Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Game & Fish South

As a born-and-raised Northeasterner, I’d never experienced anything like Bienville Plantation in north-central Florida the first time I visited. The towering pines draped in Spanish moss, the alligators lazily basking in the midday sun, an indescribable sweetness to the air, fried frog legs for dinner—I might as well have been on a different planet. Then, of course, there was the epic bass fishing. Our group caught more and bigger bass on that trip than most of us had caught in our lives to that point. That was some 20 years ago. Last December, I returned to Bienville, now under new management and known as Bienville Outdoors (bienville.com), for the fourth-annual Game & Fish Tackle Test and was pleased to find that not much about the place has changed … except…

With the mission of expanding hunting opportunities and improving wildlife conservation in the United States and around the world, SCI constantly monitors and battles threats to that goal. The organization recently listed several areas of top concern, committing to fight new and continued threats. “In the United States, both hunting and conservation are threatened at the federal and state levels,” said W. Laird Hamberlin, CEO of SCI. “And SCI is in the unique position as the only hunting rights organization with a Washington, D.C.-based international advocacy team. We take such threats very seriously and are committed to representing hunting access here and abroad.” At the federal level, SCI is advocating for a no-net-loss commitment from the Biden Administration following significant access expansions for hunting and fishing from the Trump Administration.…

For bass anglers, the month of May is wide open. In the South, no other month offers the opportunity to catch bass on such a wide assortment of baits, using a variety of techniques at a range of depths in such an expanse of cover types. In fact, May’s biggest challenge is often just hacking through the chaff to get to the good stuff. With so many available options, breaking them down to a few simple yet pro ductive choices can quickly make us far more successful. It’s a classic example of how less can be more. TRANSITION TIME One reason that May options are so broad is that the fish are in a transition period. The spawn is over, as are the post-spawn doldrums across most of the South.…

Products are scored by each tester from 60 to 100 in six categories; the scores are then averaged to determine the Overall score. The product with the highest Overall score earns our Editor’s Choice Award. DESIGN: The efficiency and ease of operation of the mechanical features. ERGONOMICS: The efficiency and comfort of the product’s man-to-machine interfaces. FISHABILITY: How well the product performs under real-world conditions. CONSTRUCTION: The quality of the materials, and the overall fit-and-finish and build quality. AESTHETICS: The degree to which the product is appealing to the eye. VALUE: The perceived value of the product with regard to its price. The product with the hightest Value score earns our Great Buy Award for its category.…

Products are scored by each tester from 60 to 100 in six categories; the scores are then averaged to determine the Overall score. The product with the highest Overall score earns our Editor’s Choice Award. DESIGN: The efficiency and ease of operation of the mechanical features. ERGONOMICS: The efficiency and comfort of the product’s man-to-machine interfaces. FISHABILITY: How well the product performs under real-world conditions. CONSTRUCTION: The quality of the materials, and the overall fit-and-finish and build quality. AESTHETICS: The degree to which the product is appealing to the eye. VALUE: The perceived value of the product with regard to its price. The product with the hightest Value score earns our Great Buy Award for its category.…

Kayaks designed for anglers keep getting better as builders add more fishing-specific features to make time on the water productive and efficient. Let’s not forget about comfort, either; improved seats that support the back and adjust for legroom help us stay out there longer. Plus, pedal-drive systems get us to our spots faster and let us position boats even while firing off casts to prime structure. No doubt about it: Today’s purpose-built kayaks are serious fishing machines. Our friends at Florida Sportsman recently put a bunch of the latest fishing kayaks to the test, and here are six that stood out for exploring a variety of waters. HOBIE MIRAGE COMPASS LENGTH: 12' WIDTH: 34" WEIGHT: 87 lbs. rigged, 68 lbs. hull OVERALL CAPACITY: 400 lbs. PROPULSION: MirageDrive 180 pedal system,…

Every long cast, authoritative hookset, sporty battle and thrashing fish in the net results from balance—not the kind of equilibrium we seek between mind and body or work and home, but rather a well-balanced tackle system, consisting of rod, reel, line and lure. Most anglers recognize that bluegill rods shouldn’t be used when chasing muskies, and that finesse tubes don’t perform to our expectations when presented on long, stiff rods and levelwind reels. While poorly balanced tackle can make for a frustrating and expensive experience, a tackle system that is well-balanced will enhance everything that happens on the water involving a cast, a fight and a fish. Assembling a balanced system of rod, reel, line and lure requires that you address two fundamental questions: what species of fish do you…

