Say Anything Blog

North Dakota’s youth-only deer hunting season opens for 14- and 15-year-old first-time hunters Friday, Sept. 12 at noon, and continues through Sunday, Sept. 21.

The season is statewide, except for restricted licenses and units in western North Dakota. After opening day, hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset. Solid daylight fluorescent orange vests or coats, and hats are required for all youth deer season hunters and their adult mentors.

Each youth deer hunter must be under direct supervision of an adult while in the field.

In addition to the deer license, hunters must possess a general game and habitat license and hunting certificate.

North Dakota’s two-day youth waterfowl season is Sept. 20-21. Legally licensed resident and nonresident youth waterfowl hunters age 15 and younger may hunt ducks, geese, coots and mergansers statewide.

The daily bag limit and species restrictions for the youth season are the same as for regular duck and goose seasons.

Resident and qualifying nonresident youth waterfowl hunters must possess a general game and habitat license and a fishing, hunting and furbearer certificate. (Nonresidents from states that do not provide a reciprocal licensing agreement for North Dakota residents must purchase the nonresident waterfowl license package.) In addition, all youth hunters must be Harvest Information Program certified, and youth ages 12 and older need to have passed a certified hunter education course. Hunters age 15 and younger do not need a federal duck stamp.

Hunters who purchase a license through the North Dakota Game and Fish Department can easily get HIP certified. Otherwise, hunters must call 888-634-4798, or log on to the Game and Fish website at gf.nd.gov, and record the HIP number on their fishing, hunting and furbearer certificate.

Hunters are reminded to HIP register in each state for which they are licensed before hunting migratory game birds.

Shooting hours for the youth waterfowl season are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. An adult at least 18 years of age must accompany the resident youth hunter into the field, and a licensed adult is required to accompany a nonresident youth hunter. The two-day weekend hunt does not count against a nonresident adult hunter’s 14-day regular season waterfowl dates.

Monday marks the opening of the dove hunting season in North Dakota. Not so long ago doves were the kickoff to fall hunting. But in 1999 the early Canada goose season began to steal a bit of the spotlight. Right or wrong shot-gunners set their sites on the first open season. And for decades that was dove hunting. Now with an August 15 Canada goose opener, the itch for hunting is scratched by geese and not doves.

Do yourself a favor and give it a try. There’s not much better practice for some early season upland field scouting and some great shooting action. And don’t ever forget they taste delicious. A little pepper on the grill..mmm....

This weekend on Outdoors Live We’ll visit with Phil Seefeldt MN DNR Conservation Officer on the Sept 4 deer tag deadline and what the changes are. Also Paul Hagen from the Red River Riders ATV and dirt bike club cuts through some of the negative issues of OHV use all this and more on AM 790 KFGO Saturday from 4-5PM and again Sunday morning at 8AM.

List live on AM 790 http://www.kfgo.com
podcast at http://www.outdoorslive.podcastpeople.com

biologist Doug Leier joins Michelle Turnberg on The Valley Today for some fall fishing chatter.

Today marks the opening day of archery antelope and deer in North Dakota. The early Canada goose season marches on and we’re day’s away from the Sept 1 dove opener. And don’t forget there’s still plenty of great fall fishing across the state. While out and about remember much of ND is very dry so keep your eye’s open for any possible wildfire and make sure you are not unintentionally starting one.

they just might be gone....or still might be a couple left?

The 2008 pronghorn lottery has been held and 100 doe/fawn licenses remain in three units. Licenses are issued on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Wednesday, Aug. 27. Two licenses per hunter are allowed for the 2008 regular gun season.

Licenses remain for the following units: Unit 4-A (late season), 66; Unit 4-C, 19; and Unit 6-A, 15.

Hunters can apply Aug. 27 by accessing the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov. Otherwise, interested hunters can request an application by calling the department’s Bismarck office at 701-328-6300.

Only North Dakota residents are eligible for pronghorn gun licenses. The season runs Oct. 3-19.

The 2008 pronghorn lottery has been held and 100 doe/fawn licenses remain in three units. Licenses are issued on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Wednesday, Aug. 27. Two licenses per hunter are allowed for the 2008 regular gun season.

Licenses remain for the following units: Unit 4-A (late season), 66; Unit 4-C, 19; and Unit 6-A, 15.

Hunters can apply Aug. 27 by accessing the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov. Otherwise, interested hunters can request an application by calling the department’s Bismarck office at 701-328-6300.

Only North Dakota residents are eligible for pronghorn gun licenses. The season runs Oct. 3-19.

Early in March people roll out their personal signs of ‘spring’. It’s such a popular activity as everyone is earnestly looking for a sing that warmer weather is on the way.

Why don’t we hear much of this in August? Signs of fall? First fall practice? First combine into the field? School starting? Yep, nothing wrong with looking forward to the next season. First sign of winter? Nah...that’ll happen on its own anyway.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t think it was possible that prisoners would use pigeons to smuggle drugs. When your in jail you have plenty of time to think of way’s of skirting the system.

SARAJEVO (AFP) - Bosnian police have impounded a pigeon after discovering prisoners used it to smuggle drugs into one of the country’s highest security jails, an official said Thursday.

“The guards suspected the animal might be involved in drug smuggling once they noticed four prisoners visibly intoxicated shortly after the pigeon landed on a prison window,” Zenica prison official Josip Pojavnik told AFP.

Before you bash prison guards, if they weren’t caught we wouldn’t know about it. So indeed it has been brought to light.

The incident had prompted the prison administration to consider closing down a prisoner pigeon-breeding project established in a ward of the jail as part of a rehabilitation programme, he added.

