Outdoors Angle: What Dog Days?

The Flag Outdoors Expert Steve Carney has your weekly Outdoors Angle right here!

     After many decades guiding in the 5 county metro area of the Twin Cities as well as southern and western Minnesota, the "Dog Days" of summer really do exist. Blue-Green algae is very common and in recent years the water quality has really degraded in these areas of Minnesota.

     Dog days in lakes country? No such thing! We are fortunate with the waters of North and South Dakota and Lake's Country here in the northwest to have some very good fishing opportunities through July and August which isn't possible elsewhere. Many times the metro waters would be unfishable as early as mid-May and you could basically write off the rest of the summer. Water degradation can be attributed to farm field runoff, leaky septic systems and most importantly the amount of chemicals and salt that we put on the roads through the winter season. That washes directly into the rivers, streams and lakes creating immediate water problems.

     I am very grateful that here in lake's country that we have tremendous fishing in mid summer and it just gets better and better into the Fall. No doubt there are a handful of lakes in the northwest that do exhibit water issues but generally speaking things are fairly normal throughout the region.

     Not only does water degradation affect fishing it also is directly related to duck migration which is a whole different issue. More on that down the road.

     For now, we are blessed and fishing is still viable and worthwhile in the north country.

Steve Carney is The Flag WZFG Outdoors expert. He can be heard every Thursday morning at 8:05 on AM 1100 WZFG. Check out his weekly podcast on am1100theflag.com and hear his Outdoors Angle reports every Friday on AM 1100 WZFG. You can also visit stevecarneyoutdoors.com for more information.