Outdoors

The Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club works hard to provide lots of opportunities for families when it comes to the outdoors and fishing. Events so far this year have included the Wild Game Feed to raise money for the Jim McDonnel scholarship for area high school/college students, adult and youngster hard water tournament, the ISU Kid’s ice fishing clinic, spring seminar, Ice Fishing Tournament/fundraiser at Camp Autumn, Kids Fishing Clinic (Stolley’s Park) and roadside cleanup (Fostoria). ...

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is offering a six-month workshop to teach skills needed to hunt, field dress and cook white-tailed deer to individuals who have little to no archery hunting experience. This workshop consists of archery practices in the summer, a fall workshop and hunting opportunities throughout Iowa’s archery season. All sessions are led by instructors that possess the experience to teach skills necessary to become efficient archers and bowhunters...

Iowa Department of Natural Resource foresters are receiving reports of moderate to severe winter burn damage to arborvitae and white pine trees across Iowa. “The ground remained frozen for a long time at the start of this year and the ambient temperatures were above freezing,” explained Tivon Feeley, DNR forest health forester. “The tree is forced to use their water reserves in the needles, but can’t absorb new water from the frozen soil. The lack of water causes the trees to dry out.”...

The nation’s largest recreational boating safety event of the year, National Safe Boating Week, is May 21–27, serves as a reminder to boaters to keep safety front and center all season long. The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water offers three tips for boaters to be safety heroes on the water:...

“When the red birds are whistling, the crappies will be biting.” Wally Marshall shared that piece of wisdom with me in a recent phone conversation. Wally is perhaps better known by his trademarked nickname Mr. Crappie. Mr. Crappie is probably the best known crappie angler in North America and maybe the world. ...

Well, the 40th annual Iowa Great Lakes Walleye Opener is in the books! Lots of people entered the tagged walleye contest, fished in the many divisions and celebrated the weekend at the awards luncheon held at the Dickinson County Expo Building on Sunday...

It’s spring. That time of year when temperatures warm, mushrooms pop up and the outdoors beckons. So run. Hike or bike. Hunt for mushrooms. Take photos. Visit our parks. And count on better air quality. Over the last 18 years, Iowa industries have significantly reduced six major air pollutants, along with total hazardous air pollutants, while growing our economy...

Fishing Rule No. 1 — If you want to make wonderful memories, take advantage of the fish that are most likely to get caught on the day that you’re fishing. Fishing Rule No. 2 — Remember Rule No. 1. As the weather slowly warms the water and the days get longer, more and more species of fish become more and more active. They are interested in spawning, and after they spawn, eating takes priority. When fish are willing or wanting to eat, they become easier to catch...

In Iowa land in public ownership is very limited. Public areas can only serve as islands of wildlife habitat in a landscape dominated by row crops and urban sprawl. As a result, fulfilling the habitat needs of the state's diverse wildlife species requires natural resources and wildlife habitat be reestablished and/or protected on private lands...

Boats, bobbers and bait are all sure to be in good supply on the Iowa Great Lakes this weekend as anglers from near and far attempt to hook the 10 coveted tagged walleye lurking somewhere in the local chain of lakes. This year marks the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce’s 40th annual Walleye Weekend fishing tournament, and the competition comes with a potential payout of $40,000 — should only one of the specially tagged fish be reeled in and its serial number confirmed...

Iowa boat owners can help to protect the environment by following five simple tips all summer long: • Take time to prepare your boat’s shrink wrap for recycling by removing vents, strapping or zippers. Only the plastic film can be recycled. Many shrink wrap recycling programs today are offered at the local level, so if your marina does not recycle, ask your county government. Some boaters have found that by carefully removing the wrap it can be reused for a second season...

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is offering a free kayak fishing basics webinar on May 16, from 6-7 p.m., via Zoom, for those who have little or no experience and want to learn more about how to get started.

The days, too slowly, are getting warmer and longer. These warmer, longer days are getting more anglers in the mood to visit a lake, river, or pond to see if anyone in that lake, river or pond wants to get caught. Fish are cold-blooded. Being cold-blooded, they respond to different stimulus in different ways. Sometimes they like to eat larger, faster moving prey, other times they prefer prey that is smaller and slower moving. Here are some ideas for fishing in the spring.

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, DNR field offices across the state will be inundated with hundreds of phone calls and scores of deliveries regarding "orphaned wildlife."

Well, Walleye Opener, ready or not here we come! What else can we say, when we have been hammered by horrible winds for the past month! However, at midnight on Friday, the Walleye Opener officially kicks off. I do know this … anglers always seem to find a way to catch fish.

Having lived in northwest Iowa since 1978, I’ve learned, like all of us who love the outdoors, to use the wind to your advantage. From golf to running to biking to walking to fishing to hunting … we know that the wind is a part of our northwest Iowa lives. However, since late March, the term “wind” has taken on an entirely new meaning.

There are lots of different ways for an angler to present a bait to fish. Drifting can be effective if the wind is from the right direction, but trolling and casting are probably, in most places at most times, for freshwater fish, the most popular ways to try to put a bait in front of a fish. Trolling versus casting, here we go.

