Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Game & Fish

Right about now is when many folks either reconsider or seriously commit to their New Year’s resolutions. I’m doing the latter. I promised my kids, and myself, that I would take them fishing more often in 2023, and I plan to follow through with it. Shouldn’t be that difficult, right? No, it should not, but I still expect some challenges. These come in the form of age (two pre-teens who some days act like they’re going on 6 and other days like they’re about to turn 16); sports (practice and games make it necessary to schedule time on the water in advance, which takes away some of the fun that comes with a spontaneous afternoon trip to the river); technology (“Get off your tablets!”); friends (hanging out with them is…

Live sonar—which provides anglers with a real-time tool to find structure, locate fish, and even monitor their behavior as they interact with lures—is dramatically altering the way in which both recreational and professional anglers practice their craft. This technological marvel can be directed beneath the boat, broadcast in a wedge in any direction, and even directed forward of the boat’s position to monitor a retrieved lure and any fish swimming in the live sonar beam’s path. Live sonar images from all three major marine electronics manufacturers—Humminbird, Garmin and Lowrance—reveal structure, lure motion, and fish behavior in remarkable detail. This powerful tool allows anglers to readily distinguish between walleyes and crappies, or bass and bluegills, and impart strike-triggering lure actions when a fish is spotted chasing a bait. Without a doubt,…

In baseball, it’s called the squeeze play. A runner on third base dashes toward home plate the instant the pitcher pitches the ball. The batter attempts to bunt to give the runner a better opportunity to score. If all goes as planned, the runner scores and the crowd goes wild. A successful squeeze play is the result of good teamwork. Each team member has a specific role to play, and if he does his job properly, the team scores a run. Now picture a different scene. A hunter blocks an opening at the end of a fencerow. His two partners, 50 yards away, wade into the briars on opposite sides of the fence and slowly move toward him. As they do, they frighten a rabbit from its hiding spot. The…

The tom dropped as if poleaxed. By the time I hustled to where he had fallen, he’d futilely beat outstretched wings a few times and a dark spot of blood had stained the side of his red, white and blue head lying flat on the stubble-strewn ground. The bird hadn’t moved more than a foot from where he’d dropped. Cradling the broken-open single-shot over my arm, I unclenched my left fist and pulled the shotshell from where I’d squeezed it between middle fingers as a handy backup round. I tossed the thin .410 shotshell to Todd Gifford. “Looks like I won’t need this,” I said. To be honest, there was a lot more going on and the scene wasn’t nearly that sedate. There had been whooping, yelling, laughing, hugging and…

Suppressors have rapidly grown in popularity over the last decade for good reason. Although suppressors are still misunderstood in some circles—they don’t completely “silence” a firearm’s report—hunters are recognizing the benefits of a device that reduces the harmful noise that emanates from a rifle when it’s fired. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration notes that noise of 140 decibels is at the threshold of pain and can cause immediate, permanent damage. (Normal conversation reaches a level of about 60 decibels for comparison.) The noise made by firing a rifle varies depending on factors such as chambering and barrel length, but most centerfire models chambered for typical hunting cartridges like the .270 Win., .308 Win. and .30-06 Sprg. exceed 160 decibels. Magnum rifles are even louder, approaching 170 decibels. Most suppressors…

Like every evening at the dinner table, Shane’s family was talking about the day. When there was a pause, Shane cleared his throat and recapped what had happened to him in school that afternoon. “When the new girl in my class found out that I am a hunter, she spoke out against me,” he related. “She said some pretty nasty things.” “What do you mean she spoke out against you?” asked Shane’s mother. “Mrs. Connolly encouraged her to speak out because it was civics class and our assignment was to argue for or against some political issue of the day,” Shane explained. “I argued for hunting, and then Meagan argued against it. That was fine, but she got kind of mean when she pointed right at me and called me…

Over the years, I have chosen to ditch the truck and use my 15-year-old mountain bike to increase my success and create a “backcountry camp” experience during Western hunting seasons. Using a converted kid-carrying trailer as a gear and meat hauler, I start each morning from a well-stocked, comfortable camp far away from the dusty roar of hunters traveling from their vehicle-based camps before daylight. My camp is about a 1 1/2-mile ride that includes an honest climb preceded by a cross-country stretch to a nondescript shady spot in the lodgepole pines. It’s a two-track road where the grazing permittee comes through once a week to fill stock tanks for his cattle and mend the electric fence protecting the main meadow complex. This camp in the lodgepole was chosen many…

