Outdoors

DES MOINES — As Iowans start to thaw out from a brutal winter, paddlers and other boaters are itching to hit the water. While some river levels have dropped, others remain high and unsafe. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources recommends that paddlers wait for warmer weather to let the water temperatures rise slowly. It could be several weeks before water temperatures are ideal and safe...

DES MOINES — Channel catfish move close to shore and are eager to bite in many lakes and the large reservoirs across Iowa just after the ice is gone. The bite starts sooner in the southern Iowa impoundment since they lose ice a week or two before northern Iowa natural lakes...

Your lawn is a buffer. It captures, stores and breaks chemicals down. It keeps them from running off into the local watershed. A sound conservation practice at home is to aerate your lawn. Aeration will help your lawn continue to act as a buffer. As lawns age, soil compaction often results. Compaction reduces the pore space within the soil that would normally hold air. This results in poor nutrient uptake and reduced water infiltration. Poor water infiltration results in excessive runoff...

Many walleye anglers consider early spring to be their favorite time of year to chase their favorite fish. Rivers across walleye country, and many lakes and reservoirs in the same region, are seeing lots of anglers after walleyes. There are some states or areas where walleye season is closed, but there are plenty of places where we can get after walleyes right now. ...

What a difference a year can make! April 26 to April 2 … that’s the difference from 2018 to 2019 when the Rotary car plunged through the ice in Smith’s Bay. Most recently from Nebraska to the Dakotas to Minnesota to Iowa, we all had some form of winter weather. We dodged the heavy snow, but we did get in on some pretty bad rain, sleet and ice making for a lot of power outages. Once again, our emergency crews did an unbelievable job of helping keep things as normal of possible...

DES MOINES — Greater prairie chickens (Tympancichus cupido pinnatus) commonly nested in Iowa until about 1900. In the 1880s prairie chickens were the most abundant gamebird on Iowa’s prairies. Bags of 25-50 a day were common and some hunters took as many as 200 a day. ...

ITHACA, N.Y. — In the first global test of the idea, scientists have found evidence that some woodpeckers can evolve to look like another species of woodpecker in the same neighborhood. The researchers say that this "plumage mimicry" isn’t a fluke — it happens among pairs of distantly related woodpeckers all over the world. ...

DES MOINES — Ordinarily, a slow moving vehicle at night in the Iowa countryside spotlighting deer, raccoons or coyotes would send Iowans to their phone, speed-dialing their local conservation officer, but in this case, it may be the officer doing the shining...

Many of the places where we go fishing across the Midwest are free of ice, or with some warmer temperatures, wind, rain, or thunder, they will soon be ice-free. For those of us that are looking forward to getting back to open-water fishing, that means it’s time to get the panfish gear together. There are lots of ways to catch panfish, and in many areas, there are lots of panfish to catch. Let’s talk about a couple of the ways we can get a bluegill or crappie to eat our bait...

Youngsters ages 6-15 are invited to take part in the annual Kids Free Fishing Clinic at Stolley’s Park in Spencer on Wednesday, May 1, from 5-8 p.m. Sponsored by the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club, the outing will consist of seminar stations, fishing contest, supper and awarding of prizes...

Beeds Lake The courtesy docks are in. Bluebill Lake The access gate to the boat ramp is open, but the courtesy dock has not been installed yet. Clear Lake The courtesy docks at McIntosh, Lynne Lorenzen and Bayside boat ramps are in. Walleye - Good: Fish the east shore after dark...

DES MOINES — Each year, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources relies heavily on volunteers through partnerships and other avenues to keep Iowa’s natural resources in pristine condition. In 2018, 10,621 volunteers spent over 209,500 hours volunteering throughout the state cleaning trash along Iowa’s waterways through Project AWARE, instructing hunter education courses, serving as campground hosts or working on numerous miscellaneous projects within our state parks and volunteering with DNR fisheries staff throughout the year, to name a few.. ...

DES MOINES ― Interested in learning outdoor skills associated with hunting, fishing and general outdoor pursuits? Join women of all ages as they try new activities, refine their skills, and meet like-minded individuals. This weekend workshop offers sessions ranging from intro to firearms, intro to fishing, landscaping for wildlife, boater education, wild game cooking, to city nature identification...

That late spring period is a coveted time for walleye anglers. More specifically, the post spawn time frame often creates great windows of opportunity. While each fishery can have a different personality and the nuances can vary, we have found some universal concepts that do seem to be applicable just about everywhere we fish...

As most of us know, we go fishing for different reasons. Some anglers go fishing to catch some bass, others go in hopes of catching a musky. Bass anglers generally catch more bass than musky anglers do muskies. Some anglers like to be in the outdoors by themselves or with friends. And some anglers want to catch some fish for the table. We had an interesting situation on one of our recent episodes of “Fishing the Midwest” regarding our style of fishing on that particular episode. Let me explain...

There is little doubt that the Okoboji Blue Water Festival is the signature clean water event. Each year just seems to offer more and raise the bar as a daylong celebration to raise public awareness of water quality issues in the Iowa Great Lakes and across the state. It’s all about protecting and enhancing the water quality of our lakes, rivers and wetlands...

DES MOINES — Interested in learning outdoor skills associated with hunting, fishing and general outdoor pursuits? Join women of all ages as they try new activities, refine their skills, and meet like-minded individuals. This weekend workshop offers sessions ranging from intro to firearms, intro to fishing, landscaping for wildlife, boater education, wild game cooking, to city nature identification...

