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Past Issues

Lure of the Year – Buzzbaits

buzzbait

Find out why you should be using buzzbaits this year. Sometime last spring I had a conversation with longtime friend and fishing diehard Monte Mares of Seward. We were discussing our favorite lures and he told me that he loved to fish small crankbaits in the spring but, from then on, used buzzbaits. “The fish just can’t stand it!” he wrote me. This last line kept me up at night last spring as I fumbled through my tacklebox, my eyes …

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The Best Places for RVs in Nebraska 2018

alexandria sra

You’ll be surprised by how many beautiful places in Nebraska recreational vehicles can visit. Many Game and Parks attractions have sites catering  to recreational vehicle users during their outdoor pursuits. Here is a list of some of the best places for RV recreational opportunities in Nebraska. Alexandria State Recreation Area (Jefferson County) – 40 sites with 30-amp electrical hookup, 5 sites with 50-amp electrical hookup and 8 sites without electricity. The campground offers water, modern restrooms, a playground and dump …

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My Time on the Lek

lek

The thrill of the dance. When the Pine Ridge Rangers erected a lek viewing blind on the Oglala National Grasslands, I jumped at the chance to experience the dance of the sharp-tailed grouse. For years I had researched private and public blinds. Distance and weather concerns kept me home, but this blind was nearby. I packed blankets, camera, water and snacks and made my way to the blind. Flashlight in hand, I stowed my gear and settled in. Wrapped in …

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Sighthunting for Fish

sight hunt fish

If you can see them, this is how you catch them. The old fishing adage I grew up with of “If you can see the fish, you can’t catch the fish” followed me most of my fishing life until I found myself on a lake in Minnesota watching gigantic, black blobs swim back and forth through the water. My fishing partner and I made repeated casts toward these blobs, knowing they were smallmouth bass, only to have them ignore every …

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How-to Mount a Turkey Tail

turkey tail

One of the joys of harvesting a mature gobbler, besides the thrill of the hunt and the delicious meal that follows, is the opportunity to obtain a trophy tail fan and beard mount. Follow these simple steps to create your own mount that will be a treasured memento for many years. First, cut off the tail fan slightly below the tail bone and the beard from the breast. It’s better to have too many feathers initially than not enough, as …

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Outdoor Painting: Nature in 2-D

Here in Nebraska, beauty surrounds us constantly. It tends to announce itself most clearly in uninterrupted moments of quiet: a long morning in a deer blind, a lazy tubing trip down the Niobrara, an evening of calm after an afternoon of hiking. Seeking out that beauty can be its own goal and reward, driving us into the outdoors with the need to capture it forever. Photography is a common method, both accessible and familiar. Less well known, but growing in …

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Must-Try Recipe: Blue Cheese-Herb Stuffed Venison Loin

Stuffed Loin

Don’t have time to age your meat? Try this. I had more than half a wedge of blue cheese sitting in my refrigerator, and I racked my brain hard on what I should do with it. Cheese is not cheap, and unfortunately, blue cheese is one of those items that I’d buy just to make one dish – usually salad – and the rest ends up in the trash because a little goes a long way. As far as stinky …

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A Crane Book For All Ages

Crane photo

An Interview with Jeff Kurrus, author of Can You Dance Like John? Article by Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley What was the inspiration behind the “crane books?” How did these stories develop? The first time I saw the sandhill cranes, there were a couple of things that stuck out. One was that there are 500,000 to 1 million of them on the Platte River each spring. Two, they all look alike. After doing a bit of research and finding out that they mate …

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Nebraska Through the Lens

Derrill Grabenstein of Lincoln shared this image of a sunset center pivot near Cortland in Gage County.

Nebraska Through The Lens, an online community of photographers started by Steve Evans and Jonathan Wagner Jr., was formed in 2016 and has become the go-to for Nebraska-based photographers showcasing their work. The Facebook group, who can be found by searching “Nebraska through the lens,” features thousands of images of Nebraska and has more than 132,000 members. Images range from landscapes and wildlife to trail cam images and Americana. As long as the photograph was taken in Nebraska, it can find …

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Discovering the Outdoors Through Nature Journaling

flower

For Holly Green, her peace of mind during finals in college could reliably be found in one place: between the pages of a black composition notebook. The formula was pretty straight-forward: head to one of the bridges at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area, notebook in hand, and just observe: the morning fog over the water, chunks of ice floating down the river, brown bats silhouetted against the moon, the croaking of the bullfrog she dubbed “Romeo” for his incessant singing. …

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