Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i Game & Fish West

One of the quirks of my job as an outdoor magazine editor is I start to experience each hunting season long before opening day. It’s early January as I write this, three months before I’ll try to convince a longbeard that I’m the hen he just has to come see, but I’ve been reading articles about spring turkey hunting since Thanksgiving. Just after Christmas, I tested a new turkey gun from Henry with new loads from Apex so I could write a review for this issue (see page 76). It’s difficult to not be fired up for turkey season when I’ve already been immersed in my favorite part of spring for weeks on end. The wind chill has been in the teens in my part of Pennsylvania, but I’m already…

Bass-fishing success year-round demands versatility. Hollowbody frogs may be great when the slop thickens, but froggin’ gear is of limited utility when the fish are on the bank and more likely to chase squarebills. An expert-level jerkbait angler will struggle when fish go deep, unless they become equally competent with a drop-shot. Whether you are climbing the competitive-angling ladder, or simply want to consistently enjoy a steady flow of bites, becoming proficient with a broad range of bass fishing techniques is of critical importance. Of course, changing presentations isn’t simply a matter of snipping one bait off your line or leader and tying on another. The rod in your hand is as central to bass fishing success as your choice of lure. An outstanding jerkbait rod is a bad choice…

I had visited Vermont once. I was in eighth grade and attending my cousin’s high-school graduation. Vastly different from the openness of the West where I called home, Vermont enchanted me with its brilliant greens, massive maple woodlots and miles of hardwood ridges. I never forgot those sights, and nearly three decades later when my amigo Justin Brouillard invited me to Vermont to hunt turkeys with him, I jumped at the opportunity to return. I’m a turkey junkie, and I find new states in which to satisfy my addiction each spring. Last season, I officially started my “Chasing 49” quest to harvest a wild turkey in all 49 states with a huntable turkey population. Alaska is the only turkey no-go, thanks to fantastic conservation groups like the National Wild Turkey…

A 6 1/2-foot, light-action spinning rod is my choice for the 1/16-ounce pill-head hair jig, while a medium-light rod is ideal when a 1/8-ounce jig is needed. These two rod configurations cover 95 percent of the trout water I fish. Size up to a 7-foot rod and 1/4-ounce jigs in big water; size down to a 5-foot rod and 1/32-ounce jigs for small streams. To create a multi-rod arsenal for a reasonable budget, I gravitate to the Fish Eagle series from Bass Pro Shops. Paired with a 2500-size Daiwa Fuego spinning reel spooled with 8-pound Power Pro braided line, the Fish Eagle rods allow me to feel every tick on the bottom and many of the grabs I miss. After sorting through some less expensive options, I feel confident that…

Options for adventure abound in south-central Alaska. There is, of course, great fishing for salmon and trout in seemingly every waterway, and visiting anglers make spending time on the water a priority. Many also recognize that the state offers numerous other activities such as glacier trekking, jet boating, ATV or Jeep touring, flightseeing and dogsled-ding, along with the more typical hiking and wildlife viewing. Considering all these opportunities, a lot of anglers don’t need or want to fly to a distant, isolated lodge and fish seven days straight. Those visiting Alaska with their spouse or other family members can blend interesting non-angling outdoor activities with excellent fishing to experience the beauty and bounty that makes Alaska a top destination. To add to the adventure, such day-trip fishing opportunities include exciting…

WHAT’S GOING ON OUT THERE? Find out what Game & Fish fans love online, from hunting and fishing how-to videos, to trophy successes, to the best and newest gear. Our “Trending” section is updated every week. ‘FIELD TO FIRE’ Andrew Zimmern, host of the Outdoor Channel’s “Field to Fire” series, says cooking over an open fire remains a great way to prepare game dishes. See a trio of his favorite creations under “Recipies.” HOW ABOUT THESE GUNS? If you’re planning for next season and looking to scratch the whitetail itch, you need to check out “Best New Deer Hunting Rifles for 2025,” our online-exclusive roundup. BEST BASS STATES There’s great black bass fishing in every corner of the Lower 48, but where’s the best? Digital staffer Lynn Burkhead breaks down…

I had spent the morning turkey hunting in the West Virginia mountains. On the drive home, I found three black-legged ticks crawling up my arms, even though the temperature at more than 3,100 feet had been in the upper 30s. Unfortunately, I did not find all of them that day. It wasn’t until the next morning that I discovered a fourth tick, which had attached to my body. I immediately asked my wife to remove it. She used curved tweezers to grab the tick close to my skin and gently, but firmly, pulled backward to remove the bloodsucker. Just as importantly, I took two pills of doxycycline, which I always keep on hand through a doctor’s prescription. The black-legged, or deer, tick is about the size of a pencil point…

Jimmy Reese was targeting vertical cover, but an isolated horizontal change-up yielded a textbook example of the potential of tules. Working a long stretch of this iconic western habitat outlining a California Delta slough, the seasoned tournament pro spotted a subtle clue. “Did you see that?” Reese asked his practice partner. “A fish just bumped that tule raft.” As Reese noted, the distinctive push indicated a bass nosing the dead tules wedged into a pocket amid the standing plants. Recognizing the concentrated feeding effort, Reese fired a topwater frog into the pocket and slowly walked the bait across the raft. The second the frog left the cover, a solid Delta largemouth foamed the surface. Such dramatic takedowns play out on Western fisheries in California and Arizona throughout the year. And…

