Outdoors With Hank – Wild Game

The Eagles Have Landed

He is watching you. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America. The founders of the United States were fond of comparing their new republic with the Roman Republic, in which eagle imagery (usually involving the golden eagle) was prominent. On June 20, 1782, the Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States depicting a bald eagle grasping 13 arrows and an olive branch with thirteen leaves, with its talons. The eagles are flying up to the roof tops on the houses in the neighborhood. This shot is right next door to our home. We have the fortune or misfortune, depending on how you view it, of living close to the Missouri River. It is out of its banks and up to the base of the levees surrounding Council Bluffs. Living on a golf course we have a beautiful lake adjoining the golf course that we

Two Days on Lake Francis Case (Day 2)

Platte Creek Lodge and Guide Service. Wow, Wow, and more Wow! It just can’t get much better than this. My guide and I hit the lake at the same time and struggled through the crowd at the only boat ramp available. Yesterday we limited out, but came back to fish and pitch for another day of action. We got to the boat ramp a little earlier and that helped a lot getting on the lake. On the water the guide hit the pedal and off we went flying across the water to another fishing spot he knew about. Looking out the back of the boat, and this is what 50 mph looks like as we sped across the water. Looking out over the bow of the boat. This machine really flies and it does not take long to cover a lot of water. The white box with the red handle is a

Two Days on Lake Francis Case (Day 1)

Lake Francis Case is the large, gently winding reservoir behind Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River in south-central South Dakota. The lake has an area of 102,000 acres and a maximum depth of 140 feet. Lake Francis Case covers just over 100 miles and has a shoreline of 540 miles. A good friend and his wife had just come back from a two day fishing trip and gave an outstanding recommendation for a guide, using his boat and equipment, and a lodge to stay at. The pictures they had were of some excellent walleye fishing. The fish caught were not big lunkers, but really nice size fish in the 15 to 18 inch class. These fillet out really nice and fry up even better. Picture is produced by Harry Weddington, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Digital Visual Library The Fort Randall Dam is located within sight of its namesake Fort Randall, an

The Floods of Southwest Iowa

This picture taken from Lewis and Clark Monument north of Council Bluffs. Downtown Omaha is at the upper right of the picture with the Missouri River weaving around Council Bluffs. You can see I-29 with the water flooding the east side. In 1953 the year of the big flood in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area was a highlight of a young boy’s experiences. The west end of Council Bluffs was totally evacuated in case the levees did not hold. Our group of rowdy little boys spent the week we were let out of school on a bluff that overlooked the city. One of the boy’s fathers had been in the Navy during the WWII and we were supplied with an enormous pair of binoculars that took two of us to carry. We sat and watched the action going on along the river. The levees held, thanks to all able bodied men who worked