Outdoors

Spawning stress causes panfish kills Iowa lakes DES MOINES — Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists are starting to receive phone calls about dead bluegill and crappies in lakes. “Several dozen dead panfish were reported at Lake Iowa Park in Iowa County early last week,” said Paul Sleeper, fisheries management biologist...

A hard shell, long legs and a bad reputation. … Know what I am talking about? It’s the wood tick (Dermacentor variabilis). More than a dozen tick species can be found throughout Iowa, but the most common is the wood tick, otherwise known as the American dog tick. The wood tick is called a hard-tick, because it has a type of shell on its back to protect it. If you’ve ever tried to kill one, you know exactly what I mean...

When a person is preparing to go fishing, it’s a good idea to keep in mind that the fish might not be where we expect them to be. I forgot that fact recently, and it impacted my catching in a negative way. We caught lots of fish, but if I had been better prepared, we would have caught more. Here’s what happened...

DES MOINES — It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a ... Southern flying squirrel? Rarely spotted, these critters are Iowa’s smallest squirrels. Experts at hide and seek Flying squirrels live statewide, but seeing them is a whole different story. These tiny squirrels are strictly nocturnal. When they sleep, they hide away in tree cavities, making it difficult to catch a glimpse of them...

Rigging has continued to evolve over the years and remains a deadly way for catching walleye throughout the season. Rigging can be a lot of different things depending on the angler and region. The classic live bait rig was a simple sliding walking or egg sinker above a small swivel that was attached to a three to 7-foot snell in which a size eight to four live bait octopus hook was used to present a crawler, leech or minnow...

A very basic yet often overlooked principle of fishing is that you’ve got to put your bait near a fish if you want to catch a fish. So often we consider lure shape, color, size or speed, when in reality those things don’t matter if the fish don’t see the lure. Once we’ve found the fish, those other things make a difference, but first we’ve gotta’ find them...

State fish records are becoming a common occurrence around the Iowa Great Lakes. First a state record perch from a local pond last winter and now local angler Justin Sturtz caught the new state record white bass at 3:30 a.m., on Monday, June 3. Its verified weight was 5.11 pounds and 21.7 inches in length...

DES MOINES — Iowa is blessed with a variety of rivers, creeks, and lakes offering a number of different types of experiences for beginner to expert paddler. There are 18,000 miles of navigable streams awaiting exploration by curious paddlers from across the state. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources wants you to enjoy, appreciate and respect Iowa's rivers. We hope you find this site very useful...

2019 could easily be renamed the “year of student research” at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory. Several exciting projects will be implemented over the summer and will provide valuable information for the Iowa Great Lakes Community. Stay tuned for results from these projects on the Lakeside Lab webpage, www.iowalakesidelab.org, and in future OPA newsletters...

Finally, we get a break from daily rains. It certainly is something for which our farmers have been longing! Plus, it gives a chance for the rivers to get back in their banks and for our lakes to catch up. At the Iowa Great Lakes, we have been hoping that the water levels would begin to recede, and as of Sunday, June 2, it began to happen. ...

DES MOINES — The calls have been coming in to field offices and conservation officers for the past few weeks and will only increase as the calendar flips to June — the peak fawning season is right around the corner. “The doe searches out an isolated location where she feels safe and on occasion those places are not what we may think of as ideal. ...

Across the Midwest and almost all of North America, most fish in most places are done spawning. After a few days of rest, those fish will want to eat. If you can put a bait near a fish, it will probably eat it. Therefore, it’s good to show as many fish as possible your bait, and the best way to do that is by trolling. Trolling enables an angler to cover lots of water quickly and efficiently. Here's how you can troll to catch more fish now and for the next few months...

We’re into the open water fishing season of 2019. In fact, summer fishing isn’t that far away. Sometimes we get too wound up in the details of catching fish, and that’s OK. Oftentimes minor details can play a large role in how many fish we catch, and how big those fish are...

DES MOINES — Iowa residents can try fishing without buying a license on June 7, 8 and 9 as part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ free fishing weekend. All other regulations remain in place. Grab your family and your poles, hook a memory, and don’t let go,” said Joe Larscheid, chief of the Iowa DNR’s Fisheries Bureau. “The memories are always bigger than the fish.”...

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources' new hunting and fishing license system, Go Outdoors Iowa, is now available. The new system makes it easier and more convenient for the public to get hunting and fishing licenses, manage your profile information, apply for controlled hunts and report harvests. People can still go to a license retailer to get their licenses...

