Outdoors

DES MOINES — Iowa is one of the most important wintering grounds for bald eagles with thousands of the huge raptors moving into the state from the north to join our resident breeding birds. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan all have some of the highest densities of nesting bald eagles in the lower 48 states and many of those eagles, especially from Minnesota and Wisconsin move into Iowa during the winter months and frequently gather in large numbers around areas of open water to feed and roost...

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is extending the trapping season for muskrat in several areas of northwest Iowa until April 1. The areas where the extended season is being allowed are Diamond Lake, West Hottes and Marble Lake in Dickinson County; Burr Oak Lake in Emmet County, Trumbull Lake and Barringer Slough in Clay County; Virgin Lake in Palo Alto County, and the Lizard Lake Wildlife Area and Little Clear Lake in Pocahontas County...

The Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club’s recent Wild Game Feed held at Haggy’s in Royal on Saturday, Jan. 12, netted approximately $2,450 for the Jim McDonnell Scholarship fund. “The Wild Game Feed was a huge success,” IGLFC president Terry Thomsen noted. “The big crowd on hand contributed to a very successful raffle, silent raffle and horse races.”...

Some fishing friends and I got into a conversation recently, and as usual, the talk turned to fishing. We talked about ice fishing and we talked about open water fishing. We talked about techniques for fishing and we talked about favorite places to go fishing. After exhausting all those topics, we got into a conversation about the tools that we use to go fishing, and then we got a little more specific...

Area anglers need to mark Thursday, Feb. 21, on their calendar for the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club’s annual spring fishing seminar at the Hap Ketelsen Center in Everly. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., followed by the meal at 6 p.m. and seminar at 7 p.m. Dan Spengler, senior bait development engineer for Pure Fishing, will spend the evening offering insight into the development process for Berkley hardbaits. ...

DES MOINES — The thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), colloquially known as “squinnies” in Iowa, spends more of the year asleep than awake. Adult thirteen-lined ground squirrels typically enter hibernation in August or September and emerge in April. Females may stay out longer in the fall than the males, and the young of the year will remain out longer than the adults...

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a free, fun, and easy event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations. Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. ...

DES MOINES — With wind chills dipping to nearly 60 below in parts of the state — enough to cause frostbite in five minutes — you might be wondering how Iowa’s wildlife survives such brutal cold. Step back from the bread aisle and hoarding gallons of milk to learn how everything from mice to deer ride out the storm...

Ice fishing sometimes is thought of as something that it really isn’t. When the conversation of ice fishing comes up, and there are people in the conversation who don’t go ice fishing, their first thought is of how cold you get when you go ice fishing. ...

What a deep freeze! What else can you say about temperatures of minus 25 degrees and minus 50-degree wind chills? Then came the about face for two days with temperatures well above freezing. Then back into the deep freeze with several more nights below zero. Whew! It is pretty obvious that Mother Nature does her own thing. About all we can do about the weather is talk about it!...

I had to keep it quiet, but I must share something with you. I haven’t had to shovel any snow or bundle up to avoid the freezing temperatures. That’s what a trip to Panama City Beach and the Florida Panhandle can do for you. Oh, and I’m blessed with good neighbors that keep the driveway clean! However, I am sure there will be a price to be paid for that...

DES MOINES — It’s 10 o’clock on a summer night along a gravel road anywhere in Iowa. In the farm pond next to the road a raucous chorus of male frogs are making themselves heard as they vie for mates. A volunteer stands clipboard in hand, ear cocked, mentally sorting out each of the calling species which are using this seemingly ordinary pond...

DES MOINES — Last year, more than 7,500 Iowa taxpayers helped boost wildlife conservation with donations to the Fish and Wildlife Fund on their state income tax form, a decline of about 400 from 2016. Donators represent about 0.4 percent of total tax payers in Iowa...

Northern pike have a rap sheet with ice anglers. These top end carnivores have always held a special place in ice fishing lore simply for their attitude. Some of my earliest ice fishing memories involved staring down a hole in a shallow weedy lake. The weeds seemed vibrant like a neon green carpet. We would stare down the hole for hours watching pike and perch swim underneath...

When the lakes first freeze, when they thaw, how deep is the ice — these are all popular topics of conversation in the winter in the Iowa Great Lakes area. But do you know how the ice actually forms on the lakes? Of course, ice is created when the water temperature reaches freezing. That is pretty obvious. We’ve all seen ice cubes created in the freezer. Yet, lakes don’t freeze all at once, and they don’t completely freeze all the way through. So how does that happen?...

