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

As a guide and tournament fishermen, there were a lot of things that made fishing tough, including cold fronts, heavy winds, no wind and high temperatures.

We were always looking for something that might give us the edge when it came to catching fish.

Before heading for the river or lake, there was always one thing we made sure to check out and that was to look in the local newspaper to see what the water levels and discharges would be for the body of water we were fishing.

When a release was scheduled, especially a major release, we wanted to be on the water as it was a sure bet when a release was scheduled or a change in the amount of water would be coming down the river and baring any natural disaster, fishing would start to pick up and the next week or so, could be some of the best fishing of the season.

The heavier the release the better the fishing would be, but even a small change in the discharge could trigger the fish.

I wish I’d figured this out years before as it would have saved me a lot of time and made many of my trips much more successful.

It’s really not rocket science, more like common sense, one thing that others and I sometime don’t use enough of.

Water releases can and will trigger fish, especially below a dam or spillway.

Let’s look at the overall picture to see why fishing would pick up below these areas.

First of all, you have a huge volume of deep water being held back behind the dam or spillway and cruising, holding and hiding in that water are fish of all sizes and species as well as other aquatic life.… 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

Jon Thelen, walleye fishing pro from Crystal, Minn., knows the importance of properly measuring walleyes
before putting them in the livewell. Nearly every lake we fish today has some type of length limit on this popular gamefish.

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal.
If you are fishing walleyes or bass on public waters now days, a ruler important a piece of equipment as your fishing rod.

Can you think of a lake which does not have a length limit on either walleyes or bass.

Well, sure. There are some.

But, not many.

If you don’t know how to measure a fish, you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

Jon Thelen, walleye fishing pro from Crystal, Minn., knows the importance of properly measuring walleyes before putting them in the livewell. Nearly every lake we fish today has some type of length limit on this popular gamefish.

That’s why we asked Jon Thelen to give us a short course on how to measure a fish properly.

Thelen makes his living fishing.

He’s a former PWT professional and now makes his living promoting fishing through his business Professional Angling Promotions.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

ISLE, Minn. — The fine art of slip bobbering may not have originated on Minnesota’s sprawling Mille Lacs Lake, but it certainly was refined there. The lake’s innumerable gravel bars and rock reefs were the perfect training ground for anglers who wished to perfect the anchoring and casting of bobbers with hooks tipped with minnows, crawlers or leeches to temp finicky walleyes.

But today, a small group of professional walleye angers and guides have taken the technique one step farther.

They have developed a method they call “road hunting.” And it takes the effectiveness of this presentation one step closer to perfection.

Last week I joined professional walleye angler Jon Thelen, Crystal, Minn., and a group of outdoors media professionals at Hunter Winfields Resort on the big lake’s southeast shore at Isle.

We were there as part of Lakemaster’s Media Event. Lakemaster, Little Falls, Minn., is dedicated to producing the most accurate lake maps on the market. Check out their web site at www.lakemaps.com.… Continue reading

There aren’t too many fishing publications or fishing shows where you don’t hear the words structure being used a lot.

You can bet if you find the structure in a body of water, you’re going to find the fish.

What exactly is structure? My definition of structure would be any difference or change that appears on the bottom. At times it might be large and at others it’s minuscule.

No matter what size or type of structure you find on a given body of water, you can bet that some aquatic life exists in the area.

So know we know the fish you’re hoping to might be relating to some structure in the lake, all you need to do is to locate the right piece of structure.

This change in the bottom contour can attract many different types of aquatic creatures.

To put it into above water terms; lets pretend an open pasture is your body of water with a large tree in the middle and a small clump of plum brush in the corner.… 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

SPICER, Minn. — There’s one thing you can take to the bank when you fish Green Lake for walleyes.

And that is, you will tangle with some humongous smallmouth at the same time.

These broad-backed greenies with the bad attitude hang out on the 30-foot weedlines with the fish that made Minnesota famous.

So when Gary Howey set the hook into a solid fish last week, Guide Duane Ryks and I both wondered what it would be this time.

We didn’t have long to wait as the fish rocketed to the surface and jumped, leaving me holding the landing net, my mouth hung open in surprise.

And this was how it was for two days of angling on this jewel of a lake, the centerpiece of the Willmar, Minn., lakes area.… Continue reading

The ripples from my tube jig entering the water hadn’t subsided when my line made an erratic turn to the right, indicating a strike. Rearing back hard on the rod, I hoped to force what ever had inhaled my bait in the direction of the boat.

Just about the time I thought I had it under control, a pound and a half smallmouth broke the surface of the water trying desperately to shake the hook embedding in it’s jaw.

We’d heard that the Smallmouth bite was on and had been invited up to fish Lake Francis Case by Team Outdoorsmen Adventures member Joel Vasek, Missouri Valley Guide Service.

Larry Myhre, Sioux City, IA. and I had made a quick trip hoping to get into some of the early season smallmouth fishing that we’d enjoyed the previous year.

As I landed the scrappy smallmouth, it looked as if 2009 would be another banner year for smallmouth on the lake.

We were casing into the rocks along the shoreline in one of the many creeks/bays that come off of the big lake. The shallow water in these areas warms more quickly than that in the main lake, attracting all species of fish early in the season.… Continue reading

The fishing has been great on Lake Francis Case since the ice has started to go out.

Jigs and minnows are the preferred bait and Team Outdoorsmen Adventures member Joel Vasek, Missouri Valley Guide Service, Geddes, SD has been doing very well.

Larry Myhre and I filmed with Joel last week and had a great time!

It didn’t take us long for  to catch our fish when we were with him last week.

If you’ve ever had the pleaseure to fish with Joel, you know he doesn’t do anything half way.  Those that have been guided by him while fishing and hunting trips are not only very successful, they come away with a ton of knoiwledge on how to be more successful in  the outdoors… Continue reading