A Step Back In Time: Fishing with Bamboo By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal.
A few weeks ago, on South Dakota’s Enemy Swim Lake, I stepped back in time nearly 70 years.
I laid down my fine graphite casting rods and, instead, picked up a five-and-one-half-foot handmade split bamboo casting rod.
My nod to the past stopped with the rod. I was using a modern free-spool casting reel spooled with 10-pound-test mono.
I tied on a two-and-a-half inch Big O in Smokey Joe color, my favorite bass crankbait, and fired out a cast.
The lure literally flew over the boulder-studded flat and I thumbed the reel a bit to avoid overcasting the target.
The rod performed just as it had when lawn casting. Bamboo, I found, loads quickly and literally throws the lure for you, something a graphite rod does not do.
I made three cranks of the rod handle when the lure just stopped.
The smallmouth did what they usually do when caught in shallow water. It came up, one, two, three times in quick succession, and then avowed to slug it out.
Smallmouth never come to hand easily, and this one was no exception.
I finally was able to slip my thumb into his mouth and lift him from the water. He was nearly four pounds and was to be the largest of over a dozen smallies I caught on the bamboo rod that day.
I also landed a few largemouth, some of them over three pounds.
Making it A Hunt to Remember The PDR Youth Hunt By Gary Howey
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.
Winning national duck stamp contest keeps Spies busy By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City JOurnal
WATERTOWN, S.D. — Winning the Federal Duck Stamp Contest takes a little luck and a lot of talent.
Watertown artist Joshua Spies has plenty of talent and he just might have created his own luck on his way to the 2008 win of this prestigious contest.
“There are 270 plus entries and only the best of the best enter,” he says. “You have to have a little bit of an edge in what you do.
“My thinking was the long-tailed duck was a species of bird that probably wouldn’t get painted that much because finding reference for it is actually kind of difficult,” he continues. “I thought painting the male duck with a Mason-style decoy, which are pretty rare and very collectible, just might grab the judges’ attention.”
And it did. It probably also didn’t hurt that one of the judges owned a Mason decoy that looked just like the one Joshua painted.
Long-tailed ducks, originally called Old Squaws, are sea-faring birds found in the North Atlantic and other areas around the world.
Les Kouba, the renowned Minnesota wildlife artist won the contest for the 1967-1968 stamp with a painting of a long-tailed duck.
“Interestingly, Kouba was a friend of my grandpa, so whenever grandpa and grandma went to Minneapolis, grandpa stopped by Kouba’s downtown studio to have some drinks and some fun,” Joshua smiles.
“They have both passed on now,” he says. “It would have been nice to see what their reactions would have been when I won with that painting.”
Winning the contest, of course, brings the artist worldwide fame and a huge demand for prints, remarks, editions, interviews and other pressures.
In fact, that first year after winning, Spies’ entire attention had to be devoted to that one work.
“I was 100 percent married to that competition,” he says. “Everything else had to go on the back burner. And, it’s still going on. I still have some remarks to get done.
“It is a neat thing, not only because of the historical aspect of it but just being part of it. It is the most successful government program in history. It was one of my main goals to accomplish, and I have a lot of them.
Pheasants Forever’s Farm Bill Program in SD Does Conservation on 500K Acres
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.
New catfishing club looking to grow By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
AKRON, Iowa – The Big Sioux Cat Anglers Club began like most others. A bunch of guys sitting around a table talking about fishing and suddenly the idea of forming a club comes up.
For this group, it was back in November of 2008 when the club formed.
“A bunch of us were just talking in Dad’s garage,” Bobby Walrod remembers. “Darrell Carter brought up the idea. There were nine of us there and we thought that was a good idea.
“That’s how the club came about,” he says.
“We wanted to be more than just a group of guys with like fishing interests,” he continues. “We wanted to organize tournaments, but we also felt there was a lot of good a club could do up and down the Big Sioux River.”
Access points along the river are few and far between and that would be one area where an organized club might make a difference, the group felt.
“We would like to do some community service projects,” he says.
“There is grant money out there for projects such as boat ramps that would improve our river and access,” Bobby says. “That’s what we would like to grow into.
“We’d like to work with the IDNR and county conservation groups to have a river clean-up day on the Big Sioux next year,” he says.
From that initial group of nine guys, the club has grown to over 40 members today. Most are from Akron, Hawarden, Elk Point, Sioux City and nearby areas.
The charter members include Bobby, his father Bob, Akron; Carter, Elk Point; Austin Walrod, Sioux City; Dick Hendricksen and Stacy Rabey, both of Akron; Keith Copenhaver, Hinton, Jeff Nohava and Carl Harry, both of Hawarden.
The group held their first tournament in 2009 and have now grown to five tournaments a year. Those include Brown’s Lake; Pro Sport Bistro (the club runs that tournament in cooperation with Pro Sport Bistro Restaurant in Hawarden); the Sioux City Missouri River tournament (canceled due to high water); the Skily Slam (a memorial for Bobby’s brother Chris “Skil” Walrod); The Lewis and Clark Tournament (Aug. 14 out of Weigand Marina) and the Big Sioux Triple Crown (Sept. 18 on the Big Sioux).
Glacial Lakes’ mixed bag By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
WEBSTER, S.D. — Our plan was to hit two lakes a day and take full advantage of the variety of fishing to be found in the Glacial Lakes area of northeastern South Dakota.
