There hasn’t been a confirmed wolf in Nebraska since 2002, but this critter taken this year in Nebraska certainly looks like one. It is currently being evaluated by the Nebraska Game & Parks and once the genetic testing and the results are in the Game & Parks will release that information.

  At coffee in Wynot at Donna’s Diner the other day, one of the guys swore he saw four wolves coming in off the bottom river road the other day.

  This guy, I respect as a true outdoorsman, one I shouldn’t have doubted in the first place, but “come on” wolves in Nebraska!

  I gave him that “are you kidding me look and said, it might have been coyotes, when he spoke up saying, “No, they surely were wolves as these things were huge.”

  Generally, when you see coyotes this time of year, you may see a pair, but in larger groups, packs, as this is when they mate, in January through March. 

  Another of our group, said he’d heard about a wolf taken forty-seven miles south of Sioux City, Iowa near Lyons, Nebraska.

  If you know me, it didn’t take me long to speak up, and if there were wolves in our state, I’d be very appreciative If someone could get a photo of it.

  A couple of days later, when I opened up my email in the morning and much to my surprise, one of the over one-hundred emails was a message with a picture of the wolf taken near Lyons.

  It’s a big bruiser, taking wo pretty large men in order to hold it up, and now that I have the photo, I needed to check into this a little further.

  I contacted an individual at the Norfolk, Nebraska Game & Parks to see if they’d heard about it.

  He indicated, they’d heard about it, but the guy to talk to was the Nebraska Game & Parks Predator Specialist Sam Wilson in Lincoln, Nebraska.

  I contacted Sam, asking” if they’d he’d heard about the wolf, and after a short pause he said yes, and they wouldn’t know for sure if it was really a wolf until after genetic tests were completed.

  And if it was a true wolf, it may have come down from Minnesota or Wisconsin, which would amount to somewhere around a three-hundred-mile trek or out of Yellowstone Park, the Rocky Mountains, which would be around a five-hundred-mile trip.”

 I asked “is it legal to shoot wolves in Nebraska, Where he replied, yes, as wolves were no longer a

protected species, as of January 4, 2021, they’re now legal game.”

  According to Wilson,” the animal will be tested to see if it is a true wolf or a cross, and once the tests were performed and the results finalized, the Game & Parks would release that information.

  If it’s a full-blooded wolf, ‘s only be the second verified wolf in the state, with the first one verified was taken in Spaulding, Nebraska in 2002, approximately seventy-two miles southeast of Norfolk.”

  With the warmer weather and the snow line receding, there should be some Light geese, Snows, Blues and the Ross geese coming our way, giving waterfowl hunters an opportunity to hunt the Light Goose Conservation season, helping reduce the more than several thousand more light geese than their northern habitat can sustain.

  Those birds coming through first are going to be your breeders, the older smarter birds as they want to get up north quickly to get ready for the breeding season, hopefully they’ll find enough grass and other ground cover to build their nests.

  After the week of crazy cold weather, there was some ice added to the ponds in northeastern Nebraska and southern South Dakota, but with the fifty-degree temperatures we’re having this week, we’ll more than likely help the surface ice to thaw, so ice fisherman may be dealing with water on top of the ice.

  I wouldn’t go out onto the ice unless I had a throwable floating cushion, ice picks and other safety gear just to be safe.

  One of our Team members and his two boys spent last weekend ice fishing near Platte, South Dakota and did quite well using their “Walleye Nations Rip n’ Glide” lures.

  I ran into a friend this morning, he indicated that his crew was heading for Chamberlain to fish either Thursday or Friday, and if they had any luck, he’d let me know how the bite was.

  This warm weather has a lot of folks, including myself thinking about open water fishing, getting their boats, tackle and equipment ready, as when it warms up, the ice goes, we want to be ready.

  Two of my friends are not only getting ready, who now have two locators on each of their boats, are adding another higher sophisticated locator to their boats and recently took advantage of a sale on locators, which were originally priced at one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars, now on sale for nine hundred ninety-nine dollars, extra points on their card and a ten dollar gift card and with the two locators each have on their boats, that are used to see what’s under their boats, a GPS tracking system allowing them to mark their direction of travel and where they’d caught fish previously.

  These new locators not only do all the old locators did, but with much better precision, are now equipped with side imaging, where they can now see what’s under the water all around the boat; the front, left and the right side, with the side imaging indicating what’s of the both sides of their boats, grass, trees, sunken boats and other bottom changes out for quite a way.

  Some folks wonder, with this new technology if the fish stand a chance, believe me once you know they’re located, you still have to spend the time, many times changing tackle, trolling speeds and location in order to get them to bite

  So, it’s still a shot in the dark where you could come home with fish or walk in the house empty handed, as even with all of the new technology, it may take an angler, several days or weeks before they ever figure it out, but, “That’s fishing”!

       Gary Howey is an award-winning writer, producer, and broadcaster and inducted into the “National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame” in 2017. He developed and was the Producer- Host of the Outdoorsmen Adventures television series for 23 years and the Host of the award-winning Outdoor Adventures radio program carried on Classic Hits 106.3, ESPN Sports Radio 1570 in Southeastern South Dakota, KWYR Country 93 AM and Magic 93 FM in Central South Dakota, As well as on KCHE 92.1 FM in Northwest Iowa.  If you’re looking for more outdoor information, check out www.GaryHowey’soutdoors.com , and www.outdoorsmenadventures.com, with more information on these Facebook pages, Gary Howey, Gary E Howey, Outdoor Adventure Radio, Outdoorsmen Productions and Team Outdoorsmen Productions. The Outdoor Adventures television show is available on numerous Independent markets, and the MIDCO Sports Network.