The North American Ice Fishing Circuit recently completed a tournament event in Okoboji as part of their annual schedule of eight ice fishing tournaments and the championship held throughout the Upper Midwest in 2019. In a sense, the NAIFC is the Bassmasters of the ice fishing world with some of the best ice anglers in the entire country competing in the tournament circuit. ...

Ice fishing so far this ice season has been strange. First the ice in my area of north Iowa is safe, then it isn’t. I haven’t been out much, which means that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about fishing, through the ice and otherwise. Awhile back I shared two of my favorite ways to catch fish in open water: A small jig, probably an eighth-ouncer, tipped with either plastic or a minnow for walleyes, and also weedless baits fished for largemouth in shallow, heavy vegetation. ...

As we move into the end of January, we are halfway through the ice fishing season. It’s crazy how mild the weather has been to the point of us being concerned about accesses and “not safe” ice. Now all of a sudden, we are thrown into the deep freeze with a dozen days of high temperatures not even close to freezing. ...

It’s been a very interesting ice fishing season so far. Ice came early to quite a bit of the ice region, then the weather got warm. Rain fell in some areas; heavy snow fell in others. We maybe didn’t lose a lot of ice, but we also didn’t make much. There’s cold weather in the forecast, and I’m starting to plan some trips to get after fish through the ice. Following are a couple of lakes that I would like to visit in the next few weeks. They both offer outstanding options for a variety of fish...

DES MOINES — Iowa is one of the best places in the country to watch large convocations of bald eagles. During the winter, they move away from their nest sites and gather around open water to hunt and fish on our biggest rivers, particularly the Mississippi and Des Moines. It's a thrilling sight and to make sure as many people as possible get to enjoy this yearly phenomenon, several organizations around the state hold bald eagle watch events...

DES MOINES — Fourteen tissue samples from wild Iowa deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease, bringing the total deer testing positive to chronic wasting disease in Iowa to 44. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is waiting for results on follow up tests for two suspect samples that could raise the total positives for the year to 16. The deer tissue was collected primarily during the fall from hunter harvested and road killed deer...

The teams fishing the North America Ice Fishing Circuit qualifier on West Okoboji’s Emerson Bay could not have asked for a more perfect day: sunny skies, mild temperatures and no wind! According to NAIFC director Jack Baker, “The tournament teams had an absolutely great time on fishing West Okoboji. The legendary lake did not disappoint.”...

If you happened to watch any college football games from the mid-1960s through 2006, you probably listened to the great voice of Keith Jackson, who was one of the most famous play-by-play announcers in history. One of his often-remembered exclamations was the phrase, “Whoa Nellie.” When emphatically said, listeners knew that they had just witnessed something truly significant...

We’ve had a really nice stretch of weather to begin the month of January. Warm temperatures and sunny conditions make us all yearn to be outside. However, when we do spend extended periods of time in the sun, don’t forget the sunscreen and the sunglasses...

In many areas where anglers fish through the ice this time of year, we are at about the midway part of the season. Most lakes have a good cover of ice as well as some snow. We also have cold weather, lots of it. There are a number of things we can do to catch more fish through the ice this time of year, but you’ve got to go fishing to catch 'em. ...

Well, we’re into the New Year, and 2018 is gone! What can you say but: What a year with all kinds of ups and downs. Whether on the world, national or local level, the year was filled with tears of joy and sadness, with laughter and happiness, with words of comfort, anger and deception. Think that pretty much runs the gauntlet of emotions for 2018...

Mark this date and location on your calendar: Saturday, Jan. 12 at Haggy’s in Royal for the annual Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club Wild Game Feed. All proceeds will go to benefit the Jim McDonnell Scholarship for seniors that will be awarded out later this spring...

The middle part of the ice fishing season will soon be here. There are things we do in the middle of the season that we don’t do earlier in the year. For more fishing success in the next few weeks, keep these ideas in mind. I was fishing for perch a couple of years ago in South Dakota with some friends. These guys are very good ice anglers. As midday approached, the perch, as they often do, seemed to get a little finicky...

Although you don’t have to get your new 2019 fishing and hunting licenses until January, a lot of anglers and hunters get their licenses beginning in mid-December. When you do get your 2019 fishing-hunting license, you will find there has been a modest increase. The increase bumps licenses on average 17 percent. This includes all resident and nonresident fishing, hunting and trapping licenses and applicable stamps or tags...