Innehållsförteckning för July 2015 från Field & Stream

› PHOTOGRAPHER: BRIAN GROSSENBACHER + LOCATION: BLACKFOOT RIVER, MONTANA ✖ The salmonfly hatch was in full force as angler Jimmy Lampros and photographer Brian Grossenbacher floated the North Fork of the Blackfoot River in June 2013. “Fish were rising, but the current was too fast to cast,” Grossenbacher says. “We pulled the raft in as soon as we could. But to get to the spot we wanted to fish, there was no good way to walk back upriver. The farther we hiked, the steeper it got, until we had quite a slope between us and the water. So Jimmy, who played baseball in high school, slid about 30 feet down the bank like he was sliding into third base, then kind of bounced and landed with a splash. It was…

THERE’S NO finer sound than the poink of a plastic frog landing on a lily pad. The bass finning beneath must feel the same way, given their reactions, though I can’t imagine a real frog landing with such a meaty flop. This is what I was discussing with my friend Tony as we watched my Spro Bronzeye Frog come to rest on a pad. I reeled up a little and skipped the bait onto a new perch. Five feet away, a pad shivered. “Better get ready,” Tony warned from the stern. I nudged the frog off the pad and into a pocket of open water, as if to suggest a real frog too nervous to sit still. When the bass blew up, I coolly drove the hook into pure air.…

STEEL SHOT kills doves as well as lead does. Like it or not, that’s the bottom-line finding of a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) report. Five years in the making, the study recorded the hits and misses of 53 hunters who fired 5,094 shots with size 6 and 7 steel shot and 71 ∕2 lead shot, killing a total of 1,146 doves, 1,100 of which were necropsied. The 13-page report, published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin in Nov. 2014, reveals compelling data not just about nontoxicshot performance but also about choke selection, marksmanship, and wounding rates. Every dove hunter should take a hard look at these numbers. The report is bound to be received with skepticism and animosity. American hunters continue to hate nontoxic shot beyond reason. Of the…

You don’t have to compete on the pro circuit to enjoy 3D archery any more than a golfer must be a member of the PGA Tour to enjoy a round on the back nine. An unsanctioned shoot hosted by your local archery club with nothing more than a $10 entry fee and bragging rights on the line is great practice and a lot of fun. Here’s what you need to know. FOLLOW THE RULES Most 3D shoots are set up similar to a golf course, with 20 to 40 targets ranging from groundhogs to bull elk placed at varying distances along a walking trail. In most events, a shooter can get a score of 5 for a hit anywhere in the foam; 8 for the large vital ring; 10 for…

ASTICK SNAPPED, and I said to my friend Trevor, “I think I hear it.” I took three steps to the left, and then…all I remember is lying on a plush mattress, staring at the stars, just kind of floating. That was the shock, I guess, but when I snapped out of it, the bear’s face was a foot away from mine, and I had both of my hands around his muzzle as it came down in slow motion and latched on to the left side of my face. He knocked me down in the mud and had my jaw in his mouth. I was thinking, I don’t want him to rip my face off. I had a knife in my right hand and I stabbed him in the face. When…

Mousing brown trout is a deadof-night game in much of the country, but Schmidt (western rivers flyfishing.com) attacks the world-famous Green River with rodents in the middle of the day, and with great success. “I like to fish mouse patterns when I’m bored and nothing else is really happening,” Schmidt says. “I’d rather watch a trout track the mouse, even if it doesn’t end up eating it, than watch a strike indicator.” The Green is a perfect environment to fish mice, with numerous rocky ledges and outcroppings that jut into the river. Mice frequent these ledges, and often fall in, so the trout have grown accustomed to seeing and eating them. Schmidt leans on a technique developed in Argentina that prompts big browns out of deeper pools in the daylight.…

Q & A Should every shooter keep at least one rifle in a military caliber for use in defense of country? —WILLIAM TEIFKE, BIG RAPIDS, MICH. A: Keeping a rifle of military caliber in your home to defend the country is pretty useless unless you have some military training to go with it. It takes a period of intensive schooling to produce a competent combat soldier, and if you lack this, you will be killed quickly. Israel and Switzerland require military rifles to be kept in the home, but by reservists who have done three years, and 21 weeks, respectively, in uniform. Q:What vintage scope would you recommend for an older rifle? —JEFF SHOULTS, POTOSI, MO. A: I would not recommend any of them and suggest that you drop…

