Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own.
intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com
Tube baits are simply that, a plastic tube that is open at the back and closed at the front. Surrounding the opening in the tube is a fringe that resembles tentacles and adds extra motion to the bait when it is in the water. They first showed up on the bass fishing scene in about 1980.
A tip from state fisheries biologist Mark Beckstrand saves the day for a soggy fisherman at Echo Canyon Reservoir.
Hunters have submitted applications for big game tags. Now it’s up to state commissioners to set the quotas, which they’ll do Saturday in Reno. Southern Nevada residents can participate by teleconference from the UNLV campus.
Father and son didn’t catch anything at Willow Beach south of the Hoover Dam. But the trip was still worth it for the uninterrupted conversation and a sighting of desert bighorn sheep at sunset.
Birds with multiple beards are classified by the National Wild Turkey Federation as atypical. Should they choose to record their birds, Kensen Lee and Kevin Pratt will be the first hunters to record atypical Rio Grande turkeys in Nevada.
Kensen Lee had drawn a tag for the last of three weeklong seasons to take place in the Moapa Valley area. While that was the place Lee was looking forward to hunting for a turkey, he was concerned that pressure associated with the first and second seasons could make his third-season experience less than he had hoped for.
During the Clark County Fair last weekend in Logandale, I talked with hundreds of outdoor enthusiasts. Among them were two whose stories caught my attention. The first is an angler, and the second is an avid archer from England.
Larry Hanneman beat the odds by drawing a tag for the Moapa Valley turkey season, and his patience paid off with a 19.5-pound Rio on his second day of hunting.
Fishermen are finding it tough to catch stripers on Lake Mead. So, the conversation turns to weather patterns, unseasonably warm temperatures and abundant bait fish in the lake. It’s amazing how much thought and study fishermen put into their pursuit.
Along with the waiting associated with the hunt itself, there are at least two other times each year when hunters find themselves waiting. The first is when we wait for that day when the big game tag draw finally arrives, and the second is when we wait for the results of that draw.
Anti-hunting interests are well funded and tenacious. In recent years, sportsmen across the country have begun to speak up, and 18 states — though not Nevada — guarantee the right to hunt and fish in their constitutions.
An agreement between federal and Arizona officials will restore rainbow trout stocking at the Willow Beach Hatchery, the very purpose for which the facility was originally built along the cold waters of the Colorado River more than 50 years ago.
Grandma cut a piece of fishing line from its spool and tied one end to the small end of willow rod. To the other end of the line, she tied a hook and then placed a split shot sinker a foot or so above that. Then we walked down the bank to a brushy area where she schooled me in the art of simple fishing.
Across the West, sportsmen and other outdoor enthusiasts are making their voices heard. Their message? “Keep your hands off our public lands.”
When it comes to deciding how to celebrate Valentine’s Day you generally won’t find shotguns and clay pigeons among the list of options. So imagine our surprise when my brother-in-law and nephew walked into the living room of the Southern Utah farm house we had rented and announced that we had an appointment to shoot a round of sporting clays.
