Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Game & Fish

With temperatures in the 90s or above in many parts of the country, August seems like a long way from hunting season. Those of us languishing in the heat and humidity of the dog days can barely muster the gumption to hang a trail camera. But if you live or hunt in the West, you know August signals the start of pronghorn season in several states, despite the sweltering heat. The early openers are just more reasons to like this unique, but accessible, big-game animal. A summer vacation built around a hunting trip certainly sounds appealing. With some planning and a little luck in calendars lining up, parents can take kids on a pronghorn hunt before the school year starts. Although a lot of hunters call them speedgoats, pronghorns are…

Truth is, none of us probably has as much time as we’d like to spend in the woods, and as life gets more and more hectic, that time seems to dwindle to even less. I’m certainly right there with everyone else. My hunting time is easy to summarize: weekends and one week of vacation time each year. That’s it. There’s no wiggle room, no variance. What’s odd is I still have the same goals, drive and expectations I had when I was able to spend much more time chasing bucks with a bow. I’m going to hunt at least three states this fall, and I have every intention of filling every buck tag I have available. To do this, I make sure I waste as little time as possible. The…

For passionate wingshooters, there’s no better time on the hunting calendar than late summer when dove seasons open. While some hunters yearn for late-season upland hunts or waves of ducks and geese arriving ahead of a cold front, dove aficionados know their best action comes early in the season, before the birds experience even a hint of cold weather and head south. However, getting on a good dove shoot takes some scouting legwork. Dove hunters must find where the birds are and where they want to be. Spend enough time in trucks and behind a pair of binoculars, and you’ll notice there are three core habitat features that can dramatically up your odds for a phenomenal dove hunt. Here, we’ll discuss each of these and how to make the most…

Late summer is the time to slow-troll, drift or anchor in Midwestern flood-control reservoirs. Find a shallow flat with a submerged river or creek channel, and you’ve found a great place to drag a chunk of fresh cut bait or soak a wad of stink bait and catch channel cats weighing up to 20 pounds. JAYHAWK JEWEL In Kansas, Milford Lake’s 15,700 acres holds a large population of channel catfish and strong numbers of trophy blue catfish. Find a submerged creek channel and slow-troll the edge. HAWKEYE HOT SPOTS Iowa’s Saylorville and Red Rock lakes both offer channel cats that can exceed 15 pounds. Slow-troll or drift the flats above the mile-long bridges that span the middle of both lakes. SHOW-ME SHOWSTOPPERS Truman Reservoir and Lake of the Ozarks in…

When most Midwesterners hear “Great Lakes,” they think of Huron, Erie or Michigan. When Iowans hear those words, they think of Spirit, West Okoboji, Minnewashta, and Upper and Lower Gar. Iowa’s so-called “Great Lakes,” Spirit Lake and her five interconnected sister waters, provide an absolute treasure trove of outdoor recreational opportunities throughout the year. In winter, ice fishing is incredibly popular, with intrepid, warmly dressed anglers descending upon the lakes from all over the Midwest in search of walleyes, northern pike and other species. Come summer, though, the lakes are alive with pleasure boats, water skiers and personal watercraft enthusiasts. Despite the increase in non-angling-related boat traffic, there are still plenty of fishing opportunities. In fact, as the Hawkeye State heats up in mid- and late summer, so does the…

August is a month to explore creative outdoor activities. With most hunting seasons still on the horizon and warm-water fishing opportunities not at their peak, use this month to try something outside the box. Options include bowfishing for invasive Asian carp, gigging bullfrogs from farm ponds and even snorkeling with a speargun for rough fish. Night-fishing is another option, as is trout fishing cold-water streams in Iowa (of all places). Don’t let the dog days keep you down. There are plenty of ways to enjoy time fishing and hunting in August. You just might need to do it closer to dawn or dusk. 1 CORNHUSKER BULLFROGS If you’ve never tried frog legs, don’t knock them until you do. A fresh set, fried or sauteed, is a wild-game culinary treat.…

Forward-facing sonar (FFS) is rapidly becoming an important fishing tool for thousands of bass and walleye anglers across the Midwest. Despite the high cost of entry—$2,500 at the absolute minimum—tournament anglers, guides and avid weekenders are lining up to buy the equipment that turns their sonar units into fish-hunting machines on a scale not seen since the invention of the original “flasher” sonar. The steerable transducers of FFS—mounted either on the bow trolling motor shaft or a dedicated pod—allow for pinpointing fish at ranges out to 100 feet or so in real time. The units are so sensitive they can “see” lures as small as a 1/8-ounce jig. This permits anglers to guide baits precisely to just the right spot to draw a strike—even from individual fish. Some anglers have…