Native prairie plants make wonderful habitat for wildlife like voles, turkeys, rabbits, ground squirrels, hawks and foxes. They provide both habitat and food sources for tiny creatures such as monarch butterflies, bumblebees and milkweed beetles. They are beautiful to look at...

I hope everybody had a great Memorial Day weekend. Lots of family activities and get-togethers, but there is much more to Memorial Day. Above all, I hope we all took the time to reflect on the true meaning of Memorial Day. I recently read a quote by former President Harry S. ...

DES MOINES — This time of year is very busy outdoors. Birds are in the process of building and rebuilding nests, sitting on eggs or taking care of their young. However, not all birds nest at the same time. Some start as early as mid-February, such as great horned owls. And some as late as August, such as the American goldfinch...

DES MOINES — Seasoned morel mushroom hunters often advise novices to skip plastic and pack mesh bags when collecting Iowa’s spring delectable gift. They claim mesh bags allow morel spores to float to the timber floor to produce more of the golden treasures...

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reminds all boaters and anglers to “Clean, Drain and Dry” their boats and equipment to protect Iowa lakes and rivers from aquatic hitchhikers. Aquatic hitchhikers are invasive species — everything from zebra mussels to Eurasian watermilfoil – that move from one waterbody to another by hitchhiking on boats, in bait buckets and on other equipment used in the water. ...

Walleyes are often thought of as a fish that inhabits the depths, and there are times when most of them will be found in deep water. However, there are other times, more than you may think, when you can catch walleyes shallow. Right now, and for much of the open water year, there will be times when walleyes are much shallower more often than we used to think. Here are some ideas for taking walleyes in shallow water...

For John Campbell, local guide and highly successful longtime professional walleye tournament angler, May 15 was a true highpoint in his fishing career. That was the day Campbell, his family, longtime business associates, fellow tournament anglers and friends attended Campbell’s induction into the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame...

—It takes several weeks of sunshine and warm temperatures to warm the water in rivers and lakes after spring arrives. Snow melt, cool temperature and overcast skies keep water cold long after winter is officially over. Hypothermia is a real possibility in early spring and fall...

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ spring fish spawning season is over and Iowa’s two walleye hatcheries are filled to capacity. Netting crews collected enough walleye to produce 1,082 quarts of walleye eggs at the Spirit Lake hatchery and 963 quarts at the Rathbun hatchery...

AMES — Monarch butterflies are fluttering this way, and with some luck they’ll be more plentiful than in previous years when they reach Iowa later this spring. During the winter months, scientists observed the largest overwintering monarch population in Mexico since 2007, said Steven Bradbury, a professor of natural resource ecology and management at Iowa State University. ...

It's a new fishing season for anglers across the Midwest and North America. Many anglers have already been fishing, others are looking forward to their first trip to the lake, river, reservoir or pond. Following are some things to keep in mind when you get ready to go fishing...

What a great weekend we had for the 37th Annual Walleye Weekend. According to the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, over 2,100 anglers participated in the annual contest. Those in the contest were from 17 states. Of course, many more people fished the area lakes. Boat ramps were full and lake homes were teeming with residents and guests...

DES MOINES — This summer, the University of Iowa is partnering with 14 Iowa state parks to host Wildlife Camps for kids across the state. “Wildlife Camps have been a popular educational and recreational experience in the Iowa City area for more than 25 years and we are excited to share this program with kids across the state,” program coordinator Jay Gorsh said. “Campers will spend a week exploring, learning and playing — in the wild.”...

DES MOINES ― Out-of-state hunters can now apply for Iowa nonresident deer hunting tags and licenses. Applications close June 2 at midnight, so get a head start and apply today. Preference point purchases and applications are no longer available by phone this season and will only be accessible online...

DES MOINES — It's as predictable as May flowers — from border to border, the Wildlife Baby Season has arrived in Iowa. From now until at least mid-June, Department of Natural Resources field offices across the state will be inundated with hundreds of phone calls and scores of deliveries regarding "orphaned wildlife.”...

I was with some friends recently, and as often happens, the talk turned to fishing, and as often happens when the talk turns to fishing, the topic of lure color came up. That topic usually creates some interesting observations. Following are some of those observations...

A Gallup News Service poll shows that 6-in-10 Americans own a pet and 73% of those pet owners own a dog. My wife and I fall flat dab right in the middle of the 73%. Over the course of our 48 years of marriage, we have owned five house dogs and three hunting dogs. Each one is in our pet “hall of fame” with each one having some notable trait that distinguished it from the others. Sadly, as we have found, if you live long enough, you will go through a lot of pets...