Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Game & Fish

I didn’t start hunting turkeys in the spring till I was a sophomore in college. A fraternity brother who had years of experience with the birds took me that first season, yelled at me for moving too much, and on our third or fourth morning of hunting together called in a gobbler that strutted over the rocks in front of my wavering gun barrel. Somehow—and I’m sure it came as a complete surprise to my pal—I managed to sit still long enough with cramped arms and legs for the bird to swagger into range. When the longbeard flopped over at my shot, I don’t know what made me happier: tagging my first gobbler or finally being able to stand and stretch. During my rookie season, I learned three important lessons…

Inshore angling is the most common and popular way to experience the excitement of saltwater fishing. Whether pursued from the beaches or on the flats, in mangrove-lined lagoons or roseau cane marshes, prized inshore gamefish from speckled sea trout to redfish, snook, striped bass and tarpon beckon anglers to the shallows as the sun warms waters from their wintertime lows. Indeed, the fleeting weeks of spring are some of the best times to stretch a line in preparation for a long season ahead. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION During the cold winter months, many inshore gamefish gravitate toward creeks and deep-water areas with soft, muddy substrates. This general movement occurs in part because the darker sediment will hold heat from the sun and create a slightly warmer environment for the fish. In…

Love to hunt turkeys? You can thank the National Wild Turkey Federation for much of the restoration of turkeys across the continent decades ago, and for improving turkey habitat—and hunting opportunities—ever since (see page 26). Fan of elk? Tip of the hat to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) staff and members for conserving entire landscapes and ensuring hunting access to herds that have grown in number and distribution because of their habitat work. You can trace that same origin story of many species-specific conservation groups, born of a poverty of animals and members’ collective determination to bring them back to abundance. Waterfowl, mule deer, ring-necked pheasants and ruffed grouse have all benefited from organizations with members who have sweated and advocated and fund-raised on their behalf. If you doubt…

The words are simple and bold: “Dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage.” We could also say they’re timeless. The words that make up the National Wild Turkey Federation’s mission statement have guided the organization from its earliest days and continue to steer it half a century later as leaders and volunteers look toward a challenging, yet exciting, future. To be sure, it’s a future with a lot of promise. When the organization was founded in 1973, there were an estimated 1.3 million wild turkeys in North America. Many populations had been extirpated from their traditional forested ranges of the 1800s as a growing nation cut timber for farms and killed the birds for food and market. Today, through coordination with state…

Want to move your roosting program needle forward? Consider subscribing to the HuntStand Pro mapping app ($29.99/year; huntstand.com), which has several great features that can help you with roosting birds. I first use one of the satellite base maps to get an overview of the property. Then, I switch between the 3D and Terrain base maps. By now, I’ve distinguished places I believe turkeys will roost—ridges, field edges, pine plantations and river bottoms. I drop pins on these locations. Next, I identify safe locating points where I can listen for gobbling at dusk or where I can glass birds from a discreet vantage. I then make sure they’re within earshot or binocular range using the Draw Line tool to measure distance between my locating point and the potential roosts. When…

NORFORK LAKE, MISSOURI This 22,000-acre Corps of Engineers impoundment straddles the Arkansas-Missouri line near West Plains. Anglers cast jigs, shad-imitation crankbaits and live minnows for early white bass in the lake’s upper end. Access is available at Tecumseh, Bridges Creek, Udall and Liner Creek, located off Highway 160, Ozark CR 551, Highway O and Highway T, respectively. SWANSON RESERVOIR, NEBRASKA You can catch white bass from shore or a boat in this roughly 5,000-acre lake near Trenton. Look for winter schools in deep water and catch them on light tackle with jigs, spoons and minnow-imitation cranks. Access is via ramps at the northeast and southeast corners of the lake off Trail 3 and Swanson Reservoir Recreation Road, respectively. As an aside, drought conditions may have affected launches in 2022, but…