I still find it fundamentally wrong that in a fishing tournament you can NOT catch a fish and win a $million$ dollars. That’s right $1,000,000 was won by a Minnesota angler in fantasy fishing...not wetting a line. Evidently fantasy is fast becoming reality in fishing too.

Stay-At-Home Dad Wins Million

Michael Thompson of St. Michael, Minnesota has dreams. Dreams of becoming a law enforcement officer, of building a house, of sending his kids to college, the kind of dreams that most of us have for our families.

Thompson’s dreams, at least the ones that involve money, have a better chance of coming true than most thirty-three year old stay-at-home dads. Especially those staying home and studying in hopes of becoming a police officer. Yesterday, Thompson became an instant millionaire in tournament fishing - all without having to wet a line.

Living the dream. Michael Thompson holds the $1 million check he says will bring his family closer to their dreams.
He’s the first-ever $1 million winner in the FLW Fantasy Fishing competition, and he edged that victory out by an extremely narrow margin - 32,101 points to 31,699 points (sounds like a cricket score) over second-place finisher James Brown of Lodi, California. That tiny margin is smaller than the single ounce that occasionally decides bass tournaments.

“This is unbelievable, I simply can’t believe it…it’s a dream come true!” said Thompson, who really is an avid bass angler. “I simply started playing FLW Fantasy Fishing because I love fishing and because it was fun. We have a lot of dreams and this will help us make many of them come true.”

And what will he do with $1 million? Thompson and his wife, Penny, say they’ll pay off Thompson’s Ranger Z20 bass boat, buy Penny a new car, and start thinking about building a new home on a piece of land that they’ve dreamed about buying for many years.

The FLW’s Fantasy Fishing game didn’t get a terrific amount of attention (at least not from me) when it launched this year. After all, there were plenty of fantasy sports games, and I admittedly felt this one would be lost in the shuffle. Instead, the interest in the game has built over the year, as $100,000 (the top prize in FLW tournaments) was awarded not once, but seven times to individual winners. $700,000 into the game, it was safe to say the entire fantasy sports world noticed.

The brain - and bucks -behind the game is Irwin Jacobs, chairman of FLW Outdoors, and it’s safe to say he’s come a long way since I first met him in the 1980s when he was known as “Irwin the Liquidator”. Today, he’s almost as proud of his FLW as he is of his family - and that’s saying something.

“When we started FLW Outdoors,” Jacobs says, “I dreamed about the biggest payday in bass fishing, when the champion of the Forrest Wood Cup could claim the first $1 million prize in bass fishing. Fifteen years later, we achieved my personal goal of awarding $1 million to our Forrest Wood Cup champion, not once, but as of last Sunday, two years in a row.”

Now, Jacobs says he has another goal, to create more Michael Thompsons who will become millionaires in the years to come.

So what’s Thompson going to do with that newly-acquired wealth? Pay off his Ranger Z70 bass boat, buy Penny a new car, and “start thinking about building a new home” on a piece of land they say they’ve dreamed about buying “for many years.”

It seems only appropriate that as of last weekend, the competition was still up for grabs. Thompson, an admitted stat watcher, iced the payday when he picked 24-year old Michael Bennett from Lincoln, California to win.

He did, and picked up his own $1 million check from Jacobs last Sunday. Yesterday, however, it was Bennett’s turn to hand a $1 million check to someone else. Bennett says he thinks the Fantasy Fishing game will bring new fans to the sport.

Yesterday’s announcement wasn’t a winner-take-all competition. Second place finisher James Brown, 26, picked up a new Ranger boat and Yamaha engine package valued at $52,000. Earlier this year, he picked up a $5,000 Wal-Mart gift card - which he says was used to buy things for his eight-month-old daughter. Now, Brown says, he has a new Ranger boat and will sell his older Z20.

North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

The North American model has seven principles that have played a significant role in the ability of North American citizens to revitalize wildlife. Many major conservation organizations have pledged to support and defend these principles as the best way to ensure sustained wildlife populations.

CINCINNATI - A site once home to a Cold War-era uranium processing plant and the focus of a contentious struggle to clean up toxic waste has re-emerged as a haven for wildlife and a memorial to those who worked to make the area safe.The Fernald Preserve and its visitors center will make their public debut Wednesday at the former site of the government center that processed uranium metal for nuclear weapons from 1952 to 1989. Shrouded in secrecy for years, the site gained national notoriety in the 1980s with media reports on site emissions and residents’ concerns over radioactive contamination of air, soil and groundwater.

full post at http://www.outdoornewsguy.com

boy is fall cranking up, seems like almost every day another lottery is being held. here’s the latest on swans…

North Dakota’s swan lottery has been held and more than 800 licenses remain. Only hunters who do not have a swan license for the 2008 season can apply, as regulations limit hunters to one license per year.

First come, first served licenses can be purchased online at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov. Hunters may also request an application by calling the department’s Bismarck office at 701-328-6300.

The statewide tundra swan hunting season is Oct. 4 – Jan. 2, 2009. North Dakota residents and nonresidents are eligible to apply. The fee is $5 for residents and $25 for nonresidents.

With big game hunting seasons fast approaching, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department reminds hunters that hunting big game over bait on state wildlife management areas is prohibited.

In addition, hunting over bait is also not allowed on all U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service national wildlife refuges and waterfowl production areas, all North Dakota state school lands, and all North Dakota state park lands.

Hunting over bait is defined as the placement and/or use of baits for attracting big game and other wildlife to a specific location for the purpose of hunting.

Baits include but are not limited to grains, minerals, salts, fruits, vegetables, hay or any other natural or manufactured foods. It does not apply to the use of scents and lures, water, food plots, standing crops, or livestock feeds being used in standard practices.