GULF OF MEXICO — Erika Almond’s biceps bulged as she gripped her Star Rod. Arching back, she used every ounce of her 5-foot, 10-inch body to muscle the fishing rod up before cranking the reel downward. Her opponent, about 100 feet below, contorted the pole into a parabola.

What exactly was hooked on the other end? It was impossible to say, ...Read more

BOSTON — If you’re out on the water fishing for striped bass, keep a lookout for hungry apex predators.

Cape Cod shark researchers have gotten several recent reports of great white sharks taking striped bass at the side of fishermen’s boats.

This is not a new phenomenon for the waters off Massachusetts, as sharks were spotted last summer...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Grace Zeller's cell phone rang in her Brainerd home at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, and she could see on the caller ID that her boss Jake Willis was ringing her up.

Zeller, 35, is a helicopter pilot with the Department of Natural Resources Enforcement Division. She knew Willis wouldn't phone on a weekend just to chat.

"What's...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The other day, raindrops dimpled already wet grass as I walked into a field with four Labradors. This was in the middle of summer, and there were months to spare before autumn, when ducks fly and pheasants flush. Still, deadlines focus effort, and anyway, year-round, where others see empty skies, I imagine mallards over decoys ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — More than 10 inches of rain falling in about two days can wreak a lot of damage. To people, yes, and homes and farms and crops and also county roads.

Largely unseen is the threat such deluges pose to wildlife. Some ground-burrowing animals such as woodchucks and gophers — neither of which gains much sympathy from Minnesotans �...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — There were days while sunning on Waikiki Beach when Jessica Berg-Collman convinced herself that Hawaii could be her forever home.

Transplanted there from Minnesota's forested Gunflint Trail, she fell for Honolulu's tropical charm. When she dropped out of school at Hawaii's flagship university, she stayed to soak up daily life. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Explorer Will Steger recalled "emergency mukluks" before his epic expeditions.

Camping guru Cliff Jacobson remembered a specially made, multicolored tarp that caught the eye of a rescue plane in remote Saskatchewan.

Titans of Minnesota's outdoors community like Steger and Jacobson, and everyday folks who used and coveted Dan ...Read more

EAR FALLS, Ontario, Canada — There are moments of quiet reflection among the jack pine, ash and birch trees swaying gently under the watchful eyes of soaring eagles on Lac Seul, a vast tea-colored oasis in northwest Ontario.

In between jolts on lines from trophy walleye and toothy northern pike, it is a place that puts the world on pause. The...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — When Dane Nelson paddled his kayak onto a Minneapolis city lake June 16, he didn't know he would catch a 51-inch muskie. But Nelson, of Minneapolis, a long-time muskie angler, thought he might.

The same is true for Jake Skarloken, who had canoed into Crooked Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for more than 20 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota's greatest mystery isn't whether the Kensington Runestone is authentic (would a guy named Olof Ohman fib?), whether Marjorie Caldwell masterminded the murder of Duluth heiress Elizabeth Congdon (at trial, Caldwell knitted, and was acquitted), or if Marshall County Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was in fact attacked by ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — For an outdoorsy kid who grew up on the water in a blue collar Lake Erie shore town, becoming manager of several state parks known for their water thrills is about as good as it gets.

After a long career in Pennsylvania park management, Ken Bisbee recently retired from his post as park operations manager at Ohiopyle State Park in...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — When Jake Skarloken finally caught a glimpse of the big fish on the end of his line, his jaw dropped.

He knew it was a lunker of some kind when it chomped into the plastic minnow on his jig in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The way it stubbornly hugged the bottom of Crooked Lake for 10 minutes, he envisioned a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Government agencies often issue news releases that are largely devoid of news. But notice sent some months ago by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) about a proposal to kill nearly 500,000 barred owls over 30 years in the northwest U.S. made lots of people take notice.

Including me.

But in my case, perhaps not for the ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nature designed California’s Chinook salmon to be our forever fish. Why else would each spawning pair of adults produce about 5,000 fertilized eggs? If 99.96% of these eggs fail to produce adults that return from the ocean to spawn, that’s good news. That means all those eggs did their job, resulting in two adult ...Read more