KELLERTON — The first rhythmic and haunting cooing begins as the night sky fades and sunrise begins. The short grass prairie booming grounds prepares for a display found nowhere else in Iowa. This is prairie chicken country and April 6 will mark the 16th Annual Prairie Chicken Day at the Kellerton Wildlife Management Area, in Ringgold County. Activities begin around 6 a.m., originating from the elevated viewing platform on 300th Avenue, southwest of Kellerton...

Each year, since I was a little kid, my mom and I take guesses about when we will see the first robins of the year. Now that I live in northwest Iowa and she lives in eastern Iowa, she usually sees them first, so I usually guess earlier than I would expect to see them here...

The winter of 2019 appears to be winding down, at least a little bit. I’m guessing that I’ve got a couple more ice fishing trips in me, but I can’t get out now, so I’m getting ready for open water. Here’s what I’m doing. I almost always start in my jig boxes. ...

The Iowa Great Lakes is an incredible place to live, visit and recreate. Much of our economy is tied to these area lakes. They are certainly the shining star for the state of Iowa. With these accolades come responsibility for us to protect these waters, to make sure we do all we can to continue to improve their health and water quality...

DES MOINES — The tracks jumped out from the old, crusty snow — they were big — likely from a trophy — and some of the largest Jeff Glaw has seen. “That’s a pretty good sized tom turkey that left these tracks,” said the long-time wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Glaw was visiting the 780-acre Soap Creek Wildlife Area with district forester and co-worker Ray Lehn to check on an area that had its tree make up manipulated as part of their forest stewardship plan...

DES MOINES — Once a well-known resident of Iowa’s grasslands, the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) calls Iowa home in much lower numbers today due to loss of habitat. However, they still remain one of Iowa’s most interesting mammals! Life in the fast lane...

DES MOINES — Enjoy those easy-to-see large flocks of turkeys feeding in the fields while you can. In the next few weeks, the winter flocks will break up, and where you saw them last weekend is not where they’ll be when spring turkey season opens in April...

The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer. In my part of the world, this year March came in like a very serious lion. If the “In like a Lion, out like a Lamb” adage holds true, we’ve got a very nice end of the month coming up. Longer days and warmer temps this time of year mean that some really good ice fishing is soon to come. Here are some ideas for late season ice fishing...

Wow! Has this last month ever dragged out, but we are finally seeing above freezing temperatures, and with them comes the itch for open water fishing. If you are interested in learning more about muskie fishing, here is your opportunity. The Upper Great Plains Chapter 29 of Muskies Inc. ...

For those of you still working full time, you will have to forgive me for saying that being retired from a full-time job is awesome. My freelance writing allows me to work on my own time when and how much I want to work. With this type of flexibility, over the past 15 years, my wife and I have enjoyed taking a week or two trip every winter to a warmer climate somewhere in the United States (South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Maui) These trips have always been a wonderful break from northwest Iowa’s winter weather. ...

Boy oh boy what a change: When the new year started a couple of months ago we were looking at a very mild winter. The ice wasn’t as thick as it usually is at that time of year, and there wasn’t much snow around either. Flash forward to early March and there’s plenty of ice and too much snow. ...

DES MOINES — Once a well-known resident of Iowa’s grasslands, the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) calls Iowa home in much lower numbers today due to loss of habitat. However, they still remain one of Iowa’s most interesting mammals! Life in the fast lane...

DES MOINES — The tracks jumped out from the old, crusty snow — they were big — likely from a trophy — and some of the largest Jeff Glaw has seen. “That’s a pretty good sized tom turkey that left these tracks,” said the long-time wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Glaw was visiting the 780-acre Soap Creek Wildlife Area with district forester and co-worker Ray Lehn to check on an area that had its tree make up manipulated as part of their forest stewardship plan...

ce anglers have long been infatuated with big jumbo perch, and late ice is a prime window for targeting perch on a lot of different fisheries. In some states, game fish seasons close prior to the late ice period where as perch and other pan fish seasons remain open year-round. ...

There are still lots of ice fishing opportunities to take advantage of, but for many of us who like to go ice fishing, the season is starting to wind down. Not winding down, just starting to wind down. There are some things that we can do to make our remaining trips on the ice more productive. Following are some of those things...

Ever wonder what the process is for manufacturers to bring a bait from the concept stage to the fishing market? I recently had the opportunity to learn more about this at a fishing seminar put on by the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club’s at its annual spring get together at the Hap Ketelsen Center in Everly. Dan Spengler, senior bait development engineer for Pure Fishing provided insight into the development process for Berkley hardbaits and also how-to fish the baits...

SPIRIT LAKE — As more snow and bitter temperatures dominate the forecast across Iowa, the mild start of winter is a distant memory. More than two feet of snow sits on many lakes and ponds across northern Iowa with 20 to 24 inches of ice below all that snow. Heavy snow on top of ice blocks sunlight from reaching aquatic plants and stops them from producing oxygen. This combination can create low oxygen conditions that may lead to fish kills...

DES MOINES — Story after story on TV, the radio and in newspapers detailed the historic winter storm that swept across northern and western Iowa last weekend, stranding vehicles and closing roads for days. Drivers were warned repeatedly to stay off the roads because not doing so was “taking your life into your own hands.”...

DES MOINES — Don’t be afraid to get messy. When we’re talking about wooded areas, don’t feel like the forest floor needs to stay clean. Native shrubs and downed woody debris provides excellent forest cover for songbirds and other native wildlife. Offering coralberry, gooseberry, bottlebrush grass, silky wild rye grass or white snakeroot creates excellent conditions to see birds. ...