As winter lingers, signs of spring are start to appear, including open-water angling, and steelhead provide some of the earliest open-water fishing of the year. Early in March we’ll be fishing for steelhead that are already in the rivers, but thaws and rains also bring fresh steelies into Great Lakes tributaries as the month progresses. The rivers are typically very cold—often in the 34- to 40-degree range—but steelhead are relatively unique in that they’ll actively chase and hit lures even when the water is frigid. Choosing tributaries that already hold steelhead is key to early-spring success, as is using the right presentations to locate and ultimately catch them. FINDING GOOD WATER Summer steelhead, by definition, are already in the tributaries when winter starts to break. These fish ran the streams…

My boots weighed all of 94 pounds apiece, caked in gooey cornfield mud. I struggled to wave foggy breath from the beam of my headlamp while placing a Dave Smith jake decoy where I hoped dreams would come true. Beats mosquitos, I guess. My then 6-year-old son anxiously awaited in the blind about 20 yards back against the tree line. To be honest, I really wasn’t sure where a gobbler might be roosted, but I knew the birds weren’t far. The objective? To deliver my boy his first successful hunt. As fate would have it, a throaty long-beard broke the pre-sunrise darkness not 150 yards from our position, and I knew we were in the game. The Good Lord blessed us with a gullible one that morning. We watched the…

Like two bored cavemen, we poked at the dying embers of our fire, belching, scratching and wondering why that helicopter kept flying up and down the canyon. A confused-looking guy with a gigantic paper map exited the whirlybird, a puzzled look on his face. “Can you tell us where we are?” he asked sheepishly. We spread the map on the dusty ground and showed him. He thanked us, folded the map and trotted toward the chopper. “By the way, what are you doing?” I asked “We’re from the U.S. Geological Survey and we’re mapping gold mines in the area,” he said over his shoulder. Yeah, the guys who made the map were lost. That time it was “operator error,” but that map also had at least two inaccurate place names.…

There isn’t much in or around the town of Elsmere, Neb. In fact, the nearest place where a turkey hunter might get a few stitches after taking a chunk out of a finger while cleaning a gobbler is Ainsworth (pop. 1,655), approximately 40 lonely miles to the northeast. I know this from experience, but we’ll get to that part of the story in a bit. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the only business currently in operation with an Elsmere address is Goose Creek Outfitters, run by Scott Fink and his wife LaCaylla. And it was on their land, which, remarkably, has been in Scott’s family since his great grandfather homesteaded there in 1904, where a group of friends and I set up a wall tent turkey camp last…

March in the Midwest might mean snow, or it might mean sunny and 75. As diverse as the weather can be, so too are the outdoor opportunities. Anglers up north are wrapping up ice season, while rivers and reservoirs down south offer open water for many species. Hunters need not wait for April’s turkey seasons. Predators, light geese, crows and more provide ample trigger time right now. Trapping remains open across most states, and beavers have prime fur this month. In short, there’s no reason to sit inside and pine for spring when late winter holds so much promise. 1 OHIO RIVER CATFISH Not many waters offer the chance to regularly tangle with 50-plus-pound catfish, but the Ohio River along the northern Kentucky border is one of them. Fish…

Rivers are one of the best bets for early-spring bass action. Their waters warm quickly, to the extent that many river systems are open while some lakes may still be covered with ice. And, depending on your local state fishing regulations, many bass fishing seasons may not be open yet on lakes, as is the case in my home state of Minnesota. So, if you’re looking for early bass action, rivers may be the only game in town—or, at least, the best. While spring fishing can often be a challenge, even on rivers, there are three specific patterns that produce well right now for bass in flowing waters. COVERING WITH CRANKS Some of the first places I look for spring bass—both largemouth and small-mouth—on river systems are spots that are…

There are two kinds of walleyes—reef spawners and river spawners. In Lake Erie’s Western Basin, experts estimate approximately 10 percent of the walleyes are river spawners that do the deed in the Detroit, Sandusky, Maumee and other rivers. The spring runs on these rivers are well known throughout the region, and many anglers flock to them each year to take advantage of this ritual. However, with Lake Erie’s booming walleye population, that still leaves about 70 to 90 million walleyes that spawn in Lake Erie proper. The bulk of these fish end up spawning on isolated reefs, including the massive Camp Perry Firing Range reef complex. Anglers willing to brave cold—and sometimes choppy—waters can find fast-and-furious action for large spring walleyes. LOCATIONS Walleyes are broadcast spawners. Females randomly drop eggs,…