We hear it come over the next set of hills, muffled and distorted in the wind, but unmistakable. Gobbles. Maybe a pair of birds, maybe more. It’s our second day of hunting turkeys in eastern Montana with Trophies West Outfitters, and, as a Missouri resident, it’s my first-ever trip for a Merriam’s bird. Our trio includes Daniel Holder, marketing coordinator for CZ-USA; and our guide, Chris Dalley, who goes by his last name only. We’ve been blind calling in a patch of ponderosa pine forest amongst rolling hills and plains, hoping to strike up a gobbler. Now we have. Dan, whose yelping on a pot call prompted the gobbles, smiles at Dalley and me when he hears the birds fire. He has a turkey tag, too, but he left his…

Large speckled seatrout—aka “yellowmouths,” aka “gators”—are an elusive fish. Once trout get to about 20 inches, their diet switches from shrimp to mostly fish and they move out of deep, grassy bays to prowl shallow flats, docks, piers and the open beach. Big trout also become extremely spooky, rivaling bonefish in their tendency to take flight at the bump of a push pole or the wave of a rod. Seatrout are caught from the Carolinas to south Texas, and because they’re found in so many types of habitats over hundreds of miles of coastline, there are a lot of different tactics for catching them. The muddy, high-flow tidal creeks from North Carolina through St. Augustine, Fla., are live-bait country, while the clearer, sand-bottomed bays and beaches of the rest of…

Created in 1962, Lake Eufaula garnered an early reputation as the “Bass Fishing Capital of the World.” Officially dubbed Walter F. George Reservoir, the impoundment covers 45,181 acres along the Chattahoochee River on the Alabama-Georgia border. Eufaula offers anglers about 640 shoreline miles with numerous shallow feeder creeks and deep, old river channel holes that stretch to depths of 60 feet and more in places. Over the years, Lake Eufaula has produced many double-digit largemouths. The old lake still produces excellent numbers of bass in the 1- to 4-pound range, some 5- to 8-pounders and an occasional double-digit fish, with some topping 12 pounds. “Lake Eufaula is well known for producing big bass and big stringers,” says Jack Tibbs, mayor of Eufaula, Ala., and owner of Strikezone Lure Company (strikezonelure.com).…

G.LOOMIS GCX For decades, the G.Loomis name has been synonymous with top-level quality and attention to detail, and the brand’s new GCX rods, handcrafted in Woodland, Wash., continue that trend. The GCX lineup comprises 23 different casting and spinning models, each intended for a specific technique. Our 7-foot-1-inch extra-fast rod ($250; gloomis.com) was designed for jigs and worms, and features an understated look, with clean lines and a simplicity of design that many anglers will appreciate. The first thing we noticed when fishing the GCX was its cozy feel. An oversized cork foregrip wraps around the reel seat, offering a large area to grab while either casting or exercising baits. The dense cork adds to the rod’s sensitivity, enabling anglers to discern subtle worm bites. The rearward positioning of the…

Angler interest in kayaks has exploded recently, and so too has the number of kayaks tailored to fishing applications. With today’s dizzying array of purpose-built fishing kayaks—and an equally overwhelming variety of features and characteristics—many prospective buyers don’t know where to begin. However, there is a method to the madness. Speak with a handful of industry experts on the kayak buying process, and several key considerations will come up again and again. If you’re hunting for a new fishing kayak, keep the following items in mind. 1. INTENDED FISHING USE Choose a kayak that fits the waters you fish and the type of fishing you do most often. Are you chasing bass or panfish on calm lakes and slow-moving rivers, or inshore species on flats or coastal bays? Do you…

Shane and his father liked to camp in early spring while it was still cool at night. Their first time out they brought only the necessities, just as Shane’s father said he’d done when he was a boy. They had a big plastic tarp for a lean-to and a couple wool blankets. In a single wooden trunk, they packed rope, an ax, coffee pot, lantern, fishing tackle and some onions, beans and potatoes to go with whatever fish they caught. They set up camp in no time, gathered firewood and spent the rest of the afternoon catching fish. They cooked two channel cats over the fire that evening as they sat cross-legged on the ground, gazing at the stars and listening to the frogs until they got tired, which wasn’t…