One great thing about the entire Iowa Great Lakes area is the almost infinite list of things to do. This includes the fishing, of course, but there are also plenty of lodging, dining and entertainment options. If considering venturing into this wonderful part of the Hawkeye State, first check out Vacation Okoboji (vacationokoboji.com), an all-encompassing guide to anything you might like to see or do. Here, visitors can find an in-depth history of Iowa’s Great Lakes region and a comprehensive list of lodging options that includes everything from primitive camping at several state parks to more modern accommodations at many resorts, cottages and cabins. Hungry? Head to Betsy’s Diner (Spirit Lake) and step back into the 1950s with a good old fashioned burger, fries and chocolate shake. Vacation Okoboji lists…

Founded in 1971, CVA has become an industry leader in the development of technologically advanced in-line muzzle-loaders. Over the last decade, CVA (part of the BPI family, which also includes Bergara, PowerBelt and others) has climbed to the top of the muzzleloader market and is now America’s top-selling muzzleloader brand. Building on its reputation for providing customers with guns and accessories at the best value, in 2019 CVA launched its first centerfire rifle, the Cascade. Earlier this year, CVA introduced the upgraded Cascade XT (X-Treme). CVA notes the XT is designed to be “precision-oriented” with key features to make it a multi-purpose rifle for a variety of hunters. For example, a heavier fluted barrel (No. 5 taper) improves the balance of the rifle and allows multiple shots to be taken…

It could be argued that the origin of the modern precision rifle cartridge was in the late 1970s when Dr. Louis Palmisano and Ferris Pindell created a cartridge and named it the 6 mm PPC. It was based on the .220 Russian cartridge. Palmisano and Pindell reduced the body taper of the case, gave it a 30-degree shoulder, and necked it up to 6 mm. It became very popular for benchrest competition, and some have gone so far as to claim it the most accurate centerfire rifle cartridge ever created. About 45 years later, Hornady introduced the 6 mm ARC cartridge. The 6 mm PPC and the 6 mm ARC are dimensionally very similar. The primary difference is that Hornady specified a rifling twist rate of one turn in 7…

It was mid-afternoon by the time the shooter buck I’d been watching finally moved over a ridge, giving me a window to commence a stalk. Fifteen minutes later I was glassing from where I’d seen the buck and its harem disappear, but there was no sign of them. Then, more than a mile away, flashes of white caught my eye. Setting up the spotting scope, I watched smaller bucks chase does in circles through the sagebrush. Moments later, my buck stepped into view. The pronghorn was easy to recognize, and just the sight of it made me gasp. Its body dwarfed those of the inferior bucks in the group, and its black face almost shined. But it was the right horn that jutted 90 degrees to the side of its…

You can spend six figures on a bespoke shotgun from Purdey & Sons, Boss & Co. or one of the other famed shooting houses in London, but if you never practice, that shotgun is essentially a $100,000 hunk of metal and wood. The shotgun you buy, its choke and the ammo you load in it can only take you so far. To be an accurate wing shot inside of 40 yards—the distance most hunters should limit shots to—you must know your gun’s capabilities and be comfortable swinging it to (and through) moving targets. The only way to do this is by spending time at the range shooting your shotgun before the start of hunting season. Think of it like this: If you are a golfer that never goes to the…

Dylan Nussbaum is a Z-Man pro (and son of company owner Daniel Nussbaum) and a forward-scan addict. He’s also a big fan of using FFS in his walleye tournament competitions across the Midwest. “Last summer at Mille Lacs [in Minnesota], I used my Lowrance setup for hunting walleyes right along the edges of weed lines,” he says. “By cruising along at a half to 1 mph on the trolling motor, I could constantly scan and see little pods of fish ahead. I’d stop, lock in place with the trolling motor and pitch a slip-bobber and leech or a jig and Scented Jerk ShadZ. I caught close to 50 walleyes in one day fishing like this.” Nussbaum also scored at Lake Oahe this past year. “I found scattered small pods of…

Many trees seem like a great fit for a hang-on or ladder stand. However, there are numerous reasons to avoid certain ones, even if they seem to be in a perfect location. Let’s highlight some factors that rule out stand locations. DEAD, DAMAGED OR LEANING TREES: These are very dangerous to hunt from. NO SHOOTING LANES: What’s the use in hunting from a tree if you can’t shoot from it? POOR ENTRY ROUTES: If deer spot a hunter en route to the stand, the jig is up. POOR EXIT ROUTES: If deer spot a hunter exiting a stand location, the next hunt is adversely affected. SCALY OR OTHERWISE DANGEROUS BARK: This can result in treestand slippage or falls. TOO LITTLE COVER: Being without cover makes it much easier for deer…

The dark form that slid from beneath the clump of overhanging willows to inspect my fly was impossibly long. For the few moments that I watched it hang in the gentle current, my mind almost wouldn’t let me believe it was a trout. The flow in which I stood wasn’t much wider than the length of my rod, and on top of that, Brooks Hansen and I had spent most of the morning with nary a confirmed sighting of a cutthroat. And yet, when the fish turned in the clear water to go back to its lair beneath the willows, I swore I saw a rose-colored gill plate and big black spots on its tail. “Did you see that!” I gasped. “What was that?” “Huge fish,” said Brooks, just as…