Mother Nature threw us a curve, however, and rather than fight 25 to 30 mile-an-hour winds, we fished mornings and motored off the water pounding against a spray of white caps each afternoon.
The first morning was the worst.
A south wind was blasting at 20 miles an hour by 10 a.m. We parked at the boat ramp on Reetz Lake, just south of Webster.
“We won’t last long, out there,” I said to Fran. “We might be able to get out of the wind along that west shoreline.”
I had not planned to fish Reetz. Less than a month earlier I had fished it and caught several walleyes over 20 inches there. But, with the wind I thought our chances were better here on a lake where all walleyes under 28-inches have to be released.
We lasted about an hour and a half and boated two nice walleyes on bottom bouncers and spinners fished in 12 to 14 feet of water.
The rest of the afternoon we spend prospecting other lakes and checking out boat ramps for the next day.
With the wind forecast to blow again, we launched the next morning on Enemy Swim Lake, long one of the northeast’s glacial gems.
It’s a beautiful lake. Clear water, wooded shorelines and a couple of islands. It’s 2,150 acres with a maximum depth of 24 feet. All bass between 14 and 18 inches must be released with only one over 18 allowed in the daily bag. That just about guarantees good bass fishing and that is just what we found.
We started on one of the main lake points casting crankbaits and spinnerbaits in water nine feet and less, but never brought up a bass. We moved deeper on the same point and switched to bottom bouncers and spinners with crawlers.
Again, nothing. Only perch.
We left that spot and headed for a small rocky island nearby and that’s where we found the bass.
Smallies were laying in the shallow, boulder-studded water and were more than willing to take our Big O crankbaits.… Continue reading
Redlin Art Center Summer Celebration
Three Super Star Acts Coming to the Redlin Art Center Saturday, August 7th, 2010!
The Redlin Art Center is proud to announce three super star acts – Restless Heart, BlackHawk, and Little Texas on their Triple Threat Tour! Together, these performers have sold more than 15 million records, had 30 Top Ten hits and 10 songs that were number ones! This FREE show will be held Saturday, August 7th, 2010 on the grounds of the Redlin Art Center. Everyone is welcome.
These three bands will bring the total to nine nationally recognized entertainment groups to perform at the Redlin Art Center in seven years! The Redlin family and the Redlin Art Center began a tradition of a summer concert celebration with an outdoor concert by Mannheim Steamroller in 2004. Since then, each August, thousands of visitors have enjoyed concerts by Lee Greenwood, Ronnie Milsap, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, The Oak Ridge Boys and Sawyer Brown!
The Redlin Art Center strives to make the event bigger and better for the community and those who travel to the event from surrounding states. The Redlin Art Center is honored to have another opportunity in 2010 to bring entertainers of this caliber to Watertown. With the combined efforts of the Redlin Art Center, the Redlin Art Center’s event partner, Home Federal Bank, and sponsors Schwan Financial Group and the Watertown Bid Improvement District, the event in 2010 is sure to be the best ever!
Mark your calendars today! You won’t want to miss this exciting event at the Redlin Art Center in Watertown, South Dakota on Saturday, August 7th, 2010!
Black Hawk Little Texas Restless Heart
Gov. Rounds appoints Jim Spies to Game, Fish and Parks Commission
PIERRE, S.D. – Gov. Mike Rounds today announced the appointment of James C. Spies, Watertown, to the Game, Fish and Parks Commission.
Jim Spies fills a position previously held by Tim Kessler of Aberdeen.
“I am pleased that Jim Spies has agreed to serve as a member of the Game, Fish and Parks Commission,” said Gov. Rounds. “Jim loves the outdoors and clearly understands and desires to improve our quality of life. His business background is also of great value as the Commission makes future decisions regarding our parks and recreational facilities.”
“I look forward to the challenge,” said Jim Spies.
Mr. Spies is a member of the Dallas Safari Club, the Safari Club International, Ducks Unlimited, and the Wild Sheep Foundation, along with many other… Continue reading
Reetz Lake produces ‘eyes By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
WEBSTER, S.D. — It was early morning, but there was no sunrise.
We sat in the parking lot at the boat ramp on Bitter Lake, my boat still on the trailer.
Across the western horizon an angry mass of blue clouds hung like a curtain, and sharp streaks of lightening occasionally ripped across its dark tapestry. So far, the rain was light and most of it would move north, but we waited.
It was afternoon before we felt safe enough to venture out. Les Rowland, a local, and longtime friend, had joined Gary Howey, Kyle Nickolite and me for this morning adventure.
We dragged bottom bouncers and spinners across a sunken bar and I took a 17-inch walleye right… Continue reading
1st Annual Capt. Norm’s Walleye Classic By Gary Howey
Lewis & Clark Lake was the site of Captain Norm’s First Annual Walleye Classic held Saturday June 5th.
Forty-nine teams from South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa competed in this one-day event.
There would be a 90% payback on the tournament with cash & prizes going ton the top five teams as well as a big fish prize.
In the tournament, each team was allowed to weigh in five fish, with the heaviest weight deciding the winner.
As the boats sped out across the lake at 7:00 am, weather conditions were predicted to be partly sunny with the wind picking up throughout the day.
Teams were spread out across the lake from the dam up into the river, all hoping they’d be able to locate the… Continue reading