Modern riflescopes are optical marvels. You can haul your rifle around on an ATV and the scope will never shift zero. You can dial in bullet corrections as small as an inch at 400 yards. With zoom ranges as high as eight times, you can view a crystal-clear image at 3X to 24X. A riflescope is one of the primary interfaces between a hunter and a rifle, and we must take some steps to avoid common mistakes and optimize that interface. The first and most critical task is mounting the scope to the rifle. Too often hunters skimp on scope mounts only to discover the cheap mounts are the reason the setup won’t hold zero or shoot itty-bitty groups. Worse yet, cheap mounts that don’t fit the scope or rifle…

It was one of those places I could catch a dozen hammerhandle pike on any given day and with just about any method. Milltown Reservoir, just east of Missoula, Mont., was never intended to be a pike fishery, but it had all the attributes: shallow, weedy water; abundant prey in the form of juvenile trout; and the neglect of fisheries managers. My main problem was that I couldn’t keep any of my fish. Milltown Reservoir had another distinction: an EPA Superfund cleanup site that trapped tons of poisonous slurry from a century of copper mining upstream. Those toxins accumulate in the flesh of predatory gamefish. Health officials strongly discouraged anyone from eating any fish from the reservoir or from the miles of Clark Fork River upstream of the dam. But…

They say that when a gobbler is with a group of hens, you should call in the hens and the tom will follow. These are the same people who claim that killing the Rio subspecies is easy. I had heard both of these half-truths so many times that I almost believed them. But now, with my backside numb and my mouth dry as the Texas dirt on which I sit, I realize they are just plain lies. A few days ago, it seemed like this hunt would indeed fit the so-called effortless description that hunters who find quick success on Rios like to bandy forth. When I showed up at the bunkhouse on Los Encinos Ranch outside McAllen, hunt organizer John DePalma was all smiles. He had tagged a gobbler…

Unlike April, there’s nothing wishy-washy about the month of May. Spring has sprung for real, and it seems like every critter out there is just as stoked about the weather as you are. There are some funky options for hunting still on the table, and spring fishing is going off like a five-alarm fire. If you’ve been holding back brownie points, it’s time to cash in. Spring in the South is as good as it gets. 1 ARKANSAS SMALLIES The Ozark and Ouachita mountains are trellised with clear-water streams cobbled with rock and boulder and studded with logs. Canoes are an ideal way to fish here, throwing spinnerbaits or casting deer-hair poppers. If you like small water and larger-than-average fish, head for Crooked Creek. The Ouachita River is also known…

Channel catfish adapt better than most fish, allowing managers to stock them in many bodies of water outside their native range. Today, these popular sportfish swim in waters of all kinds, from little farm ponds and creeks to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River. The types of waters where channel catfish are not found are relatively few. They rarely thrive in cold, fast-running streams where trout are abundant, and they don’t do well in the cold lakes of the Far North. They don’t like brackish water or saltwater, either, or waters that are polluted. Almost everywhere else, thriving populations of channel catfish exist. Waters they love include big, fertile rivers; bayous; large, man-made impoundments; oxbows; creeks; water-supply lakes; sloughs; irrigation canals; ponds; backwaters; strip pits and just about anywhere else…

While in the area, nature lovers should explore Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge. The 11,184-acre refuge straddles the Chattahoochee River and attracts many bird species, offering tremendous opportunities for photography enthusiasts and bird watchers alike. The refuge also offers hunting opportunities. For history buffs, the town of Eufaula dates to 1816, three years before Alabama became a state. The town survived the Civil War untouched, and visitors can tour many original antebellum mansions during the annual Eufaula Pilgrimage Tour of Homes (eufaulapilgrimage.com). Each December, the town hosts a Christmas Tour of Homes. Visitors may also visit the 1884 Shorter Mansion furnished with period antiques. Downtown Eufaula offers excellent dining in several restaurants, and a giant bass statue resides in the city’s park. Lakepoint State Park (alapark.com/parks/ lakepointstate-park) offers lodging in the…

Products are scored by each tester from 60 to 100 in six categories; the scores are then averaged to determine the Overall score. The product with the highest Overall score earns our Editor’s Choice Award. DESIGN: The efficiency and ease of operation of the mechanical features. ERGONOMICS: The efficiency and comfort of the product’s man-to-machine interfaces. FISHABILITY: How well the product performs under real-world conditions. CONSTRUCTION: The quality of the materials, and the overall fit-and-finish and build quality. AESTHETICS: The degree to which the product is appealing to the eye. VALUE: The perceived value of the product with regard to its price. The product with the hightest Value score earns our Great Buy Award for its category.…