North Dakota Outdoors and beyond

BOW Program Offers Darkhouse Spearfishing, Ice Fishing Class

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Becoming an Outdoors-Woman program has scheduled a one-day darkhouse spearfishing and ice fishing class Feb. 11 at Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge in Ward County.

Women interested in attending the class are encouraged to register online at the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov. Aregistration form is also available for download, or by contacting Nancy Boldt, North Dakota Game and Fish Department, 100 N. Bismarck Expressway, Bismarck, ND 58501-5095; (701) 328-6312; or email ndgf@nd.gov.

The cost is $50, and preregistration with payment is required. Equipment and snacks will be provided.

I’m guilty of one of my pet peeves, re-stating the obvious. Like when a coach explains they would’ve won the game if they had played better defense. Duh.

So excuse when I explain this snow has turned ice fishing conversations into the problems created by the snow. So here’s the rundown..again…and again.

1) snow insulates ice, slowing ice formation. And thus many lakes are stuck on 14″-16″ of ice, which isnt’ exactly preferred for extensive use

2)snow weighs down the ice. start punching holes in the ice and the weight of the snow pushes down on the ice which forces some water up all the holes and we have slushy conditions underneath a half foot of snow, which is on top of 15″ of ice. =mess.

3) snow blocks off access to lakes and makes even getting to some of the winter sloughs and ponds a trial. not to mention once you are on…the wind can pickup and making exiting an adventure.

ugh. that’s my story and i’m sticking to it. UGH

No doubt it’s been a little more an ’08 winter and not an ’06 winter and the wintering waterfowl numbers are a good indication.

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s annual midwinter waterfowl survey revealed 25,400 Canada geese wintering on the Missouri River in early January.
Waterfowl biologist Mike Szymanski said harsh winter conditions beginning in mid-December pushed most waterfowl out of the state. “A mild fall allowed a significant number of smaller-sized Canada geese and snow geese to move through the state before Thanksgiving, but there was not a pronounced movement of large-sized Canada geese through the area,” he said.
Last year’s severe winter broke the pattern of more geese staging on the Missouri River in North Dakota, when only 9,700 geese were counted during the midwinter survey. Prior to that, several years of unseasonably mild winter weather allowed numbers of Canada geese using the river through winter to increase.
“Since 2005 a new record was established every year, reaching 175,000 geese in 2008,” Szymanski said. “But geese could not tolerate the severe weather last winter, thus the dramatic drop in numbers.”
From 1998 to 2004, the number of Canada geese on the river during the midwinter survey was between 2,000 and 89,000. Prior to 1998, the count was rarely more than 10,000.
Szymanski said it takes years for geese to establish a migratory pattern, and that’s why it may take several more years of favorable staging conditions before the record high numbers of the mid-to-late 2000s are reached again. “It’s really important for those birds to maintain a positive energy balance,” he added. “Otherwise, we may not regain the numbers of geese we had several years ago.”

It’ll be easy to mentally book mark 2009-10 blizzard and deep freeze. Christmas brought two feet of snow and New Years rung in -30 below temperatures across the region.

My neighbor Burdell will attest as we shoveled last Sunday when I exclaimed, "first comes the snow…then we’ll get the cold" and we sure did. About as intense two winter events you could draw up. The heavy snow (1.53" of moisture) plugs up CRP, cattail sloughs and covers food sources. Next the -30 stresses everything from pheasants and deer to coyotes and grouse. Me, you and all the critters are crossing for a much needed 2 week January thaw…before the next onslaught of winter bears down on us.