Innehållsförteckning för April 2017 från Field & Stream

THE BEST SPRING BREAK I ever took was a colossal failure. Senior year of high school: While many of my classmates escaped to Florida, I was driving in an old minivan with my buddies Joe and Andy. Our destination was a Kentucky trout stream. This was my first road trip, and I was sure that it would be the Greatest Fishing Trip of All Time. The trout never stood a chance. Of course, for the trout to have never stood a chance, there needed to be trout to catch. And there were not; we never saw a single fish. Oh, and that old minivan? Broke down on the second morning. We wasted almost an entire day at an auto shop. Break was a bust. I remember the drive home was…

F&S readers reveal the unorthodox ways they’ve landed a fish. I tied a leader and Woolly Bugger to a remote-control boat and trolled it around. I caught a dozen fish, and the boat had just enough juice to bring them over to my float tube. —TREVOR HUTTON I was fishing at night when a bat got tangled in my line. It thrashed in the water, but before I could untangle it, a bass smashed it. I caught a bass and a bat all at once. —SCOT RATHBUN • My granddad took me fishing as an infant and tied a line to my big toe. Every time a fish would bite, I’d cry out and he’d pull it in. —ERIC VANLANDINGHAM…

T here are some Eastern European influences tucked into this dish, with hints of pastrami seasoning in the shatter- crispy seed crust and with pickled beets adding some sour elegance. But mostly, there’s just a serious heap of flavor. Try this when you have some meaty rainbow trout or steelhead fillets on hand, or a nice slab of wild salmon. To round this recipe into a meal, mash cooked carrots with lots of butter and a dribble of cream or milk and serve alongside. INGREDIENTS 4 trout fillets, skin on 2 medium beets 1 shallot, minced 1/2 cup white wine 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 4 tsp. dark brown sugar 1/4 tsp. dried thyme 3 Tbsp. flax or chia seeds 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds 1 Tbsp. coriander seeds 1…

LONG AGO, Roy Weatherby hit on a formula for designing rifle cartridges that was so successful he was able to found a company based on it, and that company has not only survived but still flourishes 70 years later. Weatherby’s formula was a simple one: Use great gouts of gunpowder to drive bullets at unheard- of velocities, hundreds and hundreds of feet per second faster than anything else on the market. Hunters tried his cartridges and learned that with chalk-line- straight trajectory, they could accomplish amazing things. Shots that were once beyond their ability now were gimmes. Weatherby did this with just about every common bullet diameter from .224 to .458, with one omission—the 6.5mm, or .264. The interest wasn’t there. Proof lay in the sad example of Winchester, which…

My buddy shot an elk that morning, so I had tied it to my fourwheeler and was dragging it back to camp. Well, as I headed up an incline, I drove into a juniper thicket. I turned the wheel to adjust but accidentally ran over some low-hanging limbs. With all the weight on the back, the front of the ATV just shot straight into the air—and I fell right onto the elk. One of the antlers lodged into my back, and suddenly, a river of red started pouring down my legs. My first thought was I never thought I’d die like this. I tried to stay conscious, though, and after a moment, I lifted myself off the rack and collapsed. My three buddies found me soon afterward. Fortunately, we always…

SPRINGTIME ISN’T ALL romance for wild turkeys. There’s a whole lot of violence, too. Every day, all through the season, gobblers, jakes, and even hens iron out the pecking order by chasing, flogging, and kicking the hell out of one another. When birds are grouped up, it’s rare for a half hour to pass without a scuffle, and at times the desire to fight, or at least watch a fight, can seem more intense than the desire to breed. In recent years, the best hunters have learned to turn that aggression to their advantage with confrontational calling and bold decoying tactics. You can, too. Here are a half dozen ways to make an angry bird get in your grill. BATTLE PLAN #1 TALK LIKE A MAN • good callers spend…

GEAR REVIEWS YOU CAN TRUST BUYER’S GUIDE • READER TEST There’s only one way to honestly compare the year’s new fishing reels and find out which are truly worth your hard-earned cash. And that’s to get as many as possible all in one place and put them through their paces. That place, last fall, was my garage. After unpacking and spooling 41 new reels for 2017, fishing editor Joe Cermele and I began our work of casting, cranking, dismantling, and punishing each one—both off the water and on—for F&S’s annual test. After tallying the scores, we thinned the herd to the top 10 finishers in both spinning and casting. Of those, we recognized the standouts for casting ability, build quality, value, and overall performance. T H E T E S…

CUTTING-EDGE STRATEGY FOR THE FISHING FANATIC TACKLE HACKS • GEAR SMARTS • TECHNIQUES SPECIAL BONUS SECTION Blame it on global warming or zebra mussels—the fact remains that in the last few years, anglers across the Great Lakes and elsewhere have noticed that walleyes are spending more and more time down deep than they did in decades past. It’s becoming tougher and tougher to find fish suspending high in the water column, and at no time of year is the bottom-hugging tendency more noticeable than in spring. Now, when the water is cold, the fish not only can be way down; they can also be discerning, requiring a subtle presentation. Hard baits with long diving lips may reach the fish, but their action is lackluster when pulled at the slow speeds…