For years, open-water anglers have used the drop-shot for various applications. The technique does a great job of presenting finesse baits, especially to lethargic fish suspended off the bottom, and because of this it’s a go-to option for many bass fanatics. Far fewer, however, utilize the tactic once ice covers lakes. These folks are missing out. Perch, sunfish and crappies hunt for bugs, minnows and invertebrate life all winter long beneath the ice, and dropshotting is a perfect way to deliver these items—or their imitations—to these sometimes finicky fish. Whether you’re fishing pressured waters, angling for suspended fish or you just want to match a great bug hatch, it’s often hard to beat a drop-shot for panfish. FINESSE FANFARE While most ice-anglers aggressively fish baited jigs beneath flashers, a drop-shot’s…

In addition to the Big 4 lakes popular with ice-anglers, the Black Hills has 30-some other reservoirs that support gamefish and—of particular interest to fly anglers—about 800 miles of streams containing self-sustaining populations of wild brown, brook and rainbow trout. Major creeks below spillways from the larger reservoirs stay open throughout the winter and provide excellent seasonal fishing, according to avid local angler Lee Harstad. Hit Castle Creek below Deerfield Reservoir for brookies and browns; Rapid Creek below Pactola for rainbows; and Spring Creek below Sheridan for rainbows if the flow is strong enough, Harstad says. In mild winters, which have been the rule lately, Spearfish Creek can provide plenty of action, particularly on browns. Fish are likely to hit nymphs—midges, scuds and wire worms. “And a touch of the…

While the New River is fishable more days each year than the Gauley River, the latter can sometimes be a good backup plan. The Gauley is an option for those days when the flow rate of the New in the Gorge is too high or when the water is too discolored for optimal fishing. Unlike the north-flowing New River, the Gauley’s smaller watershed drops out of Lake Summersville and flows from east to west. The lower Gauley section generally offers more fishable days per year than the upper. The river, which has a national recreation area designation, is one of the best whitewater fishing destinations in the country. It yields a variety of sportfish, including smallmouths to 7 pounds, walleyes to 17 pounds and muskies to 40 inches. You can…

Close counts when hunting turkeys with sub-gauge shotguns, especially a .410. Keep your decoys closer than you would if hunting with a 12-gauge. About 20 yards is a decent distance. Most .410 TSS loads are deadly to 40 yards; a 20-yard decoy setup gives you a cushion. TSS has been a game-changer, 30-year turkey hunter Todd Gifford says, but it’s still critical to understand the effective range of sub-gauge shotshells. “There’s a big difference [with TSS],” he notes, “but you want to keep the whole situation close.” For Gifford, that starts with scouting. In Minnesota, he generally begins to focus his efforts in May. That may seem late, but he says that before hens are nesting, turkeys are unpredictable. Once most hens are on the nest, toms will be in…

The first riflescopes centuries ago used crosshairs—literal hairs or strands of a spider web—amid scallops of glass inside a tube. Over time those crosshairs, glass and housing tubes improved with knowledge and technology. We now have crystal-clear riflescopes (and other optics) with great magnification, and crosshairs etched on the glass or imposed digitally with lines, images or information about the conditions. Some riflescopes give you hold points for distance and wind, and sync with ballistics data on a phone to provide even more information. Do you need all that to kill a deer in Alabama, or a mule deer in Colorado, or a moose or elk or bison? Of course not. The first few deer I killed many years ago were with a Winchester Model 70 in .243 Win. and…

When most hunters work with their rifles in the off-season, they do so when the weather is good, and by good, I mean warm. Even if they test loads when temperatures are more moderate, it’s very possible that when hunting season rolls around it might be much colder. I once deer hunted in Montana when it was 8 degrees below zero, and I’ve had a Saskatchewan deer hunt that was way colder than that! Most shooters have heard that when it’s cold, ammunition performs differently. That’s true, but the big question is: Is the difference enough to matter? There are two ways that the cold can alter the performance of your ammunition. The first has to do with air density, and the second has to do with the gunpowder. Cold…

