Author: Brad Dokken

There has been a lot of chatter about early ice-out dates this week as lakes – especially those to our south – lose their ice.In the Monday, March 11, weekly update from the Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Enforcement, DNR officials in many parts of Minnesota offered warnings about rapidly changing ice conditions.”There is no ice fishing activity remaining around Douglas County,” reported DNR conservation officer Mitch Lawler of Alexandria, Minnesota. “Many lakes are more than half open, with very weak pockets of ice floating around.” And that was before a few sunny days with high temperatures in the…

BAUDETTE, Minn. – The Lake of the Woods ice fishing trip to Ballard’s Resort has been a December tradition for years, but that’s not an option due to the late start of this oddball winter of 2023-24. Brad Docken That finally changed on Monday, Feb. 19, when three of us spent a day on the ice after sturgeon fishing the night before.A story about that excursion can be found elsewhere in today’s Northland Outdoors print edition – or website, for those who read Herald content online.Most winters, Lake of the Woods at this time of year is covered with wheelhouses…

CROOKSTON – Last weekend’s inaugural Get Kids Outdoors ice fishing excursion on Island Lake near Lengby, Minnesota, was a huge success, organizers said, and plans are in the works for a second annual event next year . The event is organized by Get Kids Outdoors-Adam Parnow Memorial Inc., a nonprofit named for Adam Parnow, 39, a Crookston outdoors enthusiast who died in a spray plane crash on June 27, 2023. The family founded the nonprofit as a way to carry on Adam’s name and legacy.According to Adam’s father, Fred Parnow, about 40 children participated in the Get Kids Outdoors fishing…

CROOKSTON – The untimely death of Adam Parnow in a spray plane crash on June 27, 2023, has led his family to channel their grief into a meaningful initiative. Instead of traditional funeral flowers, they encouraged people to contribute to a youth fishing scholarship. An avid outdoorsman who always has time for the kids, Adam is 39 years old.”Every time I look at an obituary, I look at what the family is asking for memorials,” her father, Fred Parnow, said this week. “We thought about it, and our middle son, Matt, said ‘Get Kids Outdoors,’ and we all resoundedly said…