Paddlefish season draws snaggers to dam In pursuit of swimming fossils By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
YANKTON, S.D. – The allure of holding a prehistoric fish which swam 50 million years before the dinosaurs ruled the world is hard to resist for Mieke Slaba, Wagner, S.D.
Each year she looks forward to pursuing paddlefish below the Gavin’s Point Dam with her father Gary Howey of Hartington, Neb.
Of course they have to be lucky enough to draw one of the 1,600 paddlefish tags issued annually by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. This year they were.
Mieke is not alone in her quest for paddlefish. Snagging is so popular that special regulations had to be put in place years ago to protect this valuable resource.
Although the chance to catch a really big fish, Nebraska’s state record paddlefish weighs 93 pounds and was caught from the Gavin’s Point Dam tailwaters in 1998 by Kathy Reiman of Yankton, is undoubtedly one of the reasons. Another is that this fish is incredibly tasty, if you remove all the red meat from the fillets.
And in late fall, paddlefish congregate by the thousands below the dam, jammed up here during a prespawn migration urge eons old.… Continue reading
Redlin Art Center’s Summer Celebration draws Thousands By Gary Howey
2009
Rising majestically from the prairie, The Redlin Art Center can be seen long before the city itself.
Located where Interstate 29 and U.S. Highway 212 intersect in Watertown, South Dakota it’s one of South Dakota’s premier tourist destinations.
The Art Center itself is a work of art as are Terry Redlin’s paintings that are so beautifully displayed inside.
At the Redlin Art Center you’ll have the opportunity to see over 150 of the award winning prints and paintings by Watertown native, Terry Redlin.
Terry is one of America’s most beloved artists, famous for his many wildlife paintings that have graced the front covers of numerous magazines.
Redlin is not only a wildlife artist, he’s an Americana artist as his paintings capture much of the American traditions that he remembers from his childhood while growing up in the Watertown area.… Continue reading
Too much of a Good thing! By Gary Howey
A warm sunny day can bring a lot of warmth to people, especially those of us who long to be outdoors after a long cold winter.
I know you’ve heard the old saying “too much of anything is not good for you!”
That holds true when it comes to being in the sun too much.
Sure, who doesn’t want to get a good tan, but there’s a thin line between a tan and skin cancer.
If you don’t take some precaution too much sun can a life-changing event.
It’s really pretty simple! Too much sun can and will lead to skin cancer!
I know what you’re saying; skin cancer is something others get but not me.
Don’t believe it, because it can happen to anyone at any age.
When a patient hears the word cancer, it will scare you to death, literally.
Death was the first thing that came to mind when I was told that I had skin cancer. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I had gone in for an annual physical and thought I was home free when a dermatologist stopped in to talk with my doctor.
He recognized me since he’s seen our television series. We talked about hunting, fishing and the show. He asked how things were going and I told him things were going well and during that conversation, he indicated if there was anything he could do for me to let him know.
I mentioned that there was a spot on my lip that had been there for awhile, not a big spot, anything that hurt, just a spot that would break open from time to time.… Continue reading
To some hunters, the word Lease is a dirty word! By Gary Howey
If you want to make outdoorsmen and women feel truly uncomfortable, causing shivers to run up and down their spines all you need to do is to bring the word lease up.
It’s pretty easy to figure out why mentioning the word lease causes such problems, it’s because the word
means that another piece of land is locked up and no longer available for the average person to hunt on. With less land being available there will be more demand on the remaining land that’s out there. Because of this, there will be more hunters vying for the fewer and fewer acres that remain.
If you’re a family man with kids, it means it will be harder for you to find a place to introduce your children to the sport or to take them hunting.
Even if you’ve leased some land or have a place to hunt, you can bet that when the landowner is approached by someone with a few bucks, he’ll lease it out or sell it out from under you in a heartbeat.
Leasing land without some sort of written agreement can be an iffy proposition as the days when a hand shake were as good as gold are long gone. Unless you have a legal document drawn up by a legal adviser with everything and I mean everything listed in black and white and if you don’t, you may just end up on the outside looking in .
I’m not saying that land shouldn’t be leased; I’m simply saying that because of all the land being leased, in a few years; there may be little if any land to hunt on and leasing may be the only way anyone will have land to hunt.… Continue reading