The 2016 November  issue of North Dakota Outdoors magazine is available FREE online right now here.

One of my favorite stories takes you into some of my Game and Fish coworkers lives with first person accounts of “First Deer, Trophy Memories” The state’s first modern deer season was 1931. That was the first year a specific deer license was required to hunt.

If we start there, that means we’ve been hunting deer in North Dakota for 85 years. That’s a long time.

Deer hunting, from the Red River Valley to the badlands, is a big deal here. For so many, no matter their ages, the November season is long anticipated and its arrival applauded.

The full story is here: “First Deer, Trophy Memories”.

You’ll also want to be sure to check out a feature by Greg Freeman on the Game and Fish Considering River Otter Season  Stephanie Tucker, Department game management section leader and furbearer biologist, said the subject is up for discussion in late November and early December as a topic at fall district advisory board meetings, and again next spring when Department officials hold another round of advisory board meetings across the state.

With ice fishing season on the way fisheries biologist Paul Bailey has a great primer on Targeting Big Pike in Winter

If there is such a thing as an embarrassment of riches, North Dakota’s anglers have experienced it in recent years.

Our “big three” walleye fisheries – Lake Sakakawea, Devils Lake and the Missouri River/Lake Oahe – continue to validate their nationally renowned reputations as destination fisheries. Other new lakes created from the abundant snowfall during the winters of 2008-09 to 2010-11 have now developed into outstanding fisheries.