Many hunters don’t understand riflescopes. A riflescope is not a sight. It contains the sight—the reticle—and provides magnification, eliminates parallax and allows for sight adjustment. But, the reticle within the riflescope is the actual sight; it’s what you use to aim. When hunters are considering a new scope, too often they overlook reticles or do not understand that they function differently depending on where they’re placed within the riflescope. With variable-powered scopes, the reticle is either placed in the front or the rear of the erector tube, and the erector tube is what allows for the riflescope’s magnification—zoom function—to be adjusted. FIRST FOCAL PLANE If the reticle is in front of the erector tube, when the riflescope’s magnification is increased, it not only magnifies the image but also the reticle.…

Roosting a gobbler the evening before a morning hunt is extremely advantageous. It can provide a strong starting point if you’re unfamiliar with a property, or it can reveal a no-brainer setup if you’ve got some history with the land. However, when you roost a bird you must ensure you don’t bump him from the roost. It’s easy to do accidentally, and it can absolutely jeopardize your morning hunt. If you’re looking to roost a tom without spooking him, take the following approach. CHOOSE SAFE LOCATING POINTS There are two ways to roost a spring gobbler. The first is to choose a place to listen from a distance for gobbling right at dusk. Often, toms gobble on their own a few different times once roosted. However, if you think a…

White bass are distributed widely across the United States, especially in the Midwest. But such was not always the case. These temperate bass, also called sand bass or sandies, were originally restricted to a smaller swath of territory from Quebec to Manitoba and down the Ohio and Mississippi River drainages as far south as Arkansas and Louisiana. Before the mid-20th century, they were considered unimportant as game-fish. But when the age of large, manmade impoundments began in the 1940s and ’50s, there was newfound interest in these prolific panfish. White bass could quickly populate open-water habitat seldom used by black bass, thus offering additional fishing opportunities without competing with other popular gamefish. Because shad constitute their primary prey, white bass also provided a means of controlling the abundant shad populations…

Port Clinton, Ohio, bills itself as the “Walleye Capital of the World” for good reason. The city’s wellbeing revolves around walleye fishing, and citizens and businesses often cater to anglers. At many ports on the Great Lakes, the docks don’t go in until May. But in Port Clinton, when the ice goes out the docks come in. The city has many boat launch options. Private launches like Turtle Creek, Magee East and Locust Point have great facilities and charge a reasonable fee. Public options include Catawba State Park, Mazurik Access Launch Ramp and East Harbor State Park. Port Clinton lodging options range from reasonable chains to luxury operations. This includes many that cater to anglers and have spacious lots and security for boats and trailers. Check the Port Clinton Travel…

Turkey shotguns can be as purpose-built and specialized as the scatterguns used for the various clay-shooting disciplines. The major difference, besides appearance, is that shotguns designed for clays games are carefully tailored to deliver an evenly spread pattern of shot where the shooter looks, while turkey shotguns send a tightly packed swarm of pellets where the hunter aims. That’s a big distinction, and in part it drove the development of Mossberg’s new 940 Pro Turkey. It’s almost counterintuitive to think of a scattergun as a precision instrument, yet precision is exactly what most turkey hunters desire. A gobbler’s head and neck combined are roughly the size of a dove, and a turkey gun is charged with putting as many pellets into that zone as possible. Hitting any upland bird with…

Shane had practiced his calling, scouted thoroughly and knew he was ready to hunt turkeys on his own. After a couple more weeks of hunting together, his father agreed. The next Saturday morning he and his father drove to the woods well before dawn. When they heard two birds gobbling, Shane’s father started after one bird while Shane headed toward the other. He hadn’t fully set up before he heard the bird double-gobble then fly down. Shane yelped lightly. Moments later he saw the top of the tom’s white head bobbing through the oak forest, 75 yards out, as the turkey made its way toward him. At 60 yards the bird unleashed a thunderous gobble that stunned the young man. Shane began to shake. His breathing turned heavy. He dropped…