You need not be a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation to benefit from its work. If you hunt, fish, shoot a gun or draw a bow, then you’ve already been influenced by this group that works with Congress, governors and state legislatures to protect and advance hunting, angling, recreational shooting and trapping. The CSF is part of an ecosystem of groups that advocate on behalf of sportsmen and sportswomen. There’s the Sportsmen’s Alliance (SA), National Rifle Association (NRA), Safari Club International (SCI), Boone and Crockett Club (B&C), Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA), to name a handful of the dozens. That’s not even mentioning the policy work that each “critter group” such as Ducks Unlimited (DU), the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), Mule Deer…

With its typically unpleasant weather, it would be easy to spend February indoors tackling chores. It would also be a mistake. The Midwest is alive with outdoor opportunities this month. Most northern lakes are still holding thick ice, and open-water angling is better than many would expect in the southern tier. Small-game seasons remain open across much of the region, and various predator species are susceptible to calling. Wingshooters, meanwhile, can find abundant game birds on many hunting preserves. So whatever you do, don’t just hole up indoors this month. February may be short on days, but it’s long on adventure. 1 MADISON CHAIN PANFISH Those living near Madison, Wisc., don’t have to travel far for great ice fishing for panfish. All you need is an auger, an ice fishing…

Electronics are incredibly helpful when pursuing panfish beneath the ice, and if you’re considering a new unit, take a look at Humminbird’s updated Ice Helix line. I field-tested these models on Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake last winter, and they proved capable and versatile on the ice. With seven models ranging from $400 to $3,000, there’s also a unit to fit every angler’s needs and budget. All are great, including the more affordable Ice Helix 5 G3 options, but I’ll focus on the G4 and G4N models, which have some excellent new features. At the top end, Mega Live Imaging ($3,099.99) and Mega 360 Imaging ($2,899.99) ice bundles pack powerful technologies into ice-friendly packages. With Mega Live, you can see fish, bait and structure in real time up to 150 feet…

Ask seasoned coyote hunters about the best time of year to call coyotes and many will say the breeding season. Typically occurring in February and early March, this four- to six-week period is an exciting time for serious predator hunters. Coyotes have a small window for breeding, with individual females reproductively receptive for only two to five days on average. Trying to capitalize on this limited opportunity, males become both more aggressive and more responsive to calls. For hunters, the prospect of calling in paired coyotes is never better, and action in general is hot and heavy. However, just because coyote activity is at an all-time high, don’t expect things to be easy. Many whitetail hunters dream all year of bagging a lovestruck monster during the rut only to end…

From the launch ramp beneath Kanawha Falls, the scenery could not have been more spectacular. Guide Bobby Bower motored his jet boat past an old hydroelectric-power facility toward a series of several dozen mid-size waterfalls spanning the quarter-mile-wide Kanawha River. The bank-to-bank rock outcropping is a natural block to fish movement upstream, so the fish can pile up there at times, according to the West Virginia native. “Cast to that foam line over there,” Bower suggested. I pitched my crawdad-resembling Big O crankbait to the edge of the foam. The narrow foam ribbon defined an eddy between two broad falls. The bait splashed down, and the current swept it toward our boat as I reeled it back, slowly but on a taut line. “A little farther back where the foam…

In the early 2000s, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) discovered that the New River had a unique genetic strain of walleye, quite different than the walleye found in the Great Lakes and other common fisheries. The theory is that because the New River flows north, glaciers caused the walleyes in the New River to be isolated and develop different genetics. West Virginia’s Division of Natural Resources began working with the Virginia DWR to develop a program to reintroduce the native strain of walleye back into the New River, according to Mark Scott, assistant chief of fish management. Since then, West Virginia has passed special regulations for areas that hold the native walleye to protect the females and build the population. “There’s no real way to tell a New…

In the early days, the few turkeys found in southeastern Minnesota along the Iowa border were hunted and eaten by settlers, and otherwise eliminated by habitat loss. After that, wild birds didn’t exist in Minnesota for nearly a century before reintroduction began in the early 1970s. It started with 29 adult birds trapped in Missouri and released in Houston County. Minnesota traded 85 ruffed grouse for the Eastern turkeys. Previous releases of pen-raised turkeys failed, as did releases of Merriam’s turkeys, which are smaller than Eastern turkeys and considered less hardy. The Eastern turkeys from the original and subsequent releases of more than 5,000 birds—some through funding from the National Wild Turkey Federation—at about 280 locations over the next four decades proliferated, and in 1978 the first modern hunting season…