then), and almost always it’s in the pre-dawn dark.
You can learn a lot in the pre-dawn dark on your way to some of these places. 
Apart from figuring out who’s really in charge (and it might be a fluid deal, depending on who is in the truck), there are some basics of camp behavior that almost always apply no matter where I’ve been.
Listen more than you talk-at least at first.
Take your muddy boots off at the door, just outside or inside, depending. Some camps are actually houses, with lace-fringed decor, even bed-and-breakfast establishments in the off-season. Treat these places like your own.
Trust your guide-discuss any conflicts with an open mind.
One-on-one landowner contacts improving delivery and speed of conservation
Brookings, S.D. – August 16, 2010 – Pheasants Forever’s Farm Bill Biologist program, which provides conservation service to landowners through one-one-one consulting, launched in South Dakota in 2003. In just seven years, the program has worked to improve soil, water and wildlife habitat quality on more than 500,000 South Dakota acres. Pheasants Forever looks to add to that total during the current Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up.
The Farm Bill Biologist program is a partnership of Pheasants Forever, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Since 2003, South Dakota’s seven Farm Bill Biologists have made more than 13,000 landowner contacts, working a combined 100,000 hours to evaluate 508,890 acres for conservation improvements.
Primarily, the biologists work to accelerate and enhance enrollment in CRP and other Farm Bill conservation provisions that work with farm operations. With the first CRP general sign-up in four years under way, Farm Bill Biologists continue working conservation’s front lines with more acres and landowners than ever before.
“Pheasants Forever’s Farm Bill Biologist program is especially suited for South Dakota,” says Matt Morlock, Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Biologist based out of Brookings, “There is lots of land and lots of landowners in need of the service we’re providing.” Two years ago, Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Biologists in South Dakota helped drive interest in the CRP’s State Acres For wildlife Enhancement program (SAFE), then a brand-new continuous CRP practice. The initial demand was so great that it helped secure an additional acreage allotment for the state; that demand continues to grow.
You know the saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”
Well, let me tell you that it can be done, because this, mature dog, I don’t like the word Old, recently learned a new trick that will not only catch walleyes, it will catch “Big” walleyes.
Last week, our film crew made a trip down to Lake McConaughy in southwestern Nebraska to film the 2010 Cabela’s Regional Walleye Tournament.
First of all, let me tell you a little about McConaughy, it’s back and no longer the largest beach in Nebraska as the water levels were so low that the lake looked more like a huge beach with a small lake in the middle than Big Mac.
According to the Central Public Power and Irrigation District, Big Mac is up 30’ since last December with the lake that is now over 20 miles long.
When we headed for the lake, we knew it held large walleyes as the state record walleye; a 16 pound 2 ounce lunker came from the lake.
The two person teams in this tournament had to qualify by finishing in the top twenty-five in their respective state.
Anglers from the Kansas Walleye Association, Colorado Walleye Association, Nebraska Walleye Trail and the Wyoming Walleye Stampede were represented in the tournament that paid $10,000.00 first place.
Link: http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/events/dynamicevent/2/1258/yamaha_outdoors_tip_of_the_week.aspx
It’s not that far off, and elk enthusiasts everywhere are eagerly expecting a successful season. That success may well depend on your calling skills, and whether you’re a veteran looking to get better or a rank amateur anxious to learn the basics, there’s a few things you should consider.
In addition to being a self-described elk nut, bowhunter, guide, naturalist and call maker, Joel Turner, 33, of Eatonville, Washington, is also reigning and two-time champion of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation/Leupold World Elk Calling Championships.
He’s equally as skilled at impressing the real judges, wild elk, and has spent the past several years developing an elk calling philosophy and hunting system that he’s distilled to five important points.
1. Call to an Instinct, Not an Attitude
“Most often, when challenged by rival, a bull’s first instinct is to retreat. It’s OK to bugle to locate elk from a distance, but afterward, rely on calls that trigger their breeding, rather than their escape, instincts.”
2. Mimic a Breeding Scene
“All mammals are drawn to the sounds of breeding.
To mimic breeding elk learn to make four specific calls: 1.) estrus cow call, a long, whining cow call, 2.) estrus cow scream, a loud mew made through sputtering lips, 3.) tending bull bugle, a soft moan made through a tube, and 4.) glunking, the sharp hiccoughing sound of a bull.”
LINCOLN, Neb. – Three state records for eastern Nebraska fishermen were certified this summer, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Ron Anderson of Omaha set the archery record for silver carp. The fish weighed 27 pounds, 11 ounces and was 39 inches long. It was caught July 20 in the Missouri River in Douglas County.
team Outdoorsmen Adventures Member Marlyn Wiebelhaus of Wynot set the archery record for grass carp. The fish weighed 63 pounds, 7.5 ounces and was 53¼ inches long. It was caught July 6 at Buckskin Hills Lake in Dixon County.
Randy Oppliger of Columbus set the surface spearfishing record for longnose gar. The fish weighed 20 pounds, 15.2 ounces and was 58 inches long. It was caught June 12… Continue reading