Game & Fish

You are holding in your hands the first issue of the 50th anniversary year of Game & Fish magazine, and our staff could not be more excited for you to dig in. Like many 50-year-olds, we recently took a long look in the mirror and decided it was time for a change. But instead of booking an appointment with a plastic surgeon or making a half-hearted attempt at the latest fad diet, we focused on self-improvement and overhauled the magazine from cover to cover. In the pages that follow, you’ll still find all the expert how-to and where-to hunting and fishing information you’ve come to expect from Game & Fish, but in a fresher, more modern package. We start with The Trailhead, our new front-of-book section, including a delectable quail…

While bobwhite quail are well known as superb table fare, a bit of prep and a few techniques can really make them shine. Firstly, plucking leads to juicier and tastier birds. The skin contains flavor and helps maintain moisture when cooking. Secondly, brining or simply salting the birds, and allowing enough time for the salt to be absorbed, will further boost the flavor and help retain moisture when cooking. If you opt for brining, remember to rinse the birds when removing them from the salted water. When it comes to cooking, quail are considered done once the breast’s internal temperature reaches approximately 150 degrees. A blush of pink may remain, but this is ideal for wild birds in terms of succulence and taste. This recipe calls for fire-roasting the game…

DIFFICULTY : MODERATETIME REQUIRED : 90-120 MINUTES Want a better bird dog? Build one! OK, you can’t really “build” a dog (that’s your breeder’s job), but you can easily assemble a training table that can help turn your dog into a better hunter. It’ll help your back, too. For decades, pro trainers have been getting dogs off the ground because it works. To a dog, being elevated adds a bit of drama and import to whatever is being done. A dog off the ground is a little less full of himself and looks to his human for assurance. Essentially, you’ve got his undivided attention, his eyes widen a bit, and he wonders to himself, what the heck is going on up here? Wobbly barrels and elevated “place boards” are two…

Opening day of pheasant season in my county is normally a festive affair, with parties of hunters converging on the cafés and bars after cleaning multiple limits of roosters. But the 2025 opener was somber, with hunters complaining about low bird numbers while enumerating the whitetail deer carcasses they had encountered. The deer, dozens of them in some fields, were felled by a localized epidemic of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). A particularly nasty contagion spread by biting gnats, EHD causes whitetails (and to a lesser extent mule deer, antelope, and even moose) to bleed to death from ruptured lungs and blood vessels. The only cure is a significant frost that kills the gnats and spares the survivors. While we wait on the frost and commiserate, deer hunters in my part…

Cowboy Kent Rollins, as he’s known to some 7 million followers and subscribers across social media platforms and YouTube, has always loved cooking and the outdoors. His life’s journey has taken him from the banks of Oklahoma’s Red River to New Mexico’s rugged Gila Wilderness to cattle ranches across the country, usually with cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens in tow. Now, in his new show, Cast Iron Cowboy on the Outdoor Channel, he’s celebrating America’s cowboys and the food—which he prepares from his restored chuckwagon—that fuels their work. Game & Fish Magazine (G&F): Let’s start by talking about where you come from. What led you to where you are now? What led to your love of cooking? Kent Rollins (KR): I was raised in southwest Oklahoma near the Red…

In his latest book, Rivers Always Reach the Sea: Angling Stories ($28.95, Pegasus Books), Monte Burke leads readers on a grand tour sportsmen will find equal parts fascinating and familiar. Through his prose—candid and unpretentious, with a dash of humor—he shares vivid tales of people, times, places, and fish that feel special without embellishment. Often told in a retrospective voice, the compilation of short stories conveys the author’s sense of adventure, and his reverence and admiration for locales, events, and participants in some way extraordinary. They also include impressions and reflections on numerous subjects, with fishing as the common thread. In pursuit of bucket-list gamefish, Burke flings a fly in secluded spots and busy metropolitan waters; in his old stomping grounds and in faraway lands. The stories find him in…