the outdoors
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJune 07, 2022I called my son Brandon on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend to thank him for his military service. He was deployed twice to Afghanistan and Iraq back when things were pretty hairy for our service members. I asked him if he wanted to take his two daughters fishing for any part of the weekend, and we started reminiscing about one fishing adventure we had when he was little. Brandon and his twin…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMay 24, 2022It is that time of year again when I need to purchase my new licenses for everything from the early light goose season to a spearing license, deer license, small game license and then the gamut of special stamps needed to hunt some of those seasons. Deer licenses come later into the summer. About 10 years ago I decided to make this seasonal expenditure a little easier. I decided to purchase a…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistApril 26, 2022It does not take long after the ice is gone for the open water anglers to start trying to satisfy their itch to go fishing. The weather has been totally awful, but I still see people out fishing. The game fish season in Minnesota is currently closed, and all you can legally target are panfish right now. These include crappies, perch and bluegills. You cannot target walleyes or other game fish…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistApril 19, 2022April is designated “Think about open water fishing in May” month. Tinkering with your fishing equipment and restringing fishing rods is far better than shoveling snow. I took my brother’s boat out on a recent nice day to help him unload it before the ramp docks were in. High-tech gadgets are common on many boats these days. I have an older GPS and sonar unit that works just fine, but $3,000 to $…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistApril 12, 2022It is pretty amazing how a little thing can turn into a big thing. This can happen when a small issue or discovery really turns and stuff hits the fan. Every once in a while, though, a little thing can become a big thing in a positive way. When this happens, it can really make your day, and I am going to share one of those little things that turned into a very great outcome. Last spring I was…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMarch 29, 2022Writing an outdoor column can help make our readers more informed about wildlife and resource issues. My column today is about Earth Day, and my research for this script has resulted in my gaining a large amount of new information to share with you. Earth Day was started in 1970 primarily as a student campus activity. The date of April 22 was chosen because it fell between spring break and…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMarch 15, 2022When out on my wildlife rides, I routinely stop at bridges to check water clarity and to see if northern pike can be seen getting ready to spawn. Pike are about the first fish in our area to spawn and will often stage in the shallows under the ice when there is open water near shore. This happens even when the lake is still ice-covered. This time of year, most of the water I see is usually pretty…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMarch 08, 2022The number of outdoor issues in the Minnesota news these days is mind-boggling. They won’t often show up where you might be reading, but there are game- and fish-related bills all over the place this legislative session. Some of these are going to be hitting a little closer to home than normal for the average outdoor person. The one I think will get the biggest fight is whether the state should…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistFebruary 08, 2022It happens every year around this time. We finally have enough snow to cover the ground and folks start to think automatically that wildlife is on the verge of starving to death. The calls start coming in as to where they can find some corn to feed this destitute wildlife. It is true in years with heavy snow cover and below zero temperatures for extended periods that wildlife will start to show…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistFebruary 01, 2022Some fishing and hunting outings end with full game bags or fish stringers, and others end up with nothing but the receipts of the money you spent. Empty fish stringers don’t always mean that the trip was not a fun or successful one, though. It depends on what criteria you use to define success. I recently traveled to St. Cloud to attend the Minnesota Pheasants Forever state meeting. This event…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 25, 2022I spent the weekend trying to keep an old family tradition alive. My parents, now both in the upper 80s, used to make old-fashioned ring bologna. I asked them over and over how it was done, and a few years back my family and I made a batch together. It was comprised of beef and pork and a whole lot of garlic and other seasonings. It is not wild game by any means, but when it comes to outdoor life…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 18, 2022Last week I gave you all the rundown about how the 2021 pheasant season went. Record-keeping for some outdoor people is totally off the charts. One guy I know records every flush and every harvested bird on every spot he has ever hunted over the past 20 years before he goes to bed. I would fall asleep trying to do that. I don’t have a lot of my outdoor facts and figures written down. Mostly they…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 11, 2022The 2021 pheasant hunting season has come to a close, and overall it was a year I would consider only fair. I keep track of the number of birds I harvest each year. In fact, I have one tail feather from each rooster dating back to 1996 when I got my first trained hunting dog. This year my harvest total was down about 40 percent. There are several reasons for this, but the lack of roosters in…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 04, 2022I was sitting in my garage over the New Year’s weekend having a few adult beverages with my neighbor when an all too familiar topic was raised. He expressed his angst about the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — that they are just too powerful. I then prodded for some additional details. I asked him to give me an example of what he thought was too powerful. He came up with a very vague…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 28, 2021I have a great job as a self-employed, independent investment adviser, helping people try to get to a comfortable retirement. Saving money for your later years is not something that everybody is good at. I would like to think I have made a measurable difference in that regard for my clients over the past 33 years, but they still needed to participate in order to achieve success, and that takes…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 14, 2021This has been a fabulous fall for conservation work, and I spent the last six to eight weeks with a variety of needed preparations for the coming spring. These include mowing fire breaks and seeding grasses. If you intend to do a prescribed fire in the spring, you need to do all of the preparations before the snow flies. I mowed about five miles of burn breaks so that when the temperatures warm…
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