How To

It has been a while since I posted one of these:

Nothing beats hunting a frozen-over, snow-covered marsh for wily rooster pheasants in the dead of winter. At this time, pheasants are concentrated in the marshes’ thick cover, and tracking birds in fresh snow is almost a guarantee for success. Wetlands occupy about 1.9 million acres in Nebraska, or about 4 percent of the state’s area. Major complexes include the Rainwater Basin wetlands in south-central Nebraska, the expansive wet meadows and marshes of the Sandhills, the salt marshes around Lincoln and …

I always do a short blog post before heading out the door for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Problem is I feel like I say the same thing year after year. Like many of you, I will be traveling, weather permitting, and spending time with family.  One of the themes I repeat every Thanksgiving is that between feasting and time with family, a few of us will slip away to chase some roosters or perhaps dry off a fish or three.  Again, …

Thanksgiving is next week.  I am thinking I may have a more serious blog post then about every thing for which we should be thankful.  Until then, this old commercial came to mind: Yes, I can recite that prayer word-for-word. And, am sincerely thankful for the Rapalas! Have a great weekend!

My buddy Greg Wagner blogged last week about taking good deer photos after a successful deer hunt.  That got me thinking:  Most of Greg’s tips are excellent for taking good fish photos too! You know the shots I am talking about, the “hero” shots.  You caught a big fish and want a good picture of it.  Many of us have albums full of such photos.  So, take the time to read Greg’s blog, and then you know I have another …

Nebraska’s most popular hunt is the 9-day firearm deer season (Nov. 14 through Nov. 22). This is one of the absolute best times of year to be outside and participate in it with the deer rut happening. My lovely wife of more than 33 years, Polly Wagner, says that everything comes to a grinding halt in the Wagner family with the opening of “rifle deer season.” It’s a wonderful event, though. For many of us in the hunting lifestyle, the …

I will fish open water as late into the fall as possible.  Pretty sure I ain’t done yet.  But, with the relatively cold fall we have had, I cannot help but wonder, how long until we have ice?  How long until I can ice-fish? Found a local reservoir that was 75% covered with a skim of ice last week! Same reservoir was 100% open water this past weekend. So, it is going to be awhile yet. I found this posted …

“Big, big weekend up at the lodge this weekend!”  Yep, it’s opening weekend of the Nebraska firearm deer season.  No, I am not going to blog about fishing today.  I am betting many of you are getting ready to hunt tomorrow. I love to hunt too, but admittedly do more fishing than hunting.  A lot of that is because there is so much to do and so little time.  I have done a little big game hunting, but not a …

Some Loup River anglers caught a notable fish last month. . . . No, it was not a catfish as big as a bus.  It was a pallid sturgeon, a federally-listed endangered species.  Pallid sturgeon are similar to shovelnose sturgeon, but larger and much rarer.  Nebraska Game & Parks Commission research crews spend a lot of time monitoring pallid sturgeon in the Missouri and lower Platte rivers in Nebraska, but none have ever been documented in the Loup River. That …

My thoughts are turning more and more towards ice-fishing, and if your thoughts are the same, you will love this. . . . I found this TV news report on the interwebs. . . . How did that guy end up in Oklahoma?  OKLAHOMA????  Of all places!  I would tell you he has to have been from someplace north of Oklahoma originally, but he has the Oklahoma accent!  At the least, he needed to travel “up nort” during the ice-fishing …