There are several productive streams very close to Alaska’s largest city. Combine those with an abundance of accommodations and infrastructure, and Anchorage becomes a great base location for any Alaska fishing trip. Just keep in mind that some of the close waters are not remote and may attract crowds when salmon runs are heavy. Anchorage lies just south of the Mat-Su Valley, named for its two primary drainages, the Matanuska and Susitna rivers. To the west is the Cook Inlet, and to the south is the Kenai Peninsula. The Talkeetna Mountains are to the north, and the majestic 5,000-foot-plus peaks of the Chugach Mountains lie to the south. It is easy to reach several exciting salmon and trout fisheries from Anchorage. Dustin Slinker has been fishing the area for more…

In those dark days before the emergence of tungsten turkey loads, very few hunters carried a .410-bore shotgun for gobblers because they wanted to. They hunted with a .410 because they had to. Either they were too young or recoil-shy to handle a larger gun, or a .410 was the only shotgun they owned. Loads for the .410 just didn’t hold enough No. 6 lead pellets to reliably dispatch longbeards past 20 yards—an unfavorable constraint in the spring woods. Most turkey hunters (except maybe those with an envious amount of time on their hands) still don’t want to limit their shots to 20 yards, but soft-shooting, wand-like .410 shotguns are becoming increasingly popular gobbler guns. Thanks to incredibly dense Tungsten Super Shot (TSS), the effective range of the .410 as…

Portable shooting rests started out as nothing more than two sticks tied together with a leather strap near one end. That’s what the old-time buffalo hunters used. They just spread them apart and rested their rifle at the point where the sticks crossed. Of course, shooting sticks have since evolved, and many hunters are now even foregoing shooting sticks and bipods altogether and instead turning to tripods, onto which they can easily attach their rifle. There’s a wide assortment of these tripods to choose from, and how and where you hunt will ultimately dictate whether a shooting tripod is compatible with your pursuit. If you hunt from a treestand in the timber, they’re probably not for you. But if you like to spot and stalk open country or hunt from…

My buddy Ed has a way with verbs. He says he “stuck” a buck when he connects with his bow, he “blasts” or “schwee-schwacks” deer with his rifle, and he “gives dirt naps” to the elk he drops in the Montana mountains. His is colorful and descriptive language, but those verbs don’t convey much empathy for the animals that will feed his family and quench his passion for hunting. I don’t care that much. I know Ed as a hard and serious hunter, and his earthy descriptions of killing wildlife form a sort of code between committed hunters. I find myself sometimes describing how I “blasted” a duck or goose. But what if a non-hunter or even an anti-hunter overhears Ed? They’re likely to judge him—and by extension, other hunters—as…

My path from college to a career in fisheries science took me through a litany of seasonal jobs for which I collected field data for various projects. I put my fishing experience to use in Southwest Alaska over several summers, working on a project to determine if angling was an effective substitute for more traditional fish population sampling methods. I was paid to fish remote streams for rainbow trout, collecting data through tagging and recapturing trout, and a white curly-tail grub attached to an 1/8-ounce pink jig head was the workhorse of my research-gathering efforts. In the 30 years since, I’ve improved the effectiveness of my jigs, making them my everywhere, all-the-time, go-to lure for trout. THE STRIKE ZONE In the streams we fish across the West, trout spend most…

The word “tule” comes from the indigenous Mexican word tullin (Nahuatl for “bulrush”). Early settlers from New Spain likened the marsh plants flourishing throughout the Central Valley to those in the marshes around Mexico City. Notably, tules once lined the now-extinct Tulare Lake, formerly the largest freshwater body in the Western U.S. Located in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, the lake was drained for land speculation during the early 20th century, but colloquial remembrance remains in the old California phrase, “out in the tules,” which means “beyond far away.” California’s Native American Indians harvested tules and fashioned shelters, boats and sleeping/sitting mats from the durable stalks. Grinding dried tules yielded flour, while various preparations of the plant held medicinal properties. Anderson Marsh State Historic Park at the…

Not too long ago, if you were a diehard ice angler pursuing panfish, you wouldn’t conceive of going out on the ice without some form of live bait, be it spikes, waxworms or minnows. The choice depended on whether the target species was perch, crappies or bluegills. Yellow perch and crappies are known minnow eaters, so shiners were a logical choice if you were going after yellow bellies or specks. Bluegills and sunfish are bug eaters and have an affinity for spikes, mousies and waxworms. That all changed nearly two decades ago when plastics for ice fishing hit the market. It wasn’t an immediate, overnight flipflop, but savvy ice pros have discovered that, in many situations, they can do as well or better with plastics than the real thing. And…

The most amazing thing about a black bear: suddenly, it’s just there, appearing in absolute silence. My first big black bear materialized like that at the forest’s edge. No warning, just there. Although I was young, I knew it was big. A quartering-to shot from my .375 anchored him. Big and burly, over 7 feet. Sadly, I don’t know exactly how big that bear was. The skull mysteriously disappeared, and the rug showed shrinkage. That was 50 years ago. Since then, I’ve taken a few good black bears, but I’m not sure I’ve taken another as big in all dimensions. In the last half-century, the black bear has increased in population and has reoccupied historic habitat. He has the largest range of any North American game animal, from the Atlantic…

Shane had yearned for a dog of his own for as long as he could remember, but there was always some reason why his parents wouldn’t let him have one. “Maybe someday you can get a dog when you prove responsible enough” was the common refrain from them both. But Shane’s sustained lobbying ultimately wore them down, and finally, after years of begging, he was told he could get a puppy for his 14th birthday—under a few conditions. One, Shane was solely responsible for tending to the dog each day, training him and cleaning up any messes. Two, the dog would sleep in a doghouse in the backyard. Finally, Shane must earn money through chores to help pay any vet bills. After weeks of research and listening to endless opinions…