CUTTING-EDGE STRATEGY FOR THE TURKEY HUNTING FANATIC TACTICS • SKILLS • SETUPS • GEAR SPECIAL BONUS SECTION J akes get all the credit for gullibility, but they take a backseat to the true easy bird to kill in a turkey flock: the two-year gobbler traveling with others of his kind. I call these two-, three-, and sometimes four-bird groups of junior gobblers “buddy birds,” and they constitute the closest thing to easy pickings you’ll find at the spring opener. Two-year-olds operate in a netherworld in the turkey pecking order. While they’re certainly longbeards (and therefore a trophy to most turkey hunters), they’ve been thumped by older toms in battles for dominance. Sexually frustrated, they’re particularly vulnerable to any hen that responds to their fervent gobbles. Even better, when they travel…

In that frenetic first second after a gobbler fires back at your calls, where you sit down and set up may not seem that important—and obviously you have other things on your mind. Truth is, taking the time to pick the perfect playing field can mean the difference between calling that tom to your gun or having him hang up out of range. So before just plopping down at the base of the nearest tree so you can start your calling, keep in mind these five places that just aren’t worth a sit. 1.THE THICK OF IT Thick cover presents two problems. One, turkeys typically won’t venture into an area where their vision is compromised. Two, if you can’t see the turkey because of heavy brush, you can’t kill it.…

PRIMAL APPEAL “On the Trail” (A Sportsman’s Life, Dec. 2016–Jan. 2017) perfectly describes how hunting is wired into my reptilian brain. Doug Allin, Tolland, Conn. ROARING SUCCESS I’ve hunted red stag in New Zealand, and I can vouch for Anthony Licata in “Where Monsters Roar” that the trip is well worth it. The scenery and the game are top-notch, plus it’s easy to travel with a gun into the country. Every sportsman should put this adventure on his or her bucket list. Wade Boardman, via Facebook RISKY BUSINESS “The Big Gamers” was so good. The gator guide’s story definitely scared me the most; I would have flipped out had I fallen into the water at night with big gators. I deer hunt in a swamp, and even wading through water…

PANFISH can be stubborn in early spring, and for that matter, so can synthetic jigs. In cold water, rubber and plastic have a tendency to stiffen, making it difficult to produce the subtle, lifelike wiggle that can make a lockjawed perch, bluegill, or crappie chew. Natural materials like bucktail and feather, on the other hand, won’t lose their seductive action, even in the most frigid temperatures. Synthetic jigs excel at other times of year, but the pulse of marabou and flare of hair is hard to replicate, and going natural is your best bet for supplying the season’s first big fish fry with loads of fillets. These three tactics will get you hooked up real fast with the real thing.…

TO SEE A spectacle of ineptitude, take a pair of proven turkey killers with different hunting styles and ask them to hit the woods together. Both will go home with unfilled tags, fully blaming the other for the day’s failure: Moron. I don’t see how he’s ever killed a turkey, carrying on like that. Turkey hunting is split into cliques. Though there are many ways to kill a turkey, ardent adherents of particular hunting styles are all convinced that there is only one correct way: their way. When the true believers bump heads, power struggles form and stereotypes harden. These characters all have one thing in common, though. They know how to fill tags on their terms. For open-minded hunters like you and me, there’s something to be learned from…

THE FIRST TIME I witnessed the power of chironomids was back in the 1990s on Lenice Lake in Washington state. I had been stripping a leech fly for hours without a touch. Twenty yards away, a buddy of mine was crawling a strike indicator across the surface at a snail’s pace. Below it hung a tiny, thin, wormlike chironomid fly—often just called a midge. Every few minutes, that indicator suddenly jerked under, a deep bend formed in his rod, and he’d slide another big rainbow into the net. After the seventh strike I couldn’t take it anymore. Making fun of him earlier for fishing these micro bugs in such big water was a mistake, I realized, and clearly he knew something I didn’t. I made the switch and within three…

BEST of the TEST Muck Pursuit Shadow Tall $250; MUCKBOOTS.COM SPECS • 5mm neoprene upper with fleece lining and a full waterproof gusset • EVA midsole • Rubber pod outsole • Height: 15" • Weight: 3 lb. per pair “All of my other insulated boots are clunky. These aren’t, and they allow me to sneak around in the forest.” —Peterson “This boot is innovative: It’s truly a 100 percent waterproofsubmersible laceup. But it lacks the versatility of a standard hunting boot.” —Corelli “The weight is a third of that of a traditional hunting boot. It is also warm and durable, and speed laces make it easy to get on and off.” —Magaziner “The good news is I was able to cover ground without feeling like I had bricks on my…

With scores of flashy new lures hitting the market each year, it’s easy to forget one that’s been around for more than a century. Most anglers would agree about the simplicity of fishing in-line spinners. They may not be pretty or have the appeal of a $20 swimbait, but their reputation for catching fish is legendary. And there’s no better time to put them to use than in early spring. Bass, pickerel, trout, and a variety of other species are drawn to this basic bait’s vibration as water temperatures climb. Throw in a high hookup percentage and the fact that it’s impossible to fish them wrong, and you have a deadly weapon. Choosing the hottest spinner and fishing it in the best location can pay huge dividends. Here’s how to…

I ’ve tried new mouth calls and known immediately that I’d never use them. Boom—10 bucks down the drain. But since health departments frown upon testing diaphragm calls before you buy them, how do you know what style you need? A mouth call’s sound comes from the reeds. In general, more reeds with more cuts mean more vibration, volume, and rasp. Just about every call maker has some version of these three classic designs. Master them all, and you can call any tom in the woods. STRAIGHT DOUBLE Two reeds of near equal length with subtle cuts on the corners or no cuts at all. PROS Because it requires minimal air pressure, this is the easiest call for new hunters to learn and control. CONS Limited versatility and volume for…