THE MOUNTAIN-GOAT MAN PETER MUENNICH, BOZEMAN, MONT. In 2013, Muennich walked into a Montana game biologist’s office to ask about volunteer opportunities to help mountain goats—and was told that no one had ever asked before. That visit was the start of what eventually became the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance, a 400-member nonprofit volunteer organization that now helps conduct censuses and study viability of goat populations in five states. Muennich’s work paved the way toward opening a hunting season for a little-known population of goats on the Montana-Idaho border. “It just took off so quickly,” says Muennich, 26. THE MULEY HUNTER MOBILIZER SCOTT HAMPEL, HENDERSON, COLO. Inspired by the conservation mission of the new Muley Fanatic Foundation, Hampel, 50, formed four chapters—two in his home state and two in Wyoming—and got…

ATROUT TRIP to South Dakota seems like a roll of the dice. Outdoorsmen travel there to hunt pheasants or to ice-fish for walleyes—not to flyfish for trout, not when Wyoming and Montana are just across the border. Then again, sometimes it pays to gamble… especially when you have a good lead. “Deadwood is the best secret in trout fishing,” one South Dakota guide told me. “No one comes here to fish.” “The trout here are big and fat and fight hard,” another guide told me. “And they’re not too picky because they hardly see any pressure. No one knows about this place.” I had my doubts about how good South Dakota could be, but after hearing this I figured I had nothing to lose. THE WILD WEST OF TROUT…

Everyone knows that stripers (both hybrids and pure-strains) are notorious for blasting a live shad or hard-chugged popper. But they also have a lazy side, and playing to it can put up more bass than the freshest livie. Don’t think trophy stripers will slurp a chicken liver? If you’ve got the guts, you’ll be shocked at the results. TAKE A BREAK Although the magic scent of fresh chicken livers will draw stripers from afar, anchoring up in a known bass honey hole is the way to go. Breaks off main-lake points are good bets, especially if you mark baitfish. Pure-strains and hybrids chasing bait will climb on a dead-sticked liver that requires less energy to eat. Focus on the low-light hours at dawn, at dusk, and after nightfall. TURN UP…

If an outfitter’s food plots don’t produce, it can mean tough hunting for clients and lost business. We surveyed a panel of these pros to learn their best plot secrets. The two major takeaways? Food-plot advice isn’t one-size-fits-all. And food-plot seed doesn’t need a picture of a deer on the bag to work. CARL DORON Snipe Creek Lodge (snipecreeklodge.com) Location: Southwest Kentucky Acres Managed: About 20,000 “I use a blend of chicory and ladino clover. The tonnage that chicory provides allows a small plot to feed more deer than a pure clover plot of the same size. Most of my plots are less than an acre, and I start them in early spring or fall, tripling the recommended seeding rate so that it outcompetes the weeds. I also fertilize them…

THE OVERNIGHTER This kit is lightweight and won’t take up much pack space. It includes only the essentials. Contents: Prescription medicine (2); water bottle (5); space blanket (7); safety whistle (9); signaling mirror (10); parachute cord (11); firstaid kit (13); Swiss Army knife (16); cellphone (18); waterproof matches (20); compass (24); LED flashlight with extra batteries (29); lighter (30); LifeStraw (37); beef jerky (41). THE WEEKENDER While this arrangement builds on the gear in the Overnighter, it also includes items that can make a few days in the wild more comfortable. Contents: Freeze-dried food (1); prescription medicine (2); two-way radio (3); water bottle (5); Spot locator (6); space blanket (7); safety whistle (9); parachute cord (11); first-aid kit (13); dental floss, for lashing (14); duct tape (15); cellphone (18); waterproof…

Everybody has a fish story. (It was this big!) But only F&S can bring you The World’s Best Fishing Stories, edited by senior deputy editor Colin Kearns. For 120 years, we’ve sought only the finest angling tales, and this new hardcover anthology comprises the best of those published in the last decade. “What matters in a fishing story,” writes Kearns, “is the quest—on which you meet rich characters, explore new wild places, and encounter challenges you never expected.” This collection features more than 20 such adventures by some of the country’s top writers. Take a 50-day float trip with Jim Harrison. Share Thomas McGuane’s tarpon addiction. Chase salmon with Philip Caputo, and hit the water with Heavey, Nickens, McCafferty, Deeter, Cermele, and other F&S favorites. When you can’t get out…

