Iowa Lakes athletes Brady Abkes, Kendall Umscheid and Mackenzie Schnetzer all earned honorable mention in the category of trap. The ICCAC Sports Shooting announced their inaugural All-Region qualifiers and special awards after the 2023 season. Award earners were recognized based on statistics throughout the season. The Lakers plan to compete in the ACUI Nationals in San Antonio the third week of March 2024.

Sam West has had a great start to the season in the first month of his sophomore season. The Iowa Lakes forward does it all game-in and game-out for the Lakers and last week was no different. In three games he posted an average stat line of 18 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. He had 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists in 20 minutes of their game. He had 13 points and five boards in Game 2 of the week.

The Iowa Lakes men’s basketball team improved to 9-2 overall and 1-0 in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference play with a 110-94 win at Northeast.

The Lakers were led by Kai Evans with 36 points. Ashton Hermann had 23 points, Jaedan Jefferson had 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Sam West added 13 points. Northeast was led by Jacob Martin with 18 points.

The Lakers will next play Saturday when they host Southwestern. Tip for the game will be 3 p.m.

More than $415,000 in 50% cost-share grants were recently awarded to 131 Iowa rural fire departments to help their efforts to protect Iowan’s and their property from wildfires. The grants offer valuable funding assistance for wildfire suppression, personal protective and communications equipment.

Avoid the crowds and the “item out of stock” message this holiday season and get something every boater can use — new U.S. Coast Guard-approved wearable lifejackets.

Lifejackets make an excellent gift because each person on board a vessel is required to have one, and kids age 12 and younger must wear one while the vessel is underway.

With winter knocking on our door, ice fishing is right around the corner as well. Each year, we see thousands of anglers come to the Iowa Great Lakes. Ice fishing is a great way for a family to get out of the house and spend time outdoors. We are spoiled here in the Iowa Great Lakes to have many lakes and areas to explore and fish.

There was more frost on the ground this morning than there has been in several months. A variety of birds have left the area for their winter homes, and other types of birds are gathering to do the same. A check of the calendar confirms that winter is closing in. It’s time to think about fishing through holes in the ice. Following are a few things that some expert ice anglers do to catch more fish through those holes.

It seems like no matter what we’re involved in, there are those who just seem to be a step above. They have the skills that set them apart from others and often have the charisma that makes people want to be around them. As an outdoor writer, I have been fortunate enough to interview some of the best of the best in both the hunting and fishing world.

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.

Iowa is experiencing the third worst outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease 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.

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.

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.

When you ice fish and live north of Highway 20 in northern Iowa and the month of November arrives, it’s time to think ice fishing. You never know what might happen. Here on the Iowa Great Lakes, there have been times when I have been ice fishing on Thanksgiving. OK, I know it’s only been three or four times over the past 40 years, but there is always that chance. More often, it’s somewhere around the middle of December, but the last couple of years it has even been later.

SIOUX CITY — Facing a talented and No. 9-ranked Sioux City East squad on the Black Raiders home floor resulted in a tough road loss for the young Spencer team which fell to 0-3 following a 72-19 loss.

SIOUX CITY — Spencer’s boys surrendered 21 first quarter points to Sioux City East on the road Tuesday, and by halftime the Black Raiders had doubled the Tigers score before cruising to an 82-44 win. It was the first game of the season for both teams.

“This Sioux City East team may have more length and athleticism than any of their teams in the last decade and that really caused problems for us on both ends of the floor,” Kory Petzenhauser, Spencer head coach, said.