Game & Fish April 2023

No matter where you live in the country, at some point this month spring will be in the air. It’s safe to say that every angler will agree there is no better way to greet a new season than with new tackle. Game & Fish editors certainly won’t argue with that, and it’s one reason we have included our annual Tackle Test in this issue. Before you spring (yeah, I meant to do that) for a new rod and reel, turn to page 66 and do some research. The 15-plus pages that compose the Tackle Test represent weeks of analyzing the features and technology at work in more than 50 baitcasting and spinning rods and reels. Better than that, the results listed in the score charts come from on-the-water experience…

REGIONAL STRUT UPDATE Our weekly regional turkey hunting report has up-to-date info on longbeard activity from coast to coast. Sign up for the free newsletter at gafmag.com. TOP NEW GUNS AND AMMO Check out our on-the-floor reports and videos on the hottest gear from SHOT Show, including the best new hunting rifles and big-game ammo for 2023. KNOW THE BOWS If you’re in the market for a bow, you’ll find a great selection in “Best New Compound Bows for 2023,” a roundup of rigs from the ATA Show. BECOME A BASS MASTER Catch more largemouths and smallies with help from our exclusive “Beyond the Bait” video series. Binge out on all 38 episodes under the “Watch” tab. ON-THE-GO FISHING You may not know exactly when fish will be biting, but…

Turkey hunters often disagree about what delivers the best results on birds. The gauge question is the easiest to answer. A 12-gauge shotshell contains more shot than a 16- or 20-gauge, or a .410-bore, and the more shot you throw at a turkey, the better your chances of killing it. That, as they say, is pretty much settled science. But when it comes to the best loads and chokes for killing turkeys, things quickly get cloudy ... and complicated. LOAD MATH Following the gauge logic, you could argue that small shot is better than large shot. This is because when shells with the same weight payload are compared, the shell with the smallest shot size will contain the most shot. A single No. 7 lead shot pellet is .10 inch…

One of the annual rituals enjoyed by anglers across the country is the springtime movement of panfish—bluegills, crappies and perch—into the shallow, protected waters of lakes, rivers and reservoirs to form spawning colonies. This can concentrate hundreds of aggressive, protective fish into a very small area, making for some fantastic fishing action. In many ways, finding panfish spawning colonies may not be more difficult than cruising the shorelines of your favorite body of water, as many fish will bed up in water that is 2 to 4 feet deep with a firm bottom. Hard bottom is preferred over silty substrates, as nests built in the mud and muck tend to fill in quickly from wave action. However, you’re sure to face one significant challenge when looking for bedding panfish along…

Who doesn’t want less competition, bigger deer, more trout, or countless coveys? Our holy grail is high adventure, returning with a story or, better still, photos of the buck-of-a-lifetime or trophy rainbow. Sure, getting there might be half the fun, but getting back in one piece is where the rubber meets the road, literally. It’s your truck that will spirit you to magical places where grouse cavort and bass jump in the boat. Or will it? Trouble can be just around the next bend, your trip of a lifetime dribbling away like coolant from a punctured radiator, unless you’re ready. My rig has been called a four-wheel-drive Swiss Army knife and rolling garage sale. But nine times out of 10, it has the needed repair piece, part or tool, or…

The song of this season around the country is the booming gobble of the wild turkey. Our waking hours are consumed with calling one into range, and our too-short nights are full of dreams of longbeards strutting right into our camouflaged laps. How many of us think about hen turkeys in April? If we do at all, it’s to cuss them for pulling otherwise interested toms away from our calls, or for offering gobblers the real thing instead of our unconvincing plastic decoys. But we should hold hens in higher regard, because the engine of prosperity for any turkey population depends on hens pulling off successful nesting attempts. And we’d be wise to recognize that the feats of patience, elusiveness and grit of hen turkeys are responsible for all our…