Where I live, it’s too cold to go open water fishing and not cold enough to make ice for ice fishing. So I think about open water fishing and ice fishing. Following are some of those thoughts.

Iowa’s most popular hunting seasons are less than two weeks away when more than 100,000 blaze orange clad hunters will be walking, posting, sitting and standing in Iowa’s timber and field edges hoping to tag an Iowa deer. The first deer gun season is Dec. 2-6; the second deer gun season is Dec. 9-17.

Iowa is experiencing the third worst outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD), behind only the outbreaks in 2012 and 2019 in severity. The disease appears to have hit southeastern Iowa the hardest, but has been reported in 74 counties, which is the highest number of counties to report the disease in one year.

Hunters donated more than 4,500 deer hides to Elks Lodges across Iowa last year, which was an increase of nearly 600 hides from the 2022 season. The deer hides are used by the Veterans Leather Program to make professionally-crafted leather gloves for veterans in wheelchairs and also turned into leather used for therapy programs for recovering veterans.

Spirit Lake put together one of the best seasons in program history in 2023.

Okoboji’s football team suffered a few close losses early, but came away with key wins late in the season to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The Pioneers finished the year with a 2-7 overall record.

KEY VICTORY

Harris-Lake Park enjoyed another solid football season in 2023. The Wolves secured their fifth straight winning season and were in the hunt for a third consecutive district title heading into the regular season finale with Bishop Garrigan. The Golden Bears edged the Wolves 20-14 for the district title and went on to win the 8-Player state championship 39-30 over Bedford.

Spirit Lake’s volleyball team struggled throughout the 2023 season. The Indians finished the year with 11 wins — their lowest total in at least 17 years — but they finished the season strong, winning six of their final 10 matches to go 11-23 overall.

KEY VICTORY

Spirit Lake’s volleyball team earned a 3-0 sweep against Lakes Conference rival Spencer on Tuesday, Oct. 3. The Indians defeated the Tigers 25-18, 25-16 and 25-15 in Spencer.

This year, Okoboji’s volleyball team finished below .500 for the eighth consecutive season. However, the Pioneers did win three more matches in 2023 than they did a year ago, finishing with an 8-22 overall record.

KEY VICTORY

While the Pioneers struggled throughout the season, they did earn a conference victory over Sibley-Ocheyedan on Oct. 5. Okoboji defeated the Generals 3-2 in Milford.

Harris-Lake Park’s volleyball team earned just one victory this past season, but — after suffering back-to-back winless season in 2022 and 2021 — there might not be a more monumental victory in the program’s history. The Wolves finished the year with a 1-24 overall record.

KEY VICTORY

Spirit Lake’s girls basketball team dropped its season-opening contest with Roland-Story on Saturday, Nov. 18. The Norseman topped the 15th-ranked (3A) Indians 64-52 in Story City.

The Indians led 13-10 after one and outscored the Norseman 15-13 in the third quarter and 16-14 in the fourth. Roland-Story got hot in the second quarter, outscoring the Indians 26-8 to take a 36-21 lead into the half.

Spirit Lake Park’s girls wrestling team took part in the Lady E-Hawk Invite held Saturday, Nov. 18 at Emmetsburg. The Indians placed eighth as a team and had two individual champions and one runner-up on the day.

Okoboji/HMS’ girls wrestling team competed at the 2023 Lady E-Hawk Invite held Saturday, Nov. 18 in Emmetsburg. The Pioneers placed fifth as a team. They had had one champion and one runner-up on the day.

“Everybody competed well and we had a great team showing,” Okoboji/HMS coach Todd Gonnerman said.

Jozlyn Cookinham won the Pioneers’ only individual championship. She went 3-0 to win the 190-pound title.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about fishing and outdoor things recently. When I don’t go fishing, much of the time I’m reading about fishing. Following are a couple of fishing things that I’ve been reading about.