Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

It was a quiet, late November afternoon when Ron Peterson, publisher of the Journal walked into my office in the newsroom.

He sat in the chair across from my desk where, as editor of the newspaper, I was scanning our news budget before heading up the meeting with the floor editors to decide what the next day’s paper would look like.

“What would you think of producing an outdoor tabloid which we distribute free throughout our area?” he asked.

As the paper’s outdoor writer since 1973, it didn’t take long for me to answer.

“I think it would be a great idea,” I said.

And so it started, a free tabloid devoted to teaching Siouxlanders more about hunting and fishing in our area and throughout the upper Midwest.

The first issue, one of six to be published each year, hit the streets in late January of 2004.

The cover photo was of Dave Genz, known as the father of modern day ice fishing. He was on the ice holding a walleye. I had taken that photo a year earlier on Devil’s Lake in North Dakota.

The whole issue was devoted to ice fishing .… Continue reading

Here we go again, we’re heading into the fall, where has our summer gone?

It’s that time of the year, the time our kids are heading back to school. As the temperatures decrease, water temperatures will start to cool and fishing will pick up.

With all of these things happening: you can bet it won’t be long before the good fall fishing season is here.

With the water temperatures declining, all species of fish will really start to feed heavily.

When fishing in the fall, it’s a good idea to use larger live bait.

During the fall, fish are on a mission, trying to fatten up before the freeze up.  Chubs and larger minnows seem to attract the larger fish, out producing the smaller baits.

In the rivers, you’ll find the walleye, sauger and smallmouth moving shallow to clean up any remaining baitfish or the crawfish that have survived the summer.

In our lakes, bluegills, crappies, largemouth bass and pike will move into and along the edge of the weeds, picking off insects and of course each other.

Lake walleyes will now be found spread out over the mud flats or cruising the weeds looking for a late season snacks.… Continue reading

As spring makes the turns towards summer, water temps will start to warm up with all species of fish becoming more active.

The shallower dark bottomed bays will warm up first, allowing shallow weed growth to blossom.

In many of the smaller lakes and ponds, this heavy vegetation can make it almost impossible to fish.

If you’re planning on doing much fishing during the heat of the summer, you best learn to fish the weeds or you’ll be spending a lot of your time on the deeper lakes or reservoirs or one the dingier bodies of water where weed growth Is minimal.

In this article we’ll talk about several ways that the summer angler can productively fish in the weeds.

There are all types of aquatic weed grow found in the upper Midwest and depending on the body of water that you’re fishing, they’ll appear and die back at different times.

In the ponds, lakes and streams that are shallower or clearer, weed growth occurs much earlier and will be heavier than those found in areas with the dirtier more turbid water.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

When the ice begins to release its relentless grip on our lakes, ponds and reservoirs, my thoughts turn to crappie fishing.

It is a fact that the crappie will be the first fish to bite aggressively as soon as winter’s ice dissolves into waves and currents.

Some of my fondest crappie fishing memories date back over 40 years to nameless backwaters along the Missouri River south of Sioux City.

Today these ponds are long gone, victims of a falling river-bed level which even in those days was taking a toll on these shallow, but fish rich, bodies of water.

Often the frost had not left the ground, but the ice had retreated from these backwaters and the crappies were ready to do battle.

Armed with a 5-foot fiberglass rod, a Mitchell 308 spinning rod filled with four pound line and 1/16-ounce marabou jigs, I prowled the banks and caught big black and white crappies.

I soon learned that the crappie liked submerged structure. This, more often than not, was submerged wood, mostly tree branches that had fallen in the water. Also, if there were any rock rip-rap along the bank, the crappies would be there.

The largest fish were often suspended over structure such as rocks or sunken timber in water that left no clues to what was below.

What I learned about springtime crappie fishing in those days, holds true today.

If you are wanting to catch crappies after ice-out, here’s what you need to look for.

Warm water. That, in a nutshell, is the key.… Continue reading

The recently released Hippy’s Bleeder Chain line of fishing lures is attracting a lot of attention, both from the angler and the fish!

The products have been used and tested by Team Outdoorsmen Adventures member and Pro Guide Joel Vasek on the Missouri River Reservoirs to take numerous species of fish under all types of fishing conditions.

The wide variety of baits available from Hippy’s Bleeder Chain will help anglers to catch and land more fish.

The key to this success is the bleeder chain designed into all of their products.

The red bleeder chain makes the bait look as if it’s injured and bleeding, enticing fish into striking at the bait thinking that the injured bait will be… Continue reading

With all of the traveling I do, I have the opportunity to talk with a lot of anglers and at a recent in store promotion, I was talking with a group of fishermen talking about different fishing techniques.

When we started talking about jig fishing, two of them told me that they didn’t use them much because they fished for species other than walleyes.

After hearing this, I realized that I might have given some people the wrong idea that jigs were primarily walleye bait.

I quickly explained to them that jigs aren’t effective on one particular species as they’ll catch all fish, from the smallest to the largest.

My personal opinion is that there isn’t more productive bait that an angler can use!

I was surprised to see how many people felt that the jig would work on only one particular species, that it’s one-method or species bait!

Jigs are such a versatile tool, that they’ll catch anything that swims!… Continue reading

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, fall is a rough time of the year for me!  I know that the hunting seasons are starting, but it’s mighty tough for me to start thinking about hunting when the fishing is really starting to get good.

A person doesn’t want to put all of their eggs in one basket, you can bet that during this time of the year, I’ll have my shotgun, shells, dove decoys, binoculars, a couple of rods, camo, rain suit, hip boots and a bunch of tackle.

I know that the dove season will open soon and I already have my hunting dove hunting spots lined up. Then there’s the early goose season in N.E South Dakota and the early goose season that will start shortly in Nebraska, but I also know that it won’t be long before the walleye bite on the lakes and rivers will really take off.

Well first, I’m going to concentrate on fishing, anyway until the dove season opens!

This is the time of the year when water temperatures in the Glacial Lakes of N.E. South Dakota and in the Missouri River start to drop and with this drop in water temperature, the fish will begin to feed heavily in anticipation of the cold hard winter that is just around the corner.

It’s in the fall anglers will want to go to larger live bait.  The reason for this is the fact that during the fall, fish are in a hurry to fatten up before the freeze up.  Chubs and larger minnows seem to attract the larger fish and out produce the smaller live bait.

In the rivers, walleye, sauger and smallmouth will move up into the shallower water into the remaining green weeds and pig out on the remaining baitfish and crawfish that survived the summer.… Continue reading

No matter what part of the country you come from, small ponds dot the countryside. I often wonder how many of these smaller ponds that hold trophy fish people drive by to get to a lake, river or reservoir.

Join Outdoorsmen Adventures Producer/Host as he and his grandson Dylan Kneifl spend the day together fishing one of these “small’ but very productive bodies of water… Continue reading