Brian Haines, Author at Outdoor News

Waterfowl art has a storied history in Minnesota

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, News / Brian Haines

Minnesota, a land blessed with thousands of lakes and winding rivers, has long been a haven for waterfowl and those who cherish their presence. Through the years, the state’s natural beauty has inspired artists, craftsmen, and conservationists, resulting in a rich tradition of waterfowl art that celebrates the heritage of the region.
The dynamic history of waterfowl art in Minnesota traces its origins to the first time a human created the likeness of a duck on a pictograph or simply weaving it into fabric.

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For one deer hunter, this was a really poor stand location

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting / Brian Haines

There’s something special about sitting in a deer stand. It’s a front-row seat to nature’s wonders. At dawn, the wild world comes alive – songbirds sing, mallards hail, and pheasants crow.
Dusk, too, is a special experience as the sun sinks beneath a pink horizon, and the moon shines in a dark-purple sky. If you’re lucky, you’ll even catch a whitetail sneaking from a bedding area for an evening meal. One experience that’s never desirable, however, is sharing your hunt area with a skunk.

For one deer hunter, this was a really poor stand location Read More »

Make the most of a last chance to hunt late-season ducks in Minnesota

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting / Brian Haines

When it comes to hunting late-season waterfowl, most hunters’ interests turn to the last of the duck migration. Newly-arriving birds are what waterfowlers dream about. Find yourself in the right place at the right time and you might be in for the hunt of a lifetime.
There are three key ingredients to making a successful hunt: decoy spreads, calling, and location. With Minnesota’s waterfowl season winding down, now’s the perfect time to review a few tactics and even some old tricks that might help you put a few final ducks in the bag.

Make the most of a last chance to hunt late-season ducks in Minnesota Read More »

Back to the basics: What to consider when targeting fish from the dock

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, National Fishing, New York / Brian Haines

It was a glorious evening in the middle of June. The weather was warm, the lake was calm, and the daily coronation of the sun crowning the western horizon was about to begin. On the water, in the shallows, small swirls and little boils were everywhere as bluegills were coming to the surface to gulp the mayflies hatching there.
As for me, I sat at the edge of a dock with my feet dangling in the water, a fishing pole in my hand, and several plump bluegills swimming in a five-gallon pail at my side.

Back to the basics: What to consider when targeting fish from the dock Read More »

Brian Haines: The biggest catch of all on Minnesota’s Lindsey Lake

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, Minnesota, National Fishing / Brian Haines

To this day, I recall a catch from many years ago, right around the time I turned 13 and was being introduced to walleye fishing. Back then, my family would take an annual late-spring fishing trip to Lindsey Lake, a small backwater nestled in the woods near Backus, Minn.
While most northern-Minnesota walleye lakes are known to be deep, large, and with rocky bottoms and plenty of in-lake structure, Lindsey is but a small and shallow lake with a muddy bottom – the kind of lake more often associated with bullheads. Be that as it may, there was a time when Lindsey was a secret little walleye hot spot.

Brian Haines: The biggest catch of all on Minnesota’s Lindsey Lake Read More »

With snow gone, it’s time to spring into deer scouting

Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin / Brian Haines

A few years ago, during spring, I was tramping through some bottomland with my yellow Lab, Daisy.
As we walked a piece of high ground surrounded by a bottomland bog, Daisy, as a good hunting dog should, was about two-thirds of a gunshot length in front of me and was nosing through the grass for a pheasant. Stepping gingerly through the matted-down grass, I felt something push into the back of my calf, creating a dull stabbing kind of pain.

With snow gone, it’s time to spring into deer scouting Read More »

Twelve decades later, Minnesota’s pheasant experiment still a success

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting / Brian Haines

It was the 1930s, and my grandfather’s two older brothers had taken their father on a pheasant hunt. Pheasants were still new to Minnesota at the time, and their father had yet to try to hunt them.
They didn’t have to walk far before they rousted a rooster. The old man lifted his double-barrel side by side, pulled back the hammers, fired, and dropped the rooster before it was more than a few feet off the ground.
“Boy, there’s not much challenge to shooting these,” he was said to have told his sons.
The boys would get the last laugh, however; for the rest of the hunt, the old man missed every bird he tried to shoot.

Twelve decades later, Minnesota’s pheasant experiment still a success Read More »

Here’s how to get the most out of fishing from a canoe

Featured, Featured, Featured, Features, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Home Page News, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Fishing, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin / Brian Haines

It was a glorious morning late in the spring. Birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the temperature was in that sweet spot. It wasn’t hot, though warm enough to don shorts and flip flops.
I knew I needed to get to a lake, and some canoe fishing was on my mind. For me, fishing from a canoe on a calm, summer morning is an experience like few others.

Here’s how to get the most out of fishing from a canoe Read More »

Snowshoeing: a wintertime activity when the white is deep

Featured, Features, Minnesota, Nature Page & Night Sky / Brian Haines

For centuries, snowshoes have been a mainstay of winter travel. Their origins are not entirely known, but some historians believe they first were developed around 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. The earliest known snowshoes were crude, a far cry from the tubular aluminum-framed, neoprene-decked snowshoes of today. They once were a simply pieces of wide, oval board called “shoeskis” that could be strapped to a traveler’s feet.

Snowshoeing: a wintertime activity when the white is deep Read More »

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Brian Haines

Waterfowl art has a storied history in Minnesota

For one deer hunter, this was a really poor stand location

Make the most of a last chance to hunt late-season ducks in Minnesota

Back to the basics: What to consider when targeting fish from the dock

Brian Haines: The biggest catch of all on Minnesota’s Lindsey Lake

With snow gone, it’s time to spring into deer scouting

Twelve decades later, Minnesota’s pheasant experiment still a success

Here’s how to get the most out of fishing from a canoe

Snowshoeing: a wintertime activity when the white is deep

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