IF YOU INVENTED a product that made jackhammers quieter, everyone would say, “Wonderful!” If you created a medical device that saved people’s ears from high-decibel hearing loss, you might win a Nobel. So why is it that the masses and most lawmakers look askance when such technology is applied to firearms? It’s time for that to change. Hiram Percy Maxim invented the firearm silencer in 1902 in lockstep with another of his inventions, the automobile muffler (the value of which nobody questions). His Maxim Silencer didn’t render a supersonic round totally silent, but it went a long way toward it and protected ears from muzzle blasts. In 1934, however, silencers became heavily regulated by the National Firearms Act. While a $3.25 silencer remained legal for qualified applicants, a required $200…

CHRIS SIMMONS IS HARD AT IT, putting the screws to his own big fish, when the bridge line pops out of the release clip after a second fish strikes. Simmons is in the fighting chair, which means my fish is going to be a standup fight. Alan “Big Country” Scibal, the Sensation’s mate, two-hands the rod from the rocket launcher and meets me at the transom’s starboard corner. He passes the rod to me just as my pal Dave Chappell works the fighting belt around my waist. “Coming around you, buddy,” Chappell hollers, groping for the buckles as the boat rocks in the Atlantic’s 5-foot swells. “Hang on!” All the while the reel whines as 80-pound monofilament rips off the spool and disappears over the transom, running through the 52-foot…

Nothing is sweeter than sight fishing on a calm summer day in crystal-clear water. It’s even better when the fish are feeding a short cast away. But when a storm rolls in, the wind picks up, or a cold front pushes your targets out of the skinny stuff, sight casting can turn sour. However, it can be done if you’re willing to plan carefully, put in your time, and lean on the tips from these expert sight- fishing guides from across the U.S. SUDDEN STORM Pro: Asher Koles Home Water: Provo River, Utah Target: Trout rising to a hatch Even if spotting big fish in clear water has been the game all day, Koles doesn’t panic when a storm looms. “A storm coming means there’s a drop in pressure,”…

Many flyfishermen believe that the stealthiest way to approach rising trout is to stand way back and bomb away. Wrong. Long casts hinder accuracy, whereas an extra-long leader lets you fish close. It keeps the fly line farther behind the fish and also drags less, improving the presentation. The longer the leader-andtippet combo, however, the harder it is to turn over. Use these tips to lay it out smoothly. 1 LEAD ON To build a 15-footer, I use a 6-inch butt section of 20-pound Maxima running line as a base to help turn it over. Next, I’ll connect 9 feet of 2X mono tippet, even when I want to ultimately taper down to 4X. After that comes 3 feet of 3X mono tippet, followed by 21∕2 feet of 4X. Just…

DAY ONE: WEDNESDAY My son Kyle and I were hunting the Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel Wilderness. Our plan was to split up in the morning, then meet at base camp for lunch. But things didn’t go that way. I saw a nice buck and started stalking him, but every time I prepared for a shot, he moved. I played cat-andmouse with that deer for hours. He took me through a canyon and over a ridge I’d never seen before. I remember thinking, I’m in unfamiliar territory. When I finally broke off the deer, I couldn’t locate the canyons and ridges I’d crossed earlier. To make matters worse, a storm had moved in and fog masked the landscape. I had no map, no GPS, no cellphone. I did have a lighter, a…

Watching or hearing a trout hammer a mouse pattern on the surface is not only one of the most explosive thrills in flyfishing, but it will also change your perception of sal mo nids. Gentle sips? Soft takes? Not here. When browns and rainbows reach a certain size, they cannot survive by eating tiny insects exclusively. Trophy trout require gobs of protein to maintain weight, so they turn to baitfish and scads of unfortunate mice that fall into the flow. Any river in the country that holds trout is worth mousing. In the East, this game largely revolves around fishing in the dark when elusive giants get on the feed. In the West, however, guides have learned that there is a time and place for mice while the sun is…