The 2023 August Roadside Count data is out, and pheasant hunters across the Hawkeye state received excellent news relating to this year’s pheasant season.

The statewide survey showed the highest statewide counts since 2015. The survey is conducted by Iowa DNR staff between Aug. 1-15, as they drive 218, 30-mile routes on gravel roads at dawn on mornings with heavy dew.

Walleye anglers were in for a treat when they attended the Chase Parsons Fishing Seminar held Saturday, Aug. 12, at the Okoboji Blue Water Festival.

Parsons, who has been a highly successful professional walleye angler for the past 20 years, and owner of the Next Bite TV program airing on the Discovery Channel, right away told a packed crowd, “I want to talk about techniques that we can use from one body of water to another.”

Several catchable trout stockings on a few trout streams in Northeast Iowa will be delayed until this week, the week of Sept. 11, due to low flows and high temperatures.

The select streams include Buck Creek, South Cedar, Otter Creek, West Canoe (Winneshiek County), Bear Creek (Fayette County), Brush Creek (Jackson County) and Dalton Pond (Jackson County). These streams are usually not stocked in July and August and resume in September due to stream water temperature concerns.

After suffering its first regular season loss in 23 months, Spirit Lake will look to bounce back this week against heated rival Spencer.

These two squads have met 10 times since 2010. Spirit Lake has dominated the series, winning nine of those meetings by an average margin of 14.8 points. Spencer’s only victory in that time span was a 26-13 win in 2017.

The Tigers are coming off of back-to-back losses to No. 4 (3A) Humboldt and No. 9 (3A) Webster City.

After suffering back-to-back close losses to North Union and Pocahontas Area the first two weeks of the season, Okoboji hopes to get on the winning track against an MOC-Floyd Valley team that is also 0-2. The Dutchmen have dropped games to No. 10 (2A) Unity Christian and defending state champion No. 2 (2A) Central Lyon/George-Little Rock to start the year.

Harris-Lake Park rolled to its first win of the 2023 season last week and the Wolves hope to keep that momentum heading into a Week 3 matchup with Northwood-Kensett.

The Vikings are 0-2 on the season after falling 42-28 to Janesville and 44-12 to GT/RA in the first two weeks of the season.

These two teams have met just four times in the last decade. The series is tied 2-2.

From the opening kickoff, Rockford knew it was in trouble.

Spirit Lake’s football team suffered its first regular season loss since Oct. 1, 2021 when the fourth-ranked Indians fell to Sioux Center on Friday, Sept. 1. The Warriors topped the Indians 30-20 in Spirit Lake.

Spirit Lake coach Josh Bolluyt said his squad didn’t get out to a great start Friday night. The Warriors controlled the clock and took advantage of a late third-quarter interception to take a 16-7 lead into halftime.

Okoboji’s football team battled but ultimately fell short in its home opener with Pocahontas Area on Friday, Sept. 1. The Indians topped the Pioneers 35-32 in Milford.

It was the second one-score loss of the season for Okoboji, after dropping a 26-20 contest to North Union in Week 1.

Okoboji’s Evan Osler began the 2023 cross country season with a bang.

After finishing third individually and helping his squad to a runner-up finish at last year’s Class 2A state meet, the Pioneers’ leader earned a first-place finish in a time of 16 minutes, 34.06 seconds at the 2023 Okoboji XC Invitational held Thursday, Aug. 31 at Emerald Hills Golf Club in Arnolds Park. The Okoboji boys placed second overall, finishing three points behind champion Sioux Center.

Spirit Lake’s volleyball team went 1-4 at a tournament hosted by Algona on Saturday, Sept. 2. The Indians earned a 2-1 win over Lakes Conference rival Storm Lake, but fell 2-1 to No. 13 (4A) Sioux Center and 2-0 to Algona, Estherville Lincoln Central and Lake Mills.

Spirit Lake’s volleyball team went 1-2 at a tournament hosted by Boyden-Hull on Thursday, Aug. 31. The Indians earned a 2-0 win over Akron-Westfield but fell 2-0 to Rock Valley and Boyden-Hull.

“We played solid again tonight at Boyden-Hull,” Spirit Lake coach Beau Dielschneider said. “We ended up playing Boyden-Hull and Rock Valley very close, just slipping at the very end. We ended the night with a nice sweep of an athletic Akron-Westfield team.”