This is an exciting time of the year for boaters, anglers and recreational users. With the ice off the lake and nice weather hopefully in the near future, many people are getting out their boats, open water fishing equipment, kayaks, canoes and paddleboards to enjoy our lakes in Dickinson County. It is also a good idea to refresh over regulations and also do a safety inspection before hitting the water for the first time.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is partnering with MyCatch by Angler’s Atlas to conduct a statewide walleye fishing challenge starting May 1 through June 30. Anglers will have the chance to win weekly prizes while also contributing to fisheries research, helping improve walleye fishing in the state.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has relaxed the fishing regulations at West Swan Lake in Emmet County to allow anglers to more freely harvest fish before the lake is renovated to eliminate an overabundant population of bullhead and common carp, and restore water quality and habitat.

Different anglers have different ideas of what fishing success is. To some, fishing success is catching a bunch of fish: Size doesn’t matter, they just want to catch something. To other anglers, fishing success means you caught a big one. Size is more important than numbers...

With recent warmer temperatures, restless paddlers are ready to put canoes and kayaks in the water. Early spring paddling can provide solitude, exercise and an opportunity to see amazing wildlife, but extra precautions are needed to stay safe. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources recommends that paddlers wait for warmer weather to allow the water temperatures to rise slowly. It could be several weeks before water temperatures are ideal and safe as water and air temperatures continue to change.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and its federal partners are working together to monitor for the presence of avian influenza in Iowa’s wild birds. Avian influenza is a highly transmissible, naturally occurring disease often found in certain waterfowl and shorebirds. There are various strains of the disease ranging from strains causing no harm to domestic poultry to strains that are lethal.

John Dirks, of Anamosa, caught a 43-pound smallmouth buffalo on Dec. 1, 2021, in the lower Wapsipinicon River.

If I were to describe the Department of Natural Resources biologists and technicians at the Spirit Lake Hatchery as they went about their gill netting this past week, I would use two words: dedicated and resilient. Gill netting began on April 11, and it was a great night with excellent weather.

Sometimes, it takes a picture to prove that a fishing story is true. Well, when my fishing buddy told me this story that I am about to describe, he knew he would probably need visual support for me to believe his story. So, with the photo support that you see, I’m about to spin a real-honest-to-goodness-ice fishing “story.”

Iowans will be registering more than 231,000 boats before April 30, when current boat registrations expire. Boat registrations are good for three years and registration fees go to support water trails, navigation enforcement, aquatic invasive species, and boater education and safety.

Really, Mother Nature! Really! You help us get the ice off the lakes by late March, and now look at what you do! Clouds, rain, snow, cold and wind, wind, wind! Geez! If the winds stay like this with winds gusting to 25 mph day after day, how will we be able to fish this summer? I pray that the weather becomes more consistent (in a hurry)!

The open water fishing season of 2022 has arrived. In some areas across the Midwest regulations limit us to the fish species that we can catch, but in other areas most species are fair game. In areas where seasons are open year-round, anglers are already out there chasing walleyes, northern pike, bass and panfish. The next few weeks are very popular and productive times for an angler to get on the water in search of fishing action. If those anglers keep the next few ideas in mind, they will be more successful in that search.

Each year the Iowa Great Lakes Area kicks off walleye season with the Iowa Great Lakes Area Walleye Weekend tournament. Ten walleyes are tagged and released into the chain of the Iowa Great Lakes. The grand prize for catching one of these ten tagged walleyes this year is $40,000. Cost to enter the contest is $30. The contest starts at midnight on Saturday, May 7, and ends at 11:59 a.m. on Sunday, May 8. Blain Andera, CEO of the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, is excited for this year’s Walleye Opener.

The haunting coos begin before the sunrise as dark shapes appear on the lek, seemingly out of nowhere. Jumping, charging and sparring — this is serious competition among male prairie chickens to show their worthiness as mates to the females watching nearby. This ancient ritual is repeated each spring on the short grass booming ground that is part of the Kellerton Bird Conservation Area, in Ringgold County.

There are two in-between fishing seasons in the Midwest. There’s the open water to ice in-between and the ice to open water in-between. In the southern regions of the Midwest it has become the open water season, in the northern areas there is still plenty of ice, but in the middle part of the Midwest, we’re definitely in between.

Staff with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources are currently conducting their annual nighttime spring spotlight surveys across the state, collecting information on Iowa’s deer and furbearer populations. The annual survey is conducted from mid-March to mid-April in each county, beginning an hour after sunset, preferably on nights with low wind, good visibility and high humidity. The routes cover different habitats from river bottoms, to farm fields, prairies, woodlots, pastures and timber stands.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will be conducting prescribed burns this spring on wildlife management areas managed by the Iowa DNR’s Prairie Lakes Wildlife Unit in Clay, Palo Alto, Emmet, Kossuth, Humboldt and Buena Vista counties. Areas scheduled for prescribed burns:...

It happens each spring ― Iowa’s timber echos with the sounds of male turkeys gobbling and preparing to do battle in an attempt to establish their territories in anticipation of the breeding season. With each passing day, the competition gets fiercer, and hunters, more excited. “Turkey hunting is a passion with our hu

The open water fishing season is approaching. In fact, it has arrived in some areas of the Midwest, and also in fact, it’s always open water season below the dams on some rivers. Regardless of where you’re fishing and what you’re fishing for, early in the open water season, jigs are the No. 1 go-to bait for many anglers.

Yes, spring is quickly approaching, and anglers are looking forward to open water fishing in the Iowa Great Lakes. To kick off the spring season, the Upper Great Plains Chapter 29 of Muskies Inc., is offering its annual spring Muskie Fishing Seminar on Wednesday, April 13, at the Oak Hill Outdoor on the north end of Milford (2188/IA-86). Doors open at 6 p.m., and the seminar is free to the public.