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As the rifle season ends, many hunters are accepting defeat of chasing a wall hanger. MN rifle season usually falls within the peak of the whitetail rut and offers a great opportunity to find a big buck out of their norm. However, over the years of chasing whitetail, I have found much success outside of this time frame. Bow hunting and muzzle loading allows for an extra opportunity to harvest deer. With the weather patterns, the way they have been the last few seasons, it has

Have you ever wondered how you can keep your scope clean at home and in the field? Of course, using a soft cloth is important and it must be rather clean to prevent damaging the lenses. I have found using the Clam Outdoors screw top bait cup is awesome! It is quiet while opening, water proof and cheap. The bait cup can fit in any pocket and I can quickly open it to use the soft cloth to wipe away dirt, water or fog. The ability to quickly clean lenses, can be the difference i

With the unseasonably warm weather that is around right now, no big lakes in the Black Hills are anywhere close to locking up right now. Some of the smaller lakes and ponds fortunately were still frozen when I arranged an early morning trip for myself and my friends Steve, Beau, and Andi a few days ago. Rumor had it that Sylvan Lake had four inches of ice on it and I decided that we would check it out first and determine if we'd try out another smaller pond that is shaded for

Well I just got back after a couple of days "up north" on Upper Red lake, near Waskish, MN. Red lake is known for its great early ice fishing and many anglers retreat up to Red lake in hopes of finding the infamous Minnesota Walleye, and lots of them and they are looking in the right place. The fishery is simply amazing! So, we went out on the South shoreline, being very familiar with the lake, we knew we had to get away from everyone else, find the top water structure and gi

With forecasted highs to be in the upper 40’s last Monday, I decided to hop in my buddy’s boat and we headed down to Mississippi River’s Pool 4. The fishing was a little on the slow side since we caught saugers but no walleyes. There didn’t seem to be a hot lure or technique as we caught fish on plastics, rattle baits and the biggest sauger came off a 3-way crank. It was a nice day to be out and apparently everyone else thought so too, it was a busy day out there. As the weat

Early ice season offers a great opportunity to get on fish right where you left them just before the lakes froze up, especially panfish. Late fall, in the boat, is one of my favorite times to get a jump start on the ice season. It has proven to very successful for myself. I use tactics that I would normally use on early ice, such as finding good weed growth that still exists and roaming deep basins in search of schools of hungry fish. With the technology available in today's

While most of us were dreaming of being on the hardwater in the near future, Mother Nature had a different idea in mind this week, which we saw temperatures soar in the 50s and 60s for a few days with a 72 degree day in there as well. That has pretty much put off any of the larger lakes in the area being walk-able for at least the next few weeks or so, unless the region sees a sharp temperature decrease. Many smaller ponds still have ice on them, though, it may not be more th

Having heard about some of the lower ponds in the Hills starting to ice, I started looking at some ponds with trout in them that I've had my eye on at the higher elevations for possible good ice to walk on. Having the morning off in the middle of the week, I planned to go to one of these ponds, but first I had to find someone who was available to go out. I asked Brandon, a new fishing buddy I'd made through work, if he was available and he said he'd come out. One thing about

Many boats have already been put away and the ice gear is at the ready, as the latest cold snap has ice fishing on everyone’s minds. There are still some of us that ice will be a while before we can walk on water again, so we are still taking to the open water in search of crappie. This time of year, the waters are continually cooling and this effect, has the crappie getting into their schooling patterns. They will hold these patterns right into the ice season and finding the

More and more of our lakes are becoming void of activity as the weather is cooling off quickly, hunting seasons are underway and hints of ice fishing is coming very quickly. For those that are still out on the open waters, the fish are feeding and why not take that opportunity at catching them. With the water temperatures dropping, the bass have been moving up to the shorelines looking for easy, pre-winter meals. If there is some sort of cover there, rocks, weeds or tree bran