How To

It has been a while since I linked up with the Nebraska Walleye Association (NWA), but we finally got our schedules together.  The NWA folks will be hanging out at the LaVista Cabela’s all this weekend, and I plan to meet up with them in the meeting room at 1:00 on Sunday. Oh yes, I will have a short PowerPoint presentation: But, most of all I like meeting with Nebraska fishing groups like the NWA just so we can swap …

LINCOLN, Neb. – Reserve a spot for your child in the Fishing is Fun Clinic on April 21 at Lewis and Clark State Recreation Area in northeast Nebraska. The 4:15 p.m. workshop at the Weigand boat ramp is for ages 5 to 15. Volunteer instructors will teach young anglers casting, knot tying, bait, tackle, water safety, and fish identification and anatomy. Anglers may practice their skills by fishing following the clinic. Register before April 18 to guarantee a spot in …

LINCOLN, Neb. – Learn traditional rifle marksmanship skills in a safe, family-friendly environment at the Project Appleseed clinic April 15 at Platte River State Park’s Roger G. Sykes Outdoor Heritage Complex. Project Appleseed events teach traditional rifle marksmanship skills while reconnecting Americans of all ages and backgrounds to the people and events of our nation’s founding. Only .22 rimfire rifles will be allowed at this daylong event (Smith and Wesson M&P 15-22 rifles not allowed). Participants will learn the six …

LINCOLN, Neb. – The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has published a guide designed to assist communities in creating, upgrading, promoting, funding, permitting and maintaining successful water trails. This guide, Floating the Good Life, a Guide to Developing Water Trails in Nebraska, provides information about the types of streams in Nebraska and how they behave differently, creating unique challenges for water trail operation. The guide details the launch site design process, and it discusses universal access and how a launch …

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 …

If you have lived in the great state of Nebraska for any length of time, you know that spring is a frustrating time.  It comes in “fits and starts”.  I laugh at the wild swings in weather, and the wild swings in the mental health of those hoping for warm, sunny days.  Ha.  We are going to live with this schizophrenia for several weeks yet, might as well make the most of it! For example, in this past week I …

Nebraska’s spring wild turkey hunting is tough to beat. It really is. Trust me, I know from many years of firsthand experience hunting throughout the state! And, I continue to hunt wild turkeys in the springtime from the Missouri River bottom woodlands of Washington County all the way to Platte River bottom woodlands of Dawson County. We Nebraskans as well as our nonresident visitors have plenty of reasons,15 at least, to enjoy the state and take to the woods to call in a bearded bird this year. An adult …

As the saying goes “Roosted ain’t Roasted” but following this plan should tilt the opening days odds in your favor.  You’ve got the gobblers located and even know the spot you want to start your season from.  Let’s make sure things go smoothly from here. Pop the Blind Early If you will be working out of a ground blind for an early morning hunt get it set out and ready the day before. Ideally in the early afternoon.  This avoids …

I got a reminder from our Boating Law Administrator that this week is the National Association of State Boating Law Administrator’s Spring Aboard Campaign to remind folks to complete a boating safety course! Yes, somewhere in my wallet is a boater safety card. . . . If you check the 2018 Boating Guide, right up front, you will find the requirements for operating a motorboat in Nebraska and the boater safety requirements: Many of you will be required to take …

We’ve come along way in bow hunting for spring gobblers.  Used to be you would hit the woods using the same methods as the shotgun hunters. Hoping you had enough camouflage or distraction that the gobbler would let you get to full at the moment of truth.  Your broadhead was simply whatever you used on deer last fall. Trouble is that deer and turkeys are quite different.  A broadhead that works well for securing venison steaks isn’t necessarily much good …